Why Liking the People you work With is a recipe for Success

Kindness leading to success and liking the people you’re working with shouldn’t be a radical concept. When you like who you work with it makes your job easier and a lot more enjoyable. 

As times change, so do our views on how success can be achieved. One of the many great platforms that work to tell the success stories of those in marketing is The Women In Influential Marketing (WIIM) podcast hosted by Jessy Grossman. Guests welcomed on this platform are individuals in Influencer Marketing who have paved their own way in their field and are sharing their experiences with like-minded marketers. 

An episode of WIIM titled ‘How to be Successful and Nice’ features Sarah Boyd who is an influential marketer with a kinder approach to success. 

Sarah Boyd is the President and Founder of Simply Inc., a leading influencer marketing agency. Boyd worked in Public Relations for 9 years before shifting her focus to influencer marketing. In her PR career, Sarah was known as “the nice girl in PR” and earned that name by caring about and building solid relationships with the clients she liked.  

On Boyd’s episode of WIIM, she talks about her career and what drove her to raise her standards when taking on a new client or deciding to work with someone. 

In this article, we’ll use the term ‘client’ to refer to someone with whom you’re establishing a work relationship. This can be a client you’re taking on as a freelancer or a new contractor for your business. 

Knowing where you’re going helps you decide who you want to take with you 

At the end of her time in PR, Boyd felt that she had accumulated clients who she didn’t enjoy working with and who she described as “killing [her] slowly”. She described waking up every morning with a pit of dread in her stomach when she thought about working with them.  

Sound familiar?   

Boyd knew that she wanted to wake up every day and change lives, make people happy, and be nice in the process. The environment in which she worked told her that she had to have tougher skin and that the only way to be successful was to be mean. 

That’s what started Boyd on her journey to starting a business that helps people by putting kindness first. Boyd started with a conference that set the tone of kindness, supporting each other, and open-mindedness, and its success helped her launch Simply Inc. which has since expanded from L.A. to N.Y.C. and even Dubai. 

How to notice the red flags

People are becoming less and less inclined to do work that they don’t like and that includes the people with which they’re working.  

When meeting with a potential client, take note from the beginning whether this is someone you think you can work with long-term. Boyd took notice of things like whether a client is sending over 1,000 messages per day or, alternatively, ignoring messages for days on end. Before taking on the client, stating communication expectations is key, even if it may feel redundant at the time. 

If a client is unreliable and always late to provide you with deliverables, take note of this too as it can cause headaches and a backlog of work for you. Another way to think about it is that the time you spend waiting on your client could be spent on another client that values your time. 

We’re not always in the position to fire clients but taking some time to find a replacement for them before ending the work relationship can save us a lot of time and stress in the long term. If a client becomes so difficult that it threatens your work performance and makes you dread working with them every day, then it’s time to make a change. 

Make sure to vet your client first. 

Not all working relationships are on an employee/employer basis, so you aren’t always provided with things like a resume, cover letter, and references. Require enough alternative documents that illustrate what the client can do and a list of their past clients or working relationships. This should provide you with enough information to vet your potential client. 

If you have no doubts that this client is going to be easy to work with, trust your gut, but know that it doesn’t hurt to go through the vetting process anyway. Try not to be distracted by the shiny stuff, the big names, the amazing achievements, and focus on what the person is like and if you can see yourself working with them long-term. A client may seem perfect at the beginning because that’s when we’re all putting our best selves forward. 

Know your priorities  

Everyone has their own vision when it comes to their business, and how you find success is ultimately decided by you. If you think that you can’t be kind or surround yourself with people you like along the way, Sarah Boyd, and the team at In Good Company, ensure you that there are other options. 

It’s our mission at In Good Company to be in good company whenever possible. This applies to our clients and team members. We work best when we like the people we work with. 

Sarah Boyd’s approach to her agency is one that may not work for everyone, depending on where you’re starting out you may not always be able to pick and choose. With that said, it should become your priority to work with people you like and choose to be in good company. 

Written by Morgan Law