Reframing the Trouble Clients

I used to have a much more serious anger and attitude problem than I have today.

I can’t really explain where it all came from though. Perhaps it was from my days working in the church where my “diplomatic/be nice filter” had to be 100% all the time 🙂

Over the years, this “attitude” would bubble up at the most inopportune times.

Take, for example, the client that drives you nuts. This is what it looks like on the surface, that is.

This is the client that makes a big deal about the website being red… until he actually sees that red and says, “Boy, I really hate that color, isn’t there something better you can do?”

Those stupid little things used to get to me. With my “victim” hat firmly placed on my head, I would use those situations to explode into some rant about not being appreciated, or that I wasn’t getting paid enough.

It’s extremely childish when you actually write this stuff out, but at the time it seemed completely warranted.

It took me a long while to realize that situations like this are part of the value you provide to your clients. This is a partnership. And just like YOU aren’t perfect, neither are your clients.

There’s really no other way to deal with these things than to accept them for what they are. They are little things that don’t matter. If you let matter, good luck!

They might matter if you allow them to get blown up to the point where they make you insane. But that would be your problem. It would have nothing to do with your client.

Your clients aren’t out to destroy your life.

Accepting the client relationship for what it is, including the benefits AND the drawbacks is just what comes with this business.

It just makes life better to see things for what they are.