How to handle clients that take over the creative process

Micromanaging. Meddling. Nit-picking. Ruining your creative flow.
 
Call it what you want, but having a client bombard you with instructions and over-the-top demands while you’re traveling through the creative process is, in a word, frustrating.
 
After all, they’ve hired you for your skills, talent, experience and expertise.
So why won’t they let you use them?!
 
Lovely, I’ve got some good and bad news for you. Let’s drop the negative nuke first:
It’s not them, it’s you.
 
It’s not your client’s fault that they’re flooding you with demands and details. It’s your fault.
 
Don’t give me that look.
Yes, I’m sending you tough love, but it is because I love you.
 
Okay, now for the good news:
You can take back control.
 
How?
You need boundaries and communication, yo!
 
Coming together to collaborate and work with somebody who might, for all intents and purposes, otherwise be a stranger to you is no natural or easy task. It takes work. Deliberate, intentional foundational work to set you both up for success.

You need to make it clear to your clients, from the get-go, how this whole process is gonna go down. Because even if they’ve worked with a graphic designer before, they haven’t worked with you.
 
Which is why it’s your responsibility to prepare them for the experience and ensure that there are processes and systems in place to guide everything smoothly.
 
If your clients are contacting you all hours of the day, inundating you with ‘feedback’, it’s because you haven’t told them that’s not going to cut the mustard with you. It’s because you haven’t given them an appropriate outlet and channel to use.
 
You need – to put it bluntly – to take charge and make it clear in every single aspect of your business that you know your shit.
 
You’re the pilot here; you need to tell your passengers how the journey is going to happen.
The onus is on you.
 
Tell me:
 

• Do you have a clear on-boarding process that communicates to your clients what you expect from them and what they can expect from you?
• Have you positioned yourself as an expert or a pixel pusher?

 
If you answered ‘no’ to either of these questions, I’ve got something for you.
 
I will be hosting a FREE webinar in the coming weeks and will be giving you the action steps to take back power in your business. It’s exactly what you need to – lovingly – handle over-enthusiastic clients trying to crowd your creative process.
 
Want in? Reserve your seat here. 

>> Register for the Webinar Here <<

Until next time, keep designing!
Anna x

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