Grief Saved and Grief Explained - Some End of Year Statistics and Notes

As 2011 comes to a close, I thought I would share some statistics with you about this blog, Burned by ISN, and its impact.  My report comes on the heels of receiving yet another report of someone who was almost taken by ISN.  It's always so good to hear from others who have been saved from their bad, and often illegal, business practices!

It's been almost 5 years ago that I started blogging about the International Speakers Network and how they burned me by taking almost $1000 of my money, then never producing what they promised.  I signed on to get their support in building my speaking practice, I was supposed to be a part of a "Five Featured Speakers" program - which never materialized.

Not only didn't it materialize, but they sent me falsified materials trying to prove that it did!  You can learn more about just how they duped me on this blog's first post.

But I'm a true believer in karma, and sometimes it's important to put karma into motion.  Thus this blog, and dozens of posts over the years that have inspired even more comments from either people who have found us in time to save their grief, or others who have found us too late, and realized when they found us that they, too, had been duped by the International Speaker's Network.

What has transpired during these years?  A few statistics for you:

Number of posts:  49

Number of visitors: you can see on the right hand side of this page. As of today:  10,824

Number of comments:   66 published, plus one that is unpublished.   The one that is not published was sent to me a few years ago by a young woman who had just been fired because she had uncovered the ISN's wrongdoing.  We have been in touch and I continue to hold her information in case it's ever needed.

Number of names that ISN has used over the years:    6 - or there may be more I haven't found.  So far I know about ISN, International Speakers Network, ISNWorks, Innovators Group, Insight Publishing, Book A Speaker.  If you know of others, will you let me know?

About Willow Mist Professional Services:  Around June 2008, Brenda Keefer left ISN and started Willow Mist Professional Services.  Evidently that's when David Wright, the owner and her boss at ISN, discovered Brenda was still on probation for stealing about $250,000 from a previous employer.  So now Brenda is "helping" (or more like helping herself to the money of) people through her own company, Willow Mist.  David Wright was smart to fire her. But now Brenda is making his life miserable.  Perhaps more karma?

(Just FYI - I hear from as many who have been duped by Brenda Keefer as I do from people who have been duped by ISN - the emails run about 50-50).

Number of Lawsuits against ISN:  I have no idea. I have heard reports, but haven't been able to take the time to research them.  This comment from a reader explains the one about those famous authors they promise to pair you with.

By the way - don't let that BBB Accredited Business logo on their homepage fool you.  In late 2010, The International Speaker's Network changed their name to The Innovators Group - and that meant their old track record at the BBB, an F rating, went away.  Now they have an A+ rating through the Knoxville Better Business Bureau - but if you look at the record you'll see that many complaints have been "resolved."

I have to wonder whether those complaints were resolved as mine was - meaning - they were ignored, then lies were told, and in the end who knows?  I call this my "naked picture theory" - meaning - someone is holding something over someone else's head.  Once the BBB told me my complaints were 'resolved", and what I knew was that nothing had been resolved, and somehow my complaints had been swept under the rug, I lost all respect for the Better Business Bureau because of the way that was handled.

As long as I continue to hear from readers who have either had their money stolen like mine was, or realized ahead of time that they should not do business with ISN or Willow Mist because they found this information, I will continue to post from time to time.

What information would you like to share about ISN Works (or whatever they are calling themselves these days?) Shoot me a quick email:  BurnedbyISN - at - hotmail.

ISN is now The Innovators Group - Reinventing Themselves So You Won't Find this Blog

The International Speakers Network must have done another one of their emails. I can usually tell because I watch the hits to this blog rev up (see the numbers below) - and I begin to get comments from people they have burned. But there's a new twist - their new names - The Innovator's Group and Insight Publishing.

I got a heads up on this in a comment from Alex - in which he says, "ISN keeps re-branding and changing its' name, to avoid showing up in threads like this one, and the folks that work for them adjust their e-mail addresses for the same reason."

So I looked it up and sure enough: Insight Publishing, a division of the Innovators Group - fomerly ISN, the International Speaker's Network. In truth, they've used these names for years - but now they are trying to shed their ISN ripoff image.

I found several other new businesses and people's names, too, as follows:

ISNworks - that's their longest standing Twitter handle
InsightISN -- that's their new Twitter handle
TracynDalton - is the twitter handle for Tracy Dalton who has worked there for awhile
donamerritt -- is the twitter handle for Dona Merritt - she's been there since they scammed me in 2007!
Wendy Tapp, is signing those famous "we need a speaker" outreach things. Interestingly, I found her on a website that talks about speaker information and scams.

(I wonder if any of them ever worries about being carted off to jail for their participation with ISN?)

It also looks like they are still using BookaSpeaker (got that from Wendy Tapp).

And don't forget the henchman - David Wright - who runs speaker workshops in the East Tennessee / Knoxville / Gatlinburg / Sevierville area. He's the owner or CEO of this entire Insight Innovators ISN mess.

If you go to any of their many websites, don't let that Better Business Bureau Accredited Business logo fool you. They've run way from the names they've used to distance themselves from this blog, and from the people they have scammed. But they can't change their stripes.

Here's the link to their old F rating - now removed:
http://knoxville.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=57&bbb=0533&firm=11488

Here are a few more links - others who have had comments to make about ISN, Innovator's Group, BookaSpeaker or Insight Publishing - whatever their name is:

From Cynthia Brian: http://www.redroom.com/blog/cynthia-brian/scam-potential-warning-for-authors-and-speakers

From Chuck Gallagher: http://chuckgallagher.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/motivational-speaker-scam-insight-publishing-something-is-not-right-in-sevierville-tn/

From Ripoff Report: http://www.ripoffreport.com/directory/Insight-Publishing.aspx and http://www.ripoffreport.com/advertising-deceptive/insight-publishing-i/insight-publishing-innovators-c99ed.htm

And for anyone new to this blog, you are either:

1. Checking ahead of time to see whether your money is well-spent with ISN or Brenda Keefer. The answer is NO. Run, don't walk, from anything they tell you.

or

2. Checking after you have already been burned because ISN or Brenda made a promise to you, you gave them money, and they didn't follow through on their promises. I am so sorry. This blog won't make you feel any better about it.

Hope this has saved ANYONE some grief.

.

Brenda Keefer and ISN - Never Change Their Stripes

This post was sent as a comment to a past post on Brenda Keefer, although it also refers to the International Speakers Network, too. It's worth pulling out of the comments pack to share with you:

I've just discovered this site after a colleague sent me a copy of an appeals court judge's decision from 1999. It seems Brenda thought a sentence of 10 years in prison was too long for the (in her view, apparently) minor crime of embezzling $248,000 from a former employer. It isn't clear whether she's yet served any of her sentence, but she clearly should be locked up for a long record of theft and embezzlement.

I first had contact with her when she was part of ISN, which printed the first run of my book. It was a horrific experience, primarily because the entire lot of people there, from the owner down, were clearly not bothered by the complete incompetence of the staff and the non-fulfillment of their contractual obligations.

Then Brenda left and opened her own business, continuing the tradition of promising a lot and delivering little or nothing. After requesting a number times that she remove me from her mailing list, I ordered her to remove my name and made it clearn I had no desire to ever hear from her again. And yet, I still occasionally get one of her e-mail blasts telling speakers of the great opportunities she has with organizations looking for speakers on specific topics.

Stay away!

Brenda's totally bad news, as is ISN and all the other business names under their umbrella. ISN continually creates new business names, apparently to mask the entity you're really hearing from, all the easier to coax money from unaware victims who are new to the speaking business.

As I said before - these ISN and Brenda Keefer zebras never change their stripes.