Lose the Attitude
Posted On: 2015-09-17
One of the reasons that my partner and I decided to branch out into mainstream web designing was because I wanted to escape the isolation that people experience here in adult online. We almost always work from home in this industry and work so hard that we hardly ever get out and talk to real people.
I'm a people person and while I was selling porn and working as an escort I had no hassles but as I began to withdraw from escort work the isolation began to become a problem. At first it was great to be able to work from home but eventually I just had to find some way to get out of the house so I opened an office and started doing mainstream web design.
That was quite a few years ago now and I've certainly enjoyed. I've had the chance to work on some very interesting sites and I've met some very nice people but today I think that I'm over some people and maybe it's time to try a slightly different approach to working from home.
The catalyst for me was a guy who came into the office late last week. He wanted a website built ASAP, he wanted it done right now, right this very instant and on Monday he was harassing one of his staff to contact my office and find out why we hadn't finished it.
Fortunately, although we really are busy at the moment, we were just in one of those spaces where we had a little room and a few moments to breathe and it was a very simple website so we did get the job finished by Monday afternoon.
Then today he was on the phone again, the site wasn't appearing in Google, he wanted to change some text, he wanted to try AdWords and he wanted all the answers and all the access codes and all the figures for AdWords right now.
Fortunately I had been able to pass his call to my partner who gave him all the information and all the access codes he needed. My partner also tried to give him some advice about AdWords and the real amounts that he might have to pay.
While Google was suggesting something over $10 a click for the major keyword phrase that was important to this guy's business my partner suggested that Google's figures were often conservative and he could expect to pay much more. The client's response was: "So I should be able to get it for about $5.00 then?"
When my partner tried to explain that $5.00 was never going to cut it the client then proceeded to tell my partner how much experience he had amassed using AdWords for his previous business.
I hope that we may never hear from that guy again although I'm fairly sure that he will be on the phone in a few days wanting us to fix something or improve something or to complain that we never gave him the right figures for AdWords and he has just blown a heap of money and got nothing in return.
As my partner said after he had spoken to the client: "That guy is just an obnoxious twat". Steve is right and I was surprised that his language was so moderate.
Neither of us want to have to deal with him again. We usually offer support to our new clients and check with them from time to time to see how their website is working for them but this guy is never going to get a call from us.
He thinks he knows everything, he demands and expects far more than anyone else and he treats us like idiots and we don't respond well to that type of treatment.
So what's your attitude like when you have to deal with others? Do you think that it's cool to bully and harass people until you get your way?
Do you make life hard for your content providers? Do you try and put the customer support people at your web host on the defensive from the moment they answer your call because you think that will get the problem fixed quicker?
Are you the type of person who needs to come out on top in every encounter because your ego is bigger than your penis? If you do have an ego that needs to win every time you deal with someone, that allows no room for the person to even breathe, then I've got some advice for you … lose the attitude if you want to survive in this business.
Lose the attitude because, if you're new here, you are not going to get the help you will need to survive. Even if you've been around for a while you are still going to need to lose the attitude because the people you rely on will eventually realise that they don't need you as a client.
They don't need your attitude and they don't need you and then you'll discover that, even if you do work from home and are isolated, you still need to be able to get on with people because you rely on them.