Client Horror Stories

Today’s episode brings us, straight from Hollywood, Rick Schirmer, CEO & Founder of Viral Brand, with a super interesting and incredibly well told story that, regardless of the horror that made it CHS worthy, actually has a happy ending.

Rick’s tale brings us back to 2020 (or, as he calls it, the “pause” year) when he took under his wing a “cut deal” client with very little experience, and a lot of expectations. Along with some very powerful lessons on cheap clients, setting boundaries, and trusting your instinct, Rick shares with us a key learning from the whole experience: the inequality generated when someone gives you something that means everything to them, and very little to you. And yes, no matter how deep that sounds, we are talking about budget.

“Influencer sommelier” and “delusional button” are only a couple of awesome concepts that we’ll definitely steal from Rick, and definitely only a peak at how fun this story turned out to be.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Rick Schirmer

Viral Brand

In our 21st take at Client Horror Stories, we have Ben Nuttall, Software Engineer at BBC News Labs, with a story that, from the very beginning, has us wondering what’s with people’s common sense: showing up for an interview all dressed up, only to have the interviewer receive you in shorts and flip flops, and announcing that the person who called you in was no longer working there.

Ben’s tale takes us back to 2011, when the apps market was flourishing, and everyone trusted them to get them instant success. So much that a properties company figured it was a great idea to have a small team developing quick and easy apps to make some extra money. But you see the problem with having an absolutely unrelated industry’s company dive in the app development business is that they actually believe two people and one designer can develop 2 apps everyday, and believe pushing employees to the edge is the right way to accomplish it.

Today’s narrative brings us a bunch of different horror moments, such as bosses that take you to their offices to yell at you until you quit, so they don’t have to fire you, and other bosses that hire someone’s son to be your boss, even though they have 19 years old and zero experience. Along with a wide variety of absolutely bizarre and unbelievable moments, the older and more experienced version of Ben can’t believe he actually went through.

However, as every good story does, Ben’s one leaves us with some very valuable tips and lessons: First of all, if something smells weird, don’t hesitate to ask someone you know and trust in your industry what they think about it. Secondly, find people to learn from, and make sure you have at least some of them in your workplace. And finally, even bad experiences can be worth living, even if it’s just for the hope of it all.

About Ben: 

Ben is a software engineer building prototypes for BBC News, and previously spent 6 years at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Ben likes Python, Linux and all things open source.

Links:

Benn Nuttall

BBC News Labs

Our 20th take at Client Horror Stories brings in a particularity that sets apart from the rest: there are actually no clients involved. In today’s episode, we have Mark Jacobsen, author of Eating Glass: The Inner Journey Through Failure and Renewal, with an excruciating story that has us sharing his pain from the very beginning.

Mark’s narrative brings us the point of view of a military pilot during the hottest years of war with an unstoppable will to help the Syrian refugees, which eventually led him to begin a non-profit with his own resources. His tale starts in the very beginning of the motivation for it, then goes through his innovative idea of using drones to reach places he couldn’t fly to, and eventually gets to the breakdown point: creating a 3-acre wildfire in Stanford.

What’s so special about today’s episode, is the fact that it teaches us that, no matter how pure our intentions are, some moonshots can be achieved by just trying and trying. Among some of the many lessons that this story taught us, we shall highlight Mark’s point on being able to create and maintain healthy habits both for you and your team, and making sure you have a business plan before you start anything, even when your anything is a nonprofit. But overall, it teaches us that even though our intuition can really help us see a problem coming, sometimes other people’s intuition can also help us find the right solutions to it.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

In our 19th take at Client Horror Stories, we have James Hush with a story very different to anything else we’ve heard: for the first time in Client Horror Stories, we have the story of a client with nothing to do with the tech world, and we definitely loved it. Not only today’s guest comes from the music industry, but he also has an awesome ability to link bands and shows management to handling a traditional enterprise and its clients. And also, he was happy to share with us many clips from his teenage band.

Today’s tale brings us back to when James was a college kid with rockstar dreams, and was taken under the wing of a show manager who taught him everything he knew. So when he was experienced enough, the best thing that ever could have happened happened: he was hired to plan and manage the event of his most admired label in the world. However, if everything was so great, he would not be telling his story here, would he?

James’s tale is as exciting as it is worth listening to, and it leaves us not only with some pretty cool Beatles and Aerosmith’s anecdotes, but also a lot of valuable lessons on handling clients, no matter the industry you work in. So, as a general best practice in James language: don’t focus on just one project at a time, choose your door person, and, no matter what happens, write down the terms beforehand. Oh, and over anything else: that sometimes just showing up and doing what you are asked to makes a huge difference.

About James:

James has given teams the ability to ship features at 5 pm on a Friday in 15 minutes to millions of users. He believes any engineering team can deliver high quality features that customers love on time, without working late or opening a bottle of Advil.

Links:

https://www.jameshush.com

James Hush

Morgan Friedman

In our 17th take at Client Horror Stories, we receive Violet Femmes, who brings us a dramatic and introspective story that lasted two years but gave her lessons for a lifetime. Today’s episode has a therapy-like tint that definitely makes the narrative strike a significant chord in us.

Opening with the phrase “I am terrific at making mistakes”, Violet’s tale has more than enough elements to make it a memorable one, but if we had to choose a couple of them to highlight they would definitely be emails “accidentally” sent to the wrong people, a lot of fancy wine, bewaring procurement, and the fact that horror comes not only from your client, but also from your own company.

Today’s episode leaves us slightly unsettled, and the realization that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, some things just can’t be accomplished. Violet’s tale teaches us that, every now and then, not even a 36 hours workday can get all your tasks done, and that’s when you need to take a step back and be able to ask for the help you need, and hope that your company is there to back you up.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

In our 17th take at Client Horror Stories, Scott Kveton, founding partner of Fractionalist.co, brings us a story that takes us 11 years back in time, back to the moment where people used to camp and wait in line for hours to get iPhone 3.0.

Scott’s tale starts with a “Why wait three months? Let’s launch in 30 days!” optimism, and includes everything that a good story should: The press, young and inexperienced entrepreneurs, a deal with the biggest app in the app store, and even Steve Jobs.

Today’s episode leaves us with a couple of great lessons on how to properly build your teams, how carefully you should choose your clients (even if they are tech giants that say they’ll refer you!), the importance of trusting someone’s instincts, even if they are not incredibly experienced, and definitely choosing wisely the jokes we’ll tell to the press.

Links:

Fractionalist.co

Scott Kveton

Morgan Friedman

In our 16th take at Client Horror Stories, Bonnie Rothman, CEO of Company B, brings us a fast, exciting, and very well told (not that she tells stories for a living!) horror story. Today’s tale has everything that a great story needs: dynamism, excitement, plot twists, and shoes in the oven.

In today’s episode, Bonnie walks us through the story of an incredibly well-funded startup that had a great idea and had been growing super fast, so everything indicated that the future ahead could only get brighter. And it did, at first. As Bonnie’s strategies kept making her client’s company grow more and more, so did the excitement that both created revolving around the company’s acceleration and expansion, until one day, 10 minutes before their scheduled team meeting, Bonnie received the call that turned this into a horror story: The team meeting was being canceled, and the investors decided to shut their business down because they weren’t reaching their expected numbers. Harsh.

Bonnie’s tale leaves us with more than a couple of interesting lessons on how sometimes you do everything right (and how important it is that you recognize it!), and you still fail due to factors that could never be managed by you. Reaching the end, Bonnie tells us what she thinks the bottom line is: The most important thing is to be able to build a trust-based relationship with your clients, that allows them to be vulnerable with you and express their fears. Make sure you are trusted, that you provide good and coherent ideas, and that you are a good partner, even if that includes offering to go for a drink after your client learns that their business will be shut down.

About Bonnie: 

Your story drives your business and builds your brand. I'm the founder and CEO of Company B, a digital communications agency. A lifelong storyteller, former New York Times journalist and screenwriter, I help high growth companies tell stories through content and public relations, driving massive media attention. Stakeholders want to hear more from you, learn more about you and do more business with you.

Links:

Bonnie Rothman

Company B

Morgan Friedman

In our 15th take at Client Horror Stories, Collin Slattery, founder, and CEO of Taikun Inc. brings us a story approached not too dramatically, but rather as a learning experience for everyone who was a part of it (and, obviously, us as well!). Today’s tale gives us a lesson on how good students are the ones that don’t need an atomic bomb of a client in order to pick up a bunch of good lessons on how to manage them.

Collin’s narrative takes us to August 2020, very deeply diving into the pandemic craziness and a client who, no matter how hard he tried to change his mind, simply believed that advertising would solve every single one of his problems. But of course, advertising was not a magic success potion for their business, and so our story smoothly turns into micromanaging meets blaming marketing for everything mess.

Today’s episode leaves us with a sour taste in our mouths, and more than a lot of lessons to take notes on, such as: “In some situations, techniques that worked for everyone else, simply won’t do it”, “ABT: Always be testing everything you do”, and our personal favorite “If a client wants to do something, even though you insisted that it was not a good idea, have them sign a document where they agree that the did it against your professional advice”.

About Collin:

Literacy quotes:

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” - John Maynard Keynes

Links:

Morgan Friedman

In our 14th take at Client Horror Stories, we have Will Rico, CEO of CommonMind, along with a parade of mentors, telling us probably the weirdest yet most gripping and surprising story so far. Today’s tale is the compilation of horror, random, and sometimes positively surprising situations that went along in Will’s 9-year long relationship with his then mentor.

Will takes us back to 2001, when he was just a 27-year-old starting a company and renting an office from his high-school boss, who couldn’t help but try to get involved in the young startup’s business. Little did we know that he would not actually end up being the trouble-maker, but actually the guy that he introduced Will to in order to create (what he thought would be) a fantastic deal.

The narrative that Will walks us through has everything from drama, sweet-angel wives, sketchy guys with a lot of stories to tell, and even unexpected (and later on canceled) inheritances, to end up with very wise advice: Choose your mentors wisely, don’t take advice from just anyone, and learn how to say “no”.

Links: 

CommonMind

Will Rico

Morgan Friedman

Take 13th at Client Horror Stories is starred by Anthony Highman, along with an exclusive selection of what he considered his top-notch horror stories of many years in the industry. In a quick and easy short story method, Anthony walks us through the perks and quirks of what it takes to engage in a committed and beneficial for both parts working relationship.

Anthony’s tales have everything that a captivative story needs: plot twists, cross-state driving, lawyers, conflictive exes (even the marketing world has them!), and the perfect amount of fishing metaphors. All the drama and random turns that today’s episode has are nothing compared to everything we can learn from them.

Reaching the end, Morgan and Anthony agree that working with clients has three big and essential keys: Being able to explain your strategies and the decisions you make, understanding what your client’s real objectives are (even if they include firing the person who hired you), and building a trust-based relationship from the very beginning.

Literacy quotes:

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - Anna Karenina

Links:

Morgan Friedman