I was launching a new Instagram account and thought I would hire an “expert” since I was starting from 0. I paid him about $3,000 for his services, and he assured me he was an expert in his field.
I knew his name. He’s been around the adult industry for a while now, like 10+ years, and goes to all the shows. So in my mind, I thought I couldn’t go wrong.
Sure, $3,000 was a lot of money, but if he really was this brilliant IG guy, it would be worth it, right?
He ran a big automated sort of system, which is why his stuff cost so much. And on paper, everything he said sounded good. But my gut kept telling me something wasn’t right. But I didn’t want to believe it. I mean, this guy was the expert he claimed. People wouldn’t just lie about that, right?
Turns out people do lie.
So I wanted to share my experience with you so that you won’t make the same mistake I did.
The first thing I did wrong was not trusting my gut instinct. From the get-go, something felt off about him, but I pressed that down. Big mistake.
Secondly, I didn’t actually check any of his references. He said he did this and that, but did I make him prove it? No. I just took him at his word.
By the end of the month, I ended up getting like 300 followers from the guy. And that’s the total. Not per day, for the entire month. Actually, to be fair, it was like 453, but within a few weeks, it was down to 300.
He said the issue was me. My content sucked. It totally wasn’t his fault; it was all just me.
I knew that wasn’t the case, but it wasn’t worth arguing with him, so I moved on. I obviously didn’t pay for a second month, but I also didn’t do anything else with that IG account.
Then one day, I see him on an industry site selling his Reddit services. He’s not positioning himself as an expert in Reddit marketing, using very similar wording to that he used when claiming to be an Instagram account growth specialist.
Only this time, I knew he was full of shit. Anyone who uses Reddit even a little knows 90% of everything he says is full of shit.
He was going on about his Reddit AI agents and how his AI can spam Reddit for you, blah blah. How they will DM people for you, do this, do that.
Everyone knows you can’t automate shit on Reddit right now. They will ban you for even blinking, like you might be AI. Reddit takes AI bots seriously and is banning them, along with many real people it thinks might be bots. It’s crazy right now.
But this guy is out there saying, and I quote, “I am a Reddit expert”.
He is not.
Last year, he was a Twitter expert.
Then, when I worked with him, he was an Instagram growth expert.
And now he claims to be a Reddit expert.
He’s none of these things. What he is is a con man. Always looking for some sucker to sell his services to.
I was one of those suckers. I believed him, and I didn’t do my due diligence, and that was 100% on me.
Oh, I forgot, prior to all of that, he was a tube site expert, where he claims he can make a porn star a ton of money by managing your tube sites. He charges $5,000 for setup, plus a percentage of your earnings. I know a girl who did this deal with her. She worked with him for 7 months, and during that time, he paid her, like, $11 total. $11 TOTAL in 7 months.
Now let me tell you the worst part of this story. I am a marketing expert with extensive social media experience. I’m even social media certified. I just wanted to take a shortcut. I was busy and thought paying this guy would be easier.
But the only thing it got me was $3,000 poorer, and I have nobody to blame but myself.
The lesson I want to share with you here is this …
- Always trust your gut instinct.
- Always check references.
- And just because someone has worked in this industry for years doesn’t mean they aren’t full of shit.
Now, all of that being said, I took the content he said was bad (after reading his stupid Reddit expert post) and decided to give the IG account a go myself.
I’ve had great success. Not only have I grown my real account with over 1700 new followers, but I’ve also done quite well with views.
Despite having fewer than 2,000 followers, I consistently hit double digits with my bad content.
Guess it wasn’t so bad after all 🙂 In addition, my engagement is almost 8%!!!
Here are the views on my last few videos (minus the one I posted 15 minutes ago)
- 8,900 views
- 5,689 views
- 12,700 views
- 12,400 views
- 6,340 views
I even had a video last week that hit 116k views. And keep in mind I have like 1,700 followers, not 170,000 – 1,700! Actually, 1758 as of tonight.
So please learn from my expensive lesson. Don’t blindly trust that someone knows what they are talking about without checking their references.
And for the love of all things holy, please trust your gut instinct. If something someone says doesn’t sound right to you, question it. Find out what about what they said made you feel the way you do.
About The Author
