A Client Asked Me To Get Him A Sandwich

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The day I landed my first big project, the client texted me:

“Hey Sun, can you stop by the deli and get me a sandwich?”

I got triggered.

I remember saying to my wife Gigi, “This guy thinks I’m his bitch. Fuck him! We don’t need this project.”

But it was a $50k project and we really needed the money.

At the time we borrowed $15k from Gigi’s family, and we’d be able to pay them back + all our expenses. So I swallowed my pride and got him the sandwich.

To my surprise, he was actually apologetic.

He said “Hey man, sorry for asking you to do that, I know that’s not your job. I really appreciate it.”

He ended up being a pretty good client to work with.

It’s silly to think I was gonna turn down $50k because of my fragile ego.

As I’m writing this story it reminded me of how much I’ve changed as an agency owner.

There was a time when I thought clients were the “enemy”.

I got triggered every time a client says:

“I can’t explain what I want, but I’ll know when I see it”

“My wife doesn’t like the design. She has an eye for these things”

“Can you make the logo bigger? Also can you make everything pop?”

I HATED working with clients. I wanted to pivot to a “product” business so I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

But then I remembered how much I used to LOVE working with clients when I first started freelancing.

So what happened? What changed?

I thought of my very first client, Leslie.

One time, she wanted a magnifying glass on her website (to zoom in on the product). I told her “sorry, that’s a pretty complex functionality and I don’t know how to make it.”

But that week I secretly stayed up every night learning Javascript so I can make it for her. Then on the following week, I surprised her with it. I can almost see tears in her eyes because she was so happy. 🥹

That memory made me see the answer so clearly.

I used to focus on making the client happy, but as years passed, I started focusing on the project instead. In fact, I felt like the client was the enemy getting in the way of making the project great.

From that day I started to shift my focus back to the client. My number one priority became putting a huge smile on their face.

This one mindset shift made a huge difference.

I was happy working with clients again. The business started to thrive.

I started a design agency because I love to design, but it turns out running a design business is very different from designing.

At the end of the day if you’re running a “service” business, your job is to “serve” clients. No matter how much you love the the thing (design, coding, coaching, fitness, etc.) you will hate the business if you don’t love putting a smile on your client’s face. 😃