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sassy_hun

Active member
so vix did an NLP workshop for Grow and Glow today, and is taking courses on how to be an NLP coach

NLP stands for neurolinguistic programming - a quick look on google/wikipedia will tell you it's a pseudoscience and morally dubious! already this screams scam scam scam!!!

anyway this is the guy running the workshop for the G&G members:

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A quick google reveals him to be a "Robbie Steinhouse", who's written lots of stuff about NLP.

but there's no other information about him online outside of this weird NLP business and books/e-books that could potentially be self-published. Nowhere on companies house or mentions in reputable press, and google actually runs out of results for him on the ninth page

I smelt a rat - how can someone who is an expert in their field not have a digital footprint anywhere else???????

That's because under his full name Robert Steinhouse he is effectively a slum landlord who owns lots of tower blocks but refuses to remove dangerous cladding (the kind that caused the grenfell fire), putting families lives at risk. He's happy to rake in hundreds of thousands of pounds a year on ground rent though!!!


It's definitely the same person - look his listings on companies house:


Screenshot 2020-10-28 at 16.07.00.png


TLDR: Vix is offering pseudoscientific coaching courses, run by a morally dubious individual who is happy to exploit the less fortunate for profit - ring any bells!??!?!?
 
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QueenDecember

VIP Member
*Excuse my rant*

I’ve worked in digital marketing for more than 10 years and have pretty much seen it all when it comes to people trying to sell their “expertise”.

What irks me the MOST? Mediocre (at best) bloggers like Vix Mildrew scamming other naive but hopeful bloggers out of their hard earned money. To me it’s just plain cruel. Like a sleezy used car salesmen trying to pawn a lemon off on an inexperienced shopper.

Yes, I admit I haven’t followed Vix closely. Her public talk about anal sex back when she was also a teacher did me in. But she really really hasn’t come that far since. Let’s be real, if her advice was any good she would be A LOT more successful by now. But... she’s not.

Like I said. The trickery and false bravado of MILDLY successful bloggers branding themselves as experts pisses me off. Fact is, Vix and those like her start selling courses and webinars because they couldn’t make the fashion, beauty or whatever niche they originally blogged about work. So they cash in on the vulnerable target audience of naive bloggers who are just starting out. They post infographics and overuse words like hub, tribe and community in the same veil as all the other pyramid schemes out there.

I sincerely wish there was some form of regulation involved, requiring someone to be an accredited expert to sell such “expertise“. One with real professional references, not just small time bloggers hoping to find the golden ticket.

In conclusion: Vix runs a dirty unethical scheme and I really wish someone would come and shut her down. Because I highly doubt her conscious will step in anytime soon, sadly.
 
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Lanavalentine

VIP Member
Ok, Vix...

First of all, “creators” do not have a normal work process like 90% of jobs do. You don’t have a clear feedback process, or a way of setting goals and being held accountable to them by anyone but yourself. Most people at work get feedback at some point which is less than great; they get pulled up on mistakes and are often told to apologise and find ways to rectify it; they have regular appraisals and are actively given areas to work on to improve their performance.

Creators/influencers have NONE of that. Management doesn’t give enough of a shit to help you work on your content without you explicitly asking, and even then, they’re only in it for the money. They will only help you be more profitable in the easiest sense.

Now, many freelancers, small business owners and similar don’t have management holding them to account, but they do have customers and clients, and their feedback. This is similar to creators, but most make a huge mistake in only taking feedback from brands onboard. Creators should 100% be listening to their audiences, because ultimately they have the power to improve or ruin your reach, your influence, your importance. They are actually the key to better brand deals.

So in the diagram, the “challenger” Vix refers to is most likely a follower with a valid point. Admittedly, it’s probably more personal criticism than you’d get in an office job, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. It’s your choice to share your life as a way of making a living, and there will always be downsides to any career choice. Own it.

As a creator, if you continually ignore, disengage and block your “challengers”, you are doing your own work a disservice. Of course, there will be bad apples who are just spewing hate, and some who will start with a valid point but end up waffling nasty things, but it is part of your job to seek out the valid criticism and helpful comments, just as it is a normal person’s imperative to receive feedback at work and improve upon it if they want to advance up the chain and make more money.

Look at celebrities who recognise the public dislike them and then try to change their behaviour and image - Anne Hathaway comes to mind. She knew that she needs to be more “bankable” to make the most of her career, because it’s not just about talent, it’s about likeability too. She recognised the public disliked how she came across, and she toned it down! And honestly, I feel far more sorry for someone like her having to tone her behaviour down, because she actually has a talent; she didn’t sign up to show us her personal life in the same way a creator or influencer does.

Anyway, back to Vix’s diagram. By ignoring and disengaging on your own platforms as a creator, you force “challengers” to seek forums or other social media to air their views.

Forums are inherently nastier and more intensely critical, for a few different reasons. Firstly, because we’re not saying it directly to you, there is less need for politeness. Secondly, because there is a herd mentality, and therefore edgier or nastier comments can seem normal after a while. But most importantly, “challengers” congregate in forums because the average creator deletes every comment, whether fair or not, and because those who end up here are often former supporters who got entirely fed up of engaging with your content and finding it half-arsed, hypocritical, problematic, unclear, unethical or whatever else, attempting to voice that, and being deleted/blocked/shouted down/having rabid fans set upon you/repeatedly ignored.

You didn’t listen to their feedback. You had a fan, a follower, a potential paying customer in the palm of your hand, and you did nothing to retain them. It is a failing on the part of the creator, who holds the power, not the challenger.

So-called “challengers” can be a gift, if you let them. But you’re all too far up your own arses, and too far removed from the reality of work, to understand that.

You absolutely had the chance to defend yourself, Vix. You had many chances. Instead, like most other creators, you refused to engage or consider a point of view different from your own, and thus, a follower went from devoted to disgruntled.
 
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swints

Well-known member
Have any of you seen Alice Benham’s articles about unregulated coaching! Funny how she’s posted them just as her pals been called out
Basically Alice is doing this because I called her out on Season's post. I understand Alice may know her stuff but her LinkedIn tells me a different story and also if she started coaching whilst she was in school doing GCSEs how was she qualified to do this? I do think what she charges is overpriced and potentially I was considering using Alice to help me with marketing but I found this thread and her association with Vix and her LinkedIn and I decided not to spend my money on her.

Also Vix directly approached me via FB messenger this time last year when I had just got into blogging and at first I thought Grow and Glow was amazing and empowering but then I learnt the truth. I was nearly going to pay for coaching with Vix but this thread saved me from splurging my money and I remember Vix was chasing me asking me why I no longer wanted to be part of her group coaching and I should have said then and there what I felt about her teaching but I did not. It frustrates me that so many failed bloggers can just turn to coaching/ teaching how to run a blog when frankly they never had a successful blog to begin with or were at least happy about it.
 
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Just catching up on this shitshow and noticed we are getting close to Thread #2. Can I please suggest whatever it is it includes GROW WITH VIX in the titles because I am convinced she changed her name when she saw how high up Google search this thread was!
 
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lalacat

Active member
AEB70014-7807-452B-B291-39ED8357A173.jpeg

This discussion reminded me about this thing that got shared back on GG a couple of years back, one of the “resources” 🤣
 
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bethlondon

New member
I am really appalled by the way she's handing constantly rebranding Glow and Grow. She might even have good resources in there that are useful to people (given most of them she hasn't created, it's people who actually know what they're doing).

But when she hinges so much around personal branding and KEEPS rebranding Glow and Grow is dreadful. She's rolling it out in a really poor way too, it's muddled and messy and what brand in their right minds would rebrand 3x in a year? That is really poor branding. Branding is part of my job and I I can't believe she is positioning herself as an expert around it when she has no idea what she's doing and constantly makes a mess of it.

I found it hilarious when she was talking about playing with colours in canva to create the brand. Just shows how amateur she is. Canva is a useful tool, but it is NOT a starting point for brand development. Brand colours should be looked at on why they work together, how they make people feel. Just really basic stuff, not just 'I was bored of green so wanted brown and a '2021 font'. That is really weak, you don't change your brand to match the year, your brand should be recognisable instantly. Who knows anything if you change it every five minutes. If she did the right work in the first place, she'd not have to keep changing it either.

Ooh, fuming clearly 😂
 
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bumblebee888

New member
Never posted before but had to chime in tbh. The whole 'beg for engagement' thing completely contrasts with her comments on the algorithm and the fact that she preaches about knowing what your audience wants to see. Surely if that advice from her was working, people wouldn't need to be instructed to engage with their Instagram faves...

If a 'creator' (lol, awkward wiggling and pointing is hardly creative is it...) needs to beg for their audience to engage, it clearly shows their content isn't inspiring enough in the first place.
 
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sassy_hun

Active member
I saw this comment on Vix’s latest grid post and it’s already been deleted!!!! Deleting and silencing discussion about mental health is a really bad look

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sallybreadsticks

Chatty Member
She’s back and launched a new site with another girl, just seen it on Bang On Style’s stories. There was a thread when she departed Instagram in a puff of smoke but it closed down.
apparently she got threats and death threats towards her unborn baby.
No she didn't. Complete nonsense and she's used that as a smokescreen for her terrible racism.

She's disappeared from the internet because she refused to address her racist posts in the past. Couldn't handle it, baby on the way, so went to ground

Now she's back and started a new blog with some mug called Gemma. She's literally just rebranded her old site, including all the rubbish recipes and TV tips - telling people to watch BROADCHURCH???

Unrepentant racist and people have already noticed it. All over tattle and twitter. She needs to sort herself out.
 
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Lemonhead123

Well-known member
Wow Seasons!!!

Not only full of great advice and called out some people we know and don't love(!) but has been pro bono assisting the authorities to educate them on this new type of fraud 😍😍

That woman is a legend.

Replay link here, I urge you to watch it:

This was so good, I also saw someone in the comments said Vix had quoted £200 for a coaching session, when asked what qualifications she had shes said none in coaching but she’d been a primary school teacher!
 
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sassy_hun

Active member
Omg another one!!!

This is absolutely unreal

It’s from 14th January 2019

I just checked her grid around those dates and she’s deleted it!!!

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openbook1

VIP Member
£75 for a course on Reels (that I don’t think Vix has used that effectively herself lol) is a bloody joke. I really hope that there is some kind of safeguarding when selecting people to join these courses and she does drill home that instagram engagement and follower counts aren’t the be all and end all. I think that’s wishful thinking on my part, she is preying on naive wannabe influencers during a global pandemic... where so many people’s livelihoods and plans have been affected. She made £20k on sunday and is already churning out another bloody course. It’s a fucking joke.
Haven't Reels only been around for a month or so? How does she have enough data to back up what she will say about them??
 
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pettyicequeen

Active member
I don't believe for a second that 1000 people are willingly to throw 600 bucks at her for her shitty advice. Not for a second. I totally see now why she keeps up that whole "it's not the IG algo, it's YOU and your SHITTY content" schtick, because this is how you can manipulate people into paying for classes to "change your strategy." What a load of bollocks. It's widely known that yes, IG is restricting reach actively on hashtags and home feeds, but she keeps insisting everyone else is misinformed and she has some winning formula. Bah, she makes me irrationally angry, hahaha.
 
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