We made our first big mistake, and it hit harder than I expected.
5 weeks ago, we sign our first client. We pitch him our signature offer:
- Growing his YouTube channel
- Running his paid marketing
He loves it. But frankly, he’s unsure.
He’s been burned plenty of times, and he straight up says “I don’t trust a lot of marketers, and especially not agencies.”
Well, we’re marketers running an agency.
This already feels like an uphill battle.
But I can read between the lines. He just needs a reason to trust us.
So we offer him a simple trial project:
“Let us script, edit, and produce two YouTube videos for you at a reduced rate, so you can see if we’re any good with minimal risk on your part.”
He pays us the very next day, and we’re officially in business.
But little did I know, this was the start of a colossal screw up.
We nail the first script. 4,454 words long, which is about 25 minutes. The client reads the script and LOVES it. He sends us the raw footage, we delegate it to our editing team, and we’re in the home stretch. Everything is on time, and we’re off to a strong start.
The editors turn in the final edit on the day of the deadline…
And something feels… off.
Both my partner and I agree the video edit isn’t bad, but it’s not good.
So now we need to make a choice:
- Hit the deadline, but turn in a mediocre video.
- Miss the deadline, but turn in a remarkable video.
Both options feel wrong. We shouldn’t even be in this position at all, but here we were.
We tell the client we need to extend the deadline to deliver something we’re all proud of.
A couple days later, the second version of the video is done. And although it’s still not perfect, it looks much better. We send it to the client, and I just know he’s going to dig it.
I’m already imaging how he’ll email us asking to upgrade into our bigger agency package.
But that fantasy doesn’t last long…
I get an email back from the client’s Creative Director…
He lists out 20 mistakes with our video, all in the first 8 minutes. He didn’t list glaring, obvious mistakes. They were tiny, technical details that I didn’t even notice before.
And once he points them out, it’s all I can see.
The client himself then replies a few minutes later…
“Our team can do the video edit, and maybe you guys just work on the scripts. Let us know.”
When I saw that email, it felt like a double roundhouse kick to the face. Not only did we mess up, but now the client’s questioning whether we’re fit to handle their project at all.
The problem? We didn’t prepare our editors well enough.
They were ready for a 25-minute video, but they weren’t ready for the content of the video. We went deep in that script, and it was a challenge for our editors to know how to animate it.
But we were busy building the business and delivering on other client work, so the editors were left to figure it out. This paired with the fact we gave them too tight of a deadline created a perfect storm.
This led to the editors feeling rushed, erratic, and reactive, and it’s entirely my fault.
After a long conversation with my partner, we both realized we need to do a much better job of setting up our editors to succeed. Especially for long, complex video projects.
Here’s how we plan to do that moving forward:
Founder Storyboarding: We used to leave storyboarding to the editors, because they can do it well. But we’re taking that back, because we can do it better. This puts more work on our plates, but it creates a better video. Plus it allows us to refine our process so we can delegate it in the future with more impact.
Custom Editing Guides: We’re creating detailed editing guides for every client, outlining their style, preferences, and brand standards. Plus we’re creating an editing checklist to cover all the small details that need to be considered. This allows us to remove human error as much as possible, and to make our editors’ jobs easier.
The 48-Hour Rule: Editors must show us the first 3 minutes of a video edit within 48 hours. This allows us to make sure everything is on track, and give them early feedback that can be applied for the rest of the video. This adds a safety check early on so no major mistakes slip through.
These new systems aren’t just for this client. We’re applying them across the board so every video meets a demanding quality standard.
We’ve already started putting these processes in place. The video in question is being completely redone – at no extra charge. We’re committed to making sure the client loves it.
Even though we messed up on this one video, we’ve actually been crushing it on every other project we’ve taken on. In the last four weeks, we’ve produced multiple long-form YouTube videos for different clients and partners, and I can’t wait to share them publicly when they go live so you can see our work.
But it just sucks that we let this one video slip through the cracks.
I was nervous writing this, because we have clients and prospects who read my content…
Which means they’re going to read how we messed up a video. I was worried this post could make us look bad. I debated just not writing about this at all. It would be so much easier to just not publish stuff like this, and I seriously considered keeping it to myself…
But I’m sharing this openly for one reason:
Transparency is our core value.
I’m not here to position ourselves as perfect – I’m here to position ourselves as an agency you can trust.
There’s a ton of people in the marketing industry pretending to be something they’re not.
This is why our client doesn’t trust marketers.
Our goal is to fix that.
We want to prove that marketing doesn’t have to be a dark, slimy thing filled with lies, deception, and manipulation.
We believe marketing is literally magic, and we want to use that magic to bring inspiring products and messages to billions on YouTube.
That’s why we’re going beyond the claims and sales tactics.
We want to show the problems we’re facing, and what we’re doing behind the scenes to solve those problems and be better for our clients.
It’s like my favorite Charlie Munger quote…
The best marketing is the work on your desk.
Everybody makes mistakes. What matters is how you handle them.
We’re simply making our mistakes in public, because with us…
What you see is what you get.
Besides…
What good is a story if there are no obstacles along the way? 🙂
This is Week 6 of building my business in public.