I went through Max Tornow’s “Freedom Business Mentoring.” Here’s what happened.

Exactly one year ago today, I hopped on a sales call where I gave $3000 to join Freedom Business Mentoring. It’s a program promising to teach you in 12 weeks how to get your first paying clients as a coach or consultant.

How Max Trapped Me

At the time, I had been studying coaching, and I had done about a dozen coaching sessions for free. I saw people who had been jobless get hired, one guy who had been without passion reignite one of his old hobbies, one woman got promoted, and another guy overcame some self-esteem issues.

I was SO excited to figure out how to do this full time. That’s when I found Max’s videos on YouTube. I just wanted to make a little money, but Max drew me in to a much grander vision: I would finally be able to escape the “hamster wheel” of the 9 to 5 life, build my own business, make enough money to spoil my family (they promised 10K/month), and essentially be a hero.

So I invested my all into it. My wife and I had about $3500 at the time. I spent $3000 of it. Sort of with her permission. She trusted me, I trusted myself, and, unfortunately, I trusted Max.

What’s Inside FBM? The Pros

Let’s jump straight into it. There are three aspects to the Freedom Business Mentoring program. These also are the strengths of the program.

(1) The Course. After joining the program, I got access to the course. And the course is surprisingly good! They continually update it, and there is probably 100 hours of content. But most importantly, it’s very well sequenced. They don’t waste time, but they also avoid overloading you with information.

The course covers the essence of creating a business very well. They teach you to identify your own strengths, pick the group of people you want to help, and then do thorough market research, including detailed research in Facebook groups, on Reddit, on Instagram, and even conducting a minimum of ten one on one interviews with people in your target audience, until you can describe their difficulties and aspirations better than they can. I did this with people suffering from religious trauma, and it was an eye-opening research process.

(2) Homework Feedback. The second thing that made the course excellent is that they require homework. As you identify your strengths, for example, they have you load it into the Facebook group, and one of the coaches (not Max directly) will give you feedback. I found this guidance through the course to be excellent. As I moved forward, they gave me solid feedback on identifying my strengths, picking a niche, and ensuring I was doing solid research.

(3) Live Coaching. As of now, there is currently a live coaching element that takes place every single day, including with Max on one of the days. They last for about an hour and a half, and all the calls are uploaded for you to listen to later if you can’t attend live.

My Results

Before I move onto the negative, I’ll say this: to their credit, they kept their initial promise. Before my 12 weeks were up, I was able to land my first several coaching clients.

They teach you a basic process for outreach, where you find people in groups, generate conversations in the comments, DM them, get them on a phone call, and sell them.

The Cons

But now we get to what was honestly just very disappointing.

1. First off, the price was way too high for what they actually offer. That will become clearer as I mention the other downsides to the program.
2. You don’t get any one-on-one coaching. This might be the biggest problem. Yes, there are coaching calls each day. But they’re group calls with at least 50 people on them each day (I’ve seen over 100). Several times I sat through the whole thing, and I never even got to ask my question. And even when I was able to talk directly to the coaches, they were only able to help a little, because they didn’t have the time to really understand me or my specific problem. It felt more like being able to call in to a radio show for a one-off question than having a coach to guide you.
3. The coaches are extremely inflexible. If something isn’t working, they automatically assume it’s your fault, never theirs. I knew people who followed their steps exactly and just got themselves banned from Facebook groups and burnt relationships with their potential clients. The coaches never gave these people alternative ways to approach their audience. They just said to try it again “and be more careful.” This leads me to my last issue:
4. The program is extremely profit-focused, not value-focused. I eventually had to quit their methods entirely, because it took me so far from the heart of coaching as I understand it. They urge you to study people’s pains and use them against them in a very aggressive way to get them to jump on a call, give you money, and join your coaching program. I firmly believe that good salespeople lead with value, and that they’re not there to manipulate, but to simply help the potential client decide what’s best for them.
5. The sales tactics are outdated and incomplete. Since joining Freedom Business Mentoring, I’ve gotten a real sales job, and all I can say is that the methods taught in FBM are not very good. They give you one simple script, and urge you to go round and round with prospects until you wear down all their objections and they give in. Good salespeople create clarity, they rarely pressure to get a close. And good salespeople are flexible, not stuck to one script.

Final Analysis

Some people succeed in the program. I know some of them. I’d say maybe 10% do. But my analysis is this: the people who succeed are natural entrepreneurs, who probably didn’t need the program in the first place. They could have gotten the same results with a basic book (or cheaper course) on identifying a niche and doing basic outreach.

So in the end, I definitely advise you to stay away. Because for Internet business gurus like Max Tornow, there is no accountability.