FAKING My "Authority" To My Audience

I'm launching a "Make Money Online" Info Product and as you guys know, being an "Authority" and having an "Audience" are very powerful factors in gaining tons of sales with your Info Product.

I used to own a fairly popular start up in my country (that was valued at $3M via investors at one point) before it failed.

Is it legally possible for me to get away with saying I sold it for $3M and I'm now teaching others how to make money online?

My goal is to be an Authority to my audience when they first see my About Page and info product.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

PS: I got inspiration from this idea from always thinking that a lot of online marketers fake their success (eg. drop ship gurus faking their Shopify sales, gurus faking their assets with used vehicles/houses in their ads, etc)

Its a rampant practice that often gets called out by consumers.

Even legitimate screenshots of sales get accused of being photoshopped by the most cynical trolls online these days, and I imagine that building up the authority of having a legitimate take over transaction of 3m would involve disclosing details of who bought it and when, and it can't simply be dismissed with a "oh, I signed a NDA so I can't reveal too much about it".

Very often,the founders of successful tools or platforms that had a high evaluation or sale price have recognition through public speaking gigs at events ,or guest posts that get mentioned or shared by other like minded individuals within their industry, this isn't something you can fake easily.

In my opinion, you might be able to fool a few people who won't due diligence, but those same people won't be hardcore advocates of your service or product that will propel you to the level of success you wish to attain. If you do it and you get exposed, you'd be ruined and it essentially kills off any future opportunities you may have.

Don't do this. You can share the experience of how you made startup worth $3 M though. And if you can do that once, you can certainly achieve it again. Just because others are doing this, it does not makes this practice right.

CanuckHat said:

I'm launching a "Make Money Online" Info Product and as you guys know, being an "Authority" and having an "Audience" are very powerful factors in gaining tons of sales with your Info Product.

I used to own a fairly popular start up in my country (that was valued at $3M via investors at one point) before it failed.

Is it legally possible for me to get away with saying I sold it for $3M and I'm now teaching others how to make money online?

My goal is to be an Authority to my audience when they first see my About Page and info product.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

PS: I got inspiration from this idea from always thinking that a lot of online marketers fake their success (eg. drop ship gurus faking their Shopify sales, gurus faking their assets with used vehicles/houses in their ads, etc)

Click to expand...

I think honesty pays off more than lying. Just my experience in life.

As you said most of the gurus do this already, so i don’t really see any legal “problems” with that.
But careful with big “lies” because your audience is pretty internet savy to say the least, so they most likely will find out at some point after they gathered enough information about you.

Just don’t impersonate someone or trick your potential customers into buying something. Make clear what you sell and what they get.

Fake it until you make it, as the saying goes right?