Recently things have been a bit hectic. Work has been busy, life has been busy, and everything in between has been busy.

But it felt like I was spinning my wheels.

I guess I had already forgotten to live by my New Years Resolution.
And, to be totally honest, I had to deal with a really b*tchy and unappreciative client that was taking up so much of my time and making me feel really blue about my business. I’m sure if you’ve ever had a bad boss, or co-worker, or client to deal with, you know how it can be an experience that is hard to break away from.

So, like I try to do with everything, I had to turn my negative situation into a positive one.

But this time, instead of trying to make myself better I decided to really get into what was bothering me – and WOW, what an experience!

It turns out that I was falling back into some bad patterns, trying to please people that just want to complain and be negative (i.e. my client) and focusing so much energy on trying to win her over and try to make her see that I was doing something great for her. The more I did, the more she complained. So our project that was for a few hundred dollars and should have taken 3 weeks turned into a 3 month project, where I literally spent a hundred hours (i.e. thousands of dollars of my time) offering her more training, fixing up her graphic work, making other changes that I’d already told her would look bad. And the whole experience left me deflated after I offered to help her with some free training for 30 minutes, only to have her yell at me on the phone saying that she was not going to be told she only has 30 minutes to have her questions answered!

Trying to be super professional I dealt with the whole thing without breaking my professional tone and answered all her questions.

But it didn’t feel good.

And it really made me have a “blue” weekend where I had to really think about my business and what it was doing, and what it meant to me.

Luckily, I have a super supportive husband who spent the weekend chatting with me, looking at my business model with me, figuring out why this situation had me so upset. I also decided to delve into the whole experience on a deeper level by reading “Breaking the Pattern” by Charles Stuart Platkin.
The book focuses on how to help you take action in those areas where you feel like you’re stuck, or doomed to repeat negative experiences.

In my whole dealing with this client I was re-living my experiences as a kid, desperately trying to get my parents attention, and to be appreciated, and have my efforts be rewarded. The harder I tried to win my parents attention and affection, the less they were interested.

And I was re-living this whole experience with my client.

I have loads of other great clients that pay well, really appreciate all that my company does for them, and are dying to tell everyone they know about how good we are.

But I was falling back into the pattern of spending all my energy trying to please the people that don’t want to be pleased.

The whole experience was exhausting, but looking under the covers of it was fascinating…I had so many “AHA” moments over the course of the weekend!

And I was able to come up with a plan to help build a better business and a more rewarding life:

- focus on my main clients & the ones I enjoy working with
- pay a lot of attention to what happens when clients ask for my services, ask myself if they are a fit for me…if not, pass up the business.
- focus on more corporate clients, partnerships and other “top level” clients

You know what happened? With my newfound inspiration for my business and a deeper understanding of what my business kryptonite is I had a totally refreshed mindset. And on Monday morning at 9am I had an incredible meeting with one of my biggest clients ever. The kind of client you dream working with – who has a great business, who appreciates what you do and who really values your services.

What a difference some introspection, a little shift in my plans and re-affirmation that I “got it” via an excellent client meeting made!