Navigating Client Relationships: When to Hold On and When to Let Go (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Galen asks, at what point do you just get rid of a client because they're just an all-around clown? Galen, this is a funny question. I think a lot of VaynerMedia employees are gonna have a fun time with this question if they're watching or listening. I think that for me, I hold on for dear life, right? Like, first of all, business is business. I think one of the reasons people recommend getting rid of clients is they don't have the stomach for adversity. I actually can deal with the negativity and it's business is business, and if they fire me, then I deserved to be fired. But the notion of there are clients to be fired, it's right, and a lot of times it helps your business. And so it's about self-awareness, Galen. So for me, Galen, it's very late in the process. Like, almost borderline, I don't know, when they take a knife and stab it through your eye, it might not be a good relationship anymore. But that's literally the level that I'm looking forward to because I can handle it and it's not slowing me down. We've had plenty of clients that I think by all modern standards should have been fired, but I have not, and it has not hindered the growth because, yes, there's some time and attention put into that, and even in a world where we get lots of new business, there is value in retention. There's also moods. Look, how about relationships? Do you just get divorced when a time comes tough? You know, the ebb and flow. Do you just get rid of a best friend because of a bad night? I mean, do you get rid of a best friend after six straight bad nights? One could argue yes, but I'd say, hmm, there's a lot there that you may want to fight for it. So I think it comes down to self-awareness. A lot of people are not capable of dealing with the conflict or it brings them down. To me, I like to rise to that challenge. I like that game, but it comes down to my own self-awareness of me as a leader, and more importantly, I have to factor in the empathy of 400 other people, and is it bringing them down? So cool, I can stomach it, but as they're getting yelled at on the phone by a client every single day, is it bringing them to a place where they want to leave? And so for me, it's when it's affecting other people that are in my family that I value more, and family, I mean my company, that I value more than the client itself. That's when I'm looking at it, but then a lot of times I'm trying to surround it or change the account people of the people that have more of my stomach and can handle it. To me, that is the timing. Oh crap, wait, subscribe. Do you, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. I need subscriptions because I can't push this many right hooks in social, so subscribe.