Shift 5: From “Paying Clients” to “Profitable Partnerships”
Welcome back to the Six-Figure Freelancer Recipe! I’m Jaz, your pricing queen, and in this episode, we’re diving into one of the toughest realities every creative freelancer faces: nightmare clients. You know the ones—the clients who drain your energy, question every decision, demand endless revisions, and make you second-guess why you left your nine-to-five in the first place. If you’re feeling burnt out or stuck serving clients who don’t value your expertise, this conversation is for you.
In this episode, I get real about how working with the wrong clients has a lasting impact—not just on your business, but on your energy, confidence, and even your ability to attract the dream clients you really want to serve. We’re talking about how fear and scarcity can drive us to ignore red flags, lower our standards, and take on work that just isn’t a good fit.
But here's some good news: you aren't for everyone—and that's a good thing. I share my personal journey from people-pleasing and perfectionism to confidently filtering out bad-fit clients and creating clear boundaries that protect my time, my business, and my sanity. In this episode, you’ll learn why your client selection process is actually your most important business system (right after your invoicing!), and how being intentional about who you let into your business changes everything.
We’ll walk through some powerful reflection questions from the free guide at creativebusinesskitchen.com/6figures—questions that will help you spot red flags, clarify your own boundaries, and finally start saying “no” to the clients who simply aren’t a match for your services or your values.
If you’re ready to stop letting panic or scarcity make your decisions—and instead create space for those “hell yes” clients who energize and respect you—don’t miss this episode. Now’s the time to take back control, protect your peace, and reclaim your freelance freedom. See you inside!
Transcript
Hey there. It's Jaz, your pricing queen, and welcome to episode six of the 6 figure freelancer recipe, a bite sized podcast series for creatives who are ready to build that freelance business that they actually left their nine to five for. Now we both know that there are great clients out there, ones who are worthy of serving our genius, the ones that are not only willing to pay our rates, but they actually value our expertise. And then there are the nightmare clients, the ones that we wish we had never said yes to, the ones that make us feel trapped. Those ones seem to have the biggest lasting impact. They're the ones that we remember not so fondly, but also they are the lessons that we need to learn so that we can grow. So say you've just wrapped up a project with what has revealed itself to be a nightmare client. They questioned every decision, asked for endless revisions, paid late, and generally made you want to quit freelancing altogether.
Jaz [:And the worst part, you kinda saw the red flags from the beginning, but took them anyway because you needed the money and you thought you could fix them. What's worse is when you're not busy. It's like the penny pinchers and the hagglers all seem to find you right at that moment of weakness, and it is a billion times harder to say no to. Scarcity drives the panic bus, and your fear decides your fate. But here's the secret. You aren't for everyone. The real problem here is that bad clients don't just waste your time. They steal your energy and your confidence, making it harder to find and serve the great ones.
Jaz [:And what's more, bad clients aren't interested in being educated into better clients because they've been getting away with it so far. When you don't have a clear client selection process, you end up taking on anyone who will pay you, dreading client calls and projects, burning out from difficult relationships, and missing out on opportunities with the ideal clients that we actually want to have because you're too busy with the wrong ones and have only the capacity for them, not the right ones. I can almost guarantee you that if you've been in this situation, you've considered lowering your expectations, telling yourself, oh, don't worry about it. Difficult clients are just part of business. You might have even attempted to educate problematic clients, which rarely works, or you've over delivered to them to compensate for them being a bad fit and you've ended up burning yourself out, and you look back at that particular client or that particular job with a really gross feeling in your tummy. And you probably have a habit of ignoring your intuition when it says, this isn't the right fit because you feel like you can fix them. When you work with clients who don't value your expertise, you actually start to devalue yourself. Your client selection process is the most important business system that you will ever create, the second being an invoice system.
Jaz [:If there's one shift that made the biggest difference for me, it's this one because I am a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser. Whenever I considered saying no to a client, these are the sort of things that would pop into my head. But if I say no, I'm being cruel. If I don't help them, where will they go? Cheese, Jazz. Bit ungrateful saying no to them. They probably hate you now. These are all definitely things that I used to say either out loud or inside my brain. But truthfully, the moment that I decided who I'm not for, those I was for showed themselves, and it all just got a lot easier.
Jaz [:I said it before, but I'll say it again. You aren't for everyone. Not everyone deserves your genius. Not everyone has the budget for your brilliance or the qualities that qualify access. Some people will simply be a bad fit, but no one is going to be able to make that decision for you. You have to be the one to make it. So here's how we're going to make this fifth shift together. Just like last time, I want you to think about the freelancer you were before you picked up this episode and the future freelance you that we are working towards.
Jaz [:Old you used to take any inquiry that landed in your inbox, but often you got ghosted after sending proposals because it simply wasn't a good fit to begin with. You were probably dreading discovery calls and often working with clients who drained your energy simply because you needed the income. But future freelance you, they filter for red flags before you waste any time on discovery calls. They have a clear hell yes client profile and confidently say no to the rest. They are leading sales conversations with authority and with calm confidence and only work exclusively with those who respect their boundaries and value expertise. Now we're at the questions part of the free guide. And if you don't have that free guide yet, grab yours at creativebusinesskitchen.com/6figures and head to the show notes if you wanna grab the link. I'm gonna ask these questions here.
Jaz [:Take your time to think each one through. Feel free to pause me and answer these for yourself. Who are my absolute dream clients, and what do they not do? When I say a dream client, I'm not talking about, like, your massive ones. I'm talking about the ones that you know that you are for because the things that they don't do stand out. What red flag have I ignored that bit me in the butt later? Was there ghosting, scope creep, instant discount asks? You knew. You just didn't act. That's okay now, but we don't wanna learn the lesson another time. Right? What's the one boundary I need to actually enforce, not just think about it? If it's in your head but not in your contract, it doesn't count.
Jaz [:Where am I saying yes to when my gut is screaming run? If the dread hits before the invoice is paid, listen up and learn from it. What would change if I only worked with hell yes people from now on? Would there be less stress, better results, more energy, more money? Choose what will be coming towards you. Now for your action step. I want you to write down top three red flags from past clients and exactly how you'll filter them out moving forward. I've got a couple that come to mind, especially ones that haggle my price or push my process out of what I usually do, and I don't have time, energy, or effort for that anymore. I want you to then add these kind of questions to your intake form or your discovery call process. This is the best way to protect your energy and genius is cutting off access sooner rather than later. A big one for this is budget.
Jaz [:You need to know what is the minimum level of engagement someone needs to be at to be able to afford you, and you need to put that as your lowest option in your briefing form for budget. So is it a thousand dollars? 2 thousand? It's not a bad thing to have this number in your mind because you need to know what your time, effort, and energy is worth and what you won't, quote, unquote, get out of bed for. Set this as your lowest rate or your lowest choice for budget, knowing that you may have some people filter through. And if the budget is too low at the inquiry stage, don't invest time in the call. Send them an email, address it, and protect your peace. I've done this many a time when a client has come back with too high expectations and too low budget, and we start a conversation before we even get on the call. Your time has value, and so does theirs. Okay, freelancer friend.
Jaz [:Next up is the final shift from client chaos to clean systems that scale while solo. Now you'll notice that I say that often mainly because I've always had a gripe with people who think that scale means building a team. I have zero interest in staff. I do not want to be a boss to other freelancers. I do not want to build a studio. But I do want to scale my business, and for that, I'm using systems. The last shift is gold. I'll see you in the next episode.
