Let me start this off by saying.
As a business owner, these business coaches really touch a nerve. My whole family is full of what I deem successful entrepreneurs and business owners (myself included). I define a small business as “Successful” once it can support the owners’ and employees’ salaries and still break even.
If you disagree, then you’ve probably never built a business from $0 by yourself.
Admittedly, I have high expectations for anyone who claims to be a business coach. Most business coaches never address specific business functions like Management, Operations, Financial, or research and development. Phony coaches always want to help with marketing because they can recreate the same garbage they learned on YouTube, and results can’t be guaranteed.
For perspective, my neighbor is a 23-year-old rich kid, and she’s a business coach who coaches other business coaches on how to be business coaches. She is the true epitome of the blind leading the blind, and the rich get richer. It’s business as usual in America.
A quick Google search will highlight how the topic of our discussion, Marie Forleo, did not start from $0, nor did she start or build this empire by herself.
The only guarantee provided is a ‘roadmap’. Does this mean the only thing standing between poverty and my wildest dreams is a roadmap? I always thought it was my lack of capital, physical and technical resources, network connections… So you could imagine my frustration when I found out Marie Forleo B School was already sold out. The rest of my night was spent in the fetal position with a box of wine and a bag of Doritos.
The next morning, I woke up with the craziest stomach pain and a sudden realization that I was being bamboozled, duped, led astray, and scammed by a rich lady who was convinced she was an inspiration and had promised to have the secret to Freedom, Prosperity, and Happiness.
The only people in the world with more delusional confidence than Donald Trump are your friendly neighborhood motivational speaker. Motivational speakers are well-organized scammers because who the hell has the time to motivate strangers? Common characteristics are silver spoons and celebrity connections. They love to play games with our society’s weak, insecure, and lost souls.
Why does the 49-year-old white woman have thick, long brown hair, perfect posture, blemish-free skin, and highly moisturized skin? As a 30-year-old high-calorie bald man, I’m beyond envious. She has no bags or wrinkles in this picture! Literally everyone in my life has wrinkles, and their hair is falling out. I suddenly understand the insecurities of early 2000s teenage girls.
How dare this woman leach money out of people’s insecurities! It’s giving phony, but you know what, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt by signing up for her 2025 Success Guide. Which can only be done by joining her email list; more emails for me to tell myself I will read later.
In all seriousness, the people who claim to be motivational are utterly ridiculous. If a person decides to get help from a life coach or motivational speaker, they are clearly motivated already! They identified that their life needed to change and decided to take action. In reality, they needed direction financially, and in their career, she directed them to buy her books, courses, and any other junk they could think of.
Reviews don’t speak to any tangible skills or resources provided.
Reading through the reviews, I noticed they all sounded like they were written from templates by a bot. I decided to entertain the possibility that these reviews could be real…. (Eye Roll). Quickly, I noticed none of them identified any tangible skills or specific events where this rich housewife helped them accomplish a task. A coach who was serious about educating people on how to build a business could speak to tangible accomplishments.
Securing a loan, getting investors, creating product lines, building teams, hiring staff, or providing resources are all real hurdles small and medium-sized businesses face every day, and business coaches who can provide these services are legit.
Google agreed with me, because they sent my success guide to my promotional inbox. Suspicious.
This is proof I did sign up.
Let me talk to Marie Forleo for a moment.
“Girl, you’re trying so hard to be authentic. It’s insane. Truthfully, I’m about to sprint to the bathroom; you make me sick for real.”
If you’re anything like me, then you have more debt on your credit card than cash in your checking account. Just know that our only mistake is being too polite because we could lie and steal like Marie. That mistake was not on her guide, though. So, let’s check out 12 Entrepreneurial mistakes we can’t afford to make in 2025.
If you want to see the junk she’s selling, here’s the link to her website. Also, it’s good for the algorithm if you click the link to the website. It tells Google that I’m a chill dude. I’m going to include the PDF guide, so you don’t have to sign up for her email list to get all sales emails.
Alright the edible has kicked in, so I’m a little more chill now.
Truthfully, none of the 12 steps in the guide are bad or incorrect per se. However, they are either vague or obvious, akin to telling someone they should stop eating Cheetos every day so they can lose weight. Thank you, Dr. Phil. I hadn’t thought about it.
She might as well be a glorified palm reader, but a least a palm reader is interesting.
The silver lining of these business and motivational coaches is the podcasts(sometimes).
There are times I need a pep talk, and I enjoy motivational, self-help, or business podcasts. Life can be such a grind that I just want someone to remind me that hard work can pay off in time. Even though it might not pay off, delusional confidence does help in small doses. Hence, Donald Trump.
As you can imagine, I’ve also fallen for the hype of motivational coaches and business coaches, paid for e-books, subscribed to newsletters, and consumed videos and podcasts.
There is no true guide to life or business success. That’s why I’ve decided to give Marie Forleo a 10 out of 10 on the scam artist scale.
The guides are fake, just like her hair. The promises are empty, just like her soul.
But her show… Honestly, it ain’t bad. Worth a watch if you haven’t yet. I’ll throw a video below for the algorithm
