I Want to Fire Clients Who Hire My Expertise Then Argue With It

Yesterday I had a consultation that made me question why I keep accepting new clients.

The prospective client hired me specifically because I’ve built multiple successful communities totaling over 1.1M followers. They wanted the strategies that worked for 8x10designs, Black Men In Fashion, and my other ventures.

But they spent 45 minutes explaining why each proven method wouldn’t work for their “unique” situation.

Here’s what I wanted to say: You didn’t hire me to validate your existing misconceptions. You hired me because I’ve done what you’re trying to do, and done it successfully across multiple industries.

When I explain that consistent posting schedules drive engagement – because I’ve tested this across nine different businesses – that’s not a suggestion to debate. When I show you the content frameworks that built authentic communities, those aren’t starting points for negotiation.

Let me give you specific examples of what this looks like, because I guarantee you’ve either done this yourself or watched other business owners sabotage their own success with this mindset.

I’ll recommend a content strategy that worked to grow Black Men In Fashion from zero to 50,000+ engaged followers in six months. The client’s response? “But my audience is different.”

Of course your audience is different. That’s why I don’t give you the exact same tactics – I give you the underlying strategic framework adapted to your specific market. But instead of implementing and measuring results, you want to spend our time debating why it won’t work.

I’ll explain the community building approach that generated consistent revenue across multiple businesses. The client’s response? “That might work for other people, but my industry is unique.”

Every industry thinks it’s unique. Every business owner thinks their challenges are unprecedented. But the fundamentals of human psychology, community building, and authentic engagement work across markets because they’re based on how people actually behave, not on industry-specific theories.

Here’s what happens next in these conversations: The client starts explaining their business to me as if I haven’t spent the last hour reviewing their current strategy, analyzing their competition, and identifying exactly why their current approach isn’t generating the results they want.

They’ll say things like: “You don’t understand – my customers are very sophisticated,” or “My audience doesn’t respond to typical marketing approaches.”

Really? Your sophisticated customers don’t respond to valuable content, authentic expertise, and consistent communication? Your audience is somehow immune to the psychological principles that drive engagement across every other successful community?

The clients who get results are the ones who implement first and question later. They understand that if they already knew how to build what they wanted to build, they wouldn’t need a consultant.

When I worked with a client in the financial services industry, they initially resisted every community building recommendation because “finance is different.” Six months later, after implementing the frameworks I’d suggested, they had built their most engaged audience ever and generated more qualified leads than their previous two years combined.

The difference wasn’t that I finally understood their industry better – it was that they stopped arguing with proven strategies and started implementing them.

I’ve reached the point in my career where I can afford to be selective. My business portfolio generates revenue whether I take on consulting clients or not. I’m not desperate for projects, which means I don’t have to tolerate clients who hire expertise and then spend their time explaining why it won’t work.

If you want someone to agree with your predetermined ideas about what won’t work, hire a cheerleader. If you want someone who’s actually built what you’re trying to build, listen to the expertise you paid for.

Here’s the pattern I see repeatedly: Business owners who argue with proven strategies are usually the same ones who complain that “nothing works” for their business. They’ve tried multiple approaches, hired different consultants, and consistently failed to get results.

But when you look at their implementation history, you realize they’ve never actually tried anything. They’ve modified every recommendation until it resembled their original unsuccessful approach, then declared the strategy ineffective.

That’s not testing strategies – that’s confirming biases.

The difference between successful entrepreneurs and perpetual wannabes often comes down to this: successful ones implement proven strategies even when they don’t fully understand why they work. Wannabes spend their time explaining why proven strategies won’t work for them.

I understand the psychology behind this resistance. Implementing someone else’s recommendations feels like admitting you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s easier to maintain the illusion of expertise by finding reasons to reject advice.

But here’s what actually demonstrates expertise: the wisdom to recognize when someone has already solved the problem you’re facing, and the discipline to implement their solutions before trying to improve them.

When I started 8x10designs, I didn’t reinvent creative business models. I studied what successful design agencies were doing and implemented their frameworks before adding my own innovations. That foundation of proven strategies gave me the stability to experiment with new approaches.

The businesses in my portfolio that generated the fastest growth were the ones where I implemented established community building principles first, then adapted them to specific market needs.

If you hire me for consultation, you’re paying for strategies that have been tested across multiple industries and proven to generate results. You’re not paying for therapy sessions where we explore why you’re afraid to try new approaches.

Which one are you going to be: the client who implements and gets results, or the one who explains why proven strategies won’t work for your “unique” situation?

Because I promise you, your situation is not as unique as you think it is, and your resistance to proven strategies is more common than you realize.