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?

4 comments

4 Comments

carr.luna3mo ago

Yeah, I used to love those fancy proposals.

andrew_baker93mo agoMost Upvoted

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_cooper3mo 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.

henry15011d ago

Funny how the stuff we think makes us look professional just makes people pay us slower. Wonder how many other business habits are actually just getting in our own way.