'Superhero Power: Mr. X has the ability to see through clothing. While he can’t see through walls, tanks or anything that would help him fight crime, Mr. X still claims superhero status.'
image: namethegarels.com (click for link)

Less than 12 months ago Dean Letfus breathlessly told the world via YouTube how excited he was to have “discovered” the power of the internet through attending Shaun Stenning’s Geekversity weekend course — which it appears Dean Letfus and his mate Steve Goodey promptly started to promote far and wide as affiliates … ‘twisting Shaun’s arm’ to return to NZ to pitch it … until Geekversity was reportedly SHUT DOWN down in Australia amid rancour and complaints … at a AUD$5.5 million loss.

Lawyers are still (even last weekend!) promoting their services (PDF) to Geekversity victims on a ‘no-win, no-pay’ basis to pursue their legal rights and refunds, presumably for non-delivery of the hyperbolic promises of cash rolling in through the whizz-bang ka-ching internet marketing ‘cash machine’ the smooth-talking self-proclaimed ‘experts’ hawked around the country.

Is this a case of deja vu?

Here’s Dean Letfus speaking in June 2009 in his enthusiastic promotional video for Geekversity (full transcript here):

I’ve been a professional sales and marketer for a long time and I never realised the power and just the volume of business that’s being generated online. It’s like a whole new world.
I never really understood that I could replace a 40 or 60 hour a week job and earn a lot more money than I could in that from the comfort of my own laptop or my own home and effectively ‘buy my life back’.
You can do that too, and it’s incredible just with a little bit of education and some action the results that you can get.

Questions:
(1) Hey Dean, how much of that ‘a lot more money’ was affiliate income from promoting Geekversity itself?
(2) Er, jeez, Dean. What did you say to people who signed up for the Geekversity $20,000 12 month ‘coaching’ on your recommendation for it to all fall apart a few months later?

—

Anyway, RIGHT NOW Dean Letfus is being marketed as an ‘internet marketing expert’ (no joke) who can show you how to “build your very own online cash machines”.

It looks to me like just another version of the rags to-riches, I-was-lost-but-now-I’m-saved, blind-but-now-I-see tale peddled by this same spruiker with the same ‘I’ve been here 5 minutes and now I am a guru’ spiel he used with his property “coaching”-property sales business.

This time he’s in partnership with a boy-wonder salesman who claims to have been an internet marketing expert since puberty.

From the look of it, Shaun Stenning is promoting his own business partner Dean Letfus as the mysterious “Mr X”, “a little known internet marketing expert”, to Asian wealth seekers — while keeping a very low profile himself in Australian marketing for the same er, product.

This reticence is understandable, I guess, given the fallout from the collapse of Geekversity and Stenning’s high profile in promoting that scheme to Aussie battlers. (Perhaps the ‘Shaun Stenning scam’ Google suggestion indicates some stigma?)

The story of Dean Letfus as the ‘little known internet marketing expert’ almost deserves an award for new fiction writing. In my view, the whole sales pitch has a sort of sixth-form social studies essay ring to it — and like any good sixth-form essay, it looks like someone’s copied their mate’s work.  

See if you can spot any similarities …

SHAUN STENNING selling internet riches through sni.pr to Kuala Lumpur & Singapore:

I don’t know about you, but in life I’ve found that the best lessons I’ve learnt are almost always the most painful. (If you’ve ever wanted to kick yourself for something you’ve done, I’m guessing you know what I mean).

… Now before I go any further I’d love to take just a few moments to introduce myself…

My name is Shaun Stenning and I’ve been an internet marketer for over 8 years. In that time I’ve built, sold and consulted to a stack of multi-million dollar businesses and I’m not ashamed to admit that along the way I’ve made a bunch of mistakes… However, that’s what makes me so qualified to teach others about how to create a successful online business… I’ve been there, done it and made the mistakes for you, so you don’t have to.

Now, as I said earlier I want to invite you to come along to a special 4 hour event where you will learn how to build your very own online cash machines. The thing that’s so special about this event is that I’ve actually been working on it behind the scenes together with a little known internet marketing expert… Let’s call him Mr X….

…and just before I share with you more about how I did this, I want to share with you a learning of mine that’s proven true time and again over the last few years

“always hire and befriend people who are smarter than you”

In this case, that’s what I have done here, I have seen this guy at work, I have had clients using his processes and getting great resulvts [sic] and I know he’s the real deal.

Now let me tell you a little more about him…

This expert is someone who has built a property portfolio worth over $20,000,000 and in the space of a few days built 91 income producing websites. The thing is, when I approached him to speak on these events and share what he knows with you he was very reluctant to do so, because he doesn’t really want all of his competitors to know what he’s doing.

So, the only way I could convince him to come out of hiding [Comment: Oh, please stop! I can’t breathe!] and share with you what he knows was by promising that I would only reveal who he was to people who actually attend the event. Now I can tell you Mr X is someone who knows his stuff and together we’ve developed a proven system for building, growing and profiting from online cash machines. …

DEAN LETFUS selling internet marketing riches (sni.pr) in Australia:

I don’t know about you, but in life I’ve found that the best lessons I’ve learnt are almost always the most painful. (If you’ve ever wanted to kick yourself for something you’ve done, I’m guessing you know what I mean).

… Now before I go any further I’d love to take just a few moments to introduce myself…

My name is Dean Letfus and I’ve been a full time property investor for over X [sic] years and a part time internet marketer for 2 years. [Comment: And that makes him an expert? Really?] In that time I’ve built, sold and traded over $250,000,000 worth of property and I’m not ashamed to admit that along the way I’ve made a bunch of mistakes… However, that’s what makes me so qualified to teach others about how to create a successful life… I’ve been there, done it and made the mistakes for you, so you don’t have to.

Now, as I said earlier I want to invite you to come along to a special 4 hour event where you will learn how to build your very own online cash machines. The thing that’s so special about this event is that I’ve actually been working on the strategies I am going to teach you behind the scene’s [sic] manually for a while now and in the last few months I have a [sic] break through. [Comment: In the last FEW MONTHS?]

…and just before I share with you more about how I did this, I want to share with you a learning of mine that’s proven true time and again over the last few years

“always hire and befriend people who are smarter than you”

In this case, that’s what I have done here, I have gone to some of the smartest developers of technology in the world [Comment: That’s a bold claim, without evidence.] and asked them to help my automate my internet income. Now, let me tell you a little more about these developers. …

It all makes me shake my head.

Corrections and clarifications welcome via email. Comments are open. – P