Your Mental Health Is More Important

“Landon, how do you fire a client?”

This question isn’t an uncommon one, but I know it often carries with it some emotional weight that isn’t often talked about.

And for one of my students, this was no exception.

Sebastian runs a video business in Florida. His biggest client had been a YouTube channel that he produces weekly content for…

But Sebastian was ready to drop him.

The working relationship with this client was far from ideal. They were rude, passive-aggressive, and generally very difficult to work with.

During one of our weekly business Q&As, Sebastian asked me this question:

“How do you fire a client?”

Immediately, I knew this was less of a business question and more of a personal one.

We talked through some more details so I could better understand the situation and his history with this client, then finally I responded…

“Your mental health is way more important than any client, hands down.”

And I shared with him a story about a client I used to have…

Initially, the client was great.

My small team and I created an incredible Kickstarter video for the launch of a new product— a video that helped them raise more than $700,000 in just a few weeks.

After that, we were able to move them to a retainer and create social content for them on a monthly basis.

Eventually, it became very stressful to manage.

And not only that, they were pretty blunt about how they felt about the work we were doing.

There was a month where they didn’t have any direction for the content that they wanted to make, so I came up with some ideas, proposed talent, locations, and concepts for a video.

They approved everything, so I got to work and made exactly what we agreed upon.

On Friday, I sent them all of the content.

On Monday, they responded:

“Ya I hate it, I just don’t like any of this”… and they continued to dissect every single video.

I hate to admit it, but it was a pretty big kick to my confidence. I started to question my abilities— “Do I just suck at making content now?”

I took it very personally.

We managed to smooth things over with the client, but for weeks, this weighed on me.

Shortly after, more issues arose, and I decided they simply weren’t worth the headache… so I made the call to end our working agreement with them.

After a few months, they still hadn’t found a content partner, so they started repurposing old content that we had made for them.

Eventually, they had no choice but to post the content that they said they hated.

And you know what’s funny?

Some of those videos outperformed nearly everything on their Instagram account.

So why is this significant?

It’s extremely easy in the creative space to take offense, especially when someone doesn’t like your work.

But at the end of the day, YOU have to like what you create.

Obviously, when you work with clients, you have to please them and meet certain parameters…

But don’t take every little critique as a sign that your content sucks…

And learn to recognize when it’s time to let a client go.

Trust me, as hard as it may be to drop them, your mental health will thank you.

Your goal should be to work with the types of clients that allow you to be creative and not micromanage everything you do.

They should view your working relationship as a partnership, where there’s mutual respect, and both sides hear each other out and collaborate on making the best content possible.

This is something that can be brought up in the initial call before a client officially hires you… and YOU officially “hire” them.

Be upfront about what kind of client you’re looking for, and ask them what they’re looking for.

Expectations clearly communicated in the beginning can save you a lot of headaches and help you avoid any client drama.

If your clients are more of a pain than a pleasure to work with, maybe it’s time to take a step back and analyze who YOU want to work with.

Remember, your mental health should always come first.

If it isn’t, start making it a priority.

YOU matter, and what you’re doing matters.

You got this👊🏼

-Landon

P.S. Don’t forget Happy Creatiive Coaching opens up for enrollment this coming Monday, and there are only 100 new spots available!

If you’ve been feeling stagnant or overwhelmed in your creative business, HCC just might be for you.

I’ll announce more Monday :)