Why I Quit Gwen Lane’s Spark School: An Honest Review

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For those of you who don’t know Gwen Lane, she’s a former influencer who was originally from Los Angeles. Her claim to fame is having less than 100k followers, and creating a full time career blogging. I honestly didn’t know who she was until I saw her ads. Her website was convincing, and I visited her Instagram only to find out less than what her site said. This was immediately confusing, but I pressed on nonetheless to learn more.

I seriously couldn’t find strong branding or any consistent themes at first glance, so I considered her as a retired influencer. That’s fine, because it means she paid her dues, and doesn’t have to stick to a formula as us regular people have to do when we’re starting out. This is fantastic, because it means I am learning from a professional.

This is not a full review, because I didn’t finish the course. I did about 90% of it and had to call it quits. I finished every video except for like 2 of them. It was allegedly over $8,000 worth of content taught that was very useful for beginners who didn’t already have their grasp on blogging, well, more ‘influencing’– which is fine. 

I don’t like the term ‘influencer’, because I am truly a blogger who does deep research, write multiple thousand word blog posts, and rarely post on Instagram.

Her monthly subscription of $45 a month gives you access to her Facebook group full of fascist bandits and team of 10,000 moderators who tell you what you can’t do hahaha. (Just let people post and let them know later if they crossed the line.) But it’s her group and she can do whatever she wants. I ended up becoming more a voyeur to the whole gamut. It felt weird.

The point of her course is to teach you how to monetise your blog and instagram by explaining the basic principles of partnerships. But it doesn’t even really touch on contracts or negotiations. Just how to plan and be consistent with content. That’s not a bad deal considering Instagram has the worst ROI haha and you should mainly be focusing on quality content anyway.

I didn’t learn much, but tried to absorb as much of her ideas possible, because there is always something to learn. What I did pick up were specifics on how each social platform worked and for what kind of content. That was pretty great as I’ve never seen a breakdown infographic with that kind of detailed spin on each social medium. This alone is a good reason to sign up for her course. 

Remember, that when taking a course or reading a book and you already know everything it is saying, it is a sign that you already have the information you need. Your education is validated, and you are headed in the right direction. Now, things are only a matter of action and the next step is being consistent!

But then again that kind of value can also be found on the deep web….because I did find it later on the internet. Everything she teaches is taught all over the internet. It’s very beginner and gets you started on influencing. If you are a really new to the internet — saluting my older friends of a different generatino — or are stepping into the online business space for the first time.

Also, I found another version of some of the best times to post. Every time I google this, or look at one of these it’s different. So I don’t know what actually works and just follow what Planoly says because they have that exact data on posts that do the best at certain times. 

The reason I quit the course:

Gwen Lane is downright adorable. I skimmed her IG, I saw her website but she did not film this well. I’m not calling her ugly as I just called her incredibly cute. But her quality of video made me uncomfortable. 

She’s not an ugly person at all. Let me make that clear. She’s super cute, very lovely, but I think it was her camera angle. Not sure if she had a person with her helping record, but her posture was so that I could see the bottom caps of her teeth, up her nose, and down her throat. These are not things we should see from someone we look up to. Literally.

I mean this in the friendliest sense to someone who can afford a $65 video image touch-er up-er from Fiverr: Please hire a video editor for post or different videographer. Someone who can fix the video to the point that I can’t see where your makeup ends. Or avoid makeup. You look gorgeous either way.

That’s what won John F. Kennedy his debate against Nixon on TV. Nixon allegedly looked like a monster on camera which swayed the American vote. It’s not that hard or expensive when you’re creating a project that should be professional, and in the hands of consumers forever. And not to mention: out on the internet. 

Unless you’re Maria Callas, Whitney Houston, or Miley Cyrus aka someone with an extremely powerful singing voice, you should never raise your chin when expressing something into a camera. However, if you’re an influencer and want to sell as much as possible, be as professionally presentable by doing the Princess Diana.

The Princess Diana is when you have your chin down and eyes are open and bright. It might feel weird and takes practice, but works and makes your images and video 89% more gorgeous + easier to sell. 

I hate criticizing a person for their looks. That’s not what this is. This is presentation. My husband and I talk about this all the time, because he was in the British military where he was taught to have an officer’s posture with a chin level to the ground. It’s something we learn in all sorts of finishing schools in the subject of Comportment.

When you do the Hillary Clinton and raise your chin when you present, the worst angles of your face show, along with a harsh shadow and lines. It makes a huge difference and it didn’t bother me that the microphone was a bit distorted when Gwen Lane was almost screaming into the camera. You don’t need to raise your voice on camera, because people can simply turn the volume up. But if you have a ton of passion, I understand.

I had to stop watching her videos because it ate me alive to watch her speak. It doesn’t matter the value you’re contributing and could have given me the key to $1 million in a day. I still wouldn’t have listened because the way the course was packaged. I wish her the best, hoping this helps everyone who signed up. But the recorded videos that weren’t Zoom calls were so hard to watch for me as I value presentation skills. I myself am not perfect. But this was painful to continue watching so I stopped as it was my choice. 

Here is how to fix camera focal length

If you’re a presenter on video I should never see:

• Your gums
• The bottom caps of your top teeth
• Up your nose/what you’re thinking
• Down your throat
• Underneath your jawline
• What you had for lunch
• Where your makeup ends–no matter the gender you identify with

I should see:

• Your eyes
• What you’re saying
• The tops of your cheek(bone)s
• Your expression 
• Good facial hygiene aka skincare, teethcare, haircare

If I had a multi 6 figures to put into video production on a course that was supposed to be sold to millions and last forever to help them, I would invest in a fabulous video editor who would make me look like Salma Hayek. Not only that, I’d get a facial a week before, hire a makeup artist, hair stylist, the works. You don’t even have to hire people. You can do it all yourself.

Here is is quick guide on how to fix this:

Have you ever had a quit a course for a weird reason? I’d love to know your feedback in the comments section below.

Thank you so much for taking time to read the end of this post. I hope you find some inspiration in this and feel free to share with your friends as a free way to help my blog grow. Your support is endlessly appreciated. 

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