Wilson Luna Ltd Business Prophet Substandard service, appalling customer service, refusal to issue refund, inability to deliver business training, sharp practices London Internet

Slaughterhouse-Five, or Wilson Luna's "Business Profit": the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What it is:

Wilson Luna, a motivational speaker from Australia who modestly calls himself "business prophet", has been running courses in the UK from the end of 2011. He invites people who want to expand their businesses on a free 2-day course, at the end of which he offers a mentorship programme for 4,997. This figure may change now in 2013. This includes his Internet-based learning, his video course, his published books about finance, participation in the network of like-minded people and 6 days of advanced training in the UK, as well as unlimited additional training if you want to join his course in Australia. The focus, he says, would be on helping everyone expand their business and on business modelling.

I liked the freebie course in July, thought that what Wilson was offering was amazing value, and paid 4,997 upfront.

By October I realised that it was a shockingly bad investment, the worst 5K ever spent. So here are the lessons.

Why I paid:

I paid because my previous experience with training was exceptionally positive. I went on Tony Robbins' UPW (personal development) and paid upfront for his Mastery University - the best ever 10K I spent in my life. I went on Keith Cunningham's freebie intro course (business psychology) and paid for his business psychology teachings - the best 2K ever on understanding business mentality. This was in 2004-2007.

I have used the pre-payment model to my clients and students in my own business, having learnt from the best, and offering amazing value in exchange for trust.

This time it did not work.

Why it did not work:

Wilson Luna is a motivational speaker. He keeps saying he is not, but he is. The best part of what he does, by far, is the 2-day freebie course (on which he calls himself a business consultant rather than a motivational speaker). How does it compare with Tony, if Tony is 10? Around 4, 5 at times. So not bad and a useful reminder.

But when you learn from Tony Robbins  whether you agree with him or not, you feel you are in the presence of greatness. On Wilson Luna's courses you keep remembering Karl Marx's immortal quote: "History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, then as a farce".

How does it compare with Keith Cunningham if Keith is 10? Oh, -1, at most. There was no business modelling or analysis involved. In fact, when I re-read my notes from Keith Cunningham's courses, there was far, far more.

Now the good, the bad and the ugly:

The good: 

Great for beginners who have never done any form of personal development. Deja-vu for all others.

If you are looking to understand Facebook, how it works and how you can tap into what people want through Facebook, definitely go on the freebie course. Luna does everything through Facebook, his business lives and breathes it.

If you need to ask yourself questions in either your business and personal life, and you are not sure what these questions are, spend two days on Luna's course, you may get closer to your answers. The time I spent on the freebie course was definitely useful.

"Followers" say he has changed their way of thinking, so some people have had a lot of use from it.

The bad:

You will be constantly harassed to keep pushing Wilson Luna to your family and friends, to bring him more followers and raving fans, and to drool about him on Facebook. You can get publicly humiliated and shouted at at the end of Day 1 if you admit that you haven't done it. Your value in the Luna system is based on your yield of followers. So if you are not a multi-level marketing aficionado, it is going to annoy the hell out of you. .
He will be NLP'ing you a lot by suggesting that if you don't emotionally buy into his stuff then there is something wrong with you because you are "transactional" rather than "raving fan".

But most importantly, there is NOTHING on the advanced courses that you can't  get off the freebie course. It's the rehash of the same. There will be more humiliation involved, more emotional buy-in. I don't know if he still does that exercise when you have to look people in the eye and say:"I don't care enough about you to save you" in an imitation plane crash, and get shouted at if you don't sound genuine when you go around people saying this horsesh*t, but that's the kind of "advanced" stuff that you are going to get. 

The ugly

Despite  Luna declaring that he is into people, he is really into their wallets. He will take money from people who just need a shoulder to cry on; he will look you in the eye and say he will help you grow your business when he knows damn well that he won't.

If you question anything you will be stonewalled: your emails won't be answered, your unused portion of the course won't be refunded. You will be cut off the Facebook group and all your attempts to leave any feedback which is not adulation will be deleted.

Sometimes I felt that I was sitting in a room with a lot of people who were looking for God in all the wrong places, and that was pretty scary.

So that's why I chose the immortal Slaughterhouse-Five is a metaphor for my experience and the de-motivational poster above as a metaphor for what I believe Luna's thinking is.

The verdict

Strong Caution recommended. This is NOT business training.