Who Needs A Course?

Today, we’re here to talk about getting ahead, without dropping thousands of dollars for overpriced, garbage courses. Selling, building a business, working out, working through mental health, so many aspects of life are an opportunity to purchase a ‘course’ online. Over 90% are total trash.

I’ll cover why the course industry is mostly a joke, and what to look for instead if you want to fast-track your job, side-hustle, or business. Keep in mind, I’ve taken dozens of courses, and paid thousands only to find out that 99% of my money went straight to the bin.

Let’s get into it.

Context

Look, we all want to be successful, make money, have a great life, etc. But we have to be careful not to get ripped off in our pursuit of more with false promises.

The best program I ever paid for was an old sales program from Jordan Belfort. Have you seen the Wolf of Wall Street? Leonardo DiCaprio plays him.

It was $10 a month, we got all of the material, and we got put into a forum with people from his team who’d actively coach us. It was worth every penny still in circulation and I’d have paid so much more for it. It’s not offered anymore, probably because he realized he could charge $10k for the program (which he does now).

But I also paid for Grant Cardone’s sales course…it was terrible. The irony is that his programs were the most popular in our industry. The material only made sense for someone who’d never sold anything in their life, because they can’t tell how bad it is (they weren’t actively selling). He’s also since changed his program, so I’m referring to the old version specifically. But you get the point.

I paid thousands of dollars for the most popular program, and it turned out to be terrible.

That’s how marketing works (sad but true). Just because it seems popular, doesn’t mean it’s good. I paid for so many courses with great marketing, but bad material.

But you (hopefully) won’t make the same mistakes I did.

Why I Say Courses Are A Joke.

I know what a few of you are thinking. If the courses are so bad, why is this industry doing so well? People make millions selling courses, after all.

Because when you have millions of hungry people in front of you, you can charge them $100 for even a single burger. They’re so hungry, they’d buy anything at that point.

I view the course industry, as (in general), a scammers market with a few great providers, who’ve struck a good mine of good honest people who desperately want to get ahead.

A few problems with courses.

• Most business people are not going to share what works for them today. They’ll share what worked for them yesterday (that probably doesn’t work as well anymore).

• The material is already available online, the challenge is curating great material. But in the business world today, the best tactics and tools change monthly (thanks to AI). Winners move fast, so if a course is 3+ years old (even 3 months old), is outdated.

• Anything that teaches “anybody how to do the thing” doesn’t help people actually doing the thing. How many times do you see interns finish their course, start the job, and find out that everything they were taught does not apply in real life?

I’ll give you a concrete example.

The Founder Os Mastermind is estimated to cost about $9,500USD. Some reviews suggest it’s the worst purchase you can make.

Here’s the thing. The guy has over 350,000 followers on X. Has a legitimate business. And, for all practical purposes, looks legit. Beautiful website, tons of positive review of the program, some of the biggest business people in the world endorse him.

So how can that be?

That’s great marketing. Those reviews can be bought. Those endorsements can be from friends (who don’t care about your reviews). For all we know, it can be one huge house of cards.

Now, I’m picking on him because he popped up on my X feed. But there are countless ‘experts’ who are in a similar position. Selling courses that aren’t any good, but propped up with amazing marketing to convince you they’re legit.

The thing about courses is that once you complete the material, it’s basically 95% margin. So they can afford the refunds (if they even offer them). Moreoever, there’s also lots of room to pay people for successful referrals.

So, what are we supposed to do?

The Fast-Track

To clarify, a fast track is:

• Recent material on what’s actually working.

• From someone doing it today (not years ago).

• With ongoing support from the experts who tell you what’s right or wrong.

With this, you can genuinely learn something quickly, and level up within a month. This is what I’m usually happy to pay for.

So what’s an example of a proper fast-track?

One example is Cut30 (not sponsored). The program teaches you how to shoot, edit, and post short-form videos to Instagram and TikTok just like the creators/teachers do. Oren John went from 0 - 300k followers on IG in about one year. Alex Garcia is building a marketing business to seven figures. Colin builds brands (mostly golf), today.

These three teach one session a week for a month (the cohort lasts about a month). They give you the curriculum, and have you posting videos in the first week. Even video gets their direct feedback. It’s exactly what they’re doing (that’s working for them now). I know this because I’ve taken the program with them (they’re all customers at beehiiv). It’s a chat room that’s like a firehose of videos. If you stick to the program, you will learn how to do exactly what they do.

This is how you learn and build skills for real, fast.

Not by paying for a course from years ago, and going at your own pace. By having people actually crushing it actually doing what they’re teaching.

What Does This Mean For You? (And Bonuses)

If you’re serious about getting better at what you do, seek out today’s experts and learn from them directly.

But, if you just want great material and to go at your own pace, I get it. Here’s a few bonuses for you.

• The #1 CEO coach in the world made his entire curriculum available for free on a google doc.

• Tobi Lutkes (Founder & CEO of Shopify), recently did an interview covering exactly how he leads (and builds) at Shopify. It’s very impressive.

• GitHub (one of the most successful remote companies of all time), has made their entire handbook available for free. Extremely comprehensive. You can literally do exactly what they do (if you want).

• Traction (I’ve mentioned this book before), gives you everything you need to use EOS in your own business or side hustle. Reminder: EOS is used by some of the biggest businesses in the world, partly because it’s easy to implement.

These have all been super helpful for me. And don’t get me wrong. If you don’t know what’s ‘right’ or what’s ‘best,’ you can just copy what the best people are doing, and learn as you go. That’s what I do.

Thanks again for reading! Now, a word from today’s sponsor.