Trolling Joe Vitale

There is something deeply weird about new age Internet Marketer (and Prosper coaching partner) Joe Vitale. His schtick gained its first real toehold in American life in The Secret, the 2006 film that popularized something called "The Law of Attraction." In case you missed it:

This is like having the universe as your catalog, and you flip through it, and you go: "Well, I’d like to have this experience, and I’d like to have that product, and I’d like to have a person like that." It is you just placing your order with the universe. It’s really that easy...

Part of Vitale’s appeal is that he combines spirituality and metaphysics with making money; hence the title of his book, Spiritual Marketing. Among the services he offers his students is a $7,500 joy ride around Austin, Texas, in his 2012 Fisker Karma all-electric luxury car (he used to hold classes in his Rolls Royce Phantom, but he’s since gone "green"). I’m still not sure if it’s the chance to spitball with the author of Your Internet Cash Machine, the fancy dinner, the Karma’s reclaimed wood interior, or a combination of the three that makes this trip worth six months’ rent.

In other words, Jonathan decided to troll Joe Vitale

If you can’t make it to Austin, Joe Vitale also partners with Prosper to offer something called "Miracles Coaching." In this program, you are assigned a mentor that will supposedly teach you to "attract" money, or a job, or anything else your heart desires (see "the universe as your catalog," above).

I recently spoke to "Tina," a former student of Vitale’s. (She asked me not to use her real name in the story.)

Tina describes herself as both "spiritual" and as an "entrepreneur." It was after reading Spiritual Marketing that she decided to attend a seminar in Maui hosted by Vitale and someone called Dr. Len (apparently, he’s big in Ho’Oponopono circles). It was after she returned from Hawaii that Tina embarked on her Miracles Coaching adventure.

Throughout our conversation, Tina stresses that Vitale is a brilliant guy: at one point she calls him "The Shakespeare of Marketing." But at the same time, she realizes that everything he does is geared towards selling people on his coaching program.

As she explains, "My parents are Cuban. And my father said that Fidel Castro, the way he got into power was 'he fooled people with the truth.' That's pretty much ... what Joe does. And like I said, he does have many things of value, many things that he teaches and whatnot."

In summary: "Honestly, at the end of the day I think [that his books and seminars exist] just to sell you the bigger package. You know, the bigger deal. The coaching program."





I also spoke to Jonathan Timar, a self-employed web designer in British Columbia. He got the full brunt of Prosper’s sales team when he signed up for a coaching session on the internet.

"He offered a free session," said Timar, referring to an ad on Vitale’s website. "So I thought, 'What the heck?’ And I put my name in the box, to see what it was all about."

The "coaching" session, it turned out, was a sales call. "It was all set up to give the impression that I was being invited into an exclusive club," Timar says, "and they would be choosing me." After this first call, Timar realized he had stumbled onto a sales floor, but he decided to continue, curious to see what would happen.

In other words, Jonathan decided to troll Joe Vitale.

As Timar writes in his blog, the "interview" or "coaching session" proceeded just like the sales calls we highlighted in the original "Scamworld" article. Timar was asked how much money he had available, if he had any outstanding debts, his credit card limit: all odd questions for a course in miracles (or, for that matter, A Course in Miracles).

Timar was told that he qualified for the Miracles Coaching program, and that he would be contacted for a second session. It was during this next call, Timar says, that he was "given a brief description of the various levels of coaching available, and the dollar values attached to them.

"I was told that based on my interviews, it did seem like I would be a good candidate for coaching, and that my application would now be forwarded to the enrollment director. I was put on hold for a minute or two, and when the interviewer returned he told me that my application had been accepted for final approval by said enrollment director, and that he was tied up with someone else right now, but that he would be able to call me within a few minutes. I was asked to make a list of three weaknesses and three strengths during that time, as well as to explain my sense of urgency for making changes in my life."

The reason for these questions? A salesmen will use this information whenever he detects resistance from the customer.









Eventually, the salesman returned and quoted prices for the various levels of Miracles Coaching — higher prices than he had quoted in a previous conversation.

Timar was asked which credit card he would be using.

"I plainly stated my objections to using my credit cards to finance something as uncertain as life coaching, and was reassured that this was my ‘negative programming’ talking, and that I needn’t worry because as I changed my inner world, my outer world would take care of itself."

Eventually, the salesman returned with prices for the various levels of coaching — higher prices than he had quoted previously

When Timar turned down the offer, he found himself on hold. When the salesman came back on the line, he seemed to be rather desperate. He offered Timar a different coaching program, heavily based on webinars, online material, and "resources on topics like FOREX trading." While Timar says that he "would have been willing to pay maybe a couple of hundred dollars for [it]," instead of the several thousand dollar asking price, he notes that this had nothing to do with Joe Vitale or Miracles Coaching.

"When I was again informed that I had passed the ‘test’ and that I 'seemed to be a very good candidate for Miracles Coaching,' and he asked me for my credit card number so we could get started, I told him I wanted some time to think about it."

In the end, "out of pure curiosity," Timar told the salesman that he might sell some stock to pay for the class, but "it could take a couple of weeks" to get the money.

The salesman asked: why don't you pay for the class with your credit cards, and then use the stocks to pay the credit card bill?

"I once again explained that I didn’t feel comfortable with that, and that I would rather wait."

Unable to get those credit card numbers, the salesman ended the call.





I told Tina about Prosper’s sales tactics, and about boiler room operations. I asked her how she feels about Joe Vitale working with a company like this.

"As somebody who followed Joe — I read all his books, and I read his blog and I kind of followed him, and I started to see this shift."

What do you mean, a shift?

"He just started really shifting. There’s nothing wrong with money, there’s nothing wrong with prosperity, absolutely nothing wrong with being prosperous. It’s wonderful. But when you start selling people crap [that’s a problem]. He kept regurgitating. It was the same. Every single book that he put out ... was the same, regurgitated material. It was recycled, and I said, ‘I’m sick and tired of paying good money for the same information.’

"His programs just started becoming crap. The quality was not there, and I just got really frustrated. And I think that the people that you would talk to, that used to follow Joe, would tell you the same thing."

What about the prices Prosper puts on these programs? People can spend thousands of dollars on Joe Vitale’s Miracles Coaching.

"What about somebody who has five thousand dollars in their savings account, and that’s the last $5,000 they have?" Tina says. "This is presented to them like, ‘This is really going to change your life. This is really going to make a difference for you.’ That person goes in and spends his last $5,000 ... and you’re left with nothing, really."