There’s an epic scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Jordan Belfort’s empire crumbles.The FBI storms in, and the game is over. No negotiation. No escape.I kid you not… I once worked for a company where the same thing happened.A surprise raid.People were shredding evidence. Others have panic attacks.What followed was a massive lawsuit.The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued the investment advice company for deceiving consumers with false claims about their services.The FTC alleged that they charged consumers thousands of dollars for access to services that often resulted in substantial losses.* The company paid $1.7 million to consumers.* The FTC also sent $1.2 million in refunds to consumers.And here’s where I tell you how much I f*****g hate marketers.If you think Wall Street is evil, step into the world of online marketing—where fraudsters wear Rolexes, fake ‘gurus’ charge $5K for a Zoom call, and convicted criminals are keynote speakers.I’ve never seen a demographic of people who would sell their souls to make a quick buck faster.I’m convinced that the world of direct-response marketing is filled with sociopaths.The entire industry is shady as f**k.Filled with charlatans and frauds.I’ve taken to looking up my clients on TruthFinder.com to see if they have a criminal record.I had one client — a very well-known, well-respected guy.I discovered he’s been fined $300,000 by the FTC for false advertising.That guy was a whole ass criminal. Yet, he’s doing keynote speeches at marketing conferences, and everybody worships him like a God.FILLED.Gary Halbert is considered one of the best copywriters of all time. What a fascinating human being. He wrote his book on how to write copy FROM PRISON.Most copywriters worship this man.To me, he most resembled a kingpin. He was a playboy. And off his rocker like Jordan Belfort.He once said that he was on a plane looking down at the houses — and one out of every three houses he could see below had received his ads.He became incredibly wealthy and lost it even faster. Gary was the master of selling you a fantasy, so he ended up in prison for a year.Again, he got busted for fraud.People asked me to write a promotion for a Crypto info product…While they were getting slaughtered in the market.One guy had a whole episode of Unsolved Mysteries dedicated to him.Because there’s widespread suspicion that he murdered his copywriter — pushed him off the top of a building.This is how crooked some of these people are.Yet, these people walk among us as if they’re normal human beings.I’ve gone back and forth on what to make of the people in the online marketing world.Are they all fraudsters or doing real good in the world?That’s a question I asked myself about Tony Robbins A LOT. And I still go back and forth. I’ll eventually make a whole post about Tony’s shadiness.There was this guy, Brett.My former boss.One of the scammiest people ever.Every day, we’d start the day with a team meeting. Bret had a very inflated ego.I’ve seen Brett publicly humiliate more than a few people with glee.Brett fancied himself to be above the rules. Rules are for the little people. He was on the call chewing tobacco — I kid you not — spitting it out into a spittoon.What is the yippy kay yay is this?Disgusting.Nobody commented on it, but that alone tells you everything you need to know about Brett.After the FTC raid the previous year, Brett came from another company to run the show.The Feds had also busted the company he’d come from — Raging Bull. And they got shut down permanently.Brett considered himself a marketing genius, yet ironically, he had a knack for running businesses into the ground.This one was no different.There was another client in the same industry. He flies me down to Florida to meet at the company headquarters for a few days.It’s a tiny office—much smaller than I expected for an investment guru. There are about eight people in the whole company.I meet the phone sales team—two guys. We went out for drinks, and they told me about the job.“Hey,” I say, “What was all that yelling I heard from your office? You must have had an irate customer.”“Oh nah.” He said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet. This is me every day. When I’m yelling, that’s right where I want to be. That means emotions are flying…”.“If we’re having a screaming match, I’m doing my job.”This guy felt no qualms about berating people into buying his overpriced product.No qualms about using every shady and manipulative tactic in the book to bully his way to closing the sale.On the contrary — he was proud of himself.How did I arrive here?I was a LONG way from home.I kept trying to climb the corporate ladder and followed the money.I heard that the investing advice industry paid the best, so that’s where I went. They spent the best because it was the most cutthroat and competitive industry online today.So, the best copywriters in the world ...
