Is Karl Smith really a “Motivational Speaker?”
Well, he certainly talked a lot on The Bachelorette. Whether Karl is a success at being a “success coach” is a question that was harder to answer.
Karl has at least six websites and has operated under several company names.
Every time we fact checked a final draft, we’d come up with something new. We didn’t uncover his involvement with an alleged crypto pyramid scheme until our “final-final-final” draft. This is a complex investigation.
Here’s some motivation to get you started:
By choosing to spend time reading Real Bachelor Jobs, you’ve chosen a journey towards becoming a better you. We’re going to teach you about Next Level Success CEO Karl Smith — and how YOU can achieve NEXT LEVEL SUCCESS!!!!
Why was Karl motivated to go on The Bachelorette?
Who can know what is in a man’s mind or in his heart?
We do know some things.
We know that Karl made a YouTube watchlist called “BA Ready,” featuring pick-up artist techniques and outrageous Bachelor moment countdowns. We suspect he used it to train for his time on TV.
Yes — this really his account. It features videos of Karl by Karl and the account links to his Facebook.
We’ll note the playlist was recently updated (possibly while BIP was still filming? SPOILER!), but that was to add videos of his own “BA” appearance. Other videos are from before The Bachelorette filmed.
We also know that after letting Next Level Success go dormant for several years, Karl reinstated it March 31, 2020.
Earlier that March, it was leaked that Karl was one of the men cast on Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette. Clare’s season was delayed for COVID reasons, and Karl was cut before being recast on Katie’s season.
How successful is Next Level Success?
The website claims an “NLS team” but we couldn’t find any evidence of Next Level Success having employees.
We recognized some of the faces in the “team” photo from the testimonials on the website and thought this was odd.
Because we are totally normal people, we looked up every single person who gave Karl a testimonial.
It looks like they’ve been part of the same “business coaching” community for years.
They’re all over each other’s social media. They’re on each other’s podcasts. They speak at each other’s events. Karl can be found giving testimonials on their sites.
In 2019, members of the “team” were presenting under the umbrella of “Epic Talks Miami.”
To fully explain what’s going on with the Miami motivational speaker/business coaching/crypto circuit we’d need to do a multi-part exposè. (If someone would like to pay us to do that, please slide into our DMs!)
In summary, everybody is marketing to, coaching, and motivating each other. There’s very little evidence of commercial success outside of the time they spend hyping each other up. This includes Karl.
Next Level Success doesn’t even have an office. The corporation’s address is a family member’s home.
The company’s Instagram has a .03% engagement rate.
Their seven YouTube videos collectively have less than 1,000 views (many of them ours).
Karl’s Eventbrite page has 25 prior talks and events on it, 24 of which offered free admission.
You might note that many of these free talks in 2017 are about crypto. Under the name Next Level Promvmnt, Karl spent a year as an affiliate and marketing partner for a crypto company called iPro Network.
I’m interested in crypto currency! Should I listen to Karl Smith speak about it?
We wouldn’t.
After the great BitCoin Crash in early 2018, Karl’s talks were quickly rebranded to the “Smart Money” series.
iPro, the company Karl Smith promoted, was later sued by the SEC for operating what’s been called a “Crypto Ponzi Scheme.”
Epic Talks Miami, which we mentioned earlier, still runs “elite-level training on cryptocurrencies.”
We encourage anybody thinking of attending these talks to carefully research the presenters.
Can you “speak” on Karl’s qualifications?
In college, Karl got involved with a multi-level marketing company called ACN, Inc. ACN “sells” things like wifi and phone plans but, like all MLMs, the money actually comes from getting other people to join up.
We couldn’t find an income disclosure (red flag), but one review of the company surmised that less than 1% of individuals make a profit.
Selling this “opportunity” is how Karl got his “15 years of sales experience.”
We uncovered a video from his promotion to “Regional Vice President.”
(Note, this is an MLM title, so it just means he’s recruited a certain number of people, not that he’s a corporate officer.)
The video also explains Karl’s claim that he’s “trained more than 40,000 entrepreneurs.”
Most of them were probably in that room listening to his 2-minute speech.
Once we got past Karl crowd surfing in a sea of what looks to be giant red inflatable you-know-whats (shout out to Katie), we heard Karl speak about:
- Getting his car repossessed
- His father begging him to quit
- Cutting off friends who told him it was a cult
Then, through the power of positive thinking, everything was fine.
Karl’s big closing line is: “I look forward to seeing each and every one of you at the top of the company.”
Considering the capacity of the stadium, there are literally not enough people on earth to make that mathematically possible. Literally.
Regardless of whether Karl is still involved with ACN, the structure of his business, the promotional techniques he’s using, and the content of his speeches all appear heavily influenced by his time with them — and reinforced by constantly watching other motivational speakers on YouTube.
The circles playlist is called NLS Steal. Is Next Level Success not creating it’s own content?
The relentless positive mindset that Karl teaches in his “success coaching” is the mindset that keeps you from quitting when you’re losing money and getting nowhere.
From one of Karl’s many websites. This one, from when he was operating as KS Consulting Group, is from when he only had “10 years” of experience. It’s defunct but available in the Internet Archives.
The mindset that makes you cut off friends and family who tell you they’re worried about you.
The mindset that causes the overwhelming majority of participants to end up in debt and then blames them for not hustling hard enough, for not wanting it enough.
Has Karl ever been motivated to get a real job?
According to his LinkedIn, Karl has been the “Vice President of Business Development” at his family’s dental practice for the past three and a half years.
The dental practice caters to French speakers in Miami and recently opened a second office.
Despite being the VP of Business Development, Karl is not mentioned in any of the articles about the practice and how they achieved their growth. Instead, his Columbia-educated, NYT-wedding-announcement-having, dentist brother is front and center.
This might be because Karl doesn’t want potential clients to know he’s not currently successful enough as a success coach to make it a full-time gig or it could be because his actual involvement with the dental practice is minimal.
Whew! That was a long one! Thanks for hanging in there.
Please claim your free gift from Karl’s website.
NOT THIS AGAIN!
Is it too much to ask for cast members to have working websites?
xo Your Nosy Friends, Next Level Tired
