will skip the dramatic buildup and just say it that I got played. And honestly looking back, I walked into it myself.
Context first. I've been doing AI video generation freelancing on the side for a few months now. Nothing impressive, a few small clients, inconsistent money, still figuring out a lot of it. But it was working enough that I got excited and started talking about it in my college group chat. not to flex, just genuinely happy something was clicking and these were supposed to be my people.
That's where he came in.he DMed me almost immediately. Questions about everything, how i find clients, what tools I use, how I price things, how I structure my whole approach literally everything. I thought he was just curious about the AI side of things. Then he started asking about my day. Random memes. Checking in for no reason. I'll be honest, I thought he was into me.
I was wrongMoving on.
So I shared everything. And I mean everything. My workflow is genuinely nothing special, I want to be clear about that. The whole thing is basically stitched together from whatever free or cheap AI tools didn't frustrate me enough to quit.
Claude for scripting and client proposals mostly because I am not a naturally good writer and it patches that gap without making it obvious. Honestly the most underrated part of my stack, the way it handles tone and structure for cold outreach specifically saved me embarrassing myself in a lot of inboxes early on. Kling when clients want something that looks more cinematic, the output quality for the price is hard to argue with. ElevenLabs for voiceover because my actual voice should not be anywhere near a professional deliverable, I've accepted this about myself. For the video generation side I use Magic Hour (pricing made sense when I was starting out with basically zero budget). CapCut to pull everything together at the end.
For clients I walked him through everything. cold emailing, Instantly for outreach, Loom videos to personalise pitches, how to talk to small businesses who've nvr bought this kind of content before.
He was a genuinely sharp student. Asked the right questions every time.
I helped him land his first client. Then his second. Then his third. Every win he had I was more excited about than my own work because I genuinely wanted him to succeed. I am, apparently, a golden retriever in a human body.
Then after the third client the energy just shifted. Slower replies, one word answers and Thennn nothing.
Sent him a completely normal message last week. Just hey how's the new client going. Still sitting there unread.
Been thinking about it and honestly it's on me. I was so happy that someone I liked was paying attention that I handed over my entire process without a second thought. I mistook curiosity for connection. That's not on him, that's just me being naive and letting my feelings make me blind to what was actually happening.
Lesson learned I guess. Keep your workflow close, keep your feelings closer, and maybe don't hand someone your entire AI stack because you think they're cute.
Freelancing is still going. Claude scripts better than I do and clients don't ghost you once they've paid. Small mercies.
Not bitter about it at all. Just a little wiser now and honestly more careful about who I open up to. If anyone else has done something this avoidably stupid because they were into someone I would really love to hear it
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