Today I asked for ripoff stories from students of charlatan photography workshop instructors. My email box was FLOODED with stories of outrageous full-out greed. I know that great workshops exist, but they are few compared to the the unorganized, untrained events run by those who are good at marketing falsehoods, but short on talent, experience or skill.
I got into this mess by listening to some of my friends not able to get refunds from a Motivational Speaker from OC that I used to know really well. Their lives were impacted because he took their money. I know of another lady who spent $16k on workshop and “founder” materials, and she wound up nearly getting a divorce. She spent it all on credit cards, reasoning that she would earn it back without her husband ever knowing the money was gone. This is why they signed up. The instructor made representations that the students would earn multiples.
Brooks Institute of Photography just went through a class action for “persuading prospective students to enroll by “willfully misleading” them, “falsifying and omitting critical information.”. This lawsuit eventually cost the school $12.5 million.
In many ways, what Brooks got nailed for was similar to most workshop claims today. I think I have a way to protect yourself. Have them fill out the application (attached) and get your copy signed before attending the workshop.
An “implied” claim is not the same as a “stated” claim. In a “stated” claim if the photographer states that you will increase your income, that is a stated claim. If you signed up because of this claim (e.g. make more money) then an attorney may have a “Brooks Institute” field day. If they say they probably won’t give you skills to increase your business, why go? Please pass this on as I’m interested in your thoughts!
Send this to your workshop instructor before signing up for a class!
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Not speaking of the workshops as some of those may be dodgy. However, the Brooks Institute case is quite old (2008) and in regards to the students that may have been misled. I am an alumni and I was informed prior to enrollment of the drop out rate, that there was no guaruntee for a job when I graduated, and I was not . If students were willfully misled, believe me, they have changed that. Brooks Institute is a skill based school and the outcome truly depends on the person. It is a tough school and you must be motivated if you want to succeed. Trust me, they are going to teach you what you need to know and more. It’s up to you what you make of it. Also, no offense but someone would have to be insane to sign that contract you created. My advice is to do your research before attending such workshops or schools. With the abundance of information on the web today, there should be all you need and more to verify the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the course you are inquiring into.
Not speaking of the workshops as some of those may be dodgy. However, the Brooks Institute case is quite old (2008) and in regards to the students that may have been misled. I am an alumni and I was informed prior to enrollment of the drop out rate, that there was no guaruntee for a job when I graduated, and I wasn’t told that I was going to make some astronomical salary. If students were willfully misled, believe me, they have changed that. Brooks Institute is a skill based school and the outcome truly depends on the person. It is a tough school and you must be motivated if you want to succeed. Trust me, they are going to teach you what you need to know and more. It\’s up to you what you make of it. Also, no offense but someone would have to be insane to sign that contract you created. Who would sign something stating “will make you more money afterwards?” What if they then do nothing with the advice/skills you just gave them? Now you’re liable? No thank you.
My advice is to do your research before attending such workshops or schools. With the abundance of information on the web today, there should be all you need and more to verify the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the course you are inquiring into.
I couldn’t agree more and this has really made me angry. I haven’t attended workshops for this very reason. I’ve had friends ripped off and basically I trust no one. My husband and I are both wedding photographers and he really wants to, as a social experiment, make several bogus claims and start getting “photographers” (we call those ones picture takers) and photographers to sign up for our workshop. Wrong? Maybe. But I think if we could actually pull it off and then get a lot of attention for having done so (we’d come clean after the fact to let people see how easy it is to deceive) it would prove a massive point. That 90% of the people out there just see a money making scheme and thousands of ignorant people willing to play into it.