Client Horror Stories

In today’s tasty episode, Braden Cadenelli, the Senior R&D Manager at National Innovation Centers of Puratos shared one story that happened during his previous employment. This particular event has served as a lesson for Braden on how important trust, communication, and leadership are in business.

Back at that time, he was working for a semi-industrial pastry wholesaler in the food industry. One time, a customer approached him asking for a large order of cupcakes from them. The company accepted the offer and this customer frequently made visits to the company.

At this point, Braden already suspected that this could be a troublesome customer to deal with because of 2 major reasons.

First, every time the customer comes in, she would taste test their products including the ones that are actual orders. It came to the point where they would make her separate samples and leave them somewhere else so she wouldn’t bother with their work.

Second, when the deal was made and the company ordered ingredients for the production, the customer threw a tantrum saying the company ordered the wrong ingredient just because the packaging was different. It was the same ingredient made by the same manufacturer, just a different packaging because it was bought in bulk.

Fortunately, the company owners dealt with the situation professionally and have proceeded. The day of the production came, everything was super hectic and stressful. What’s worse is, the customer was there doing “quality control” eating 10 cupcakes in every batch they made.

As we reach the end of the episode, Braden shares some realities about such work environments and how important the principles of trust and leadership are in every industry. Let’s hear more of Braden’s story and learn a lot of interesting things in the food industry along the way!

Morgan Friedman

Braden’s Linkedin

Braden’s Twitter

Braden’s Instagram

In this whiskey and wine-powered episode, Timi Orosz, founder of Connect One Marketing, shared a story where she learned three crucial things in business: communication, boundaries, and friendships. It happened when a friend of hers approached her and asked her to help him develop a branding strategy for a new business.

At that early point, a little voice in her head told her that this could lead to something troublesome, but Timi decided to push through and help her friend.

Everything went smoothly until she needed to outsource a web developer to build the business website. She found this developer with an amazing portfolio and reasonable rates, and her impression of him was great.

As they have been working together, Timi was on good communication terms with this web developer. Suddenly, the web developer went missing in action and ghosted the project. Timi had no choice but to hire another developer at a higher rate since it was already a rushed project.

As she continued working on the project, she started receiving emails directly from her friend’s teammates, asking her to fix some technical stuff. Timi’s not the technical type, but she still offered to help (thanks to Google) and suggested having a professional handle it.

Timi was disappointed in herself since she still helped them even though it was not part of her responsibilities. She was also disappointed in her friend since he didn’t communicate with her about this. Things eventually piled up until both Timi, and her friend decided to call off their partnership.

As the episode ends, Timi and Morgan share the importance of communication, setting boundaries, and friendships in business. Watch the episode to learn why you need to establish these three essential principles in business.

Morgan Friedman

Timi’s Linkedin

Timi’s Instagram

Timi’s Facebook

In this episode, Ari Krzyzek, the co-founder of Chykalophia, shared an exciting-turned-heartbreaking project that led her to learn how important it is to have detailed contracts and establish policies when offering digital services.

It all started when a client approached her to do an exciting project, and Ari was excited about it too. The client also recognized Ari’s expertise, saying that they are the professionals they’re looking for, which for Ari, was very warming and boosted their ego.

During the brainstorming phase of the project, Ari and her team threw lots of ideas to the client, and in return, the client wanted them to try everything out. Little did they know, this triggered the problem. So the original contract of getting 15 pages done in 5-6 months became 150+ pages and lasted for more than a year.

Since a lot of time was wasted on revisions and demands, Ari and her team were burned out from finishing the super delayed project. What’s worse is, they weren’t paid the full price.

As the episode reaches the end, Morgan and Ari share a lot of lessons and ideas preventing such things from happening. One of them is establishing a process structure and strictly following it every time a new project comes in. Watch the episode to hear more!

Morgan Friedman

Ari's Linkedin

Ari's Instagram

Ari's Twitter

In this episode, Rachel Brenke, a multi-faceted entrepreneur and intellectual property attorney shared two stories with key takeaways: (1) Always establish good communication with your clients and (2) Know that no money is worth the stress and mistreatment.

The first story started when Rachel was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s, but she just shrugged it off since it was “impossible” for her age. Two years later, her cancer worsened, and she had to undergo therapy.

As Rachel was about to head home after 3‑day radiotherapy, she was in the elevator with her client. After that, she received an email from that client.

The second story was when a big shot photographer approached Rachel to help with a copyright infringement case. Rachel did what she was good at and produced results, aka “financial compensation” for her client’s case. However, the client had some sort of different expectations.

As the episode wraps up, Morgan and Rachel point out a lot of lessons, primarily on the good practices and preventive practices that every entrepreneur or business owner should have.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Rachel’s Website

Rachel’s Instagram

In this episode, Morgan meets fellow Will Smith fan, Liz Wilcox. A self-employed Email Marketing Specialist from Miramar Beach, Florida.

A while ago,  Liz´s was contacted by her friend because their client needed some email marketing services. And of course, she was very excited to work with her buddy.

The client worked in the funeral industry, and to begin with they thought Liz´s rate was waaay high.

In Client Horror Stories #28, Liz works with a friend, who was the middleman between her and the clients, getting in contact with grieving customers, and a client who does not believe nor let her use her usual tools.

Talking about her style and brand and her client´s persona, in Liz´s own words “If you are on a fundamental level so different from your client, that's probably a red flag that you will never make them happy”

A year later, a new marketing manager comes in, Liz goes on holiday, and when she comes back her client stopped replying to her calls.

Luckily Liz has a policy of getting paid upfront... good advice especially when your client disappears.

As in many of our stories, one key lesson to be learnt: when something feels funky, it probably is.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Liz Wilcox

Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members. You might wind up becoming their packager!

In today's episode Nick Janetakis, a Full Stack Developer,  tells us the story of a time when he was introduced to a friend´s friend who sold sports sweaters and now wanted to start selling them online, so asked Nick to work on this.

He ended up taking the job and because he sort of knew the business owner, he didn't seal the deal with any type of contract. He even gave him a special discount.

The client lived within walking distance of Nick's office, and he ended up going there quite often.

Eventually, it got to the point where the business was working well and there were many orders. The client asked Nick to help pack the merch up and move boxes around!

Nick even started helping set up his client kiosk in the mall, at midnight! f

Nowadays, he doesn't resent that time but has learned from it. Boundaries are healthy and very necessary.

This episode leaves us with a very important lesson: Focusing too much on the relationship part of the job is counterproductive. Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members.

And a very important lesson in Nicks' own words: You should be respectful of yourself when it comes to how you value yourself.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Nick Janetakis

https://nickjanetakis.com/

Dimitri Constantine is the CEO & Founder of Brandcoders, and the protagonist of today’s tale. His story brings us back a couple of years when a long-time friend brought him into a brand new project that seemed all too good to be true. And here’s our first lesson: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Dimitri’s narrative walks us through the birth and development of a business that, even though it seemed brilliant and crazy easy to sell, for some reason was not able to get investors to commit. And that was just the first red flag.

An abusive culture of “slow-boiling” employees, talking trash behind other people’s backs, and firing people every three months after deciding they were the ones to blame for the lack of success is only a couple of highlights of Dimitri’s client.

To wrap up this gripping story, Dimitri leaves us with some wonderful and original lessons learned: it is not a good sign when there’s only one full-time employee in the company, you should always work with people looking to learn and progress, and that you never realize exactly where you are until you are in too deep.

Links:

Brandcoders

Morgan Friedman

Today’s story might as well fall under the “Managing Horror Stories” category because that’s exactly what it is. Kison Patel, CEO and Founder of M&A Science and DealRoom brings us a tale on the insights of starting a business that you really believe — and trying to save it at all costs.

Kison’s tale takes us back a couple of years, to the time where he decided to chase an idea he was passionate about, along with his partner who also was a very dear friend. And the first thing that he teaches us about is this one: no matter how excited you are about it, take the time to evaluate the product and business model you are pursuing before it’s too late and things start crashing all around you.

In Client Horror Stories #25, Kison brings along a couple of powerful managing secrets, such as the importance of creating an environment where people feel comfortable communicating their thoughts and feelings (even when it’s bad news), acknowledging people’s achievements, and creating a culture where colleagues feel like friends that are happy to work together.

To wrap up Kison’s story, he and Morgan reach the end with a super interesting addendum that only strives to fulfill their #1 conclusion: how essential it is to keep feedback going and to be able to give and receive criticism.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Kison Patel

M&A Science 

DealRoom

Andrew Kemendo is the Principal Architect, AI at Unity Technologies, and also the star of Client Horror Stories #24. Today, he brings us a story that has that one killer combo: just enough drama to keep you gripping, and just enough lessons learned to know it was time well invested.

Andrew’s tale brings us back a couple of years ago, to a young startup dedicated to creating augmented reality experiences who accepted what looked like an unbelievable deal from a huge company meant to be their hero case. And even though they were for a little while, Andrew wouldn’t be here if that would’ve remained the situation.

Out of the blue calls to demand a demo from one week to another (even though you weren’t supposed to have it for two more months) & trying to pull their software to massively fail in the way are just a couple of the dramatic highlights this story brings along. Reaching the end, Andrew gives us some powerful lessons on how important it is to never dedicate completely to one project, aligning with your client’s entire company and not just themselves, and overall understanding that it’s not only your client who hires you, but you also hire them.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Andrew Kemendo

Unity Technologies

How often do you see a headline like that? Well, that’s because not often we get stories like this. On today’s episode, we have our first ever guest from the finance world: Liz Farr, Founder & CEO of Farr Communications, telling us an incredibly dramatic story, filled with incredible twists and lessons.

Liz’s story takes us back to 15 years ago, when handwritten tax notes and mail filing your returns were not red flags at all… unless they actually were. Apparently, even when you refuse to pay your taxes for 10 years, you might still want the documentation in order to continue developing your tax-avoiding business.

Being a powerful combo that includes horse riding while balloon shooting, IRS agents, vanishing clients, and massive debt, today’s tale has a lot to teach us on retainer costs, gut-instinct listening, and the risk of being too close to the person you are working for.

Links:

Morgan Friedman

Liz Farr

Farr Communications