**The Reality of Working with Clients**

Having clients can be a challenging experience, especially when they don't understand how you do what you do. Most people will misunderstand almost every client you have, and they will have no idea how you perform your magic. They want things cheaply because they have a boss breathing down their neck, and they don't really want to understand how you work either. Despite the benefits of educating them on how you do what you do, it's not always feasible or practical.

**Setting Boundaries with Clients**

One way to deal with clients who don't understand your services is to set clear boundaries and expectations from the start. Don't waste time justifying your costs if they don't think it's worth it - let them go. It's essential to be upfront and direct when communicating with clients, and being too nice or friendly can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. Instead, focus on setting clear expectations and being straightforward about what you can deliver.

**Finding the Right Client**

When looking for new clients, it's crucial to find someone who understands your value proposition and is willing to pay accordingly. Don't settle for clients who don't appreciate what you do or are unwilling to pay for your services. Instead, look for people who are informed and interested in your work, but also recognize that not everyone will understand how you do what you do.

**Lessons from Adamson Chittenden**

A great example of finding a client who understands the value of your work is Adamson Chittenden, a lab glass manufacturer based in Berkeley. When I needed custom-made glass containers for Mythbusters, they quoted me a price that was within my budget, even though making a single glass stomach can be a challenge. This experience taught me to find reliable suppliers who understand the value of their products and are willing to work with clients to deliver what they need.

**The Art of Direct Communication**

When communicating with potential or existing clients, it's essential to be direct and upfront about your services and prices. Don't sugarcoat or overpromise; instead, focus on setting clear expectations and delivering on what you promise. This might mean being bluntly honest about the costs involved in a project, but it's also crucial for building trust with potential clients.

**Dealing with Uneducated Clients**

One of the biggest challenges when working with clients is dealing with those who don't understand how your work is done. It's essential to remember that not everyone will grasp what you do, and that's okay. Instead of getting frustrated or defensive, focus on setting clear expectations and delivering exceptional results. Remember, it's not about educating your client; it's about providing value and building a successful working relationship.

**Being Gruff but Professional**

While being direct and upfront is essential when communicating with clients, it's also important to be professional and respectful. Don't let frustration or anger get the better of you - instead, take a deep breath and focus on delivering exceptional results. This might mean sending clients packing if they're not willing to pay what your work is worth, but it's also crucial for building a reputation as a reliable and skilled professional.

**The Importance of Setting Education**

Finally, remember that educating your client about how you do what you do can be essential, but it's not always necessary. Some people will never understand the intricacies of your craft, and that's okay. Focus on delivering exceptional results and building trust with potential clients - instead of trying to educate everyone on your services.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensilver Defender asks have you ever had a client you were initially reluctant to work with due to previous stories from other people and yet gone along perfectly well with them and had a good time working for them yeah totally totally um actually I mean I I have a story on that for uh from Jamie heinemann uh Jamie made a lot of money over the years doing props and uh special effects for the commercial director Joe pitka who famously directed The the first uh the first version of Space Jam but Joe Pekka was like one of the Giants in Hollywood commercial directing he's like six foot a million uh he plays basketball uh and like he does all he did all the NBA commercials and was famously like always like between shots playing basketball with the NBA stars he was filming in the commercials and pitka is legendarily difficult to work with legendarily difficult to work with and he loved Jamie he loved Jamie's work I I don't think I'm revealing anything to to personally here yeah he loved Jamie's work and I think really specifically I get the feeling that what Pika really liked about Jamie was how unflappable he was and you know when something couldn't be done to his specs Jamie would be like yep but here's how close we're going to get to your specs and here are the one two three options you can choose one and when Jamie gives three options and says pick one because this will happen what he says will happen absolutely would happen and so pick is a great example of a guy who could be a nightmare for one special effect shop and the heaven sent a heaven sent Revenue generator for another kind of shop and that all came down to really I think about the way pitka's personality doved help with Jamie's personality um it is really great to get prior information from people if you can about clients you're going to work with and it's also important to take your own assessment of them uh and there are there will be plenty of times in which the information you've been given doesn't quite mesh with what you're experiencing and learning when to trust your instincts on that again is just part of institutional knowledge I mean everything around here is is all iterative and by iterative I mean you're going to fail you're going to screw up you're going to lose money you're going to lose sleep and each time you do what's in common on you is to figure out what you can learn from that to run that off at the past the next time something like that happens um recently gears and Bricks this is this is terrific gears and Bricks recently someone asked me to 3D print them a very rare 10 inch diameter Lego Spur Gear replacement 10 inch diameter wow uh when he asked for an estimate I said I don't know yet but I gave him an estimate anyway despite that being half of the current price on the market the client could not fathom why why I was charging so much for quote pushing a few buttons how do you deal with customers who don't understand the process and hard work it takes to fabricate a part do you find that most people who are will hire makers under misunderstand the process if they don't know how to do the job themselves why does there seem to be assumption that it is always cheap and easy for those that do the work regularly thanks for whatever experience you can share with us um I'll go so far as not only most people will misunderstand almost every client you have will have no idea how you do the magic that you do they will have no idea how it works they want stuff cheap frequently because they've got a boss breathing down their neck uh and they don't really necessarily want to understand how you do what you do even though it behooves you to help them understand because it'll make them a better client they are going to ask you questions like I said earlier today they will your client will ask you questions that will make you wonder if they have a grasp on reality or if they've been paying attention to a single thing you've said um that's just part of having a client and they're all like that um one thing you can do is not take it personally that is one of the Q-tip as my son said uh quit taking it personally it's not personal when they don't understand I mean sure someone asking you to do a thing and then saying why is that going to cost a hundred dollars you're just pushing a few buttons and your response in the moment is whatever it's going to be but frankly internally if I heard that I would be like first of all I wouldn't take it personally I've had so many clients misunderstand what I'm doing over the years that it's like you you can't hurt me anymore in that regard and I won't take it personally it's just well that's where the market will bear if you don't want to go you can go somewhere else that's fine I don't have to make this part for you but this is what it costs uh have you heard of the private sector that's where you found me this is my price um secondly don't waste time justifying your cost if they don't think it's worth it let them go really seriously however I mean yeah so years and years and years ago there's a wonderful scientific glass place here in the city uh here in over in Berkeley called Adamson Chittenden they make all of uh Cal's lab glass they're amazing glass blowers and makers uh and I called them up during the pilots of Mythbusters and was like hey I need a glass stomach we were doing pop rocks and soda and I wanted to see the reaction inside the stomach and I said I'm wondering if you could make a glass stomach and the guy that answered the phone I can't remember if it was Adams or Chittenden but he was like ah have you ever made a glass stomach like no and he's like they are a pain in the ass right away I love talking to this guy I'm getting the straightest of Straight Dope but more than that I've also found someone who's apparently made more than one glass stomach I found the perfect place and then I was like well is it something you could do and he's like yeah but it's going to cost you again freaking great frankly I think this is a great way to interact with a client I mean I I don't know I'm not a Gruff person on that but like being right up front and direct and I'm like okay how much will it cost me he's like he gave me a price that was within our budget we ended up not needing glass stomachs because we came to a different conclusion about how to do the story but like that's how you deal with clients look this is somebody who gets people calling them up every day asking for things and wondering why they're so expensive so he just doesn't have time for that and you ask for I think he's going to immediately tell you whoa this is in this Zone this is in that zone um you can set edu you can set expectations and the client still doesn't necessarily have to understand how you do what you do as long as you're setting expectations and you're not taking really really I can't urge you enough to not take their lack of knowledge about what you do personally because I'm I'm a I'm speaking about this from a physical making standpoint it applies across all sorts of different disciplines though which is to say when you are in your discipline whether it's coding or dressmaking or 3D printing you know all of these things about it that you had to learn the hard way that your client just isn't going to know they're just not and you can't educate them to know those things you just have to hope that they'll pay you enough to do it and if they can't well then they've just got to go somewhere else uh now like I said I'm not a fan of being Gruff on the phone or yelling at people uh I'm a Believer in being nice and easy to work with under even the most egregious circumstances and I have also you know I have also sent clients packing who didn't want to pay what a job was worth that's totally a reasonable thing foreignsilver Defender asks have you ever had a client you were initially reluctant to work with due to previous stories from other people and yet gone along perfectly well with them and had a good time working for them yeah totally totally um actually I mean I I have a story on that for uh from Jamie heinemann uh Jamie made a lot of money over the years doing props and uh special effects for the commercial director Joe pitka who famously directed The the first uh the first version of Space Jam but Joe Pekka was like one of the Giants in Hollywood commercial directing he's like six foot a million uh he plays basketball uh and like he does all he did all the NBA commercials and was famously like always like between shots playing basketball with the NBA stars he was filming in the commercials and pitka is legendarily difficult to work with legendarily difficult to work with and he loved Jamie he loved Jamie's work I I don't think I'm revealing anything to to personally here yeah he loved Jamie's work and I think really specifically I get the feeling that what Pika really liked about Jamie was how unflappable he was and you know when something couldn't be done to his specs Jamie would be like yep but here's how close we're going to get to your specs and here are the one two three options you can choose one and when Jamie gives three options and says pick one because this will happen what he says will happen absolutely would happen and so pick is a great example of a guy who could be a nightmare for one special effect shop and the heaven sent a heaven sent Revenue generator for another kind of shop and that all came down to really I think about the way pitka's personality doved help with Jamie's personality um it is really great to get prior information from people if you can about clients you're going to work with and it's also important to take your own assessment of them uh and there are there will be plenty of times in which the information you've been given doesn't quite mesh with what you're experiencing and learning when to trust your instincts on that again is just part of institutional knowledge I mean everything around here is is all iterative and by iterative I mean you're going to fail you're going to screw up you're going to lose money you're going to lose sleep and each time you do what's in common on you is to figure out what you can learn from that to run that off at the past the next time something like that happens um recently gears and Bricks this is this is terrific gears and Bricks recently someone asked me to 3D print them a very rare 10 inch diameter Lego Spur Gear replacement 10 inch diameter wow uh when he asked for an estimate I said I don't know yet but I gave him an estimate anyway despite that being half of the current price on the market the client could not fathom why why I was charging so much for quote pushing a few buttons how do you deal with customers who don't understand the process and hard work it takes to fabricate a part do you find that most people who are will hire makers under misunderstand the process if they don't know how to do the job themselves why does there seem to be assumption that it is always cheap and easy for those that do the work regularly thanks for whatever experience you can share with us um I'll go so far as not only most people will misunderstand almost every client you have will have no idea how you do the magic that you do they will have no idea how it works they want stuff cheap frequently because they've got a boss breathing down their neck uh and they don't really necessarily want to understand how you do what you do even though it behooves you to help them understand because it'll make them a better client they are going to ask you questions like I said earlier today they will your client will ask you questions that will make you wonder if they have a grasp on reality or if they've been paying attention to a single thing you've said um that's just part of having a client and they're all like that um one thing you can do is not take it personally that is one of the Q-tip as my son said uh quit taking it personally it's not personal when they don't understand I mean sure someone asking you to do a thing and then saying why is that going to cost a hundred dollars you're just pushing a few buttons and your response in the moment is whatever it's going to be but frankly internally if I heard that I would be like first of all I wouldn't take it personally I've had so many clients misunderstand what I'm doing over the years that it's like you you can't hurt me anymore in that regard and I won't take it personally it's just well that's where the market will bear if you don't want to go you can go somewhere else that's fine I don't have to make this part for you but this is what it costs uh have you heard of the private sector that's where you found me this is my price um secondly don't waste time justifying your cost if they don't think it's worth it let them go really seriously however I mean yeah so years and years and years ago there's a wonderful scientific glass place here in the city uh here in over in Berkeley called Adamson Chittenden they make all of uh Cal's lab glass they're amazing glass blowers and makers uh and I called them up during the pilots of Mythbusters and was like hey I need a glass stomach we were doing pop rocks and soda and I wanted to see the reaction inside the stomach and I said I'm wondering if you could make a glass stomach and the guy that answered the phone I can't remember if it was Adams or Chittenden but he was like ah have you ever made a glass stomach like no and he's like they are a pain in the ass right away I love talking to this guy I'm getting the straightest of Straight Dope but more than that I've also found someone who's apparently made more than one glass stomach I found the perfect place and then I was like well is it something you could do and he's like yeah but it's going to cost you again freaking great frankly I think this is a great way to interact with a client I mean I I don't know I'm not a Gruff person on that but like being right up front and direct and I'm like okay how much will it cost me he's like he gave me a price that was within our budget we ended up not needing glass stomachs because we came to a different conclusion about how to do the story but like that's how you deal with clients look this is somebody who gets people calling them up every day asking for things and wondering why they're so expensive so he just doesn't have time for that and you ask for I think he's going to immediately tell you whoa this is in this Zone this is in that zone um you can set edu you can set expectations and the client still doesn't necessarily have to understand how you do what you do as long as you're setting expectations and you're not taking really really I can't urge you enough to not take their lack of knowledge about what you do personally because I'm I'm a I'm speaking about this from a physical making standpoint it applies across all sorts of different disciplines though which is to say when you are in your discipline whether it's coding or dressmaking or 3D printing you know all of these things about it that you had to learn the hard way that your client just isn't going to know they're just not and you can't educate them to know those things you just have to hope that they'll pay you enough to do it and if they can't well then they've just got to go somewhere else uh now like I said I'm not a fan of being Gruff on the phone or yelling at people uh I'm a Believer in being nice and easy to work with under even the most egregious circumstances and I have also you know I have also sent clients packing who didn't want to pay what a job was worth that's totally a reasonable thing foreign\n"