Coffeezilla Exposes The Self-Help Industry

[aurum]

The Coffeezilla YT channel is one of my new favorite finds. He does a great job exposing what Leo refers to as the "deep problem of marketing" within the self-help world.

Essentially, stage Orange and Game A thinking run amuck.

Since everyone here is into self-help, I feel it's a good idea for all of us to be aware of how the industry operates and some of its shadows.

Don't get scammed by these fools.

[Preety_India]

@aurum nice find. And nice fiend.

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by Preety_India

[Leo Gura]

@aurum You beat me to it.

Was gonna post on blog soon.

Yeah, he has some good exposes.

I'm gonna do a video in the future about self-industry dirty secrets.

[aurum]

27 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

@aurum nice find. And nice fiend.

Thanks

25 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

I'm gonna do a video in the future about self-industry dirty secrets.

Please do. As much as I appreciate what self-help has done for me, the devilry is rampant at times.

[hyruga]

There are two main parts.

One is Non-ethical selling which is true that it is bad and some people do that.

 

Second is over-charging. 

Actually, I feel self help is a legitimate industry and the prices are not really that high.

Sure a book only costs $30 and an online course costs a few hundreds. A real life event is bound to cost more due to the cost of hiring people, need to book facilities, marketing cost and everything so charging a few thousands is also very reasonable. After all, the person is investing in himself which is one of the best forms of investment. 

Just don't overcharge. If someone is selling 3k per course and another is selling 20k per course but the first person has more likes, subscribers and credentials, then the second person definitely seem like over-charging. And don't keep selling courses during the course itself!

 

Anyway yeah, just to add on, Dan Lok is an easy target to hate on. He's a Chinese (a minority where he is at) plus he has an arrogant look. Surely no one will defend him.

Edited March 11, 2021 by hyruga

[Leo Gura]

The worst offenders are business gurus who sell you courses on how to make a business by selling courses on how to make a business.

This is classic pyramid scheme stuff, and people buy it because they want to get rich quick without doing anything creative or original.

There are many great self-help courses which are not pyramid schemes in that way.

[Preety_India]

The other is Robinhood and other day trading platforms that actually make you lose in the hopes of making more money. 

And fake shamans. Right? 

And pastors that claim they can heal you. 

And MLMs which you guarantee you jobs and siphon your money in return for a fake job. 

And yes colleges that offer fake degrees without any accreditation. Like Trump University. 

Haha there's a whole list. 

And even Whole foods that sells me strawberries for $4 in the name of organic? 

 

[Lyubov]

The best place to start for newbies is books. Go on amazon or audible and read all the self help classics and top rated books in a specific domain. They are cheap and hold all the fundamentals. Very little unique information to be found in most self help video courses that are incredibly expensive. That money is better spent going towards a very specific skill or class or retreat or therapy. 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Lyubov

[Loving Radiance]

1 hour ago, Lyubov said:

That money is better spent going towards a very specific skill or class or retreat or therapy.

Spot on.

[universe]

Helping people to get what they want or overcome emotional problems requires skill. Marketing to people in the right way also requires skill. These two fields of expertise don't have much in common.

That is why you can have company A making T-shirts that sell for 5$ and company B making Supreme Ts that sell for 500$.

For every self-help teacher selling overpriced courses there are hundreds of teachers who are not getting any clients.

Does it mean that their teaching are less effective? Does it mean that the clothing from company B is better than from company A? Well, maybe but that doesn't justify the extreme differences in pricing.

So what does?

The marketing skill.

I bet 80% of those people that buy overpriced courses from these teacher like Thai Lopez are even enjoying buying it. Even if their products are bad and they don't get any results from it. People enjoy it because the marketing tickled the right chemicals in their brain.

Michel Fortin (from the video) seems to be really passionate about marketing and the creative challanges it brings. Now he regrets giving self-help teachers the tools that they then used to scam people.

I hope he understands that it's not his teachings that are the fault here. It's the people who are desperate for quick and easy fixes. They get exactly what they want: A short chemical reaction because they clicked on that button.

Everyone who is serious about learning these things will take the time to learn about it. Read a book or two and do his research.

 

Also I think every dollar spend on any self-help course is still better spend than mostly anywhere else. Even if it's Thai Lopez, so many people just splurge on entertainment and vain stuff. There is also the element of "having invested in it". If you spend 10k on a course you better make sure to get everything you can out of it and do the exercises given to you. Whereas many might struggle doing even the first exercise on a free training program.

[JosephKnecht]

The irony is that Coffeezilla places ads on his videos and very often those ads feature the same people he is exposing. 

So he is getting paid by the same people he criticizes.   

[Leo Gura]

13 minutes ago, JosephKnecht said:

The irony is that Coffeezilla places ads on his videos and very often those ads feature the same people he is exposing. 

So he is getting paid by the same people he criticizes.   

Yeah, but he can't really control that. YT does not give creators fine-grained control over who places ads on their videos.

I had to jump through loops just to ban Tai Lopez ads from my channel. Too much hassle to do that for every advertiser. And advertisers can circumvent your blocks if they are diligent.

[aurum]

12 hours ago, hyruga said:

A real life event is bound to cost more due to the cost of hiring people, need to book facilities, marketing cost and everything so charging a few thousands is also very reasonable. After all, the person is investing in himself which is one of the best forms of investment. 

It really depends.

Yes, of course a live event is going to cost the organizer more in expenses. And a live event could theoretically be more immersive. Therefore a higher cost could be justified in some cases.

But what are they teaching at this live event? And who is it marketed to and how is it marketed?

There's a lot more variables to consider than "I'm investing in myself".

At that's part of the problem. The reasoning of "I'm investing in myself" or "this client is investing in themselves" can easily be used for exploitative purposes.

It doesn't mean investing in yourself isn't real. But that's how tricky the unconscious mind is. It can use anything to justify its behavior, and of course the best justification may actually have a hint of truth.

This is where you gotta have your eyes wide open. You have to be aware of the potential for distortion of any teaching.

9 hours ago, Preety_India said:

And even Whole foods that sells me strawberries for $4 in the name of organic? 

The worst offender .

Whole Foods = Whole Lotta Devilry

9 hours ago, Lyubov said:

at money is better spent going towards a very specific skill or class or retreat or therapy. 

I agree with this. The vast majority of useful ideas in selfhelp can be found in books or free videos on YT.

6 hours ago, universe said:

I hope he understands that it's not his teachings that are the fault here. It's the people who are desperate for quick and easy fixes. They get exactly what they want: A short chemical reaction because they clicked on that button.

I feel this is nuanced.

I agree that many of these people are desperate and looking for a quick fix. At the same time, there is such a thing as sleazy marketing that preys on that. It seems like most of what Michael promotes now is fairly conscious, but the marketing strategies themselves can be problematic. Can't just blame it on the people buying either. It's both.

And on a deeper level, we could even point to poor public policy / systemic problems lead to this situation. So there's just a whole lot going on.

3 hours ago, JosephKnecht said:

The irony is that Coffeezilla places ads on his videos and very often those ads feature the same people he is exposing. 

So he is getting paid by the same people he criticizes.   

Maybe to a degree, although he likely has little control over that.

This is why systemic thinking is so necessary. Even if your intent is to "do" the conscious thing, like expose fake self-help gurus, your decisions can be limited by the larger systems you are a part of.

[mmKay]

 

 

This video " Exposes" Napoleon Hill as the biggest con artist . I have no idea about any kind of proof but I feel this fits here

[Preety_India]

@mmKay he looks so Italian. 

 

[hyruga]

To me, it doesn't matter. Napoleon Hill only published Think and Grow Rich from age 54. And he's fighting so hard to teach people on the law of success towards the end. He's still teaching when he was at his 70s. That's dedication and giving back to the society. His writings are also far more superior than most other's. Great man!

[Epikur]

@mmKay

Great find. His life is actually a bit interesting. Reminds me of Tony Robbins where he interviews succesful people and brings us the golden rules. Though he doesn't get the validation of Dale Carnegie but of God.

 

[Matt23]

Nice. 

[OceanRiver]

On 11/03/2021 at 9:40 AM, aurum said:

The Coffeezilla YT channel is one of my new favorite finds. He does a great job exposing what Leo refers to as the "deep problem of marketing" within the self-help world.

Essentially, stage Orange and Game A thinking run amuck.

Since everyone here is into self-help, I feel it's a good idea for all of us to be aware of how the industry operates and some of its shadows.

Don't get scammed by these fools.

@aurum  Tai Lopez says to Coffeezilla YT "You sank my battleship".