Handling a Difficult Client

Reflections on bringing a challenging project across the finish line.

Regardless of your position, job title, or industry, we've all had our fair share of "difficult clients." While a problematic client can – and does – mean many different things, there is an instinctive knowledge that is immediately felt when that phrase is uttered.

Over the past two months, I've been quietly working on a project for an exacting and demanding client that's been one of the most complex projects I've ever had to pull across the finish line. Things started off well enough – simply build a website for a newly secured domain to augment their current business. Very quickly, however, things began to go sideways: inconsistent direction, confusing feedback, and even changing out images only to replace them with the originals hours later. Frankly, the entire back and forth nature of the client and the project has been, in a word, exhausting.

Armed with that backstory, I'm sure it's clear that I felt an enormous sense of relief when the website was finally completed, delivered, and ready for it to be pushed live – which happens today, November 11, 2024. Even so, as I write this, knowing that the website will be fully online and live just hours from now, I'm filled with a bizarre mixture of pride in the work I did and anxiety over how it will be received.

This is the part where I tell you that, assuming all goes well today, I'll finally be rid of this most difficult of clients. Sadly, that's not the case, as I know there will be continual revisions, additions, and updates over the coming weeks and months – it's simply part of the deal when you sell a creative service like building a website.

If you haven't figured it out by now, the client in this little novella is me.

Many know that I'm fond of collecting domains for potential use down the road - simply ask Danny Rosin or Robert Fiveash. Despite repeated and tenacious attempts, my namesake URL has remained out of reach until it finally became available this past June. Not wanting to be like the proverbial dog that finally caught the car bumper, only not knowing what to do with it, I've had plans for what I would do should the domain become mine.

While the speaking I do both in and out of the industry augments and enhances what I do at brandivate, it's time that giving keynote talks and conducting hands-on marketing workshops has its own little space on the internet. I'm sure there are spelling errors, formatting glitches, and a link that may not work as I intended, but there comes a point where it's time to launch. Today is that day and billpetrie.com is now live.

As I referenced above, this project has been one of the most challenging projects I've ever undertaken, let alone shared so publicly. My personality and style of humor are very much one of genuine self-deprecation. That little fact about me makes crafting a website to essentially showcase "me" a very rocky, arduous mountain to climb. While what you see on that website – the good, the bad, and the WTF – is 100% created by me. I stand by it and am proud of both the design and the content. Of course, I asked a few people I respect to take a peek before this launch and gave them a free license to be as critical as possible.

They were – and I'm profoundly thankful.

The result you see if you end up visiting is much better because of them, and I'm profoundly thankful for their insights, suggestions, and, at times, radical candor. Honestly, I could tinker with this site for the next six months and make all manner of excuses as to why it's still not ready to go live. The fact is that there's never a "right" time to launch: conditions will never be ideal, the content will never be perfect as perfection is a myth, and "later" will never be ideal either. So, today is officially "launch day" for billpetrie.com.

If you're looking for a speaker to help your team grow, someone to create marketing, branding, and sales discourse that will deliver tangible results, or if you're simply curious, I invite you to stop by billpetrie.com and take a look around. Additionally, should you have any thoughts on how to improve it, I'd love to hear them. Last, I've also created a dedicated Facebook page if you want to follow me there – you can find it by clicking this handy, dandy link: Bill Petrie Facebook Page.

Today is a bit scary for me. However, there comes a time when there's no choice but to be bold, candid, and possibly even irreverent.

Today is that day.