Screaming Sam. Sam is the perfect example of the client you do not want to have. I do not work with screamers and have been known to fire them at the first sign of crazy behavior. Luckily, most of the time my pre-screen tactics with potential clients work and only a very small few fall through the cracks. Screaming Sam was screaming even before our initial phone call. I am not joking. This would also be a perfect example of ego gone way out of control. This person actually faked a celebrity wedding on Facebook. Please don’t get me started on that one. Anyway, this person was supposed to call me at a certain time and as usual I block off time on my calendar. When my phone did not ring at our scheduled time, I started receiving all of these texts messages via Facebook asking why I was unprepared, etc. etc. When I replied and said I was available, waiting for the call the ranting and raving escalated. I promptly deleted this person and then continued to receive messages that I destroyed a friendship. Um, not ever friends and certainly never working with Screaming Sam.
Cancelling Carol. This situation just about killed me and definitely resulted in some major eye rolls. I had a client call me the day before her television spot and asked me if I could bump it up an hour. I have had this issue before with another client wanting to cancel her Monday television spot on a Friday. She had done so many local spots and had moved onto national she was just pretty much over it. My response went something like, “You are getting you’re a$$ down to the studio.” Please keep in mind that we are friends and I have been doing her PR for years now. Anyway, at my initial request to move the spot ended up being cancelled and my client was not rescheduled. My point? Never, ever commit to a media spot and cancel/move last minute. You look bad and so does your publicist. Thank goodness, I really work on good media relationships.
Inappropriate Ivan. This one is funny. Funny to a point that I was laughing so hard over an email from this person that I almost texted everyone in the office at 11 p.m. at night, because I was rolling around on the floor. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose what this company does and I wish I could, because this would be 10x funnier. Anyway, so let’s say it was a tattoo artist company. We had a great meeting at our office and sent a follow up proposal. I sent an email to check in and received a glowing response. What was the kicker? They wanted work with us, but we needed to try their services. First of all, I am not going to volunteer myself to get needles stuck in me or anything else for that matter. I am also certain that another office buddy didn’t want a butterfly tramp stamp and another was probably done with needles in general (F.Y.I. she’s pregnant not a heroin addict). I don’t think anyone in my office has followed up with this particular client. And, for those of you reading this all I have to say is, “Not it.”