There's this quote I heard in a program I was part of. "You create nightmare clients."
I've been thinking about that ever since.
Not because it's easy to hear. Because every time we've had friction with a client account, I keep coming back to it. I keep asking myself: is this a situation we're helping create? Is there a way I could've designed the team differently to support this client better?
Here's what I figured out the hard way...
When I started growing the team, I'd match people to accounts based on who was available. Someone had capacity, the client needed support, so we plugged them in. I didn't think much about whether their personality, their working style, or how they communicate would actually fit that particular client.
And when it didn't go well — which happened more than once — the instinct is to look at the client. Difficult client. Demanding client. Micromanager.
But sometimes it wasn't the client at all. It was the match.
I've watched team members who did incredible work on other accounts completely fall apart with a client who just wasn't a fit for them. And yeah, it uncovered some skill gaps — maybe in client management, maybe in areas that client expected that weren't needed elsewhere. But a lot of the friction came down to personality. Communication style. Energy. The stuff you can't train for.
We're so embedded in our clients' businesses — that's the whole point. We position ourselves as their ops partner. But if the person showing up in their day-to-day doesn't naturally click with how they work, the trust breaks down no matter how solid the strategy is.
So this year I'm being more deliberate about it. Better matching. Better questions during intake. Better vetting of our warm bench — not just for skills, but for how someone shows up. I'm reworking discovery call questions, adjusting our intake forms, and building a more intentional framework for pairing people with clients.
In our model, this isn't a nice-to-have. It's retention. It's the difference between a client who stays for years and one who quietly churns after a few months of friction that nobody names out loud.
The nightmare client might just be a mismatched team member. And that one's on me to fix.
Have you ever had a "nightmare client" that turned out to be a matching problem — with a hire, a vendor, a freelancer? I want to hear what you saw.
- Valentina, Mynt Collective Founder
📚 The Learning Lounge
A cozy corner where we share the latest insights, ideas, and takeaways from books, videos, articles, and more.
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What Creative Leaders Are Actually Planning for 2026 (Article): Studio heads across the US and UK are navigating the same tension heading into this year — how do you embrace efficiency without losing the craft? How do you deepen strategic thinking without losing creative courage? Creative Boom Less trend-chasing, more intentional positioning. Worth a read if you're mapping out where your agency is headed.
“If I Started an Agency in 2026, I'd Do This” (Video): Most creative founders hit a ceiling right around the $500K mark — and hustle alone won't get you through it. This breakdown gets into why building an operating system for your agency is what actually moves you from high-paid freelancer to CEO. It's the difference between a business that runs on your energy and one that runs on logic.
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