“I won’t be using any of your “copy” ” she said…. Yes, she actually put the word ‘copy’ in quotation marks! In fact she did it several times throughout her email – every time she used the word ‘copy’, she put the quote marks round it. 

 

OUCH.

 

She continued… “This is not emotive “copy” and it’s verbatim of what I said when you interviewed me. It’s too long and it’s boring” (it was her story… go figure, lol). 

It wasn’t verbatim.

 

I didn’t even bother to try to explain to her that the whole point of interviewing her was to get ‘her voice’ so that I could make the copy actually sound like her, using words that she would use.

 

There was no point.

 

At that stage I’d already re-written the piece twice and she wasn’t satisfied with either revision.

 

Plus she didn’t like “all the back and forth” between us. I have to wonder how she expected someone to write copy without feedback and a few emails back and forth.

 

Interestingly she doesn’t seem to have found anyone good enough to write her copy since she ‘sacked’ me… Which was about 5 months ago – Just sayin‘ !

 

Ego aside though, when you’re a freelancer it’s not a case of ‘if’ this ever happens to you, rather it’s a case of ‘when’.

 

Because it will happen sister.

 

Someone out there won’t like your work. You’ll work with a seemingly ideal client and get TERRIBLE feedback.

 

Receiving negative feedback can be a very painful experience, so I’m here to help soften the blow.

 

That night I ate a whole lot of chocolate ice cream, bawled my eyes out on Skype with an entrepreneur friend and then licked my wounds for a few weeks afterwards.

 

But I also allowed it to affect my confidence for a while – I doubted myself and my writing ability.

 

That part was unnecessary and prolonged the suffering. 

 

If you experience criticism in your business, chocolate and wound licking won’t be too damaging. However allowing it affect your confidence for any length of time can be detrimental, both to your self esteem and your business. If you let it! 

 

But then ‘they’ will have won. How YOU can win is to rise above it, and understand that most feedback isn’t even about you. 

Why Negative Feedback Is Not The End of the World for a Freelancer

 

It’s actually a GOOD thing when you get your first negative feedback, although it sure doesn’t feel like it at the time. 

 

Yes, you read that right, I said it’s a good thing.

 

Here’s why – When you do any sort of creative work you want to be like marmite: Some people will love you and some will hate you. 

 

If you’re trying to please everyone you’ll end up kind of ‘vanilla’ – beige and bland, and no-one will love your work.

 

So don’t do it. 

 

Have confidence in your writing (or Graphic Design, or Coaching or whatever you do). After all it’s your mission isn’t it? Share your opinions confidently.

 

Polarising people is much more powerful than attempting to appeal to everyone (which will end up appealing to NO-one).

 

Everyone Else  In The World Doesn’t Know About the Bad Feedback You Got (Unless You Blog About It 🙂 ) and It Doesn’t Mean You’ll Never Get a Client Again… 

 

When this happened to me I can remember thinking that EVERYONE must know I’d had some negative feedback and they were all talking about me! 

 

How funny is that. Trust me people have much more important things to talk about. Like their own lives. 

 

Logically I knew this wasn’t true, but it still FELT like it.  

 

I remember feeling really paranoid after that incident and just wanting to hide out in my bed and watch Netflix. I certainly didn’t want to write anything again for a while and risk that kind of pain again.

 

I worried that people would stop working with me if they knew. 

 

Suddenly I’d become a ‘crazy conspiracy theorist’ locked in my room spouting about how everyone was ‘out to get me’ !

 

Lol, well OK, it wasn’t quite that bad, but I did feel a bit vulnerable for a while. 

 

Needless to say, I didn’t lose all my clients. In fact it didn’t really affect my business long term at all, once I got my head back on straight. I refunded her because it was easier than arguing and I just wanted her gone at that point. 

 

Actually I think it made me BETTER at what I do, because I became even more determined to always produce my absolute best work. 

 

Rejection hurts, I get it – And it won’t kill you!

 

Getting Back on the Horse After Negative Feedback

 

You can also use this experience to become EVEN BETTER at what you do.

 

First up, when the negative feedback comes in try not to ‘react’ immediately (it’s a BIG ask I know… it can be so triggering).

 

Certainly be professional, even if the other person is being totally unreasonable or, as in my case, mean about your work. BUT, don’t stick around and tolerate abuse. 

 

If you made a genuine attempt to fix it and the client is still complaining it’s time to get out of there – Pronto!

 

Take What You Can Learn… And Ditch The Rest!

 

Once the dust has settled and you’re not feeling quite so raw, it’s prudent to review the experience and see whether there was truth to anything they said. It may only be a molecule of truth, and still it can provide valuable feedback for you on how you can improve.

 

We learn the most from the ‘gnarly’ clients!

 

The other learning you can get from this is – Do you need to change or up-level any of your business practices?

 

In my example above, I needed to be more explicit with clients about my process up front and let them know that I’d be creating the copy to sound like their voice and so would use some of their words.

 

I also learned to ask better questions about what kind of copy the client was expecting. 

 

Finally, you can learn about which type of clients you prefer to work with, and of course which ones that you wouldn’t touch with a 9ft barge pole!

 

Take on board anything that you can use to improve and grow in your business, and ditch the rest.

 

Endlessly stewing over it may be tempting, but it’s not helpful. Rant and rave as much as you need to in private, to process. If you need to call them a B*tch, do so (in the privacy of your own home not to their face) and then let it go.

 

Don’t slag them off to anyone else – Ever, at all, period. It won’t help, it’ll pull you down and make you feel unprofessional. Sure talk to your mastermind partner about the experience, just don’t slate them in public. 

 

Now you’re done with the experience.

 

It’s time to move on and take your sexy, marmity self back out there to continue with your work.

 

Let me know if you’ve ever had to deal with critical clients in the comments below. 

 

Love you.

Julie.

 

PS – I’ll leave you with this thought: Have you ever noticed how it’s the super critical people that are not actually producing anything themselves? Rather they sit on the sidelines and criticise what everyone else is making… Interesting!

 

Keep going, keep creating, YOU are amazing!

 

Photo by Xavier Sotomayor on Unsplash