Saying 'No' to a client

I will be honest, saying no is a real challenge to me. And it has been even more challenging when I started working as a freelancer in my company. When You have financial pressure, it can be really tempting to say 'yes' to every project around.

After not finding a job, every project was an opportunity to get my life on track. Who knows when the next job will come along?!

But after several, I have noticed that it's not only clients who are choosing me - it's actually, me choosing them too. My 2021 was like a strike after strike learning that my mental being is more important than peoples opinion or their lack of knowledge of my field. It's not my job to teach them my skills, but my job is to build trust and deliver the service. Sometimes the fear of a client is more toxic than rational decision making. And this is the part where I am learning to let go of clients that I can't change or I can't help as they need to learn from their own mistakes and journey.

After our humongous pandemic (or still in, who knows), businesses tend to save money on everything. Specially new. Don't get me wrong - I do understand how hard is to start, but at the same time some of the small businesses push the pressure on you even more because their life-good depends on the results and budget.

This is where I feel sometimes that actually, no one cares how we, those who deliver the service, feel. We help you develop, grow, we handle everything day and night, we take sometimes less money because we need to understand how hard it is for you. It seems that it's only about the client and never about the collaboration and attitude in between. If you grow - I grow, But if you grow and I suffer, do not sleep, earn less, not respected - you are not the right client for me.

So, I am letting go. Letting go of clients that do not care about my mental wellbeing, that do not respect my time or work, punishing me for mistakes, paying me less than I am worth in order to grow themselves. I am letting go of people that are toxic to my professional journey.

I am professional, I am experienced, I do believe in work ethic, empathy and trust. When I lose one of the values that impact my wellbeing - you lose my loyalty, and it's hard to gain it back.

And to be honest, sometimes we need to let go in order to learn. We need to do mistakes in order to grow. We need to go through all of this - just to have that 'aha' moment like I have now.

:) Ciao my monsters!