Freelance Radio, Episode 29: Repairing Client Communications
The twenty-ninth episode of Freelance Radio, the official FreelanceSwitch podcast, is now available! This episode, the panel (John Brougher, Dickie Adams, Kristen Fischer and Von Glitschka) talks about repairing (and fostering) good client communications. Subscriptions to the podcast are available via iTunes and an archive of all podcasts will appear in the podcast section. We hope you enjoy it!
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The Shownotes:
- Theme of the Episode: This episode’s theme is repairing client communications, including dealing with communication issues and more.
- Mailbag:We talk about a specific communications issue brought up by a listener and field an alternative opinion on Flash websites.
- Freelance Radio Recommends:
- Dickie: Netflix helper web app Instantwatcher.com.
- John: Fantastic Mac writing application Scrivener.
- Kristen: Copy writer resource site Forcopywritersonly.com.
- Von: Nothing this week…feel free to prod him about that on Twitter.
Other links mentioned include the pricing guide featured at Writer’s Market (link is to PDF), Gomediazine’s tips article on how to protect yourself financially (their title is better than my description) and FreelanceSwitch’s own article “How Low Should You Go” (and another FsW article that we talked about regarding Flash versus static websites).
- Outro: This week’s song is by Cary Judd and is called Eclipse from the album Looking Back From Space. The song can be obtained by going to iTunes. Check out Cary Judd online at caryjudd.com.
And that’s the episode! If you like it, please feel free to rate it in iTunes or your favorite podcast aggregator, and don’t forget to email your questions/comments via the Freelance Radio form. If you’d like to record a question/comment or submit an original outro song, you can upload them via this form.
Find out more about the panelists at the following sites:
- John Brougher, podcast host and new media/communications specialist: johnbrougher.com; John’s Twitter is at twitter.com/johnbrougher
- Dickie Adams, designer, photographer, technologist, jack-of-all-trades (and master of all): twitter.com/dickieadams
- Kristen Fischer, writer and author: kristenfischer.com; Kristen’s Twitter is at twitter.com/kristenfischer
- Von Glitschka, illustrator, designer and so much more: glitschka.com; Von’s Twitter is at twitter.com/vonster
Here are a few links regarding the client project I mentioned in the podcast:
The forbidden metaphors they hated.
http://www.glitschka.com/temp/icon_metaphors.jpg
Client didn’t want any globe, shield, lock, web page, safe or any other common visual cue that relates to the given them in their branding. A non-literal iconic system was requested to represent their product offerings. Here is two of about five new solutions I gave them. They hated these too.
Iconic Branding Systems.
http://www.floatingbanana.com/artbackwash/web1.jpg
http://www.floatingbanana.com/artbackwash/web2.jpg
At the very least I got paid. You can’t please everyone though.
Von
yr hamster dance reference totally MADE my day! Thanks for another great Ep!
Hello Guys,
Thank you for read my story.
I think I became more angry of may own naiveness than the clients attitude. If was today I probably act in a completely different way.
The thing is: we shake hands on the way out from a 3h meeting with content gather and research for a website. And they said: So how we make the payment? And I said: Well let me send you the contract and on the email I am sending my account# so you can wire transfer me. (I could ask for a check in that moment, but I had to make the contract first).
But yes, I didn’t have the contract signed, no money whatsoever. I shouldn’t have started nothing. What more grieves me on that day is that 10% less on the final price I gave I think it would looks like that I don’t value my work, my time and I am on the same bag of the people from crowdspring or the offline similar.
I have the tools of make every sell work. I just lost it.
I was thrilling on the way out of the meeting, and then the slap on my face.
But I am back up. Lesson learned. Moving on: “Next!”.
Cheers
Thanks for sharing your question with us Rogers–it was a great conversation piece!!!
Hello John,
I’ve mentioned this to Von before, but it really needs to be addressed. I like listening to the podcast with the ideas and the topics you discuss, I always take something away from them, and that’s the idea.
But, it’s really painful to listen to the podcast with anything other then headphones. The audio levels of the guests compared to yours are extreme. You need to bring yours down to their levels or bring their’s up to yours. I do audio post production as a sideline and I’d be happy to help you accomplish this.
Again, I like what you do, but I’d love to be able to listen without turning volume up and down and back up again. Email me with any questions you have.
Excellent!
Great Podcast guys! Please keep it up, I really look forward to these.
Speaking of repairing communications, anything you can do about the cellphone interference? So loud (and disappointing when I realize it’s not a call for me). Don’t know if you can’t do anything about it.
Great show otherwise – I think we’ve all had our communications breakdowns.
@James Really sorry about that–cell phone reception in my area is such that that happens now and again. Next time I’ll know to keep my cell phone away from the microphone.
@Tim I’m working on it, Tim–I’ll probably end up bringing down my level quite a bit. I tried the Levelator suggestion you sent me via Von, but it ended up really hurting the audio quality. Can you do me a favor and contact me offline (Von has my contact info)?
Usually love the podcast, but you guys really need to check yourselves, regarding the assumption that everyone who listens to your podcasts look like you guys, have the same background as you guys, and listen to the same music as you guys. The hip-hop/Chris Brown comments were tacky, period. Additionally, do any of you know the definition of “hip-hop,” and is it smart to assume that, since Chris Brown did something (that millions of men, from EVERY background, have done, without any sort of apology whatsoever), everyone else who looks like him/performs the same type of music, also will?
Honestly, I really don’t care about your cultural beliefs, but I don’t want to hear about them in your podcasts.
Zen,
Regarding the Hip-Hop comment that would be my fault not the other panel members. I don’t pretend to know anything about that genre of music I just know I don’t like it and that is all I had shared. I’m sure if I would have made an off-hand comment about Polka music I would have offended another fan of that genre too. So that said I don’t plan on walking on egg shells just because of the risk of offending someone at sometime regarding something I may say.
I think anyone who listens to the body of podcasts we have up now realizes we don’t make it a habit to offend anyone on purpose be it a Hip-Hop fan, Alabama resident or a Cat Lover for that matter. We just carry on a normal unscripted conversation and sometimes that includes a quip regarding other areas of life. I think that is pretty normal.
Not sure anyone in the podcast has ever assumed that our listener base looks, acts or has the same background as us? Why should that matter anyway?
My cultural beliefs influence my business practices and opinions on such all the time and vice versa so for me to say I won’t share that at times wouldn’t be very practical so I can’t make that promise. But I do apologize for offending you, that was never my intent.
Von
Von,
Thanks for responding. I listen to the podcast on a regular basis, and I heard something that really didn’t sit well with me, regardless of the intent, and I wrote to express my opinion. I’ve moved on; however, I appreciate the fact that you addressed my concerns.
Von thanks for clearing that up.
In my opinion people thrown off because you said your client was a Hip Hop artist and that should have been your first “warning sign”, You hinted to the fact that you will not work with them again. I was like errr… I can name a few “bum” clients who are Country Music artists that I designed merchandise and apparel for. Does that mean that I am not going to work with anymore Country Music artists? Now I just have a better “filter” so to speak to eliminate them.
While I personally do not listen to Rap on the radio – I will not make a blanket judgement about anyone who does.
As far as the Kristen statement and the “yo yo” sounds which did go on excessively – I do not believe she meant that all R&B singers such as Chris Browns are abusers, nor was she categorizing a particular group. She also pokes fun at herself a lot. Though I do wish she would use the word “like” less than 40 times every podcast! LOL!
Anyhow – thank you everyone for the great job!
To Rosa and Zen, I understand entirely where your comments are coming from, and it’s something that I grapple with all too frequently. There are entire sections I’ve cut out of podcasts because I’ve felt that they were insensitive or could be easily misconstrued. If either or both of you would like to talk about it more offline, please let me know via the form or the podcast email.
I was wondering if you guys could point me towards a good site with industry standard rates for common freelance positions. I’d love to send some clients to something legitimate and easy to browse that would really get them realizing how much quality work really costs.