If you can imagine the most extreme sport in the world, I guarantee you running your own agency puts them all to shame.

You see, as part of a standard due diligence process, one of our favourite Chaos Theory clients asked all agencies on their books, globally, to resubmit credentials and rate cards.

We did, and heard nothing. To quote Tom Jones, “It’s Not Unusual”.
We just carried on, assuming the best as you do!

Until last week, when we received in the middle of the night, the formulaic corporate response every agency has seen, and we all dread!
Basically, our services would no longer be needed. Thanks for everything, oh, and please turn the lights off on the way out.

I was, to put it mildly, a little taken aback.
Had we done anything wrong?
Was it my hair?
We THOUGHT the work we were delivering was great; they disagreed—obviously!

I had drafted about three replies to my actual clients—not the generic procurement catch-all mailbox. One was obviously “dazed and confused”, one a little more assertive, and one frankly mostly in BOLD UPPERCASE.

In hindsight, thankfully, due to a few big pitches, I hadn’t sent them.
Younger me would have bashed them all off within an hour of each other.

Then, three days later, we received the following email.
“Apologies, we sent you the incorrect mail!
We are actually super happy to continue.
Please send us a copy of your current MSA when you can.”
Soz.

I paraphrased the last bit.

Three days!
The amount of retrospective contemplation one can achieve in three days is staggering, for those who are interested.
I may or may not have had a few moments in the shower, considering life, the universe and everything.

Anyway, we have one of our favourite clients back, after a 3-day hiatus.
And we are wiser for realising well, we are all vulnerable to the whims of corporate shifts and need to remember sometimes shit, as they say, happens.

You need nerves of steel to run an agency.
Let no one tell you otherwise.

I’m off to SkyDive to celebrate.
I won’t even be scared!

Andrew Ross, Chaos Theory, CEO