The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

How deep does this "FAKE GURU" market actually go?

Brad S

Bronze Contributor
Jan 23, 2014
99
357
48
New Jersey
They are obviously in the marketing business. But marketing nothing in particular and being good at it is called selling snake oil.

Who cares if they are good at marketing if they are only using it to sell snake oil? I don't think anyone here is under the impression that the gurus are on these forums giving a damn what any of us thinks. That isn't the point. The point is they are scummy and selling snake oil. They aren't "too busy creating the next product" because they don't actually make any products. They are marketing nothing. There is no "lack of implementation" because the guru isn't teaching anything actionable.

This isn't something to aspire to. If someone came on this forum and proved that they became a millionaire by getting a loan, using it to rent out a mansion and Lambo, and filmed bunch of videos in them telling people to use their BS secrets and positive mindset to get rich, they wouldn't get any respect from me.

I don't care how hard a guru works to put together what they are selling. Its still a scam. Should Victor Lustig be admired because he worked hard and got rich scamming people with his money printing machine? All a guru does is make and sell a bs "product" like Lustig and use good salesmanship (that could have been put to good use in a legitimate business) to sell it.

I'm sure someone will mention that the gurus don't care about what I think of them. Obviously. That is fine. But people that admire these people need to look in the mirror and think for a minute. Sure, you could follow the guru path and make a BS course teaching people nothing at all and somehow get 5k for it. But could you look yourself in the mirror knowing you were a scam artist? Have some dignity. Make an actual product or service, and actually go out and help some people and add ACTUAL value.

If you aren't a total sociopath you'll feel much better providing true value and not snake oil to make a quick buck. And there is no use in copying the internet bro-marketing guru business plan. There are thousands of legitimate businesses offering real services that have great marketing that you can copy. Pick one of them instead.
I think the toxicity of the "gurus" is NOT taken seriously enough.

I have been guilty myself of finding many of these people amusing that they can lie and manipulate so easy.

I thought maybe there was something to learn about sales and human nature from watching and listening to these conmen.

But anymore I just find them pathetic clowns.

And the people who listen to them even more pathetic.

These "gurus" are people with NO self worth.

And the people they attract have even LESS self esteem.

They just want someone to tell the them simple steps to remove any need for original and critical thought and to tolerate risk and uncertainty.

In their laziness and insecurity they invite these guru parasites to poison and confuse them further.

Bottom line:

These clown "gurus" you see all over YouTube and Facebook are CANCER.

Want to see some real life examples of how to get rich?

Read anybody's story who is on the Forbes 400 list.

Then think and do for yourself.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

GoGetter24

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
210%
Oct 8, 2017
566
1,188
Various
Tip: The richest people on the planet make small amounts of money thousands or millions of times a day, not by selling high ticket products that most people would consider to be a scam. This should be kind of obvious...
That's nonsense. There's no such pattern. Ask Boeing or BHP.
 

Actual Wizard

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
85%
Aug 5, 2018
13
11
That's nonsense. There's no such pattern. Ask Boeing or BHP.

I said, people.

How I do ask Boeing? I didn't realize that a piece of paper could talk. You do realize that no individual person owns a large stake in that company correct?

Also, BHP sells rocks in large quantities... I think you whiffed on that one there.
 

JasonEP

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
276%
Mar 25, 2017
17
47
31
Atlanta, GA
I think the toxicity of the "gurus" is NOT taken seriously enough.

This is what I'm trying to say! These guys are terrible.

What frustrates me is when I hear people, even on forums like this, preach that there is something to learn from their tactics.

There is nothing to learn from them. When you think of it, they are big fish in small ponds. Take someone like Tai Lopez for example. He is probably the best example of a VERY big fish in a VERY small pond. People that know he is FOS will still preach that they watch him to try to learn from him because he's very good at marketing. "He's one of the best marketers in the world!" is a statement I've heard about him way too many times.

This guy is only good at marketing to a very specific niche. He might be the best in his area, but that area is a tiny area of marketing consisting of selling snake oil products to a very specific customer. So yes, if you are wanting to learn how to sell $997 PDFs to desperate dropouts trying to get rich with no effort yes, by all means copy 'ole Tai. But that is all he has.

He isn't anywhere close to one of the "best marketer in the world!". In the real world he is one of a million tiny guppies in the middle of the ocean. The actual kings of this metaphorical ocean are the great white sharks. These aren't people selling garbage to wantrepreneurs via youtube ads. These are the people that no laypeople have ever heard of and have founded enormous marketing firms. They aren't selling $900 PDFs to kids. They have large teams selling many decamillion+ dollar contracts a year to actual businesses.

Why the hell would someone attempt to learn from a guy that sells to kids on instagram when there are legitimate businesses to learn from?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

GoGetter24

Gold Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
210%
Oct 8, 2017
566
1,188
Various
I said, people.
Brad Pitt, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Naomi Campbell.

You're more concerned with pretending to be clever than actually spotting real world patterns. Many people & companies make money from a small number of large high-margin contracts; just the same as many do from small, frequent sales; there is no pattern.

Since you're no source of wisdom, but you're eager to spread it for ego purposes; noise-to-signal reduced.
 

SoftStone

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
217%
Jan 15, 2018
75
163
Germany
The problem with this entire thread is that everybody has a different definition of 'guru'.

What is a 'guru'?

Somebody who teaches something?
Somebody who teaches how to make money?
Somebody who pretends to know it all?
Somebody who sells a program teaching how to make money?

If we have this definition down, we can identify what a FAKE guru is.

If somebody taught me how to make money and it actually worked WITHOUT me selling how to make money myself, is he a fake guru, just because he makes all of his money teaching a system that works?

Hadn't I bought into the idea that absorbing information is important, I would have never picked up the two books that we're all here because of in the first place.

I would have never picked up programming myself. Heck, there's no need to spend a fortune on university to learn it. So, is university fake now? Hm, that's interesting to think about...

Some famous people like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg (as far as I can remember) read a lot, none of which I think we would consider 'fake'.

Personally, I haven't bought a $5000 expensive 'guru' course on how to make money. As if there's some sort of magic pill hidden somewhere that nobody is talking about...

Not trying to approve or disprove any 'guru' here, just trying to apply a meta-level analysis to this thread to make us all think.

Also, I'm more focused on carving my own path to success rather than listing all the potential gurus and analyzing them. I've found 2 or 3 people I listen to and absorb advice from by trusting my gut feeling which seldom disappoints me.

Just my 2 cents
 
Last edited:

GatsbyMag

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
171%
Jun 20, 2016
268
459
I don't have time to make a detailed post, but I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Dan Pena's involvement in helping to create these fake gurus.

Gary Vee is only different because instead of 'teaching' people to make money, he's teaching people to invest emotionally in him. That's why Gary's fans are so obsessed and overprotective of him. Don't get me wrong, Gary definitely provides value but he also tells people what they want to hear (which is not the truth) - a nice mix of BS and value is a good strategy to convince skeptics that he might be different from the others.

The "fake guru market" goes VERY deep. And as far as I'm concerned, there's no point in seeing how deep it goes unless it will help in your fastlane efforts.

At the end of the day, the world woks the way it does. Some people make money by providing "real value" and others make money through perceived value.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MTEE1985

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
425%
Jun 12, 2018
685
2,914
Arizona
The problem with this entire thread is that everybody has a different definition of 'guru'.

My exact sentiment. One could argue to replace the word “problem” with “benefit” though. Differing viewpoints, angles, opinions is the basis of TFF. You’re 100% right that without a concrete definition, we ALL view who is or isn’t a guru differently.


Some people make money by providing "real value" and others make money through perceived value.

Perceived value is the only kind isn’t it? Money works by one person agreeing that something has X amount of value to them? I only bring it up because you make an interesting point. Does Coca-Cola provide “real value”? Marlboro? McDonalds? They all skew value in their favor. Not only is the Guru market deep, but the advertising market in general.
 

Michael1359

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
98%
Sep 8, 2014
56
55
54
There was nothing new about what he wrote about. Tony made his name (and money) by changing peoples lives. I found this book very unlikely to do that for anybody. It was 700 pages boiling down to: dollar cost average in a low cost index fund.

Again, I’m a Tony Robbins fan, just not this book.

I got about 3/4 through it and that’s it in a nutshell. Nothing I haven’t known about for a long time. Not a bad book, just more of the same. I got it for free, so I guess it was worth it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Actual Wizard

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
85%
Aug 5, 2018
13
11
Brad Pitt, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Naomi Campbell.

You're more concerned with pretending to be clever than actually spotting real world patterns. Many people & companies make money from a small number of large high-margin contracts; just the same as many do from small, frequent sales; there is no pattern.

Since you're no source of wisdom, but you're eager to spread it for ego purposes; noise-to-signal reduced.

I going to blunt with you here.

If I get banned for making this post, good.

This is a website about entrepreneurialism.

None of those people are entrepreneurs, moron...
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Actual Wizard

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
85%
Aug 5, 2018
13
11
Brad Pitt, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, Floyd Mayweather, Naomi Campbell.

You're more concerned with pretending to be clever than actually spotting real world patterns. Many people & companies make money from a small number of large high-margin contracts; just the same as many do from small, frequent sales; there is no pattern.

Since you're no source of wisdom, but you're eager to spread it for ego purposes; noise-to-signal reduced.

I am going to blunt with you here.

If I get banned for making this post, good.

This is a website about entrepreneurialism.

None of those people are entrepreneurs, moron...

If the people here are too stupid to understand the difference, then ban me now...

To the staff of this forum: these people are F*cking retarded and are going to get scammed.

I can't help them.

I can see now that it was a mistake to make an account here and this is my last post.

Goodbye.
 
Last edited:

lowtek

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
332%
Oct 3, 2015
2,163
7,186
42
Phoenix, AZ
I am going to blunt with you here.

If I get banned for making this post, good.

This is a website about entrepreneurialism.

None of those people are entrepreneurs, moron...

If the people here are too stupid to understand the difference, then ban me now...

To the staff of this forum: these people are f*cking retarded and are going to get scammed.

I can't help them.

I can see now that it was a mistake to make an account here and this is my last post.

Goodbye.

I'm sure we will miss your brilliant insights and sparkling personality.

Advice to you: see a therapist. You got issues.
 

Raoul Duke

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
324%
Feb 26, 2016
2,209
7,149
I'm sure we will miss your brilliant insights and sparkling personality.

Advice to you: see a therapist. You got issues.

JNfN77x.gif
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MTEE1985

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
425%
Jun 12, 2018
685
2,914
Arizona
None of those people are entrepreneurs

At the risk of making you leave from disagreeing with you...I disagree.

Entrepreneurs put thousands of hours/days honing their craft, so do athletes. Unless the argument is that they’re “born lucky” then there is an extremely strong correlation between the two.

Using Floyd as an example, he approached boxing in a unique way, gave entertainment and offered a perceived value to those willing to pay to watch him live and on PPV. Is he not an entrepreneur because he didn’t invent boxing?

Using that narrow point of view than none of the most successful “entrepreneurs” alive today are entrepreneurs. Facebook was nothing “new”, Amazon wasn’t “new”. Using the mousetrap example, it’s equivalent to saying that the person who invented the mousetrap is an entrepreneur but the dozen who made a better one are not.

Circling back to the fake guru discussion, a case could maybe be made that athletes skew toward this category because they don’t provide something tangible but are rather a distraction and for many, a temporary escape from their reality, much like a lot of the “fake gurus” being mentioned here.

We all welcome differing viewpoints here and if you disagree with me then I welcome it because I can learn more from those who have different viewpoints than I can learn from myself. Just disagree respectfully instead of calling somebody a moron over semantics and then taking your ball and going home.
 

Actual Wizard

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
85%
Aug 5, 2018
13
11
At the risk of making you leave from disagreeing with you...I disagree.

Entrepreneurs put thousands of hours/days honing their craft, so do athletes. Unless the argument is that they’re “born lucky” then there is an extremely strong correlation between the two.

Using Floyd as an example, he approached boxing in a unique way, gave entertainment and offered a perceived value to those willing to pay to watch him live and on PPV. Is he not an entrepreneur because he didn’t invent boxing?

Using that narrow point of view than none of the most successful “entrepreneurs” alive today are entrepreneurs. Facebook was nothing “new”, Amazon wasn’t “new”. Using the mousetrap example, it’s equivalent to saying that the person who invented the mousetrap is an entrepreneur but the dozen who made a better one are not.

Circling back to the fake guru discussion, a case could maybe be made that athletes skew toward this category because they don’t provide something tangible but are rather a distraction and for many, a temporary escape from their reality, much like a lot of the “fake gurus” being mentioned here.

We all welcome differing viewpoints here and if you disagree with me then I welcome it because I can learn more from those who have different viewpoints than I can learn from myself. Just disagree respectfully instead of calling somebody a moron over semantics and then taking your ball and going home.

Since you left an intelligent response, I will leave you with one.

There's one big problem with what you are all suggesting.

I happen to know an entrepreneur who has been able to amass eight figures of wealth in about a decade.

Granted, low eight figures, I'm not suggesting this person is worth ninety million dollars.

All things considered, I think they're doing pretty good.

This person is no athalete.

The reason they started a business had absolutely nothing to do with their ability.

Actually, it had everything to do with their lack of it.

Before this happened to them, they were perfectly happy with their day job and their family life.

To protect the identity of this person, I'm not going to say what happened, but I will tell you the result.

They were bound to a wheel chair and had almost completely lost the ability to use their hands.

So, if anybody here thinks that it's ability, I would only agree in one specific context;

as it is very apparent to me, that the people on this site have been influenced by someone with a fair amount of talent regarding this one ability.

There are at least three people here that seem to think that pretending they are some kind superstar athlete is a good idea.

I like that, that's very clever copywriting, it's not only going to lead most people down the road of maladaptive daydreaming, but when they fail, it provides them with a nice little excuse that they can tell themselves.

"Well, I guess I'm not Lebron James."

No shit...

Sorry, I'm not impressed by that since I can use my communication skills to dazzle people with bullshit as well.

This has been discussed to death, but I'll repeat it here since some people seem to have been led down the wrong path.

You need five things, and neither talent or ability is required (granted they do help.)

Specialized knowledge,

proper positioning,

action,

a reason,

and you must be effective.

With that said, thanks for the intelligent response, but I have work to do.
I can already see the work of some "guru" and can tell that I can't help anybody here, as somebody has positioned themselves in such a way that, nobody is going to listen to me.
 

Actual Wizard

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
85%
Aug 5, 2018
13
11
This is going to have to be quick because I have a meeting with my employees in 5 exactly minutes.

That's all you wake up in the morning thinking to do. You wake up and think "I'm going to be the biggest possible cunt I can, to as many people as possible, as severely as I can".

You're absolutely right. :)

My competitors are totally F*cked...

And yes I'm a "passionate piece of shit."

Your keyboard defecation is a sign of someone incapable of looking in the mirror and asking tough questions.

You're absolutely right.

The big question I need to go look in the mirror and ask myself is; "Why the F*ck am I wasting my time on this forum?"

Edit: Wait, so okay, according to you, I belong in prison, but you're going to delete your post and accuse me of being a troll.

No, I think your post needs to stay there so people can observe the context of my response.

[redacted, not feeding the troll]

Yeah, because you're a passionate piece of sh*t.

That's all you wake up in the morning thinking to do. You wake up and think "I'm going to be the biggest possible cunt I can, to as many people as possible, as severely as I can".

You're probably 2 months in arrears in your rent and have a severe drinking problem, but all you care to do is spew sh*t at other people on the internet so you can pretend you're in a stronger position than you are.

Your keyboard defecation is a sign of someone incapable of looking in the mirror and asking tough questions.

What right minded man is going to listen to you? You think because you can open your mouth, because you can type, and because you can do so more aggressively than others, people should listen?

At least the gurus say something good enough for people to pay to listen to. People would probably pay the same price to you just for you to shut up. Perhaps that's your business plan?

Hopefully you fail to control yourself and your shitty attitude just enough to land in prison, where your kind belong.

From my experience you're mostly right.

I admit, when I finally got my business to actually make money, it's because I was broke and yeah, I noticed that I was recycling a lot of beer bottles.

I had a choice to make, go get a job, go get clients, or go find a bridge to sleep under and I'll be honest, I didn't want to do any of that.

Here's the big thing you're wrong about.

You're right that people absolutely do pay to be told exactly what they want to hear, the problem with that is, they should be paying for people to tell them what they don't want to hear.

Yeah, it was a lot of work, and I honestly didn't want to do any of it. I went through the "Guru BS" for years wasting a ton of time and money. It was all bullshit, and if I wasn't desperate at the time, I honestly don't think that I would ever have been able to become successful.

That's the truth; I'm not the one living in a fairy tale story...

You don't need a "Guru"; you need a reason.

For some people it's going broke, for some people it's their kids, and for some people, they just want to be able to contribute something to this world before they die.

I came to this forum to help people. Hopefully, that helps you because I can see now that it is a big waste of my time to post here.
 
Last edited:

Walter Hay

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
401%
Sep 13, 2014
3,318
13,318
World citizen
I think a good idea is to read what they teach then just Google it, there is no need to pay $5000 for a course.
This reminds me of the excuse given by someone who bought my labeling book and wanted a refund, which I immediately sent him.

He claimed that he had already found 95% of the information by doing Google searches. I addressed 26 different labeling/branding subjects, and in relation to at least some of them, (more than 5% :)) very few people would have any idea that such things even existed. I knew about them, having made a very successful business out of industrial troubleshooting in my first business, in which I acquired a huge amount of technical knowledge, and I have a near photographic memory.

There is no doubt a vast amount of educational information to be found on Google, dealing with an almost inexhaustible range of subjects, but how reliable is it?

"Fake News" is a subject making news lately, but how do you tell what is Fake News? There is also a lot of fake educational information published on Google. How do you tell what is fake educational information?

Here on FLF, in my field of expertise in product sourcing and importing I am often asked to say what I think of courses by "experts" or even "gurus". I take the requests seriously and thoroughly read at least their free information that is designed to encourage the gullible to pay sometimes thousands, but rarely less than $1,000, to read more, or to join a webinar.

In some cases, the ones asking have given me access to the course that they paid big bucks for.

I invariably find misinformation and obsolete information. The reason is very apparent to me from my own lifetime of experience in the industry: Lack of actual experience, and recycling of information found on Google.

These people peddling what at times is financially damaging advice if followed, are much better online marketers than I am. So am I selling myself short by charging less than $100 for my book? Would I sell more copies if I called it a course and charged $1,000?

Frankly, I don't care. I know that I have helped a huge number of people that have followed my methods. I continue to help, sometimes by posting on my AMA, and in numerous cases by responding to PMs. (Please don't PM me until you have searched my AMA at least.)

I am not importing and have not imported for several years now. Am I therefore in the category so often maligned by posts that so often appear on FLF, including in this thread: "those that can't do, teach". This leads me to the next post on which I want to comment:

Red flags: They don't have any independently verifiable info about themselves out there.

The vast majority of claims made by online gurus, experts, teachers etc., including me, are not independently verifiable.

I am not going to publish copies of my bank statements, and I can't publish details of the four country importing and marketing franchise network that I sold when my health problems forced me to retire. I would breach my contractual obligations if I disclosed information about that business.

So how can you verify that I am what I claim to be? SIMPLE: Read my AMA and see if there are any factual errors. Read my book and see if any of the information is wrong. That is the kind of thing I do to help people who ask if a course is worth buying. You can do it too if you want to decide if my book is worth buying, but don't dump me into the category of "those that can't do, teach".

Much of what is on my AMA and in my book, particularly in relation to regulations, can be confirmed by checking on official government sites if you are willing to go to the trouble.

Walter
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

LynetteP

This will be car photo when I get a rocket again
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
146%
Apr 13, 2018
87
127
Tennessee
These people peddling what at times is financially damaging advice if followed, are much better online marketers than I am. So am I selling myself short by charging less than $100 for my book? Would I sell more copies if I called it a course and charged $1,000?

So how can you verify that I am what I claim to be? SIMPLE: Read my AMA and see if there are any factual errors. Read my book and see if any of the information is wrong. That is the kind of thing I do to help people who ask if a course is worth buying. You can do it too if you want to decide if my book is worth buying, but don't dump me into the category of "those that can't do, teach".

Much of what is on my AMA and in my book, particularly in relation to regulations, can be confirmed by checking on official government sites if you are willing to go to the trouble.

Walter

Walter, you are as patient as always.

For the other readers, Walter is a teacher, not a marketer. There is a difference. Certainly there are marketers that pretend to teach. But if you can't tell which one Walter is after reading just one of his posts, that is on you. It's plain as daylight. He does not need to justify himself to you.

Andy Black (another teacher, for any newbies reading) was kind enough to comment that he liked what I wrote in another post, and so I will repeat myself here as I respect his opinion highly and believe it to be quite fitting in this case too:

Mastery is demonstrated by the ability to teach.

Notice I didn't say ability to market, ability to convince others you know your stuff, nor did I say ability to get students to learn (it's up to the student to learn, and some folks simply refuse).

I will add here that it's also on the real students to appreciate the teachers enough that they don't become discouraged by insane people and leave. So thank you to all of the teachers that show up here with wisdom. I am still reading your posts. There are so many good teachers here, and I haven't even finished the tip of the iceberg yet, but a sincere thank you from me for your generosity! And thank you to MJ for your knowledge also, and making this forum. It's a great place to be and I am thankful for it!
 

Process

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
224%
Jul 19, 2017
273
611
Solving Pain
Well the other day when I was checking on my fuel units, I pulled back a book in my garage library (next to my Lamborghini), and it opened up to reveal an ancient staircase into the lair of KNAWLEDGE. Boy was I surprised to see my best bud who I'll call Tai down there.
 

Zest

Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
141%
Aug 21, 2018
22
31
Hey All,

Just a bit of a rant/curious what peoples opinions are. How do you all gauge business courses, business gurus/personalities online, advice, etc? Who do you like, and what do you like about them? Or do you avoid the whole online business guru/advice/courses market all together?

I know MJ had a section on this but I've noticed how difficult it is to tell if people are legit. IE: I looked up to guys like Daymond John and watched all his interviews, but then I noticed he's licensing out his name to do online webinars on "making money" in my city. I was just watching Shark Tank and he was blatant doing product placement for a phone. Why would someone so successful bother? Same with Grant Cardone - seemed legit at first but why are these guys charging $4000 for seminars on sales? You don't seem to ever see guys like Mark Cuban or Elon Musk selling courses or doing product placement for an extra buck.

Is the internet an unreliable place to find these podcasts,courses,advice, etc? All one big upsell?

That's a very awesome topic, and so important - I just happened to have this conversation with a very no-nonsense friend of mine and we both reached a similar "conclusion."

My belief is that our society is obsessed with role models. Many men never had a legitimate father figure. So many gurus play to that. I actually have a list that I have had for many months of people who I personally would not go out of my way to take advice from. Many of them are successful, but I personally would prefer to look elsewhere for the reasons I'll outline below. Here's my short list:

Jordan Belfort, Tony Robins, Justin Ligeri, Grant Cardone

What do they all have in common? Personality that OTHERS want to have. They appear "cool" and "alpha."

In my opinion, I want to choose a teacher who DOES NOT FOCUS on himself. Someone who does NOT build himself up to a guru.

I want to take advice from someone who shares PRINCIPLES rather than PERSONALITY. I don't care about a guy's personality. I want to know if they're trustworthy and if they have had legit experience from which they can share valuable distinctions. Save me the nice smile and pearly white teeth please.
But I think that's what many people want. They think they are consuming Jordan Belfort's system, but in fact they're consuming his forceful personality.

I trust a teacher who points beyond himself or herself, not AT himself or herself.

Hope that makes sense.

(If anyone is a fan of any of the people I listed above, it's fine. Actually there are valuable things to learn from each of them, but I wouldn't say I seek them out specifically.)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

momomaurice

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
232%
Apr 24, 2017
106
246
35
Ireland
"I'm a millionaire, just buy my course". Hmmm sounds legit.

I bought a few courses in my earlier days. I wouldn't recommend buying 95% of the courses out there. Why? Because they don't usually teach you how to offer anything proprietary. Something UNIQUE. The Purple Cow.

I'm sure you know how it's super trendy right now to be starting up your own Social Media Marketing Agency(Thanks Tai Lopez!). Literally EVERY DAY I get some inexperienced guy calling my biz with the same pitch probably given to them by a guru...

"Just to prove my worth I'll run FB ads for you without charging any fees for now, you just pay the ad spend". EVERY DAY I get these calls and I hate it. I admire and respect the hustle, but there's no unique selling proposition there.

Build a biz that offers something proprietary so you don't have 1,000 other people giving the exact same pitch. You'll have less competition(especially at the higher end) and will be able to command a higher price.

I actually bought that course and it leaves you really confused. He has so many different guys telling you different things that you don't know what to do. They don't go deep on anything either. Bit of Facebook, bit of Google ads, bit of snapchat, bit of insta. Load of crap.
 

Anthony Gordon

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
38%
Jun 4, 2016
24
9
Agreed - it sounds a bit stupid but MJ is almost the only "expert" I trust because he's upfront that his book is fastlane, for example. But even the people who have "DONE IT" I have a hard time trusting lately because it seems like a lot are just moving from hustling to using their reputation as a crutch for these courses, books, etc. Tony Robins hustled and built a successful business but now he's selling this bullshit financial advice.

I highly agree. especially now this whole affiliate marketing thing. i saw a video for about 20mins with Grant Cardone hosting it and he was learning about affiliate marketing from this guy that said he started affiliate advertising for anything just to make money and now runs courses showing people how to do it and says he creating value. Grant Cardone by the end of it was like "how do i get in on this and how do i get you to promote my courses" and these are $4k to i think like $25k courses and yeah it makes me wonder why the hell would someone with his so called wealth need to do that i feel thats just greed i dont feel its being a cleaner. yes people that either want to be or who are already in the fastlane always think of ways to making money but i dont feel generally need to explode it like some are doing.

lets take MJ for example now i dont know if hes made a course but he published two fantastic books and has set up a forum for everyone to express their thoughts, ideas and knowledge, hes not asking people to buy his course.

another great person like this is Andy Frisella owner of 1stform (fitness brand) and hosts a podcast The MFCEO Project for business and personal development for FREE. now i think he had one course going or something but then he scrap it because he said its not what hes about. he focuses on his business for fitness which is a billion dollar company now and then provides free content through his podcast.

i personally think this whole make money online/affiliate marketing/online guru course is becoming a joke and people are just taking advantage of the people who dont want to put in the hard work. not saying its easy to make money online because we know its hard but i am finding that people that have in the sense of affiliate they then tend to revert to courses.
 

Anthony Gordon

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
38%
Jun 4, 2016
24
9
This is what I think I'm realizing. Aside from what they SAY they've done, I've NEVER heard of these guys for anything but these courses. Tai Lopez said he made millions in various businesses, this Gary Vee guy I can't stop hearing about owns a huge "National Marketing Consulting" firm with global clients, I've never heard of these guys except for their courses they are selling.

Has anyone heard of Sam Ovens? I'm seeing his crap non-stop, never heard of the guy and apparently he's some Forbes-ranked (makes me wonder if this Forbes list can be bought) multi millionaire.

And they want to teach people how to be better social media consultants and trade their time for money? What about barriers to entry, time separation, automation? Such a joke lol.

i dont think gary vee does courses but he started from his dads wine business and started promoting it on youtube and then went from there.. Sam Owens yeah who the f@#k ive seen him everywhere too and its becoming annoying. the same ads over and over on fb and i see friends liking them
 

TreyAllDay

Whatever it takes
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
311%
Feb 9, 2016
560
1,743
33
Edmonton, AB
i dont think gary vee does courses but he started from his dads wine business and started promoting it on youtube and then went from there.. Sam Owens yeah who the f@#k ive seen him everywhere too and its becoming annoying. the same ads over and over on fb and i see friends liking them
I still have no clue why but I just can't get into Gary Vee. Something about him comes across as unauthentic to me. Some of his videos just seem staged, I've seen vids of people asking him questions that legit seem like actors. And it seems so odd that someone is always recording him at every turn and he's pretending like he doesn't know the camera is there. Maybe I am just being a hater lol.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Anthony Gordon

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
38%
Jun 4, 2016
24
9
I still have no clue why but I just can't get into Gary Vee. Something about him comes across as unauthentic to me. Some of his videos just seem staged, I've seen vids of people asking him questions that legit seem like actors. And it seems so odd that someone is always recording him at every turn and he's pretending like he doesn't know the camera is there. Maybe I am just being a hater lol.

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

hahah i think i can see a little bit of hate there. because there is videos where he shows his camera guy and introduces who he is. but thats what hes turned his brand into and works well for him .. he shows a video of him from the beginning. the only thing i was a bit put off him by was when he interviewed Tai Lopez. i mean that guy never explains how he started because he just started from affiliate marketing ( dont quote me on that)

someone that is legit man is that Andy Frisella: The MFCEO Project definitely check him out
 

blueoceanblues

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
264%
Feb 1, 2015
50
132
Florida
All gurus want in the course business because it's the closest thing to pure profit without stress.

Lets say you help a real estate agent get more leads/appointments.

Well depending on the size of the agent's team, they can only handle so many clients per month and will eventually reach capacity -- can't send a solo agent 100 leads per month, even with an ISA qualifying things can get unmanageable real quick -- so now you start helping the agent to recruit, and now there's team dynamics/leadership/system issues you have to work out (hey, didn't sign up for that, only for the easy money), and what if growing a huge team wasn't in your client's plans?

However...compare that to the alternative.

Prove that you can generate 200 leads a month, bottle your secret FB ad sauce and roll out an FB ad.

(don't mention your clients fired you after 6 months and you're no longer in the niche anymore -- because who cares about being a practitioner, or actually retaining clients...

Just bottle up your secret FB formula and sell it for 2k

Grab 200 students. They'll go out and get clients, overwhelm them with shitty quality leads, get fired in 6 months, and the guru-lightbulb will go off in their head too

The cycle continues.
 
Last edited:

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top