There's many people online that's never even bought a course from Dan Lok, claiming that he's a scam because negative news travels faster than the positive.
I've invested in his courses and I can tell you, I've gained some real skills from his training that has helped me as an entrepreneur. But Dan Lok has made some mistakes.
I'm not a Dan Lok fanboy, I'm here to dispel the myth from fact and get into those critical mistakes he made in his online business.
& Through this discussion, we can all learn what not to do.
Many People Believe Everything is a Scam
You can't believe the hype, but you also can't believe all the skeptics either.
For example, when you read into this top voted answer on Quora, you find out that the person never even bought any of Dan Lok's courses.
This guy even admits that he went through Dan's FU Money book 20 times or more on audible. (Clearly Dan had some great insights in there)
So why did this guy's opinion change?
- He started believing in the negative media on YouTube about Dan Lok
- Heard from some people that you can learn all the things Dan teaches for free on the internet
Well, every information you can think of is out there on the internet, yet we don't see people changing their lives left and right.
This is not a convincing argument to discredit coaches selling a program. There is still value in investing in someone that's at a higher level than you. That you can communicate with and get personalized attention from.
There's a toxic culture of highly skeptical people, banding together and hating on anyone trying to sell an online course.
Their weak argument is that you're wasting money because the information is out there for free.
Don't buy into that logic. I've invested in many mentors / coaches in my life that helped me get to where I'm at. There's a reason people invest in personal trainers, even though they already know how to exercise.
Dan Lok's Big Mistake (Aggressive Upselling but is it a scam?)
Let's address the elephant in the room. There's a popular Youtuber named Coffeezilla that makes high-quality videos trying to expose the scams on the internet and his Dan Lok videos kinda went viral. This below is an interview with a former student of Dan Lok's that has over 2 million views.
It's a 1 hour video, so let me just give you the cliff notes, and then I'll tell you where I think Dan messed up.
1. Immediate $2000 Upsell
Original Course was $2500, but there was an immediate upsell for $2000 to get rest of the training, so really the entire training was $4500. I feel that this is gonna piss a lot of people off. Imo if Dan feels that his full training is worth $4500, he should just sell it at $4500.
It's ironic that Dan teaches high ticket closing but doesn't really sell high-ticket, he has to rely on these upsell tactics. I'm personally not a huge fan of upselling, but a lot of marketers do it, not just Dan Lok.
2. High-Ticket Millionaire $2500 per month
After being in the program for 2 months, student's are pitched the next exclusive club, the High-Ticket Millionaire, where you will lead a group of 10 closers and you will split the commission with all 10 of those closers.
The problem is, that many of those students haven't even closed one package yet, let alone qualified to lead a group of 10.
Dan also over promised by saying that "he just needs 300 people and he'll make them all an millionaire."
Rule 101, when you're selling a program or mastermind, you never want to make income claims, it's heavily frowned upon by the FTC.
You really want to under promise and over deliver.
Also at this point students have already invested $4500, before selling them more things. They need to put a lot more energy into figuring out if students are getting results first.
Continually trying to upsell students that's already invested around $5K before seeing if they are having some success or not, is a pretty dangerous game to play.
My overall thoughts on this interview & Dan Lok's Approach
Some of the interview is guided by Coffeezilla a little bit, to make Dan look as bad as possible, for example this guy didn't truly lose $26K buying Dan's stuff, they're calculating the fact that he quit his job for 6 months.
Also, this idea that Dan's some cult leader is weak, I get that how his students call him sifu is cringe but let's be real, this is not a cult, what Dan is, is a shark of a salesperson.
And I think he cares bit too much about pushing his own sales numbers for the sake of pushing it. He should've worried bit more about the repercussions of what can happen when you charge high-ticket but a lot of customers aren't getting results.
His mentor is Dan Pena after all, who's the most aggressive business person out there, where it's all about putting up big numbers, whatever the cost it may be, like a sport.
Don't get me wrong, I love me some Pena but this is a good lesson on finding the balance between pushing for big numbers versus having patience in business. The importance of investing in the long-term value of your brand by creating culture & impeccable reputation, which is through focusing on creating the best possible experience for customers.
& I'm sure Dan Lok has created successful students, but when too many people lose money and feel like they didn't get their money's worth, negative news will always drown out the positive.
Dan Lok's Actual Training is Legit
I've invested in both of his courses, the sales & copywriting training & I thoroughly learned great things from both.
1. High-Ticket Closer Course ($2500)
I legit learned some outstanding sales / closing techniques from this course, that helped me close some big deals in my lead gen business, needless to say, I recouped my investment many times over. One of my fav technique is what he calls the Hypothetical, so for example, if someone gives you a BS objection like "I need to speak to my wife" the hypothetical counter would be "Let's assume (hypothetically) that you talked to your wife and she is fine with it, are you ready to move forward right now?" This allows you to maneuver past the smoke screen and allows you to get to the real issue which often is a price objection. There are other moves I learned as well, so I actually got so much out of Dan's HTC than Grant Cardone's sales training. I still put Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Persuasion as my all-time favorite sales training, but for me, Dan Lok's is up there. Go here to read my in-depth High-Ticket Closer review.
2. High-Income Copywriter ($2500)
I'm a nerd for copywriting, so I don't mind investing in higher priced programs for it. Look, there's a reason why Dan Lok has got everyone talking about him. The dude knows how to get attention & sell through speaking and writing. Copywriting is how he got started as an entrepreneur, he used to write for other companies before starting his own copywriting firm. This is why Dan's courses are legit, because he actually put hundreds of hours into the skills that he's teaching. Unlike other actual fake guru's that sell courses they ripped from other programs and teach a biz model that they never did. Dan continually brings new insights and fresh takes on even older concepts that let you know this guy is teaching from real experience. You can go here to peep my full High-Income Copywriter review.
Dan Lok even endorses other legit course creators such as Stefan James and his Affiliate Marketing Mastery course.
Summary
Dan Lok went through the trials & tribulations of entrepreneurship to gain high-level skills in sales & copywriting, which are some of the best skills out there if you want to start your own business, especially online business.
I have no doubt that listening to him in whatever format will help you if you genuinely care about becoming better in business or sales. For me, it was worth investing in his courses.
High-Ticket Millionaire Should've Screened Out Students
The problem began with his upsells, specifically the High-Ticket Millionaire program, where he began promising a career opportunity, and he started making income claims to his students.
Also I think gouging students $2500 per month is quite aggressive when you're pitching to students that you haven't even confirmed are making money yet with what you taught them with the initial program that they signed up with.
Although in some cases this type of high pressure can really push someone to succeed, it seems that Dan Lok was lacking some sort of screening process when it came to putting people into this higher tier program.
You Can't Sell a Dream If There Isn't Equal Opportunity for Everyone
I don't think Dan Lok would have this much negative press, if he had just stuck to selling his program for $3000-$5000 and sold it as simply skills training.
Some students did stick with it though and started making good money by becoming a closer for Dan Lok's programs.
But how many people just didn't make the cut and lost several months of paying the $2500 because they were waiting for an opportunity to sell for Dan Lok?
The biggest issue with the High Ticket Millionaire is that people are there mostly paying this high monthly amount for an opportunity to work for Dan Lok, but the law of numbers says that not all those students are gonna get a fair shake.
When you get a doctor's degree, you have bountiful opportunities to work & make money anywhere. It's not like you only get 1 major opportunity to work for the place where you paid for the degree.
My Final 2 Cents (Sales Skills is Not Enough)
Just teaching students how to sell will not equip them to become an entrepreneur, it only makes you a better salesperson to sell for other people.
Without the ability for students to go make money on their own, all you're building is a group of students that's still dependent on the person that sold them that dream and made all these income promises.
If you're gonna sell a program as a business opportunity, then you better not just teach sales but also how to create products that people can sell on their own.
The reason I became successful at starting my online business and becoming self-employed in 2015 is because I learned not just sales, but marketing skills that allowed me to create a viable, high-demand product that solves people's problems.
Specially the skills to build simple websites that generate leads for small businesses, you can find more info about it here.
He's not necessarily a scammer but he's a big ripoff.
50% of his course content is mindset nonsense, garbage.
25% of his course content is talking about his other courses or telling you to consume his other content, garbage.
The remaining 25% of his course is EXTREMELY BASIC copywriting and sales tactics that are available for $10 or even free in many many many many many many different formats online.
"Overpromising" is the same thing as lying in this case.