}

Total Pageviews

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

DICKING AROUND...AND PETERING OUT: Best Drug Rehabilitation's Per Wickstrom & His Not-So-Secret 'Reputation Hacks'

If you've ever read comments following an article about Per Wickstrom--especially those on Ripoff Report--you may have seen supportive responses from one Yu-kai Chou.

Why is that? Because that's his job!

(Well, one of them, anyway.)


You know you have a  problem when you Google your company's name and a slew of Ripoff Report complaints outrank your own website. So what happens to good companies that go bad? They hire a reputation management company.

Say hello to Jun Loayza!

Jun Loayza
Jun Loayza (left) is the president of Reputation Hacks, because everyone must know how awesome you are.

No, really, that's his tagline.

On his site (Reputation Hacks) Loayza claims to have raised over a million dollars in angel funding, successfully sold two internet companies, and led social technology campaigns for major brand names like LG, Levi’s, Activision, Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Clippers, and the Lakers.

And here's the best part: he's Per Wickstrom's secret supporter.  In fact, Wickstrom's not just a friend, he's a client.

Loayza reveals that he has provided reputation management for a number of large companies including Best Drug Rehabilitation, A Forever Recovery, and Narconon International, which Loayza says "is the #1 rehabilitation center in the United States". (And if you'll believe that, you probably believe it when a hooker says you're sexy!)

Loayza claims "each of these companies faced specific reputation management problems due in no part to the services they provided, but due to the industry they are in and the types of patients they work with".

Oh, sure. The "types of patients" are the reason Wickstrom keeps showing up on Ripoff Report and in medical malpractice lawsuit filings!

At this link, you can read how Loayza helped Per Wickstrom get "fraudulent reviews" on Ripoff Report delisted from Google search results (although Google does not "delist" content unless the page itself is deleted):http://reputationhacks.com/guide-to-reputation-management-1-introduction/
The following is an excerpt from that page:

Per WickstromMy client Per Wickstrom is an entrepreneur with strong religious convictions. He’s built his business in accordance with his beliefs and philosophies, which rubs people the wrong way when they don’t agree. I helped him show other facets of his personality, including his entrepreneurial skills, his life struggles, and how he overcame those life struggles to build a community that helps people. The results have been fantastic; his true spirit is really resonating with the community of people he has solutions for and he is getting more clients because of it. Furthermore, the bad reviews on Ripoff Report that were once at the top of Google search have now been replaced with these inspirational stories about his life. We even connected him to an opportunity to write for the Huffington Post, which show up at #1 in search results for his name. How’s that for establishing credibility?

Establishing credibility? More like faking sincerity, right!  Loayza goes on:

I can’t stress enough why this is so important, but Per Wickstrom is an excellent case study. Not only has reputation management helped his on a personal level, but it has also helped his business tremendously. Because he is the face of his company people are really buying him when they buy his services. If he has a bad reputation problem, then his company has a bad reputation problem. But if he has a great personal brand, then his company has a great company brand, and the amount of business he does will shoot up. Which is exactly what happened. 

What Chou talkin' bout, Yu-kai?

Here's a comment Yu-kai Chuo posted after Per Wickstrom's Huffington Post article (you'll notice that Wickstrom doesn't float the ridiculous story that he'd been arrested on COPS!):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/per-wickstrom/addiction-recovery_b_2132044.html  



10:18 PM on 11/21/2012
I don't say this a lot, but Per is one of the people I respect the most. I think it's respectable that he picks himself back up from a rut. I think it's respectable that he is always telling those around him to impact others positively, despite all the bashers out there. He's not perfect, but he tries his best, and the post here is simply to encourage others to try their best too, no matter how low they fall.

I've met Per personally before, and I only have good things to say about this man. I'm a regular guest speaker/lecturer at Stanford University and other organizations (look me up). Would you rather listen to the person who's actually met Per and has a real face/reputation, or anonymous people who's never heard a word from Per? 

Look you up, Yu-kai? We did, and look what we found!

Chou is indeed listed on Stanford University's site (http://asia.stanford.edu/?page_id=3295).


Secondly, Miss Fortune researched Loayza's start-up company, Reward Me.  The domain name for the company was originally registered to Loayza at this address:

Registrant:
Loayza, Jun
Viralogy, Inc.
950 San Pierre Way
Mountain View, CA 94043

Domain Name: REWARDME.COM

So, your girl Miss Fortune checked Delaware's corporate records and found this--BINGO!



Entity Name:VIRALOGY, INC.
Entity Number:C3415277
Date Filed:09/23/2011
Status:ACTIVE
Jurisdiction:DELAWARE
Entity Address:356 SANTANA ROW #310
Entity City, State, Zip:SAN JOSE CA 95128
Agent for Service of Process:YU-KAI CHOU
Agent Address:3444 ELLERY COMMON
Agent City, State, Zip:FREMONT CA 94538

Yu-Kai Chou! 

Chou was the founder and CEO of RewardMe, and the longtime business partner of Jun Loayza

So the next time you read Yu-Kai Chou stroking Per Wickstrom's reputation management ego, you know he's a lot like that hooker--he's only doing it for the money.

2 comments:

  1. (Sorry if this is a repeat send...I think it failed the first few times)

    Thanks for the generous comments and deep research. I think the facts you state are solid, but there are some issues with the interpretation.

    Jun and I met while we were attending UCLA, and we started our first company to try to make the world a better place (it was called Future Delivery btw), due to a bad economy (08) it failed and we decided to do Social Media Ranking called Viralogy, that eventually became RewardMe, which was the site we raised over a million on. Eventually, we moved on and I started focusing on what I'm passionate about, which is Gamification. I published my framework called Octalysis (http://bit.ly/octalysis) and started teaching it internationally (working on my book right now). Jun went on to help out large brands like Whole Foods and Sephora with social media and reputation. During this time, Jun asked me if I would like to try out his service, and I said sure, hence the banner as on my site. It really isn't as insidious as you think.

    We at one point got the opportunity to meet with Per Wickstrom through a mutual friend (at different times). We're not scientologists (I'm pretty publicly a Christian) and I only knew about what South Park had to say about it. When I met Per, he genuinely talks about how his dream about helping people like him when he was younger (as best as I can tell over a 9 month period of meeting him 4 times). In his own experience, Narconon was the center that helped him become Sober, so its natural that he became a scientologist himself and use some techniques that worked for him (though his center is not a Narconon center). I saw how he always corrects his team and says that, "money is not the top priority - saving lives is. In this industry people say all sorts of things about me that hurts my feelings, but when I see parents of graduates hugging them in tears, everything is worth it. Money comes if you truly help people. I myself saw the graduations of real people, who like Per, managed to leave drugs because of his service. They looked truly happy. So I decided to help him out where I can.

    I wouldn't go as far as "I'm doing this for money" as based on where I am right now, my reputation is more important than anything (especially when I'm writing a book!) and even this post itself makes it not worth it for me if I cared about money - and believe me I did anticipate this when I saw what was happening with Per.

    I know there has been some imperfect situations in the past, after all, it's a very difficult business getting people off of substances they are addicted to (I can't empathize - I've never even smoked a cigarette, but I can imagine...people kicking and screaming to avoid quitting what's ruining their lives) but I think your concept of this whole thing being a conspiracy is unfounded. It's a very straightforward story, and it is my honest opinion (in witness to my God) that its just a business that prioritizes on helping people, makes a few mistakes here and there like any business, and tried to grow through revenue and marketing like any business. It's not just the nefarious type of organization you portray it to be.

    Thanks, and have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yu-kai:

      Thank you for your reasoned, level-headed response. Miss Fortune would appreciate hearing from you directly regarding your experience with Per Wickstrom. You can reach me at: tcmissfortune@yahoo.com

      Delete