About the Authors

These aren't armchair theorists. Decades in the trenches with account managers, consultants, and teams — watching what works, what fails, and why brilliant people burn out.

Dr. Mark McKinney, Ph.D.

Mark teaches at TCU's Neeley School of Business and consults with executives on hardy living and resilience. His background in experimental psychology informs every principle in this book—it's not theory, it's tested human behavior.

Dr. Steve Fedorko, Ph.D.

Steve founded Fedorko Group and has trained thousands at Fortune 500 companies, medical practices, and non-profits. He's spent 25+ years helping people reach full potential without sacrificing the life that matters.

Paul Drew

Paul first encountered Mark and Steve's ideas as a young Technology Lead sitting in one of their workshops. He carried the book with him through a decade and seven companies, assigning it to his teams and building his own leadership training around its core ideas — before bringing his notes back to the authors and joining them to write the revisited edition.

Why We Revisited This

My Client is the Devil was written in 2015, the product of forty years of Mark McKinney and Steve Fedorko working together to help businesspeople manage the pressure of client relationships. Paul Drew first encountered their ideas as a young Technology Lead sitting in one of their workshops, and spent the next decade carrying the book with him through seven companies, assigning it to his teams, and building his own leadership training around its core ideas.

The world those ideas were written for has changed since then. Remote work has become the default arrangement for many teams. Collaboration now happens across time zones and cultures in ways the original edition never had to address. The gig economy has blurred the lines of accountability and loyalty that used to hold teams together. Artificial intelligence has moved from a future concern to a present reality that is reshaping how work gets done and who does it.

In the summer of 2025, Paul brought a decade of notes, updated examples, and new challenges that needed naming back to Mark and Steve. What started as a conversation about updating a book became an invitation to write the next one together. The core framework has not changed. What is new is the world it now has to operate in, and the tools this edition offers to meet it.