That time your client wanted you to sleep your way to the top of Google’s search results (with Josh Silverbauer)

In our 9th take of Client Horror Stories, we have Josh Silverbauer, CEO of Great Big Digital Agency, opening up with the line “When you are a CEO, saying “yes” can take you very far, but sometimes you just reach a point where you wished you’d said “no ``''. From then on, he tells us a tale protagonist by a (former) celebrity of the holistic environment whose only concern was to remain famous and his partners with very strong opinions about absolutely everything. 

Josh’s story has the usual randomness and drama that we love but includes a twist that’s both rare and inspiring to witness: the ability to admit when you’ve also got yourself to blame. Months and months of meetings just to choose a logo, a print artist wallpapering the office with your web designs, social media haters raging against your client, and a $120.000 blog are just a couple of the keywords for today’s episode. 

Josh leaves us with a couple of lessons on the whole concept of saying “no”, as well as being able to express to a client what’s necessary for their project to succeed, and the ability to draw a limit on what you will not be willing to take back and forth anymore. Sometimes clients simply won’t get it, and sometimes it’s all a matter of figuring out what “value” means for them, and making sure you are fulfilling it. 

Links: 

Josh Silverbauer

Great Big Digital Agency

Morgan Friedman

Literacy quotes (from every culture):

"You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - Batman: The Dark Knight