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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
Jul 2, 2025
Jul 2, 2025
30 min
Kathryn Smith, founder of Walton Birch, shares a client horror story unlike anything we’ve heard before.
In the early days of launching her custom web development company—with just herself on the team—Kathryn expected the usual startup challenges. But nothing could’ve prepared her for this.
A former client referred a woman who needed help with her Shopify site. What seemed like a routine job quickly spiraled out of control. The client had no login credentials, so Kathryn contacted Shopify for support, followed a string of verification steps, and even reached out to the client’s former developer. After more than three months—and repeated threats from the client to terminate the contract—Kathryn finally gained access to the site.
That’s when she discovered the shocking truth: the website didn’t belong to the client.
Despite being informed that she had no legal ownership or rights to the site, the client insisted on proceeding as if nothing was wrong. Was it a scam? Misunderstanding? Fraud?
What began as a simple project turned into a digital identity crisis. Tune in to hear how Kathryn navigated this bizarre and stressful ordeal—and the lessons she learned about due diligence, boundaries, and trusting your gut.
Jun 18, 2025
Jun 18, 2025
1hr 5 min
There’s nothing crazier than Andy Reinhold’s client horror story, and you’re gonna want to listen.
A few years ago, Andy, founder of Studio Spark, was working in the tech division of a major consulting firm, maintaining outdated government software. With each change in administration, the system grew harder to decipher—so much so that they had to track down long-retired employees just to understand the codebase.
Andy and his team manually reviewed over a million lines of legacy code to help determine who qualified for Social Security checks. For three weeks, everything ran smoothly—until it didn’t.
One day, Andy received a call warning him of a serious issue with the SSI system—and, strangely, to avoid watching the news. Naturally, he did the opposite. Headlines revealed a holiday disaster: people were receiving significantly reduced Social Security checks right before Christmas. While the team scrambled and successfully patched the issue within a week, the cause remained a mystery.
It wasn’t until after the holidays that they discovered the culprit: a single missing character buried deep in the code.
Tune in to hear how one tiny oversight led to a nationwide ripple effect—and how this experience reshaped Andy’s understanding of accountability, precision, and career purpose.
Jun 11, 2025
Jun 11, 2025
1hr 12 min
In today’s episode, Matthieu Mehuys, Co-Founder of Paulownia Landscape Architects, shares a client horror story that most professionals hope they never have to face.
Matthieu’s love for plants began at just three years old. That passion led him to study landscape architecture, explore the depths of the Amazon rainforest, and master the art of cultivating breathtaking gardens. But it wasn’t until a life-threatening encounter with dengue fever that he had a wake-up call—one that pushed him to start his own business.
In his very first year, a wealthy client from Germany reached out with a lucrative garden renovation project. Sensing a major opportunity, Matthieu took it—and even brought in a trusted contractor from Belgium, who made a 12-hour journey for the job. But chaos struck on day one: another contractor, still working on the home’s façade, threw everything off schedule. Despite completing the garden, the situation spiraled into disaster when the client sued for damages.
What went wrong—and what did Matthieu learn from the ordeal? Tune in to hear how he weathered the storm, the lessons he took away, and how it reshaped his approach to future clients and projects.
Jun 4, 2025
Jun 4, 2025
48 min
Have you ever worked with people who insisted they knew best—even when they clearly didn’t? In early 2017, when blockchain was the buzzword of the moment, Tamara Adlin of Adlin, Inc. was referred by an investor to help a rising startup build smart contracts, enabling smoother collaboration for developers.
At first, things looked promising. Tamara brought strong, strategic ideas to the table. But instead of focusing on foundational planning, the team wanted to do everything all at once—charging ahead without stopping to think things through. As a seasoned expert, Tamara tried to guide them by slowing things down to ultimately speed up progress.
But tensions rose when the founders asked her to "label the elevator buttons" before the building’s foundation was even poured. The misalignment was too great, and eventually, both sides decided to part ways.
Tamara now shares stories like this—and the insights they offer—on her podcast, Corporate Underpants, where she helps strip down what really goes wrong in business.
There’s a lot more to this story—and it just might make you question how much anyone really knows in fast-moving industries. Tune in to this episode to hear Tamara’s lessons on expertise, ego, and building things that actually last.
May 28, 2025
May 28, 2025
37 min
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.