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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
Wednesday May 28, 2025
Wednesday May 28, 2025
Running a business often means putting out fires—but some fires should never have been lit in the first place. In today’s client horror story, Melinda Spaulding, Author of "Finding Insight", shares a frustrating tale from her early years that highlights just how chaotic procurement can get.
Everything had been going smoothly with one client—contracts were signed, terms agreed upon, and work was underway. But out of nowhere, a representative from the company called Melinda's business line one evening with alarming news: they were canceling the contract because "we shouldn't have agreed on the billing terms in the first place."
With everyone else aligned and the original agreement in place, Melinda was blindsided. Panic set in. What would happen next? Days of uncertainty followed until a new contract arrived—only for her to realize that the purchase order reflected the original billing terms all along.
So what was the point of this wild goose chase? What did it teach her about corporate miscommunication, emotional resilience, and trusting your gut?
Listen to the episode to hear how Melinda turned this chaos into clarity—and what you can learn from the fire that never should've started.
Wednesday May 07, 2025
Wednesday May 07, 2025
In this episode, Sheila Butler, Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Butler Marketing Group, FL LLC, tells us about the time when she forged a partnership to launch 20,000 hotel rooms. What was once thought to be a huge and successful project turned out to be underwhelming and disappointing for everyone involved.
Due to tech issues, overwriting part of their database did not go as planned. Instead of advertising each room as a luxury stay, they were shown as regular rooms—boring, right? Likewise, it didn’t help that the moment they launched their product, COVID happened and the lockdown started.
While they banked on the fact that things would pick up soon and they could leverage coupons and such, they failed to see that their chosen payment platform didn’t cater to all the countries they were targeting.
Tune in to know more about Sheila's experience!
Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
Wednesday Mar 26, 2025
Imagine being your own bubbly self and getting so much hate from someone who projected their insecurities on you. This is what happened to the author and creator of Confused Girl in the City, Giovanna Silvestre.
At 25, fresh out of college, Giovanna had the opportunity to become the second assistant to a big-time director of a big-time movie at a big-time studio. As someone fresh in the industry, she assumed she worked directly under the director. Anyhow, that was cleared up as the first assistant clearly hated her guts and gave her a lot of random tasks which backfired.
When Giovanna was asked to help the director’s wife in arranging his birthday, she formed a deep relationship with the wife and immediately became everybody’s favorite—she even ended up dating their friend! The first assistant was so pissed and thought to sabotage everything by making up stories about her and eventually firing her.
There’s so much more to learn, so listen in and join the adventure!
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
Wednesday Feb 26, 2025
There’s something quite profound about doing honest work for 23 years and losing it to an uncontrollable housing bust. Today, we are pleased to speak with Matthew (Matt) Stafford, CEO of Build Grow Scale, who is tasked to share his client's horror story for our 59th episode.
Straight out of college, Matt established a brick-and-mortar commercial concrete business which exponentially grew over the years. They’ve managed to build many Lowe’s, Costcos, and other buildings for big-name companies all over the country, traveling 200 days per year to complete every order and work on every demand for their capabilities.
Between 2007 and 2010, America was faced with a multinational financial mortgage crisis, which led to a severe economic recession, with millions losing their jobs and many businesses going bankrupt. Sadly, in 2009, what once was a bustling business turned into a blazing horror show for Matt. Large contractors came into big developments, and Matt and his company were never paid for their work. To top it all off, they got sued by their subcontractor who did their curb work.
Things immediately started to pile up, and despite a long 10-year battle of settling all of their accounts, Matt ended up losing half a million dollars as well as his love for the job. Horror upon horror, this story is going to teach you a lot of lessons, so tune in and get ready for an episode full of knowledge and guidance.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2025
Wednesday Jan 29, 2025
Are you ready for another client horror story? Today might just be your lucky day! We’re going into an in-depth and hair-raising conversation with Matthew Fornaro, a respected business lawyer.
Over four years ago, Matthew made a decision to take on a real estate litigation with a family consisting of two elders and a daughter who had authoritarian control over her parents. They rented a home in a beautiful gated community in Naples, Florida, and made a deal with the neighbor across the street. What was the deal? Well, they asked him to take over his house, perform the upkeep, and eventually purchase the home for a lower market value upon the end of their lease term on their house across the street. First red flag? There wasn’t any written contract but a term sheet which contained under 20 words scribbled all over the page.
The homeowner’s son visited him and learned about the deal and was obviously unhappy about it. There was a lot of hullabaloo and in the end, the renting family went to a title agent and got all the work done to get ready for the sale and said the homeowner agreed to it. The son then steps in and everyone sues everybody.
Fast forward, everyone is now in court, where a jury trial was demanded by the daughter. They came to an agreement and settled on a good deal, but little did everyone know that the roller coaster was about to happen.
If you’d like to know how the story ended, watch the episode now! Trust me, you won’t regret it!