Sorry, but Your Business Guru Sucks

You want success, you want life to improve, so much so it brings tears to your eyes at night and arguments with your spouse during the day. I completely understand, and I want success for you, but we need to think and act logically in pursuit of that success.

If you are reading this blog you can easily check my bio by clicking a link, so I won’t reiterate my background, nor is this blog post about me at all so let me just say that over the past three decades I’ve met with business leaders, political leaders, celebrities, and athletes at the highest levels. I’ve seen success and mentorship at its best and let me share some terrible news with you; your coach, mentor, guru probably sucks.

Here are some huge red flags to look for:

· They make more than 10% of their income from being a mentor-coach, or by having their followers bring them deals.

· They made their initial fortune hawking “how to fix, buy, grow” going to far as usually admitting they were not making it as business owners so they created a “program” and starting selling that program.

· They have a referral or deal sourcing program they promote to all their followers.

· They target their services largely to 18-35 year olds (usually male) who are hungry for that high testosterone or sexy female energy in their life. The coach/mentor will usually claim, if confronted about their chosen demographic, that they target that group because they want to impact the next generation or some other excuse that the gullible won’t question.

· The majority of their customers/mentees are “wanna be rich” and “solopreneur” not established companies looking for an edge to grow.

· They don’t provide legally binding services relating to what they are teaching, they just teach/coach others how to do it, usually through seminars and digitally delivered information products.

· Their mentorship is offered to the masses and also delivered digitally.

· They have no real measurable success in business outside what they are marketing as their ‘program.’

I know, I just killed your favorite horse. It hurts, I get it, but I cannot lie to you just to make you happy. I want you to be a success and wasting money on non-sense doesn’t speed that journey up for you, it slows you down.

There are some great and truly successful leaders out there who could make a fast and lasting difference in your life but NONE of those people are in the Top 25 trending “experts” on social media.

Let me say that again. None of the actual experts you need to know are trending on social media, nor are they popping up on your feed promoting a program.

Just so I’m really clear, let me put this yet another way. I’ve been in business for 30 years; I’ve built, bought, sold multiple million dollar companies. I’ve been in the media for the better part of a decade. I’ve spoke on the same stages as many of your favorite ‘experts.” I’ve advised domestic and international political leaders. I say this not to brag but to point out the ‘gurus’ on-line do not impress me with their flash. So, based on what they actually offer to the world there is not one expert that is trending on social or traditional media since at least 2005 that I would recommend anyone I care about to follow on social media let alone attend their class, buy their book, purchase their program, or bring them a deal.

In this crazy world I am sure each of these ‘gurus’ will have an excuse or counter to each of the red flags I’ve pointed out, hoping that you’re not a logically thinking adult.

They may also say that I’m just ‘attacking’ them because I’m jealous or trying to compete. So, let’s kick that stupidity in the throat right now.

·        I offer NO mentorship/coaching program as a sellable product.

·        I have NO advertising targeting my companies’ services to 18-35 year old ‘wanna bes.’

·        I have never, and will never, make more than 10% of my income through coaching/training/mentorship that is offered to the masses.

·        I have had over a half-dozen companies in multiple different industries before I ever “coached” anyone on business.

·        I have NO clients that I service solely through a digital platform.

·        Even my old videos that were placed behind a paywall have been made available for free to those who couldn’t afford access, turning away nobody.

·        None of these “gurus” are in any way, shape or form direct competition for me or any of my companies.

·        I am legally and financially tied to my clients since the services my companies provide are contracted services for the industries we are in, not just offering informational products about an industry.

What it comes down to is this; I love real business and what it can do for families and the communities in which they live. These “gurus” not only have an insanely high failure rate amongst their customers, but the legal and financial chaos that their teachings are causing out there, which are approaching Armageddon levels.

Even worse are the people who had the spark to be real entrepreneurs and master this noble craft and now have abandoned those likely riches to in order to take the “easier” path themselves by also becoming coaches, mentors, media personalities, deal makers, content creators or some other “excerpt” without the hard-earned skills needed to accomplish success in an industry for real!

Everyone desires a seat at the table, but a seat not earned is never occupied for long. While taking a shortcut may provide you with the success you seek, it will rob you of the ability to keep it.

Bottom Line, even if you never read my books, attend my free events, watch any of my media programing, or become a client of my companies, I want you to be a success. I want you to have entrepreneurship in your family. Do yourself a favor:

1. Find experts that don’t trend yet are 100x more successful than your “guru” and study what they do.

2. Only accept coaching from an in-person coach.

3. Only accept mentorship from someone who does not get paid for their mentorship services, or if they do, they do so after reach the goal.

4. Hire service providers who are contracted to provide a legally binding service in addition to whatever they may be doing to coach/mentor you.

5. Realize that mentorship is a personal and deep connection in which the mentor takes the mentee under their wing, in person, and teaches them how to live not just succeed. Do you spend in person time with your mentor more than zoom time? Have you had dinner with your mentor and their family? Has your mentor had dinner with your family? Are you confusing mentorship as just a more attractive word for “at a distance coaching offered to as many people as possible because we can charge for it” which really has nothing to do with mentorship?

6. Only accept expertise from actual experts. Meaning they can provide proof of verifiable success in business outside whatever they are doing for you as well as verifiable success in the industry you are hiring them for before they started providing that service for any form of compensation for doing so.