What do I do when I disagree with a client?

“We end up feeling this deep sense of dread as our mouse hovers over their latest email in a chain of requests or changes”.

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When I was in room 5 at primary school, my teacher Mrs Lark used to always put me in the naughty corner.

I still remember, it was on a chair with a hoop around it.

In the corner of the room, away from the other kids.

Making an example of me.

I wasn’t a bully, or mean to other kids.

She’d told my parents that I ‘made too many silly noises’ during class.

The diagnosis was ‘he’s hyperactive’ (it was the 80s).

Now I was probably only 8 at the time but I still remember being made an example of.

Being scolded and shamed.

It felt pretty crummy.

So it kinda sucks when our clients do the same to us.

They treat us like a naughty child who gets a telling off if they don’t do what we say.

We end up feeling this deep sense of dread as our mouse hovers over their latest email in a chain of requests or changes.

Or we get that deep pit of anxiety in the morning before we open our emails (or even check out dms for that matter).

It can’t be this way, we shouldn’t dread our work.

We shouldn’t put up with clients who drain our energy.

Because, at the end of the day, whose business is it?

Are you running your own business, or are you still working as an employee for a rotating menagerie of Mrs Larks?

Penny pinching, pushy, demanding, condescending clients.

Now maybe that’s an extreme, but the lesson is there.

If something is not working, it's your job to tell mum and dad and make it right.

AKA you need to speak up and have some respect for yourself and your business.

Tell the client we need to reset, reassess our relationship.

Have a standard of what you’ll put up with.

Set boundaries and limits so you know when they’ve been crossed.

Otherwise you might spend the rest of your life in the naughty corner.

PS I help my clients take control of their creative businesses, get out of the naughty corner and get clients who respect and love them (and pay them well for that privilege). DM to enquire about our next intake for Super Successful!