A friend sent me a sales page full of earnings claims. That got me thinking about what earnings claims actually do—and why coaches who use them should take a harder look at what they're presenting and what they're leaving out.
[00:00:00] Introduction
A friend shared a sales page, which prompted this episode
The program being offered may be fine—what I want to examine is the earnings claims being used to sell it
[00:01:08] What an earnings claim is and what it does
Earnings claims function as a shortcut to trust and credibility
The numbers that appear on sales pages aren't accidental: big enough to be exciting, small enough to be believable
That's the anchoring effect—once it happens, your psychology has already been changed
[00:05:38] Why sellers feel justified making earnings claims
Confirmation bias: coaches naturally gravitate toward participants who validate their advice, and away from those who don't
This doesn't require bad intent—a well-intentioned seller working from incomplete data is still presenting incomplete data
The seller also has a structural incentive not to look too closely, because transparency here tends to go against their financial interest
[00:09:24] The Jane problem: what earnings claims leave out
A former Fortune 100 executive generates several hundred thousand dollars in coaching fees after joining a program
The anchoring effect lands on the number—what gets glossed over is the 25 years of network, pedigree, and relationship capital Jane built before she ever found the program
Her result may have almost nothing to do with you, but the anchoring has already happened
[00:13:23] The numbers being presented aren't the whole picture
Earnings claims almost always report gross revenue—before expenses, before refunds
I share an example from my bookkeeping days of a coach who reported cumulative lifetime revenue as if it were annual
The anchoring effect depends on presenting the most exciting version of the number, which means context gets left out by design
[00:16:00] What a more honest earnings claim would look like
Load in the costs, the background, the network, the timing
The standard: support an earnings claim with enough context that it stops being exciting and starts being useful
If the context deflates the number, that's not a reason to leave it out—that's the whole point
[00:18:00] How to evaluate an earnings claim as a buyer
Strip all earnings claims from the sales material and evaluate what's left
Ask whether the program stands on its features, benefits, and the trust you have with the person offering it
The question isn't whether the program worked for someone—it almost certainly has; the question is whether you are similar enough to that person for their result to tell you anything about yours
Ask yourself: if this program had no impact on your income, would you still want to do it, and does the price still make sense?
If the answer is no, the earnings claims were doing more work than the program
This test matters most if you're borrowing the money—and perhaps exponentially more if there's no refund policy
[00:22:05] Get-rich-quick psychology
I don't think it's fair to call most of these programs get-rich-quick schemes
But they do make use of get-rich-quick psychology—dressed up, made to seem more reasonable
There is no shortcut to developing the skills and mindset that support earning at any level as a coach; the only way around is through
[00:23:39] The closing argument
Earnings claims generate emotion, and emotion generates yes
If you need to generate a lot of emotion to make the decision, it's probably not a good decision
Set the claims aside; let the decision be a little bit boring
If it can survive boring, unemotional analysis, go ahead—and if not, the doors aren't actually closing, and the offer will be back
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