Before the week starts, I want to take a few minutes to talk about something that really matters to me, more than any kind of marketing tactic. It's about what you do when doing the right thing costs you money.
Before I closed my agency in 2023, there was a project that tested this in a very real way. I actually write about it in my book, Simplify the Funnel.
A client had bought a high-ticket programme from a guru she'd seen speaking on stage. It cost her $16,000, and it came with a blueprint for an entire online business, as well as one-to-one coaching. That coaching came from someone in his team rather than the guru himself, even though that wasn't made clear at the sale. It also came with a huge library of video training, content, templates, SOPs and all kinds of stuff.
She came to me asking my team to build the whole thing out, because I'd bought this same programme before, and she wanted it done exactly as the blueprint said. Because I knew it inside out and back to front, I put together a full proposal. We quoted $19,000 for the work, and she paid in full.
We broke the work down for her, and part of that was a list of 109 videos she had to record. These were product videos, sales page videos, upsell videos, ad videos and lesson videos.
Within a few weeks, it was clear the project wasn't going anywhere. We'd already done quite a lot of work and made a good start, but she was already busy and successful, and the sheer amount of content she had to sort out had completely overwhelmed her. Nothing was coming through from her at all.
Now, let me be honest about where I was. We could have carried on, and technically, we'd been paid to do the job. We could have kept chasing her for videos for months, and it felt wrong. There was no way that project should have been delivered like that. I wasn't going to lead her down a path of more complexity and more hustle.
So, less than a month after she'd paid, I offered her a full refund.
She was shocked, to say the least. Most people don't expect an agency to hand money back, but my faith was absolutely at play in that decision, because integrity is huge for me. You have to do the right thing, even when it shows up on your bank statement.
There's a verse in Proverbs that I come back to a lot. Proverbs 22:1 says, "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."
That verse sits at the heart of how I want to run a business. Money comes and goes in every business. Your name, the way people talk about you when you're not in the room, is something you build slowly but can lose very quickly.
Esteem gets built in small moments. It's the email you answer honestly. It's the deadline you own when you've missed it. It's the advice you give when it costs you the sale.
People sometimes ask me whether I felt like I'd lost out on that project, when they've read the book or heard me tell the story on stage. Honestly, I don't feel like I lost anything at all. Earning money by doing the wrong thing is simply not where I want to be, and it's certainly not what my faith teaches me to do.
And that's the thing I'd love you to think about before the week starts. Every business hits moments like this. Maybe it's a client who'd be better served by doing less, or a project that's drifting and you know it. Maybe it's an offer you would make money with, but you really know it probably wouldn't help the person buying it very much.
In those moments, it's easy to tell yourself a story. After all, they signed the contract. They paid the money. That's the work they asked for. It's not your job to tell them what they need. I get it.
When you know the work won't serve them, the right thing is usually the honest conversation. That might mean scaling the project back, changing the plan, or, like I did, handing the money back.
Integrity can be uncomfortable, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What I've found is that doing the right thing rarely leaves you worse off in the long run. That client came back a few weeks later, ready to go with a simplified strategy I'd suggested. And what happened? I'll tell you that story another time.
So as the week starts, here's my encouragement. Look at the work you've got on this week. Is there anywhere you're carrying on simply because you've been paid, or because stopping feels awkward? If there is, have an honest conversation. Protect your name above all things. It's worth far more than the invoice.
See you again in the next episode.
If you'd like to talk more, email me at cmo@anthodges.com. Subscribe wherever you're listening, and find every past episode at cmofieldnotes.com.
