Coping when clients will not take your advice

"As anyone who consults to brands via an agency or consultancy can tell you, companies often hire experts... and then don't follow the experts' advice."¹

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Don't Do That by jemsweb, on Flickr"][/caption]If you're considering a career in... hell, just about anything; get used to the aforementioned fact. It will happen. And a heck of a lot more often than you expect.

It happens to editors when authors balk at their suggestions. It happens to designers when clients insist that they get rid of all that wasted space. It happens to brokers when clients want to hold onto a stock for sentimental reasons. It happens to waiters, plumbers, doctors, trainers... everyone. And it's not changing anytime soon.

So how do you cope? Start by accepting it. Develop a "I'd advise against that course of action for these reasons, but it's your money" script. It'll largely go unheard, so you'll want to find a way to fix it in something a bit more tangible than a conversation. Email is good.

And don't get cocky: You could be wrong. You're a fool if you think you understand your clients' business, intent, desires and goals better than they do. Granted, you may understand the landscape and environment better than they, but don't confuse the two.

And develop a thick skin. Sometimes you're being paid to be a comfort to someone. To make them feel like they've gone through the motions by asking your advice, then ignoring your advice. Don't take it personal. You were compensated for the delivery of the advice. That's enough of a reward. If they actually follow your advice, that's just icing on the cake.

But don't be complacent. Sometimes, wrong is just wrong. Wrong tends to be cloaked in statements like this: "I don't care how shitty it looks. If it gets the phone to ring, it works!" Your clients expect you to point out when their short-term goals may displace more important longer term goals, or when the measured outcome doesn't match with their prior stated objectives. If they are caught up in the moment, you must remain objective.

Finally, make sure you're in the right relationship with your client. You know if it's not working out. You know when it's past the point where neither of you are getting what you need. You know when it's time to walk away. Of course, knowing when it's time and actually acting on that is another thing all together.

So take my advice... please?

^{1 - Taken from a post by B.L. Ochman. She writes on a variety of really smart topics in the social and digital space. If you're not reading her, you should.}

Avoid monoculture blogging

Listen to enough "blogging experts" and you'll hear a common theme: blog about one thing and one thing only!

I think that's bad advice.

I'm willing to concede that many bloggers do in fact blog about one thing and one thing only. I'm willing to concede that they probably wouldn't have as large of an audience as they do if they didn't blog about one thing and one thing only. But as I said yesterday in many more words, your mileage may vary on "expert" advice.

There's a very simple reason why I don't give this advice to blogging novices -- they're boring. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but the odds are that your first dozen posts or so are going to be about as interesting as carpet fiber science. They are going to be so mind-numbingly unexciting that you're going to lose interest -- quickly. It won't be of any big loss to your readers... because you'll have none. With few exceptions, new blogs aren't read by any sizable audience. That's why I recommend newbies to blogging start out with a Tumblr account -- and not tell anyone about it.

Blog early and often!

Write about anything and everything to get in the habit of blogging. Write about a huge variety of things to discover the mechanics of blogging. Use pictures from Flickr for inspiration, or join Plinky to get "prompts". Make really long posts. Make quick-and-dirty posts. Hell, make dirty posts if you like, experimenting with vulgarities and cursing if that's part of your personality. It's party of mine. Fuck. [checks] Nope. The world didn't end.

Once you've figured out your voice and have your blogging routine in tip-top shape, then it's time to start worrying about how to blog better/make money/grown an audience/stop pissing people off. But if you start from square one looking for advice from the leaders in the space, you're setting yourself up for failure. Sure, Lance Armstrong is a good person to give biking advice. But last time I checked, you couldn't enter the Tour de France if your bike has training wheels.

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