This was when she was just newly working for a brand, selling luxury watches for men. Divya Patel, a PPC Specialist, was handling the PPC service of the brand.  At that time, they were going to launch a YouTube campaign and she offered to create the ad assets for them since she’s been with the brand from the start. She was there to help the clients with the brand message, tone of voice, and everything about branding.  The client declined her offer and told her that they will sort the video out themselves so that they could focus on the campaign. Still, Divya and her team briefed the client on how the video should turn out. Divya and the team expected the video to be showcasing the watch that they’ll be launching. One day, as Divya walked into the office that day, her manager was upset and the team was circled around a computer. Turns out, the client posted the video on YouTube without telling the team.  To their dismay, the video was the complete opposite of what they expected and what was discussed in the briefing. Instead of men wearing and showcasing the watch, women in lingerie were there and the video didn’t focus on the watch, which was their product.  That’s not all. Divya Googled her client and she saw her client's name plastered on UK’s biggest tabloid negatively, something about how the video was degrading to women. Divya and the team were utterly disappointed and upset. They felt that all the work they’ve been putting into the brand was just thrown out the window. When Divya and the team approached their clients about it, they were really happy about it because they thought it was good publicity and a nice way to put their name out there.  Thankfully, Divya and the team were able to get through this issue. Watch the episode to learn more about how they resolved the problem and the steps they took moving forward. Morgan Friedman Divya's Linkedin Divya's Instagram  

In this episode, Tom Schwab of Interview Valet shares how trust and communication flow in the same river towards success. His story pointed out how important it is to educate clients, provide a timeline and establish clear solutions in risk analysis when working with clients. The story happened when Tom, a podcast marketing specialist, worked with a client with zero knowledge of how podcasts work. At first, the onboarding was great, the podcast recording was super smooth and it was a really abundant podcast session.  Five days later, he received a nasty and angry email from the client, all about how upset she was for not getting results in those five days. She also mentioned that she was with a radio show and had 4 million listens, which were not actually 4 million listens as she thought. She started to complain and demanded to have her money back. Tom didn’t want to ruin their reputation so he asked her to wait 10 days after the podcast to see the results. By the end of the episode, Morgan and Tom shared interesting conclusions about the hierarchy of communication and how it helped Tom to deal with the client. Watch the episode to learn more! Morgan Friedman Tom's Linkedin Tom's Twitter Tom's Facebook

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