In our second episode of Client Horror Stories, Chris Johnston from L2D, tells our beloved host, Morgan Friedman, and us a both passionate and unbelievable story about a young start up that he worked with almost ten years ago (but that he remembers as if it’d been yesterday).
From the first moment, Chris and his team developed a very close relationship with this group of young guys with a great idea that they believed in. However, beginning from a surprise move-in that he chose to go along with, bombshells just never stopped coming. Even when Chris and his partners tried to handle them all (because, of course, they happened to be the nicest people ever), things just started to get unbearable.
This story includes everything from employee-kidnap to crazy announcements that required a pizza party to be made, and even a fist fight for a chair. All of this leading to an ending you never expected: Having your company absorbed by someone that began as your super nice StartUp client.
Chris finishes his experience with a couple of very valuable learnings: How to read people outside of the actual content of their words, realizing when it’s time to push the “stop” button with a client (and anyone) and that sometimes you need to prioritize your mental health over money. To conclude, Morgan and Chris give us a bottom line on the importance of writing things down and getting paid on a regular basis, no matter how nice everyone involved is.
