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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 May 03, 2023
Wednesday May 03, 2023
In this episode, Irina Poddubnaia, founder of TrackMage, is going to share her craziest experience in the retail industry with us. From numerous counts of deceit, misspelled brand names, and defective items, to missing orders, you’ll be shocked by her revelation.
There was a time in Irina’s life when she decided to start a new life and move to China to start her business. The experience was immensely eye-opening as she finally had the chance to travel and discover the beautiful – and not-so-beautiful side – of cultures that were way different than what she grew up with. During this big decision, Irina was faced with multiple challenges in dealing with various suppliers for her business.
One time, they decided to sell knock-offs of designer shoes and requested an order from the supplier. Lo and behold, they got the Valentinos but the name was misspelled! Pfft, no problem – it’s manageable. Irina continued to find other products to sell and had her eyes set on electric hookahs. It started perfectly as everything worked when they tested it out. Unfortunately, their new batch was extremely defective – one even blew up when a customer used it!
Irina then decided to switch to selling clothing where, upon receiving the batch from their supplier, she found out some colors were missing! Unfortunately, her business ended up not having any loyal customers because of poor service. No one wanted to trust them.
After living in China for a while, she learned that they have certain beliefs about inner circles and how when you weren’t part of it, there were just some perks you’ll never be able to receive. This meant that receiving a whopping 50% discount on their service resulted in you receiving half of your orders defective and useless.
If you’re eager to learn more about Chinese culture, you better tune in!
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
Wednesday Apr 12, 2023
In this episode, Sherrilynne Starkie, Social Media Expert and Host of the 50 Women Over 50 podcast, is going to tell us a horror story no business owner would ever like to go through. It’s an experience like no other, which involves talks about money, paperwork, and legalities.
Sherrilynne has been in marketing and communications approaching 30 years of experience, and during this time, she established her own public relations agency at the dead center of the Irish Sea.
She got a call from a tech guy looking to launch his own business. This figure had been introduced to Sherrilynne by a long-term and loyal client, and he was looking to launch a new telecommunications service. Sherrilynne was intrigued and took on the challenge, working with the new client on a monthly retainer for around 5–6 months.
At first, things were going great. Sherrilynne was crushing it, and the client seemed to be thrilled with her work. But then, disaster struck. The old client who had referred Sherrilynne to the new client reached out, wondering if they had been paid since they hadn't been receiving payment for their own services. She decided to give her client the benefit of the doubt, but alarm bells were going off in her head and instinct pushed her to do some more digging.
Sherrilynne soon found out that the new client had been consistently late with payments, always with some excuse or another. Eventually, the client stopped taking her calls and responding to her altogether. What a nightmare! But this didn’t faze Sherrilynne.
She decided to take matters into her own hands and took the new client to court, hoping to get the payment she was owed. However, it seems like it was never meant to be. The client filed for bankruptcy, and Sherrilynne was left with nothing to show for all her hard work and trouble in court. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but she knew that she had given it her all.
The story doesn’t end there though. Listen to the full episode to know all the important details!
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
Wednesday Mar 29, 2023
In this episode, Kelsey Knutson, business coach, and podcast coach shared a tea-worthy story about her experience and survival of a “bridezilla.” While even talking about the experience grew a pit in her stomach, it helped her become the successful entrepreneur she is today. But we’ll get to that in a bit!
Let us rewind to when Kelsey had just started her hair & makeup artist business and was working on building connections to expand her clientele. A friend of a friend referred her to a certain client who was about to get married, and Kelsey was set to prepare the bride’s bridal hair as well as her bridesmaids’.
On the day of the wedding, everyone was hungover and late, and Kelsey had eleven looks to do – that’s 45 minutes each! Fast forward, she’d already started working on the bride’s look and was proud of herself for achieving the exact look they’d practiced during their trial run. She was just about to take a photo when the bride looked in the mirror and said, “I f*ing hate it”.
Imagine Kelsey’s surprise! She then asked the bride to figure out what kind of look she wanted and worked on the rest of the bridesmaids’ hair. The bride eventually decided she would prefer a messier look. Like the superstar that she is, she was able to fix the look and somehow got everyone done in time. At this point, Kelsey had already started feeling defeated but overheard the bride talking to her grandma and cursing her on the phone.
This is when Kelsey realizes that there’s probably something wrong with the bride. Red flags had started popping up left and right but she continued to pull through. But you know what the worst part is? Despite her best efforts, Kelsey ended up not getting paid for her services.
As the episode ends, Kelsey shares the importance of asking questions before committing to something, taking time to assess what you could do differently in certain situations, and establishing proper communication.
This episode is an eye-opener to businessmen and entrepreneurs, but you’ll need to listen to the whole episode to understand more!
Thursday Mar 02, 2023
Thursday Mar 02, 2023
Wednesday Feb 08, 2023
Wednesday Feb 08, 2023
In this episode, Robert Persichitte, a Financial Planner of Delagify Financial, shares a relatable adulting story of a client who absolutely hated his job and just wanted to get out of it.
This client was a pretty high-level attorney, a pretty high earner, and a very high-stress job. He wanted to retire as soon as possible. So Robert followed his usual process with the client and tried to put everything in the context of goals.
But this is where the problem came in with this client. The client gave him an estimate of about $6,000 a month in lifestyle expenses which is considered as having fun money, paying for things like groceries, and going out.
However, something common amongst high-earning clients is that they're unaware of the numbers they're actually spending. Robert then came to an actual estimate of the client's household spending, which totaled $10,000 a month. The catch is that his client was not the one in the household spending that money. He only spent about $2,000 a month, and the other $8,000 came from his wife.
At this point, Robert knew that his client's goal of early retirement wasn't possible. Robert formed a great strategy to resolve this issue, focusing on purposeful communication and subtle approaches to client management.
Watch the full episode to learn how he did it!