Brutally Honest Business Advice For Creatives w Emily Cohen

What role do designers play in fostering good and bad client relationships? What can you do to change the way the clients view you? Clients from hell and how to deal with them. Practical, no nonsense business advice from author, consultant, teacher and public speaker Emily Cohen.

Follow Emily:

01:00 who is Emily Cohen
05:00 - what creatives think
10:00 - the types of creatives
15:00 - why you should know who you are and how to do it
21:00 - find people who love your gift**
24:00 how to you can begin to specialize
28:00 - For every red flag charge 10% more**
32:00 - what is work for hire
35:00 - how you could renegotiate contacts
45:00 - Brag about Our generosity
51:00 - lead by example
53:00 - the difference between coaching and consulting
56:00 - define client interaction roles with your team
1:00:00 - own up to your mistakes and tell the client how you are going to fix it
1:04:00 - learn to say no more often
1:08:00 - how to fire your client
1:13:00 - what makes Emily Cohen’s book different
1:24:00 - why are men treated differently than women when it comes to speaking engagements
1:34:30 - Recap

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Host– Chris Do
Cinematography– Ricky Lucas, Jona Garcia
Live Editor– Jona Garcia
Editor– Ricky Lucas, Jona Garcia, Stewart Schuster, Mark Contreras,
Social Team: Elle Money, Alex Burlui
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Futur theme song— Adam Sanborne

[atommindproject]

- Embrace conflict.
- Learn to say "No.", often.
- Fire a bad client, at least once per year
- Clearly defined process.

[sefadicloud]

''The better you know the person, the better the gift will be". I love that soo much, thank you, Chris!

[anzesvetlik]

This format of videos is perfect. I love seeing a short glimpse of the video to see what I'm diving into. Then listen/watch to an hour, 90 or 2 hours of content while working on a design. Also, love the honesty of this woman :D

[jessgillis]

"I like to push people's buttons" The best and most typical Aries trait!

[xantisant]

And the "being honest" when you're late etc - took a mountain off my shoulders. This woman is my hero

[wiriadinata]

Now this is world class and no BS. Knowledgeable and experienced.

[NedBrannigan]

I came across your channel a few weeks ago and I can't thank you guys enough. Initially I started watching the Building a Brand series, then watched a bunch your other general content. I'm now on the Deep Dive series and damn it's good! So yeah, I'm watching it through for the second time now. Although my discipline is not particularly graphic design, I think what makes your videos addictive is that they're crammed full of real world experience. Topics like how to talk with clients, how to present your brand, creating an effective sales process, how to offer value, WHY you should implement certain strategies, but most of all, understanding people and their problems - these are far more more valuable than specific strategies or step-by-step guides. In my opinion, this is even more apparent within fields that require a significant amount of creativity, especially where the "correct strategy" depends entirely on the business and their audience. Instead of saying "this is how to attract more clients" or "how to increase your sales from X to Z", understanding strategic foundations and the process that leads to making those decisions are far more important, and that's a theme that I find apparent in all of your videos. Realistically, the only way I could gain this sort of knowledge is through mentorship from an experienced marketer or businessperson, yet you produce it all for free and on a mass scale. So thank you, you've helped me more than you could imagine. If I could subscribe twice I would.

P.s. I would love it it you ever got Seth Godin or Bernadette Jiwa on one of your videos. I think you're all on a very similar level and it could bring a lot of value to your viewers.

[justinroy]

You know I really respect Emily's views, tone, and strong mindedness. I am exactly the same way. I feel lots of people out there just need to own it more and be confident. It's okay to be wrong in a situation. Embrace it and if you are right celebrate it as a team not an individual. After all we are all in it to win and reach that goal together. Its all about contributing to what could make the idea better.

[ericnjanga]

I can't say thank you enough to you Chris and your wonderful host Emily Cohen. She's a gem!

[TenTenJ]

These principles branched into so many more business ideas. She’s brilliant. You should have a monthly show with her and have her answer live questions or partner with her on a master class.

[la_sarito]

I just have to channel HER! Let her spirit possess me when the situation requires...
So much to learn... Omg

[rosiegopaul]

Really resonated with her advice. A lot hit home and a lot of advice that is actually practicable and doable when it comes to communicating with the client. Some of those basic points I’ve tested prior in my freelance work and have noticed a difference in the relationship and less resentment when a project goes south. Love it. Will be ordering the book.

[afreenj]

I resonated with her and how to be proactive. I took away so many great tips to apply to my freelancing career. Thank you for this great video.

[adrianroura]

I love how Chris pushed the discussion in 45:00 just for us to see the edge of the argument.. really helpful.

[zavangar]

The confidence gap was oh so bitter to hear and comprehend. Thanks for another amazing video.

[kennywally]

I appreciate her trying to fix things. In reality, you can try to manage clients and creatives to a degree where everyone is reasonably comfortable, but these situations are very complex, to say the least. I own an agency and none of this is easy nor is it fixed by reading a book. Sometimes you push back sometimes you don't. Sometimes creatives rightfully blame the client, sometimes not. You navigate, you learn, you grow. There are no simple answers.

[mau]

I agree on the specialization part: at least in creative businesses it makes easier for the market to find the right people for a particular work, and there's plenty of areas where specialists are needed, and the value of the discipline goes up because of this, but the one part I disagreed is where they were discussing when agreements were trumped by the amount of money being paid. I think for a strong brand and negotiation building, you should stand strong in your work philosophy and push to reach an agreement. Imagine if you scale your business to a million dollar deals as a minimum, then money becomes a secondary matter to the terms discussed. Another business book says that it never should be a win-win negotiation, it should be meeting your business goals. (the win-win is when both parts reach an agreement, but is never a win-win in reality).

[micah]

This is really good. Specialization, client relationship, being honest, the red flag rule are my top takeaways. Thank you, The Futur !

[dorchy]

I love her experience and your leading, cho

[kingkhi]

Informative as always I love your channel. Hands down my fav business channel.