Opening day of the Iowa Legislature, 2003.
At the same time my new competitors were systematically picking off my clients, I’d come to the conclusion that part of my problem was too many one-off clients distracting focus from the ones that mattered.
So I made a list of clients who were “not enough juice for the squeeze” … too much work for not enough pay. One of those clients was Bill Dix. On the opening day of the 2003 legislative session, he asked to meet with me in his office. My intention was to cut him loose at that meeting.
Instead, Bill told me he had met with my competitors, heard their pitch, and decided to stay with me. He then told me all of the things I needed to do better to keep HIM as a client. That meeting changed the course of #CHQ history. It was a tiny little win after a string of painful, crushing losses. But it was enough to keep going.
Bill went on to become a record-setting fundraiser and an anchor client. Like Bill would say, Let’s Make it Happen.
More about Bill when we get to 2006 …
When he arrived, the phones weren’t working. We had four (yes
