I generally am a low key laid back type of person, so aiming for the shine is generally not my cup of tea, specifically when I’m working. I was at a shoot a few weeks ago where the client wanted to really impress some guests they had coming in. So our company was hired to film, and so were two other companies. It was kind of weird. Three different production companies working together that had no idea whatsoever what was going on.

Well I did the usual, try to establish a goal in mind, see where we could be most beneficial, etc. And watched how the other two companies were trying to shine quickly by talking a lot of about what they could and what could be delegated. I just watched with patience because I knew the check had already been deposited for this job. We just had to do what was expected and leave the egos aside.

So as my ideas for what I thought would be a good solution was getting shot down by boisterous competitive “teammates”, I continued to stay focused on the task at hand. And kept avoiding a proverbial sword match with two other gentlemen who obviously were intimidated by the lack of exclusivity the client had shown.

By the end of the shoot, the first production company had noticed they had shot everything in the wrong format, the second production wasn’t able to project their images on the screen correctly throughout the even, and our team were the only ones with useable footage. I didn’t make a fuss about the other guys. I just handed the discs over to the client, packed up and left.

Sometimes playing the back in a good thing. You can observe a lot more when you step back to have a look at the situation.

“We want to expand our options.”
Translation: We don’t want to work with someone who works from home.

“We want to go with someone more established”
Translation: We don’t want to work with a one man operation.

“We want to find a better fit.”
Translation: We don’t want to work with someone…your…skin color.

It’s cool. If it’s one thing I’ve learned about being in business for myself, is that you definitely will have to deal with all of the deals you won’t get. And you’ll wonder whether or not your skin color has anything to do with it. It’s natural. Suck it up and continue to do good business, excuse me, I mean GREAT business, but take care to pay attention when you’re getting an unfair end of the stick. Ignorance is not bliss.

So lately I’ve been extremely involved with a heavy educational video project. The producer on this job is a white male, and he is great to work with. We are a great team and have been producing great results for these videos lately. In the sense of working with someone “more established” (see translations above), he foot the bill.

As my production company has provided the shooting, he and his team work to do the editing and finishing. It’s a great combination. I’ve been able to concentrate on filming a great product for him, and he deals with all of the client drama.

Recently there was a snafu in communication with one of his biggest clients and him and his team. Don’t worry, I had nothing to do with this one. However, the miscommunication was a big one. And there were threats that they were going to find another production company to work with.

This of course had nothing to do with me and my team. Besides, we were just providing the footage. But I did get a chance to pow-wow with my guy and see that he was completely nervous about what may come of it. Being in a situation before where I goofed and didn’t meet the client’s expectations I know where he was coming from. And I tried to give him all the advice I could to quickly put H2O on those fires.

Well the client backed out anyway. After being disappointed with the miscommunication, his client discussed the mishap with their other colleagues and they suggested a different company altogether. I refer to them as “The Bigger Guys”.

They have Bigger offices. Bigger employee numbers. Bigger cameras. Bigger projects. And of course Bigger headaches.

Everyone has a “bigger guy” in their field. Whether or not “bigger is better” remains to be judged on a case by case basis…

Anyway, after losing this huge client (they gross in the millions) he was kind of crushed. Feeling like he had done all he could to woo them and keep them, they still found a way to give him a good reason for leaving. Unacceptable business acumen. And he didn’t look like me, work from his house, or handle most of his business on his own. He just became a victim of don’t drop the ball when the game is on the line.

Do I feel that the client could have given him a second chance, sure. It’s all politics. Sometimes no matter who you are or what color you are, you only have one chance to make a bad impression.

It was just good to see good business get the fair shake overall and be able to share with someone their sentiment of feeling defeated. It’s exactly my point of why no matter what, being black in business means being on your A game at all times. Because sometimes skin color won’t matter.

We’ve done all types of corporate work, been around plenty of million dollar clients and have done a tremendous amount of creative projects. There’s been times where we were able to handle it ourselves, and other times where he brought in an assistant of his to help us out.

Recently we had a big project where his assistants weren’t available so he asked if I had anyone who could help out and such, so I made a recommendation and confirmed their availability. Because I know what kind of world we live in and what being black in business has taught me, I told him that my associate was another black guy and asked would that cause a problem with some of his clients by having not one, but two brothers show up on the set.

He was floored.

He honestly could not wrap his head around the fact that things like that actually have to be thought about when being black in business. He was intrigued to know more. So I told him stories of showing up for consultations with clients, to then showing up to the do the work with my associates and we get funny looks and everyone feels uncomfortable. And even at some weddings where I’ve showed up at the rehearsal to funny looks and people stopping me like I’m obviously in the wrong place, then the next day treating me and my staff like a bunch of outcasts, I thought it was important to have the conversation with my colleague before we set up this major shoot.

The best example I have of this phenomenon (if I can call it that), was a two day documentary shoot I had. I wasn’t able to get my 1st PA for both days. So I alternated between my 1st PA and my 2nd PA. One was white, the other one was black. The client and all of his associates and interviewees were white. I can honestly sit here and say that there was a big difference in how my PAs were treated on those days, to the point where I had to say something about it. I was quite appalled that people would be so ignorant.

So once I filled my colleague in on my thoughts about, he said it should be just fine and was now glad to have that insight on how some of us (blacks) have to think when doing business. We’ve talked about it several times since and he’s still amazed. He’s told me on several occasions “I had no idea what you guys had to go through”.

And that’s the joy of not knowing. When you’re not really a victim of anything, you kind of go on living your life just to be living it without regard for those who are victims. His ignorance of the race card in black business had done him justice up until that day. I can’t say it was comforting to see him marvel over why I had to think about stuff like that, because it was kind of sad to me to think about it as well. But it was an opportunity to share and learn. And I think it’s important for all of us who are black in business to consider our welcoming situations and our non-welcoming situations.

We still work together. But he has a new respect for me and my authenticity. And I’m sure he’s probably gained it for some of his other black colleagues as well.

The joy of not knowing…

When I talked to her later on in the day, I asked how did the appointment go to which she told me that her stylist was late and the place wasn’t even open. The owner had came early to do some of her clients and left the salon locked up, albeit the appearance of the “Yes, We’re Open” sign. I was told my friend had to wait another 20 minutes before her stylist showed up and she was able to get her hair done. Not really surprised in the behavior of all of this, because there’s always something going on at this salon, so we laughed about it and looked at the situation quite familiar as we had in the past.

But as I got off the phone, I sat there and wondered how many times, specifically in the black community, do we put up with bad business and still continue to patronize? Have we been conditioned to accept and only know less, so we deal with it?

I’ve heard of several people talk about ceasing to do business with businesses that have served them up a bad dose of customer service. But in the end, end up right back in the same position they’ve been in before. It’s sadistic. Like a glutton for punishment I guess.

I knew of a pretty popular promoter in my hometown, and after a huge event that was shut down due to his negligence, I knew this had to be the end of his promoting career. But he was able to pull it off again. And the same people who said they would never attend another event after the shut down, found themselves giving their hard earned money right back to the same crook again.

And again.

And again.

SMH (shaking my head)

I’m not here trying to solve why people do what they do, I just wonder why is it that stereotypically in the black community, we’ll deal with it. Rip offs, constant late appointments, slow to pay associates, excuses and half-ass apologies over and over again.

I guess in the grand scheme of things these businesses who are patronizing these terrible trends may have something figured out, but I beg to argue that on the other side of the spectrum it’s imperative to not tolerate bad business on any front. As a business owner, or as the customer.

I don’t let my clients constantly call late, or miss appointments. And in turn I don’t provide them with tardy or half-ass service. It’s quite a good balance.

But I do often wonder what’s going on inside the head of those that consistently run back to bad services over again and again. And it’s too bad we find a lot of this in the black business community.

I tend to believe that there could be a change if people were willing to make an effort, but I guess when you really need to get your hair done, it’s worth the wait…maybe.

Interestingly enough the client calls and begins to explain the situation that happened on Twitter and providing sort of a “this is why” scenario for their post.

Now I’m going to pause right here and say that I’m not adverse to clients choosing new designers or new producers. In our business, you never know what someone’s situation is, and how moving on to another supplier sometimes is the best move for both parties. It doesn’t happen to me often, but when it does, I never take it personal. My only gripe is the clients that I’ve grown to trust and like who do this, and some how try to figure out the sneakiest way to do it as if they don’t respect me enough to tell me face-to-face.

Going back to the earlier discussion, after a quick explanation of the “why” (they assumed I didn’t do Wordpress websites), they quickly said to me “didn’t you say you didn’t do Wordpress websites?”, to which my reaction was simply, “I’ve been working on Wordpress for the past year and a half”.

It was almost as if they called to just verify I was still on the same competency level from years ago. No offense taken.

I had to recall my first meeting with this client. It was several years ago and I indeed was not familiar with the Wordpress platform. As in any business, keeping up with the times is a sure guarantee you’ll be able to keep up with your industry. So over time I’ve become real familiar with the Wordpress platform and currently have several custom Wordpress web templates to my name.

It was almost as if I was being asked about something I didn’t know how to do because they wanted to prove a point and validate the reason they put the post up. When you’re in business to do business and make money, personal points and feelings will sometimes hinder you from doing just that. They then began to say they had already set up a meeting with another designer under their assumption and would keep me posted on what happens. Then asked, almost as if they really didn’t want to know, a quick quote on what it was cost, and I gave them a good rate on a transfer. Especially since I was already familiar with their website and they were a current client. They paused for a minute almost stunned because they knew the other designer was not going to be able to beat that price, but didn’t want to have to deal with the embarrassment of continuing to do business with me.

What upset me about the entire situation is that they never bothered to ask if it could be done. It’s been years since we first put their website up, and they didn’t even bother to ask the current designers (us), if we were now up on something we weren’t years ago. I felt robbed at the opportunity to be able to serve. Mind you this client has been able to troubleshoot with us via email issues they would be having, and we would respond post haste and give the VIP treatment we give all of our clients. So I was hurt I didn’t receive the same respect in return.

I thought it was funny also how once they found out that we were able to do what they needed done for their website, they flipped the script on us and begin to complain that people weren’t able to send emails through their contact form as if we purposely were sabotaging it for them or incompetent of making something work right. I rapidly went to their site and sent them an email to which they got it immediately. If I could have seen the look on their face with their response of “oh…yeah…I got it”, I’m sure it would have been hilarious.

I wish them well on their endeavors and hope that they receive as good of service with the new guys as they did with us. I don’t take it personal when cleints leave. I take it personal when they try and act like they’ve gotten less than excellent service which I know is not true.

Good luck! You seem as if you’re going to need it.

Recently I returned back to my home town for a short stint to prepare my house for a move-in. While in town, I needed several services done and taken care of so why re-invent the wheel? I was calling the people I knew and trusted and had depended on times before.

I ended up having to call 3 of my old associates for business. Now mind you, this was business I was giving THEM, not the other way around. After meeting with the first guy at the house, we had a great conversation, and chopped it up about how my business was doing since the move, and how his business was doing and how everyone in our old network was doing. It felt great to catch up with an old colleague, who dropped everything he was doing to get over to me and help me out. I gladly wrote him his check and continued on with my week.

The next 2 associates were a little less friendly. And in some way I believe could care less that I was actually calling them for business. There was no smile, no “good to hear from you” cheer, nothing indicative of their desire to want to receive business from me in the first place. Both associates seemed to just not care about my well being even though I asked about theirs, and let’s just say they were less than thrilled to know business has been good since the move.

I was perplexed. Once colleagues I referred business to on a monthly basis, now for some reason or another were just real dismissive in their service. I didn’t quite get it seeing that I was the one writing checks to their businesses, but I recalled the attitude of the first colleague mentioned in this post. Business was going well for him, and so in turn, he was glad to hear business was going well for me. The other two didn’t nessarily give the notion that business was going well for them, so they came across as not caring whether or not business was going well for me.

It’s just a theory. Heck, one of the two associates later mentioned actually asked me if I was getting certain business because I was “black” and was thinking of making his wife 51% owner of his business to get minority breaks. I paused and shook my head because I couldn’t believe this was coming out of his mouth. I gladly told him that I believe I continue to get business because of the integrity I hold and the quality of work we produce.

Needless to say I won’t be sending those 2 colleagues any more business. The first colleage I mentioned has a big project for me scheduled in a few weeks, and I will continue to support his business.

I never understood the logic that just because things aren’t going the way you want them for you, you can’t be happy for others. Especially if they’re soliciting your business.

I try to keep this blog as non-ghetto as possible, but I have to shout out Maino on this one:

I was like ok, and the rest of my family looked at me like “what was that all about?”. And I’m like, “I don’t know a Larry, but he said hello, and it’s nothing wrong with that”.

It’s not like she came out and said, “Larry said where’s his money?”, then I might have been worried.

So we’re going along and I’m figuring if Larry is looking at me from the kitchen or his office, he’ll figure out that I’m not his guy. Besides, I didn’t know anyone named Larry, and we we’re in town for a funeral to a city I had never been. Either this was about to be someone from waaaay back that I don’t remember who just happened to remember me, or a case of mistaken identity.

A waitress comes up to me again and says “Larry wants to talk to you”, and I follow her to the moment of truth. I meet Larry and the first thing he says is “aww, you’re not AJ” and I’m like “nope, but it’s nice to meet you anyway”.

We laugh and chat a bit and he tells me that he thought I was his friend AJ, and he was going to give me his discount card for the meal. But then he asked me if I wanted to use it anyway, and I told him sure. He handed me his card and said present it when we get the bill and I told him thanks and I’d be sure that he gets it back before we leave.

Now I didn’t know this guy and he didn’t know me. And he had no reason to give me the “manager’s special”. But as I walked back to my table I couldn’t help but think that maybe just because I was authentic in meeting him and going along with his story letting him figure out he had the wrong person, that he decided to share his card with me anyway even though I wasn’t his friend.

As we kept eating dinner I thought of how many times in business have I mistaken a potential client for something they weren’t, and how because of my assumption, I either proceeded to gain the business or lose it altogether. I remembered the thought of being authentic and just how much further that really gets you in life. I thought of times where I tried to make my business seem like something it wasn’t. Or times when I went along with the assumption of what someone else thought my business was. And then reflected on all of the business and repeat business I get just from being authentically who I am and not who someone else wants me to be.

I had a new client say to me the other day that before she decided to hire me, she had interviewed several other designers and that she had gotten a lower price from a few others, but didn’t get the “warm, fuzzy, authentic feeling” that she got when speaking to me, and that’s what helped her make her choice. It was one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten in business. I didn’t get the business because of the best price, the best service, or the best product. I got the business from just being myself, authentically. You can’t put a price on that.

The family and I had a great meal and on the way out I thanked Larry for letting me and my family use his card and receive a discount on our meal. I’m forever sold on this restaurant. And will frequent the chain again and again. And although I may never see Larry again, I’ll remember his kind spirit every time I sit down to eat there. Thank you Larry for giving me an opportunity to be comfortably authentic with being myself.

No biggie, I accepted his anxious introduction as just a misstep and disregarded any negative feelings, but overhead while I was talking to the original individual I was engaged with before his interruption, his conversation with a young lady in the area about how he does “this and that” so much better than other companies and so on. Since we were in similar businesses I almost took it as a poke to my company, but just sort of brushed it off. Besides, we had just met, could he really be trying to make himself look better to someone who didn’t even know me? I was sort of taken back by the comments.

Sometimes intuition is a good thing. Sometimes we can over react. I’m only human.

I returned to the office and carry on as usual. The guy I was originally talking to, along with the young lady both ended up following up with me. We had great follow-up time and I have referred both of them already for potential business and plan on keeping an ongoing relationship with them. However, I didn’t follow up with “mr. interruptus” and he didn’t follow up with me and it was back to business as usual.

Until I received an email blast about his company and his events and his business. And it wasn’t even addressed to me. It was a mass blast and I had become victim to the old “I-have-your-business-card-and-email-address-so-I-will-add-you-to-my-list” ploy. I was sort of cheesed off by it. It’s not like it was the first time it happened, but the guy had already rubbed me the wrong way, and I wasn’t going to be a victim of solicited spam!

I calmed down quickly and thought, hey, this is harmless. Just unsubscribe and keep it moving. Or, see if he may STILL be a good potential referral partner for you. You never know who knows who.

So I called the young lady from the networking event, because she had met him before then, and asked her about his character and integrity and told her I didn’t want to make any assumptions based on a few interactions. She said it was refreshing to hear someone say when they thought some networking etiquette was a little inappropriate and shared a few things with me about her observations that fell in line with mine.

I unsubscribed from the list.

Sometimes intuition is a good thing. Sometimes we can over react. I’m only human.

But this time, speaking my mind helped me realize that who you truly are in the world shows up, whether you like it or not. Doing good business is key!

This story is important to me because I’ve spent a lot of my time as a black business owner having to compete with my non-minority competitors who’ve had bigger budgets, better equipment, a bigger staff, and in the end we’d all put out the same quality product. As I’ve started to develop a more personal relationship with my clients over the past year, I don’t worry as much about competition as I used to, because all the money in the world couldn’t buy the type of testimonial I received at the table that night. That person that helped these speakers prepare and give their best performances for the camera was authentically who I am. And I wonder how many times in the past that I’ve put the authentic being aside to appear to be someone that I’m not. I can’t call it, and I don’t focus on the past too much, I just know that moving forward my best service I can give is one that my competition can’t. Even with all of the shiny toys and the big crews and the hefty investments behind some of them, my best marketing ploy has been just to be my authentic self. You can’t really put a price on that.

Enjoy some shots from the conference:

But one thing that has remained the same has been my ode to doing good business no matter where you are. Believe it or not, if most of us (black business owners), lived up to this most of the time, we’d be farther than where we are. There are tons of consumers out there who appreciate honest business no matter what race.

I received a call for filming an event, and like most of my potential clients, I always become familiar with the individual (make a personal connection – give your name and remember theirs). I asked about the event in terms of finding out the details to provide the best filming possible. Even asked about a possible event walkthrough. The potential client on the other end was surprised and a bit impressed. He said out of the 20 other video guys he talked to, I was the only one who asked those questions.

At that point I remembered that no matter how much money I spend marketing, networking, building the business, or moving the location, the most important marketing tool I had was the integrity of my business. And in that moment on the phone I felt great that I was continuing to provide the best service I could provide and not just fast talking this potential client into signing a check.

We got off the phone after asking and answering each other’s questions and I knew that I wanted to share this story with the world. I know personally I’ve spent so much time trying to figure out the best way to stretch marketing dollars or compete with larger companies, but I just want to stress the importance of being authentic in your client service, and being a good and fair business owner. That alone gets you to the head of the line fast.

And I DID get the job.