Fake Gurus: Where is the Line? 

Please ignore all scam comments (ironically some Fake Gurus)! You can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/johncoogan or join my discord: discord.gg/e9nKhPCNkq

whenever I see Robert Kiyosaki pop again I always think to myself "what is he known for OTHER than a book about how his friend's dad was rich, and his own poor"? And ehh..... is there anything?

This has not aged well for Graham Stephan

Well, let's be honest. Graham Stephan became famous by claiming to teach people his story on how he became a millionaire by doing real estate business (and by using shameless clickbait thumbnails). Only a lot later (couple years in fact) he revealed that most of his income was in fact from youtube and if it wasn't for youtube he'd never even become a millionaire in the first place. It's definitely not as shady as selling people overpriced courses directly but you could easily call that being a fake guru approach. That said I did like many of his videos later on (when they stopped being about him humbly bragging about how surprisingly easy it was for him to become a real estate millionaire) and I sometimes watch a video or two from his channel these days as well.

They sure do blast ads. Thanks for exposing fake gurus! I'll get more into reading and doing !

The irony in getting an ad thats literally a "guru" with a whiteboard behind him halfway through this video 🤣

To be fair using Ads to promote your product is how people usually get sales I'd say its a pretty normal thing. You just need to make sure the product is good first.

Scammers are always riding on the coat tails of real experts. They tweek the truth just enough to take advantage of others for profit. You see it in business, online, in churches and other workplaces. Always good to be open minded but somewhat skeptical.

Finally, someone who said it the way it is. The "gurus" couldn't say it because they're "biased," even the "good ones." It's appreciated that you point all aspects out, thank you.

We need more people like coffezilla and this channel, keep it up!

10:56 I mean, Graham HAS been pushing shit like FTX hard, and omg the clickbait. I know clickbait is not illegal, but holy hell there's only so many times I can see a shocked face thumbnail with a quote like "IS THIS THE END???" only for him to go "basically just keep buying and holding in index funds, it'll pass" 14 minutes later

“The importance of reading can’t be understated.” I would argue the opposite. It’s so important that it’s impossible to overstate how important it is.

I worked for an MNC as a language and communications trainer for over a decade and here is my experience. Give an audience something for free. 98% will ignore suggestions/ training skills. The 2% who pick it up are either naturally hungry about gaining new skills or are in a crisis and attaining these skills is critical to getting out of the crisis. Now add a currency value to an external training with lower skills, lower experience and people see it as ‘valuable’. The interest or conversion rate increases and more people pay attention though those dropping out or losing interest after sometime hovers around the 80% mark. The ones again that really pick it up are the ones in some crisis. Many gurus can sustain a business because they seek some currency for the advice they share. This makes their advice ‘valuable’. Second they prey on crisis, real and imagined. Like if I said walk in the morning it’s good for health vs if you don’t walk starting tomorrow you will die in 2 years. Chances are the second statement translates into more action.

after watching a Grahams video advice about something my head is like a balloon without any usable information to work with.

Great video and great points. As a business influencer and as someone shown in this video, I'll say firsthand that theres a very fine line that I need to walk between providing information people want, and teaching the skills that people need. So where is the line? The laws and required legalities around marketing are definitely an inarguable line. Beyond that, you have merchant processors, and their corresponding blacklist, that will shutdown products/services that get too many disputes, thats another good line. Beyond that, it probably comes down to personal preference. I'd argue that 'cultlike' tactics within an online teachers community are pretty dangerous and should be considered as a red flag, although there are extremely famous 'gurus' (ie. tony robbins, andrew tate) who exude these tactics and have a generally good public opinion and positive reviews. So how to *really* separate good from bad? Free content: I'm a big believer that providing freely available content, and LOTS of it, is a pretty good activity for anyone in the teaching industry. Just like (arguably) the first teacher, Socrates, would give free information out by basically teaching for free in the Athens town plaza to get his students, I believe free content is at least a show of good intentions; that the teacher is actively engaged with the community, and not a flash in the pan. That said, theres definitely folks out there producing lots of content, that have no success or track record in the industry they're talking about. Verifiable success / track record in industry: If Warren Buffet provides a stock tip, obviously thats good to follow, even if he doesnt put out free content, because his track record is unparalleled. Your success is obvious to me at least, as I'm a megafan/customer of soylent (I think you should bring in more personal experience shares on your videos btw). Most of the most successful marketers/traders/investors are completely unknown though, and unwilling to teach. The claim Tony Robbins makes about 'manifesting' his success cant necessarily be backed up (how do you get proof of manifestation?!) just as Tai Lopez's claim that he bought his lamborghini because he read a lot of books. As someone with a venture-backed startup myself, I see the same sorts of misdirection is unfortunately just as, if not more, common amongst startups raising exponentially higher sums of money than the $1000 or whatnot people pay for online courses. Aggressive marketing: Just as ecom products need to offer and present a normal product (lets say protein shakes) in a very unique and appealing fashion, with unique benefits in order to make D2C customer acquisition work at scale, so do information marketers need to present their information in a unique and appealing fashion. "Im in my garage with my lamborghini..." , "I bought this multi-million dollar house with internet residuals , "Im a 24yearold multimillionaire from shorting stocks" , etc., are all examples of this that speak to what folks really want from education, in a more appealing fashion. The college pitch "goto school for 4-10 years and earn a comfortable, consistent salary as long as you put up with a command-and-control work environment...with dental benefits", although the standard, is not a very appealing pitch anymore, if even a trustworthy one. Personally, I believe we are undergoing an absolute revolution with how people are learning, and we are just at the infancy stages of it. I agree that specialized courses into a topic are the most important. Ad data analysis, proper split-testing methodology, D2C tiktok advertising, copywriting, branding, building an engaged community, etc are all examples of what I find to be useful skills, yet the majority of folks that desire to get into a particular industry such as starting an 1m/m ecom store or whatever, are not seeking out courses on these topics. They learn these parts through experience, after they've been motivated down the ecom/affiliate path. Hence the majority of activity in the market for teachers/info is focused at a higher level (ie. make money with stocks! crypto! real estate! ecom!) rather than the specific skills. This is similar to college with majors (finance! accounting! marketing!) rather than marketing the individual classes (ie. 'Valuation disputes and advocacy' .... yawn) I believe that some sort of standard needs to emerge for whom folks are learning from, and what they are earning, and from what job position/title. That would allow correlations to be drawn between what courses a person completed, and the corresponding teachers they learned from, with a verifiable measure of success (income or something). This sort of data could also help inform folks as to what course/path they should take next professionally. I find blockcerts as an interesting development in this space, as well as edu platforms that are direct feeders into specific jobs in specific companies, such as what Coursera does for Google/Nvidia/etc.

This is a promotional video for Graham Stephen

Waiting for Graham Stephan to react to this video. Great video 👍

I find it amusing (ironic?) that whenever I watch a video like this the YT advertising algorithm inserts ads for passive income.

Jikh and stephan are downgraded for me due to ftx and blockfi

There is no line. It's all one big shapeless, quivering mass of flesh and narcissism.

When he said: "Online courses is one of the most powerful ways to learn new skills...", I was thinking: "Damn, looks like Skillshare sponsored this vid". Nope, LMAO...

great video, thanks John!

one line i've always drawn is at criticism. If a guru only talks about all the opportunity and talks as if things could never go wrong they are a fake guru. Also if they cant criticize and be skeptical, unless being skeptical of that thing is something they can use to their benefit. major red flag.

Yes!!! I knew that book by Kiyosaki was just straight garbage! I read about three or four chapters but couldn't stomach it ! I run a business now. It's legitimately very hard. I only listen to people who have actually done something extremely, technically difficult

John, great channel and great show as always. I started following a lot of these fake gurus a few years ago, but realized they were all shysters, because all their videos do is tell you what they are going to tell you, once you pay the money. Also, the thumbnails for the videos are a complete giveaway. Whenever you see a thumbnail with the RU-vidr posing in what is obviously a fake expression of fear, anger or concern, you know it's b*******. It is simply clickbait, to get you to click. I think the best strategy for all of these guys is to watch, but then do your own research to make sure it's not all BS...

Think pointing out Graham was a safe bet, RU-vidrs like Meet Kevin walk that line a lot closer

My simple rule to detect fake gurus is this. Verify their track record, did they become successful and make money outside of what they are selling? Their course/book whatever should be a tiny % of their income, otherwise people who buy it are likely the suckers

On Phil Knight, I'll quote the Joker. "When you're good at something, never give it away for free."

Idea-- RU-vid financial 'gurus' should donate the money they received from FTX to charity or to a fund that should be established to reimburse defrauded FTX customers

If everybody knows about an opportunity it's not an opportunity.

I really liked this video. I think there are many talented people who would make excellent online instructors but are afraid to start because they don't want to be labeled a "fake guru". There's a stigma against making money online with courses. But I also think there is a huge market for it; I've paid for several excellent online courses myself. I'll send this to anyone who has doubts.

The ironic thing was that the ad I got during this video was for someone shilling a real-estate scheme.

Can we start a thread with classes that people have found to be actually worth the money? Classes that delivered on their promise.

This video is 10 years or more too late, sadly casualties are higher than ever before. Liked/subbed amazing short video.

I used to construction. Once all the workers started talking stocks everyday I knew it was time to take some profits.

i feel like the entire video is set up for answering the question in the title but it just never does

It’s interesting to me how a regular viewer can’t instantly determine if the person they are watching is full of 💩

I will say at the beginning Tai Lopez 67 steps was amazing for me. Completely changed my life and changed my mindset. But after that. The rest of his “courses” seemed scammy and grabs for money.

"Selling information" on vague aspirational topics (self help, get rich) is a good smell test, especially if you consider the price charged. Just wish more people understood this. Tai Lopez should not be relevant.

Great video on an important topic! This hits hard because one of my former close buddies has built a million-dollar empire promoting garbage and funding others to promote. I'm almost a bit jealous seeing how well he's doing, he's a guest on national news networks discussing the economy, special guest with motivational speakers (Dani Johnson features him regularly) spends much of his time flying around Europe and living the good life. Three years ago we were discussing a business opportunity where I was going to help his team build something of a business incubator with a match and rank system to pair investors with investment opportunity that meet their investment criteria. He bailed to move into crypto promotional scams. Tried talking him out of it and he's since cut all ties. This is someone I've been friends with for almost twenty years. Sad what folks will do just to "get ahead"

Thanks for exposing these fake gurus. Most of them have no ideas, but take people’s money for nonsense courses.

When you don't pay, you pay no attention.

It's very interesting to me that you never voiced the words ethics or morals. You present a solid logical reasoning framework. I think Ayn Rand would approve.

Hahaha and at the end of this video I get a scam ad 😂😂

This channel is underrated

Graham Stephan is the only person I've ever seen that's looks like a man and a toddler at the same time.

MAN YOU ARE FOR REAL . VERY REAL . I HAVE SEEN A BUNCH OF YOUR VIDEO TODAY AND YOU I THINK COME IN THE TOP MOST VALUE PUMPING PEOPLE ONLINE GIVING KNOWLEDGE AND ADVICE. GENEUINELY, THANK YOU FOR DOING RU-vid MAN. (SIR 🙏)

Ray Dalio is genuine and want's to truly give back to humanity what he learned in life. And I saw his video on economics and it is brilliant and simple it's almost a work of art.

The best part is that during this video I received an ad on a course om how to make money being a motivational speaker.

Stop being afraid of houdini has landed me a really good job, computer related jobs is the future you guys

The Coogan Effect - I see a John Coogan video, I click.

If finance was really as easy as these gurus say, I'm quite shocked why people at big banks and hedge funds go through years of studying at academia. It's so easy lmao

There is a difference between an investor and an entrepreneur. And there are huge differences from where you start or under which circumstances you are living. Everybody talks about the shiny stuff, the winners, but nobody counts all the corpses from the different fallouts and black swans. My own dad made a fortune in his life but he also inherited one and mom… she worked hard and married the right guy and stood by him. My most valuable lesson from him: don’t listen to anybody when it comes to your finances except for education when you are still young without anything to lose.

John, thank you so much for introducing "Stop Being Afraid of Houdini".. It is exactly my team needed now with unreal engine 5...

Very good video. Thanks for helping to inform people about spotting fakes and charlatans.

I really don't understand why you only have 257k subscribers, this is top notch content!! Even if I'm not in the mood for watching something that makes me thing, when I get a suggestion from your channel I still watch the video

Depending on a guru is a sign mental laziness. And every form of laziness comes at a price. There's a knowledge for the wise, even from the lips of a child. Listen with care and learn to think through issues.

I really want to be a guru due to the amount of passion i have to teach, but for the past 7 years i have not published one thing until i make sure that i am actually successful on my own with my own business experiments only then i think i can teach my journey with reasonable expectations and price, i believe we should always give more than what we promise to gain trust and respect.

It's good advice for when you're starting a new job as well. If someone's making a promise that it would change your life be very weary

as I was watching the video the first name that popped into my mind was graham Stephen but then I got to the end of the video... I don't know who to trust anymore!

Ethics. If you don’t invest with ethics don’t call your self good. Not the quantity of gains from the return, but the quality that investment brings to society. When you sacrifice ethics for profits someone ALWAYS gets hurt.

The silence of verdict on Meet Kevin says a lot!

400 dollars is not a reasonable price for a online course. 10 - 29.99 is a reasonable price

Of course, you don't go near Meet Kevin who gets on the sketchy side often lol. You just talk about one of the gurus from the opening.

Awesome thumbnail! 👍

John Coogan with exceptional content as always !

first time seeing a video of yours and your voice is absolutely fantastic. booming, fills up a room, smooth and deep.

Just bought John Coogan's new course, so informative. Can't wait to make some bookoo bucks

John you're a wealth of knowledge and make very good videos... I'm really surprised you don't have more subscribers

There is no line. There are only those who get caught and those who are clever enough to not get caught.

I watched Graham last time probably few years ago. He has some good advices but they are focused on NA mostly. Nobody from Europe and especially poor parts of Europe can apply that. Imagine earning 300-400$ per month, you can't even buy decent food nonetheless invest or do anything else.

One of your best videos yet.

Thank you for provided your insight into this topic. I am constantly bombarded with information about the next big things. It's all about doing your due diligent and making a informed decision that might benefit you and won't break your bank. Thanks again!

life is getting harder without the "like dislike- ratio

i like how many examples and counterexamples were mentioned

thank you kindly john for another great video.

I'm happy with what you said about Graham Stephan; I trust uncle Graham

Good advice John. 9:50 - 9:59 - We've to see their track record at implementing & success of their own advice in the corresponding field

I think online courses is everyone’s next university. In 10 years, NO ONE will be attending college campuses no more. Or if so, veeery few. Online is where it’s at. Great video!

Wow graham and Elon have the same face

Using Graham for the clickbait. Only to 360 on it. So Graham of you. lol

This is a very unique video that I wasn’t expecting to see on your channel. It is so well done and I something a lot of people don’t think when starting their own businesses (where to look to learn). Thanks for another great video.

He promoted FTX. He’s a terrible example. But you made a great video!

guru means one who dispels darkness, the guru is our own consciousness.

thanks for the Phil Knight mention. will look into the book

people have serious blinders on when it comes to graham stephan imo

This makes a lot of sense !!!

As a Houdini artist I was not expecting to go in to this seeing a course from one of my friends LOL

Still no concrete answer to the question after the whole video. I think teachers or gurus are like different flavours of chips. Only after taste testing and figuring out their truth, you can know if what they are saying is for you or not. And nobody spends too much in taste testing, just try out the freebies. See if their freebie stuff works for you or not first.

Last year my buddies and I met a drunk couple at a casino that wouldn’t stop giving us advice on stocks….that day turned out to me the highest my portfolio ever reached in value. I’ve lost OVER 90% of what I had then. So yeah I should have done what Kennedy did in 1929

The explanation was beautiful

Wow you are learning houdini, good to hear buddy, i am on the same path ❤️

Oh god bless you, been waiting for this for a while haha :D

The line dividing thought-leader and grifter cuts through the heart of every human being...

The greatest depression of our time is the one where Google, Amazon, and Apple go bankrupt.

Awesome video. Can you interview Alex Hormozi?

i'd interpose maybe hypothetical red flag. No Demo to prove to the customer one way or other.

very informative, thank you!

Most good advices I received were free! All fake gurus want your money, lot of money!

Very well documented video congratulations 🙌thanks John, now let’s sell some courses 😇🤣