I once worked with a client for a short time whose wife handled the business marketing. I was hired to work on his social media, which his wife had been handling in the past. The guy had been in business for years and had loads of content, but for some reason the wife never had anything to post and he didn’t have a ton of time to keep creating more content than he was already doing.
I’m a huge fan of repurposing content and that’s what the plan was. The wife would give me access to the content that was already available and I would use that to create posts. He would continue to create his weekly blog. He really wanted to give more value on social media, engage his followers and ultimately, get more clients.
Several weeks into working together, I still hadn’t received access to anything as there was always some problem on the wife’s end. One day she called me and told me that I wouldn’t be doing his social media, but would help with other yet to be determined things. She told me that he was already working so hard as it was and she didn’t want to see him working any longer or harder. Red flag – she thinks he’s working too hard and is blocking me from helping him with any other marketing. I asked him about the change because my package was based on doing social media, and he told me that nothing was changing, I was still going to do social media.
Soon, we went our separate ways. I didn’t tell him about my conversation with his wife because I really didn’t think he’d hear what I was saying (he’d always made excuses for her when I couldn’t get what I needed to do my job).
I’ve seen clients put up with websites they didn’t like because they didn’t want to fire the web person (they’ve known them for years!), or team members who they don’t hear from for weeks at a time (because they’re a friend they couldn’t possibly get rid of them) or a team member who doesn’t really know the software program they use, even after paying for their training and several years of working in it (because they like another person who works with the one who isn’t working out).
I’d like to ask you to take a few moments right now and reflect on your business. What irritations are you putting up with because you’re avoiding a difficult conversation, or you hired a friend who might be upset with you if you were to fire them because they aren’t working out?
When we start putting up with small irritations that don’t support our business or our vision, eventually we will put up with large irritations, too. In the Success Principles by Jack Canfield, he talks about the daily irritants we put up with that take up our attention units. He “recommends walking through every room of your house, your garage, and all around your property jotting down those things that irritate, annoy and bother you and then arranging to get each one handled. Of course, none of these may be urgent to your business or life-threatening to your family. But every time you notice them and wish they were different, they pull energy from you. They are subtly subtracting energy from your life instead of adding energy to your life.”
Having tough conversations isn’t easy. I’ve fired clients before and while it wasn’t enjoyable, I had to stay in my integrity and I always spoke from my heart. You can’t make everyone happy or feel good, nor do you want to try to do that. Not everyone in the world is part of your tribe.
But I do know that when we stop settling for things that irritate and annoy us, or working with people who don’t support us, we expand the energy around ourselves and businesses, and can better reach the people who need our services and/or products.
Share a time when you made the decision to put an end to something or someone who irritated you. Did things improve after that? Please comment below.