Need advice - coach took my ideas for himself

Did you talk with your coach about this?
Looks like a real Pro...

It's quite hard to prove he stole your ideas unless you have an evidence trail like an email. Even then proving it in Court would be tricky under intellectual property right and expensive. My suggestion is still run with the idea he stole as it shows that it has some potential but just do it bigger and better!

If you already have a list of ideas and including one good enough that your coach wanted it for himself then you might not need as much coaching as you think. I would start taking your own ideas and acting upon them yourself instead of sinking more money into a coach. Obviously coaches can add a lot of value but if you already have some good ideas (which must be the case if the coach took one) then you can get things moving on your own for now.

so who is this guy? Tell us to be weary of him

"Ideas" are hard to protect and even to claim as your own. It is said that
there is nothing new under the sun. Without more detail it's hard to say if
he stole your "idea". It wasn't an ebook? A software program? How many
books have been written on how to write Facebook ads? I wonder whose
idea was that? "Idea" is too general a word to claim that it was stolen.

-Ray Edwards

I am not sure if this is an idea that he already had in his mind. You can't really tell.

What I would do after this happened is to never share any of your ideas with anyone.

Ugh on that coach! I've spent good money on a bad coach in the past as well and find that taking the time to learn with free resources, such as the WF, is better, IMO.

You can't really do anything about it apart from warning other Warriors not to trust this coach.

Just take it as a lesson learnt Move on. Like Stephan said. Start taking action. A coach is just here for accountability.

Cheers,

C.G.

Before doing any business whether with a coach, programmer, whoever. ALWAYS use a non disclosure agreement. This is not only for you but also for them. One of the people I worked with a couple of years ago, had an idea for a software, we had an nda and I wasn't even allowed as you can see to say what it was, what niche etc. That nda still stands and I adhere to it.

You don't need a coach for mindset that is hogwash. What you need to do is
make a plan, where are you, where do you want to be, what is it going to take to get there, shut everything off and focus. You have to discipline yourself and if you don't have that no coaching in the world will help you. You have got to stop thinking you need more and execute what you have.

Have a great year.
-WD

Sorry to hear that happened to you. Coaches market themselves as authority figures, being "all knowing" in their field, especially to the people who hire them. So you did what you thought was right and ran your ideas by him to see if he believed they would be a good choice for the marketplace.

I did the same thing with my first "coach", though none of my ideas were that good so even if he ran with them he wouldn't have had success

That being said, the benefit here is that you learned not to quickly trust everyone, even a "coach". We could sit here talking all day about how it's hard to prove whose idea was whose, hell, even Samsung and Apple had legal issues over one claiming the other "stole their phone design". It doesn't matter. The point is you have to be careful who you trust. And it is true that almost every product out there can from a different product or idea, in every industry.

I'm lucky that 4/5 of the people I've had mentor me have been honest and helped me further my business. Remember when choosing a coach to do some research first. Testimonials, reaching out personally to other claimed students, feeling them out personally, seeing if there's any actual proof of their success, what others think of them, etc.

It's true that you don't need a coach to succeed, but I personally wouldn't have without help. It's part confidence but also part implementing exactly what they tell you to do. $7 WSO's are effective to an extent, but you don't get every little detail of what someone does until you work with them 1 on 1.

If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you some people I can vouch for that would really be able to help you.

Best of luck.

Dude wants you to keep paying him after he admits he stole your idea? That's a new definition of chutzpa.

Yeah, don't pay him any more, and if you used a credit card or paypal to pay for the $400, you might want to file a payment dispute. Basically he used information you provided (i.e. your WSO ideas) for purposes other than what you provided it for. That's fraud. If it's a check, tell your bank it was a scam - because it was. It may not do any good, but it can't hurt, and he will have to deal with the investigation.

Depending on the details, it may be criminal fraud:
StopFraud.gov - Report Fraud

he launched a wso ..how was the success of wso .. if it was a success then good that u can come up with good ideas ..otherwise it was good that somebody else launched.. a win win for u

Name and shame the scoundrel

Very common.

Anytime you are dealing with a coach/consultant you need to be selective of which information you give up. You might be paying them, but at the end of the day they are also your competition (either directly or in affiliation with their other clients).

A lot of these guys do not work down in the trenches and instead rely on you to essentially provide them with an education that they then pass along to their next client. So they are telling you what previous clients told them and they will tell their future clients what you told them. That's generally how the consulting game is played (not just around here, but also among Fortune 500 companies). You can use that to your advantage, but you've also got to recognize what's going on and protect yourself.

It sounds like you found someone who is working directly in the same areas that you are seeking information on, which is great, but don't feed them trade secrets in the future. Remain vague where necessary and let them do most of the talking.

And if you ever find success with something, downplay it. There was a popular "challenge" type program among MMO info products some years ago that was provided free of charge. The creator made money by asking users about their PPC campaign results and he then stole the successful campaigns and ran them himself.

I would find a way for this to benefit me. Hmmmm...

Maybe work what happened into a story on your sales page. This is so good... blah blah blah... It was even stolen by a colleague,,, Who if course is no longer one. etc, etc, etc.

Use it as additional proof of concept.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

I was thinking almost the same thing...great minds and all.

IMO this is a result of the whole, "I 'care' deeply about everyone and 'money is just a by-product' nonsense."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_espionage

Sorry about the betrayal Gina. This is almost the worst that could happen when hiring a coach. But in your case you hired a fraud, but you didn't know. Come back stronger now.

Now you *know* that your ideas and concepts aren't just "rookie" thoughts. They are REAL money-making ideas that can end 97% of your worries in life. If possible, utilize some of the ideas in a different niche (if applicable). And be more cautious the next time you plan on hiring another consultant.

How long had you known of this coach before doing business with him? I see coaching offers all the time but before I ever sign up for anyone I would buy their products first, get on their email list, and watch their actions before ever joining their coaching program. I like to really try to get a feel for someone before joining a program like that. However, its still unacceptable but I guess that's the world we live in.