Joel Stone, best-selling author and founder of Shropshire-based marketing agency Codebreak, explores the rise of the CEO of Nothing and explains why you should be wary of so-called ‘gurus’.

The other day, I saw someone post an Instagram Reel about the day in the life of a CEO. Now, I know some CEOs; people who are chief executive officers of fairly substantial boards, and I know what a day in the life of a CEO looks like for them.

But the person behind this Reel is the only person in their business. They’re the only executive officer on their board, so I don’t understand how they’re a CEO. It seems like a false flex, but from what I can tell, they spend most of their time doing photo shoots, in the gym, or talking nonsense on social media.

And I’m getting a bit sick of it.

Now, I obviously put myself out there on socials. I do that in the hope that the right people will resonate with my content and want to work with me. But I’m not saying things that simply aren’t true. I’m not saying that I’m a CEO, even though we have more than one executive officer on our board, so I could be. At most, I’m just the managing director.

This whole idea of standing next to a Lamborghini that isn’t yours, or in front of the Burj Khalifa on a ‘business trip’ when you’re really just making it tax-deductible? Or talking about a seven-figure launch when you actually mean seven figures in a currency where the exchange rate is three hundred to one on the pound? And referring to seven figures across the entire lifespan of your business? It’s misleading.

This is one of the biggest scams in online entrepreneurship at the moment; the rise of the CEO of Nothing. These people often call themselves gurus, and you’ll find them everywhere.

I’m throwing this out there as a word of warning. Because if you’re a business owner or entrepreneur and you’re ready to grow your business, you’ll probably look for a mentor, a guide or a coach to help you out. And that’s where the CEO of Nothing comes in. They’re like sharks. They smell the blood, and they come after the people putting their hands up asking for help to do something they’ve never done before. These so-called gurus claim they’re doing it all the time, so you might assume they must be the right people to help.

 But really, who is this person? Do they have a verified track record? What kind of accounts have they filed with Companies House? Are their testimonials real? Can you see their Google or Trustpilot reviews? How long have they been around? These are the questions to ask.

I’ve also met many ‘gurus’ and CEOs of Nothing who are pulling the wool over people’s eyes, taking their money, and selling them a magic pill. Once they have their hooks in, they sell the next magic pill and the next. They convince you that the first thing will work once you have the second thing, and then the third thing. Before you know it, you’re £50k in debt with them and not really any further along. They sell the dream, not the result.

That is actually a marketing tactic. My job as a marketing expert with a marketing agency is to sell people their dreams and move them away from their pain. That’s what marketing is.

But there are realistic dreams, and then there’s telling people they’re going to make millions. When you get someone telling you that, you need to ask whether they’re painting a realistic picture or massively inflating the possibility of what could happen.

 Some other common red flags: they appear to live an incredible luxury lifestyle, but you’ll never see images of their home because they don’t have one, or it’s not as impressive as their Instagram makes it seem.

You’ll never see anything that looks like a business asset. No staff, no office, no podcast studio. If this so-called guru is coming to you on video or Zoom, and the backdrop looks like a spare bedroom, I’d have alarm bells ringing. I’m not saying that successful people can’t work from a spare bedroom, but it’s a red flag.

The tool of choice for the CEO of Nothing is the flashy event.You’ll know the type of events I’m talking about because the speakers don’t even have their own businesses. They’re all just influencer types.

They might sell online courses or the odd thing, but there’s nothing behind it. They don’t have employees, they don’t have anything tangible to fall back on. There’s no resale value to their business.

So how do you spot a CEO of Nothing?  Let’s start with the basics; numbers don’t lie. If you go on Companies House and see that they’ve submitted micro accounts, that means their turnover had to be under £634k.

So if they claim to be a seven-figure business, why are they submitting micro accounts?

Another thing to consider is that when people say they’re a seven-figure business, they probably mean revenue, and even if they do mean within the year, it doesn’t mean there was any profit left at the end of it.

Don’t believe everything you’re told; it pays to dig a little deeper before investing your time and money.

Finally, the CEO of Nothing will fill you full of hype and hot air and make you feel like a million dollars. But it will all be about that guilt trip of “you must invest to succeed” rather than real financial logic.

A real supplier, business partner, mentor or coach will talk to you about risk versus return and demonstrate how they’ve helped people in a similar position to you.

They’ll show you real results and how that happened. And they’ll identify some of the weaknesses and opportunities you have in your business.

They give you actionable advice to help you build your confidence. They won’t give you an unrealistic timeframe, such as: “Do this, this, and this, and in 30 days you’ll be a millionaire.”

They’ll tell you to set your own timeframe based on your own responsibilities and limitations, and help you overcome those limitations.

That’s how you know you’re working with someone you can trust.