 So, this past summer, we ended a project with one of the worst clients I've ever dealt with. And it was really at the top of my mind when I landed on the WordCamp US speaker submission page. And I was thinking about how this worst client was not my first worst client. And sadly, I also knew it wasn't going to be my last. And then my thoughts drifted to all the things that this worst client did that made them a worst client. And it got me all riled up again. And after doing this four or five times, I kind of realized that's a pointless exercise. Because getting upset and mentally reliving the things that this bad client had done wasn't making me move past this dreadful project. So I thought, you know, what could I do? I decided to find what all my bad clients had given me and turn it into a talk. So by no means do I ever want another bad client. But in the short time that we have today, I'm going to show you how your worst clients have made you and your team better than you possibly ever realized. I'm also going to share with you the one technique that I use to lessen the number of bad clients that I see in my practice. And it's my formal client intake form. And it consists of almost 150 questions, which means I am sitting with a potential client for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. And as we all know, when we're sitting down with a new client, they love to talk about themselves. So this hour plus goes by relatively quickly. And I get to learn about what their target market is and if they have a logo. But the primary purpose of this initial intake is to weed out bad clients. I am evaluating how they communicate. I'm judging their level of interest in collaborating with me on building a site. I'm watching as we're sitting in this room how they're interacting with subordinates, superiors, coworkers in the room. And I'm asking myself, do I want to work with them? So have a process for your potential clients to evaluate them. Have an intake process of some kind because the truth of the matter is that not every project is going to be a good fit for you. And when you see a red flag, whatever that red flag is for you, it's simply to client the project. But my method is in foolproof. And a bad client manages to slip in every now and again. So raise your hand. Who in this room has launched a site and didn't put your signature on it? Exactly. I have to. So when a client goes bad, like those beautiful shiny apples in the supermarket, we need to remember that when you take them home and you bite into them and they're all mealy on the inside, you blame yourself, right? Like, you chose them. You chose wrong. You should have known better. And you might even think, no one forced me to sign a contract with this client. And we like to think that we have that much control over everything that comes into our lives. But we don't. The truth is that we can't control these horrible clients from coming into our lives. There are really only so many precautions that we can take, whether it's an intake form or otherwise. So if you can expect that bad clients will happen, that's great. But don't let your bad clients define you. So if you find yourself swearing off something like, I will never do another website for a startup. Or this is the last app that this company will ever do, you're letting a bad client define you. And our bad clients should actually make us more determined to not be defined by the things that went wrong and to move forward. So don't allow them to stop you from working in a particular niche or from taking on bigger projects or whatever fear they instilled in you of not being good enough. And take heart in that you are not alone. You are in a room filled with people who have experienced what you have. Our worst clients force us to stand up for ourselves, for our ideas and for our teammates more than we normally would. They even have this amazing way of enhancing camaraderie in the office. So for instance, when a client is rude when you're on the phone with them and they take a tone or maybe they use unprofessional language just one too many times, the PAC mentality kicks in. That means that when the group, your coworkers are threatened or attacked, it's kind of like rocket fuel for team cohesion and group bonding. So there's this British social psychologist named Henry Toshfell who back in the late 1970s, along with John Turner, he taught how there's this concept called social identity theory. And it's this theory that says that how we see ourselves is partly reflected in the associations and the groups that we choose to join. So you have these in groups and you have out groups. I like building WordPress websites. You like building WordPress websites. That's an in group. And in the context of our work, an in group is our coworkers. They're the people that are working directly on our projects to build a website. And this could even include the client. So we have a common goal. We're working together. We have an approach and a strategy until that client does something that makes them fall into the out group until they cross that line. And when your in group is threatened by an out group, namely that client who just crossed that line, the in group loyalty skyrockets. So take heart in knowing that when your bad client is on the prowl, when your bad client is on the attack, that they are actually strengthening the bond of the team. Bad clients are also relentlessly dissatisfied. They think that every request should be quick and easy and simple or needing to be done yesterday. They're vocal about their displeasure, their dissatisfaction, their diss would ever to a seemingly absurd level. Now, one of the benefits that we receive from these bad clients is learning to defend our design decisions. So we learn the importance of taking ownership in the work we have created. Instead of saying, oh, did you want that in a lighter shade of blue? I can totally do that and hurly going off and doing that. We learn the importance of educating the client and how we got from point A to point B. But if after all you're defending, the client still isn't seeing it your way, this is when we innovate. This is when, I believe, some of our best creative moments happen. They emerge from the conflict and the confrontation. When we are challenged, our ideas and perspectives are challenged and this happens with our worst clients and they throw us into these uncomfortable situations over and over again and really it's up to us to find our way out. Now, I don't know about you, but when I have a bad client, I sometimes daydream about all the ways that I can actually derail their project. I think, oh man, if I just said yes to everything they want, I will scoot them out the door faster. If I just say yes, we'll have quicker meetings, shorter approval processes and this bad client will get what they deserved. But that only lasts for a moment and then I get this rush of panic and anguish of knowing what a complete and utter disaster that that would be and that really, the client doesn't know any better and that I am the expert and it's really up to me to write this ship and it's in that moment that we're fighting for our purpose. For what Richard Ryan and Edward Dicci, two psychology professors and co-founders of this self-determination theory called intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation, you can think of it kind of as your true north. It's whatever gets you up out of bed in the morning, sitting down at your desk, determined to put good work out into the world. That desire to want to become masters of our craft, to never want to stop exploring the world around us so that we can bring that knowledge back to our work because it's when we focus our energy and our talents and our resource and putting out something nothing short of brilliant and not becoming the tyrants and the monsters that we're battling against, that's when we found our intrinsic motivation and sometimes our brilliance can come in a second and sometimes it takes more seconds than we want to count but once you determine what is worthy of your commitment to greatness, because let's be honest, not all our worst clients really deserve our greatness but once you determine that you know that you can deliver something better because you feel and it gives you the sense that this is the right thing to do, you may end up spending far more time than you allocated in your budget, you may sacrifice sleep or a time normally spent with family and friends but it's in pursuit of that joy that brought you to the work in the first place and that's intrinsic motivation which we have our worst clients to thank for, for reminding us that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Now, I've got two more quick points but we run out of time, so I encourage you to visit fossil.net forward slash badisbetter.pdf and you'll learn about how our bad clients give us wisdom and how it's through the sometimes traumatic mistakes that we make with our bad clients that we become better and to the benefit of our future clients as well as how our bad clients have a painful way of reminding us of the joy in life. So to recap what we discussed today, first and foremost, make sure that you have an intake form. You would never hire someone at your company just based off of a single interview or just reading their resume. Don't treat your potential clients any differently and remember the things that bad clients give us, the gifts of bad clients, camaraderie, finding our true north intrinsic motivation, wisdom and reminding us of the joy in life and that's why good clients are good but bad clients are better. Thank you.