A year ago the Clients from Hell website was all the rage with folks in the client services business. I enjoyed reading it. It was cathartic to see other people struggling with their clients as well, and many of them in much more absurd circumstances than the majority of us ever experience.
I subscribed to the RSS feed and read it fairly consistently for a few weeks. Then I stopped.
I realized that my view towards our clients was being affected, and not for the better. We are lucky at Crowd Favorite to have the opportunity to work with clients that are typically smart, reasonable and good partners in the development process.
When I unsubscribed from Clients from Hell, I replaced it with a subscription to the RSS feed for Yanko Design. Now I start each morning being inspired by elegant design and interesting ideas instead of a dose of cynicism. It’s a good change.
I had a similar experience about 3-4 years ago when I stopped watching crime dramas on TV. I had watched Law & Order, CSI and shows of their ilk for a decade. A few years back I didn’t watch much TV over the summer and I was surprised at how jarring it was to watch them again in the fall. I hadn’t realized how desensitized I’d become to the violence and darkness in them. The things we choose to watch and expose ourselves to affects us (that’s why people shell out the big bucks for advertising).
Think about the things you want to color your world.
I remember spending 3 weeks at an Irish college one summer and when I came back watched a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. I was shocked at how the violence got to me.
The 3 weeks of no TV had a huge influence on me. Didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things of course.
PS. No “subscribe to comments” checkbox?
When I first started consulting, my co-workers turned me on to a site called Angry Journalist. Since we did a fair amount of copywriting and working and pseudo-journalists for our clients, most of the gripes and complaints were very germane to our work and reflected a few of our client concerns well.
After three months of working there, though, I was miserable. My opinion of clients was to always assume stupidity before inspiration and, as a result, I treated a few of my best clients (fun to work with, refer you to others, pay on time, etc) as children unworthy of the work I was doing.
It was sad, really.
So I unsubscribed there and forced myself into more positive pursuits. I haven’t checked out Yanko Design’s site yet, but I did just open it in another tab so I can do just that 🙂
Thanks for the positive inspiration!
Reading this have made me think about how jaded I’ve become in my opinions toward my clients too. Not good now that I actually think on it and am ideal reason to try make a positive change.