Appreciation post: A client in Denver once told me to 'stop acting like a business' and it flipped a switch.

I was maybe two years into freelancing as a copywriter and had just sent this guy my standard proposal with all the formal terms and a big price. We met at this noisy coffee shop on Colfax. He looked at it, pushed it aside, and said, 'Look, I don't need a proposal. I need you to fix my website copy because it sounds like a robot wrote it. Stop acting like a big business and just tell me what you'll do and when it'll be done.' It was so blunt it stung a little. But he was right. I was hiding behind fancy paperwork instead of just solving his problem. That one chat in Denver made me drop the act. I started talking to clients like people, not corporations, and my close rate went up. Has a client ever called you out on your own nonsense in a way that actually helped?

3 comments

3 Comments

carr.luna18d ago

Yeah, I used to love those fancy proposals.

andrew_baker918d ago

Totally get that. I had a client ask me why my emails sounded like a robot wrote them, like I was scared to just say "got it" or "this looks wrong." Made me realize I was putting on this weird professional voice that just came off as cold. Started typing like I was texting a friend and suddenly people replied faster and trusted me more. That fake formality is just a wall you put up.

sam_cooper18d ago

My buddy used to send invoices with way too much legal fine print. A client circled all the jargon and wrote "just tell me what I owe you" in red pen. He switched to plain English bills and got paid twice as fast.