203. More Than Labels: Aligning Your Clients with Your Values with Cher Hale
Client Fit Is About More Than Labels
When you’re working toward creating more equity in your business, it can be tempting to use demographic labels to diversify your client list and work with underrepresented communities.
But assessing a potential client for fit is about more than labels. Building a roster of clients with aligned values and a commitment to doing the work of being an Imperfect Ally requires a more thorough vetting process and the ability to hold your own boundaries, even if it means letting a great-on-paper client go.
Guest host Cher Hale discusses why she chose to shift her business to working exclusively with underrepresented voices, how she sets and keeps her boundaries around client fit, and how she supports clients on their DEI journeys.
Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:Cher’s process for evolving her ideal client and how she vets for values alignment
Why demographic labels and DEI awareness aren’t enough to make someone a client candidate
The combination of criteria and direct questions that Cher uses to assess for fit
Why Cher says it’s important to acknowledge the limits of your ability to support your clients
Leveraging the Power of Media
Cher Hale is the founder and director of Ginkgo PR, an agency that hopes to use public relations to create a more equitable media landscape. As a Taiwanese-Black American woman, Cher is passionate about leveraging the power of the media to take back narratives that have been traditionally told for historically-excluded authors and entrepreneurs.
When she’s not pitching her clients, you can find her experimenting in the kitchen, tending to her garden, or learning Italian. She lives in Spokane, WA (unceded Coeur d’Alene tribe territory) with her partner and her toddler.
Evolving The Client Vetting Process
On the Pause on the Play® podcast, guest host Cher Hale (she/her) says that when she had a client who asked her “What is DEI work,” it felt like she had veered way off of her path. And it left her feeling disappointed, frustrated, and confused that a client she thought she had thoroughly vetted turned out to be misaligned with her values.
Cher explains that several years ago, she made the choice in her public relations agency to work exclusively with people from underrepresented communities, or if they were not members of a marginalized community, that they were publicly vocal and active in social justice work.
“I wanted to work with people who were using their skill sets and their stories to bring about more equity and liberation, not only in our lifetime but for generations to come.”
The evolution of Cher’s business has not been without moments of misalignment.
When she had that client who asked what DEI was, she had to take time to reflect on how her vetting process for fit and values might have failed her.
When Cher first started her PR firm, her client list was fairly homogenous and she was quickly getting bored and frustrated with the work.
“I was becoming more and more disenchanted with the work that I was doing. I noticed that was because I had been telling the same story ad nauseum, and when I took an assessment of my client roster, the reason why was clear to me. My clients were homogenous. They all looked the same and thought the same. They were all white, upper middle class, cisgender, female life coaches. I had been telling the same story because all of my clients were telling the same story.”
While she recognized what the problem was, Cher didn’t know at the time what to do about it.
But when her mother passed away from a heart attack at the age of 49, Cher was inspired to change the way she was doing business.
Cher’s mother, who was half-Black, half-Taiwanese, was an immigrant in the US, and Cher remembers her as a gifted artist and writer, who penned a never-published series of romance novels.
Cher played a role in her mother’s writing by acting as both a proofreader and advising her on the process of self-publishing and building a platform, even though her mother never got the chance to publish her work.
“In the aftermath of her death, it became evident to me that I had the skill set to help her see that dream come to fruition, but I didn’t have the time to help her do that…The grief of her death helped me reassess how I had been spending [my time.]”
Beyond Awareness
Cher says that she changed the message and the mission of her business to focus on working exclusively with people who are committed to doing DEI work, but it was not a smooth or easy transition.
“I want to work with people who are at a certain stage in their DEI journey, past awareness. They’re doing the work.”
Putting together the pieces of the puzzle for how to assess that with prospective clients has been a process and not without mistakes.
As an example, she says at one point she pitched a client based in Korea who seemed like a perfect fit on paper, but when she asked “what are you doing for DEI work in your business,” they didn’t have an answer. Cher explained to them what she believes doing the work is, sent resources for them to review, and never heard back from them.
“I find that a soft ask–what are you doing for DEI in your business right now–is often the question that separates people from a fit in terms of platform size and credentials and authority, but not a fit for values.”
She continues, “That client had all the clout and credibility that I want in a client who’s also a person of color, but it came down to labels not being enough.”
She realized over time that she had to be more direct in her questioning about commitment to DEI work, because that was ultimately more important to her than demographic labels a potential client might hold.
She’s also had to consider how she can support clients who aren’t as aware or as far on their DEI journeys, or who don’t hold the identities of her ideal clients, but whose platform and influence have the capacity to have a significant trickle-down impact for Cher’s other clients.
“Even if they don’t qualify as my ideal client, there’s still important work to be done here…I don’t want you to think that it has to be a hard line. We’re going for people, and we’re people who are in relationship with other people and we’re all going to experience those moments of nuance.”
Assessing for True Fit
With time and experience, Cher has developed a series of questions she is able to ask when she’s vetting a potential client, such as
Have they done a land acknowledgement in their events or in their content?
Do they acknowledge privilege in their content?
Do they use inclusive language in their content?
Do they have a DEI statement on their website?
Do they ask about DEI work?
Do they post about social justice causes or issues on their social media platforms?Do they list their values on their website and in their content?
If they have guests, are those guests from diverse backgrounds? Is there a diversity of perspectives represented?
Do they donate monetarily, or offer scholarships or sliding scale services?
These are some of the criteria Cher uses to assess potential clients as well as making direct asks.
Cher says that it was daunting and scary to make that shift in her business, and it didn’t happen overnight. She slowly phased out clients who were no longer a fit as contracts ended and brought people on as she was able to.
Making those changes, “didn’t only shift the types of clients that I was getting, it also shifted my entire business model.”
One major shift that happened was part of her own commitment to making her business more financially accessible, by moving away from retainer work and creating lower-cost subscription model offers and one-off consultations.
“Those are how I bring in or how I work with the bulk of my ideal clients because they are so much more available to their budget and their time bandwidth.”
Supporting DEI Journeys
When she is working with clients, Cher says she tries to remain aware of the risk of tokenizing them.
“It took me a lot of finessing to figure out how to integrate my clients’ identities and their diverse perspectives within their stories in a way that emphasized or supported their expertise, so it becomes a marker of credibility and uniqueness for them, as opposed to lip service for inclusivity.”
She also says that she tries to “place them in safe spaces,” and gauge if they want to be challenging and subversive or if they want to share space with like-minded people. Part of that process is regularly checking with her clients about how they’re feeling after interactions like interviews.
She says it’s also important to her to acknowledge her own limitations with providing support to clients.
“When I realize that my client needs more support than I am qualified to offer, I will gently guide or direct them to the people that I trust in the hopes that that is what will be next for them, that will be most supportive for them for the next stage in their visibility journeys.”
Ready to dive deeper?
We’ve been conditioned to show up to work as our “professional” self and leave our personal beliefs behind. But the truth is, values inform every area of our life, so why try to compartmentalize?
Each month in The Pause on the Play® Community, we explore one specific way to make your values more explicit. Our curated connections and learning experiences will help you challenge harmful norms, show up as an Imperfect Ally®, and live in alignment.
Learn more at pauseontheplay.com/community