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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
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Dive into the engaging and insightful world of Lynita Mitchell-Blackwell, Esq., now an Intuitive Business Coach at Leading Through Living Community LLC. Lynita, once a champion of publishing, navigated the exciting realm of helping authors share their stories with the world.
Here's a fun twist: a close friend of Lynita's needed help publishing a book. With a generous spirit and a knack for problem-solving, Lynita eagerly stepped up to the challenge. She shares a humorous and all-too-real insight in the podcast: "Lawyers make the worst clients." It turns out, she humorously overlooked switching from friend mode to client mode, skipping the formalities of a contract.
The story takes a quirky turn when Lynita, expecting a manuscript, receives a PowerPoint presentation instead—her friend had composed the entire story on a phone! Unperturbed, Lynita adapts like a pro, transferring the content to a laptop for better accessibility. But there's a catch: the text is a labyrinth of incomplete sentences.
Pushed to her limits but still maintaining her poise, Lynita's tale unfolds with a blend of laughter and learning. The full story, rich with more twists and sage advice about maintaining professional boundaries with friends and family, awaits. Get ready for an enjoyable and enlightening experience that blends professionalism with a touch of fun—this is a client horror story you wouldn’t want to miss!
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Listen in as we speak with Being Space's Founder, Catherine Llewellyn, and discuss her greatest client horror story. In this episode, Catherine discusses disappointing traits and tactics of business executives that may prompt even loyal employees to resign.
During the 1980s, Catherine traveled the countryside as a trainer with her team. They were distinct from the sales team. The sales team would acquire clients, close deals, and contracts, and then brief Catherine's training team to execute the training.
They were assigned to conduct a two-day telephone sales training for a travel agency. Upon arrival, they were met with a derelict training room with walls full of plaster and a dusty, filthy floor – which they spent hours cleaning! Worse, upon the arrival of the participants, their faces were slack and utterly unhappy because (surprise!) they don’t perform telephone sales in their line of work.
It gets even worse as when they tried contacting the primary client, he was on holiday. It turns out that this client just didn’t want to be there for his employees’ reaction to letting them take telephone sales training. There just wasn’t any hope of breaking it to them gently. They were going to be handling telephone sales upon return, but Catherine’s team had to be the ones to give the news.
You are in for a treat with this episode full of surprising twists and valuable lessons. Get ready to explore what it takes to thrive in the business world and learn from both successes and challenges.
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
In this episode, we have the privilege of hearing from Colin Duff, the CEO of Mosaic Innovation. He shares with us an unprecedented client horror story that sheds light on the challenges of managing a diverse team of individuals. It's evident that this is no easy task.
Colin worked with a big hardware company that suddenly decided to become a digital company, something they knew totally nothing about. This project ran for 9 months, and a lot of individuals and experts were hired left and right to complete the project successfully.
Naturally, we all want to work as a team, but one project manager didn’t want to accept any help and went on his merry way only to have outputs that just weren’t done right. To make things worse, during meetings, they couldn’t decide on anything that would give them something to continue because of so many cultural differences. Some say, “In Germany, this is the least priority,” “In India, this is how we do it,” and the list goes on.
Frustrating, isn’t it? Well, there's more to the story. In this episode, Colin takes control of the situation, and you won't want to miss how he did it. The lessons he learned are valuable and definitely worth your time. Tune in to discover more.
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Wednesday Aug 23, 2023
Join us in this episode as we hear from Sam Drauschak, the Chief Process Scientist at Truvle, as he shares a shocking story. He sheds light on an undetected billing error that ultimately led to the discovery of the role of politics in every business, big or small. It's a fascinating tale that you won't want to miss!
One day, Sam was sent out on a routine investigation to check on a possible billing error in the finance system. Lo and behold, he found that, indeed, an error existed and that it was close to $40 million!
As part of protocol, Sam escalated this issue to his manager who then went up to the partner of the office to check and validate it. Subsequently, the matter was brought to the attention of the CFO and the Chairman, causing a ripple effect that was difficult to take hold of. Eventually, they presented the relevant data to the Chairman, who, after the presentations, just gave them a nod of thanks and asked them to leave the room.
They were blocked from taking further action to help the organization as the CFO was given charge to take over the issue once again. Despite this, the company ended up losing the money and replacing the CFO 18 months later.
As the episode ends, Sam and Morgan engage in a thought-provoking discussion regarding what they’ve gleaned from the story. They delve into the contrasting perspectives of big and small companies when it comes to handling finances, the intricate political factors at play, and how it feels to discover something big. Watch the episode to gain a deeper understanding of these topics!
Thursday Jun 08, 2023
Thursday Jun 08, 2023
In this episode, Ameet Khabra, owner and founder of Hop Skip Media, is going to take Our Beloved Host, Morgan Friedman, and us on a roller coaster ride of her story from seven years ago. You’re in for a treat as we delve deep into a mix of lawsuits, health issues, heartbreak, and reconciliation all in one go.
In 2015, while Ameet was working for an agency in Edmonton, she had an epiphany and realized that the 8–5 job was not for her – she hated being asked to come in at fixed hours and just wanted to be in control of her life. She decided to quit her job and find her place in the universe.
Eventually, a friend introduced her to an accountant that was interested in running ads and improving his business. Without a second thought, she took his offer and just went for it, saying that she was capable of doing everything he needed, and the client happily paid for the whole thing then and there.
While signing the contract, the client proudly told her that he wasn’t happy with an old agency he hired, and he complained so much that he ended up getting three months of services for free after threatening the company with a negative review online. It seemed funny at the moment, but according to Ameet, “I saw the red flags but just ignored them.”
A few days later, after a lot of work has been finished, the client sent her a message at 7PM saying, “There’s an issue with the website.” She asked what it was and was terribly met with these exact words: “If you can’t figure out what the issue is, maybe you’re not that good at your job.” Really?
It gets worse! As Amit couldn’t identify anything wrong with the website, the client said four hard words she could never forget – see you in court.
The next day, stressed and panicked, she asked her lawyer for advice, and they immediately served her client with a civil claims lawsuit. Within 21 days, Ameet’s client decided to countersuit for the maximum amount of the civil claims, which was $50,000 in lost revenue. In Ameet’s head, she thought, “As an accountant, I’m pretty sure you know that it’s incredibly illegal to cook your books. So, how exactly are you planning to prove the $50,000 lost in a span of 45 days?”
It took quite some time before anything resulted out of their lawsuits, but while she was waiting, Ameet went through so many things. She felt sharp pains in her chest and shoulders, was diagnosed with diabetes, and when she was given treatment, the pain still didn’t go away! Eventually, she was referred to a psychiatrist and got diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. She had to take a break to heal and find light again.
Finally, Ameet and her client went into mediation, and her civil claims agent brought a thick bunch of papers containing all the emails her client sent her in 45 days. The client said nothing the entire time. They either had to settle or go to court.
A week later, the client sent an email to give her x amount so they can call it a day, but she needed to give him his website. That was fine – this wasn’t worth fighting too much for, so she countered and eventually got an amount that made her moderately happy.
While that may sound like a full story, you’ll be surprised of the amount of feelings unpacked in this episode. Hit that play button to know more!