I need
#advice on using work done for a past client in my portfolio...
Hey everyone! I normally display client work and redact sensitive information, but this was a 'nightmare client' situation which has left me fearful even though no NDA was signed.
In my 3rd year of university I started working with a lady I found on UpWork. I asked for $800/mo for social media management which she negotiated down to $650 and I agreed, but soon the tasks started pouring in beyond the scope of work - I kept reinforcing my stance but even then she sneakily ended up having me manage a graphic designer and copywriter including for her brand emails, basically senior SMM position.
She also texted me many times a day (Whatsapp and E-mail, eventually I blocked on W'APP) and tasks were never given clearly but rather spread over many emails and with no clear objective which made it a nightmare to complete when she kept giving me tasks last minute.
Nevertheless, she ended up paying me an extra to work with her on planning the entire event concept including customer experience + event social calendar (about 8 posts inc. copywriting) for the 3 brands involved all prior to our official social media retainer starting. She asked for endless revisions especially in the copywriting but without ever giving me concrete writing guidelines for the tone she wanted. The brands were big in their space, one is a huge hotel chain which was opening a new luxury spa in Dubai and this is what the event was for given that I have experience in concepting fashion events
When the brand event ended I was in the 16th day of our retainer and with her constant bombarding of my emails I felt extremely anxious and overwhelmed. Following my mum's advice I told her I would not be able to cope with the work and my last year of uni (which had just started because she kept pushing back the contract which was supposed to start earlier) but that I would be finishing the month to give her time to hire one of her other candidates.
She was extremely rude and told me she paid for 0 (despite me having done an entire social media strategy for her which she knew would take about 10 days to write) which I explained to her she'd still be saving money as since she has the strategy she can outsource to a more affordable freelancer. She insinuated I was a scammer and demanded a refund for the remainder of the month which I complied. BTW, when I didn't respond to her email for 1hour she sent many others harassing me about the refund as if I was going to run off with her money..
Thing is, this event is one of the biggest things I've done since I'm a recent graduate and I'm VERY proud of it. I'm not under an NDA and would love to post it to my 'case studies' highlight on my new brand IG page. I'm just worried that because it ended badly, I shouldn't add..
So now I'm considering my options.. I was thinking
OPTION A - Post about the launch event I planned normally. This would enable me to gain credibility as I planned an event for a huge globally known hotel and technically doesn't link to the issue I had with her as this problem was for the RETAINER not the one-off event planning.
OPTION B - Post about the event, the response from visitors, and allude to the size of the brands without mentioning any names whatsoever, however, this would reduce the impact especially as I don't have a lot of experience.
OPTION C - don't post at all and lose out on the case study.
What do you think I should do? I feel super lost about this.
Thanks for the help!
