November 11, 2024 • 29 mins
Mummy-blogger Sarah Kearns is facing criticism after unveiling her plans to release a fitness program. Steph Claire Smith’s shock pregnancy news… And Matt Zukowski’s ex, Genevive Ward, has broken her silence, just weeks out from her former boyfriend’s wedding to Tammy Hembrow.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Sophie Torba and coming up on today's show, Mummy Blogger
Sarah Kerns is facing criticism after unveiling her plans to
release a fitness program. Steph glare Smith's shot pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
News the first.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Matt Sakowski's ex, Genevieve Ward, has broken her silence just
weeks out from her former boyfriend's wedding to Tammy Henbroke Hate.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Can you tell us what's gone down?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well? Jen has been silent thus far, but she has
come out swinging in defense of podcast at Megan pisetto.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So As We Discussed.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
A few weeks back, Megan released an explosive expose on
Matt Sakowski on her podcast So Dramatic and in the episode,
the journalists claim that Matt was a serial cheat who
auditioned for Love Island UK while dating Jen, and she
also accused Matt of cheating on Jen with.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Tam Now in the episode, Meghan said that she got
the information from Jen's friends, but I have a feeling
it was really from Jen herself.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, late last week, Megan revealed she was forced to
remove the episodes about Matt. She wrote on Instagram, My
Matt T. Sakowski episodes have been taken down by the
powers that be. If you would like to listen to
these episodes in the time being until I sought things out,
you will have to listen to them on Patreon. Now
this is where Jen comes in, because Jen commented underneath
(01:24):
the post, trying to silence you like he did me,
he knows I have the print screens, and she added
a crying with laughter emoji. Now. Megan quickly shared Jen's
comment to her Instagram story and added a poll asking
her followers if she should publish the evidence yes now.
The response was a resounding yes, and after obviously being
(01:45):
bombarded with questions, Megan followed up with another post that read,
for the record, the episodes were not taken down by me,
and not taken down because of lawyers or defamation. I
can confidently back all claims in both episodes up with evidence.
I will explain why they have been taken down in
due time, but it has nothing to do with me
not being able to back up the claims in the episodes.
(02:07):
I wonder if it has anything to do with the
platform that Megan's on. She is an over podcast, Matt's
podcast is an over podcast. They only recently got signed
to Nova.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I would have thought that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
They would have more loyalty towards So Dramatic. You'd like
to think, so, I mean So Dramatic rates higher in
the charts than Anna and Matt's podcasts. I wonder if
it's the Tammy Hembro effect, though.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I definitely think it is. Maybe they're trying to get
Tammy on board to do a podcast with Nova. I
mean Tammy recently appeared on Matt's podcasts. They're clearly trying
to boost ratings. I think it's interesting to hear the
sort of behind the scenes because I think people don't
really understand how podcasts networks work. So for us, where
with ARN so we talk about influencers, and there are
influencer led podcasts who were also on the network, But
(02:51):
our show is still independent, so the network can't control
what we talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So we made sure when we signed our agreement with
AARN because essentially they help us get sponsorship deals. They
don't actually own our.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Podcasts, they don't help us produce it, and we have
spoken about other talent who have podcasts on the same network,
but we've never been told that we're not allowed to.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Even Carl and Jackie.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh remember we had that big run in with them
as well, and they're obviously an AARN podcast and the
biggest radio show. It would be different if ARN owned
our podcast, and I think with Nova they probably are
some podcasts that they produce in house, so the legalities
around that would be different. Well, hopefully we won't have
to wait too long. I feel like Megan is going
to bring out an expose very soon. Oh, she would
(03:34):
be raring to go.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I've just been chatting with a brand that I work
with all the time, and I just was like giving
her a bit of pep talk, and I was like,
you know what, I think everyone could use his pep talk.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Divisive mummy blogger Sarah Kerns is facing criticism after unveiling
her plans to release a fitness program called Project Glow.
The influencer, who has no qualifications in fitness or nutrition,
is you ueeing her recent weight loss as a motivator
to sell the program. Days out from the launch, Sarah's
former business partner weighed in slamming influences for undermining experts
(04:10):
and calling out Sarah's use of before and after photos. Now, Sophie,
For those who aren't familiar with Sarah Kerns, she isn't
a fitness influencer. She's known for parenting content.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, that's why this thing is just so confusing. So
she and her husband Brad Kerns are better known as
dad Mum now. The couple's parenting content really started gaining
traction after Sarah was admitted to hospital shortly after having
her son Finn, and Brad had to step in and
be the mum and look after their kids while she recovered.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Was it that type of content where the dads say
that they're babysitting their own children.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I hate that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
It's like, you're not babysitting your own kids, you're actually
just looking after you Ken.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's all, oh, what a great dad, Thank god he's
stepping in and raising his own children.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But it's also that the hopeless dad.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, I hate it.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
They live on the central coast of New South Wales
and to me they.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Come across as you're typical Ossie.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Battler's I mean, their content isn't that aspirational content, it's
that relatable content, and they generally play into all of
the old tropes about you know, the old ball and chain,
and you know, they take the piss out of each other.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Can I ask you, do you think the term ball
and chain is offensive? Because Deya was telling me the
other day that he had this meeting and this girl
was saying that she found the term missus offensive, but
she thought old ball and chain was okay. I think
old ball and chain can be sort of jokey and comical.
I mean, I wouldn't really like to be referred to
I would not be thrilled to be referred to the
(05:34):
old ball and chain. There's definitely a negative connotation. I
think missus kind of sounds possessive.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think that's the issue with so colloquials.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It's a bit bogan.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's what I said to Dale.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I said, I'd be less offended by missus than the
ball and chain.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I just don't like either.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Now, Sarah doesn't have a particularly large following. She has
around ninety thousand followers, so it's interesting that she is.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Releasing a big program.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Like this while she doesn't have a massive following. I
feel like a lot of people are engaged with her
content because she's for the wrong reason.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, there's a.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Lot of hate following, I think going on because she
is a massive topic of discussion in our group. Now.
Over the past few months, followers have noticed that Sarah
has lost a lot of weight twenty five kilos to
be exact.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
She's been doing a lot of body checks and I
feel like whenever someone loses a lot of weight, suddenly
you see a lot of mirror selfies.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And she said that she has.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Been inundated with messages from followers asking her how she's
lost the weight and what her secret is.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So this was really the catalyst to launch her own
fitness plan.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I mean, there's not enough on the market, is there,
Particularly run by Influence. This is a very unsaturated market.
It's not really something that ties in with their brand normally,
is it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, she said that she really wanted to help her
followers find their glow, which I have to say, in
twenty twenty four is.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Code word for lose weight.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So I'm just so sick of these fitness programs that
are marketed as, oh, we're just trying to help you
find your glow. It's not about inside, it's not about
weight loss, but you're also trying to lose twenty five
kilos at the same time as Galowie. But to be fair,
if someone was to put out a marketing campaign that
was literally saying, oh, this is how you lose x
(07:12):
amount of weight, it would be heavily criticized. I mean,
it'd be kind of refreshing. At least you know what
you're getting. I'm so sick of being sold a lie.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, Jennifer Aniston recently brought one out that was exactly
like that. It was like, you can look like me
if you do X, Y and Z. And yes, it's
very old school, but I think that as consumers in
twenty twenty four, we kind of can see through the
bullshit now and how do we get a copy of
that guy?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Like Jennifer Adiston.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
What I didn't like as well is that she kind
of acted like she was a hero for helping everyone out.
She's like, I just need to help my community. So
that's why I'm releasing the guide. I mean, it's not
because she wants to make a lot of money off it.
It's because she wants.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
To help people.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Do you think a lot of influencers who have recently
lost a lot of weight are keen to actually push
that they're doing it in a healthy way because there's
so many rumors about ozenpic flying around. Yeah, well, it's
funny you say that, because a lot of people who
are like, oh, she's just onpic. So I do think
that there is an element of wanting to say I
actually worked hard for this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Now, the initial promotion around this.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Workout guide was really odd because there was very little
detail about what was actually on offer, and this led
to a lot of confusion. So she announced the program
through a real which included phone vision of her working
out in the gym, as well as a before and
after selfie. Now over the vision, she wrote, at the
start of twenty twenty three, I made myself a promise.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It was my time. It was hard.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I wanted to quit more than once, but I worked
on my mind, body and my self love. I received
hundreds of messages asking for help, so I created a
six week journey to arm you with the tools and
techniques you need to make lasting changes in your life too,
Project Glow, launching November twelve. She then went onto list
that the program would include nutrition, exercise, body image, menstrual cycle,
(08:55):
women's health issues, reiki, healing, mindfulness, life hacks, product recommendations,
and so much more in Capitals Now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Sarah was quite vague when it came to who was
actually involved in setting up this program, So she mentioned
that there would be trusted practitioners on board, but she
initially didn't specify what their qualifications were. It doesn't make
sense to me why she wouldn't have included these so
called experts in the early marketing collateral, because I would
(09:23):
think that they would be a big sell. Yeah, it
kind of seems like a second thought. And maybe she's
copped criticism after this announcement. Well she has, which we
will get into. The whole feel of this announcement was
really low budget. I was surprised that she didn't have
a videographer professionally filming the real like everything was just
on her phone. And it also surprised me because following
this reel, she put up a ton of Instagram stories
(09:46):
and they were all just slabs of text explaining the program.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And what made it even more awkward was that the
text was riddled with errors.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I just found it a really odd move because for
someone like her who's built a following out of with
her audience. Wouldn't it be better for her to actually
jump on her stories and talk about the effect that
this weight loss and also this mind shift has had
on her.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm guessing it's because she wasn't that confident to talk
off script about it, because health and fitness is a
really touchy subject. I mean, we know that she's already
coped some criticism for the way she's marketed it, so
it shows that she's not ultra confident in the messaging
that she's putting it out.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, it was really emphasized how quickly this was thrown
together in one of the slides, because Sarah wrote, this
won't be one of those drip feed releases. I've mentioned
it was in the works a few times and kept
you all waiting. So we all systems go. Subscribers will
get access to join tonight. Then I'll open up to
the masses asap. There are very limited numbers. It's interesting
(10:46):
that she keeps harping on that there's only limited spots.
This is a clear marketing technique to create urgency and
urge people to buy. Because one user jumped on and
you can on the website, you can click how many
of the programs you want to order, and they entered
in nine, nine hundred and ninety nine and they.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Could add it to their cart.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it shows that she is expecting to have large
numbers sign up.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
It's not this.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Limited, very exclusive program that she's acting like it is. Yeah,
because making it sound exclusive gives off the impression that
she's going to be heavily involved in supporting the community.
But if there's ten thousand people doing it, it also.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Makes it sound like there's a live element to it
and maybe they're doing live workouts together.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, what is it?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Is it an ebol?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's so confusing, So it's not an ebook. It is
that they've got film, well pre recorded workouts that Sarah
is doing with a pt And then there's a community element,
I assume, which is a Facebook group where people can
connect with the experts and talk to them.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It's a pretty expensive program. I mean it's a six
week program for two hundred and forty nine dollars, and
when you compare it to Kick or even Sarah's Day's plans,
it's very price. It is expensive. I am a Kick member.
I have been for probably five years now, and I
think I pay like one hundred and twenty dollars for
a year of scrip, so for only six weeks, that
is a lot. I also don't understand because it's not
(12:05):
like Kick or Sarah's Day promote their program as having
limited spots, like they want to get as many people
in as possible.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I also think it's not very clear what you actually
get for the two hundred and forty nine dollars because
there were just a lot of vague references. There was
no real key messaging, and it's hard because she just
seemed focus on telling everyone to sign up before they really.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Knew what they were getting.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What I found jarring about the promotion of this plan
was the clear before and after photos Sarah chose to you,
so she had two mirror selfies side by side showing
just how much weight.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
She'd lost over the past year.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And this kind of marketing it's very twenty tens, particularly
if you think about Kayla Estinus Vibes. Well, we were
talking just a little bit earlier about how why can't
people be more transparent about what they're trying to sell?
And that obviously worked for Jennifer Aniston because her whole
image has always been based on what she looks like.
(13:00):
Obviously she's a brilliant actor as well, but everyone wanted
her haircut, everyone wants her toned arms from friends. So
to use Jennifer Aniston as the product to sell her
fitness guides is an obvious thing. But Sarah Kearns. You
know she doesn't have the star power of Jennifer Aniston.
She has the relatability factor. So I know she's trying
(13:21):
to relate to her audience to be like, I'm a
typical mum. Look, I've managed to lose this amount of weight,
but it does feel very backwards.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But I think what was extra jarring is the fact
that she's using these before and after photos. But then
she's going on to claim that the program isn't about
weight loss, it's about finding yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's a contradictory marketing.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, so she wrote, this is not a quickly lose
weight by depriving and punishing yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
This is a toolkit to help you live your.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Happiest lives, to find your glow by working on your mind, body,
and nervous system. I just think by using it before
and after photo, it totally goes against any of that. Yeah,
as we were discussing, either go full bore and say
this is what you get. This is all about looking
really good about looking like Jonffer Andison, or you go
the other route where it's all about mental health and
self improvement. Another weird thing about this launch is that
(14:09):
Sarah's already started sharing positive reviews on her Instagram stories.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What before people have done it?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, like, despite the fact that the project hasn't actually
launched it. So she wrote, I have just had all
of these positive reviews flooding in and her heart could
burst that she's so happy about it.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
And some super slues have pointed out the some of
the reviews appear to be written by her close friends.
It's got Mitch Awvil, tiny trucks vise remember all of
those weird reviews.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Now this is where Sarah Kerns's former business partner, Sarah
Willis entered the chat and she weighed in on the program.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Now, it's quite interesting because.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
The two Sarah's first cross paths when Sarah Willis was
running a gym called w Tribe on the Central Coast
and Sarah Kerns was a gym goer.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So that's how they formed a friendship.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Now, it is important to point out that Sarah Willis
is a qualified personal trainer who is now also a psychologist.
And it's pretty incredible because she was completing her degree
while she was running her gym. Now, Sarah Willis ended
up shutting down her gym as a result of COVID
and also so she could focus on her study. And
she moved to the Hunter Valley and took over Glen Eden,
(15:17):
which is in a state where she hosts wellness to retreats.
So she is very experienced in what she does. And
during the pandemic, fitness classes were all moving online. So
after she closed her gym down, she started up a
fitness program with Sarah Kerns, which they named after her
old Jim W tribe. Now, did she partner with Sarah
Kerns to use her profile? Yeah, So the whole niche
(15:40):
was that these experts were training Sarah Kerns and it
was launched as this six week online fitness challenge and
the programs also provided access to meal plans, recipes, shopping
lists and they were put together by qualified nutritionists.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
No Reikie no.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Now, a unique element of the program was that you
could earn points for every workout you did and if
you reached nutritional goals.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It sounded like a pretty cool program. It didn't last long, though,
and neither parties divulged what went wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They both just said things didn't work out and that
they didn't align.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So actually launched but just fizzled out.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, so the program ran, but they just didn't continue it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
To me, it seems like the program didn't really get
enough people signing up to it, so maybe Sarah Kerns
doesn't have that star power pulling people in. Now.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Sarah Willis has a pretty large following on her own,
so she goes by the handle the Traveling Psychologist and
she has a community of forty three thousand people on Instagram.
And she said that she was inundated with dms about
Sarah Kern's new program, so she decided to address her
on her story, but she chose not to name Sarah,
but rather said that she had received screenshots and messages
(16:47):
about a fairly controversial influencers new fitness program, and she
also confirmed that she used to work with the said
influencer before.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I said, maybe the fitness program shut down because there
weren't enough people wanting to be a part of it,
but it sounds like maybe there was a friendship breakdown
to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, the thing is, the Kerns are known for sending
out legal letters, so I think that Sarah Willis in
particular wanted to cover herself.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
We've popped one before. Well, yeah we have. That might
come as a surprise to people because I don't think
we actually spoke. Oh do we speak about it? I
can't remember about it, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So she covered herself by saying that she was speaking
about influencer run projects generally, and so she said that
she would be addressing the issue of influencers in general
releasing programs or products in areas they're not qualified in. Now,
she touched on the impact that these types of fitness
programs can have on vulnerable consumers and how they undermine
(17:40):
experts who have spent years training in those fields. Let's
listen to some of what she said.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I guess one thing that's really important to note is
just because you do something or experience something in your
life does not make you an expert to teach others
about that process in their life. You can, of course
be the expert on your own weight loss journey or
your own birth journey or your own parenting journey. But
(18:09):
it takes a lot more than just experiencing that to
have the skills and qualification and credibility to teach others.
In the wellness industry specifically, there is a lot of
vulnerable people who have tried a lot of things, and
there's a lot of barriers to them achieving their goals
that are so much deeper than just needing someone to
(18:33):
cheer for you or tell you what to eat right.
Most women, particularly who are having struggles with their weight
or their wellness, the issues for them run so much deeper.
You know, most women are smart, intelligent women who know
what health looks like, but there's deeper barriers affecting them.
(18:54):
And you know, the risk is if we just keep
throwing programs at them that don't address the root cause,
we're creating further damage for them. I think it's really
fucking risky for the industry. It undermines all those people
who go I'd like to teach something, and they go
and learn the skills and get experience to teach. It
undermines those people doing the work, but it also puts
(19:17):
the people the clients at risk as well.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I think she just articulated what everyone is thinking. And
it's kind of awkward because we've had Sarah Kerns promoting
this fitness program who doesn't seem comfortable or confident to
even come on her stories and speak about the program,
and then we have Sarah Willis perfectly articulate the issues
with it. And she took a final swipe at Sarah Kerns,
(19:43):
saying a general note for anyone navigating this industry, it's
contradictory when someone claims their message isn't about weight loss,
yet shares a before and after photo showcasing their weight loss.
How does that make sense? Just be transparent and stop
misleading people now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It wasn't long before followers began comparing Sarah's old workout
guide with the new one. So a follower wrote on
her post, I did the challenge with you and Sarah
w twice. Is it the same kind of thing now?
Sarah Kerns responded totally different. This is not a weight
loss challenge. This is the result of the lessons and
learnings I needed to go through to finally hit my
(20:21):
goal weight. Years later, I'm down twenty five kilos and
most importantly, I'm finally in such a good place around
my body and accepting how it looks in all its
changing forms. This covers everything from menstrual cycles to pelvic
floor health, nutrition to every day mum's putting balanced meals together,
reiki healing.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And mindfulness, to pathology testing. It's a huge amount of
content and support. Should I love this bullshit? It's like,
I really just want to help my followers. If you
want to help them, then why don't you just share
about it for free? Why is it everything like I
need money? But also, as Sarah W said, what works
for one person isn't going to necessarily work for another person.
It's great that you have grown as a per and
(21:00):
you're really happy with the journey that you've been on,
but it doesn't mean that everyone else has to do
the same thing as you, nor will they get the
same results. Yeah. Now, following this criticism from Sarah Willis,
Sarah Kern suddenly started sharing profiles of some of the
practitioners who are involved in her program. So she asked
her followers to meet the first three practitioners. Now it
(21:21):
included Sammy Rose, who is a registered counselor and personal
trainer and ex friend of Ashley by yes, I mean
that is a legitimate expert there.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It then got to be odd, so she included Sarah Kent,
who is a raiki master and intuitive healer, and then
Nicki Reeves, whose claim to fame is a DIY queen.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So but DIY, how does that relate to the fitness industry.
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I do not know why you would lead with this,
because she's obviously inferring that she's going to introduce more
experts along the way, like this.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Is how you make your own tread. She's trying to.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Prove a point, and she does have genuine experts on board.
Why didn't she lead with a nutritionist or a psychologist,
particularly when she's talking about, you know, this program isn't
just about losing weight, it's about working yourself and glowing
from the inside.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It seems like she's doing a massive ring around trying
to find some professionals, Especially if you're leading with the
DIY queen. I'm surprised she doesn't have a professional spray
tanner for the.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Glow that she's promising everyone.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
I mean, I don't want to share on people's job titles,
but it does sound like she's made half of these
job titles up because she also recently touched on the
fact that she has.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
A menstrual coach involved in the program.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I mean, shouldn't it be a GP or a gynecologist? Like,
I mean, I'm sorry, are these people actually qualified? My
craving star I precancy was basically all of my comfort
foods as a kid, so like just cubs and I
was fine with it.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I went with the flow.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Now, this wasn't the news I was expecting from Steph
klas Smith, particularly off the back of her controversial podcast
topic last week.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
She has revealed that she's.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Pregnant with her second child. And I want to know
who is organizing her podcast episodes at Listener because last
week she spoke very explicitly about having a vibrator get
stuck up her backside, and then this week on her
podcast she announced that she's pregnant. Was it the conception story?
(23:06):
Is that maybe what we were leading in with?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
In all seriousness though, it was really lovely news, and
I really like the way that they announced her on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
So they had this photo shoot I assure was a
professional photographer.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It would have to be because it was this black
and white shot of Steph was in bikinis and she
had her belly out and you could see all of
Harvey's hand, Josh's hand, and also Ari her dog's hand
touching her pregnant belly.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
It really shocked me, though, because only just last week
she posted her selfie in bikinis and she definitely did
not look pregnant. I don't know if it's that optical
illusion where she's standing front on I think so.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It really didn't surprise me that she had a whole
episode dedicated to discussing her pregnancy and that she held
off from talking about a lot of those details on
her Instagram story.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Listener must have a huge deal with them.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Because they are holding off to tell all of those
personal details on that podcast, they must be getting paid
a lot. So they're details that I would actually want
to tune in and hear, as opposed to some of
the other click baby stuff they've been talking. Because I
really enjoyed the episode, and I think it's because Steph
actually felt comfortable talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Those details because it wasn't about their sex lives, which.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Didn't feel forced like they'd been told you have to
come up with some scandalous story.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah. I mean they did have that rather awkward segment
before the big news talking about plucking each other's chin heads,
which again felt forced, like Oh, let's try and be
as relatable as possible.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
As you said.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Though, this was a good episode in terms of the
segment about the pregnancy because Steph did drop some interesting
titbits about it. So she said that they're not going
to find out the gender of the baby. She said
that Harvey wants a sister, but he thinks it's going
to be a boy. The reasoning behind it was interesting
because she said that she wants Harvey to, i mean,
not be the focus of the pregnancy, but to feel included.
(24:49):
So she wants to make it more about him being
the big brother to a baby than they're being all
this focus on is it a boy or a girl? Yeah,
And I also enjoyed hearing her talk about the process
of dec whether they wanted a second child, because I
can kind of relate. She said, as soon as she
had Harvey, Everyone's like, well, when's the next one coming?
And I feel like since I've had Jack, everyone's almost
(25:09):
being like, oh, well, when's number two coming. It's like
he's five months. That's not an appropriate question to ask
anyone because no one is aware of people's personal fertility issues.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Or whether they even want another child.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, and she spoke about how Josh was actually on
the fence about wanting a second child, particularly because last
year they were dealing with a lot of behavioral issues
with Harvey, so it was really Steph that was pushing
to have this second child. It is interesting because Josh
plays the part of the stay at home dad, and.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So he'd have to be on board.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, they've only recently just put Harvey in daycare, so
Josh has some time to return to work and do
other activities, so it's going to be a big change
for him.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, well, Josh would.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Definitely need to be on board with this decision, considering
that he is the primary care while Steph is out work.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Steph did speak about the first trimester, and she said
it's quite different because when she was pregnant with Harvey,
they were in lockdown, so she could sleep a lot
during the day and it didn't really affect her work.
But now she's actually at work, so she's been feeling
a lot more tired. And she spoke about how she's
been a lot more nauseous. And she told this story
about how her and Josh were in the car and
she wanted to vomit in the car, but he really
(26:16):
wanted to pull over so she would vomit.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Out of the car.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
And then she's like, oh, I was in a new
G string at the time, so I didn't want to
get out. But there was no context to why she
was just wearing a G strings. Imagine driving by and
seeing Steph Claire Smith vomiting on the side of the
road in a GC reckon.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That even happened.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I feel like the listener producers were like, make the
pregnancy announcement sexy, like include something about a G string
we can cut up in there. You meant to be
more nauseous if you're having a girl. Oh, I think
all of that's bullshit. I was interested, though, to hear
what her food cravings were, and she admitted that the
only thing she's been feeling like at the moment is
chicken two minute noodles.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Oh. I had a craving for those when I was
pregnant too. I totally relate to that. I mean, if
we're going to be guessing the gender, I think more
salty snacks are mean. Boy. I know we touched upon
it at the start, but I just find the timing
so odd. I mean, we said about the vibrator story,
but also the week prior, Steph went on about having
this huge announcement to make, and a lot of people
(27:11):
thought that she was teasing a story about pregnancy loss,
but she actually announced that she's got ADHD because she
said that she was really struggling and that you never
know what's going on in people's lives. It's also going
to be really interesting how much of this child's life
she chooses to share on her Instagram story, particularly after
she's now started blurring her son, Harvey's face out and
there's been.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
A lot of discussion around that.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Did you notice yesterday though, that she was sharing the
face of her brother's child, her nephew. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I mean, I wonder if her stance is she's happy
to share babies faces because babies changed so much.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I just it's all very confusing.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I was surprised to hear that she included audio of
Harvey finding out the news.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It was a very cute reaction.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
But I'm just getting confused about what she feels comfortable
and what she doesn't feel comfortable. Yeah, it is rather confusing,
and again it's obviously her decision what she shares, and
it makes sense to me to put this marker of Okay, well,
I've already shared his face before, so going forward, I'm
not going to continue to share it because he's going
to grow. But then I was listening to an episode
of the kick Bump podcast. It just popped up on
(28:14):
in my newsfeed, and Harvey's actually in the cover artwork.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh really, I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I just yeah, I would have thought you might change that,
considering it's a promotional material.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Look, I think it's going to go all out the window.
I think that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Steph is a real overshareer, and I think that's what
makes her a good influence.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So I love hearing about her life.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I enjoy hearing about her children, and I'm fascinated to
see how this pregnancy goes.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I think that's all we have time for today. Thank
you so much for joining us for this episode. If
you have enjoyed it, it would absolutely make my day
if you could please leave us a review.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Thank you so much. Of those who already have.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I also really enjoy it when people share where they're
listening to the podcast from So if anyone's doing any
Christmas activities, I know a lot of Christmas trees are
going up at the moment, please share that with us.
This episode was recorded on the traditional of the Ghana
people of the Adelaide planes. We pay respect to elders
past and present
Speaker 3 (29:04):
And don't forget to follow Outspoken on Instagram and also
on TikTok at Outspoken Underscore the Underscore podcast
Hello, and welcome to Outspoken. It's your dose of the
hottest influencer and pop culture news twice a week. I'm
Sophie Torba and coming up on today's show, Mummy Blogger
Sarah Kerns is facing criticism after unveiling her plans to
release a fitness program. Steph glare Smith's shot pregnancy.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
News the first.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Matt Sakowski's ex, Genevieve Ward, has broken her silence just
weeks out from her former boyfriend's wedding to Tammy Henbroke Hate.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Can you tell us what's gone down?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well? Jen has been silent thus far, but she has
come out swinging in defense of podcast at Megan pisetto.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
So As We Discussed.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
A few weeks back, Megan released an explosive expose on
Matt Sakowski on her podcast So Dramatic and in the episode,
the journalists claim that Matt was a serial cheat who
auditioned for Love Island UK while dating Jen, and she
also accused Matt of cheating on Jen with.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Tam Now in the episode, Meghan said that she got
the information from Jen's friends, but I have a feeling
it was really from Jen herself.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, late last week, Megan revealed she was forced to
remove the episodes about Matt. She wrote on Instagram, My
Matt T. Sakowski episodes have been taken down by the
powers that be. If you would like to listen to
these episodes in the time being until I sought things out,
you will have to listen to them on Patreon. Now
this is where Jen comes in, because Jen commented underneath
(01:24):
the post, trying to silence you like he did me,
he knows I have the print screens, and she added
a crying with laughter emoji. Now. Megan quickly shared Jen's
comment to her Instagram story and added a poll asking
her followers if she should publish the evidence yes now.
The response was a resounding yes, and after obviously being
(01:45):
bombarded with questions, Megan followed up with another post that read,
for the record, the episodes were not taken down by me,
and not taken down because of lawyers or defamation. I
can confidently back all claims in both episodes up with evidence.
I will explain why they have been taken down in
due time, but it has nothing to do with me
not being able to back up the claims in the episodes.
(02:07):
I wonder if it has anything to do with the
platform that Megan's on. She is an over podcast, Matt's
podcast is an over podcast. They only recently got signed
to Nova.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I would have thought that.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
They would have more loyalty towards So Dramatic. You'd like
to think, so, I mean So Dramatic rates higher in
the charts than Anna and Matt's podcasts. I wonder if
it's the Tammy Hembro effect, though.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I definitely think it is. Maybe they're trying to get
Tammy on board to do a podcast with Nova. I
mean Tammy recently appeared on Matt's podcasts. They're clearly trying
to boost ratings. I think it's interesting to hear the
sort of behind the scenes because I think people don't
really understand how podcasts networks work. So for us, where
with ARN so we talk about influencers, and there are
influencer led podcasts who were also on the network, But
(02:51):
our show is still independent, so the network can't control
what we talk about.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So we made sure when we signed our agreement with
AARN because essentially they help us get sponsorship deals. They
don't actually own our.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Podcasts, they don't help us produce it, and we have
spoken about other talent who have podcasts on the same network,
but we've never been told that we're not allowed to.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Even Carl and Jackie.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Oh remember we had that big run in with them
as well, and they're obviously an AARN podcast and the
biggest radio show. It would be different if ARN owned
our podcast, and I think with Nova they probably are
some podcasts that they produce in house, so the legalities
around that would be different. Well, hopefully we won't have
to wait too long. I feel like Megan is going
to bring out an expose very soon. Oh, she would
(03:34):
be raring to go.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Good morning.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I've just been chatting with a brand that I work
with all the time, and I just was like giving
her a bit of pep talk, and I was like,
you know what, I think everyone could use his pep talk.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Divisive mummy blogger Sarah Kerns is facing criticism after unveiling
her plans to release a fitness program called Project Glow.
The influencer, who has no qualifications in fitness or nutrition,
is you ueeing her recent weight loss as a motivator
to sell the program. Days out from the launch, Sarah's
former business partner weighed in slamming influences for undermining experts
(04:10):
and calling out Sarah's use of before and after photos. Now, Sophie,
For those who aren't familiar with Sarah Kerns, she isn't
a fitness influencer. She's known for parenting content.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Yeah, that's why this thing is just so confusing. So
she and her husband Brad Kerns are better known as
dad Mum now. The couple's parenting content really started gaining
traction after Sarah was admitted to hospital shortly after having
her son Finn, and Brad had to step in and
be the mum and look after their kids while she recovered.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Was it that type of content where the dads say
that they're babysitting their own children.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I hate that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
It's like, you're not babysitting your own kids, you're actually
just looking after you Ken.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's all, oh, what a great dad, Thank god he's
stepping in and raising his own children.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
But it's also that the hopeless dad.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, I hate it.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
They live on the central coast of New South Wales
and to me they.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Come across as you're typical Ossie.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Battler's I mean, their content isn't that aspirational content, it's
that relatable content, and they generally play into all of
the old tropes about you know, the old ball and chain,
and you know, they take the piss out of each other.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Can I ask you, do you think the term ball
and chain is offensive? Because Deya was telling me the
other day that he had this meeting and this girl
was saying that she found the term missus offensive, but
she thought old ball and chain was okay. I think
old ball and chain can be sort of jokey and comical.
I mean, I wouldn't really like to be referred to
I would not be thrilled to be referred to the
(05:34):
old ball and chain. There's definitely a negative connotation. I
think missus kind of sounds possessive.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I think that's the issue with so colloquials.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
It's a bit bogan.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's what I said to Dale.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
I said, I'd be less offended by missus than the
ball and chain.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I just don't like either.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Now, Sarah doesn't have a particularly large following. She has
around ninety thousand followers, so it's interesting that she is.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Releasing a big program.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Like this while she doesn't have a massive following. I
feel like a lot of people are engaged with her
content because she's for the wrong reason.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, there's a.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Lot of hate following, I think going on because she
is a massive topic of discussion in our group. Now.
Over the past few months, followers have noticed that Sarah
has lost a lot of weight twenty five kilos to
be exact.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
She's been doing a lot of body checks and I
feel like whenever someone loses a lot of weight, suddenly
you see a lot of mirror selfies.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And she said that she has.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Been inundated with messages from followers asking her how she's
lost the weight and what her secret is.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
So this was really the catalyst to launch her own
fitness plan.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
I mean, there's not enough on the market, is there,
Particularly run by Influence. This is a very unsaturated market.
It's not really something that ties in with their brand normally,
is it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Well, she said that she really wanted to help her
followers find their glow, which I have to say, in
twenty twenty four is.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Code word for lose weight.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So I'm just so sick of these fitness programs that
are marketed as, oh, we're just trying to help you
find your glow. It's not about inside, it's not about
weight loss, but you're also trying to lose twenty five
kilos at the same time as Galowie. But to be fair,
if someone was to put out a marketing campaign that
was literally saying, oh, this is how you lose x
(07:12):
amount of weight, it would be heavily criticized. I mean,
it'd be kind of refreshing. At least you know what
you're getting. I'm so sick of being sold a lie.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Well, Jennifer Aniston recently brought one out that was exactly
like that. It was like, you can look like me
if you do X, Y and Z. And yes, it's
very old school, but I think that as consumers in
twenty twenty four, we kind of can see through the
bullshit now and how do we get a copy of
that guy?
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Like Jennifer Adiston.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
What I didn't like as well is that she kind
of acted like she was a hero for helping everyone out.
She's like, I just need to help my community. So
that's why I'm releasing the guide. I mean, it's not
because she wants to make a lot of money off it.
It's because she wants.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
To help people.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Do you think a lot of influencers who have recently
lost a lot of weight are keen to actually push
that they're doing it in a healthy way because there's
so many rumors about ozenpic flying around. Yeah, well, it's
funny you say that, because a lot of people who
are like, oh, she's just onpic. So I do think
that there is an element of wanting to say I
actually worked hard for this. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Now, the initial promotion around this.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Workout guide was really odd because there was very little
detail about what was actually on offer, and this led
to a lot of confusion. So she announced the program
through a real which included phone vision of her working
out in the gym, as well as a before and
after selfie. Now over the vision, she wrote, at the
start of twenty twenty three, I made myself a promise.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It was my time. It was hard.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I wanted to quit more than once, but I worked
on my mind, body and my self love. I received
hundreds of messages asking for help, so I created a
six week journey to arm you with the tools and
techniques you need to make lasting changes in your life too,
Project Glow, launching November twelve. She then went onto list
that the program would include nutrition, exercise, body image, menstrual cycle,
(08:55):
women's health issues, reiki, healing, mindfulness, life hacks, product recommendations,
and so much more in Capitals Now.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Sarah was quite vague when it came to who was
actually involved in setting up this program, So she mentioned
that there would be trusted practitioners on board, but she
initially didn't specify what their qualifications were. It doesn't make
sense to me why she wouldn't have included these so
called experts in the early marketing collateral, because I would
(09:23):
think that they would be a big sell. Yeah, it
kind of seems like a second thought. And maybe she's
copped criticism after this announcement. Well she has, which we
will get into. The whole feel of this announcement was
really low budget. I was surprised that she didn't have
a videographer professionally filming the real like everything was just
on her phone. And it also surprised me because following
this reel, she put up a ton of Instagram stories
(09:46):
and they were all just slabs of text explaining the program.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And what made it even more awkward was that the
text was riddled with errors.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I just found it a really odd move because for
someone like her who's built a following out of with
her audience. Wouldn't it be better for her to actually
jump on her stories and talk about the effect that
this weight loss and also this mind shift has had
on her.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm guessing it's because she wasn't that confident to talk
off script about it, because health and fitness is a
really touchy subject. I mean, we know that she's already
coped some criticism for the way she's marketed it, so
it shows that she's not ultra confident in the messaging
that she's putting it out.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, it was really emphasized how quickly this was thrown
together in one of the slides, because Sarah wrote, this
won't be one of those drip feed releases. I've mentioned
it was in the works a few times and kept
you all waiting. So we all systems go. Subscribers will
get access to join tonight. Then I'll open up to
the masses asap. There are very limited numbers. It's interesting
(10:46):
that she keeps harping on that there's only limited spots.
This is a clear marketing technique to create urgency and
urge people to buy. Because one user jumped on and
you can on the website, you can click how many
of the programs you want to order, and they entered
in nine, nine hundred and ninety nine and they.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Could add it to their cart.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
So it shows that she is expecting to have large
numbers sign up.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
It's not this.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Limited, very exclusive program that she's acting like it is. Yeah,
because making it sound exclusive gives off the impression that
she's going to be heavily involved in supporting the community.
But if there's ten thousand people doing it, it also.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Makes it sound like there's a live element to it
and maybe they're doing live workouts together.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Well, what is it?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Is it an ebol?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
It's so confusing, So it's not an ebook. It is
that they've got film, well pre recorded workouts that Sarah
is doing with a pt And then there's a community element,
I assume, which is a Facebook group where people can
connect with the experts and talk to them.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It's a pretty expensive program. I mean it's a six
week program for two hundred and forty nine dollars, and
when you compare it to Kick or even Sarah's Day's plans,
it's very price. It is expensive. I am a Kick member.
I have been for probably five years now, and I
think I pay like one hundred and twenty dollars for
a year of scrip, so for only six weeks, that
is a lot. I also don't understand because it's not
(12:05):
like Kick or Sarah's Day promote their program as having
limited spots, like they want to get as many people
in as possible.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I also think it's not very clear what you actually
get for the two hundred and forty nine dollars because
there were just a lot of vague references. There was
no real key messaging, and it's hard because she just
seemed focus on telling everyone to sign up before they really.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Knew what they were getting.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What I found jarring about the promotion of this plan
was the clear before and after photos Sarah chose to you,
so she had two mirror selfies side by side showing
just how much weight.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
She'd lost over the past year.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And this kind of marketing it's very twenty tens, particularly
if you think about Kayla Estinus Vibes. Well, we were
talking just a little bit earlier about how why can't
people be more transparent about what they're trying to sell?
And that obviously worked for Jennifer Aniston because her whole
image has always been based on what she looks like.
(13:00):
Obviously she's a brilliant actor as well, but everyone wanted
her haircut, everyone wants her toned arms from friends. So
to use Jennifer Aniston as the product to sell her
fitness guides is an obvious thing. But Sarah Kearns. You
know she doesn't have the star power of Jennifer Aniston.
She has the relatability factor. So I know she's trying
(13:21):
to relate to her audience to be like, I'm a
typical mum. Look, I've managed to lose this amount of weight,
but it does feel very backwards.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
But I think what was extra jarring is the fact
that she's using these before and after photos. But then
she's going on to claim that the program isn't about
weight loss, it's about finding yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's a contradictory marketing.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Yeah, so she wrote, this is not a quickly lose
weight by depriving and punishing yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
This is a toolkit to help you live your.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Happiest lives, to find your glow by working on your mind, body,
and nervous system. I just think by using it before
and after photo, it totally goes against any of that. Yeah,
as we were discussing, either go full bore and say
this is what you get. This is all about looking
really good about looking like Jonffer Andison, or you go
the other route where it's all about mental health and
self improvement. Another weird thing about this launch is that
(14:09):
Sarah's already started sharing positive reviews on her Instagram stories.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What before people have done it?
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, like, despite the fact that the project hasn't actually
launched it. So she wrote, I have just had all
of these positive reviews flooding in and her heart could
burst that she's so happy about it.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
And some super slues have pointed out the some of
the reviews appear to be written by her close friends.
It's got Mitch Awvil, tiny trucks vise remember all of
those weird reviews.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Now this is where Sarah Kerns's former business partner, Sarah
Willis entered the chat and she weighed in on the program.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Now, it's quite interesting because.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
The two Sarah's first cross paths when Sarah Willis was
running a gym called w Tribe on the Central Coast
and Sarah Kerns was a gym goer.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
So that's how they formed a friendship.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Now, it is important to point out that Sarah Willis
is a qualified personal trainer who is now also a psychologist.
And it's pretty incredible because she was completing her degree
while she was running her gym. Now, Sarah Willis ended
up shutting down her gym as a result of COVID
and also so she could focus on her study. And
she moved to the Hunter Valley and took over Glen Eden,
(15:17):
which is in a state where she hosts wellness to retreats.
So she is very experienced in what she does. And
during the pandemic, fitness classes were all moving online. So
after she closed her gym down, she started up a
fitness program with Sarah Kerns, which they named after her
old Jim W tribe. Now, did she partner with Sarah
Kerns to use her profile? Yeah, So the whole niche
(15:40):
was that these experts were training Sarah Kerns and it
was launched as this six week online fitness challenge and
the programs also provided access to meal plans, recipes, shopping
lists and they were put together by qualified nutritionists.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
No Reikie no.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Now, a unique element of the program was that you
could earn points for every workout you did and if
you reached nutritional goals.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It sounded like a pretty cool program. It didn't last long, though,
and neither parties divulged what went wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
They both just said things didn't work out and that
they didn't align.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
So actually launched but just fizzled out.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yeah, so the program ran, but they just didn't continue it.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
To me, it seems like the program didn't really get
enough people signing up to it, so maybe Sarah Kerns
doesn't have that star power pulling people in. Now.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Sarah Willis has a pretty large following on her own,
so she goes by the handle the Traveling Psychologist and
she has a community of forty three thousand people on Instagram.
And she said that she was inundated with dms about
Sarah Kern's new program, so she decided to address her
on her story, but she chose not to name Sarah,
but rather said that she had received screenshots and messages
(16:47):
about a fairly controversial influencers new fitness program, and she
also confirmed that she used to work with the said
influencer before.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I said, maybe the fitness program shut down because there
weren't enough people wanting to be a part of it,
but it sounds like maybe there was a friendship breakdown
to Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Well, the thing is, the Kerns are known for sending
out legal letters, so I think that Sarah Willis in
particular wanted to cover herself.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
We've popped one before. Well, yeah we have. That might
come as a surprise to people because I don't think
we actually spoke. Oh do we speak about it? I
can't remember about it, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
So she covered herself by saying that she was speaking
about influencer run projects generally, and so she said that
she would be addressing the issue of influencers in general
releasing programs or products in areas they're not qualified in. Now,
she touched on the impact that these types of fitness
programs can have on vulnerable consumers and how they undermine
(17:40):
experts who have spent years training in those fields. Let's
listen to some of what she said.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
I guess one thing that's really important to note is
just because you do something or experience something in your
life does not make you an expert to teach others
about that process in their life. You can, of course
be the expert on your own weight loss journey or
your own birth journey or your own parenting journey. But
(18:09):
it takes a lot more than just experiencing that to
have the skills and qualification and credibility to teach others.
In the wellness industry specifically, there is a lot of
vulnerable people who have tried a lot of things, and
there's a lot of barriers to them achieving their goals
that are so much deeper than just needing someone to
(18:33):
cheer for you or tell you what to eat right.
Most women, particularly who are having struggles with their weight
or their wellness, the issues for them run so much deeper.
You know, most women are smart, intelligent women who know
what health looks like, but there's deeper barriers affecting them.
(18:54):
And you know, the risk is if we just keep
throwing programs at them that don't address the root cause,
we're creating further damage for them. I think it's really
fucking risky for the industry. It undermines all those people
who go I'd like to teach something, and they go
and learn the skills and get experience to teach. It
undermines those people doing the work, but it also puts
(19:17):
the people the clients at risk as well.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
I think she just articulated what everyone is thinking. And
it's kind of awkward because we've had Sarah Kerns promoting
this fitness program who doesn't seem comfortable or confident to
even come on her stories and speak about the program,
and then we have Sarah Willis perfectly articulate the issues
with it. And she took a final swipe at Sarah Kerns,
(19:43):
saying a general note for anyone navigating this industry, it's
contradictory when someone claims their message isn't about weight loss,
yet shares a before and after photo showcasing their weight loss.
How does that make sense? Just be transparent and stop
misleading people now.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It wasn't long before followers began comparing Sarah's old workout
guide with the new one. So a follower wrote on
her post, I did the challenge with you and Sarah
w twice. Is it the same kind of thing now?
Sarah Kerns responded totally different. This is not a weight
loss challenge. This is the result of the lessons and
learnings I needed to go through to finally hit my
(20:21):
goal weight. Years later, I'm down twenty five kilos and
most importantly, I'm finally in such a good place around
my body and accepting how it looks in all its
changing forms. This covers everything from menstrual cycles to pelvic
floor health, nutrition to every day mum's putting balanced meals together,
reiki healing.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And mindfulness, to pathology testing. It's a huge amount of
content and support. Should I love this bullshit? It's like,
I really just want to help my followers. If you
want to help them, then why don't you just share
about it for free? Why is it everything like I
need money? But also, as Sarah W said, what works
for one person isn't going to necessarily work for another person.
It's great that you have grown as a per and
(21:00):
you're really happy with the journey that you've been on,
but it doesn't mean that everyone else has to do
the same thing as you, nor will they get the
same results. Yeah. Now, following this criticism from Sarah Willis,
Sarah Kern suddenly started sharing profiles of some of the
practitioners who are involved in her program. So she asked
her followers to meet the first three practitioners. Now it
(21:21):
included Sammy Rose, who is a registered counselor and personal
trainer and ex friend of Ashley by yes, I mean
that is a legitimate expert there.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It then got to be odd, so she included Sarah Kent,
who is a raiki master and intuitive healer, and then
Nicki Reeves, whose claim to fame is a DIY queen.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So but DIY, how does that relate to the fitness industry.
I have no idea.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
I do not know why you would lead with this,
because she's obviously inferring that she's going to introduce more
experts along the way, like this.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Is how you make your own tread. She's trying to.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Prove a point, and she does have genuine experts on board.
Why didn't she lead with a nutritionist or a psychologist,
particularly when she's talking about, you know, this program isn't
just about losing weight, it's about working yourself and glowing
from the inside.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
It seems like she's doing a massive ring around trying
to find some professionals, Especially if you're leading with the
DIY queen. I'm surprised she doesn't have a professional spray
tanner for the.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Glow that she's promising everyone.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
I mean, I don't want to share on people's job titles,
but it does sound like she's made half of these
job titles up because she also recently touched on the
fact that she has.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
A menstrual coach involved in the program.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
I mean, shouldn't it be a GP or a gynecologist? Like,
I mean, I'm sorry, are these people actually qualified? My
craving star I precancy was basically all of my comfort
foods as a kid, so like just cubs and I
was fine with it.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I went with the flow.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Now, this wasn't the news I was expecting from Steph
klas Smith, particularly off the back of her controversial podcast
topic last week.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
She has revealed that she's.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
Pregnant with her second child. And I want to know
who is organizing her podcast episodes at Listener because last
week she spoke very explicitly about having a vibrator get
stuck up her backside, and then this week on her
podcast she announced that she's pregnant. Was it the conception story?
(23:06):
Is that maybe what we were leading in with?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
In all seriousness though, it was really lovely news, and
I really like the way that they announced her on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
So they had this photo shoot I assure was a
professional photographer.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
It would have to be because it was this black
and white shot of Steph was in bikinis and she
had her belly out and you could see all of
Harvey's hand, Josh's hand, and also Ari her dog's hand
touching her pregnant belly.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
It really shocked me, though, because only just last week
she posted her selfie in bikinis and she definitely did
not look pregnant. I don't know if it's that optical
illusion where she's standing front on I think so.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
It really didn't surprise me that she had a whole
episode dedicated to discussing her pregnancy and that she held
off from talking about a lot of those details on
her Instagram story.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Listener must have a huge deal with them.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Because they are holding off to tell all of those
personal details on that podcast, they must be getting paid
a lot. So they're details that I would actually want
to tune in and hear, as opposed to some of
the other click baby stuff they've been talking. Because I
really enjoyed the episode, and I think it's because Steph
actually felt comfortable talking about.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Those details because it wasn't about their sex lives, which.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Didn't feel forced like they'd been told you have to
come up with some scandalous story.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah. I mean they did have that rather awkward segment
before the big news talking about plucking each other's chin heads,
which again felt forced, like Oh, let's try and be
as relatable as possible.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
As you said.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Though, this was a good episode in terms of the
segment about the pregnancy because Steph did drop some interesting
titbits about it. So she said that they're not going
to find out the gender of the baby. She said
that Harvey wants a sister, but he thinks it's going
to be a boy. The reasoning behind it was interesting
because she said that she wants Harvey to, i mean,
not be the focus of the pregnancy, but to feel included.
(24:49):
So she wants to make it more about him being
the big brother to a baby than they're being all
this focus on is it a boy or a girl? Yeah,
And I also enjoyed hearing her talk about the process
of dec whether they wanted a second child, because I
can kind of relate. She said, as soon as she
had Harvey, Everyone's like, well, when's the next one coming?
And I feel like since I've had Jack, everyone's almost
(25:09):
being like, oh, well, when's number two coming. It's like
he's five months. That's not an appropriate question to ask
anyone because no one is aware of people's personal fertility issues.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Or whether they even want another child.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, and she spoke about how Josh was actually on
the fence about wanting a second child, particularly because last
year they were dealing with a lot of behavioral issues
with Harvey, so it was really Steph that was pushing
to have this second child. It is interesting because Josh
plays the part of the stay at home dad, and.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
So he'd have to be on board.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Well, they've only recently just put Harvey in daycare, so
Josh has some time to return to work and do
other activities, so it's going to be a big change
for him.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Yeah, well, Josh would.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Definitely need to be on board with this decision, considering
that he is the primary care while Steph is out work.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Steph did speak about the first trimester, and she said
it's quite different because when she was pregnant with Harvey,
they were in lockdown, so she could sleep a lot
during the day and it didn't really affect her work.
But now she's actually at work, so she's been feeling
a lot more tired. And she spoke about how she's
been a lot more nauseous. And she told this story
about how her and Josh were in the car and
she wanted to vomit in the car, but he really
(26:16):
wanted to pull over so she would vomit.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Out of the car.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
And then she's like, oh, I was in a new
G string at the time, so I didn't want to
get out. But there was no context to why she
was just wearing a G strings. Imagine driving by and
seeing Steph Claire Smith vomiting on the side of the
road in a GC reckon.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That even happened.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I feel like the listener producers were like, make the
pregnancy announcement sexy, like include something about a G string
we can cut up in there. You meant to be
more nauseous if you're having a girl. Oh, I think
all of that's bullshit. I was interested, though, to hear
what her food cravings were, and she admitted that the
only thing she's been feeling like at the moment is
chicken two minute noodles.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Oh. I had a craving for those when I was
pregnant too. I totally relate to that. I mean, if
we're going to be guessing the gender, I think more
salty snacks are mean. Boy. I know we touched upon
it at the start, but I just find the timing
so odd. I mean, we said about the vibrator story,
but also the week prior, Steph went on about having
this huge announcement to make, and a lot of people
(27:11):
thought that she was teasing a story about pregnancy loss,
but she actually announced that she's got ADHD because she
said that she was really struggling and that you never
know what's going on in people's lives. It's also going
to be really interesting how much of this child's life
she chooses to share on her Instagram story, particularly after
she's now started blurring her son, Harvey's face out and
there's been.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
A lot of discussion around that.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Did you notice yesterday though, that she was sharing the
face of her brother's child, her nephew. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I mean, I wonder if her stance is she's happy
to share babies faces because babies changed so much.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I just it's all very confusing.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I was surprised to hear that she included audio of
Harvey finding out the news.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
It was a very cute reaction.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
But I'm just getting confused about what she feels comfortable
and what she doesn't feel comfortable. Yeah, it is rather confusing,
and again it's obviously her decision what she shares, and
it makes sense to me to put this marker of Okay, well,
I've already shared his face before, so going forward, I'm
not going to continue to share it because he's going
to grow. But then I was listening to an episode
of the kick Bump podcast. It just popped up on
(28:14):
in my newsfeed, and Harvey's actually in the cover artwork.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Oh really, I don't know that.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I just yeah, I would have thought you might change that,
considering it's a promotional material.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Look, I think it's going to go all out the window.
I think that.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Steph is a real overshareer, and I think that's what
makes her a good influence.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
So I love hearing about her life.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I enjoy hearing about her children, and I'm fascinated to
see how this pregnancy goes.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Well.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I think that's all we have time for today. Thank
you so much for joining us for this episode. If
you have enjoyed it, it would absolutely make my day
if you could please leave us a review.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Thank you so much. Of those who already have.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
I also really enjoy it when people share where they're
listening to the podcast from So if anyone's doing any
Christmas activities, I know a lot of Christmas trees are
going up at the moment, please share that with us.
This episode was recorded on the traditional of the Ghana
people of the Adelaide planes. We pay respect to elders
past and present
Speaker 3 (29:04):
And don't forget to follow Outspoken on Instagram and also
on TikTok at Outspoken Underscore the Underscore podcast
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