I have been blessed with many fabulous clients that I easily developed a connection with. We talk about business and life with equal ease and I love this. It’s a beautiful segue into our work related discussions. I care about my clients. I concern myself with their well being (though I try not to pry) and if they’re happy with my work. I sometimes wonder if it’s just my guilty conscience that drives me to be the best that I can be for my clients or if it’s really my professional curiosity and desire to learn more and do better. I suppose, what drives me most is a desire to succeed.
It took me many years AFTER college to learn how to learn. Life’s lessons fell on deaf ears at times but I managed – as most do – to earn a paycheck. Sometime around 1996 I discovered the Internet and WWW and the spark fell on the pile of dry tinder. Since then, I’ve had an insatiable appetite for all things related to the web. My curiosity went from the basics to more advanced topics quickly. I dabbled, tested, published, broke, and rewrote. More importantly, I read and reread and I asked questions.
I think the “aha” moment was when I suddenly realized I had a desire to learn something instead of it being required. Faced with staying an hour later to figure out some programming problem or going home and stoke the wood furnace, I chose to stay and do more research. When I chased the answer down and felt the satisfaction of seeing my code work as I hoped, I opened up to learning like I should have in college. I’ve been hungry to learn ever since.
When I sit down with a client I ask questions. A lot of them. Most of them are dead on topic – items I need to know in order to complete the project. Some, however, are out in left field. I once asked a first-time client about their mother’s health. It wasn’t a guess on my part. When she walked into my office, she casually apologized for not getting back to me sooner to arrange our meeting because she had to go down to her parent’s house. Knowing she was about the same age as me, I surmised that her parents were in their autumn years and I politely inquired if the trip was for pleasure – leaving the obvious unsaid. She filled in the blanks and in a moment it became quite clear to me that she had a full plate, that this project was subordinate to her desire to tend to her parents.
I’ve learned a lot by asking questions. If I were a true businessman I suppose I’d wouldn’t be writing this – but I am. My goal is and always has been to help people. I’m in the service business and that means providing services to people. For tax purposes you may be called a business but in my book I refer to you as a person. To me, this is an important distinction.
It is because I love to see my work cause the effects I intended, that I feel successful. When a client rises up in the search indexes and the their bottom line jumps up – I smile and celebrate their achievement. I also feel immense pride in my work when I watch as my client revels in their new found confidence and success. It just amazes me how something that I take for granted can be so foreign. And even more that I can do something I love to do and help others profit by it. But the most satisfying thing is that my clients learn, grown, and succeed.
If you’re interested in working with me, great! But it’s only fair that I forewarn you I will ask questions. I will ask because I need to know the details if I am to help you and also because I will want to gauge you as a person. If you choose to sign on, be ready to and be willing to share yourself. The clients I enjoy the most are the characters – those that have unique personalities, that share who they are simply because that IS who they are. Maybe the most important piece of advice I can give you is to be yourself. It’s what makes my clients the wonderful, amazing people they are. They’re human and I love them for it.
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