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Tales from those on the front lines of dealing with clients. Tales of difficult clients, complex situations, relationship management - and how massive client management problems were solved, and what they learned. Largely those running agencies, but all across different professional services.
Episodes
Feb 10, 2022
Feb 10, 2022
41 min
In this episode, Morgan meets fellow Will Smith fan, Liz Wilcox. A self-employed Email Marketing Specialist from Miramar Beach, Florida.
A while ago, Liz´s was contacted by her friend because their client needed some email marketing services. And of course, she was very excited to work with her buddy.
The client worked in the funeral industry, and to begin with they thought Liz´s rate was waaay high.
In Client Horror Stories #28, Liz works with a friend, who was the middleman between her and the clients, getting in contact with grieving customers, and a client who does not believe nor let her use her usual tools.
Talking about her style and brand and her client´s persona, in Liz´s own words “If you are on a fundamental level so different from your client, that's probably a red flag that you will never make them happy”
A year later, a new marketing manager comes in, Liz goes on holiday, and when she comes back her client stopped replying to her calls.
Luckily Liz has a policy of getting paid upfront... good advice especially when your client disappears.
As in many of our stories, one key lesson to be learnt: when something feels funky, it probably is.
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Jan 28, 2022
Jan 28, 2022
33 min
Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members. You might wind up becoming their packager!
In today's episode Nick Janetakis, a Full Stack Developer, tells us the story of a time when he was introduced to a friend´s friend who sold sports sweaters and now wanted to start selling them online, so asked Nick to work on this.
He ended up taking the job and because he sort of knew the business owner, he didn't seal the deal with any type of contract. He even gave him a special discount.
The client lived within walking distance of Nick's office, and he ended up going there quite often.
Eventually, it got to the point where the business was working well and there were many orders. The client asked Nick to help pack the merch up and move boxes around!
Nick even started helping set up his client kiosk in the mall, at midnight! f
Nowadays, he doesn't resent that time but has learned from it. Boundaries are healthy and very necessary.
This episode leaves us with a very important lesson: Focusing too much on the relationship part of the job is counterproductive. Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members.
And a very important lesson in Nicks' own words: You should be respectful of yourself when it comes to how you value yourself.
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Dec 31, 2021
Dec 31, 2021
58 min
Dimitri Constantine is the CEO & Founder of Brandcoders, and the protagonist of today’s tale. His story brings us back a couple of years when a long-time friend brought him into a brand new project that seemed all too good to be true. And here’s our first lesson: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Dimitri’s narrative walks us through the birth and development of a business that, even though it seemed brilliant and crazy easy to sell, for some reason was not able to get investors to commit. And that was just the first red flag.
An abusive culture of “slow-boiling” employees, talking trash behind other people’s backs, and firing people every three months after deciding they were the ones to blame for the lack of success is only a couple of highlights of Dimitri’s client.
To wrap up this gripping story, Dimitri leaves us with some wonderful and original lessons learned: it is not a good sign when there’s only one full-time employee in the company, you should always work with people looking to learn and progress, and that you never realize exactly where you are until you are in too deep.
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Dec 21, 2021
Dec 21, 2021
1 hr 20 min
Today’s story might as well fall under the “Managing Horror Stories” category because that’s exactly what it is. Kison Patel, CEO and Founder of M&A Science and DealRoom brings us a tale on the insights of starting a business that you really believe — and trying to save it at all costs.
Kison’s tale takes us back a couple of years, to the time where he decided to chase an idea he was passionate about, along with his partner who also was a very dear friend. And the first thing that he teaches us about is this one: no matter how excited you are about it, take the time to evaluate the product and business model you are pursuing before it’s too late and things start crashing all around you.
In Client Horror Stories #25, Kison brings along a couple of powerful managing secrets, such as the importance of creating an environment where people feel comfortable communicating their thoughts and feelings (even when it’s bad news), acknowledging people’s achievements, and creating a culture where colleagues feel like friends that are happy to work together.
To wrap up Kison’s story, he and Morgan reach the end with a super interesting addendum that only strives to fulfill their #1 conclusion: how essential it is to keep feedback going and to be able to give and receive criticism.
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Dec 14, 2021
Dec 14, 2021
50 min
Andrew Kemendo is the Principal Architect, AI at Unity Technologies, and also the star of Client Horror Stories #24. Today, he brings us a story that has that one killer combo: just enough drama to keep you gripping, and just enough lessons learned to know it was time well invested.
Andrew’s tale brings us back a couple of years ago, to a young startup dedicated to creating augmented reality experiences who accepted what looked like an unbelievable deal from a huge company meant to be their hero case. And even though they were for a little while, Andrew wouldn’t be here if that would’ve remained the situation.
Out of the blue calls to demand a demo from one week to another (even though you weren’t supposed to have it for two more months) & trying to pull their software to massively fail in the way are just a couple of the dramatic highlights this story brings along. Reaching the end, Andrew gives us some powerful lessons on how important it is to never dedicate completely to one project, aligning with your client’s entire company and not just themselves, and overall understanding that it’s not only your client who hires you, but you also hire them.
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