The Six Figure Mentors Review From Someone Who Quit (Updated)
I was a member of The Six Figure Mentors from December 2015 to May 2016. I quit SFM and joined Wealthy Affiliate and I never look back. In this Six Figure Mentors review, I'm going to reveal to you my honest opinion on why I quit because there are a lot of people asking about The Six Figure Mentors and whether it is a scam.
The Six Figure Mentors Review Summary
Product Name: The Six Figure Mentors
Founder: Founded by Jay Kubassek & Stuart Ross in 2011
Product Type: High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing / MLM Training + Memebrship
Price: Varies depending on Membership Level (See pricing details below)
Best For: The Founders + Top 1-2% Members
Summary: The Six Figure Mentors claims themselves to be an affiliate marketing company. But it's more like a high-ticket MLM company or even a pyramid scheme in my opinion. They offer decent online marketing training and services in various membership levels with lots of upsells.
Rating: 45/100
Recommended: No
More...
What is The Six Figure Mentors?
Six Figure Mentors is a company that offers step-by-step training on internet marketing as well as various marketing tools and resources to help people make money online.
They claim to help people live the "Internet Laptop Lifestyle" by just following their training.
Below is a video explanation on The Six Figure Mentors by Stuart Ross, the Co-Founder of SFM:
Basically, they have various done-for-you resources include:
- Marketing Banners
- Affiliate Links & Sales Pages
- Customizable Sales Funnels
- Customizable Link Generator
- Customizable Tracking Generator
- Customizable Tracking Stats
All you have to do is to follow their training, listen to your assigned "coach" and build a website using one of their tools. And then promote the landing page they provide you with.
This sounds attractive to people who are really eager to achieve success online and escape from their current job or situation.
However, there are a lot of flaws in this system which I'll reveal to you one by one in this reveal.
Before we discuss anything further, let's take a look at their founders first...
The Co-Founders of SFM
Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek are the Co-founders of SFM.
If you're experienced in online marketing, you would have heard of Jay before. Jay is the Co-founder of another scam company called "Carbon Copy Pro" or "Pro U" which is no where to be found online today.
Also, Stuart and Jay are running another company called Digital Experts Academy (DEA) at the same time.
In fact, SFM is connected with DEA and DEA memberships are the upsells of SFM. This is a big red flag which I'll explain further later.
For now, just know that this is not the first time Stuart & Jay are running this kind of company and selling this kind of membership products. This is something to consider and beware of!
I'm Jerry!
I Created My Own 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 Years Old!
The Six Figure Mentors Funnel
This is the part where I'll reveal to you how to attract new leads, "recruit" new members and make money...
Step 1: SFM Ads
First of all, you may come across SFM via some blog post, social media Ads or YouTube Ads which will lead to their standard lead capture page. For me, I came across Stuart's YouTube Ad showing how he is making money while relaxing on the beach.
Step 2: Capturing Your Email
After you land on one of their standard lead capture pages, all they'll ask from you is your Email address and your name. The gift they offer you is a Free 7-Day Video Training on how to live a true "laptop lifestyle".
Step 3: 7-Day Free Video Training
Next, they'll deliver to you one video per day as promised. The videos are filmed by Stuart and Jay themselves. But what they talked about is the very basic introduction about affiliate marketing. Then they'll be pitching to you why their business model is the best and why you should join The Six Figure Mentors.
Step 4: Purchase The Basic Membership
So, if you want to continue with SFM, you'll have to purchase the basic starter membership which costs $29.95. It may seem a very little investment. But it has a very limited access to their whole system. Also, it is just the first step to their upcoming upsells that is waiting for you.
Step 5: Contact Your SFM System Consultant
At one point, you'll be asked to contact with your system consultant as well as booking a Skype call with one of their "business coach". Basically, they are there to answer your questions, give you a little more help and ask you to upgrade your membership to the next level and pay more money.
Step 6: Upsell & Upsell & Upsell...
Lastly, it's upsells after upsells after upsells because they have a lot of membership levels. So, you'll hit a "roadblock" at certain points and you need to upgrade to continue or get more support and help.
This is the exact same business model as Digital Altitude by Michael Force, My Top Tier Business (MTTB) by Matt Lloyd and My Own Business Education (MOBE) also by Matt Lloyd.
SFM Membership Options & Pricing Details
SFM Membership
- Affiliate Access: FREE (You can't access anything much here)
- Student Access: $29.95 + $25/month (Optional)
- Essential Membership: $297 + $97/month
- Elite Membership: $2,500/year + $97/month
Like I've mentioned in the funnel above, once they've gotten your email address, they'll start promoting to you their membership.
When I was introduced to SFM, I wasn't aware of all the different membership levels. That's why I got started, for free.
Although there's a free option, the free account doesn't allow you to do much at all. They only grant you access to one introductory course and that's all. You cannot access most of the tools and features.
So I would't say it has a free trial because you can't really try much at all.
It was my first online venture so I was very stupid I would say.
Eventually, I paid for the USD$97 per month for a while before I made the decision to terminate and leave. For the 5 months at SFM I earned ZERO dollar.
In addition, SFM is just going to keep on asking you to upgrade to get more seemingly indispensable tools for your success. They won't offer everything to you at once!
P.S. This program that has enabled me to generate a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income at just 21 years old is FREE to get started and only cost $49/month fee to go full-time!
DEA Membership
The Elite Membership is not the end though.
After the Elite Membership, they'll introduce you to another program called Digital Experts Academy (DEA) which is integrated with SFM. Again, they claim that in order to get even more support and training, you have to upgrade.
There are 4 DEA Membership levels:
- DEA Silver: $2,500
- DEA Gold: $8,000
- DEA Platinum: $11,000
- DEA Black: $20,000
In other words, this company is not just full of upsells, but full of high-ticket upsells!
For detailed membership price and affiliate commissions, please refer to their payout structure. As you can see, most commissions are just 5-10%. You can only make huge commission by selling the high-ticket membership at the end of the funnel.
The low commission rate plus expensive cost means that the biggest winner is always the owners of the company!
Tools & Services
On top of their membership, they also provide tools for you to build and run your online business. However, these are paid tools once again.
These are the 4 main tools offered by SFM:
- Digital Business Lounge: $37 or $67/month
- Simple Lead Capture: $29.95/month
- Graphix Creator: $99
- SimpleTrakk: $9.95/month
These tools are very useful for building your website and online business. I've tried most of the features and tools mentioned above. So far, all of them are LEGIT.
BUT, there are 2 main issues - They are Too Expensive & there are A Lot of Flaws in them!
The main problem is the "locked-in" issue which means once you start using them, it's hard for you to change to other tools. If you want to continue running your online business, you have to keep paying them and get access to these.
What Did I Gain? The Top 4 Benefits...
Despite spending quite a lot of money at SFM without making any real money after 5 months, I still learn a lot from them.
Here are some of the things that I benefited the most:
1. Basic Affiliate Marketing Knowledge
Since SFM was my first online venture, it really opened my eyes to this amazing online world which is full of massive potential.
I said that there are a lot of flaws in the system but that doesn't mean the training and resources they provide are useless.
They are very proficient in their field and they offer valuable stuffs for the members. No doubt about this.
The knowledge I learnt is very useful for my online business afterwards.
It allows me to have a much smoother journey when I joined Wealthy Affiliate, the No.1 Recommended platform for Internet Entrepreneurs. (I'll talk about this later.)
2. Change in Mindset
One thing I like about SFM is that the first few steps in their training focus on mindset.
This is a very important aspect that we shouldn't ignore when we start on something new. If we don't have the right mindset, it's very unlikely that you can persist.
So I experienced a huge shift in mindset that is required for online marketing. It sets the foundation for my success today.
3. Basic Online Marketing Skills
Apart from the knowledge learnt, I had a chance to get my hands on their business model (Because I paid).
I'd tried Pay-Per-Click (PPC) on Bing during that time. I'd also set up a website in their Digital Business Lounge and thus gotten the feeling and some tips for building a website.
I know the first 3 Gains above are something that I can learn at a much lower price but I only knew it afterwards.
I'm not disappointed because it marked the beginning of my online journey. The last gain is something that is priceless.
4. 1st Taste of "Failure" Online
It's not really a "Failure" I would say. But I indeed lost quite a fair bit of my limited allowance.
I made mistakes along the way. I quit it because I felt that it was no longer worth the investment.
In retrospect, I wouldn't use the word "waste" to describe my experience at SFM. It was actually a very eye-opening experience.
I'd learnt a lot along the way and it helped me for my online business down the road.
At this point, I would like to urge YOU to be brave to take MASSIVE ACTIONS and don't be afraid of failures. We all made mistakes and the lessons we learnt are the most valuable things that money cannot purchase.
Why I Quit SFM? Top 3 Reasons
1. Unreasonable Investments & Upsells
This is very obvious.
The amount of money required to put in this company is too much for normal people.
I don't know about you. But if you have that money, I wouldn't spend it with this kind of program with lots of upsells up to $20,000.
Remember, we are in a Digital World today and almost everything can be found on the Internet for FREE!
2. Restricted & Flawed System
It's time for me to discuss why I keep on emphasizing SFM has many flaws in its business model.
After I dive deeper into their training, I then realized that the business I was building with SFM is mostly recruiting more people to join it.
I had no other choices such as building my business from my own passion. The business model is actually very restricted in that sense.
Despite they claim that you can build your own online business in whatever niche, they do not provide any support and resources for that. Everything they provide you with is for you to promote their membership and "recruit" more people into the system.
From this perspective, it's much more like a MLM or even a pyramid scheme!
In addition, tools like Email Service Provider (ESP), they restrict you to only use AWeber. There are a lot of things you have to run it their way and go through their system. This creates the system "locked-in" issue.
3. Non-Interactive Platform
After joining Wealthy Affiliate, I then understand what a truly interactive platform is.
The Private Community at SFM is just a very average connecting platform with members. There is no way for you to personally contact the Co-founders.
Personally connecting with Co-founders of any company is very rare. But it is possible at Wealthy Affiliate.
The training resources are non-interactive as well.
Mostly, the delivery of information is only one-way which means you are only allowed to watch the training video provided. You are not able to get immediate help or simply sharing ideas.
Building an online business definitely requires a lot of help. SFM has personal consultant for you but you have to either book consultation slots or send E-mail to him/her.
That's not really effective for us to get immediate help or discuss about things.
4. Pay to Become an Affiliate
Normally, affiliate programs are free to join. They shouldn't charge you anything because you're helping them to promote their products.
However, you have to pay in order to promote SFM in their system. They'll only provide you with marketing materials once you're a paying member of SFM. This shouldn't be the way to go.
The Six Figure Mentors Success Story
As you can see from this video, there are real people making huge bucks with SFM & DEA, despite all the flaws.
However, there's one thing in common in all the success stories of SFM. All those who are making a lot of money are those at the top membership levels. For this particular guy, he is a DEA Black Member which means he paid $20,000 for his Black membership.
On top of that, he also paid the fees for all different levels before he can reach this level and get this result.
How many of you can afford this kind of investment? And how many people failed along the way? This is something you need to consider.
That's why I said SFM is only for the top 1-2% members as well as the owners because they are the ones making huge bucks. Majority of the members are suffering in my opinion.
So, Is Six Figure Mentors a Scam?
I wouldn't say SFM is a scam because it has some legit content and training.
Another good thing I forgot to mention about SFM is that they have a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee. So, you can definitely give it a shot and get your refund within 30 days if you have the same feeling as I did.
The thing about SFM is that it's just too expensive and the system is really restricted.
It's not really a scam but I wouldn't recommend it.
How I Make a Living Online...
I've personally created a 4-Figure Monthly Passive Income Stream and become financially independent at just 21 years old without any College degree or working experience!
Through my own hard work, I went from a broke restaurant waiter to living my dream laptop lifestyle in less than a year's time...
If you want to discover the secrets of how I did it at such a young age, click here!