The FINAL Signature Dinner & When to Let Go
To start this week, we want to let you know about a change we’re making:
We’ll be hosting our final Signature Dinner on June 9th.
These dinners have meant so much to us — they’re where all of this started, they brought y’all into our lives, and they always, always bring a sprinkle of magic. ✨
But for now, we’re both building things that need our full attention, and we've learned the hard way that showing up halfway isn't showing up for ourselves in the way that we each need right now. And it isn't showing up for you all in the way you deserve.
We’ll continue to offer our free Work With Days and these newsletters, which we’re very proud of (though we may change the frequency - stay tuned). But for now, we know it’s time to let go of the dinners, which is actually exactly what we’re talking about this week:
🦋 How to know when it's time to let go.
Most of us learned how to get clients.
We learned how to pitch, how to price, how to onboard, how to deliver. We learned how to keep clients happy and how to win them back when something went sideways.
What almost no one teaches us is how to end it.
And so we don't. We stay. We accommodate. We tell ourselves it'll get better, or that we need the revenue, or that we'd feel guilty leaving them in a lurch. We find reasons to extend a relationship that has quietly stopped working — sometimes for months, sometimes for years.
This is the first in a four-part series on ending business relationships well: with clients, with contractors, and with employees. Because "well" doesn't just mean gracefully. It means honestly, strategically, and without the prolonged slow bleed that too many of us know a little too well.
We're starting where it always starts: knowing when it's actually time.
🧠 First, let's name why we stay too long
This isn't a personal failing. It's a pattern, and it runs deep for womxn entrepreneurs specifically.
We're socialized to accommodate, to smooth things over, to prioritize the other person's comfort. In a client relationship, that can look like:
Absorbing scope creep without pushback
Accepting an apology or a promise to change that never turns into action
Giving one more chance after the third red flag
Staying in a dynamic that has become genuinely corrosive because ending it feels like failure
But here's the part that's harder to see: not every client you need to let go is a bad one. Some of the most insidious cases are the ones where you love the people, the product, or the work — but the relationship is quietly capping you. The longtime client whose budget made sense three years ago and doesn't anymore. The prestigious brand name on your roster that sounds impressive until someone asks what you actually do for them. The account you've had so long it's become comfortable in a way that's a little dangerous. Nothing is wrong, exactly. It just stopped being right.
🚩 Signs it might be time
Not all of these will apply, and one alone may not be enough. But if several feel familiar, take them seriously.
💸 The math has changed
The revenue no longer reflects the actual cost — in time, in overhead, in the mental energy it takes to manage the relationship. Maybe the fees, minimums, or return policies have shifted. Maybe the scope has quietly expanded without a corresponding adjustment to the budget. When you calculate your effective hourly rate or your actual margin against everything this relationship requires of you, it's not a number you'd accept from a new client.
🔁 You've had the same conversation more than twice
Scope, boundaries, timelines, payment terms, communication style — you've addressed it, it improved briefly, and then it reverted. A dynamic that survives multiple direct conversations is a feature, not a bug.
😶 You dread their name in your inbox
Not "this is a complex client who requires focus." The specific, low-grade dread of seeing their name and thinking: ugh. That reaction is data.
🪞 The work no longer reflects what you do
You've grown. Your positioning has sharpened. This client is asking for work or representing a version of your brand that no longer fits where you're headed. Saying yes to it keeps closing doors to what you actually want.
🎯 You're delivering but not contributing
You're executing competently, but the relationship doesn't give you room to bring your real thinking. Whether it's because they don't value it, won't act on it, or actively resist it, you've become a pair of hands when you want to be a thought partner.
The flip side is also true: if execution is your strength and they keep asking for strategy you're not positioned to deliver, that's a mismatch too.
🚧 The relationship requires more management than the work
Navigating their internal politics. Mediating between stakeholders. Correcting misinformation before it reaches you. Disputing chargebacks. Fielding compliance requirements that seemed minor until they weren't.
If a significant portion of your time is spent managing the relationship itself rather than doing the work, that's a structural problem — and it rarely resolves on its own.
It's also worth noting: even when the money is good, this kind of work doesn't make a case study. You're not building anything you can point to.
😶🌫️ You've stopped advocating for your own point of view
You know what you'd recommend. You also know it won't land, or it'll create conflict, or they'll ignore it and do what they were going to do anyway. So you've stopped saying it — on pricing, on placement, on the direction of the work. That's not partnership. And it's not good work.
🔋 They take more energy than they return
Every client relationship has its seasons — there are demanding stretches and easier ones. But if a client consistently depletes you without the compensation (financial, creative, relational) that makes it worth it, that's a sustainability issue. Your energy is a resource with a finite daily budget. Where it goes matters.
💡 A note on the difference between "hard" and "wrong"
Not every difficult client is the wrong client. Some of the most valuable relationships we've had were demanding ones — because the stakes were high, the work was ambitious, or both parties were pushing each other toward something better.
The question isn't whether a client is easy. It's whether the difficulty is generative or corrosive. Generative difficulty produces better work, stronger thinking, and mutual respect even when things get tense. Corrosive difficulty produces resentment, second-guessing, and the quiet erosion of your confidence and standards.
You know which one you're in.
➡️ Next week
Once you know it's time, what do you actually do? Next week we'll walk through how to end a client relationship: when it's not them, it’s you. And also when it’s definitely, totally them.
These moves can be scary, and they can be draining, but they’re easier to face with a community on your side. Grab your tickets to the final Signature Dinner or pull up a chair at our next Work With Day. We’ll see you soon!
🪢 Laura & Lauren
Things We Loved This Week
LaurA’s Things
🌸 This cute wallpaper DIY.
🍋 This perfect addition to summer cocktails.
🖼️ This art project I’m tackling ASAP.
Lauren’s Things
🤤 The nachos at La Contenta Oeste, the kind hosts of my birthday party this year.
🤬 Not sure how much patience I have left in me, but it’s nice that at least one of them knows.
👗 I have complicated feelings towards AI art, but I would have preferred this Met Gala.
⛴️ We survived dysentery for this?
