Here at The “It” Factor we meet with thousands of people a year and receive numerous praises not only on our networking summits and radio show on 1360 AM Philadelphia, but also on the success of our management company. In a short time we have really set the standard on how a talent company should be run.
Just like all great companies we still have our skeptics and so we wanted to share a recent email from one our new talent. We believe in full transparency in today’s world of social networking and we feel letters like this need to be addressed in a public forum for the benefit of our community. With that being said, please learn from the following situation.
Hello,
My husband signed up for your VIP Summit last week. We are very excited and look forward to this opportunity, but as we were looking for more information online we came across several scam reports that have us feeling very uneasy. Why are there so many negative reports about The “It” Factor as a scam and why are you rated so low with the Better Business Bureau? To ease our minds, could you please give us at least one reference we could call, someone who has been to a VIP summit through you? And could you also give us a list of names of the speakers who will be there and who the “top decision makers” will be that we will meet in the afternoon on May 19th?
Thank you,
Caitlin and Chris M.
Dear Caitlin and Chris:
Thank you for your email. I do appreciate your concern as anyone who is new to the industry should always be wary of any product that is offered to them. I congratulate you on having the social intelligence to seek out the truth. I have provided the following information in order of your questions.
Testimonials and Access to Privacy
Here is a link to Google Images http://goo.gl/ue5Z3, which provides well over 1,000 links to various articles and testimonials – that might not have been included on my main site.
In addition, here is a link to the speaker list from the last summit on December 10th: http://goo.gl/tih7u, which is available on my home page, but I have provided it here to make it easier for you to find.
The list for the May 19th 2012 summit is not available to staff or talent until the morning of the event. I am not quite sure of the logic of knowing who is attending other than to satisfy the fear you are going through submerging yourself in online gossip by adding scam to any name in a Google search. As a test of faith try this, pick three of your most favorite items or companies in the world and add scam after the name in a Google search and you will see my point. I actually just tried it with my favorite characters from the Muppet’s and almost fell out of my chair.
As far as speaking to a talent to verify our creditability, please see http://www.alyciakaback.tv for a list of various videos and testimonials. If you feel anonymous postings online were reason enough not to attend a VIP Summit compared to the names and faces of real individuals in these videos, I can assure you this: your path to fame will be full of disappointments. You can read TMZ.com to see a daily list of celebrity gossip stories that are quite unflattering. Now I do not mean to sound harsh but with the amount of individuals we see, I have an obligation to protect the privacy of all the people we work with and do not give out phone numbers of either talent or speakers for respect of privacy.
The Better Business Bureau
While the BBB was meant to be a trusted source of research, we found some rather disturbing news on how they operate and prey upon local businesses.
FACT: Companies can achieve an A+ rating ONLY IF they pay the BBB’s membership dues. These dues start at $425/year and go up to $10,000 for large companies.
FACT: If you do not pay BBB for membership you will receive a very low or F rating. Chef Wolfgang Puck’s businesses receive F’s because he refuses to pay a fee. Ritz Carlton, which does not belong to the BBB either, receives an F rating.
FACT: The BBB is a private company and not a government entity. The BBB is a business, and while it is organized as a non-profit, it does collect fees from the members who are included in its listings.
FACT: To prove the point, a group of Los Angeles business owners paid $425 to the Better Business Bureau and were able to obtain an A minus grade for a non-existent company called Hamas, named after the Middle Eastern terror group.
I have provided a link to a recent 20/20 special exposing the BBB and their practices. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/bbb-members-ratings-12129596 I would like to think that you were not aware of this as I have close friends that lost dear family members on that day. I sincerely hope this information at the least helps provide a better understanding of the world we all live in and opens your eyes so slightly. You did the right thing in contacting me and I look forward to seeing your success.
“There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.”
To your success,
Alycia Kaback – Founder and CEO
The It Factor – Productions
So the question remains “Do models need to be intelligent?” The answer is yes they do. Modeling is a business and just like any business, needs to be run based on well-researched facts. We hope you, our readers take away some valuable information and we look forward to your feedback and comments.
“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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