Sarah Akwisombe #7

[Thetruthwillout]

We also need to mention that some PayPal users have managed to force chargebacks and that it appears Sarah Akwisombe was trading without professional indemnity insurance.

 

[kitsunecrumpet]

Woman makes a living out of her personal brand. Trashes her personal brand for dodgy financial gains with terrible people. Is shocked that people want refunds for shitty products. Is shocked that the « person » in « personal brand » came out as highly unlikable, therefore people don’t like her anymore and won’t buy into it. The end.
One for you SA: You don’t get to decide who forgives you and when. Forgiveness is something that you ask for when you have hurt someone, and they are not obligated to give it to you. Your reactions have revealed your true self, and that is not something people can unsee.

 

[Moobiemoo]

The boss babe phrase hugely pisses me off, partly why I ended up here on this thread. I work in a female dominated sector and I spent 12 years working various jobs to fit around bringing up my kids which was my choice. They hit secondary school age and I was able to take all my experience of those years (and every single workplace funded for qualification on offer) and run with it, go full time and I quadruped my salary within the next 5 years and I am now 40 years old in a very well paid role that still has potential to progress. The long game can pay off, why does everyone think it happens so fast? Experience and knowledge is not something happening to you once - you wouldn’t drive a car once and be ready to take a driving test! They all talk about growth but they talk out of their ass, growth is LONG TERM not just something that happens in the month of July.
All these types deserve to lose their money, credibility and followers

 

[Antonina]

I agree she totally underestimated the people she was coaching. She was overcharging so much that even SHE thought they must be stupid to buy her services. She didn’t expect her customers to be way smarter and more experienced than she is, and to demand what they actually paid for.

 

[Antonina]

Also she keeps saying she followed legal advice about the refunds as if she’s not allowed to give them.

The legal advice said that it was legal to keep the money.

It didn’t say it was illegal to give out refunds.

Any person with at least one brain cell would know this, but she obviously thinks she’s being smart here...

As she previously stated “she could refunds out of goodwill”....what the legal advice didn’t say is how much her reputation would be destroyed if she didn’t pay those women back

 

[Truesay]

Exactly! She’s so unable to see actually what’s going on it’s infuriating.
As much as this situation has been incredibly annoying to watch as one of her customers, part of me just wants to shake her and explain why she’s got this so incredibly wrong.

She KNOWS she was/is wrong.

She CANNOT back down now.

Letting the money go will have life changing consequences for her and her family now.

Normally I'd feel bad for her, but at this point I cannot sympathise.

Had she done the RIGHT thing early on:

Apologise + Refund = integrity, respect, maintain and grow her audience.

We would have championed her if she'd taken this route. Her business would have thrived if she had used her experience to help others.

Her dishonesty and greed landed her here.

She deserves everything that has come to her as a result of her calculated dishonesty.

Let's not forget how she and Llewy publicly bullied that girl that spoke up in Smashing It about live videos. She was hosting a toxic environment and mis sold this space at high prices.

Sarah lives in survival mode, she doesn't care who she trumps to get up there.

As the saying goes, fool me once...

 

[Thetruthwillout]

If we take one positive from this situation, its that we now know there is awesome support like this out there, for free. Sarah Akwisombe must be devastated to see this

"I'm thinking of getting a mentor to help me grow my business. Should I pick:

1: a bagger with no experience or proper skills but a nice pink backdrop, but she'll cost me £199 a month and may not deliver
2: a female mentor who founded and sold a biotech company, now works in private equity and is free"

Tough choice.....

 

[reeks_of_narcissism]

No one gives a pissing shit Sarah. A few years ago, I became horribly unwell and ended up in hospital a few times... I couldn’t eat properly for a long time and was in awful pain... my partner cheated on me whilst this was all going on and I then proceeded to have the worst few months of my life and needed surgery... did I act erratically during this time? Yes. Did I fall out with a few people? Yes. Did I apologise for my behaviour? YES. Going through tough times does NOT give you the right to ignore how your actions have affected others. You aren’t anyone special and you never will be. You’re just like everyone else on this planet - get off your high horse and APOLOGISE for your actions.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself in the public eye. You’re making yourself look like an absolute fucking moron.

 

[skronkywildcat]

I called it, I called it:

 

[Winkle]

Jen stanbrook blocked me instantly literally for liking a comment on one of her posts that made vague reference to the Sarah akwisombe situation at the very beginning. Blocked me just like that. Tells me all I need to know about what kind of 'coach' she would be.

 

[screamqueen]

Welcome to thread #7 With a little bit of luck, I can sell some witchy shite

Thanks to @skronkywildcat for the title of this thread - mad that we're onto thread 7, but with something this rich, I'm also not surprised.

Previous thread here

(@Thetruthwillout I've used some of your great recap from the last thread as you're excellent at compiling everything )
In summary:
- Sarah Akwisombe partners (more on that later) with Llewy D to run online courses for her audience
- Claimed she was going to make a million in lockdown and show everyone how she did it
- At the same time, picks up 1-2-1 coaching clients despite not being a coach
- Service levels for both group coaching/courses and private clients fall short. People are unhappy
- All falls apart and transpires Sarah didn't really "make a milli", they had misrepresented booked business in there too
- Turns out Sarah and Llewy were having an affair
- Apparently no refunds as Llewy took the money off Sarah and was blackmailing her
- Sarah starts blocking anyone who questions her or calls her out
- Shitstorm kicks off with lots of ex clients going public, mainstream media coverage exposing her
- Sarah gets even more difficult in light of this
- Sarah is launching a tarot card business then says they aren't tarot cards
- Unequivocal evidence she used a designer from Fiverr to design them on the cheap. Ethics issues about this
- Sarah starts trying to play hearts and minds whole haemorrhaging followers
- Llewy reappears and absolutely check mates her
- Brands like Vodafone, Dell etc who SA has partnered with recently all get tagged in links to news articles about her
- Women On Top Pod, Metro, Vice and a number of other press publications have come out with articles about Instagram coaches and have named Sarah and her practices
- Some people have been able to reclaim refunds from their banks, which is good news
- She is now trying to launch a line of tarot cards, sorry, oracle cards... wait - does anyone know what these are?
- Openly touting her 'Croydon Bad Girl' image with references to smoking weed on her Instagram
- Jason is trying to grow a backbone by using his IG Stories to mansplain feminism
- Sarah actively watches these threads and takes notes for her own social media content
- Her social media following and engagement is dropping daily
- She has been trying to delete things from her social media, but you can still view everything on undelete

Press articles around Sarah and her practices:
Metro:
https://metro.co.uk/2020/12/04/why-...3696780/#metro-comments-container?ito=cbshare

Women on Top Pod:
Part 1: https://www.thewotpod.com/article/scams-dressed-female-empowerment
Part 2: https://www.thewotpod.com/article/scams-dressed-female-empowerment-part-2
Part 3: https://www.thewotpod.com/article/scams-dressed-female-empowerment-podcast

Refinery 29:

These Women Paid An Instagram Influencer To Help Them Manifest Money. Now They're Not Happy

Instagram is full of people offering life coaching but it can go seriously wrong.

www.refinery29.com

Vice:

Does Manifesting Money Really Work?

Abundance experts and manifestation coaches claim you can attract cash

www.vice.com

iNews:

I spent years trusting the money I needed would come, but I ended up £27,000 in debt

As I’ve learned the hard way, critical thought is absolutely vital when it comes to making sound financial decisions

inews.co.uk

A few other journalists are still looking into this story too, so more press coverage likely to come.

Have I missed anything?

 

[Chloegirl]

The damage to her reputation was all a big game of chance wasn’t it . She took the gamble it didn’t pay off as people aren’t stupid .

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes

 

[kitsunecrumpet]

Today for the first time I actually had a look at the Toss Tragic website. The amateurism made me so angry, especially if you're going to borrow concepts from cultures you're not familiar with (this is a polite way of putting things).
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT SHE CALLED THIS CARD YINGYANG. NO. It's Yin and Yang, not yingyang. It's such a horrible, sloppy mistake. This is what copywriters and editors are for. The caption is unbearably cringy, and also unbelievably does not tell you what is Yin and what is Yang. I cannot believe I ever trusted this woman for business advice and decisions.

 

[Rainbowsandglitter]

That Jen might have just said ‘ I’m a bit skint for Xmas so why don’t you people who want to be in the in gang pay me money and I’ll figure out / make up something that delivers some sort of content that you can’t complain or get a refund for’ . WAIT that’s what Sarah did .

also how do you get a refund or say they have misrepresented themselves when they never said what they set out to do in the first place , I’ve came to the conclusion that’s why they don’t set out exactlywhat the course content is so no one can say it wasn’t delivered .

Hey guys . I’m just popping on to say guys I’ve been planning something for a while now and I’m so excited to announce I have a new baby... it’s a course I’m running which helps you breathe,open your eyes and just live day to day . It’s a once in a lifetime only offer and spaces I know will go fast. For the amazing price of £77 per month you can learn how to breath and just basically live on this planet . As a side note... if you’re fast and book first day you’ll get my side course “ teaching your grandmother to suck eggs” don’t miss out! Buy now OR You’ll regret it!

 

[grace28]

I think my favourite bit of today’s outburst is the damage to her international reputation. She’s more Alan Patridge then Alan Sugar really.

 

[Thetruthwillout]

Thanks all of you for those kind words.... You know what? Doing that ASA complaint was really hard work, trying to put the angle on it to have the most impact.

There's a story that's not really been told yet in the media, and that's the ongoing impact of Sarah Akwisombe's scam on all her victims - not the financial impact, but the personal. I feel that's a story that needs to be told. Just trying to think of a good outlet for it

 

[marmitesandwichesfortea]

Just for the record, before someone starts harping on that we all hate and we’re slagging off...

I for one would just like the business (/involved person) to take some accountability, apologise, and sort out the damn refunds.
I’m not interested in personality traits, hair style, whether they’re eating enough, working out etc. It’s purely from a business point of view/needing evidence to back up claims that I’m STILL (fml!) on this thread. I unfollowed the person before they blocked me anyway, their life doesn’t bother me enough to want to know about it.

I say this because now that someone has said something that could be perceived as harsh and inflammatory on twitter and it’s being defended, I don’t want those of us still involved who literally just want our hard-earned money back, to all be tarred with the same brush.

 

[Squirrelfriend]

Yes yes definitely a story to be told there , women seeing this sort of thing as the stepping stone to taking their businesses to the next level and being left adrift and disappointed by it all . I as one have watched and admired a lot of women for years and aspired to give up my stable job and life to take risks only to realise its bullshit after all . If you have a good business you don’t need other middle men to influence you and take you where you need to be . It’s not fair to take advantage of the way we feel as women nowadays ,comparing us to men and feeling like we could maybe be something of only we wished for it enough

 

[unicorns]

I'm doing it right now!

Here we go. Please do add to the thread!

 

[skronkywildcat]

I’m still completely done over Sian’s clip. Best thing ever.