As a new realtor, I attended a one-day seminar put on by The Mike Ferry Organization. The seminar speaker, Bob Fitzgerald, convinced me to sign up for coaching with the Mike Ferry Organization (MFO), at a cost of $1,000 per month, based on his glowing promises of learning to understand what motivates people ("what makes people tick"), and how to lead them to take action ("buy or sell a home"). I signed up for this expensive training so that my MFO coach could teach me all about the four Personality Styles (Driver", "Expressive", "Amiable", and "Analytical"). I agreed with the seminar speaker that this valuable information would serve me well in all areas of my life.
Unfortunately, that teaser seminar was the last I heard of the information about Personality Styles, other than a few taped segments of Mike Ferry on the Web. My coach had no information on Personality Styles for me.in fact, what she coached me to do was to cold-call people, without regard to the Do Not Call List, which is illegal. I crunched the numbers in Excel and found that over 80% of the phone numbers in my local area are on the Do Not Call List. When I told my coach that I was having a problem, because it was illegal to call people on the Do Not Call List, and over 80% of the phone numbers in my area were on that list, she said, Most of my clients don't look at the Do Not Call List. So in addition to NOT getting the information about what makes people tick, which was promised, what I was getting was coaching on doing something illegal!
I advised my coach that I can't be involved in something illegal. MFO assigned me to a new coach. Still, the new coach had no information about Personality Styles. Month after month, in a one-year contract, I paid $1,000 a month for what proved to be a classic bait and switch.
Finally, I traveled to attend a seminar that lasted several days, in hopes of getting some of the promised information about Personality Styles. When that also proved to be about cold-calling, with a big wink accompanying any discussion about not calling people on the Do Not Call List, I asked the seminar leader if he knew of any books that might provide the promised information about Personality Styles. He had no recommendation, and seemed to think that I was requesting something that had nothing to do with the Mike Ferry Organization and coaching. It was as if the speaker in the teaser seminar made all of the promises related to learning about Personality Styles without telling anybody else in the organization what he was promising.
Ultimately, what I learned was that people will promise you anything to get your money. What salespeople say when they are trying to get you to sign up and pay for their company's services may have little or no bearing on what you actually get for your money. Although I had always thought that I would enjoy being a realtor, I found that I disliked it intensely. There is just too much lying and shenanigans in that field for me. The experience of being defrauded by the Mike Ferry Organization, to the tune of $12,000, was the most expensive of many untoward events that led to my getting out of the real estate business.
If you need help from a coach on making illegal calls to people on the Do Not Call List, and can pay $1,000 a month for that kind of thing, go for it. Otherwise, don't bother. The educational information on Personality Styles that is the main thrust of their promises will not be delivered.
0 comments