Navigating the tumultuous waters of client relationships can be a real rollercoaster, right? One moment, you're cruising along, and the next, BAM! You find yourself staring at the wreckage of a lost client, heartbroken and wondering what went wrong. That's exactly the vibe we dive into with Meghan Donnelly, the Queen of Automation, as she shares an all-too-common tale of dropping the ball in business. She takes us on a journey through her experience of losing a three-year client, who she had nurtured from the ground up. It's a raw and honest reflection on accountability and the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in our business dealings. Megan doesn't sugarcoat the harsh reality—she owned her mistakes and even walked us through the uncomfortable moments of facing the fallout. It's a lesson in humility and a call to action for anyone who's ever felt the sting of losing a valued partnership.

Megan emphasizes that the essence of business is not just about flawless execution but rather how you respond when things go haywire. She shares her own missteps, from missed deadlines to broken communication, and how those slip-ups led to the inevitable parting. But wait, there's a silver lining! After this experience, Megan made major changes to her backend processes, implementing automated systems that keep her on track and ensure nothing slips through the cracks again. The takeaway? It's all about learning from our blunders and stepping up our game, so we never have to feel that gut-wrenching disappointment again. After all, navigating the wild world of entrepreneurship is as much about resilience as it is about strategy.

As the episode wraps up, Megan leaves us with a powerful message that resonates deeply: your reputation isn't built on never failing—it's built on how you handle those failures. It’s a call to embrace discomfort, stay accountable, and build relationships that last, even when the going gets tough. So grab your headphones, settle in, and get ready to reflect on your own client relationships—because this episode just might change how you approach your business forever!

Takeaways:

1. It's vital to own up to your mistakes in business, as accountability fosters trust and growth.
2. When things go wrong, how you respond defines your reputation more than your successes.
3. After losing a client, I revamped my entire approach to ensure nothing slips through the cracks again.
4. Communication is key; proactively updating clients prevents misunderstandings and builds lasting relationships.
5. Your systems are only as good as your commitment to using them effectively in your business.
6. Failure isn't the end; it's a stepping stone toward better leadership and honing your skills.

Listen up, y'.

All.

It's the Queen of Automation, Megan Donley, here to give you inspiration.

Founders and business owners, gather round.

I'm gonna show you how to build systems that I let style streamline your processes.

No need for complication.

Hey, everyone.

Welcome back to the Queen of Automation podcast.

I am your host, Megan Donnelly.

Today's episode is going to be a little bit uncomfortable because I'm going to tell you about a time that I lost a dream client.

And it's not because they were difficult or because my pricing was wrong.

It was because I dropped the ball big time.

And I'm going to walk you through what happened after and what I learned from this experience that completely changed the way I show up in business.

If you've ever screwed up with a client, this one's for you.

So I lost a three year client because I up three years, built their brand from the ground up.

Their operations, their entire digital presence.

The kind of partnership where these clients became my friends.

And then I dropped the ball.

I have no excuses.

Deadlines slipped, communication broke down.

Things that I should have caught fell straight through the cracks.

They moved on.

Of course they did.

Why wouldn't they?

A few weeks later, I saw the new agency's work start popping up online.

And I'm gonna be really brutally honest.

It was awful.

It was generic.

It was lazy.

The kind of painfully obvious, obvious AI written content that makes you cringe when you know how good it used to be.

Watching something that you built crumble to the ground sucks.

And it will humble you faster than any business book ever could.

Right?

So here's what I did.

When I realized the relationship was dead, I didn't ghost them.

I didn't make excuses.

I didn't point fingers.

I owned it.

I helped them transition out smoothly.

I over to this other agency.

I fixed whatever needed to be fixed.

I sent over every password, every login, all the documentation that needed.

I made that handoff seem as easy as possible.

Why?

Because integrity doesn't vanish the second a contract ends.

And there's a reason that so many business relationships end badly.

Because people ghost.

They make excuses, they point fingers, they burn bridges that maybe later will come back around.

And I refused to do that.

So fast forward like three weeks, two weeks later, the client messaged me and said, it's been terrible working with them.

And I could have ignored it, and I didn't.

I could have said nothing, but I did it.

So I basically told them the truth.

I said, I'm so sorry that I messed up.

I said, I'd love another chance to make it right.

I didn't sales pitch them.

I like.

I wasn't desperate about it.

I was just a real human honestly communicating.

And the client didn't come back.

But the way that I handled that transition will stay with them forever.

And it has opened a door that I was permanently closed.

So here's what most people don't understand.

Your reputation is not built on the perfection that you provide.

It's built on how you respond when things fall apart.

How you respond when things go wrong.

Losing that client taught me something I will never forget.

Your systems only work when you work them.

The reason I lost that client wasn't bad luck.

It wasn't a personality clash.

It was all me.

I let the systems fall apart.

I stopped following up.

I assumed things were handled.

When they weren't, I got complacent.

And that complacency killed the relationship.

After losing that client, I rebuilt my entire backend from scratch.

I set up automated follow ups so nothing slips through the cracks.

I credited accountability checkpoints.

I built four different systems designed to catch the things that I used to drop manually.

And because of that, I never want a client to feel that way again.

And I never want to feel that way again.

Watching a relationship crumble because I didn't have my shit together sucked.

But here's the other piece.

Accountability is uncomfortable.

That's the whole point.

You want to explain the mistake away, you want to rationalize it.

You want to make yourself feel better.

But that's avoidance, not accountability.

Real accountability means looking at what happened and saying, I did that.

That was on me and I'm going to have to fix it.

Most people never get comfortable being uncomfortable.

They spend their whole careers dodging accountability, making excuses, blaming external, external factors.

And that's exactly why they stay stuck.

So here's what I do differently now.

I communicate way more proactively than I ever did before.

I don't wait for clients to ask for updates.

I send them before they need to ask.

And I hold myself to a higher standard.

Not because I'm afraid of failing again, but because I know what's at stake when I don't.

And I don't pretend I'm perfect.

I tell clients upfront I'm human, I might mess up.

I have adhd.

I'm going to interrupt you.

My brain is all over the place sometimes.

But guess what?

If I do mess up, I will own it and I will fix it.

That honesty has built more trust than any polished sales pitch ever could have.

So here's the real lesson out of this entire story.

Business operations are only good when they work.

And sometimes you are the reason they don't.

It's not your automation.

It's not your systems and technology or anything like that.

It's you.

But that's not failure.

That's leadership.

In real time.

You're going to drop the ball.

You're going to disappoint someone sometime you're human.

You're going to look back and wish you did things differently.

This will happen sometime in your career as an entrepreneur.

The question is, what will you do when it happens?

Will you ghost?

Will you make excuses, burn the bridge, own it, fix it and keep building it.

That's what separates the people who build sustainable businesses from the people who flame out after their first real mistake.

That's all I've got for this week, so thanks for listening.

And remember, operations, technology, systems, processes, all of this stuff is only good when it works.

See you next week, everybody.