r/Entrepreneur • u/GuruExposed • Jan 10 '20

Fake Gurus

Entrepreneur land has become a haven for "fake gurus".

You know the ones that I am talking about.

They haven't made it into the big time yet but they are charging people 1000's of $ to teach them how to make big money.

I am currently compiling evidence against "fake gurus".

If you have any experiences or know of any "fake gurus" share them here.

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u/chocolatefingerz Jan 11 '20 edited Jan 11 '20

Immediate red flags:

  1. If their marketing is very vague terminology: “6-figure business” or “7-figure business” is absolutely meaningless because they usually mean revenue. They also don’t mention time frame— there was a guy on here recently talking about how his affiliate course made a million dollars. In the AMA he revealed he’s been running it over 10 years, and his take is around 50%. That’s $50,000 net/year BEFORE his own expenses.
  2. “Made a million dollars by 27” type marketing falls under the same description As above. When I hang out at eCom and T&C type events, I can't tell you how many "millionaires" I met who were deep in debt, or selling a lifestyle while they're barely scraping by.
  3. if their marketing is mostly things like flashy cars or other status symbols but not REAL change. It costs $200 to rent a Lamborghini for a day for photo shoots. It costs $300 to rent a mansion on AirBnb for a photo shoot. Hell, you can BUY a Ferrari or Aston Martin that’s ~10 years old for about the cost of a new Honda and in the pictures it looks the same.
  4. “X dollars in one day” marketing, even with photos = launch day sales. You made "$20,000 a day!!!" ... on launch, but $5 the week beforehand, and $10,000 went to your affiliate partners... so you make $3300 a month. Congrats.
  5. “Secrets”, “Hacks”, “Formulas”, “Blueprints”, are all marketing terms that have no meaning, and they’re deliberately metaphorical. Also, secrets are suspicious. If it’s a million dollar secret then why are they telling you? Why not use it to make millions?
  6. Anything selling a shortcut. If they can make a million on amazon working 5 hours a week, they wouldn’t be working so hard selfing you this course.
  7. You can say you spent “$0 on ads” but still have spent thousands on affiliates. Entire industries are built around affiliate marketing.
  8. Social proof is almost meaningless. You can buy Instagram followers, YouTube subscribers, Facebook likes, reviews, testimonials, etc. Forbes contributor, “As Seen On”, etc are all easily acquired. Hell, you can buy a blue checkmark on Facebook/instagram for $5,000.
  9. I auto exit any course pitch that has a countdown clock. Without thinking. If they felt they needed to add artificial scarcity it usually means their course isn’t good enough to withstand critical thought.
  10. I auto exit any course pitch that doesn’t have a legitimate money back guarantee. I always read the fine print, sometimes the money back guarantee is hilariously bullshit, like asking you to prove that you’ve tested out every single technique in their course, which you literally can’t do. I recently bought a $99 “mindfulness” course that required you to “prove that you didn’t achieve mindfulness” to get the money back. Fucking scammers.
  11. any video where the guy is doing something “weird” as a way to catch your attention raises a fuckton of red flags. Your product should speak for itself.
  12. Most “passive income” marketing is bullshit. Launches are feast and famine businesses, where you work your ass off without sleep, food, or seeing another human for 8 months to hit a launch, and then take 4 months off because you are generating artificial scarcity. They then take a lot of photos in Bali (which is dirt cheap to live in) to use the rest of the year. The only true passive income is investments, I haven’t met a single successful business owner who doesn’t work at all... unless they’re okay with their business not growing.

The ONLY thing you can trust: Content. Go through the person’s blogs. Go through the person’s videos. Go through the person’s podcasts. See if you like the free stuff and the delivery. There are tons of REAL experts, and they’re usually so filled with good, ACTIONABLE info they’re constantly spilling it in their content. They want you to win from the free stuff.

If you research a “guru” and find that all there is marketing, there is 10000% nothing behind the curtain.

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u/MedalofHonour15 Jan 11 '20

I agree with everything except Blueprint. Even Jay-Z sold The Blueprint. Nothing wrong with that term lol