Ladies and gentlemen, prepare for another Seth Godin inspired post. ;-)

Saturday Mr. Godin published a blog on the value of a really great freelancer. He argues that sometimes the highest value proposition is to hire a really talented, passionate, and independent professional who is more interested in making quality work than fitting in, and more interested in the outcome of the project than even you are. The essential point of the post is that sometimes, by paying a tiny bit more than you would for something mediocre you can get something awesome.

Mr. Godin is dead on, and we're happy to take this opportunity to discuss something that's been going on a lot lately over here at ohTwentyone.

You see, we are those talented, passionate, independent professionals. We work really hard to create compelling things for our clients every day. In the past year we've been consciously making an effort to set our own expectations for a project higher than our clients. In the past year we've been thinking a lot more about the way things could be than what they need to be.

Perhaps it was naive or idealistic of us to expect that clients would rejoice when they'd found a partner to work with that cared more about their success than they did, but that hasn't been the case. Instead we found that most people are really uncomfortable with the kind of thinking it takes to really create something successful. We think this is because it's harder to define and achieve this success. It requires a lot more thought, and it requires a critical eye. It's harder to commodify, to compare, to buy and sell, and to explain...but it's also more effective.

The difficult part of being a provider of these "higher-value-than-expected" services is that it frequently involves telling a client that they don't want what they think they want, or that the thing they want won't solve their larger problem. As a result we've found ourselves saying, "It's your [project] and, in the end, you can do whatever you want, but we really feel strongly that [our solution] solves your problem better."

Therein lies the value of pushback.

In Conclusion

We're taking this opportunity to thank the clients that have let us push back in the last year and have gotten better work and higher value because of it. You know who you are. Thank you.

Check out Seth's original post here:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/03/when-a-freelancer-changes-the-game.html