I found a note in the SpeakerNet newsletter (great newsletter by the way -- I highly recommend it) -- posted by a fellow who asked about Willow Mist Professional Services. Wanted to know if they are any good.
Willow Mist Professional Services is owned by Brenda Keefer, one of the people who used to work for David Wright at International Speakers Network, one of the people who was involved in stealing my money, and based on the email I get, money from many others, too.
Brenda has just finished her 10 years of probation for stealing about a quarter million dollars from her previous employer. As I said in a previous blog post -- no honor among thieves!
So perhaps my comment here is branching out some. But my bigger picture is to save us who make our living speaking from spending money on scam artists who plan only to take your money, and then plan to do nothing with it to assist our professions.
If this seems confusing to you, read some of these other posts and comments on this blog from others who have lost their money to Bookaspeaker, the International Speaker's Network, the Innovators Group and all the other aliases they use. Know that Brenda cut her teeth on their way of doing business. And save your money!
(posted 2/17/2012 - see updates on Brenda Keefer and Willow Mist here.)
17 comments:
Just as an FYI, Brenda is posting for clients on LinkedIn in the professional speakers group.
Yap, she is. She connected with me that way. I just received an email from her with a list of potential bookings. There is nothing like having a background in business intelligence. So I decided to check her and her company out. I appreciate the blog. You saved me from potentially doing business with her. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your experience and saving me another foolish mistake [I already made the mistake with ISN last year]
Thank you all for your posts. I was just contacted by Brenda herself with a list of several venues that "could use my speaking expertise". I was asked only for a $95 upfront fee in exchange for 15% of the booking fee and 5000 emails sent out on my behalf. I had already filled out the paperwork and was about to push send, when I recognized the address was Tennessee. I remembered the scamming international Speaker's Network and decided to check for comments. THANK YOU ALL. We NEED to warn speakers and authors. People lost thousands with International, but no one wants to lose $95. How can we eradicate these predators of the fair and good?
Thank you for your post. I am one of those that got burned by Brenda Kay Keefer, Willow Mist Professional Services...the good news is I am only out $77
I will notify PayPal, LinkedIn, the State of Tennessee and city of Kodak
STill doing it! Just at the end of 2010, Brenda bilked me out of $50. Kept claiming to have computer problems and sening emails with no content, claiming to send out a "CD" with authors info. Nothing happened, never returns calls or emails. Stupid me.
Anybody out there want to work with me to take her down? We are in CA and she took my wife for $750. Looks like interstate web fraud to me which means time in the big house. Contact me at rsmithsc@yahoo.com if you would like to help me file a formal complaint.
I would totally agree that this needs to be reported to the local newspaper, The Mountain Press or the Knoxville News Sentinel. Brenda lives in our community and people think she's just a sweet little lady who attends a local church and sings in the choir telling anybody who will listen what a wonderful Christian she is. I was shocked when I came across some of these things about her.
If you'll do some research, you'll find she's already served time for embezzling close to $250,000 from a company in Sevier County.
Trying this again. Here's a link to Brenda's embezzlement case.
contact 6 on your side. Its a news show out of knoxville that investigates and uncovers scams. here's the phone number.. 6 On Your Side: (865) 470-9283 or you can go to the website at www.wate.com
Thank you, I just got an email from her. The funny thing is, I usually hate unsolicited emails, but for some reason I liked this one. So I decided to Google her business before going further. I'm so glad I did. Thank you for posting this. I know it's difficult to post something negative about a person or business, but in cases like this, you are really helping people, and I appreciate it.
Oh my, I did the very same thing. I got the lovely email offering to put me into her Top 10 for only $69.95. It sounded appealing but I decided to do a google search. I am so thankful I did. This is a huge scam and obviously lots of folks have fallen into her trap!
Oh my is right! Such a sweet, sincere sounding lady who didn't ask for a lot of money to put me on her short list (less than 75) top shelf speakers. I paid her $100, for which she did nothing. Never took or returned phone calls and neglected to answer e-mails. She characterized herself as someone who was "better and more honest than those at ISN." What I should have realized was that she apprenticed with ISN and then took her show on the road. I would really like to see this lady and her scam taken down. What surprises me about myself is that I'm usually quite skeptical of sales pitches. I think she was able to do what she did by pricing at a low enough level to not arouse a lot of suspician. I'm just glad I lost only $100. I didn't sign up for her "calling campaigns" or her "post card mailings" and certainly not to do an E-book. Awfully glad I didn't! All the same, she stole money from me, and I hope somebody can make her pay for her scams.
For those of you posting about Willow Mist... some irony here that Brenda is now dissing ISN!
If you want to make complaints, please see this post for instructions and ideas:
http://burnedbyisn.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-complaint-about-international.html
As a bureau owner, I hired Brenda years ago to look for bookings for the speakers I represent. Then she talked about me leading a seminar for speakers. She didn't like to fly so she wanted me to come to Tennessee and she'd fill the room. I thought it was odd that when I'd initially googled her, there was no photo so I googled again with her company name this time and up comes this article about the fraud.
She probably can't leave Tennesse - ankle bracelet maybe?
She speaks a lot on her "blog" @ Mamaw's Place about how she hasn't been on a vacation, or even to visit her Mother in West Virginia in a long time. I've wondered, too, if it doesn't have to do with being on probation. She has also moved from where she used to work and has taken a job selling purses and her husband is working. She was "outed" on Facebook a few months ago when somebody posted some links to this page and a couple of others. Seems like she's been laying low since then.
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