I think it is really underestimated how much experience it must have taken Chris to present such a hard conversation in such a way that it addresses the problem without pointing any fingers. I think it is underestimated how much of a word wizard Chris ACTUALLY is. I can see that now because this week i learned how much i am not (:
Chris is a wordsmith. He's the kind of person you would want to have a conversation with. I've learned how to approach difficult conversations with sincere and genuine communication from him.
who you are is a reflection of your life experiences Tomi. I have learned from some of the best people, and have had many opportunities to practice in business, in classrooms with my students, during live role plays. just remember, at one point in my life, I shied away from speaking and did my best to be invisible.
One thing I am practicing what you do is one sentence one page Example : I am doing social media marketing Why, What, where, how In one sentence And again In one page And update regularly are recording for practice Similar to each topic
My definition for "difficult" would be: when do I let go of a project that no longer represents the quality work I do, and how will this work represent me after publishing. At the end of the day when final product is turned in and it does well, the client wants all the credit, but if it does bad everyone blames the designer.
Uggh we just went through this with a client and during the options portion she blew up in a fit of anger. Called names, acted like a child. Demanded special treatment and even asked us to remove another client off our calendar for her. Insanity. She’s fired. Lol
These are 6 mins for every design business / person to keep in their bookmarks, loved the way it brought perspective back into the reaction, and also put the options on the table for all to have an idea of possible outcomes, thus providing options that serves more than one way. Then, wrangling it with a civilized discussion and even having a bye bye dinner. It's an excellent way of addressing a potentially hairy moment 👍
This is 🥇. I’m watching on repeat until this is drilled into my head. Honestly, this isn’t just useful for clients it’s useful for internal teams too - where you can’t fire them and have to work together. The whole “you give us the deadline but not the content and then no time to finish” part is a very real and huge pain and this conversation WILL be used to reset boundaries and expectations for working better with other teams. Thanks Chris
It's nice to see somebody gets it. Business relationships are like any other kind of relationship, and interactions with business partners, employees, supervisors, etc are no different than ones with a spouse, sibling or friend. And when things go wrong, a lot of the same reasons apply. Stop thinking in terms of organizations and start thinking in terms of people and their needs...
One thing about the account manager. I wonder if that would actually cause noise in the conversations. Since in both directions, communication is by a 3rd person. If the time-frame already is short, another person in pipe-line doing the intermediar work, will actually make communication longer.
I’ve ditched two clients recently & it needed to be done. One did not end very well as the client lost it when I tried to establish boundaries. there was a shift where I was now expected to be an employee rather than a consultant. Wanted me to attend meetings where I was not compensated for my time & upset that I have other clients/job & responsibilities etc... I had allowed this client to underpay me for years due to knowing them from when I first started out which made it difficult to transition out of how we worked together & because of carrot dangling over the years that I now know better not to fall for. I’m in a different position in my life & they will no longer use my talents to piggy back off of to build something for themselves. everything was them doing me a favor (I find clients so you don’t have to) uhh you are my client & the clients you find you need to sustain your business.. & Especially when you don’t charge your own clients enough to pay me what you should! You don’t establish revision limits etc.. Comments like “I have no problem if you use this project for your portfolio.” Uhhh? I don’t care about that? That is not a real incentive for me.. the reality was they were really just taking advantage of me more and more & I’m sure they knew it based off of their reaction of removing me entirely from the “team” & getting rid of my email address at the company that I never asked for & did not want or check since it’s just another email address no one would send anything to me other than the client - who didn’t anyways! He did not like that I asked for emails to be sent to my business email address. worst part is there are people contributing their own personal time to this business that are not compensated appropriately even worse than I was & he has made obvious this is his business even if it will have been built on the backs of others who are more talented & will likely never be compensated for the time they’ve invested & he will continue to use people for his own gain by promising things to them & a future he cannot guarantee.. & there is nothing holding him to not just letting them go or saying they aren’t team players if they speak up even a tiny bit in the future - if the company ever gets off the ground more.. which is doubtful.. if it does I will not regret my decision I don’t want to work for someone like that as I’ll always be stuck now in a position where I’m so privileged to work for him & never paid what I should be.
Hey futur team - thanks once again for your content. I was a bit confused when I first time saw your logo at the bottom of the slides. It is just a mush of letters and not recognizable at all. Reminds me of a beer cap but then even these are more unique and better readable. I believe you need a logo which has different states - a responsive logo - just like you wont show a desktop site on mobile. regards
Thank you so much this talk gave me the confidence and the right perspective to talk to my long-term difficult client and get closer to a sustainable business relationship
hi, my boss is my client and he's the worst! so indecisive ... he's the type who goes I'll know what I want when I see it type of client... I need to leave.
Great options. Use some creative way to work things out. Finding diplomatic solution ain't easy, but it's worth it! Btw, gonna remember the "Nuclear option", what a cool name, lol. 😀 💯
i feel like mentioning nuclear option so far upfront gives a bit hostile vibe. I would prolly mention it a bit later in the meeting, if I see him not trying to work things out. am I wrong?
Do you have advice when they hire sugar babies and you do all the work and get no advancement in your career while they laugh their way sitting in laps getting promoted?
