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How to Avoid Guru Scams

How to Avoid Guru Scams

Considering a course or coaching program? Read this first...

March 08, 2024

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Welcome to another issue of Passionate Income.

Today we’ll be discussing how to identify experts whose methods work and how to avoid getting ripped off by fakers.

Let’s dive in.

This issue is sponsored by us - Passionate Income!

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Over the years, I've heard various entrepreneurs - from Tony Robbins to Alex Hormozi to Tim Ferris - say that the fastest way to improve at something is to find someone who's already world class and pay them to learn.

Generally speaking, this is great advice and we at Passionate Income agree.

In fact, after building Passionate Income to 1M+ followers on IG, many of my students have followed my strategies to build equally massive (and in some cases even larger) Pages of their own.*

*My free beginner's course can be downloaded here.

With that said, just because someone has achieved some kind of result does not mean paying them for help is guaranteed to improve your skills / results.

There are multiple reasons for this, including:

Saturation (of the offer)
Trends (early / on-time / late)
Cycles (beginning / middle / end)
Maturation (of the people being sold to)
And so on

I mention this because, unfortunately, many gurus selling "How to..." courses (and coaching programs) fall short on a variety of these metrics.

In particular as it relates to Trends and Cycles.

See, similar to our issue on the flow of information in the crypto industry, there's an equally disjointed flow of information in the online business space.

First, the people who identify "hot strategies" and "untapped offers" are typically the veterans and millionaires.

Mostly because they:

Have enough money they can afford to test new strategies without worrying about going broke if they don't work
Take action on rumors exponentially faster than the Average Joe
Have enough experience and wisdom that they can "predict" the future of an industry with a relative high degree of accuracy

Now, if you're not a millionaire veteran, you can still take rapid action. And doing so can take you very far.

But if you don't have the bankroll to survive (let alone fund) cutting edge strategies...

And if you don't have the experience needed to "see around corners," allowing you to predict what's going to happen 3-6+ months ahead of time...

You're going to be at a disadvantage relative to those who do.

Which brings us to the coaching and course - aka Guru - industry.

The entire reason the information industry exists is to help people gain knowledge and improve their skills/results faster than they would if they were to try and figure something out on their own.*

*Ignoring the tangential benefits of coaching/masterminds like building your network, joining a community, etc.

The problem is: Not all information is created equal.

And sadly, when it comes to online business and Internet Marketing, much of what you'll find out there is flat out worthless.

Why?

Because similar to the crypto space, there's an "insider knowledge" totem pole.

As discussed above, veteran millionaires who innovate new strategies sit at the top of the hierarchy.

From there, their inner circle of buddies - who in most cases are legitimate friends and do not pay them for advice - are the first ones to get tipped off about new strategies.

Third, once their inner circle has had time to take action on any new offers, tactics or strategies, the information gets passed down to the innovator's highest-paying clients (which are usually mastermind members or coaching students in their highest-tier programs).

By this point, it's worth noting that it's likely been 90 days / three months since the offer/tactic was first identified by the innovator.

Fourth, once the innovator's inner circle and highest-paying clients have had a chance to exploit the new offer / method, they'll eventually pass it down to their lowest-paying coaching students and course members.

Relative to step #3, this can take another 3-6 months, putting low-paying coaching members (and course buyers in particular) at a serious disadvantage relative to the innovator's inner circle and mastermind members.

Last, when all is said and done, the information will finally be revealed to the general public via content on social media.

By this point, it's likely the offer/method has been exploited to such a large degree, it's either no longer effective, dramatically less effective than it used to, or insanely saturated/competitive.

Now, I'm making broad generalizations.

The above process does not apply to "every" guru or 100% of situations. But it happens more often than you'd think.

Why?

Saturation.

See, you can think of the above flow of information like a pyramid or triangle. And every time a strategy or tactic flows down from one level to the level below, it reaches 10x the number of people.

Meaning, when a guru shares something with his inner circle, he (or she) only has to worry about five people implementing that strategy. Which, in turn, could create competition for himself and/or decrease the effectiveness of the strategy as more people start to take action on it.

Then, when he tells his mastermind, that number increases from 5 to 50.

From there, when he tells his coaching students (and they start whispering things to their buddies), the number jumps to 500.

Then, when it makes it into a low cost course, that number jumps to 5,000.

And every time the offer or strategy reaches more people, more people take action on it, thereby reducing its effectiveness.

This phenomenon is precisely why gurus safeguard their best information:

They want to milk it as long as possible before the masses find out and ruin it.

Which raises an important question:

How can the Average Joe - who isn't BFFs with veteran millionaires, and can't afford five-figure masterminds - get access to good information?

First, understand the above applies to fast moving industries much more than it does to slower moving, more established ones.

As an example, SEO agencies have been around for 20+ years. And because of that, there's nothing remotely new or cutting edge about building one.

So if you sign up with an expert who teaches people how to build SEO agencies, the likelihood of you getting outdated information (because you're too low on the information totem pole) is small.

On the flip side, when Internet Marketers started running YouTube ads in 2020, it was a brand new tactic on an unproven medium. And because of that, you either had to pay big money (or be an insider) if you wanted the goods.

Admittedly, this is how the game has always been played.

From finance to real estate investing, movers and shakers always share their best tips with their closest contacts before anyone else.

Back then, however, the information industry didn't exist.

And because of that, there were dramatically fewer opportunities to take advantage of Average Joes who didn't know any better.

Today, however, things are different.

Similar to selling a goldmine that's already been tapped, gurus can position their courses and coaching programs as "cutting edge" when in reality, what they're selling has already been exploited by the early movers.

So the next time you consider paying to learn about a "hot opportunity," or some strategy that's "crushing it," ask yourself how many people have already taken advantage before you dive in.

💡 Takeaway: In less saturated industries where fundamentals matter more than tactics, and algorithm updates are minimal, there's less risk of paying to learn a method that will quickly fail.

But in saturated industries - where offers change fast and algorithm updates can have major consequences - be on guard against outdated info.