The Surprising Lesson I Just Learned

Hey guys! My name is Sherri Wilson and this is Work Your Biz Like A Boss! And I wanted to share with you a recent experience I had that was extremely difficult but also surprisingly enlightening that I hope will help you if you find yourself in a situation where you’re not sure what you should do.

THE STORY

So I have this client that I really enjoyed working with for several reasons. Her business and product are unusual, which intrigued me and presented a challenge. She herself is not the typical business owner I work with because her personality is very different. Plus she is a creative, which presents even more intrigue and challenge. And, finally, her business requires a high level of excellence and attention to detail; therefore, I was able to finally guide a branding process to a level that I’ve always wanted to do.

After working with her for a few months, we had hit a comfortable working relationship. We had just finishing connecting all of her branding pieces—social media, website, etc. together and had a few loose ends to finish up so we could start building on that foundation. I was very excited about the next plans. But I also had a gut feeling things were about to change. And here’s a key, guys, ALWAYS listen to your gut. You don’t necessarily have to make decisions at that moment of “gut feeling,” but pay attention and begin to position yourself for what you’re discerning. Sure enough, the gut feeling was correct.

For various reasons that I won’t share, the very first meeting with a new team member was awful. Months and months of work were torn down and criticized within the first few minutes. Now, I’m all for constructive criticism, “Hey, let’s move this? Let’s add this? Let’s get rid of this completely?” But I’ve never been in a meeting where I was treated like that. I was also grieved because I knew right then that there was no way this was going to work even though I love my client and her vision. What was I to do?

My own blog came back to haunt me

After the meeting, I had a decision to make. As a Christian, I immediately prayed about what to do. I also consulted with trusted advisors while at the same time not alerting them to who my client was and breaking confidentiality. But it came down to one blog post I wrote when I first opened my business called, “Fire These Three Clients.” My experience told me that I needed to do business using my own business principles and the advice I would give to my own clients.

ABOVE AND BEYOND

I now had a decision to make on how to best end it not just for my sakes but for my client’s. Things actually got messier, and, again, I don’t want to get into the details, but I decided that I was going to go above what was required in our contract. Anything I could think of that might help her business succeed and make the transition easier was what I was going to get to her because I truly want her to succeed.

In Summary

The two main ideas I wanted you to walk away with today is that it’s always the right decision to conduct business based on your core values. Trust them. And, second, pursuing excellence is always the right thing to do even if, maybe, you have a right to deliver the least required and want to because you of how you were treated. How you end things reflects you the most. If you maintain excellence and make decisions within your core values, your business will flourish and your conscience will be clear.