Sure, I can get that done tomorrow

As a life-long (but mostly reformed) people pleaser, boundaries are the most uncomfortable thing I’ve had to learn while building my business.

I used to tell clients I could deliver projects THE NEXT DAY 😂. It was completely unrealistic, and I rarely hit those impossible deadlines I’d created for myself. Consulting as a people pleaser can be maddening. I know exactly what to do to make people happy, but if not handled well it can be incredibly draining.

When your paycheck depends on keeping customers/clients happy, saying ‘no’ is really hard. What if they think I’m being difficult? What if they fire me? What if they don’t pay the open invoice? [Please note that in over 12 years of consulting, none of these things have ever happened. Not once.

Every time you bend your boundaries to please a client, you’re training them that your limits don’t actually exist. The solution is to set crystal-clear expectations from day one, so that there are no surprises when you enforce boundaries mid-stream.

Here’s what boundary setting looks like: