Why I walked away from a dream client (and what it taught me)
|
The JD Letter February 1, 2025 13 months. That's how long I've been serious about building a business. I'll be honest. When I first started I had no clue what I was doing. To build a business is to enter a game of endlessly figuring things out. You have to love problem-solving. You have to be so deeply f*cking passionate about what you're doing—otherwise you'll quit in 3-6 months like most people do. Building a business and the life you envision for yourself is really hard. Let me tell you about a wholesome conversation I had with a dream client this past week—that I decided to part ways with. Candor is the courage to speak the truth, even when it’s uncomfortableIt is inevitable to make mistakes. In fact, you want to make mistakes. You want to make them fast so you learn faster. The biggest mistake I made so far was to think I could handle zero to no down time to grow my business. I buried myself with highly time demanding tasks because they bring in the most money. But I failed to realize they are actually slowing me down. I started having no time to follow my curiosities. I started having less time to write my newsletters (which is my favorite form of content I create). I felt exhausted every two weeks. I felt anxious for not having enough time to do everything. Until I got ill last week. Being ill made me stop and do nothing for the first time in months. It was a blessing in disguise that it helped me realize the path of unhappiness I was choosing. So I set up a meeting with a dream client for us to go over the strategy moving forward in our work together, but I ended being my most open and honest self. Here's what I told my client: "I'm doing both you and I a disservice if I choose to continue our work together. The honest truth is I'm spreading myself thin and I'm not bringing you the best quality because I have no time to think or just be. It is incredibly hard to just now make this realization after fighting so hard to get here, but I care about you as a person and I care about myself and my health. At this time, I'm choosing to focus on the things that made me start writing in the first place. I feel like I lost that spark because I'm always buried in client work. I hope you can understand and we can find an alternative on how I can best support your brand in a not such demanding time constraint." The client was incredibly supportive and understanding. More than anything they appreciated and complimented my ability to deliver it with so much candor. In the end, we moved forward with a solution that will allow me to gain back a ton of time while I still support their brand. You win the game, by staying in the gameBy all means necessary. If that means hiring an assistant—hire. If that means taking a break—take a break. If that means asking for help—learn how to ask for help. If that means declining a new client onboard to prioritize your mental health—decline it. What matters is to stay in the game. What you do in between are just valuable lessons. How to escape burnoutNow that you read about my mistake you can choose to do two things:
Plain and simple:
The ones who last aren’t the ones who push the hardest, but the ones who learn to play smarter. Chat next week, Jess Inspire, Empower, Transform. P.S Here's my latest thread for my client on X: It led to:
If you’re ready to grow your audience and convert traffic into sales, grab my easy-to-follow thread template here. |