In our sixth take at Client Horror Stories, we have FM Byers, CEO and Founder of SM Digital Partners telling us a tale that involves drama, diversity, round tables, and maybe too much ambition.
Our story begins with a random meeting on a cruise that soon would be followed by a two-year-long back and forth that included everything (from product developments, translators, many flight tickets, and even elementary-school children) except an actual written contract or agreement.
FM’s tale tells us everything we need to know on how to handle cross-cultural clients, take risks, explore our patients, and realizing that sometimes it’s just time to go. This story gives us a lesson or two on how to be genuine and create real value, and just take a moment to come to a conclusion: Maybe people just won’t get it, and maybe our ideas work, but the timing just wasn’t right.
Links:
FM Byers
SM Digital Partners
Morgan Friedman
Literacy quotes:
“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” - T. S. Eliot
That time your client needs you to make them $1 million in six months but will only pay you to work Thursday afternoons (With Paul Stephenson)
That time your client wanted you to sleep your way to the top of Google’s search results (with Josh Silverbauer)
That time your client sent a “FU” email to the guy you’re negotiating with--at the very moment you closed a win-win deal with him (with Will Haire)
That time your client was really your client’s client’s client’s client (The Telephone Game) (With Stephanie Schwab)
That time you got your desperate friend a job and he destroyed your company‘s work (with Roger Parent)
That time your client-win-of-the-year sues you for most of the contract’s value (with Jason Pittock)
That time you were ghosted by a client after their 48-hours emergency launch (with Manar Hussain)
That time your client had a pizza party just to announce he’s hiring your employees (with Chris Johnston)
That time your client’s software died at the launch party, after they ignored all your scaling suggestions (with Artur Maklyarevsky)
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