Surprising Advice from Seth Godin That Completely Changed Who I Onboard As Clients
Three typical problems and how to solve them
The quest of finding clients opens up time for what I deem “healthy procrastination.”
To me, this means that I get to listen to a podcast in the background or occasionally stop working, when I feel my mind drifting, and then soak up some wisdom, by scanning a few pages of a book.
This space introduced me to Seth Godin’s work through an interview with Marie Forleo.
Every day, I would contact companies that seemed like they were a good fit, hoping that they would find what I have to offer as valuable.
One day, I had a marketing manager respond to an email with an eagerness to work together that I had never experienced before. She gave me her direct contact number and asked that I make contact immediately.
She must have been so thrilled to connect because she didn’t even spell her response correctly. I’ve also never seen so many exclamation marks in an email from a prospective client.
Because of her excitement, I didn’t think twice to call. If you’ve ever gone the cold-calling route, you know the amount of rejection and no reply's that come with the job. This enthusiasm is felt like Christmas.
On the call, she got straight to the point.
She had many ideas of how we could work together. My content was exactly what they needed, at the exact right time.
I matched her elation but tried to get a bit more structure because dreaming out loud, about how well-matched we were from a content-to-project scenario, wasn’t bringing me closure in terms of how this works from a business perspective.
She wasn’t giving me the feeling that she was going to get to the nitty-gritty of it all. So I went there first.
I asked if I could break down what we had discussed in an email and include my rates.
Rates…
It’s almost like the mention of compensation was a surprise to her. She upped the pace of speech and pushed me to give her a ball-park figure.
I tried to slow things down, stating that I would need to reflect upon what we discussed to properly price the projects.
If you’ve ever seen a toddler in a mall, throw a tantrum because their parents won’t buy them sweets- well this was a similar feeling that I was experiencing.
To try and give her what she was pushing for, I mentioned a rough idea of what I may charge.
She repeated what I said and cut the price like I made a mistake when I said it the first time.
I actually paused for a second and smiled. I admired the pace and confidence in her delivery. She’s a pro negotiator.
I slowed down the interaction and corrected her to the price I mentioned.
She sighed, “Oh.”
Then, she pushed me for timelines. And, when I gave her a rough outline, she cut the delivery, again, like I made a mistake when I said it the first time.
By this point, I started feeling a little uncomfortable.
Suddenly, I remembered some insight I heard from Seth Godin.
Then, like magic, it’s like I jumped into a calmer, kinder version of myself.
I said that I can’t agree to anything right now and that I would need to check my capacity and get back to her by email.
There were three main areas of concern, and I’m thankful for the wisdom I heard previously that helped me find the answers and confidence as to whether this was a client I wanted.
Problem 1: Stress
What started out as exciting, turned into me feeling like I was spinning in a washing machine. I couldn’t get a break or a moment to find my thoughts and I constantly felt the need to repeat or justify myself.
Earlier on that day, I had read a blog post from Seth where he shared, “One of the largest turning points of my career was firing the client who accounted for a third of my company’s work. We were becoming really good at tolerating the stress that came from this engagement, and it became clear to me that we were about to sign up for a lifetime of clients like that.”
I could sense the avalanche of stress that came with interacting with the client. The phone call alone was not something that I wanted to go through again.
The answer for me was to look at clients I have and had worked with in the past, and reflect on why I enjoyed the interaction.
I asked myself how much stress I wanted to handle, and for what amount of time I could handle it.
I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t reject difficult clients necessarily every time. Cash flow is important. And, if I needed a cash injection I would tolerate one type of uncomfortable scenario.
This is my boundary: I would consider a stressful one-time project, where the deadline was within the space of a week, and only if the client paid up-front, then I would handle the discomfort associated with the project.
That’s about as much stress I feel I can handle, and my solution to scenarios that evoke this feeling.
Problem 2: Knowing what you stand for
Even though it seemed like this customer and I could have been a great fit for the first few seconds, it’s like a tear occurred in expectations.
I stand for structured conversations that are recorded on email. It seemed she was more chatty and bigger-picture also not wanting to over-formalize things.
For me to perform a standard of work that I am proud of, I need a client to know what they want so that I can do my best to provide that. She wanted to brainstorm and rework things until she had an idea of what she was going for.
My timelines are concise, and this project felt like it was going to drag on.
Seth Godin shared an interesting perspective on being generous in your offering during an interview with Marie Forleo.
He spoke about the noise of options that people are faced with when it comes to making decisions. People try to compete on price, location, personality, or even professionalism, and it helps when you know what you are offering so that you operate from a space of sufficiency.
If you’re not offering what a person is looking for, you can generously guide them in the direction of someone who may be.
I’m aware of many content creators who are more relaxed and chill when it comes to projects.
Where I find this client to be potentially distracting to the other work I have to do, someone else may find her fun to collaborate with. They could enjoy the process and the length of time it required for the project to take form.
I loved knowing what I stand for, and I appreciated feeling empowered to generously suggest that I’m not the best for the project.
Problem 3: Pricing
This is an overflow from knowing what you stand for, but I felt I needed to make it its own area of focus because it’s something I feel all of us content creators struggle with at times.
I know the amount of time I put into the content I create, and I charge what I feel my services are worth. I feel that was I charge is fair because my clients comment positively about the end result when the project is over. I’ve yet to have a client comment on the price.
I can’t remember where I heard Seth Godin talking about pricing, so this is paraphrasing- but I remember hearing something along the lines that competing on price is not the smartest thing to do, because someone may undercut your price, and then you can go into an endless price war where no one ends up making any money.
Then, he also speaks about consistency which further justifies my pricing. I charge the same amount, I do tweak the pricing here and there, but I am consistent with the work I do and the corresponding compensation I request.
Seth Godin said in an interview with Marie Forleo, “Make a promise and keep it.”
Showing up consistency in a marketplace is more effective than trying to please everyone.
You become known for a certain standard, and even if someone can’t afford you now when they can, they may ring you up if you consistently produce the same quality over a period of time.
Final Thoughts
I could not tell this story without giving credit to Seth Godin.
Being a creative, and creating your own opportunities means that you are in for one heck of a ride.
Standing for something, and not selling out is not the easy route. And, I wish I could say that I’ve only ever had dream clients and always stuck to my guns- but there have been a few projects that I’ve taken on which I later regretted.
I just appreciate that we have people who have gone before us that we can learn from.
The idea of consistency, generosity, and not taking on a future of stressful clients inspired me to be more precise with what I stand for.
I’m empowered with the choice of onboarding clients. And, sometimes it’s nice to remember that we do have a choice.
