As a coach, therapist and a PHD with clinical psychology I pride myself on understanding and reading human behavior. After 25 years of experience in the field I would like to think that I would not get scammed by another coach or a therapist. I would really like to think that I can read people and when a coach comes highly recommended, I should trust that recommendation. I am Dr. Cali Estes after all with 10 years of education and body language training.
Right?
Well, Dr. Cali Estes got scammed.
And it wasn’t like I was shopping on Wish and spent $20 bucks on a dress that came 4 sizes too small. Not that kind of a scam. More like I spent $20,000 and flew to California to meet a highly sought after business coach that is supposed to be the top of his game and I got scammed. But let me back up…
I was trolling Youtube one day and I saw this coach that had alot to do with the Chicken Soup for the Soul guys, remember them? Well he is credited for much of their success and also a lot of the new funnel guys, marketers and the like. So I asked around, I did my due diligence. I even googled him. Now THE GOOGLE (as my mother calls it, like it is some huge OZ being in the sky that knows everything) returned no real results. No reviews, well no negative reviews. I thought that was odd because even my company, The Addictions Academy, is reviewed (we have over 500 positive reviews and the same 3 trolls that are hawking to make a negative review), point is we have reviews. He really didn’t.
Red flag 1…its a scam my brain said. BUT he came recommended…disregard.
So I asked around my inner circle. AND no one had anything bad to say. Lots of videos, he made a lot of money for a lot of people, his wife left him because he worked too much that was it. Nothing fraudulent, nothing that said scam run!!!
So I called him and signed up and paid 20K upfront.
oh yeah BY WIRE Transfer…RED Flag # 2, SCAM my brain said. Disregard again.
I got scammed. Dr. Cali Estes got scammed.
He took my money and pushed my meting date back to the date he was literally leaving the country for 4 months. He was tired, and did not give me anything we discussed. I asked for the deliverables and was handed a few laminate sheets, stuff he taught for free in his videos.
I was sitting in the airport, now over $26,000 in, with hotel and airfare and stunned. I got scammed, I got conned. This guy was a fraud. He could not offer me anything I paid for.
Then it got worse…
The he ghosted for two weeks–no return calls, no return emails.
I got scammed.
and when I asked for a refund…..
wait for it….
He gaslit me.
Hard.
Sent a nasty email that I was the issue he couldn’t work with me and refused a refund. Now mind you, he had not even done 10% of what I paid for and he was going to keep my money. AND should I sue him he would ruin me…
I got scammed.
Hard
By a famous coach that promised the world and delivered nothing.
That was 5 months ago and I am still amazed that I didn’t listen to my gut and read the signs. If someone has NO negative reviews at all, they must not be good at their job because they will piss at least one person off if they are at any level of success. I have 3 that hawk me on the daily..never met any of them or even talked to them but in the mental health and addiction world you attract the crazies and the bigger you get the louder the crazies get. Making fake names, emails and posting and reposting. That means I am successful.
I am successful.
I am very successful
Let that sink in.
