Speaker 1: Today's video is going to be a short one but I just wanted to sit down and talk about a problem that I've had to deal with in the past and is something that I think everyone really faces at one point or another during their career and the steps that I've learned in order to deal with it. This problem is dealing with tough clients. In every business, no matter what it is, you'll run into situations where you're working with someone who either doesn't share the same vision as you, isn't very organized, or frankly can just be kind of a pain in the ass. This can be super tough to deal with and can also be really stressful because you want to remain professional and also don't want to piss off the person who's going to sign your checks, but sometimes it can just get to a point where it's almost unbearable. Most of the times in the past when I've had issues with someone I was working with, it wasn't because one side was trying to make the other mad, but it really just came down to some simple miscommunication somewhere during the process. More often than not, the entire problem probably could have been avoided if either I was more clear about what I was willing to do or the client was more communicative about what they were hoping to receive. This brings me to my first point of discussion, which is just to be as upfront as possible about your entire process and what is to be expected. Especially when I was first starting off, I was so happy to even have a new client that I underestimated the importance of defining strict deliverables. I didn't want to come across as being too pushy or asking too much, but I quickly found myself in scenarios where I was on the 20th revision of a video and wasn't even getting paid for my time anymore. Whenever you're starting a project with someone, you want to be sure to outline your entire process from start to finish and figure out exactly what is expected from all parties involved. Detail is going to be your friend here because the more situations that you're prepared for beforehand, the harder it is for them to sneak up on you afterwards and cause issues between you and your client. The second topic that I really wanted to stress is having an open line of communications between you and your client and really making sure that they are involved throughout the entire process. The more involved that you keep the client, the harder it is for them to come back later and tell you that you did something wrong. You really want them to feel heard and that way any changes can be made during the process instead of having to go back and redo everything at the end. Now, some clients may opt not to be super involved in the process, but you want to be sure that you've at least given them this option so that they can't come back to you later and complain about the way something was done. Finally, I just want to stress the importance of having constant documentation and contracts in place. If things do end up going south, you want to be sure that you have all of your bases covered and got everything agreed to beforehand. There's a reason large companies have hundreds of pages of user agreements that you need to sign before you use their product. It's the same when you're working with clients. If you don't have each possible outcome defined beforehand, then you could get stuck without getting paid or worse with a pile of legal fees. Take some time to find some contracts that fit your business model or even better, sit down with a lawyer and have them draft up some that are custom tailored to you. And don't forget to have your clients sign them. Those are just a few things that I've had to learn over my years working for different clients as a creative, and I really just wanted to sit down and have this discussion for any other people who are in similar positions to where I was, are either just starting a company or working freelance with different clients so that they can implement them into their business and not make similar mistakes. If you have any other tips for dealing with tough clients, go ahead and leave them in the comments below so that you can help out someone else who may be in your similar situation. Thank you for taking the time to watch through this video. If you enjoyed it, I make different tutorials like these each week, so go ahead and subscribe below. Thanks again, and good luck dealing with that tough client.