I actually initially scheduled a post about her for Valentine's Day about clients you don't love :)
For her concert tour, I worked on creating makeup looks for action figures that also never made it to market. They spent a small fortune on creating the prototypes with multiple makeup and hair looks. The whole Dirrty thing destroyed a lot of the products and deals we'd had in development.
And thank you, Maggie! I try to learn from every experience. And I can be philosophical about it from this great distance.
Beyond frustrating for all that hard work to not coming to fruition!! I think we can all laugh about the toxic experiences and reflect on the learnings we gleaned with them far in the rear view!
At the time I was absolutely crushed. Her agent at the time was fantastic and funny (though she dumped him unceremoniously after the tour). He'd chase her around with tights or pantyhose and beg her to...cover up. And yeah. It's funny now. But I had very high hopes that got smashed. Thankfully, we have that distance!
Honestly devastating. But now we're both laughing about it! And that was priceless. He would describe scenarios as well where he was chasing her with undergarments begging her to consider some :)
A wonderful cautionary tale. On an infinitely smaller level, I recently was approached by someone who had had major roles at several big tech companies to help her write a book. I had written about her before and she loved how I "got" her, so she approached me for this much bigger project. At first I was flattered and it could have potentially been the most lucrative writing project I'd ever had. But I began to get the feeling this was going to be a vanity project for her, not the "good feelings and good values" messaging she had said. She needed someone to hold her hand through all the thinking it through, not to mention the execution, she was strangely reluctant to send me payment for the first scheduled coaching sessions. After two reminders and no payment, I told her I was withdrawing from the project. I felt great relief.
Oooh. Judy. This one hurts. I hate when I get really excited about a project and then my gut kicks in with things to be cautious about. It sounds like you made the best possible decision. Did she ever pay you the balance of what was owed?
I was at least smart enough not to go through with the coaching without payment in advance, so all I lost was time--not a small thing, but I cut my losses. I knew there was a reason it fell through and since then I realized I could not have kept up with her short timeline anyway, given my other commitments.
It's really a hard lesson to have learned (and your time is valuable!) but at least now you can do a gut check before accepting similar clients. And ugh to short timelines!
*cough* *cough* someone's manager running after someone -- with the panties they took off at a meeting - and he really thought she should put them back on... *cough*
That was an experience for the ages .. 🥲
In retrospect it was a lot more fun than irl!
I had no idea you worked with Xtina...And yess spill allll the tea! Great insights, Rachel!
I actually initially scheduled a post about her for Valentine's Day about clients you don't love :)
For her concert tour, I worked on creating makeup looks for action figures that also never made it to market. They spent a small fortune on creating the prototypes with multiple makeup and hair looks. The whole Dirrty thing destroyed a lot of the products and deals we'd had in development.
And thank you, Maggie! I try to learn from every experience. And I can be philosophical about it from this great distance.
Beyond frustrating for all that hard work to not coming to fruition!! I think we can all laugh about the toxic experiences and reflect on the learnings we gleaned with them far in the rear view!
At the time I was absolutely crushed. Her agent at the time was fantastic and funny (though she dumped him unceremoniously after the tour). He'd chase her around with tights or pantyhose and beg her to...cover up. And yeah. It's funny now. But I had very high hopes that got smashed. Thankfully, we have that distance!
I can only imagine how crushing it was...That image of her agent chasing her with tights/pantyhose - LOL!
Honestly devastating. But now we're both laughing about it! And that was priceless. He would describe scenarios as well where he was chasing her with undergarments begging her to consider some :)
A wonderful cautionary tale. On an infinitely smaller level, I recently was approached by someone who had had major roles at several big tech companies to help her write a book. I had written about her before and she loved how I "got" her, so she approached me for this much bigger project. At first I was flattered and it could have potentially been the most lucrative writing project I'd ever had. But I began to get the feeling this was going to be a vanity project for her, not the "good feelings and good values" messaging she had said. She needed someone to hold her hand through all the thinking it through, not to mention the execution, she was strangely reluctant to send me payment for the first scheduled coaching sessions. After two reminders and no payment, I told her I was withdrawing from the project. I felt great relief.
Oooh. Judy. This one hurts. I hate when I get really excited about a project and then my gut kicks in with things to be cautious about. It sounds like you made the best possible decision. Did she ever pay you the balance of what was owed?
I was at least smart enough not to go through with the coaching without payment in advance, so all I lost was time--not a small thing, but I cut my losses. I knew there was a reason it fell through and since then I realized I could not have kept up with her short timeline anyway, given my other commitments.
It's really a hard lesson to have learned (and your time is valuable!) but at least now you can do a gut check before accepting similar clients. And ugh to short timelines!
*cough* *cough* someone's manager running after someone -- with the panties they took off at a meeting - and he really thought she should put them back on... *cough*
And take a shower 😞