Make it Work

Connect with me through your favorite platform: https://pods.link/aardvarkgirl Because this episode is publishing the week of Christmas, I figured I should do something festive. Just kidding. If you know me, you know I’m not a Christmas person at all. I wouldn’t say I’m a grinch, because I would never deny others their joy in the holiday. I’m not an outward humbug either. My grumpiness during the season is more internal. It starts with the first time I’m forced to hear Christmas music. Yeah. I’m guessing it doesn’t surprise you that I’m one of “those” people who does not get “into the Christmas spirit,” whatever that really is. Every time I walk into a store between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, I cringe and do my best to conjure up some superhuman noise blocking rays to my brain so I don’t have to hear it. But there’s no escaping it. It’s everywhere. I think I was traumatized as a teenager when I worked at TCBY. During the holidays, we had to play Christmas music all day. The radio station played Mariah Carey at least once an hour, often twice. I worked 10-hour shifts. Hearing Mariah Carey Christmas songs 10-20 times a day is not good for anyone’s mental health. Although I know many of you love it and don’t agree, I stand by my view. Luckily I convinced the store owner to let me find my own Christmas music to play. I could handle the older albums from the Rat Pack, Elvis, and BB King. Some local Vegas artists had put out a compilation disc of rock-based covers. I made it work. Because that’s what you have to do when you’re in a situation you don’t necessarily want to be in but can’t avoid. You make it work. It’s the same in business. Sometimes you’re stuck with a client or coworker you don’t particularly care for. Sometimes you might love most of a job, but there’s one element of it you could do without. It’s not worth turning it down, so you find a way to get over it and get it done anyway. As much as we’d like to have everything exactly as we like it all the time, it’s just not realistic. Even as a business owner, you don’t get to control everything. If you don’t like a client, you can fire them, but you have to consider doing it in a tactful way, which is not in the middle of a project. Give them notice, fulfill your obligations, and THEN walk away. But you have to stay professional until it’s over. Well, I guess you don’t have to, but you should be prepared for the consequences if you don’t. Sometimes you might love your client, but not another person on their team. You can’t do much about that either. You do your best to keep a positive working relationship with that person and do what you need to do. If you find that it’s impossible to do that, you can part ways. It’s a matter of deciding which you want more – to keep working with that client despite the annoying interactions, or if you need to let it go to save your sanity. If that client relationship is more important to you, you find a way to make it work with the other person. Try different communication styles or other ways to improve the working environment. Sometimes you have to do some work to make it work. Other times you might land a project that’s right in your wheelhouse but includes one aspect you really don’t enjoy. What do you do? You have to consider if it’s worth doing that one thing or if you truly hate that one thing and know it’ll ruin the whole experience. If you can make it work, you might end up with a great client. Of course, then you might get stuck with a someone who always wants you to do something you hate. But once you’ve built that relationship, it’s easier to convince them that it’s best to let someone else handle that part. This happened to me recently. I decided a while back that I wouldn’t take any location job. In production, that means finding locations for filming, scouting them to make sure there aren’t any potential issues, and getting all of the permits and other paperwork in order. I don’t mind that last part at all, b