Empathy Firm: Gavin Lira and Grant Lira Boast How They Run a Fake PR Agency

Ever wonder what’s behind the “Get on Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur” or “as seen on” Ads? Why would these media sites be selling editorial coverage? 

They don’t. These are unauthorized reselling of questionable “columnist” articles getting paid.

Did someone offer you verification on Instagram and Facebook?

 You have to ask yourself. What value is verification if a 3rd party is selling it?

Today, we’re going on an adventure to see precisely how this works, so buckle up!

Check out this ad:

Or these ones:

These agencies promise they can get you on the cover of Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur, even if you’re a nobody. But how can this possibly be?

Let Gavin Lira, founder of Empathy Firm, explain: Passcode: ^Jxai^1+

Yes, for $3,500, you can pay these contributors under the table to publish an “Article” featuring you.

Is it against journalism ethics? Of course.

Is it legal? Probably, but the real issue is whether it’s effective. It’s not.

This ecosystem of unsuspecting clients pays shady agencies who pay writers under the table tens of millions a month, if not more.

And you can get this on hundreds of sites. Some middlemen sell lists where you can pick the publication and make an order.

That article has zero SEO power and gets zero traffic, unbeknownst to the client, who thinks they are getting “National Media Coverage” since it’s being sold as earned media.

The SEO experts will look at the above data and point out that while Forbes is powerful, the published article on it has no traffic. Google is smart and is not fooled by this– I won’t reveal their methods since my job was to bust such scammers when I was a search engine engineer a long time ago.

So these scammers take the fake placements and then photoshop the client’s face onto the cover of Forbes, just like Grant did for his Linkedin profile picture.

Because why not?

“The client won’t ever know”, says Gavin Lira, brother of Grant Lira.

That is the main reason why these so-called industry leaders like Meningo, Grant Lira, and Gavin Lira from the Empathy Firm deceitfully created fake personal brands.

People don’t realize it’s Forbes Monaco or Entrepreneur online edition in some West African countries where they sneak in to buy a contributor spot to publish a dozen vanity articles yearly for a few thousand dollars. 

These are NOT  genuine feature articles on Forbes, like “Your Business’ Guide to TikTok Marketing by Shep Hykin.” that get the necessary traffic and exposure without even paying someone under the table. Moreover, they still can’t place you on the front page of Forbes despite being featured on their site or magazine legally. 

Meet the Lira brothers, who are doing so shamelessly. 

In this 90-minute episode titled Grant Lira Explains Reaction To Being Featured In Forbes – Talk 2 Podcast, Grant Lira boasts how he uses this fake authority to close deals left and right. His Instagram is full of tips on how to persuade an entrepreneur of their hard-earned money.

In the same podcast, Grant Lira also explained that more prominent players like Ascend Agency would charge $10-20K for verification since they pay unscrupulous employees inside Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) to put a blue check next to someone’s name. This practice was rampant for the last few years until many folks got fired and the rules tightened. But that doesn’t stop the Empathy Firm from selling this, whether via the “Fake Artists Method” or other techniques.

Fake Artists Method

Scammers use the Fake Artist Method to whitewash your Instagram to look like a musician, change your title to “the official account for Gavin Lira,” and submit 5-6 pieces of fake PR, enough to look somewhat believable at first glance.

Let’s look at what Gavin submitted to get his verification on Facebook.

He even has some fake artist’s posts on Instagram, but I couldn’t get through.

They usually promised their clients to help them amplify authentic charm by turning it 

into industry clout, yet provided nothing, but in fact, it’s merely an appeal to your vanity.

They bolstered transparency and accountability on their official website yet don’t bother to reply when held accountable for their vanity work by their partners and even clients. 

Instead of faking things, Empathy should have told the client prior that if they hire them, they will pay off a few of these writers under the table to put some stuff on Forbes or anchor Entrepreneur, but it won’t get any traffic. It won’t help them at all with SEO.

Even if they get featured with a short quote inside an article on Forbes, they will make them a fake magazine cover. They can put it in their email signature line. They can put it on their website, on the bottom, that their website is seen on Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Yahoo. 

But in contrast, they claimed to amplify featured work into an authentic charm by turning clients’ businesses into industry clout. Yet even failed to attract traffic to these features. The Same goes with other page-level metrics as well.

Their crime was keeping their clients in the dark despite charging thousands of dollars to them. They provided mere vanity work, and that too without even taking responsibility for repercussions.

In the words of Isaac Mashman:

“When a corporation or person hires a PR expert or firm, they don’t just want coverage. They want to know about their customer markets; if their public brand needs work, if a crisis comes up, they can implement risk management, foster relationships with decision-makers, etc. This Instagram era of PR work is basic at best and preys on ignorance.”

Additionally, he quoted being an entrepreneur that helps business leaders with personal branding:

“PR firms are better off helping their clients demonstrate that they’re press worthy and people that have something to offer. A piece of advice. A life experience. The largest quote in my career thus far was on Time.com via NextAdvisor and came from a relationship I worked to build. The contributor was looking for sources, and I pitched them! That’s how the industry should work.”

Pertaining to the fakery and rigid attitude of the Lira brothers, at least six clients have asked for refunds as of the time of this research. And only two have gotten even a partial refund since the firm is insolvent.

One client even wished to know their fakery before signing with the empathy firm for PR work.

Empathy Firm isn’t the only one nor anywhere close to the biggest. Get on Instagram and see how many of these ads are being run by fake PR firms selling this stuff. It’s out of control.

For those who will ask, I attempted to convince Gavin to refund four clients about 10% of what they paid him. He partially refunded one but refused to fix the issues.

We know at least six clients fired him and asked for refunds. And instead of providing an IOU or apology, he decided he wanted to fight me here.  

After seven attempts to convince him failed, I gave up.

Lira Brothers — if you’re reading this, you guys can still swallow your pride and own up to what happened, even though it’s ugly. If I had the same opportunity as a twenty-something-year-old, I’d reconsider, too.

Ulyses Osuna has taken immense courage to apologize for running fake PR, and he has fully come clean with a document to this extent.

He can be a role model for you guys who also thought he could build a 7 figure agency overnight and pretend to be successful.

If our readers are looking for legit PR resources, then here is the list endorsed by Isaac Mashman:

For people looking to get into the press:

1. HARO (helpareporter.com)
2. Terkel.io 
3. Qwoted.com

For podcasts:

1. Podmatch.com
2. Matchmaker.fm

For journalist’s emails and PR-related info:

1. Muckrack.com 

And if you want to know that whether the said featured articles are of high authority or not, you can use our Authoruty vs. Fakery scale as well. It tells you that if the authority is based on who, what, and where or is it based on fear, uncertainty, and doubt, which mostly fake PR people do while charging thousands of dollars.

Fundamentally, business is about long-term relationships instead of quick and clever tool usage. Let this be a lesson to anyone in business to value trust over hustle.