Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
Speaker 1: hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Speaker 1: Sophie Torba and coming up on today's show. As she
Speaker 1: binds calls out a brand for ripping her off, Jessica
Speaker 1: Wilson is forced to de I she purchased designs off
Speaker 1: Ali Barber and Sammy Guggenheimer admits she stalks other influences.
Speaker 1: But first, we must have had an influx of new listeners, Kate,
Speaker 1: which is nice because we've had quite a few dms
Speaker 1: where people have said, look, I'm confused. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that you guys were triplets. Why they're endless pregnancies? Can
Speaker 1: you give us a bit of an explainer as to
Speaker 1: what's going on. Perhaps we need to reinstate our old intro,
Speaker 1: because in it we clearly state that we're identical triplets,
Speaker 1: but we don't have identical opinions, so sometimes things can gage, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's a blast from the past. We got rid of
Speaker 1: it because it was a bit cringe. But maybe we
Speaker 1: need to have a new, fast paced intro. But the
Speaker 1: reason why it seems like there's endless pregnancies going on
Speaker 1: is because Amy, and I so our other co host, Amy,
Speaker 1: who hasn't been on the show for a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks now. She gave birth six weeks ago, and Amy
Speaker 1: and my pregnancies are nine weeks apart. And you are
Speaker 1: Sophie and I am Sophie, And this is Kate on
Speaker 1: the so co host Yeah. So I have a son
Speaker 1: called Jack, who is nearly a year old. And it's
Speaker 1: pretty confusing because we all study journalism together. We're all
Speaker 1: thirty six years old. We all got married within a
Speaker 1: year of each other. So you're probably lucky you weren't
Speaker 1: around to hear about the endless wedding talk and endless
Speaker 1: Hen's party talk that we had a couple of years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean to put a bit of differences out there.
Speaker 1: I used to work in news at Channel seven, and
Speaker 1: then I went into PR. Amy and I have our
Speaker 1: own PR business. Kay, you've worked in sports public relations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I also studied journalism, but I moved more into
Speaker 1: the marketing and PR space. So I worked at the
Speaker 1: Adelaide thirty Six's and the Adelaide Thunderbirds and a few
Speaker 1: different marketing companies, and then six years ago we decided
Speaker 1: to do a podcast together.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was because we'd actually all moved away from each
Speaker 1: other for the first time, because we were all living
Speaker 1: in a sharehouse together and then you know, became adults
Speaker 1: and had to move out with our partners and such,
Speaker 1: and me thought, well, this is a good opportunity for
Speaker 1: us to have a joint project together. It was a
Speaker 1: bit of a passion project, but it has become your
Speaker 1: full time job now, Kate. Yeah, it's still so weird
Speaker 1: when people ask me what do you do? Because I
Speaker 1: get really awkward, particularly around older people that don't really
Speaker 1: get podcasts. I've been filling out so many forms at
Speaker 1: the hospital lately and it's like, what is your job title?
Speaker 1: But I always just say publicist Because of my BRF firm,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's easier to explain that. But if
Speaker 1: there's any other questions new listeners have slide into our DMS,
Speaker 1: maybe we have to do a bit more of a
Speaker 1: get to know us episode. I don't hate anyone? You do?
Speaker 1: You do? I don't. It turns out Sammy Guggenheimer is
Speaker 1: just like us. In a Q and A, she admitted
Speaker 1: she stalks influences she doesn't like. Well, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more than that. Her roommate Lily threw her under
Speaker 1: the bars and said that she hates some influences. Maybe
Speaker 1: she's a listener of this podcast then, So it all
Speaker 1: started when a follower asked Sammy who favorite influencer was.
Speaker 1: Let's throw to what she said. I don't really watch
Speaker 1: a lot of influences stuff that. My favorite influences are
Speaker 1: probably Sofia and Chincia. Who else do I really like?
Speaker 1: Alex l Who else do I like? Say?
Speaker 2: Well, you don't like? Don't say that. Who's your favorite influences?
Speaker 1: I don't hate anyone? You do you do? I don't.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people I stalk because I know
Speaker 1: stuff about them. I don't stalk not I'm a baking art.
Speaker 1: I love it that the room mate was dishing all
Speaker 1: of the dirt. Oh she was really sticking the knife
Speaker 1: in there, and you could tell Sammy was like, shut up.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are some obvious ones that we know
Speaker 1: she has beef with, like Sofa Dofer and as we
Speaker 1: discussed last week, the speculation that her and Easy Armitage
Speaker 1: are no longer longer friends, but they did put their
Speaker 1: podcast out together again, so they've squashed that there's also
Speaker 1: a rumor she doesn't like Kerry Gribble. I was thinking
Speaker 1: outside of the square though. Remember last year at Australian
Speaker 1: Fashion Week, Sammy was spotted with Olivia Rogers ex Morgan Waterhouse.
Speaker 1: Yeah that was quite weird because Sammy and Olivia they
Speaker 1: look quite similar. Yeah, they're most beautiful girls, which is
Speaker 1: quite ironic because Olivia seems to date guys that look
Speaker 1: like her ex husband Justin McGinn's. I mean, both Morgan
Speaker 1: and Olivia seem to have a time. I wonder if
Speaker 1: she stalks Olivia Rogers because she knows stuff about her
Speaker 1: h I mean, I feel like there's probably a few
Speaker 1: people on her stalking list. I mean, we all have
Speaker 1: a stalking rotation, don't we. And the funniest thing about
Speaker 1: stalking rotations when you're stalking normal people is that the
Speaker 1: normal people become celebrities to you. Oh and then when
Speaker 1: they put their account on private, I feel so robbed.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hang on, what am I going to do?
Speaker 1: What are they up to? I just think that private
Speaker 1: accounts should not be allowed because they mean for children.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, we have a finced. I have
Speaker 1: had a finster ever since I got into journalism because
Speaker 1: in class we were all told in order to get information,
Speaker 1: you need to have fake Instagram account. Yeah, do we
Speaker 1: think that Samy's got a burner account? Oh, she totally
Speaker 1: have a finster. I wonder how much effort she's put
Speaker 1: into the finster though, because she is stalking influences. The
Speaker 1: likelihood of them actually seeing the finster and saying, who
Speaker 1: the fuck is this weirdo that keeps looking at my
Speaker 1: stuff is very low. It's more when you are having
Speaker 1: a stalk of everyday people that you can't really get
Speaker 1: away with having a bit of a question pop up. See.
Speaker 1: I think you can always get away with having really
Speaker 1: with everyone because it could be anyone. Yeah, but some
Speaker 1: people don't get many views on their stories, and then
Speaker 1: it's so obvious when there's just some random fucking picture
Speaker 1: that like a sunset that keeps popping up. Hey, that
Speaker 1: is the profile picture of our finsters, so don't give
Speaker 1: it away. I have to go and change it. I
Speaker 1: actually haven't had access to our finster for quite some time.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's so funny. The name of it. I
Speaker 1: won't say what it is because people will find it,
Speaker 1: but it's actually a name that we used to use
Speaker 1: when I worked at the Thunderbirds because we had a
Speaker 1: finster to try and direct positive commentary. And we found
Speaker 1: out later that it's actually the name of one of
Speaker 1: our nana's best friends, which I didn't know. Well, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that we used to, like back back back
Speaker 1: in the day, we used to have a Facebook finster
Speaker 1: and that was quite a sophisticated one because in order
Speaker 1: to have a Facebook finster you had to have quite
Speaker 1: a number of photo I still feel bad about that
Speaker 1: because essentially what we did was we found someone in
Speaker 1: a different countries Facebook page and just copied all of
Speaker 1: their photos across, which is terrible when you think about it.
Speaker 1: My friends recently he's had a fake hinge a count
Speaker 1: made of him. And it was funny because at this
Speaker 1: dinner we were talking about who in their right mind
Speaker 1: would ever do that and still someone's photos, And I
Speaker 1: was sitting there thinking, oh God, I did that like
Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. I know, it's terrible. I feel like
Speaker 1: it wasn't the same then, Like I mean also like
Speaker 1: I wasn't tricking anyone into dating this. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's just to look at other people's pages. I think
Speaker 1: if you're cat fishing people. That's scare you anyway. Back then,
Speaker 1: Sammy Kuginheimer, it feels like this is Confessions. I'm just
Speaker 1: getting to know our deepest dark and secrets this episode. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: in terms of Sammy, on her public profile, she actually
Speaker 1: follows a lot of ogs and influencers, So she's got
Speaker 1: Sarah's Day, Shanny Grimman, Tammy Hermbrojade Tunci, Sky Wheatley, Steph
Speaker 1: class Smith, and a bunch of others. So who knows,
Speaker 1: she may just be looking at these people's accounts on
Speaker 1: her own. I hate following them.
Speaker 2: Someone had warned me, so I didn't waste my time,
Speaker 2: my airtime, I didn't get my audience involved, because it
Speaker 2: has been an absolute nightmare.
Speaker 1: As she bids, has issued a warning to her fellow influencers,
Speaker 1: don't work with a certain Sea Moss brand. The og
Speaker 1: fitness influencer put the brand on blast after they didn't
Speaker 1: pay her for the content she created for them. While
Speaker 1: as she refrained from naming the company in her TikTok,
Speaker 1: it didn't take her audience long cake to guess who
Speaker 1: it was. Yeah, one brand's name kept popping up time
Speaker 1: and time again, and that was moss x Daily. So
Speaker 1: in the video she said that she wasn't going to
Speaker 1: name the company in order to protect herself, yet she
Speaker 1: allowed people to go ham in the comments. It also
Speaker 1: was fairly obvious who she was talking about, because she's
Speaker 1: previously created content for them which people could easily find. Well,
Speaker 1: she said, people are gonna work it out. I mean
Speaker 1: the weird thing is she still has the content up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's defamatory if people are gonna identify who it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's the truth defense. So the controversial company is owned
Speaker 1: by former Maths contestant Brett Vitilio, but we will dive
Speaker 1: into that a little bit later. For now, Sophie, what
Speaker 1: do you know about ce mos? I see all these
Speaker 1: influencers starting their morning routines by essentially taking a spoonful
Speaker 1: of something that looks completely inedible and a weird texture
Speaker 1: and then basically pulling a face and saying how gross
Speaker 1: it tastes, but they feel so much better for doing so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of influencers spooking it recently. It
Speaker 1: seems to be the new superfood that we're putting into
Speaker 1: our smoothies. I mean, it looks disgusted. Really, I have
Speaker 1: just seen people taking spoonfuls and eating it by the
Speaker 1: jar like that. Ah Well, in the video ash bindshed
Speaker 1: she put it into a smoothie during her promotional video
Speaker 1: for this brand. I mean, it just seems to have
Speaker 1: popped up out of nowhere to me. As you said,
Speaker 1: it doesn't look very nice, but it's supposed to be
Speaker 1: very nutritionally. Rich In saying that at this stage, there's
Speaker 1: actually not a lot of scientific evidence that's supports the
Speaker 1: health benefits that are being spraud No way, no way.
Speaker 1: I mean I can see how the partnership aligns with
Speaker 1: Ashy Bien. She's all about health and fitness. It's very
Speaker 1: on brand for her. Yeah. It was actually back in
Speaker 1: July last year though, that she worked with the brand.
Speaker 1: So she created an Instagram reel promoting the semos, and
Speaker 1: she claims that she went above and beyond. She chucked
Speaker 1: in a couple of stories and TikTok shout outs for
Speaker 1: free very dinnerous, and the brand was meant to pay
Speaker 1: her for her work in August twenty twenty four. However,
Speaker 1: she says that she is still waiting to be paid.
Speaker 1: It's pretty bad if this is true, Whilst this brand
Speaker 1: was messing Ashy around, she said, she started to get
Speaker 1: complaints from her followers who said that they hadn't received
Speaker 1: their orders, So, she said she followed it up with
Speaker 1: the brand, and they claimed that they were struggling to
Speaker 1: keep up with the influx of orders that came from
Speaker 1: her promotion. Al I've actually added this in like, hey,
Speaker 1: future brands who want to work with me, I actually
Speaker 1: sell a lot of stuff. To be fair, she said
Speaker 1: she got over a hundred complaints about people that had
Speaker 1: purchased the product and not received it, and she said
Speaker 1: she said to become tired of being the middle person.
Speaker 1: It's bad for her brand that she's spooking something which
Speaker 1: hasn't arrived. No, it was terrible. Here's more of what she.
Speaker 2: Said, trying to keep everyone happy and figure out what
Speaker 2: was going on. I didn't want you guys to feel frustrated,
Speaker 2: but I felt like part responsible because I had promoted
Speaker 2: the brand and sent you guys to buy this product
Speaker 2: because I recommended it and I trusted it, And yeah, frustrating.
Speaker 1: It's unclear what Ash based this trust on, because what
Speaker 1: became apparent is she did no research into this brand,
Speaker 1: and she really didn't help the situation by saying normally
Speaker 1: she doesn't have to research the brand of the owner.
Speaker 1: I think this is a pretty good lesson for her.
Speaker 1: I mean, she's an OG influencer. She's been doing a
Speaker 1: lot of brand deals for years now. I'm surprised that
Speaker 1: this is the first time this has happened to it. Well,
Speaker 1: she just made it sound like she just takes any
Speaker 1: deals for money. Really, I mean, it was only when
Speaker 1: the brand didn't pay her that she began to do
Speaker 1: her research, and that's when she discovered a bunch of
Speaker 1: negative reviews on TikTok and Google. Or if she had
Speaker 1: done her due diligence earlier, she would have quickly discovered
Speaker 1: that this brand was not one that she would want
Speaker 1: to align herself with. Because Kay, as you touched on
Speaker 1: at the start of the segment, this Semos brand is
Speaker 1: owned by a former Maths contestant called Brett Now. He
Speaker 1: appeared on the show in twenty twenty two and he
Speaker 1: was married to Tamara, and the couple didn't last long.
Speaker 1: He was later linked to fellow contestant Ella Ding and
Speaker 1: he now dates Australian model and actor Taylor Davies. It
Speaker 1: was a real blaster in the past, because I watched
Speaker 1: this series and it's clear that Tamara is not happy
Speaker 1: with him, because she was jumping in on Ashy Bynes's
Speaker 1: comment saying what a bad guy he is. We'll go
Speaker 1: into that a little bit later. Yeah, well he started
Speaker 1: this Seamos business. After maths and the company states that
Speaker 1: they're not just a Seamos company, they're a passionate movement
Speaker 1: aimed at revolutionizing the seamoss industry in Australia and beyond.
Speaker 1: That term movement should have been a big enough red flag.
Speaker 1: Despite the bold claims, Brett has constantly been forced to
Speaker 1: address complaints that customers aren't receiving their orders. He often
Speaker 1: jumps on his Instagram stories and tells his four hundred
Speaker 1: plus thousand followers that they're coming, just you need to
Speaker 1: wait for them. Just be patient everyone. I've taken your money.
Speaker 1: Your orders are a few months late, but they're on
Speaker 1: their way now. Despite his attempts to keep his customers happy,
Speaker 1: in March, New South Wales, Fair Trading issued a public
Speaker 1: warning about the brand after receiving forty five complaints about
Speaker 1: the products since January twenty twenty four, so the concerns
Speaker 1: included spoiled products, missing orders, substantial delays and unfilled charity donations. Now,
Speaker 1: the brand's also been accused of going off the grid
Speaker 1: when consumers raise concerns. In terms of the charity claim,
Speaker 1: moss x Daily claims to donate a portion of each
Speaker 1: sale to a charity called One Dollar One Dream. But
Speaker 1: when you dig a bit deeper, the charity is actually
Speaker 1: operated by Brett himself. Yeah, so he claims that the
Speaker 1: charity gives back to the community that helps him harvest
Speaker 1: the sea moss and team or less. According to New
Speaker 1: South Wales Fair Trading, to date it has not been substanted.
Speaker 1: Actual added that the funds have been transferred from the
Speaker 1: business to the charity. The Daily Telegraph also did some
Speaker 1: digging and they discovered the charity also isn't registered with
Speaker 1: the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission. I just
Speaker 1: can't get my head around the fact that he owns
Speaker 1: the charity that his brand is supposedly donating money too. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: when the publication questioned Brett about the status of the
Speaker 1: charity in March, he claimed his charity isn't required to
Speaker 1: be registered because it's not an Australian charity or brand,
Speaker 1: and that's because he's saying that the charity operates overseas,
Speaker 1: so essentially he doesn't have to abide by Australian laws.
Speaker 1: And he went on to say that his charity has
Speaker 1: supported hundreds of Third World harvesting families. Now New South
Speaker 1: Wales fair Trading has urged anyone who has dealt with
Speaker 1: moss x Daily and is not satisfied to lodge a
Speaker 1: complaint with them. It has had a flow on effect
Speaker 1: for the brand, thankfully, because you currently cannot buy from
Speaker 1: moss x Daily, so when you visit their website, you're
Speaker 1: greeted with a message that says we're sorry. We're currently
Speaker 1: sold out and not taking on any new orders until
Speaker 1: the thirtieth of May twenty twenty five, So this Friday
Speaker 1: until we catch up on our backlog. Sign up below
Speaker 1: to be the first to know on our drop date.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think they're going to have too
Speaker 1: many issues with that. Now back to Ashi, she claimed
Speaker 1: she went public with the news about moss ex Daily
Speaker 1: to warn other content creators not to fall victim like
Speaker 1: she did. Are we buying it? Because it seems like
Speaker 1: she had no other option, considering so many of her
Speaker 1: followers had issues with the brand, even though as she
Speaker 1: was fairly naive entering into this partnership, she and her
Speaker 1: team are sophisticated enough to know that they need to
Speaker 1: distance themselves publicly from this brand, so there's no confusion
Speaker 1: over what her role was. Yes, she did a paid
Speaker 1: partnership post with them and did a couple of extra freebies.
Speaker 1: She and her team want people to know that she
Speaker 1: isn'tffiliated with this brand in anyway. I think she realized
Speaker 1: if she stayed quiet, the story would negatively flip onto her. However,
Speaker 1: by coming out and saying that she's also a victim
Speaker 1: of this brand, she's removed any blame or responsibility her
Speaker 1: followers could have thrown at her. I think the timing
Speaker 1: is pretty interesting because it's it also nearly been a
Speaker 1: year since she worked with the brand, so maybe she's
Speaker 1: just been waiting to see if she got paid, but
Speaker 1: realizes now that there's no chance, particularly after New South
Speaker 1: Wales was trading put that warning out. I'd love to
Speaker 1: know how much they owed her. I know a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago we spoke about an episode as she
Speaker 1: did where she revealed some secrets and what her pricing
Speaker 1: used to be. And she said that she used to
Speaker 1: get paid between fifteen to ten thousand dollars for a post.
Speaker 1: She's reckoned, she's chasing that sort of money up. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I reckon you'd be right with that figure. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is very damaging for ash Bindes's influencing career because
Speaker 1: she's admitted that she took on a brand deal about
Speaker 1: a brand that she knew nothing about. She's broken down
Speaker 1: the fourth wall now and spoken to her followers about
Speaker 1: this failed brand deal, and in turn, she's just damaged
Speaker 1: that trust that she had between her and her audience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but do you think that she's trying to save face.
Speaker 1: Maybe she did know about this brand, but she just
Speaker 1: wanted to take the money and take the risk with it. No,
Speaker 1: I think she genuinely didn't know about the brand. I
Speaker 1: think she just didn't do any research because she probably thought, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a health related brand, C Moss. It kind of
Speaker 1: fits in with what I'm all about. Yeah, do you
Speaker 1: think influencers have a responsibility to actually research what they're spreaking?
Speaker 1: I definitely think so. I mean, this is a multi
Speaker 1: million billion dollar industry at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: most successful influencers have their own brand managers who essentially
Speaker 1: set up these deals for them. It's the brand manager's
Speaker 1: job to look into the deal and the brand behind it.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: I think there's an onus on the influencer though to
Speaker 1: approve it, because a lot of influencers go on about
Speaker 1: how I only work with brands that I love, and
Speaker 1: they preach all about that, But in terms of actually binds,
Speaker 1: it's clear that she's just happy to take on any
Speaker 1: brand do and that's why I'm surprised that she's actually
Speaker 1: come out and said it. Yeah, but I also think
Speaker 1: the responsibility lies with the brand manager as well, because
Speaker 1: they're taking cut of the deal as well, and it
Speaker 1: wouldn't be hard for them to google or do a
Speaker 1: quick TikTok search to make sure that the brand is
Speaker 1: actually fulfilling its orders and that there's no complaints about
Speaker 1: the brand. Yeah, I mean the fact that they couldn't
Speaker 1: even google it. There was actually a really hilarious exchange
Speaker 1: between Ashy and one of her followers on TikTok that
Speaker 1: cracked me up. So someone wrote, is there any way
Speaker 1: you can get lawyers involved? Because it was a contract
Speaker 1: This is why I don't just purchase off just because
Speaker 1: influencers say it's good. We need to do research. No
Speaker 1: offense to you personally, I mean anyone that person gets
Speaker 1: paid to say they like the product. And as she replied,
Speaker 1: I love influencers recommendations as it's so personal. I don't
Speaker 1: follow anyone I don't trust. And then the person replied,
Speaker 1: but you've just admitted that you didn't do any research.
Speaker 1: I think it's difficult to trust when this stuff happens
Speaker 1: a lot, And then Ashi replied, I researched via their website,
Speaker 1: but never in my ten years did I feel the
Speaker 1: need to do a deep dive into the owner or
Speaker 1: Google review my lesson to learn. But the products I
Speaker 1: did love and website looked amazing. So but what research
Speaker 1: did you do?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 1: You just looked at the website and saw a bit
Speaker 1: of a flashy photo of last night. Yeah, as I
Speaker 1: referenced a little bit earlier in this segment, So if
Speaker 1: it seems like Brett has left a lasting impression on Tamara,
Speaker 1: his math's ex wife. So she also chimed in in
Speaker 1: Ashi's comments section, saying, imagine a reality TV show matching
Speaker 1: you with this guy. And making you the villain for
Speaker 1: seeing him for the fraud he is. And as she
Speaker 1: bines replied, I didn't even know he was on there.
Speaker 1: That's insane. So she clearly did not know much about
Speaker 1: this brand or who owns it. Look, I think whenever
Speaker 1: we hear an influencers say I've done my own research,
Speaker 1: we've got to take that with a grain of salt.
Speaker 1: I need to prep for the launch.
Speaker 2: Start.
Speaker 1: We've got one launch. The new albums are going up.
Speaker 1: I need to organize the email that's going to go
Speaker 1: out at seven to just let people know it's live.
Speaker 1: Jessica Wilson has been forced to deny she purchased designs
Speaker 1: off Ali Barber in the lead up to her latest
Speaker 1: product launch. The mummy blogger turned a small business owner
Speaker 1: was set to release her new line of photo albums
Speaker 1: when a super sleuth discovered Ali Barber was selling the
Speaker 1: exact same design for a fraction of the cost. So,
Speaker 1: before we get into it, who is Jessica Wilson. Well,
Speaker 1: Jessica has really grown a following by sharing about motherhood
Speaker 1: and lifestyle content on Instagram. So she is a mom
Speaker 1: to three. Her kids are Levi, Bowie and Goldie. And
Speaker 1: they feature heavily in her content now. Before influencing, she
Speaker 1: actually worked as an early childhood educator and it was
Speaker 1: the birth of her first child that inspired her to
Speaker 1: then go on and learn more about photography, and that's
Speaker 1: where she started sharing more about her life as a
Speaker 1: mum online. I'm trying to avoid using the word mummy
Speaker 1: blogger here because I feel like that is a dirty
Speaker 1: word in twenty twenty five. Can we say mum influencer?
Speaker 1: Is that offensive too? I don't know. I think influencers
Speaker 1: seem to hate being called influencers now there's such a
Speaker 1: negative connotation on it, so maybe just content creator. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: she now has seventy four thousand followers, so I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say she's a huge Aussie influencer. She seems to have
Speaker 1: quite a dedicated following, but she also has a lot
Speaker 1: of people who seem to dislike her. She has quite
Speaker 1: a large tattle threat. Yeah, and I feel like there's
Speaker 1: been a couple of instances where someone has posted about
Speaker 1: her in our Facebook group and we just get an
Speaker 1: influx of followers. Jessica has blocked us on social media
Speaker 1: and all of our accounts because I think because of
Speaker 1: the threads in our group. Yes, and this is why
Speaker 1: it's great that we have a finster, because I could
Speaker 1: still access her account for this story now. In twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, Jessica launched a business called bloom Store, which
Speaker 1: sells photo albums, baby books, and gifts. And on Thursday,
Speaker 1: she was busy getting ready to launch her new line
Speaker 1: of peel and stick albums, which I have to say
Speaker 1: looked pretty cool. So what does a peel and stick album? Well,
Speaker 1: it's like an old school photo album where you peel
Speaker 1: back the plastic and you stick your photos down, and
Speaker 1: then she's got these cute stickers that you can bring
Speaker 1: to life a holiday photo that's now called a peel
Speaker 1: and stick album. That's what she's marketing it as. So
Speaker 1: that made me think of like a sticker book for kids. Well,
Speaker 1: it kind of is like that, because she's selling these
Speaker 1: colorful stickers that bring the photos to life. Anyway, it's
Speaker 1: a scrapbooking for people that don't have time to put
Speaker 1: all of the effort in. It's kind a lazy scrap cat.
Speaker 1: I like the idea. So she showed herself on Thursday,
Speaker 1: sitting in front of her laptop. She had stacks of
Speaker 1: stickers out in front of her, and she conceded that
Speaker 1: she was exhausted but ready to launch that night. Now,
Speaker 1: in what wasn't the best timing for Jessica, a few
Speaker 1: hours before her product were set to launch, a super
Speaker 1: sleuth uncovered photo albums bearing the exact same design selling
Speaker 1: on Ali Barber for a fraction of the cost. Now.
Speaker 1: Ali Barber is, of course a wholesale marketplace which is
Speaker 1: known for drop shipping products sourced from China, and it
Speaker 1: connects buyers with large networks of manufacturers and suppliers who
Speaker 1: offer items at a very competitive price. It is ideal
Speaker 1: for buyers looking to purchase large quantities of products at
Speaker 1: a lower cost, and over the years, drop shipping and
Speaker 1: e commerce brands have become influencers. Bread and butter. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fair to say that a lot of influencers have
Speaker 1: made a name for themselves by selling cheap products, particularly
Speaker 1: some of the more low level influencers by just spooking
Speaker 1: any old crap on their Instagram. Now, what seems to
Speaker 1: have shocked a lot of people was the disparity in
Speaker 1: price with Jessica's albums and the ones on Ali Barber.
Speaker 1: So on Ali Barber, the albums were sold for just
Speaker 1: two to three dollars apiece if you ordered a minimum
Speaker 1: of three hundred albums, whereas on jessica website Bloomstore, her
Speaker 1: albums were listed as seventy four to ninety five. Now
Speaker 1: was a bit awkward because the super sleuth in question
Speaker 1: actually uploaded the screenshot to our Facebook community and accused
Speaker 1: Jessica of purchasing the designs from Ali Barber and simply
Speaker 1: slapping her brand name on top. The anonymous user wrote
Speaker 1: thoughts on influencers, alleging they designed something that was purchased
Speaker 1: from Ali Barber and then sold for seventy five dollars
Speaker 1: a pop. Now, this thread went off in our Facebook
Speaker 1: group and it got a lot of people talking about
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty champagne flute saga. This is probably one
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories we've ever covered on the podcast,
Speaker 1: and OG listeners will remember that Olivia White was caught
Speaker 1: out selling Ali Barber glasses that she was passing off
Speaker 1: as her own design, and she spoke a lot about
Speaker 1: how the glasses represented her mum's figure, and then of
Speaker 1: course it came out that they were actually created on
Speaker 1: Ali Barber with a huge markup it was quite nice
Speaker 1: because one listener said they actually discovered our podcasts through
Speaker 1: that segment. It is a favorite of mine as well well. Now.
Speaker 1: In response to the Super Sleuths screenshots, one listener wrote
Speaker 1: will epically fail, just like Olivia White's custom wineglasses, whilst
Speaker 1: another said slapping a logo on an Ali Barber special
Speaker 1: is not designing. I mean, she is one of the
Speaker 1: laziest influences going around, so I'm not surprised. I just
Speaker 1: feel bad for people who spend seventy five dollars on
Speaker 1: a supposed original design bit hash. I mean, I do
Speaker 1: want to point out that there is much more to
Speaker 1: this story, because these were merely unfounded allegations, which Jessica
Speaker 1: has since come out swinging again. So hours out from
Speaker 1: her launch, Jessica was quick to respond to the allegations.
Speaker 1: She wrote, it's come to my attention that a photo
Speaker 1: of our new Peel and Stick album is circulating alongside
Speaker 1: an Ali Barber listing with claims that I've bought pre
Speaker 1: made designs and pass them off as my own. I
Speaker 1: want to be completely transparent and clear that is not
Speaker 1: what happened. She continued, saying that she created the designs
Speaker 1: in collaboration with Studio Nu, which is the same creative
Speaker 1: team she's been working with for years. She confirmed she
Speaker 1: had receipts, date stamped concept drafts, mood boards, and communications
Speaker 1: which show the process of bringing the photo album collection
Speaker 1: to life. She continued saying the designs were imagined, revised
Speaker 1: and finalized with intention, and that she was incredibly proud
Speaker 1: of the work they did. She then explained why the
Speaker 1: same designs were currently being featured on Ali Barber. She wrote, Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it appears that the manufacturer we work with has used
Speaker 1: our designs to promote themselves on Ali Barber. I was
Speaker 1: unaware this was happening and will be following up with
Speaker 1: them immediately. She admitted that that part was on her
Speaker 1: and she should have known to protect the designs, and
Speaker 1: she is learning from it. She finished by saying she
Speaker 1: wants her followers to know that she pours her heart
Speaker 1: into every product that they create and that every phrase
Speaker 1: and colourway is carefully considered. She conceded that the timing
Speaker 1: was heartbreaking, with the news coming just as she was
Speaker 1: preparing to launch. This would be absolutely awful. Jessica did
Speaker 1: as promise CHAF Screenshots of her correspondence with her graphic
Speaker 1: designer Studio and You for some background, boutique business based
Speaker 1: in Townsville and has four designers on the team, which
Speaker 1: is quite interesting because sometimes when you hear the influencers
Speaker 1: are working with graphic designers, you assume that maybe it's
Speaker 1: a company based in another country that's very cheap. This
Speaker 1: is clearly a boutique agency that she has a connection
Speaker 1: with and a long standing partnership with. Yeah, so, she
Speaker 1: uploaded an email showing Studio and You emailed her the
Speaker 1: initial draft of the designs in mid November last year.
Speaker 1: She then shared a WhatsApp conversation from the fifth of
Speaker 1: February where the designer said she had emailed her the
Speaker 1: new artwork, as well as subsequent messages showing screenshots of
Speaker 1: the designs as they were evolving. Yeah. So, she did
Speaker 1: bring all the receipts, and she added at the end,
Speaker 1: that's all from me on this. I've shared the facts
Speaker 1: and the process. I hope it clears things up. This
Speaker 1: brand means the world to me, and I'll always protect
Speaker 1: the work we put into it. Now I'm shifting my
Speaker 1: energy back into what really matters. Celebrating a launch I'm
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of Thank you for being here, for supporting
Speaker 1: small business, and for choosing Bloom to help you tell
Speaker 1: your stories. I instantly felt really sorry for Jessica because
Speaker 1: this is clearly a young mum who has poured her
Speaker 1: heart and soul into a small business for three years now,
Speaker 1: and it's quite clear that she has a relationship with
Speaker 1: a genuine graphic design team that she's been working with
Speaker 1: for years, and she didn't just rip these designs off
Speaker 1: Ali Barber in saying that, I'm surprised that the design
Speaker 1: team didn't tell her to copyright the designs. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is surprising that they didn't do more to copyright these designs.
Speaker 1: It does seem like the manufacturer took advantage in this situation.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how it's legal for them to do so.
Speaker 1: A number of business owners in our group did take
Speaker 1: the time to point out that manufacturers on Ali Barber
Speaker 1: often use photos of products that they have created to
Speaker 1: promote the work that they've done. So sometimes they will
Speaker 1: ask the customer if they can use the product image
Speaker 1: in their listings, but other times they will just go
Speaker 1: ahead and use it unless the customer has explicitly said
Speaker 1: so so in this case, it seems like Jessica and
Speaker 1: her graphic designer should have said, under no circumstances are
Speaker 1: you to use our images. I mean, I can see
Speaker 1: how this super sluth jumped to the initial conclusion and
Speaker 1: how people ran with it, because influencers really do get
Speaker 1: a bad rap for slapping their name on any old
Speaker 1: drop shipping company and charging big bucks for it. In
Speaker 1: terms of this situation, it's very unfortunate. It does seem
Speaker 1: like Jessica was working with a manufacturer that does stuff
Speaker 1: for Ali Barbaba. So I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: confusion around Ali Barber as a platform itself, because whenever
Speaker 1: you hear the word Ali Barber, it has a very
Speaker 1: negative connotation. I think people automatically assume that a business
Speaker 1: must not be legit if they do their orders through
Speaker 1: Ali Barber, when in reality, it is a legitimate platform
Speaker 1: that connects a lot of businesses with manufacturers, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the time small businesses work with Ali Barber
Speaker 1: because that's all that they can afford. There also seems
Speaker 1: to be a lot of confusion around pricing on platforms
Speaker 1: like Ali Barber, because you know, you see this post
Speaker 1: from the super Sluth and you think, oh wow, like
Speaker 1: I could just jump on Ali Barber and get the
Speaker 1: same photo opt for two to three dollars. But the
Speaker 1: reality is, in order to get it for that price,
Speaker 1: you've got to buy three hundred of them. So the
Speaker 1: average customer isn't going to be doing that. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I suppose it just demonstrates the markup that people are
Speaker 1: able to put on these products. Yeah. But that's also
Speaker 1: where there's some confusion because a lot of business owners
Speaker 1: have come out and said that there are so many
Speaker 1: hidden costs when it comes to all of the importation taxes,
Speaker 1: any customizations you need, there's clearance, fees, shippings, there's warehousing,
Speaker 1: also all the branding and marketing that goes into promoting
Speaker 1: the product. So I don't think it's as clear cut
Speaker 1: as saying, oh, this album was cost two dollars to
Speaker 1: make feel really bad for Jessica because the timing was
Speaker 1: absolutely terrible, and that's why I wanted to clear things
Speaker 1: up on the podcast. There was a broader conversation afterwards
Speaker 1: in our group as to whether this was all orchestrated
Speaker 1: to try and destroy her launch. I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: to be a common occurrence these days that as soon
Speaker 1: as an influencer launches a brand, people go and do
Speaker 1: their research into it. We saw it on the moly
Speaker 1: May documentary. I mean there were terrible reviews about the
Speaker 1: she was using. People started to pick about where it
Speaker 1: was made. I mean, even before she launched, there was
Speaker 1: a TikToker who looked into her ABN and all of
Speaker 1: the background details just to pick what the business was
Speaker 1: actually going to be, because at the time there was
Speaker 1: a lot of question marks as to what she was
Speaker 1: actually launching. I would be so scared if I was
Speaker 1: an influencer launching a brand in twenty twenty five, because
Speaker 1: the scrutiny is so intense. Oh, it really is, and
Speaker 1: everyone just wants to prove, Oh they're not doing it sustainably,
Speaker 1: it's not good enough, there's not enough sizes. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't want to act all innocent in this because
Speaker 1: we have had quite a few segments diving into some
Speaker 1: complaints about influencer brands, which have all been substantiated.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, there's a time and place for it,
Speaker 1: but it just seems because of that, there's been some
Speaker 1: bad stories every time it influencer launches a brand. We
Speaker 1: just think the worst that it mustn't be a good thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think it came from a lot of people
Speaker 1: almost wanting to believe the worst in this brand and
Speaker 1: the worst in the influencer in question. Well that's where
Speaker 1: we're going to leave things today. If you do enjoy
Speaker 1: the podcast, we would love it if you can make
Speaker 1: sure that you are subscribed on Apple, Spotify and leave
Speaker 1: us a five star review. This podcast was recorded on
Speaker 1: the traditional land of the Ghana people of the Adelaide Plains.
Speaker 1: We pay respect to elders past and present,