MentorBox reviews are sprouting around the web.
Many of them seem to either be fake good or overly negative clickbait.
I used MentorBox to its fullest potential during the 3 days free trial, and this is my unbiased review of MentorBox.
Contents
What is MentorBox?
MentorBox is a monthly subscription product to spread knowledge and information in a quicker, more efficient way than reading the whole book.
It helps you turbocharge your learning by giving you book summaries straight from the author.
The idea is appealing.
You hear from the authors and you go straight to the most important facts.
For each book it presents a “cheat sheet” with the main ideas, exercises to help you memorize the material and then an interview with the authors themselves.
It’s a pretty cool format actually.
Who Founded MentorBox?
MentorBox is a partnership between Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez.
I don’t have a high opinion of Tai Lopez as you can see from my review of Tai Lopez manipulation techniques.
A quick search of Alex Mehr does not yield the most trust-inspiring results:
He does have a Ph.D. title though, which he appends to his name any time he can:
MentorBox Book List
MentorBox does not have a huge list of books and there is no easy way to actually check names and numbers.
There are less than 249 videos you can watch, which is less than the book summaries you get on this very website for free.
But most of those videos are not actual summaries, they are random videos branded as “knowledge” from either Tai Lopez or Alex Mehr himself, which feel like space-fillers.
And they include some videos which I would warmly encourage everyone not to waste time on like a workshop on the law of attraction:
Some of the videos also feel like space fillers:
In case you can’t read what’s written there it’s “Drink like a CEO – how to make the perfect Old Fashione, Moscow Mule and Mimosa”.
And if you’re wondering “WTF is that sh*t”, you and I had the same reaction.
So my own estimation is that there are probably around 150 books, which is much fewer than this very website.
Is MentorBox A Scam?
MentorBox is not a full-on scam.
Not the product in itself, at least.
However, there are countless of complaints online about overcharges and refusing to make good on the refund policy.
Note: I personally had no problems canceling, so my experience was positive on that front.
And not all the courses that you get you can actually access which, to me, felt like MentorBox is not just a product you buy, but a teaser and conduit to sell you more and more (more on it later).
The whole MentorBox, the way it’s packaged… It certainly does feel scammy.
MentorBox deploys the most aggressive, annoying and sneaky sales techniques I have ever seen anywhere.
MentorBox Annoys The Hell Out of You With Upsells…
Signing up to MentorBox is an ordeal.
I have never seen any online course or product annoying people as much as MentorBox does.
But it’s not over, because even after you click “no” one hundred times, the sale has just begun for MentorBox.
… And Spamming Emails
But you are not done.
Right after signup, you keep receiving Alex Mehr’s hard-sell emails.
Within half an hour of signing up, I had already received two of them.
And that goes on top of the 3 to “confirm” I was part of MentorBox, which made me think their whole system was very disorganized:
Saying that I personally don’t appreciate this kind of hard sell is an understatement.
I find it annoying and overbearing and I was tempted to mark it as “spam” just to get even.
MentorBox Reviews
Looking around the web most reviews are highly negative.
Glassdoor, which collects reviews from people working at different companies, has two reviews on MentorBox.
And they’re both very negative.
They describe toxic cultures, incompetent management, unfair practices towards the customers, and a focus on selling rather than delivering value.
Writes one of them:
Website/customer service is bad and undeniably created to increase sales instead of serving the customer
Of course, there are also a lot of positive reviews. Especially in the testimonials section of the website.
But given the moral compass of the founders, I wouldn’t put too much trust in the veracity of any of them :).
MentorBox Alternatives
If you want to learn quickly and efficiently, I applaud you.
You should focus both on learning and on doing so as effectively as possible.
MentorBox is not the only option though. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of alternatives to MentorBox.
Here are some of the most popular:
- Amazon Audible: Audible is Amazon’s membership for audiobooks, where you can listen to the full audiobook instead of someone else’s summary (check here my Audible Review)
- Blinkist: Blinkist is a popular Berlin-based subscription service of book summaries (check here my Blinkist Review)
- Free online summaries: there are plenty of free summaries online for MentorBox most (check here the best book summaries websites and best book reviews websites)
- The Power Moves: this website provides plenty of book summaries. The main advantage is that it provides with very critical reviews
- ReadinGraphics: I always liked their idea of providing infographics and pictures together with the text summaries. The founders provided me with a special discount code for the readers of this website. Click here to check their services and use “ThePowerMoves” for store items and “ThePowerMoves-5” for subscriptions.
There are also countless ways to get the full book for free, especially for the most popular ones.
But they are not all legal so I will skip them here.
MentorBox Pros
MentorBox presents many advantages, including:
- author-delivered courses
I have to say, some of these summaries were really captivating. Some of them end up being much more than simple summaries.
Some of the authors end up delivering what is a mix of a summary and a mini-course.
It was the case for example with Hooked for example. But Cialdini author of Influence and Pre-Suasion also delivered a wonderful speech.
On the other hand, these authors are also there to provide a teaser for their own services. In some cases, with actual affiliate links to book calls and private coachings.
- You hear straight from the authors
I think that the possibility of hearing straight from the authors, explaining and talking about their own books, is the biggest USP and the biggest advantage of MentorBox.
- Well-designed workbooks
I didn’t try the physical version, but it looks like it’s well printed and some people might get some value out of it.
https://youtu.be/5IhazdN7gP4?t=52
That being said, in my opinion, the physical box is just clutter that you don’t need at your place.
- Cool design
MentorBox looks good from a design point of view, albeit the usability could be further improved.
- Focus on entrepreneurship
MentorBox has a strong focus on how to apply the book teaching in business, which can be very helpful to entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs.
And beyond the actual courses, you can learn some online marketing just by observing how they pitch and sell MentorBox (and hopefully you will also learn what not to do).
MentorBox Cons
On top of the bad online MentorBox reviews and the highly dubious business practices, this is what I didn’t like of MentorBox:
- Not all courses are free to access
Some of them are only teasers or, worse, sales pages for the actual course that you must buy and pay for.
This is the case with Chris Guillebeau, the author of “The $100 StartUp“:
- No critical reviews
MentorBox reviews all books and authors from the point of view that they are all correct and that we can all learn from them.
We do can all learn at least something from each book… Probably. But that doesn’t mean they are all factually correct, or that they don’t deserve some deeper investigation.
For example, MentorBox has Amy Cuddy as one of their authors.
But you will not hear from Amy Cuddy that her research failed to replicate and that her own research co-author called it “pseudo-science” (check out my pop-psychology article).
- Designed for Sales
Like the Glassdoor review mentioned, it really feels indeed like MentorBox is built more to sell than to teach.
At the end of each lesson, there are buttons to “share what you learned” because it helps you remember.
But of course, you share it wit ha nice link to MentorBox, which helps MentorBox get free advertising.
Whether “sharing to remember” helps more you remembering or MentorBox selling is a moot point.
- Authors are doing quite some promotions
The MentorBox authors are not just there to summarize their books, but they also do a lot of promotions about their other work and, of course, about their next books.
That might not bother you, but in a way that’s exactly what they are doing on free channels as well.
They release a YouTube video, they give an interview and they share some knowledge while at the same time self-promoting.
- Some incorrect information
Some of the information present in the fact-sheets are false. Take this example:
The introduction says that Chris Guillebeau is a “wildly successful blogger”, which is fine as that’s relative.
But when I checked the claim of “1m Unique Monthly Hits”, that was patently false.
As a matter of fact, Chris blog has far fewer visitors than this very website (and ThePowerMoves.com doesn’t yet have 1 million unique monthly hits at the time of writing).
- Not all books include authors’ interviews
MentorBox is sold like a service where you hear the summaries straight from the authors.
Yet, not all books actually get the summaries straight from the authors.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective for example is Alex Mehr talking in front of a camera.
And that makes sense because Stephen Covey is dead unluckily, but
- No good presenters to learn from
I research social dynamics, so I take lots of care about how people come across.
And I don’t find Tai Lopez or Alex Mehr to be particularly good speakers to learn from.
They use a lot of filler words, they go up with their inflection and they cross their arms and look tentative in their interviews and book reviews.
And the other guy who takes care of the content is even worse.
- Useless “MentorBox Mastermind” Group
The “MentorBox Mastermind” group you will be welcomed to join on FB is not only useless… But actually harmful.
If you’re not the kind of person who would reply to such a post you know why such a group has nothing to teach you.
And if you’re the kind of person who would reply to such a post:
- get a grip
- stick around here for a little longer before you get into MentorBox
MentorBox Costs
MentorBox “bare-metal” costs, without the physical delivery and without any of the add-ons is 7 USD per month.
With that, you get access to most of the library of summaries and you probably don’t need anything else.
But get ready to be bombarded by MentorBox upsells efforts and it might be worth mentioning that there have been complaints about over-charges.
If you have been the victim of over-charges let me know and I will include here your experience.
MentorBox Review
My MentorBox review is actually positive for the product itself. As a matter of fact, I was positively surprised.
I was expecting some crappy system with some bad “motivational quotes”, but the summaries are well done and the interviews with the authors are interesting.
As a matter of fact, in my Pills of Wisdom I have been telling people that reading a lot, in and by itself, is not enough to become successful.
And that successful people apply the learning right away rather than simply consuming information.
That’s why I love any product that helps to make your learning more efficient.
However, my overall MentorBox review is more on the negative side because the good product is tainted by the shady and manipulative business practices.
MentorBox is a great idea, a good product, but a less than stellar business
-The Power Moves Reviews
Manipulation: Techniques, Strategies, & Ethics
Is MentorBox Worth It?
Whether MentorBox is worth it or not depends a lot on you.
If you have been around self-development for a while, you won’t find anything earth-shattering here and you’re better off applying information rather than focusing more and more on acquiring it.
If you are starting out, then it might be worth looking into as a way to cut your learning curve short.
But if you’re on a budget, then you can get that same information, at the same speed, by looking for free information around the web.
Personally, I will not be using and I will stick to the full version of the book (plus my own research on what each author claims).
