A Rebuttal To The Noel Clark Maximum Fitness Blog Post Titled, “A Necessary Change”.

Well, as many know, Noel Clark of Maximum Fitness Consulting issued an official response the same day to my blog exposing her for her theft and plagiarism of Lean Bodies Consulting. Blog comments were disabled …

As I have said on FB, because of that blog response, I have had a change of heart on how much attention I was originally going to give this issue. I had waited a couple days to post my original blog post with all the evidence as I wanted to ensure that I had collected my thoughts, my emotions were in check and that I was writing objectively with a focus solely on facts. I wasn’t ‘angry’, but I was and am seeking justice for lack of a better word. From the public reaction and feedback on how I presented the information, I know it’s been handled properly.

But first, I was happy to receive the following email today:

Hi Erik,

I read your blog post and I was actually appalled. I’m a Director at a university in FL. Every year, the university hosts an annual student success conference for incoming students. The conference covers a myriad of topics, from time management to test taking skills. As a result of this incident, I’m forwarding your link to the committee that organizes the conference. I’ll be strongly recommending to include plagiarism as one of the topics. I want students to understand the value of academic integrity and the consequences of plagiarism. In the field of education plagiarism is considered professional suicide. I hope this girl realized that she needed a very good “life insurance,” before attempting the suicidal act of stealing intellectual property. There’s no turning back. The evidence/exhibit speaks for itself. It probably sounds sarcastic, but it’s true. Your reaction and handling of the situation was exemplary. What bothered me the most was her arrogant attitude. Many young fitness enthusiasts look up to people like her as role models. That’s pitiful!

Moving on …

After reading the Noel Clark Maximum Fitness Consulting defense of her theft and plagiarism, her trivializing of the issue and then her then turning it on not only me personally, but anyone associated with LBC who has shown support of this issue, with her ad hominems and attacks, well, as I said, I have had a slight change of heart. The blog reply was simply a justification for use being displayed with no remorse nor seeing anything wrong with it whatsoever. As such, this is going to be my reply, and dissection of that insulting blog post.

Sometimes, as a business owner, the motivation to make a necessary change to move your business forward can come from the most unlikely source. When I was notified earlier in the week of an attempt to “out” me regarding the templates and forms I used in my business, I was at first surprised.

Templates … if you review the original article it’s more than simple templates and forms, not to mention the verbatim cut-and-paste of well, pretty much everything, from LBC-created documents, explanations for why and how to perform various program components, etc. Never mind giving a 200-lb person struggling with their weight the same program Noel Clark, a successful figure competitor was given herself by LBC. Of course, Noel Clark is also trying to reduce the issue to documents as evidenced by no mention of the underhanded theft of an exercise video library where she commissioned the then person in charge of it, to take it for her. Nor any mention of the overall business model nor the entire system of LBC client management.

To reduce the issue to ‘templates’ when EVERYTHING Noel Clark does is based on the LBC business model is nothing short of ignorant.

More importantly, the entire theme of the blog post is that, “what I did is really no big deal.”

However, it did force me to take a closer look at the paperwork I am using and I realize this is just the spark I need to refresh and update my offerings. Using a template that is impersonal and outdated doesn’t support the vision I have for my company.

LBC is hardly outdated.

What Noel Clark means by this is that getting caught and exposed publicly for professional and ethical misconduct “forced” her to change her documents. To say it’s the spark needed to refresh things is dishonest as there is NO CHOICE but to change it once you are caught and exposed for it.

A template (again, please see the original post as you’ll see it’s far more than a ‘template’ that was plagiarized), that Noel Clark has used for nearly 4 years is now considered stale and outdated? Looking through all the documentation posted in the previous blog post, leaves me to wonder what “templates” are being referred to here. There sure are a lot of compared images; are these all templates? They seemed to be just fine and gathering no further consideration for the past 4 years and yet suddenly, when exposed for plagiarism they become outdated and stale. So outdated I might add that LBC still uses the same systemic approach … and look at where LBC is now relative to 4 years ago.

I offered a Food Substitution Calculator from the very beginning.

The originator of this brainchild is Amy Perez of Curls & Whey Training. She is thus the idea generator behind the LBC Food Substitution Calculator as well. There is something to be said about giving credit to those who are deserving of it.

I built my company entirely around the client experience and their ease of use with my programs and yet I used paperwork that was stale and dated and did not reflect my personal touch or my company.

And again, so stale and dated that it did not reflect the personal touch or Noel Clark’s company … yet they were used for 4 years and only deemed stale and dated once caught with damning evidence of plagiarism.

As for the personal touch, see the aforementioned example of the 200-lb MFC client getting Noel’s very own program.

As I realized the change was necessary and welcome, and the right thing to do, I attempted to avoid the public drama

Well, of course!! Would Noel Clark want such misconduct to become public knowledge? No business owner would! Anyone would prefer to escape the consequences of being known for what she’s been caught of. That’s just self-preservation.

and mudslinging that is typical of my competitor

Noel Clark and Maximum Fitness Consulting are not a competitor of Lean Bodies Consulting. Period.

This is the first I’ve heard of a coach referring to any other coach in this industry as a competitor … someone you compete with. So I guess by use of the word competitor, Noel Clark feels she is competing with Lean Bodies Consulting. I don’t consider for example someone like Layne Norton, Jennifer Van Barneveld, Amy Perez, Roxie Beckles and the like, “competitors”; we do not compete with one another.

by reaching out directly to him and letting him know that changes were absolutely going to be made to all of my paperwork.

Note again, no mention of the stolen exercise video library or LBC system of client management. Once again, reduced to simple paperwork. “Hey, what is everyone so upset about? I don’t see the big deal.”

He, of course, chose to continue his course of disparagement and spitefulness in public view despite my attempt at reconciling the situation to his satisfaction.

Let me get this straight. So it is ME in the wrong here for exposing Noel Clark for her theft and outright plagiarism of all things LBC for nearly four years. I doubt too many would be peachy about someone taking and passing off what you’ve created as their own, which is exactly what’s occurred here. From the sounds of this blog post, Noel Clark hasn’t done anything wrong, and continues to justify her decisions as well as out-and-out leave other details out.

It is not disparaging and spiteful to expose theft and plagiarism of my company. It is the RIGHT thing to do, otherwise it would continue and people should be aware of such professional misconduct.

spite·ful
/ˈspītfəl/
Adjective
Showing or caused by malice.

So wanting blatant theft and plagiarism to cease and exposing the person who is responsible for underhandedly doing so is done from motivation being derived from malice. Actually no, it’s justice. There is a reason plagiarism is not allowed in virtually any circles; same thing with theft.

theft n.
– the generic term for all crimes in which a person intentionally and fraudulently takes personal property of another without permission or consent and with the intent to convert it to the taker’s use (including potential sale).

I can sincerely say that I have never gained one client from the quality of my paperwork and I would guess by his enormously long wait list that it also hasn’t negatively impacted his business either,

Well, two things here. One, a comment made by someone regarding this issue; a former client of both LBC and MFC for that matter:

“I do think this shows, however, that it’s not so much the plan you use as it is the person behind the plan making the modifications…clearly the results these two get are like night and day. That’s telling.”

and two, Noel Clark told me specifically via email:

“I do not visit your page, stalk your message boards”

I wonder how Noel Clark knows that LBC has an “enormously long wait list” then …

Speaking of that email, I had also replied saying the following:

1. Please provide me with the contact information of your business attorney. [this was in response to Noel saying that her attorney had vetted her (she meant mine) contracts.]

2.There is no need to respond with the exception of notifying me with evidence, that everything has been removed and changed.

Neither #1 nor #2 occurred.

which tells me that taking this smear campaign to a public forum shows a level of bitterness, vitriol and hostility I would never wish to match.

I am not sure what this is about as after four more years of successful business growth I have little to be bitter about. Vitriol? Very sensationalistic adjectives. Vitriol is defined as “cruel and bitter criticism”. Ironically enough, I have been commended over and over again for how I wrote that original blog post; stating facts, displaying evidence of my accusations and leaving emotion and opinion completely out of it.

Here is the definition of “smear campaign”:

Noun
A plan to discredit a public figure by making false or dubious accusations.

So Noel Clark is now saying that I have been making false or dubious claims in the original blog post? Really. So apparently all the factual evidence presented is not true? Noel Clark is saying that I am making false claims about her in an effort to publicly discredit her.

I understand that I will continue to face criticism from him and his many sycophantic followers

The sign of a losing argument is having to resort to the use of blatant logical fallacies. Rather than simply and objectively addressing the actual issues, now Noel Clark is resorting to ad hominen attacks on anyone (over 20K) followers of Lean Bodies Consulting. By the way, I didn’t even know what that word means and had to look it up.

To that end, I am thrilled to let all of my friends, clients and potential clients know about some exciting new services and offerings coming to Maximum Fitness Consulting.

Distraction Mode Engaged!

So Noel Clark and Maximum Fitness Consulting suddenly, very suddenly announce new MFC features later in the same day that my blog post exposing her theft and plagiarism goes live. That’s rather coincidental.

First, if you have sent me an inquiry this week, you know that my Inquiry Reply email is completely new. Feel free to take screen shots and hold it next to any of my competitor’s emails. Second, if you have received a new plan this week you will also recognize the significant changes I have made to the formatting and presentation of your program.

Well of course!! It should be different and it’s now been changed for no other reason than for getting caught plagiarizing for four years. That is the impetus for change here, nothing else. Without getting caught, nothing would have happened, so really, what ‘honourable’ move has been made here? Noel Clark doesn’t have a CHOICE to change it and her hand was forced by getting caught and I demanded it change.

It is still conveniently offered online but I believe the programming information is delivered more clearly and in a more intuitive fashion than previously presented.

As I’ve seen Scott Abel say, it’s not about the sizzle, it’s about the steak.

In addition, the accompanying email does not contain nearly so many impersonal and tedious guidelines and lists. It is more succinct and contains only the information you need to get started on your fitness journey. Third, by the end of next week, all of the contract paperwork for new clients will also be changed, eliminating some of the harsh language and simplifying our agreement to work together. I believe this new paperwork better represents my personal touch and my values and I am excited to make these changes for my current and future clients.

Hmmm, so then the paperwork used for the last four years does not reflect Noel Clark’s personal touch … and yet it was used for four years before being forced to change it.

Finally, as we continue to innovate and find new services to offer the fitness community, I am excited to announce here and now that Maximum Fitness will be rolling out two new products in the coming days. First, we have created a new version of the Food Subs Calculator which we will be offering to non-clients that is both MOBILE and ONLINE!

Yes, LBC made the Food Substitution Calculator mobile as an app for both Iphone and Android platforms last year, which again, was also an idea generated from Amy Perez. I wonder where the MFC app idea came from.

While I will continually try to innovate, evolve and grow, I would like to point out some things that absolutely will not change – my commitment to my clients, my value of my clients, my unimpeachable service record for my clients.

This is remarkably arrogant to the point I am having a hard time believing anyone can believe that of themselves. An unimpeachable service record? Listen, NO ONE has an unimpeachable service record, NO ONE! It is not possible; you cannot please everyone and not every coach-client is a perfect fit. I certainly do not have an unimpeachable service record and I’m not too proud to admit that either.

Noel Clark does not either. If she did then there wouldn’t be a bunch of former MFC clients contacting me to give me their programs and to lend assistance in this matter. Nor would Noel Clark be handing off a program designed for her, to a client much, much different from her.

Every training and nutrition program I deliver is designed specifically to the needs of my clients.

See above.

I listen, I make changes, I adjust plans according to the needs, desires and goals of my clients to help them get the best out of themselves. Countless testimonials attest to the quality of my work

Countless?

I am wondering who this blog post was meant to convince? Noel Clark? Or those reading it.