Brittany Dawn Fitness Fiasco
A few weeks ago there was a big scandal in the fitness industry surrounding a fitness influencer named Brittany Dawn. She is being accused of stealing money from her online clients by promising and charging for personalized programs, but either never sending them or they are obviously cookie cutter plans. That is bad, yes, but what is worse is that when people would ask her about it either via comments on posts or emails, she would ignore them. She would just delete the comments and ignore the emails.
There were so many blog posts, videos, podcasts, even news coverage on her for a long time. So many people came out of the wood work demanding refunds for programs that they either never received but weren't what was promised and paid for. As someone who has an online fitness coach, as someone who wants to get into the fitness industry and as someone who purchased one of Brittany Dawn's "personalized" training, I think that if you weren't able to resolve it after a year, it is lost money. People were demanding refunds from as far back as 2014.
Don't get me wrong, I think what she did was wrong. She should not have done that, and she should have to 'pay' for it by offering full refunds now to people who had purchased programs from her in the past year or two.
Now, more things have surfaced about her so called 'refunds'. She is only giving 50%-25% refunds and even then, if the people she sends them to don't collect them within a short time period, she takes them back. When this all first came to light, she was making people sign non-disclosure agreements before she offered any sort of refund. That only made the fire around her grow hotter...
She also is posting on her social media about how she will recover from this and it was not her fault because, "after I [Brittany] was launched into a business that took off so fast I didn't know how to mentally handle it. I did what I had to do to the best of my abilities..." (https://www.thisisinsider.com/brittany-dawn-influencer-called-scammer-fitness-coaching-2019-2). That mentality is not sitting well with a lot of people in the fitness community because they feel that she is trying to sweep it all under the rug and pretend its over when it hasn't been fully dealt with.
I reached out to Brittany Dawn (back in 2013 I think) for the same reason probably all her clients did; she had a big following, she had a lot of photos of client successes, she herself was in shape (stage lean constantly actually, but I didn't know that at the time). I fell for the aesthetically pleasing instagram and the thought that she did know what she was doing. I did not know what to look for in a coach.
She did send me a random program, I wasn't asked any questions about my goals, just asked about my weight and height. She sent me macros to follow.
These aren't bad or outrageous macros to follow, I've built up to something similar now. It has taken a long time to build up to that level of carbs, fats and calories and maintain an athletic physique. While I was doing her training program, it was challenging. But as someone once told me, "Being a good personal trainer is more about the relationship and trust you've built between yourself and your client than about a program you write. We can write programs on a whiteboard for them to follow." After two weeks of not responding to my first check in, I got an answer saying we were just sticking to the same macros and same programming. After the 2nd check in saying the same thing, I just stopped sending check ins. I wasn't seeing much progress and nothing was changing. But I didn't blame her for that, I just did not know the right questions to ask or how to open up communication.
Now, I know that this has happened to a lot of girls, before and after me. It wasn't completely my fault. This was happening all over the country.
Brittany should refund her clients that feel like they did not receive what they paid for, within a certain time frame. At the very least, she should reach out to all her clients - past and present- genuinely and take full responsibility. What most people are taking offense to is that she is playing a victim card, saying this wasn't her fault, she didn't know. Make it right with your clients so that they feel their voices and concerns are being heard.
After 6 years, a couple of coaches, a personal training certification and a bit of health/fitness education later, I know what to look for in an online/in-person coach. I wrote a post the other day as to WHY you should hire a coach when you're training for a competition. But after thinking about it, I want to show girls and guys alike what to look for in a good coach in a sea full of fitness 'coaches'. Stay tuned :)
There were so many blog posts, videos, podcasts, even news coverage on her for a long time. So many people came out of the wood work demanding refunds for programs that they either never received but weren't what was promised and paid for. As someone who has an online fitness coach, as someone who wants to get into the fitness industry and as someone who purchased one of Brittany Dawn's "personalized" training, I think that if you weren't able to resolve it after a year, it is lost money. People were demanding refunds from as far back as 2014.
Don't get me wrong, I think what she did was wrong. She should not have done that, and she should have to 'pay' for it by offering full refunds now to people who had purchased programs from her in the past year or two.
Now, more things have surfaced about her so called 'refunds'. She is only giving 50%-25% refunds and even then, if the people she sends them to don't collect them within a short time period, she takes them back. When this all first came to light, she was making people sign non-disclosure agreements before she offered any sort of refund. That only made the fire around her grow hotter...
She also is posting on her social media about how she will recover from this and it was not her fault because, "after I [Brittany] was launched into a business that took off so fast I didn't know how to mentally handle it. I did what I had to do to the best of my abilities..." (https://www.thisisinsider.com/brittany-dawn-influencer-called-scammer-fitness-coaching-2019-2). That mentality is not sitting well with a lot of people in the fitness community because they feel that she is trying to sweep it all under the rug and pretend its over when it hasn't been fully dealt with.
I reached out to Brittany Dawn (back in 2013 I think) for the same reason probably all her clients did; she had a big following, she had a lot of photos of client successes, she herself was in shape (stage lean constantly actually, but I didn't know that at the time). I fell for the aesthetically pleasing instagram and the thought that she did know what she was doing. I did not know what to look for in a coach.
She did send me a random program, I wasn't asked any questions about my goals, just asked about my weight and height. She sent me macros to follow.
Now, I know that this has happened to a lot of girls, before and after me. It wasn't completely my fault. This was happening all over the country.
Brittany should refund her clients that feel like they did not receive what they paid for, within a certain time frame. At the very least, she should reach out to all her clients - past and present- genuinely and take full responsibility. What most people are taking offense to is that she is playing a victim card, saying this wasn't her fault, she didn't know. Make it right with your clients so that they feel their voices and concerns are being heard.
After 6 years, a couple of coaches, a personal training certification and a bit of health/fitness education later, I know what to look for in an online/in-person coach. I wrote a post the other day as to WHY you should hire a coach when you're training for a competition. But after thinking about it, I want to show girls and guys alike what to look for in a good coach in a sea full of fitness 'coaches'. Stay tuned :)
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