Ben Settle

Last month, The esteemed Redheaded libertarian tweeted this beauty:

Encouraged by their mutual friend Dr. Benjamin Rush, John Adams broke an 11-year silence by sending a warm letter to Thomas Jefferson. This gesture not only rekindled their once-close friendship but also ignited one of the most remarkable correspondences in American history.

Over the next 14 years, the two former presidents exchanged 158 letters, offering profound insights into politics, philosophy, religion, aging, and personal reflections. These Adams-Jefferson letters remain a treasured window into the minds of two Founding Fathers who shaped the United States.

The full collection is available in modern editions, such as The Adams-Jefferson Letters, edited by Lester J. Cappon. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the Revolutionary era.

And, I would add, anyone in business interested in making lots of sales.

Not just from the “marketing” side, but the relationship building and, even, relationship salvaging side.

In fact, here’s a true story:

About 20-years ago, I wrote some copy for the “founding father” of online marketing as we know it (Google and Facebook’s entire multi-billion dollar biz models are based on his early discoveries, though they’ve never sent him a thank you card…)

And, we had a bit of a falling out over it.

I don’t recall all the details.

But I do recall realizing whatever it was, was petty on my part, and not worth ruining a perfectly good business relationship over, even if we never used my sales copy for his offer. And so, I decided not to write him an EMAIL… but a snail mail letter apologizing for my part in the rift.

From what I remember, I was being petty and immature about whatever it was.

And so I wrote that letter, by hand I think, apologizing.

And, I sincerely was grateful just to work with the guy.

I learned much about my own “inner editor” from him.

Anyway, not long after:

He wrote me a letter (snail mail, in his own handwriting) back. And he said he was not the world’s greatest project manager, either, etc. And so all was good. We got to back-and-forthing some more, and I said something like, “I think your course is one of the best out there, and I’d like to sell it as an affiliate using the copy I wrote. Are you good with that?”

And so I did.

And make good money from that affiliate offer I did.

And, after that, use the sales letter he did.

And, some 14 years later, I even offered to re-write it, for free, because I’d learned so much more in that time, and out of sheer pride I wanted to re-do it, on my own time, to do the course even more justice, plus sell it again that month as an affiliate.

Since then?

Ken and I have become friends, and have helped each other in various ways.

And, a big part of that was using direct mail to re-connect with no agenda or sneaky stuff, just a genuine letter, showing my admiration, making an apology, and being sincere about that.

Direct mail is powerful stuff.

Even in the realm of romance (since Valentines Day approaches):

Nobody writes “love emails” they write love letters.

From the heart, no holding back, out of sincerity.

At least, they should.

And if you think this doesn’t apply to your business you’re out of your mind.

One big lesson I learned from Ken ironically, was when he said:

(paraphrased)

“Ever notice how with the big, blockbuster direct mail controls… they don’t sound like advertising or marketing? They are just sincere letters, written to people who share a passionate interest, showing respect, offering something they want, and creating an actual relationship, which then leads to the sale.”

Yes.

I’ve been using direct mail for 15-years to Email Players subscribers, for example.

The newsletter itself is direct mail, as are the offers that “ride along” with it.

And in Low Stress Trading we are now aggressively going “all in” on direct mail – first with a quarterly print newsletter (with ride-along offers – one of the easiest ways to use direct mail, used by decades by the billion dollar catalog industry), and with postcards, and even bringing on one of the last remaining true direct mail geniuses left to write and manage these campaigns.

Direct mail is also technology that does not change.

The “technology” of a stamp on envelope does not change.

Meanwhile, the algorithms, rules, gatekeeping of email, social media, YouTube, TikTok, whatever is constantly changing, evolving, being bent towards some and way from others… and PPC is becoming nothing but a shyt show of click fraud by bots and stupid rules.

Not saying not to use the above.

I am simply saying to start using direct mail.

As for email?

You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

A reader says what everyone else is thinking:

“Feels like all the goo-roos & gurus all work together, promote each other, or are affiliate/connected in some way, though. Makes you wonder who these mythical goo-roos we’re supposed to trust even are. We need a goo-roo detection crash course, el benbo. This sacred mission falls on you”

I’m far from the only one who calls this stuff out.

But I can say I’ve been doing so since long before it was popular and safe to do so.

Not because of any innate wisdom on my part, though.

But because since my first day learning direct marketing and copywriting I decided to be a servant to the raw fundamentals and basics, and not chase what’s sexy, cool, or being driven by manufactured corporate gaslighting and FOMO.

In a lot of ways I had to do that. I had no money to waste or frivolously spend when starting out.

I was working part time during the day and cleaning offices at night.

Being broke is an advantage in a lot of ways.

But as for what he described above that’s been the IM goo-roo game since the early 90’s.

It’s called “push/send.”

Email Players subscriber Ken McCarthy (who is, in many ways, the reason why – no exaggeration – we are even able to freely sell online at all without needing a license from the government or, worse, Bill Gates) even writes about it n his magnificent System Club Letters book which I highly recommend.

The best “guru detection” is to simply assume everyone – including me – is full of crap.

Literally begin with that assumption.

Then try to “break” what I/we say/claim, and only then consider buying or not.

Trust nobody, believe nobody – it pays to be paranoid..

This is one reason why I loaded up some 30-40 hours of content in my free mobile app. It’s an absolute no-brainer to listen in on something I teach in there, especially in the “Acoustic Settle” section, and determine if I am full of it or worth learning anything else from.

If you do not already have access to it?

You can do so free on your mobile device or iPad here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

Long time reader Holly Mthethwa writes:

This summer, I read Bandersnatch on your recommendation and it became one of my all time favorite books. I loved everything from the thorough insight to the practical structure. 

Soooo many revelations and kicks in the tush. A few months ago, I finally started a weekly (don’t screech it’s not daily) email newsletter to women and am working faster on my yeaaaars-in-the making book, realizing “Oh my gosh, I’m slow and sidetracked on hobbit talk like Tolkien.” 

Fast forward a bit, and a group of about 6 of us women between Virginia, Kansas, and Washington state decided to gift the book to a friend. We each took turns reading it, writing our notes in it, and passing it along until we gifted it to her. 

Rather than “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” it became the sisterhood of the traveling book. 

If you’ve ever wondered how influential your book recommendations are—well, you might just have a Ben’s Book Club in the making. 

Thanks for always giving great recs.

Holly ain’t the only one over the years to request a Ben Settle book club.

And while I do talk about certain books in these emails and in the paid Email Players newsletter and in my free Settleheads Facebook group at times, the reality is, most of the books I currently read would be of zero interest to the rank & file in my Horde.

Take, for example, these books from the past year or so:

* “Sargon The Magnificent” – about Cain (from the Bible) and his wanderings that fills in some “gaps” – Biblical, archeological, historical, cultural, etc. “Politically incorrect” doesn’t even begin to describe it.

* “Tracing Our Ancestors” which’d definitely be banned by ICE protesting librarians.

* “The Abrahamic Covenant” – which I’ve seen some Christians with foreign flags in their bios call abhorrent, but they never call it incorrect.

* And the Bible itself – which I read cover-to-cover 3-4 times per year, and often a different version each time

So as you can see:

A Ben Settle book club wouldn’t be of much interest to most on this list.

Nobody opted-in to hear about those topics, after all.

I do still sometimes dip back into business/marketing/copywriting books like Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising, or Ken McCarthy’s System Club Letters, or Joe Vitale’s 7 Lost Secrets of Success (original version from 1990 only), or a Joe Girard book, and a few others I revisit, but rarely any new ones.

If I did have a “book club” though?

I’d shamelessly & egotistically make it for my Enoch Wars novels.

They ain’t exactly Tolkien-level writing or even Stephen King-level writing. But I daresay they’re fast paced, entertaining, and born from my childhood love of 80’s action movies, esoteric Biblical interests, and years of mindlessly playing Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs as a teenager.

They’ve also been gaining a small, but rabid, fanbase, over the years.

And it’s big enough where they inspire me to keep spreading the word.

So that’s that.

As for business?

You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a story.

Early last month I was walking around my backyard deck listening to an early version of our 30and30 offer at Low Stress Trading. I’ve used the info in that trading course, successfully, and some email ideas for selling it the last week of December “popped” in my head.

It was a total brain fart and totally unplanned.

One of those “out of nowhere flashes” Dan Kennedy talks about.

So I went inside and, during an hour where Stefania was at the gym and I was watching Willis, I wrote 5 emails to sell it. Probably 80% of the “copy” was pulled from the transcripts of the bit I was listening to, combined with some of my own real world experiences with the info, and then I arranged that info into 5 emails.

Equally important:

While writing them I thought up an irresistible bonus to attach to the offer.

So anyway, it was hardly “world class” copywriting.

I simply got excited about the offer, did my thing writing the emails in about an hour.

The result:

$300k in sales in 5 short days to only about 2,700 people, give or take. Plus, the offer is a subscription, so the campaign will ultimately over time be worth many times MORE that $300k.

You do the math…

Point I want to make here is:

You could “feed” those 5 emails I wrote into your fapGPT or whatever your favorite so-called AI tool is all you want. You could even outright plagiarize those emails word-for-word, and it would still not do you any good whatsoever.

Because the main power was not in the copy/emails.

Sales copy is merely force.

And while force is good, what really made us $300k+ sales was leverage like:

* A white hot, super engaged, & list of buyers “in heat” to buy our content since it makes them so much of the green stuff

* A ridiculously valuable & generous bonus offer tied to a tight & clearly defined deadline many of our customers “on the fence” about buying simply could not refuse

* A high price tag ($899 plus monthly subscription attached – again those 5 emails I wrote in an hour will make FAR more than the $300k over time, and I would argue multiple millions over time)

* An offer that legitimately works exactly as advertised, and fulfills a wet dream-like fantasy our market has (a 5-10 minute work MONTH in trading – yes, that claim is real and it’s fantastic)

* 2+ years track record of delivering high class Service & a fun buying Experience for our boys & ghouls

* An insanely engaged community where it was also advertised that week, with lots of happy customers of the offer talking about it, plus an extra email or two Troy threw in, via feeding off my own excitement for his own course, during the campaign to further stoke the fire

* End-of-year timing, where people are making money goals, wondering about the volatile economy, etc, which this particular offer jibed perfectly with

* An offer that basically “sells money at a discount” – as a lot of customers can make their entire investment back in just a single 30-second trade, making the price basically irrelevant

* And so on, and so forth.

No so-called AI tool can replicate the leverage-side, distribution-side, or other “intangibles”-side. These kinds of results don’t come from the “copy” or anything fapGPT or any other generative so-called AI tool could vomit out.

I hope that is obvious here.

Just as I hope the “between the lines” lessons in this email are obvious.

If not, then put it this way:

My “copy” was a very small cog in a very big machine powered by years of hard work, patience, A-player PERSONAL (not AI or automated) support, probably $500k+ invested in infrastructure/development/software designed by true genius-level minds, and genuinely delivering prior unforgettable buying Experience(s) that helped make people want to come back for more again, and again, and again… and continued to do so, with the faith in us that they’re not only getting what’s promised but a ho’ bunch more.

On a side note:

We recently brought on the great Doberman Dan of House Gallapoo to write copy for us and spearhead direct mail, space ad, & other OFFLINE campaigns. And by all means ask him if you don’t believe me or anything I am writing abot here.

But he will tell you he has NEVER seen the kind of results we get.

It’s simply unprecedented.

Including when he worked directly with Gary Halbert, Agora, etc.

It is becoming more and more obvious to me that none of today’s goo-roos has a single blessed clue what we’re doing because it doesn’t jibe with the 30 years of absolute horse shyt these IM goo-roos have been teaching, doing, engaging, and getting away with due to all the free, cheap, easy credit their customers have had access to, but that is now taking a big, fat, wet, bite out of their businesses.

If you don’t believe me, just watch them.

Many will not be around a year, two years, from now.

Meanwhile, what we’ve been doing is the same things you’ve been seeing me do, write about, teach for 24 years now, if you’ve been on my list that long. Just the raw basics and fundamentals, applied consistently – day by day, month by month, year by year, and, yes, decade by decade.

Ain’t nothing new under the sun.

And my business partner Troy Broussard – who invented Low Stress Trading – is the same way.

We are totally immune to the FOMO and nonsense goo-roos all drool on the carpet over.

All we do is focus on the RAW fundamentals – what we control, and not what we can’t. That’s how, for example, we grew 600% last year while not only NOT using generative so-called AI, but banning anyone we catch using it in the community or even so much as using some idiotic AI “notetaker” bot on our Zoom webinars.

Which brings me to the punchline probably nobody wants to hear:

Hard work & RUTHLESS adherence to the fundamentals is more profitable than ever.

And that’s only going to be more the case over the coming months, years, decades imo.

If you want to learn the email-side of things, see the paid Email Players newsletter.

More info here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

“Based on Ben Settle’s tweets, which American president (NOT Donald Trump) does he sound like?”

So Stefania asked Grok.

To which, hallucinated quote about Halloween pulled from its own platform aside (guess I’ll have to give so-called AI another two years…), it answered with a surprisingly valuable email copywriting/marketing lesson.

(Grok’s wall-of-text answer edited for easier reading)

…Ben Settle is a direct-response copywriter and marketer known for his provocative, no-nonsense, and often polarizing email marketing advice.

His X posts tend to reflect this persona: blunt, opinionated, and unapologetic, with a mix of humor, self-promotion, and disdain for conventional thinking.

He often critiques modern culture, political correctness, and business norms, while emphasizing personal responsibility and contrarianism.

His style is informal yet commanding, and he’s not afraid to ruffle feathers to make a point.

Looking at American presidents (excluding Trump), one who stands out for a similar rhetorical flair is Andrew Jackson, the 7th president (1829–1837).

Jackson was a populist figure, known for his fiery, direct communication and disdain for elites.

He didn’t have social media, but his public speeches and writings—like his veto messages or his farewell address—were bold, confrontational, and aimed at connecting with the “common man” while attacking entrenched power structures (e.g., the Bank of the United States).

Jackson’s tone was often unpolished, aggressive, and polarizing, much like Settle’s tweets.

He positioned himself as an outsider, a trait Settle embraces by rejecting mainstream marketing dogma.

For example, Jackson’s 1832 Bank Veto Message called out “artificial distinctions” and “exclusive privileges” in a way that feels akin to Settle’s rants against “woke” culture or corporate fluff.

Both share a knack for plain-spoken, divisive rhetoric that rallies supporters and infuriates detractors. Jackson’s era lacked X’s brevity, but his style translates to short, punchy statements—like Settle’s tweet on March 25, 2025:

“Most people’s advice is just their insecurities wearing a cheap Halloween mask of wisdom.”

It’s folksy yet biting, a Jackson-esque vibe.

Other presidents, like Teddy Roosevelt, might come to mind for their boldness, but Roosevelt’s style was more polished and moralistic, less raw than Settle’s. Lincoln was too measured and philosophical, FDR too diplomatic in public. Nixon had paranoia but lacked the swagger. Settle’s unfiltered edge aligns most with Jackson’s frontier-spirit bravado.

So, based on [Ben Settle’s] tweets, he sounds most like Andrew Jackson.

I never wrote that Halloween line, just typical AI hallucinating.

Amusing how Grok can’t even accurately pull quotes from its own platform.

But as for the rest, l will take that as compliment.

Andrew Jackson has long been my #1 favorite President, for a whole host of reasons.

And there are many copywriting lessons embedded in this email, nestled between the lines for those with ears to taste and eyes to smell. The best lessons about nearly anything are very often taught that way.

Including stuff I write in the paid Email Players newsletter.

More about that here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a marketing story from my MLM days in 1998.

This was when the internet was still but a wee infant tugging on the teat of various tech companies. And while the company I shilled for sold various genuinely high-quality health products, they told us to only sell the opportunity-side, with little emphasis on the legitimate retail side.

The result?

For me the result was running to & fro, constantly pressuring family & friends about something they had zero interest in… and where the more I talked about it, the more they backed away physically, emotionally, and socially.

And who could blame them?

I made quite the arse of myself, to say the least.

And I would not be surprised one bit if many of those very same people would shun me as figurative leper to this day if I still lived in the quaint Midwest town I grew up in, as literal pariah and Persona non-grata.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how I’d do it different knowing what I do now.

And instead of chasing, hounding, pressuring, and begging people to buy a solution looking for a problem… I’d do the exact opposite.

For example:

I’d find a specific health problem I was passionate about solving, that I had genuine empathy for those suffering from, that one of the products in the company could help with.

Take low energy levels, for example.

I talked to my mom about this last time she visited.

And I was a very low energy teenager and, later, adult. I used to wonder how people had so much energy most of my life, while I slogged, yawned, and struggled to move and get work done at the various retail store, factory, and warehouse jobs I held down.

Not to mention when I was in high school sports, etc.

She wishes I’d said something back then, but I thought it was normal.

Back then (80’s & 90’s) they didn’t check young peoples’ thyroids which is a family curse, it turns out.

And so I had no idea, I just knew I was always tired.

But let’s say there was a product at the MLM I was that helped with this.

And let’s further say it legitimately worked.

Instead of sounding like an idiot talking to everyone within 3-feet asking if they keep their options open for ways to make money (literally what the trainers told us to do) and leading with the business opportunity while mindlessly citing benefits, statistics, testimonials, etc… what if I’d taken an Experience & Service-approach like I do with everything in my businesses today?

In this case:

Talking to people I saw and knew also had low energy?

Not “pitching” them.

Not trying to sell them or mentioning any products.

Just talking to them, in their Worlds, about THEM.

i.e., about their fears, worries, frustrations, insecurities.

Letting them vent, just listening, and having a discussion.

Then sharing the product, that I’d have been using myself of course, to help with that problem. And whether they bought or wanted it or not… becoming a resource about that problem, and inviting them to join an email list. And in that list, writing daily emails about low energy problems, low energy solutions, and, of course, plugging products about low energy.

And doing it all at their own pace, in their Worlds, about their misery.

And then:

ONLY when I got people letting me know the product had been working, and they were emotionally invested in it, and excited about it (and having better energy levels is extremely exciting if you have ever suffered low energy levels)… would I tell them about the business opportunity side.

And then:

What if I started creating a private email list and community just for them?

And if I was really gung-ho?

What if I also had local mixers, events, & networking meetings – including paid training, destination events, country club-style masterminds with other wealth, health, marketing, and selling-related training and experts invited… to make them better at building their own mini empires via the opportunity side?

Even becoming lifelong customers who go where I go.

And if the MLM itself was to dissolve, as many do?

Wouldn’t matter – I’d have a list of leads, buyers, associates, etc.

From there, I could create or find new, even better offers and Experiences for them unrestrained by the idiotic rules a lot of MLM companies impose upon people about marketing, advertising, and promotion outside of their limp, flaccid, corporate websites.

I think you can see where this is going.

And do you think the chances of someone getting in to that MLM, under those circumstances, AFTER going through that exact kind of Experience would make a difference not only in how many people I sponsored, but who came in correct, eager to sell the retail side, and then recruit from their own happy customers… would make a difference in ALL our successes?

You bet that sweet & sour gluteus assimus of yours it would.

But not just their buying Experience, though.

But also my own Experience selling in MLM vs all the depressed-off-their-asses sad sacks (I was one of those) MLM distributors getting shunned by friends, family, peers, and co-workers?

Do you think it’t have led to strong, lifetime relationships – business and personal?

Do you think it would have led to a much bigger email-driven business, about a topic that’d be as much fun for me to write about and sell as others to buy from due to that all-powerful and impossible-to-forget Experience?

All right, ’nuff said on that.

Here’s the point I want to make:

Business, marketing, copywriting is ultimately ALL about the Experience.

And I used the MLM story as example to show how this can make even something people normally back away from hearing about to want to eagerly chase you instead, if done right – by focusing not so much on force (persuasion, copywriting, sales tactics, whatever), but the LEVERAGE of buying Experience.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be good at force, too.

Obviously I use and teach force (email, sales copy, marketing, persuasion, etc).

But this Leverage-side of things is where the real money is.

Where the real business growth is.

And, I argue, where all the real fun, peace of mind, and long term success is.

More about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

An Email Players subscriber trapped inside the Socialist Republic of Illinois asked:

Hey Ben,

I know you’re from Illinois. So am I. Still live here, just more in the country of La Salle County. 

And I know you moved to Oregon, but deal with psychotic socialists there, too. 

For years, I’ve looked at places to move to. Missouri is at the top of the list. 

But because my family and my wife’s family all live here, we can’t seem to flee from the free childcare from people we know and trust (plus the happy memories our kids and their grandparents are making), among other reasons, despite the evil leftist policies ruining our home. 

What is your philosophy or advice for thriving as an outsider in a place you call home that’s run amok with government policies and leftist cultures you despise?

In my case it was easy:

I found a corner of the state where I’m more likely to see a Bigfoot than a drag queen.

Still, I don’t think there is any true “escape” from what’s happening to the US. I don’t care if you’re in a blue, purple, red, or fudge ripple state, either.

But, I do think one can try to stay out of the way.

The farther you can be from the consequences of leftist voting patterns, the better.

But really, even the so-called “pro freedom” guys are useless.

For instance, there’s a so-called “tax strike” in my own state this month.

And one of the people putting it together tweeted:

“Some candidates will not be attending due to leftist intimidation tactics. They were warned they would be doxxed, and because their campaigns and families matter, they made the decision to step back. That choice is respected.”

Ffs.

If they’re truly “pro-freedom” then running for public office is this day & age and ain’t being harassed, doxxed, smeared, slandered, your every word twisted & distorted, or threatened by rubbery and cowardly masked Antifa youths out past their bedtimes they ain’t doing their job.

These guys are timid little rabbits, when they should be more like porcupines.

i.e., guy coming at their families shouldn’t be cowered to, they should be target practice.

This war and they should embrace the conflict, not avoid it.

Doing so can be worth potentially millions in free media handed to them.

It can also make for meme-able content and something to rail against, etc.

Not to mention these “intimidating” leftists are daily excuses to talk to the would-be voters about the very problems these conservative politicians in my state always worried about making sure they are “above” toxic rhetoric (we could use MORE toxicity from the pro freedom guys, not less…) are supposedly out there trying to fix, even as they hide behind their families.

“Conservatives.”

In my state they couldn’t even “conserve” the ladies restroom or the ballot box from mail-in voting.

Such is how it goes in my state, and why I live on the last stop of the supply chain.

More about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

I recently heard through the grapevine that there’s a gaggle of young people in the marketing world who like to say I’m “old fashioned” and “out of touch” and “NGMI” and other such things,

And really, I don’t think it’s fair.

I mean, those labels don’t even BEGIN to describe me.

In fact, following are some old timey day truisms I put far more stock into than any tactic, technique, or corporate CEO fan fiction-pushed technology. Many were coined/practiced/implemented by extremely successful men during some particularly brutally hard times.

i.e., famines, pestilences, depressions, & persecution – social, religious, or political.

Enjoy…

* You calm an angry woman down by asking if she’s hungry, you make a boring woman fun by asking if she’s thirsty

* It’s easy to be a socialist with a roof over your head (and, I’d add, a $900 iPhone in your hand)

* The bigger the church hat, the more skeletons

* Bleeding hearts create bleeding bodies

* God doesn’t send out beggars

* Just because I’m a ____ doesn’t mean I’m not right

* You won’t worry where you’re next can of beans is coming from if you always have a can opener

* Don’t hire a cowboy with bloody spurs

* The deep stuff is at the shallow end of the pool

* No persecution, no urgency

* Isn’t there something better you could be doing?

* It’s when your eyes are tired that your scalp’s in the most danger

* Fortune curses the procrastinator

* The touch of a master is like the weight of a mountain

* A lock easily opened by a lot of keys ain’t a valuable lock

* If fish ain’t bitin’ throw ‘em a little chum

* And, finally, my one contribution to this list:

“You can’t kill a werewolf with a bitcoin”

Enough stone soup for the soul.

More about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

A recent comment about the power of using Vision for persuasion & influence:

“You know you’ve changed my mind about abortion with that description. (I’ve read it before in emails of yours.) I didn’t know it’s such a gruesome procedure. Now I’m more paranoid about not getting someone unintentionally pregnant. Thank you.”

The context:

He was referring to my latest Oregon Eagle newspaper article about using Vision to persuade & influence, and that I also sent as an email to this very list earlier this month.

There are few things more effective in the realm of influence & persuasion than Vision.

Listing and enlarging and dramatizing claims, benefits, logic, and sales “arguments” are not bad. But they mostly only create objections. Even doing great objection-handling ultimately often just creates more objections that have to then be dealt with in a lot of cases.

Not so Vision.

Vision argues nothing and it debates nothing.

And if you do it right, even if you don’t change a mind right away, you’ve planted a seed that often grows over time, with leads, customers, clients coming back later to buy what you’re selling.

Vision also gives people new ways of thinking about things.

To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes:

“A mind stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original shape”

This is why studying the late, great Jim Camp is almost like cheating in copywriting nowadays. He used Vision probably better than anyone. And he did it while never once using a Powerpoint in his decades-long career.

Because it’s not about YOUR Vision.

It’s about the adversary’s (i.e., your lead, customer, client) Vision.

Jim would say Powerpoints are designed to give Vision, but really just create intellectual information and objections. And he proved it by routinely winning and closing multiple simultaneous billion dollar negotiations using just his words and creating Vision.

The best part of it all though:

It is amusing to know people will just seethe silently about whatever you are writing about, since they can’t really argue with you, but would like to, but can’t, because they aren’t arguing with facts, stats, appeals to experts, logic… they’re just arguing with Vision, which can’t be argued with.

Vision can drive some people bananas due to this.

I’ve seen it and experienced it many times when using Vision about topics like, for example, abortion, or mocking people displaying their pronouns, or those who fell for the covid big pharma exec fan fiction shtick.

But Vision can also change even the most stubborn minds.

Including, as you can see, those still stubbornly worshipping at the altar of Molech in 2026..

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Ben Settle