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Emails about John T. Reed’s guru ratings

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Here is an email I got from a guy who says he used to work for several famous gurus. He would not let me use his name, so I changed the guru names to random letters. But I thought you would still be interested in this behind-the-scenes view of the guru business.
“Wish we could sit down and talk, I could tell you some outrageous stories of shrink wrapping books and tapes in hotel rooms (the night before the famous “free” two-day events; about changing the prices of the courses based upon what town we were in; about the ridiculous “money-back guarantees;” about how most of these guys never!!! (well maybe one-time) ever purchased properties based upon the techniques that they were selling/teaching. Some went so far as to say (to the audiences) that they were buying/selling/closing 6,7,8 deals a week... I never could figure out how—because I was with them all week flying from one seminar to the next? Pure BS, and the crowd rarely questioned it because they loved the “dream.”
All-in-all, I learned a lot about marketing and direct selling (C was the best, D was the best Front-Man to sell people on signing up) so I’m not complaining about my time there... just about how these guys operated—I was just saw your website and thought your estimates of these guys was right on target. Keep up the good work
Just for fun—at the height of these “shows” B joined the speaker line-up for A, he was selling a course on Probate Deals, about fives pages of his booklet included his opinion that A's techniques don’t work... When we (myself and two others support staffers) pointed this out to him he got all red-faced and panicked. When A found out, B was gone. Think about it: B was too dumb to use an edited version for the A Tour, And obviously A never looked at B’s product. I thought it was funny anyway.
In response to my posting this anonymous email, I got this from guru John Beck:
Basically, the above account is correct. “B” was J.G. (Jim) Banks. “A,” the promoter, was Robert Allen. Banks’ book, Treasure Hunting, had several pages of information which was critical of Robert Allen’s “no-money-down” approaches. Someone working for Allen discovered those pages and a minor controversy ensued. However, to the best of my recollection (I has present when Banks made his first “book and tape sale presentation;” he was terrible) Banks was not “gone;” he was not terminated (even though his first presentation was terrible). He continued to speak for Robert Allen. (Everyone thought that “probates” was a terrific topic and Banks evolved into an “excellent” (i.e., very high sales per head) "book and tape" salesperson). The pages critical of “no-money-down” were simply removed from Banks’ book and the book reproduced. The pages following the removed pages were not even renumbered to reflect the removal. I once had a seminar attendee at a subsequent Robert Allen “book and tape sale” seminar ask me about it; he thought that he had bought a defective book! As I recall, it was literally years before Banks corrected the resulting renumbering problem.
John Beck
Here’s an email I got from a typical guru customer.
“Who died and made you the ultimate authority?

I PERSONALLY THINK THAT YOUR REVIEWS ARE EXTREMELY PREJUDUCE.

I AGREE WITH A LOT OF THE NEGATIVE THINGS YOU MAY SAY ABOUT SOME OF THE GURUS, BUT NOT ALL OF THEM...

RON LEGRAND IS OUT TO MAKE A BUCK WITH HIS HOME STUDY COURSES AND BOOT CAMPS, BUT HIS ORGANIZATION IS LEGIT.

CARLTON SHEETS THE SAME THING. HE IS JUST CAPITALIZING ON A NEED IN A NICH MARKET... NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. HIS TECHNIQUES ARE USABLE... HAVE YOU TRIED THEM YOURSELF?

ARE YOU JUST JELLOUS THAT THEY HAVE A GOOD MARKETING TEAM?

WADE COOK DOES OVERCHARGE FOR SOME OF HIS INFORMATION, BUT IF IT IS TOO MUCH, THAN DON'T BUY IT... HIS INFORMATION IS STILL APPLICABLE IF DONE CORRECTLY... THE INFORMATION IS DESIGNED TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY DOING THE RESEARCH ON YOUR OWN...

YES, I AGREE THAT NOT EVERYONE CAN APPLY THEASE TECNIQUES WITH OUT SOME PROPLEMS OCCURING... BUT THATS UP TO THE INDIVIDUAL TO MAKE SURE THAT HE OR SHE IS EDUCATED IN OTHER AREAS SUCH AS BUSINESS AND FINACING MATHMATICS, CONTRACT LAW, ETC.

NOTHING IN BUSINESS IS ALL THAT EASY AS A LOT OF THOSE GURUS MAKE IT OUT TO BE... BUT WITH DETURMINATION, COMMITMENT, AND CONSTANT EDUCATION THOSE STUDENTS CAN BE VERY SUCCESSFUL. I THINK THATS THE BOTTOM LINE.

COMMITMENT.

THOSE STUDENTS CAN'T EXPECT TO GET RICH JUST BY PURCHASING A COURSE AND NOT DOING FURTHER INVESTIGATION AND STUDY....BUT THATS WHAT A LOT OF THOSE STUDENTS EXPECT... A FREE RIDE.... AND NOTHING IS FREE... EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE.

BUYER BEWARE...
John T. Reed, a.k.a. John Reed, Jack Reed, 342 Bryan Drive, Alamo, CA 94507, Voice: 925-820-7262, Fax: 925-820-1259, Email: johnreed@johntreed.com

CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.