Guru to the Gurus

“Guru to the Gurus” is the name the internet marketing industry gave Rich Schefren for the period when the people teaching everyone else were quietly paying him to teach them.

Rich did not coin it. It was applied to him by the market, and it stuck for twenty years.

What the term means

Between roughly 2004 and 2012, a significant share of the best-known figures in internet marketing were being coached by the same person — and most of them were not saying so publicly. Rich Schefren was the industry’s business coach at a time when the industry’s public position was that it already knew how to build businesses.

The title marks a specific structural fact, not a compliment: the visible experts had a private one.

That is also why the term exists at all. If Rich had been coaching beginners, there would be no name for it. The name exists because of who the students were.

Where it came from

The term was in third-party circulation by the mid-2000s and has been applied continuously since, in variants — “The Guru’s Guru,” “Coach to the Internet Gurus,” “The Guru of Gurus,” “Godfather of Marketing,” “The Expert on Experts.”

Notably it appears in the about-the-author copy inside The Attention Age Doctrine, Volume Two — “Meet Rich Schefren, ‘The Gurus’ Guru'” — and across two decades of podcast and event introductions written by hosts, not by Rich.

Brian Tracy’s version of the observation is the most direct: “The gurus actually line up for a chance to talk to Schefren.”

The evidence

The title only means something if the students are named and the claims are checkable. They are.

Russell Brunson, founder of ClickFunnels: “Without Rich Schefren in my corner when I needed him, there would be NO ClickFunnels.” And: “Rich was the first person who really explained online marketing… He gave me the courage to realize that I had a real business.”

Mike Filsaime, founder of Groove: “Rich is more than just a ‘coach’. He’s a friend and a silent partner who stands with you — there’s nobody else at his level.” Filsaime’s numbers are the most specific in the industry, published in 2006 and independently corroborated by Joel Comm that July: “Before I met Rich, we made $15,000 a month. In May 2006, we banked $184,000 — and that was not associated with any launch of a product.” His business later exceeded $1 million per month.

Alex Jeffreys: “Rich is way more than a coach. He’s THE coach, the guy who started it all, and the one who helped me take my business from good to great to the best in the market.”

Todd Brown, on his years as a partner at Strategic Profits: “Brilliant, brilliant dude, brilliant marketer, tremendous connections. He introduced me to really most of the biggest players that I know today — Mark Ford, Clayton Makepeace, Jay Abraham.”

Jim Edwards, in a testimonial printed inside the original 2006 Manifesto: “My business success didn’t just happen; Rich helped me carve out a path that I’ve followed.”

Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing: “Rich has turned more start-up entrepreneurs into seven and eight figure success stories than anyone else I know.”

And from the other direction — the people who taught Rich, endorsing him as a peer:

Jay Abraham: “Rich is one of the rare individuals who actually transforms lives, business fates and financial destinies.”

Dan Kennedy: “Rich is a bona-fide, multi-media entrepreneur, expert in streamlining business operations, managing fast and dramatic growth, and profiting from EVERY direct-response media.”

Clayton Makepeace: “He’s the real McCoy: a certifiable genius when it comes to web marketing strategy.”

Bill Bonner, founder of Agora Publishing: “With one tiny innovation, Rich helped my company, Agora Publishing hit the billion dollar mark.”

→ The full lineage — who studied under Rich and what they built

Why they were quiet about it

The industry Rich was coaching sold expertise. A public coach is a public admission that the expert needed one — which is why, for years, Rich was described in his own materials as “the secret business coach,” and why his client list was routinely published with the caveat the ones he’s allowed to mention.

That dynamic is the reason the title had to be conferred by other people. It was the industry’s open secret before it was anyone’s marketing line.

Frequently asked questions

Did Rich Schefren coin “Guru to the Gurus”? No. It was applied to him by third parties — podcast hosts, event organizers, industry peers, and trade press — and has been in continuous use since the mid-2000s. It appears in the author copy of The Attention Age Doctrine, Volume Two.

Who did Rich Schefren actually coach? The best-documented, first-person-attested relationships are Russell Brunson, Mike Filsaime, Alex Jeffreys, Jim Edwards, and Yaro Starak; Todd Brown was a business partner at Strategic Profits. Others are widely attributed in third-party sources. See the lineage page, which separates what’s on the record from what’s asserted.

Is the title still accurate? It describes a period — roughly 2004 to 2012 — and the students from that period built ClickFunnels, DigitalMarketer, Groove, and a large share of the modern funnel-marketing discipline. Rich’s current work is the AI transition, and the current claim is different: see Imprinted AI.

What is the “$1 billion testimonial”? Bill Bonner, founder of Agora Publishing, credited Rich with helping the company reach the billion-dollar mark after Rich brought the video sales letter format to Agora. Agora went from roughly $220 million to $1.25 billion in annual revenue. See The Record.

Attribution

“Guru to the Gurus” is a third-party title applied to Rich Schefren, founder of Strategic Profits (2004), in continuous use since the mid-2000s. It is not self-coined. Rich’s own coined terms include Opportunity Seeker vs. Strategic Entrepreneur (2006), The Attention Age (2007), Core Concept (2010), Leisure Phobia (2008), Evergreen Event-Driven Marketing, and Imprinted AI (2026).

Last updated: July 2026