They might hate it.
Four words that strike fear in the heart of any artist. The question is, what do you do with that fear? Go for it anyway, full throttle? Keep it in the drawer? Or hide a little bit – soften the edges so to speak – give yourself a little out?
Here is the thing. Creative businesses do not have a choice. Anything built to soften the edges, take away judgment, erodes the very fabric of the business. The willingness to be judged is the DNA of trust. Trust is the foundation of all creative business, where all profit comes from (the rest is just a reasonable return on stuff). Mute judgment and you mute trust. Mute trust and you have nothing.
For argument’s sake, let us say you have done the work to be judged. Focused on presentation, made sure every step of your process is plainly transparent, ensured that clients understand the decisions required of them. So what happens then? How easy do you make it for clients who “hate it” to leave? How hard do you work to make them “love it” if they do not at first? When do you acknowledge that a client will never love it and walk away? Most important, when you have done all that you can to lay out your process, but clients, vendors, employees and colleagues still do not respect your process, will you walk away, and, if so, when?
This is the other side of judgment. Better said, it is your required return on your investment. No one would argue that you need to be paid more to put all of your money on black at the roulette table in Vegas than you do to put it in a three month CD at Citibank. The return on your willingness to be judged is closer to roulette than a CD. You absolutely are putting your money where your mouth is. Either way, you win. If you (fly) past, you get to say what comes next. Even if you do not pass, you also get to define how far you are willing to go until you do.
When you hide from judgment or prevent it from happening at all (hello 50% deposit), you invite clients into your business process. No one wants to feel trapped, clients most of all, and when we do, we work very hard to have things go our way in spite of the trap. Yes, you might have protected yourself from having your client and their money leave, but, in almost all cases, you have also invited them to define your process too. Either way you lose.
If you are in touch with what you need and where you are willing to be judged, you will not have a problem letting the clients that do not love it leave after two tries, refuse to allow a client to change how you do things no matter how much you have travelled down the road with them or how close you are to getting done. That said, you cannot have it both ways.
Putting less than your best foot forward – a rushed presentation, unexplained process, winged numbers, etc. – IS refusing to be judged. You always have a choice – do it the best way you know how for your art and your creative business or do not do it all. While there are shades of gray in almost every aspect of our lives, our art and our creative businesses, here there is none. To be paid, to be honored, to stand apart, you must go all in or go home.
{ 1 comment }
Hi Sean, interesting post. Yet for the first time I am not in agreement. This is a massive issue in being a creative – judging. I get physically ill every time I am about to do a presentation. I push through it, I do my best, and 99% of the time it all goes well. I am happy to make changes, done complete design turn arounds before. No worries. I am not afraid of putting extra work, hours, design. Yet the paradox of what we do is no matter how good our presentation is, mock-up table is, the clients will only experience our product on the day of their wedding. It is impossible to ‘mock-up’ a wedding. We have to be patient, reassure clients. Yes explaining the process, being transparent and valuing our art – check, check, check. Trust is vital. Best weddings I have ever created was when I had my client’s full trust. Another things, for me 50% deposit (which came up in previous posts) is not there to trap the client or placed there out of fear, but it is there for me to know that the company is working on the allocated date. Security allows me to create. A few times this year (particularly on the larger invoices) I have agreed on 25% deposit upfront, 25% payment after the presentation/mock-up and the balance of 50% 30 days prior to the function. Guess what, a week before the wedding I had to remind the clients to pay. I cannot finance 75% of function which often includes 3rd party suppliers. The nature of this business is that we require full payment upfront. Full payment on a stipulated date is vital for delivering of a product we are signed up for, it has nothing to do with fear of being judged. It is a business aspect of a relationship between my company and the client. On Saturday I had a client who informed me 4 days before the function they are holding off a portion of a payment until after the wedding, only after they have judged the product. I will be very honest and say that this was not appreciated. Short paying, and then with only 4 days to finlise payments, arrangements, purchase all required items whilst worrying about the final payment after the wedding – no thank you, I will stick to the process that works 50%/50%.
Withholding trust and too eager to judge as opposed entering into a creative partnership is a terrible combination. I feel that a client can judge all they want before signing up my company. There is more than enough images on my website, blog and Pinterest for them to get an idea of our product, after the meeting and presentation and accepting of our process there is no room for judgement but only for creation.