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Your child freedom formula / child anxiety programmes - thread 2

481 replies

Psuedoshoes · 24/06/2021 17:27

Carrying on the discussion of YCFF and other similar programmes...

Link to previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/child_adolescent_mental_health/4239684-your-child-freedom-formula-has-anyone-tried-it?msgid=108493516#108493516

OP posts:
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19
Daaxy · 22/09/2021 07:05

Just watched Be Kind to Carol. Sam describes the call as 'parent to parent' talking. Carol is a sales person .I attended an online Q&A where the Peaky Parent rep suggested that my query was better directed to the 'sales team' - actual words. If Carole makes 6 calls a day (I was her 6th/7th call of the day) and High Ticket suggests a minimum of 1 in 6 enquiries converting to a sale then she is generating £2500-£5500 a day in sales, £12500-£25000 a week potentially. There are 3 people in the sales/breakthrough team. This is not a 'parent to parent' chat. If Sam actually believes that it suggests she is oblivious to any issues regarding ethics and professionalism.

In the video Sam advises parents to approach the call with an open mind. A parent may do this more so if the costs of the programme were published and understood before any sales call.

SwanShaped · 22/09/2021 07:19

That video shows a deep lack of empathy for anything that that parent might have been feeling. It’s all about them, isn’t it.

Mibb2 · 22/09/2021 08:43

"Be kind" seems to Sam's way of shutting down anyone who questions what she's doing. Now we don't just have to be kind on Mumsnet to Sam and Martin pretending to be their own customers, being aggressive towards other posters, we also have to be kind to people using high pressure sales techniques on us.

Personally, as someone who has had bad experiences with sales callers in the past, due to feeling I have to be kind and polite, setting myself clear boundaries and realising that I can just put the phone down if I'm being pressured, has been one of the best things I've done for my own mental health.

You do not have to 'be kind' if someone is putting you in an uncomfortable situation. This is a terrible precedent to set for vulnerable people starting on a program like this.

Mibb2 · 22/09/2021 08:45

www.peakyparents.com/post/the-boy-the-letter - she's reposted this as well.

I'm stepping away now, I've got too angry about the whole thing again. 😬

TeenMinusTests · 22/09/2021 13:19

Wow. that was a programme and a half.

Shocking.

You can't blame an external marketing advisor for you choosing to do high pressure sales techniques to vulnerable people.

And the poor families left in an even worse state than before after their intervention.

GoodButNaughty · 22/09/2021 16:52

In the Radio 4 programme Sam (when interviewed about the £5.5k cost of the programme) says:

"For 15 years we paid over £2,000 for our children..." .

She also says:

"to coach a child through and anxiety recovery programme you don't need them (any qualifications, that is!)" AND "You do not need to be qualified to coach children out of anxiety.."

Eeeekk! what am I listening to?!

She has also in the past said that she has been an Anxiety specialist for years but by stating they spent money on their own childs mental health this suggests this is not true?

Anyone else seeing more holes in their story than swiss cheese??

Mibb2 · 22/09/2021 18:48

Good, I thought what she meant was they had spent £2000 a month on each kid, just on extra curricular stuff? And then these mum's (sic) were complaining about spending £5500 on their child. I don't know what world she lives in where it's normal to spend £4K a month on your kids? Maybe the sort of world where you're turning over £100k a month?

I think but can't be 100% sure that the person who spoke positively about YCFF was the one that crowd funded for YCFF and also worked for them at some point. I think that makes for someone who is quite invested in making the company look good. I think this person posted early on the original thread too.

GoodButNaughty · 22/09/2021 19:26

@Mibb2 - yes that was obviously that lady who crowdfunded to pay for her ‘training’ with Sam. She appeared on Sams website and posted a number of (bonkers!) Facebook posts and videos (so anyone could work our easily who she is)...

SwanShaped · 22/09/2021 19:50

I also got the impression she was saying about paying for support for her kids in the region of £2k/month. She’s not always that coherent so I can’t always make out what she means. It’s absurd to expect that people will just have £5k if they loved their kids enough. Basically tell them that they’ll complete suicide if they don’t do her programme. Clearly she’s not heard of poverty. And anyway, even if someone did sign up, £5k is a huge amount to put on finance.

It was also a bit weird how she had to tell Martin to stop talking because he was contradicting her new found wisdom about her marketing techniques. Which is obvs just all stuff she’s gleaned from us.

My heart goes out to all the parents who did this and it didn’t work and they lost their money or felt bad. Please don’t feel bad if you’re reading this, high pressure sales tactics are very sneaky.

ConcernedObserver · 23/09/2021 08:39

I'm genuinely surprised they haven't added "As featured on The BBC!" to their marketing spiel yet... give it time.

TeenMinusTests · 23/09/2021 08:53

@ConcernedObserver

I'm genuinely surprised they haven't added "As featured on The BBC!" to their marketing spiel yet... give it time.
Grin
lu9months · 27/09/2021 16:05

in case you havent seen this-
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zt9y

GoodButNaughty · 27/09/2021 17:11

Thanks @lu9months; there’s been lots of discussion around this and links.

What did you make of it??

GoodButNaughty · 30/09/2021 07:23

And it seems PP / YCFF are back with another new identity:

www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=GB&view_all_page_id=100862639021875&search_type=page&media_type=all

For goodness sake...!! Angry

TeenMinusTests · 30/09/2021 07:49

Aren't there laws against things like this?

ps 'low cost'???

SwanShaped · 30/09/2021 17:25

Oh fucking hell, she just won’t stop!! It’s just embarrassing how many times she’s tried to reinvent it all with new websites and new names.

ConcernedObserver · 03/10/2021 11:53

And yet another new (or maybe change of?) name: find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13656574/officers ...

A Tribe of Good People? Oh dear.

Mibb2 · 03/10/2021 18:01

Ugh, this is exhausting!

SwanShaped · 04/10/2021 08:18

What the hell! Another one? Is that their 6th anxiety cure company in two years?

SwanShaped · 04/10/2021 08:20

It was only set up a couple of days ago. It’s like they have a setting up new businesses compulsion.

scowe · 05/10/2021 20:42

As a parent within a family currently using this company i find these posts really offensive and downright ludicrous to be honest! Working with Sam and the team is totally turning not just our child's anxiety around, but also the dynamics within the whole family and my own mental heath and i cannot recommend it highly enough! Should we have to pay to get this help? No we shouldn't! But after nearly 7 years of struggling and getting nowhere within the NHS system and little or no support from the schools i made the decision to put my trust in Sam and the team and have not been disappointed at all. I am a hard working mother, and i choose what i to spend my money on. Some of you mums may prefer to spend your money on designer clothes, bags and shoes.....some of you may not work at all... indeed a suspect this is the case for quite a few of you as you seem to have so much time on your hands to rally round and try to ruin a perfectly good business. I myself, chose to put my money into investing into my child's wellbeing, and in fact got a whole lot more than i ever expected as the support BOTH parents are receiving too on almost a daily basis....every week... since we started has been astounding. This programme i am discovering only really works if the parents are willing to put the hard graft in too, as habits and family dynamics need changing. I suspect that the person who kicked off this thread (who's name i can't even be bothered to look up) perhaps took offence to finding out that they weren't the perfect parent and didn't put in the effort required to make this work so insisted on trying to get their money back like a spoilt brat cause it was 'too hard', which is a real shame as they missed out on the joy that i am feeling from seeing our child's life (and ours too) improve day by day and step by step. So what if some of the mentors who coach us parents and our children have come from being 'customers' in the past? in my mind, who better to help us all get through this than the people who have been there, lived the pain, and come out the other side? I don't care what letters they have after their name, after all, no GP has managed to help me yet, the fact is they know their stuff and they are working wonders. I'm sure plenty of you trot of to slimming world or weight watchers each week, paying your money to hop on those scales and get advise from... not a qualified nutritionist....but someone who's been through the programme and come out the otherside (don't mind giving them the commission of the books and snacks you buy too on top of it...how dare they rip you off like that?) I think it's very naïve of those bitching about this company to somehow think that the round the clock support we get should somehow be provided for free, i guess there could be an option for replacing the current mentors with a group of millionaires who can afford to take over on a full time basis to help us without needing a wage, but i'm guessing the quality of their advise and support will be rather dodgy. I'm happy to respond and converse with any person on here who has actually been through the programme and has an informed opinion on this, but if you are just jumping on the band wagon and have never dealt directly with Sam and team i suggest you jog on.... or just go and get a job cause seriously you have too much time on your hands to be sticking your noses into something you know nothing about.... there's lots of shortages currently.... HGV driver....NHS worker...hospitality industry.....honestly find something else to fill your time! Oh and one last thing, if you think Sam's statement trying to defend her own company, passion and livelihood make her sound unhinged, then i hope you never ever get put in the position of having to defend yourself against vindictive poisonous bullies. It must be a lovely view up there from your pedestal. p.s i also had a knee op in January....private...through my work health insurance no less....rather than wait 2 years to go through the NHS....i know terrible right..... shall we start a thread trying to discredit the Nuffield hospitals and try and get them shut down for charging people to make them better??? Or better still, let's try and ITV's This Morning programme taken off air, i bet they bloody paying that Dedre Sanders to give advice to their viewers..... i mean....paying someone? to give advise and support? when they could nip for a chat with their GP instead? ..bloody ridiculous!!!

SwanShaped · 05/10/2021 21:08

I suspect that the person who kicked off this thread (who's name i can't even be bothered to look up) perhaps took offence to finding out that they weren't the perfect parent and didn't put in the effort required to make this work so insisted on trying to get their money back like a spoilt brat cause it was 'too hard', which is a real shame as they missed out on the joy that i am feeling from seeing our child's life (and ours too) improve day by day and step by step.

That is quite an incredible rant. I see you posted the same on the other thread too.

scowe · 05/10/2021 21:17

@SwanShaped no it's passion, i don't 'rant'...i'm not a fish wife! I'm just very defensive about a programme that is changing our families lives for the better. As i don't use mums net very often i didn't know which thread to post it on so used both just to be sure to get my point across as it all seems rather one sided with people critiquing something they have no first hand experience of.

SwanShaped · 05/10/2021 21:20

I didn’t call you a fish wife. I think it’s quite mean to call another parent a spoilt brat.

scowe · 05/10/2021 21:24

@SwanShaped no you said i was 'ranting' when in actual fact i was 'challenging' the person who first started this post and looks to be systematically trying to bring down a company that is helping lots of other people just because it didn't work for her.... i think that's pretty mean too... don't you?