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Episodes
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
Aug 23, 2021
Aug 23, 2021
59 min
In our 17th take at Client Horror Stories, we receive Violet Femmes, who brings us a dramatic and introspective story that lasted two years but gave her lessons for a lifetime. Today’s episode has a therapy-like tint that definitely makes the narrative strike a significant chord in us.
Opening with the phrase “I am terrific at making mistakes”, Violet’s tale has more than enough elements to make it a memorable one, but if we had to choose a couple of them to highlight they would definitely be emails “accidentally” sent to the wrong people, a lot of fancy wine, bewaring procurement, and the fact that horror comes not only from your client, but also from your own company.
Today’s episode leaves us slightly unsettled, and the realization that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, some things just can’t be accomplished. Violet’s tale teaches us that, every now and then, not even a 36 hours workday can get all your tasks done, and that’s when you need to take a step back and be able to ask for the help you need, and hope that your company is there to back you up.
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Aug 17, 2021
Aug 17, 2021
34 min
In our 17th take at Client Horror Stories, Scott Kveton, founding partner of Fractionalist.co, brings us a story that takes us 11 years back in time, back to the moment where people used to camp and wait in line for hours to get iPhone 3.0.
Scott’s tale starts with a “Why wait three months? Let’s launch in 30 days!” optimism, and includes everything that a good story should: The press, young and inexperienced entrepreneurs, a deal with the biggest app in the app store, and even Steve Jobs.
Today’s episode leaves us with a couple of great lessons on how to properly build your teams, how carefully you should choose your clients (even if they are tech giants that say they’ll refer you!), the importance of trusting someone’s instincts, even if they are not incredibly experienced, and definitely choosing wisely the jokes we’ll tell to the press.
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Aug 9, 2021
Aug 9, 2021
27 min
In our 16th take at Client Horror Stories, Bonnie Rothman, CEO of Company B, brings us a fast, exciting, and very well told (not that she tells stories for a living!) horror story. Today’s tale has everything that a great story needs: dynamism, excitement, plot twists, and shoes in the oven.
In today’s episode, Bonnie walks us through the story of an incredibly well-funded startup that had a great idea and had been growing super fast, so everything indicated that the future ahead could only get brighter. And it did, at first. As Bonnie’s strategies kept making her client’s company grow more and more, so did the excitement that both created revolving around the company’s acceleration and expansion, until one day, 10 minutes before their scheduled team meeting, Bonnie received the call that turned this into a horror story: The team meeting was being canceled, and the investors decided to shut their business down because they weren’t reaching their expected numbers. Harsh.
Bonnie’s tale leaves us with more than a couple of interesting lessons on how sometimes you do everything right (and how important it is that you recognize it!), and you still fail due to factors that could never be managed by you. Reaching the end, Bonnie tells us what she thinks the bottom line is: The most important thing is to be able to build a trust-based relationship with your clients, that allows them to be vulnerable with you and express their fears. Make sure you are trusted, that you provide good and coherent ideas, and that you are a good partner, even if that includes offering to go for a drink after your client learns that their business will be shut down.
About Bonnie:
Your story drives your business and builds your brand. I'm the founder and CEO of Company B, a digital communications agency. A lifelong storyteller, former New York Times journalist and screenwriter, I help high growth companies tell stories through content and public relations, driving massive media attention. Stakeholders want to hear more from you, learn more about you and do more business with you.
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Jul 21, 2021
Jul 21, 2021
1 hr 35 sec
In our 15th take at Client Horror Stories, Collin Slattery, founder, and CEO of Taikun Inc. brings us a story approached not too dramatically, but rather as a learning experience for everyone who was a part of it (and, obviously, us as well!). Today’s tale gives us a lesson on how good students are the ones that don’t need an atomic bomb of a client in order to pick up a bunch of good lessons on how to manage them.
Collin’s narrative takes us to August 2020, very deeply diving into the pandemic craziness and a client who, no matter how hard he tried to change his mind, simply believed that advertising would solve every single one of his problems. But of course, advertising was not a magic success potion for their business, and so our story smoothly turns into micromanaging meets blaming marketing for everything mess.
Today’s episode leaves us with a sour taste in our mouths, and more than a lot of lessons to take notes on, such as: “In some situations, techniques that worked for everyone else, simply won’t do it”, “ABT: Always be testing everything you do”, and our personal favorite “If a client wants to do something, even though you insisted that it was not a good idea, have them sign a document where they agree that the did it against your professional advice”.
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” - John Maynard Keynes
Morgan Friedman
Jul 15, 2021
Jul 15, 2021
1 hr 1 min
In our 14th take at Client Horror Stories, we have Will Rico, CEO of CommonMind, along with a parade of mentors, telling us probably the weirdest yet most gripping and surprising story so far. Today’s tale is the compilation of horror, random, and sometimes positively surprising situations that went along in Will’s 9-year long relationship with his then mentor.
Will takes us back to 2001, when he was just a 27-year-old starting a company and renting an office from his high-school boss, who couldn’t help but try to get involved in the young startup’s business. Little did we know that he would not actually end up being the trouble-maker, but actually the guy that he introduced Will to in order to create (what he thought would be) a fantastic deal.
The narrative that Will walks us through has everything from drama, sweet-angel wives, sketchy guys with a lot of stories to tell, and even unexpected (and later on canceled) inheritances, to end up with very wise advice: Choose your mentors wisely, don’t take advice from just anyone, and learn how to say “no”.
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