I used to work for the learning annex and the real estate wealth expo as a table manager for their main hall, I traveled the country with them and I have their training manuals and I remember their unethical, scandalous procedures very well.

I can tell you with certainty that the real estate wealth expo and the learning annex are in the business of making $$$$$$$$. I’m talking in the 7 figure range. Some of these outdated, overpriced “educational” packages they sell are even produced by them.

I also know for a fact that if you are a business person in the real estate industry and you are thinking of spending $5k or $10k for 2 booth spaces at the expo – DON’T DO IT!! – you will waste your money undoubtebly. I know of not one but several companies who did generate a single sale because of how the learning annex did not care to drive traffic to the exhibitors hall where these companies are advertising their goods and/or services.

It makes me sick to this day when I think of the thousands of people I sold some real expensive seminar package and/or DVD’s. I used to be a financial consultant, that was the reason I could not keep doing what I was doing I felt wrong telling people to buy this $1k kit or $10k kit when I knew that what I was selling was not worth that and that these people could go invest that or use it for their first home down payment or so many other investment opportunities there are.

To the people who write nice comments and what not, most are full of it. They either work for the learning annex or one of the speakers.

Yes, Donald and Tony do get alot of the $$$$$$$ the learning annex and real estate wealth expo makes from the admission to the expo, kits sold and exhibitor booth spaces sold but most of the money goes to none other than Mr. William Zanker or otherwise known as Bill Zanker founder of the learning annex.

He gives jews and new yorkers a bad name………………

Keep a proper track of your finance and see if you can afford to “lose” the money on a seminar.

I was a bigger fool. I signed up for a $1000 apartment “riches’ seminar to a few select clients.(You know where the riches are going) There were about 1000 select clients for a whole day. There was no opportunity for a refund. I was very disappointed at this series of come ons – very bad business practice. They try to make you feel like a deadbeat if you do not sign up! Then we were pitched for about a quarter of that day on the real one week heavy duty $6000 seminar. These crooks should all be in jail!!! All this should be disclosed up front. Notice that the Learning Annex no longer has offices in Toronto any more. They have blown the franchise and become evil users!

By the way. I was upgraded to VIP for 100. Some VIP seats I almost did not get a seat for the Donald Trump presentation. I sent them a bad review after the event and before I took the course. They did not respond.

I received 2 FREE tickets in the mail to attend the session…but after reading all the comments – when I think about it, how do they make money on FREE tickets? The answer is simple – there is a calculated anticipation that the masses will purchase the ‘investment packages’ and ‘courses’. I will NOT be one of those, and I hope you won’t either. I live in downtown Toronto and am a student at U of T…I can probably learn a lot more at the local library than I can at the upcoming conference (Mar 2008).

The only thing I feel I can learn from this ’seminar’ are techniques on how to sell myself, but repeatedly subjecting myself to blabbering infomercials for that small bit of useful information isn’t personally worth it.

My advice – “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.

- Justin (U of T Science Undergraduate)

I just want to add my two cents and once and for all make this clear to everyone out there reading this.

I used to work for the learning annex and the real estate wealth expo as a table manager for their main hall, I traveled the country with them and I have their training manuals and I remember their unethical, scandalous procedures very well.

I can tell you with certainty that the real estate wealth expo and the learning annex are in the business of making $$$$$$$$. I’m talking in the 7 figure range. Some of these outdated, overpriced “educational” packages they sell are even produced by them.

I also know for a fact that if you are a business person in the real estate industry and you are thinking of spending $5k or $10k for 2 booth spaces at the expo – DON’T DO IT!! – you will waste your money undoubtebly. I know of not one, but several companies who did not generate a single sale because of how the learning annex did not care to drive traffic to the exhibitors hall where these companies are advertising their goods and/or services.

It makes me sick to this day when I think of the thousands of people I sold some real expensive seminar package and/or DVD’s. I used to be a financial consultant, that was the reason I could not keep doing what I was doing I felt wrong telling people to buy this $1k kit or $10k kit when I knew that what I was selling was not worth that and that these people could go invest that or use it for their first home down payment or so many other investment opportunities there are.

To the people who write nice comments and what not, most are full of it. They either work for the learning annex or one of the speakers.

Yes, Donald and Tony do get alot of the $$$$$$$ the learning annex and real estate wealth expo makes from the admission to the expo, kits sold and exhibitor booth spaces sold but most of the money goes to none other than Mr. William Zanker or otherwise known as Bill Zanker founder of the learning annex.

To think that Bill Zanker the owner/founder of the learning annex and the real estate wealth expo bought an overpriced lincoln town car that was owned by Warren Buffett. He even tried to have a lunch meeting with him and he would pay him a huge sum of money but Mr. Buffett did not want to have anything to do with a crook like him.

He is a disgrace to jews, new yorkers and entrepreneurs………………

The expo is all a BIG infomercial like a few above have sited. My girlfriend went last year and signed up for the investools and james smith real estate classes. Of course the initial class purchased were only the start because when you attend the classes its all about the heavy upsell pressure and that being said to be the only way to truly succeed. Think about it a 3 day seminar/class loaded with information is no where near enough time to learn how to beat the stock market and/or start making millions selling realestate (common sense).

I am the more level headed on in the relationship so I made sure to attend this years event. We ended up buying the Patrick James beat the IRS package for 995+tax and right now I am in the process of returning it (trust me very good sales pitch). The books aren’t even copied that well. My girlfriend did learn a lot about realestate from James Smith’s course but it was a far cry from all he professed on stage. Actually what was funny was that after he finished his speech i told her that should have been the course she took because it sounded so good. At that point she said that was the course she took. Knowing all the work she has put it in reading etc there was no way what he said on stage was what he delivered. Btw she did take the upgrade to mentor at the 2 day class.

In my opinion all the seminars are over priced especially for what you get information wise. Can you get information that will help you out? I guess you can but that doesn’t change the fact that I would label all of the classes at this show a bait and switch. Hell investools was probably the worse one I would say just because of the sheer ease they made buying options seem.

The worst part I think in all this is here you have positive speakers such as Tony Robbins coming to an event like this and then you have sales men raking people. Wonder what Tony thinks about all that…

Do let us know how the “discounted” $999.00 mentoring program offered by the “loud Canadian guy” (aka: Raymond Aaron) turns out for you. I’m particularly interested to see if you’ll get the refund that was promised, as I strongly suspect you’ll soon be seeking it. Check here:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/261/RipOff0261906.htm

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/224/RipOff0224450.htm

While I’m on the subject — Bill Zanker’s mentoring program is a crock of shit too. They will ask you lots of personal information, and ask you for thousands of dollars…but they don’t tell you how this program actually works. And I learned the “mentors” are people that are somehow related to the idiots on stage at the seminars. Worthless.

But let’s move to the value. I spent most of the event in the keynote room, so I was in the 12th row, dead center for Trump last night. I always get great value from Anthony Robbins. Getting him for virtually nothing was worth everything. He usually peppers his speech with upselling for his products, but this time he really did no selling, other than a soft pitch for his future seminar in LA at the end. And while I never found the free backrub room, there was plenty of free coffee available at the front of the room — two sections of urns kept full and unlimited Poland Spring water. I didn’t buy any of the real estate programs, although I did buy the mentoring program offered by the loud Canadian guy, even though I have a great one-on-one coach (and am one myself). This program came with a money back guarantee that checked out when I reviewed it. I started reading the voluminous materials today and have already learned something I never learned before that was worth the “discounted” price I paid for the program.

I’ve been to many trainings in the “circuit” and they are all basically run the same way. You get a speaker who will give you some good value and info, then run “fear of loss” and other marketing techniques to get you ready to buy their products. Most products eventually upsell you again until you’re in their bootcamp or other extensive seminar. A few people will actually do everything they were told and have amazing results. Most people won’t. The truth is that many people are wasting their money — not because the programs are useless, but because they are just going to sit on your shelf, often in the shrinkwrap. (Hint: you can buy TONS of these things on Ebay and other online sites, often unopened, and at a fraction of the price.) If you use them, they are often life changing. The reason you usually see “results not typical” in the fine print in infomercials has more to do with people not taking action than with the programs not being good.

Donald Trump, of all people, was the most honest in that he strongly said not to do what you aren’t passionate about, and that these programs would be a waste of time for a lot of people because they just don’t innately have the core ingredient of being able to handle the pressures of becoming an entrepreneur. He said there was nothing wrong with having a job. He even pointedly told a questioner, a filmmaker, not to do real estate.

Despite a few negatives, I walked away from the event totally stoked, and I got some great nuggets from a few speakers. I will definitely attend the next one.

Attending is worth it just to see Anthony Robbins, George Foreman, and Donald Trump speak live, particularly Robbins. The information I learned from them is quite useful for anyone who is serious about personal success.

Now the bad… First, the cheesy high-fives from the event staff on your way in , and cheerleader type activities throughout each day. If I wanted to attend a high school pep rally or night club to dance I would’ve done so. I’m not against keeping the mood light and fun, but they went WAY over the top in that regard. Also, I paid for the VIP pass, which basically got me closer to the stage seating, a copy of Trump’s new book, and a canvas Learning Annex bag. The other “gifts” and day long refreshments I was promised never happened, unless you consider the water everyone else attending had access to as the so-called “refreshments”. Of particular disappointment were the rest of the speakers I sat in on who were all the typical carnival barker type pitchmen with product to sell. The same tired bait & switch seminar techniques I’ve seen for years with the “amazing” low price for a “limited number of people” if you buy today, and promises of “free” gifts, cruises, etc. for staying to the end of their pitch that never ended up really being free at all. Such distasteful, patronizing, and clearly misleading slick salesman practices should not be allowed as part of the “learning” activities of the weekend, but alas it seems Bill Zanker has willingly compromised the integrity of the gathering for the sake of whatever these assorted self-appointed gurus are paying him to latch on to it.

This is how the poor people think, about the time they wasted, etc, etc. instead of looking at it as a learning experience to gain valuable knowledge.

If you just come away with one good idea from the entire day that makes you 5k, 10k, etc. isn’t that a darn good return on investment. Or maybe something from Tony Robbins that gets you up and working out and puts 5 years of additional years on your life because you eat healthy or work out, isn’t that worth a day at a “convention”?