28. Oops! How to handle mistakes

Intro

Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies behind the scenes stories and nuggets of wisdom so you can create freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe. 

Louise: Hello, Louise here, joining you from a swelteringly humid Edinburgh. Today I want to talk about something a little bit icky, that we’d probably all like to avoid thinking about. What to do when you make a mistake. This popped into my mind as a good topic for today’s episode because I made a teeny weeny mistake this week.

Not a massive one. Not a forgetting your child when you jet off to Paris for Christmas kind of mistake. More of a wearing jeans in a heatwave kind of mistake. A stupid, completely avoidable one that seems minor but still made me feel a little bit sweaty and uncomfortable. Basically, I sent the wrong attachment to a client, and it was all very embarrassing. Not a massive deal, I know, but when your business is built on being a reliable and detail-oriented person, silly mistakes like this feel like a big deal because you feel like you’re jeopardising your reputation. Like, the client might think, ‘oh, if she can’t even send the right attachment, how much care is she taking with our project.’ Or whatever. Some of you might be thinking yeah, that’s really not a big deal, who would even notice. But I’m sure some of you are cringing on my behalf.

I’m pretty fortunate to be able to say that I haven’t made any major screw-ups, but one really sticks in my mind. And as embarrassing as it is to share, I’m going to share it with you because I want you all to know that if you make a mistake, you’re not alone. It happens to everyone. We all make mistakes. In fact, I did a poll on Twitter last week to ask freelancers if they’d ever made a mistake, and 90% said yes. I’m going to assume the 10% who said no hit the wrong button, thus proving my point.

Anyway. The big mistake I mentioned.

A couple of years ago, I was about to head off on a long-weekend, and was just tying up some loose ends before I closed my laptop for a few days, replying to some last minute client emails, making sure my social media posts were scheduled (back in the days when I had time to schedule them), and setting up my out of office reply. I was only going to be away for a few days, so I didn’t really need it, but I thought it would look professional and manage expectations around when people couple expect a reply to their email. Yes, you know what out of office replies are for! Anyway. I was using Apple Mail at the time, and it was my first time setting it up. Aaaaand…. I accidentally set up my out of office autoresponder in such a way that it sent it out in response to every single email I ever received. Literally every email anyone had ever sent me got a reply saying was away for a long weekend. Some people got *hundreds*. It was an absolute nightmare. But! Hardly anyone mentioned it. A few emailed to check that I knew, saying they found it funny and realised it was a tech thing. There’s somewhat of a pratfall effect here, where people actually like you more when they realise you’re human. Makes them feel safer about fessing up about their errors too. You bond in adversity. 

Anyway, I still maintain it was Apple Mail’s fault. That’s why I use Gmail now, and I check my autoresponder about 18 times before I close my laptop for a holiday. I’m not making that mistake again. I’ve learned the lesson. Now I’ll also remember to triple and quadruple and quintuple check email attachments before I hit send. 

Maybe you’ve been there yourself. Maybe there was a mix-up with communications and you sent the wrong thing to the wrong person. Maybe you send an email to someone that was intended for someone else. Maybe you published something with tracked changes in it. Maybe you had a tech glitch, that revealed your technical incompetence to the world. Maybe it was a bigger error with a client account, that takes a little more work to undo.

When these things happen – and they will ­– it’s easy to start beating yourself up about it and even feeling like you want to quit. You might let worrying about making similar mistakes in future hold you back from trying new things – from experimenting with that new marketing strategy or pitching those scary big clients you want to work with or setting that audacious and exciting income goal. You might end up in a shame spiral, especially if you work on your own and your business relies on your reputation, and especially if you don’t have a team to share the stress with, who can reel you back in to reality. 

So as much as it pains me to fess up to these things, I’m sharing them because I want you to know that if and when you do make a mistake. It’s ok. You’re not alone. 

That said, if something does go wrong, you do need a plan of action. SO while I was taking a trip down autoresponder memory lane, I was thinking about what I would do I if something went wrong with a client project, and it inspired me to put together a wee list of some things to do in the event that that happens, which may be helpful for you.

So here are few suggestions for what to do if something goes wrong on a client project.

1.     Breathe. Let’s keep this in proportion. Don’t start flapping. Keep calm and plan your next step. Try to stay practical and clinical, and not let your emotions take over.

2.     Own up – if it’s a small thing, maybe just fix it and move on. If it’s something more significant, don’t try to hide it. Communicate clearly and honestly with the client, tell them what happened and why.

3.     Then, of course you need to apologise for the mistake. Recognise the impact it’s had and take responsibility for fixing it. Tell them what you’re already doing to rectify the situation and set out what you’ll do next to make things right. Let the client feed in with anything they’d like to see happen.

4.     Number 4, say what you’ll do in future to avoid it happening again and ask them what else they need to feel like the situation has been resolved. If you’re professional and proactive and you handle the situation well, you might actually go up in your client’s esteem and they’ll trust you even more.

5.     And finally, learn from the mistake. Have compassion for yourself. Even if you made a big mistake, chances are it’s not life or death. If you’re a freelance surgeon, maybe it is. But for the rest of us, let’s try to keep it in perspective. Dealing with setbacks is something we all have to get used as freelancers, and it’s tough, I know! But making mistakes and learning from them is how we build resilience. If all else fails, tell yourself that no matter how bad this feels in the moment, in a year’s time no one will remember or care. Like, I don’t believe any of my contacts remember the time they got 15 out of office messages from me or whatever. 

I often talk about how I think working for yourself is a lot easier than working for someone else. But the truth is that running a business is full of sticky moments. We’re all figuring it out as we go. We make so many decisions, so we’re bound to go down the wrong path now and then. You will try new things in your business that don’t work out as planned. You’ll invest in courses that turn out to be half-baked. You’ll hire subcontractors that let you down or mismanage your time and end up scrabbling to finish work on the weekend. You’ll have pitches and proposals that get rejected. You’ll make stupid typos and yes, you might even attach the wrong doc to an email or screw up your autoresponder. 

I don’t say all this to make you panic. I just want to make the point that we all have to figure this out. So let’s show ourselves a bit of self-compassion, have a sense of humour about it, learn the lessons and plow on. 

Most of the time, the real issue isn’t the mistake, it’s how you handle it. So don’t give up or beat yourself up. Be professional and proactive about fixing it, and think of it as a teachable moment. And remember that in a week, or a month, or a year’s time, this isn’t going to matter. This too shall pass.

Ok. I hope this has been as helpful for you as it has been cathartic for me. If any of my current or potential clients are listening, please be assured that I am indeed extremely organised and reliable. And fellow freelancers, please don’t feel like you’re the only one that messes up, or doesn’t get it perfect all the time. We’re all trying our best.

So, that’s all for this week. If you’d like to fess up to something that went wrong for you and you’d appreciate a little moral support, do feel free to leave me a Memo at memo.fm/15, or come and find me on LinkedIn or Twitter. Might not seem so bad when you say it out loud. It’ll certainly make me feel better!

Otherwise, I have some brilliant guests lined up for the next couple of episodes for to listen out for. I’m going to be talking all things cold pitching with Cold Pitch Queen Bree Weber, and I’ll be swapping notes with André Spiteri on what it feels like when your business starts to take off, and the new challenges that rear their ugly heads as your business grows. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for those. So, until next week, bye!

Outro

You've been listening to 15 Minute Freelancer with me, Louise Shanahan, freelance health copywriter and content marketer at thecopyprescription.com. If you enjoyed this, please hit subscribe, leave a review or share it with a freelance friend. And if you've got a freelancing question you want answered on the podcast find me and say hi on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Thanks, and until next time, happy freelancing!