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PODCAST

Client Horror Stories

Beloved by Clients

Tales from those on the front lines of dealing with clients. Tales of difficult clients, complex situations, relationship management - and how massive client management problems were solved, and what they learned. Largely those running agencies, but all across different professional services.

business management

All Episodes

00:42:14

That time when a promising client project unraveled...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/07/30

Today’s guest is Paul Byrne, President & Founder of Razoyo, and he’s here to share a wild ride of a client experience that began with promise—and spiraled into chaos. It all started when Paul was approached by a well-funded startup in the ecommerce space. Their niche? High-end products sold to professional designers. They were looking to upgrade their website and infuse it with fresh, innovative ideas—and Paul and his team were up for the challenge. The initial collaboration was smooth, even

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00:29:38

That time when you get dropped by a client for...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/07/16

Steven Perry, Founder and CEO of The Well Recruiting Solutions, shares a client horror story that unexpectedly became a turning point in his career—and one that helped earn him a major promotion.Early in his career as a young financial adviser, Steven and his partner were assisting a married executive couple in organizing their finances for retirement. Steven’s partner was responsible for follow-ups, but instead of maintaining professionalism, he overwhelmed them with daily messages. These were

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00:30:59

That time when you get contracted to work on a...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/07/02

Kathryn Smith, founder of Walton Birch, shares a client horror story unlike anything we’ve heard before.In the early days of launching her custom web development company—with just herself on the team—Kathryn expected the usual startup challenges. But nothing could’ve prepared her for this.A former client referred a woman who needed help with her Shopify site. What seemed like a routine job quickly spiraled out of control. The client had no login credentials, so Kathryn contacted Shopify for support,

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01:05:37

That time when you ruin Christmas nationwide for...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/06/18

There’s nothing crazier than Andy Reinhold’s client horror story, and you’re gonna want to listen.A few years ago, Andy, founder of Studio Spark, was working in the tech division of a major consulting firm, maintaining outdated government software. With each change in administration, the system grew harder to decipher—so much so that they had to track down long-retired employees just to understand the codebase.Andy and his team manually reviewed over a million lines of legacy code to help determine

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01:12:21

That time when you land a huge client only to end up...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/06/11

In today’s episode, Matthieu Mehuys, Co-Founder of Paulownia Landscape Architects, shares a client horror story that most professionals hope they never have to face.Matthieu’s love for plants began at just three years old. That passion led him to study landscape architecture, explore the depths of the Amazon rainforest, and master the art of cultivating breathtaking gardens. But it wasn’t until a life-threatening encounter with dengue fever that he had a wake-up call—one that pushed him to start his

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00:48:48

That time when an expert is brought in to build...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/06/04

Have you ever worked with people who insisted they knew best—even when they clearly didn’t? In early 2017, when blockchain was the buzzword of the moment, Tamara Adlin of Adlin, Inc. was referred by an investor to help a rising startup build smart contracts, enabling smoother collaboration for developers.At first, things looked promising. Tamara brought strong, strategic ideas to the table. But instead of focusing on foundational planning, the team wanted to do everything all at once—charging ahead

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00:37:34

That time when you’re provided an entirely new...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/05/28

Running a business often means putting out fires—but some fires should never have been lit in the first place. In today’s client horror story, Melinda Spaulding, Author of "Finding Insight", shares a frustrating tale from her early years that highlights just how chaotic procurement can get.Everything had been going smoothly with one client—contracts were signed, terms agreed upon, and work was underway. But out of nowhere, a representative from the company called Melinda's business line one evening

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00:33:34

That time when your big luxurious launch becomes...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/05/07

In this episode, Sheila Butler, Founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Butler Marketing Group, FL LLC, tells us about the time when she forged a partnership to launch 20,000 hotel rooms. What was once thought to be a huge and successful project turned out to be underwhelming and disappointing for everyone involved.Due to tech issues, overwriting part of their database did not go as planned. Instead of advertising each room as a luxury stay, they were shown as regular rooms—boring, right? Likewise,

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00:46:24

That time when you outshine your boss with your...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/03/26

Imagine being your own bubbly self and getting so much hate from someone who projected their insecurities on you. This is what happened to the author and creator of Confused Girl in the City, Giovanna Silvestre.At 25, fresh out of college, Giovanna had the opportunity to become the second assistant to a big-time director of a big-time movie at a big-time studio. As someone fresh in the industry, she assumed she worked directly under the director. Anyhow, that was cleared up as the first assistant

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00:42:55

That time when you lost half a million dollars...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/02/26

There’s something quite profound about doing honest work for 23 years and losing it to an uncontrollable housing bust. Today, we are pleased to speak with Matthew (Matt) Stafford, CEO of Build Grow Scale, who is tasked to share his client's horror story for our 59th episode.Straight out of college, Matt established a brick-and-mortar commercial concrete business which exponentially grew over the years. They’ve managed to build many Lowe’s, Costcos, and other buildings for big-name companies all

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01:02:16

That time when a simple real estate litigation turned...

Client Horror Stories ·

2025/01/29

Are you ready for another client horror story? Today might just be your lucky day! We’re going into an in-depth and hair-raising conversation with Matthew Fornaro, a respected business lawyer.Over four years ago, Matthew made a decision to take on a real estate litigation with a family consisting of two elders and a daughter who had authoritarian control over her parents. They rented a home in a beautiful gated community in Naples, Florida, and made a deal with the neighbor across the street. What

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00:32:46

That time when a client paid you with fake checks...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/12/18

In today’s episode with Mickie Kennedy, President of eReleases, we will hear about a harrowing client horror story that happened when he was just 4 meager years into his business.Mickie has a press release distribution business he has been running for more than 25 years now. At such an early start, he was approached by a client from a music conservatory for a press release. After negotiations and a lot of discussion, the project was initiated. Eventually, he received a check from FedEx for the

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00:41:56

That time when a routine assignment led to a...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/11/20

In the latest episode of Client Horror Stories, David Bates, an Executive Coach at Paravelle, LLC, shares a harrowing experience from his days as a consultant. David recalls being assigned to check on a major pharmaceutical project in town, a task given to him simply because he was the only team member residing in the area. What seemed like a routine check quickly spiraled into a nightmare.Upon arriving at the training session, David faced an unexpected crisis. The project sponsor abruptly canceled

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00:56:07

That time when your two-decade professional...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/10/23

In this episode, we are joined by John C. Morley, Serial Entrepreneur Engineer, Marketing Specialist, Talk Show Host, and First Responder, for our exciting new episode of Client Horror Stories. John doesn’t only talk about a single client horror story, but three! However, we’re here to give you a quick look into the conversation.We’re going to start with John’s two-decade-long client who decided to let him go after telling him that John was just squeezing him out for money. After so much back and

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00:47:06

That time when a high-profile athlete refused to pay...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/09/25

In today’s episode of Client Horror Stories, we welcome Mark Michael, CEO and co-Founder of DevHub. While Michael has had a lot of ups and downs in the customer side of things, one experience always stands out.We all know the NFL, and luckily enough, Mark was given an opportunity to work with a high-profile player. The idea was to create a custom CRM built for all NFL players to make their daily lives manageable. All went well until the client refused to provide a card on file to pay for

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00:37:45

That time when a client hired you to expose...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/08/21

Have you ever been yelled at by a client before or threatened to be sued? Today, we are joined by the Founder & CEO of Blue Goat Cyber, Christian Espinosa, to share more about his client horror story with a healthcare facility in Louisiana.Christian is an expert in ethical hacking and wishes only to expose company vulnerabilities in order to find avenues for improvement, but when they infected most of the hospital with the secret file they planted, the CEO went nuts. It even went as far as a

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00:37:20

That time when you got sued for alleged fraud by...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/07/15

Have you ever committed a white lie to save yourself? Well, Jason Roberts’ client horror story revolves around that, but they took lying to a whole new different level.In today’s episode, we are joined by Jason Roberts, Peak Performance Coach and 9-Figure Entrepreneur, who will be sharing his worst nightmare to date. During his early entrepreneur years, he owned a mortgage company and one day came face to face with a paraplegic client looking to apply for a construction loan. He was a nice guy, and

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00:57:34

That time when you lost a five-digits figure because...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/05/29

Setbacks are pretty normal, but have you ever experienced losing so much money just because someone didn’t want their work checked? Oops! I didn’t mean to give too much away, but we’re here with another episode of Client Horror Story with our host, Morgan Friedman. Today, we’re graced by Gee Ranasinha of KEXINO. KEXINO is a small marketing agency based in Europe, serving startups and small businesses mostly in the USA. A few years ago, they closed a deal with a well-funded organization in the

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00:44:20

That time when you’ve already spent $5 million only...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/03/20

Have you ever tried waiting for a prospective client to make up their minds? If you're currently doing that and your patience is wearing thin, listen to this unique episode right now.Welcome to another Client Horror Story with Brandon Kirkpatrick, CEO of Catalyst Consultant Group. This autonomous drone startup has just had a welcome to the world and had a chance encounter with a potential client during a motorcycle ride. Bizarre, right? Well, they got to talking and realized the potential

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00:43:37

That time when you’re trying to complete a massage...

Client Horror Stories ·

2024/02/21

Imagine going to Los Angeles to follow your dreams of becoming an actress – all these setbacks and challenges seemingly going on forever, and just when you thought you’re about to have a big break, it all comes crashing down. In this episode, we’re speaking with Suzy Hardy, a certified stress management and anxiety coach, and discuss her client horror story from a decade ago.We’d want to say that since events of the past occurred years back, it would give us a wider berth or bigger perspective to

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88 results

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