All Marketers Are Liars
Reality Check- Part 1
***Yes, this book sits with me as a daily reminder of what is true. ***1
Seven hundred and fifty dollars an hour?
Just saw another post about it and taking private jets to Vienna. Another comments section full of writers eating this shit up like it's gospel.
There are two types of writers today. Wanna-be writers with six-figure dreams, and those silently putting in the work until they break.
Five years ghostwriting. One book. Countless sales pages. Email sequences that would make your laugh. Made six figures… eventually. Lost my sanity getting there.
Seth Godin was right…All Good Marketers Are Liars Storytellers
Best year ghostwriting.
This is what $116.27/hour looks like. Man with coffee staring at sticky notes while someone sells their system. 2
Hotel conference room. Me in the corner, typing for three twelve-hour days straight. Transcribing a system while entrepreneurs threw money at them. After the calls, the edits, the countless emails?
$116.27 an hour.
Ya, you’d kill for that right? Until you realize client made six figures. I should’ve negotiated a payback and better rate.
Rookie move George. Rookie move. 3
My first year:
75 proposals on Upwork and Facebook. Hundreds of applications on Linkedin.Eight projects landed. Forty-two grand gross. Thirty-two after expenses. Sixty-hour weeks living on panic attacks and trying to make it through a divorce.
But that's not sexy enough for a newsletter, is it?
2020 memoir project for a business coach. Twenty grand flat fee.
Big bucks now right?
Wrong.
120 hours writing. 40 hours listening to client stories . 35 hours fixing their small changes . 25 hours researching shit they should've known. 20 hours admin bullshit = 240 hours of my life = $83.33 per hour
Oh wait…
Software subscriptions: -$200
Travel costs: -$500
Research materials: -$300
Business expenses: -$400Real hourly: $77.50
And that was a GOOD project.
Six years of real numbers:
Year 1: $27K (survive)
Year 2: $49K (pandemic build)
Year 3: $89K (finally breathing)
Year 4: $155K (holy shit moment)
Year 5: $97K (AI showed up)
Year 6: $44K (ghostwriting? I'm out)
Where's the 10x your income bullshit?
The magical rate jumps?
The instant six figures?
There isn’t one.
Every week another Substack hero shows up. Another course promising riches. Another job board selling access to unicorn clients. Another writer buying the lie.
Know why they're pushing the $750/hour fantasy?
Because you can't sell their courses with the truth. Can't build a 15K newsletter list with reality. Can't position yourself as an expert with real numbers.
And I’m over here connecting with writers who quit their jobs, burned through savings, maxed out credit cards on branding, wondering why they can't find those mythical $750/hour clients.
This shit doesn't go viral. Doesn't sell courses. Doesn't build email lists.
But it might save your bank account.
Look, my marketing brain is screaming to soften this. Package it nice. Make it valuable content.
Last time I exposed industry BS, I started a war in the comments. It was fun, but I’m not trying to get banned from the industry.
Fuck it.
If you want more reality checks, let me know. Got five years of stories that'll strip the paint off those ghostwriting dreams.
Part 2 hits next week. The Client Myth. Because those high-paying clients just hanging out on Upwork deserve their own special takedown.
And if you wanna get in on the fun…
Fuck Pretty Marketing —January 22, 9pm EST
Just 30 minutes of raw dissection.
What’s happening?
No agenda. No structure.
Bring your frustrations.
Bring your website or marketing questions
Bring the cringiest marketing you’ve seen today.
We’ll:
Dissect it and tell you why it doesn’t work for writers
Want in? Go here and tell us what bothers you the most about those damn gurus
Seth Godin's "All Marketers Are Liars" became a turning point in how we talk about marketing. His point wasn't that marketing is lying - it's about the stories we believe. He later updated the cover to "Tell Stories" to make the point clearer. The cover on my desk reminds me daily: there's a line between storytelling and bullshit. Most marketers today? They're not even trying to find it.
For three days, I sat in that corner typing every word. The guys in that room paid $25,000 each to be there. I got paid $3500 to capture their system. Twelve hours each day of typing. Red Bull and Coffee. That content turned into a course that's still selling today. That content made those men 7-figures. No royalties, no credit, just a hard lesson in what my words were actually worth.
To be fair, it was not my system. I was just the wordsmith behind taking other people shit and making it so fucking good, people couldn’t say no.
This is the kind of advice I want to see more of. Maybe I’m a masochist. Or a realist. Or a glass half empty person. Or, often, a where’s the damn glass person.
I saw that article you referred to and my lip curled at it when I read it. I used to work in finance. I’ve seen that kind of sales line pulled way too many times. I’m even more of a cynic because of it.
Thanks for writing this. People need a reality check.
Kudos to you on making it that far, man. I've wanted to quit seven times since breakfast and I haven't touched the bullshit you've gone through. Takes a special breed to slog through this stuff.