[00:00:00] Hey everyone. There are a lot of new listeners here. So I quickly want to say welcome to the podcast for everyone. Who's been sharing the show on social media and sending episodes to their friends. I want to truly thank you. You're making a real difference in making creative business education, more accessible to everyone.
Now let's get into it. I'm about to say something that will trigger a lot of photographers and videographers, but at the same time, it's something a lot of us need to hear. Are you ready? What if bad clients are actually right? What if the criticism they give us is valid? Now, before you click away from this episode.
Let me explain what I mean. Rather than rejecting criticism from clients right away, we should take a moment and see if there's any truth behind what they're saying. And if there is any truth to it, we should take that feedback and improve our business. This is how we grow as creatives and as business owners.
And by leaving our ego at the door, we end up making way more revenue in our. Business. Let's dive in because this one's going to get juicy. [00:01:00] Welcome to the creative biz lunch podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale it to six figures, whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here.
Okay. Raise your hand. If you've ever gotten criticism from a client after delivering the final assets, did you embrace it? Or did you get defensive? Did you use it as an opportunity to recognize your blind spots and improve? Have you ever deliberately sent out a survey to clients seeking feedback? What I want you to get out of this episode is a few things rather than ignoring the feedback and getting defensive right away.
What if we evaluated the feedback for what it was? What if we can see whether it's trash or if there's actually something there? What if we treated each client criticism as a learning opportunity and a way to grow our business? If we can recognize our blind spots, embrace a mindset of continuous improvement, and actively try to be better, our business will grow and we will have more fulfilling lives.
My product photography company and my [00:02:00] photography career, honestly, was a rollercoaster. I come from a street photography background, so when I started my product photography business, I honestly wasn't that good. I was learning each project, both how to take great photos and how to run a business. The way I learned best is through trial and.
I try and fail and try and fail and repeat this over and over again, and this takes a very long time. But I actually was able to shortcut a lot of this process by embracing criticism. And step one of this was actually to evaluate the feedback for what it was. Is the feedback valid? I had to distinguish between feedback that I could use to actually improve my business and feedback that might be coming from the client's personal preferences.
Next, I was looking for patterns in the feedback I was getting. This is super important. Was I getting similar comments from client after client? Or was the feedback a one off thing? And when I wasn't sure if this, if I was right or if the client was right, I went out and I would seek a second [00:03:00] opinion from someone else.
I would gather feedback from peers or mentors that can help me get a broader perspective on whether the client's feedback indicates a real problem in my business. I think recognizing patterns is key here. If the same feedback keeps happening over and over again, then it's probably something wrong and you should fix it.
The next step here is. Something easier said than done, but it's to become radically open minded and to actually embrace criticism. I needed a mindset shift. I needed to understand that the criticism was not about me as a person. I had to unlock in my brain that this wasn't personal. This was about work and business.
This shift actually really helped because I was allowed to disassociate myself from the work, and it made it a lot easier to embrace the criticism. Next, I took criticism as a learning opportunity. Criticism is often a reflection of what my client's needs and expectations are. I would use this [00:04:00] criticism to learn more about what my target market wanted.
This meant I could create better offers, write better copy for my website, and my site. Sales scripts and be better on those sales calls themselves and ultimately close way more deals. Now, if I take all this criticism and apply a mindset of continuous improvement, then I would be able to improve my skills.
I could take an online course to improve the areas where I lacked and that I could seek out other technologies that can improve my workflow and make it easier to work with clients. Wherever I lacked in skills or where criticism was happening, I would seek out to improve my own skills. I could assess my own business strategies, take the client feedback and improve and make sure that what I was doing was actually in line with what the clients actually needed.
And not just what I thought the clients needed as creatives. We love doing the art form, all that stuff. But sometimes it's not exactly what the clients need, knowing what the clients need and learning about that really helps you become a more successful freelancer and creative business owner.[00:05:00]
I want to spend some more time talking about this because sometimes we don't actually know what the clients need.
We usually think we know, but until we really embrace a. Client-centric approach. We're not 100% sure. This means we need to actively listen to what our clients are saying on our sales calls or our onboarding calls and any feedback that they give us. This helps us personalize our services to these clients to better serve them and create long lasting relationships, and that's what we want.
So I mentioned sales calls here, but even after the project is over, we should take some time and keep that relationship. Going actively checking in with clients and seeing how they're doing is amazing. I teach my students to always ask for testimonials, reviews, and case studies so they can pitch retainers and actually land those retainers too.
Now there's a right and wrong way to engage with clients after our project is over and the reality is most photographers are leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table because they mess this part up. That's why I have an entire module. Full of [00:06:00] lessons dedicated teaching this inside of creative biz launch.
My program module five in the program actually walks you through how to maximize your chances of landing those high paying retainers.
So if you're in the program, make sure to watch those videos because they're a game changer and they'll allow you to land those five figure retainers. One thing I do want to share here is something that all the great companies do, you know, on Amazon, after you talk with customer support, they'll send you a feedback survey.
They'll, they're going to ask how that customer support person did. They want to know if they solve your problem. Now, what if we actually embrace the same mindset for our own creative business? Now, I know this sounds like something only the big companies do, but if we actively seek out feedback, this will actually strengthen our client relationships.
Now, this doesn't have to be an actual survey. you send out if you don't want to. It can be the same questions every time and you just ask them over an email. After the project is done, you just send this email and see what the client says. Make sure to systemize these and log all the answers you get. And if you start [00:07:00] noticing patterns and what the clients are saying, we'll Well, you've got a problem that you can fix.
You can decide whether you need to act on it or not. Remember, evaluate the feedback for where it is and see if it's an actual issue that needs solving or just the client's personal preferences. Now, what I'm teaching you here is not easy to do. This is hard work. It takes extra time. And more importantly, we need to drop our egos at the door.
When we're doing this kind of stuff,
we need to completely shift our mindset here. And this is really hard to do. What if we deliver a project and we think it's perfect, but then end up receiving a lot of client criticism? You know how hard it is to actually evaluate that and not be objective here. It's extremely hard, but when you start doing this client centric approach and actually embrace all the feedback, remember, it's not personal.
It's about the work and your business. It's not a reflection of you. Now, one of the hardest things to do here will be to respond. to that feedback professionally. Always respond to negative feedback professionally and thank the client for giving it to you. [00:08:00] Because, if you don't, then they're not going to give you any more feedback in the future.
You have to say thank you for this feedback. Even if the feedback is harsh, a respectful response will maintain your reputation. Take the higher route in these situations and when you receive negative feedback, focus on finding a solution instead of dwelling on the problem. And if this is something that was wrong with your business, let the client know when you implement that solution.
After addressing the client's complaint, follow up with them and show them that you care. This shows that you value their feedback and their satisfaction as a client. And you'll be able to keep this client for a lot longer as photographers and videographers. We need to start embracing criticism and build a company that's focused on continuous improvement, always evaluate the feedback for what it is.
Okay. So that's all I have today. My name is Chris Pieta. If you need any more help, send me a message on Instagram and I'll get back to you there. See you in the next one.
