“Email Players” subscriber Matt Rizvi recently wrote on his blog:
I’ve read so much of Ben’s stuff, that I can spot his lingo, his cadence, his Midwest charm, from the other end of this flat Earth.
But I didn’t realize how much I knew Ben’s sound until I joined the lists of lesser-known copy ‘experts.’
Then something strange happened…
I started hearing Ben’s voice EVERYWHERE.
Not just his principles, his style: from the way he spells bid’nis (instead of business), shyt (instead of shit), or ho’ (instead of whole)… way down to the granular stuff like the exact time he sends his emails in the morning (6:30am PST). I even see guys ripping off the look of his landing pages (you know who you are).
Mr. Rizvi is, unfortunately, correct about all of this.
I say unfortunately for two reasons:
1. I don’t like people who are incapable of thinking for themselves
(And prefer they haunt someone else)
2. They are only hurting themselves, and some even get mocked in many circles as frauds — including the circles they probably want to be invited in to some day.
(But won’t because nobody will trust them.)
As the great Ken McCarthy writes in his “System Club Letters” book:
“Copycats don’t get far in jazz. In fact, they don’t exist. Unless you can figure out how to bring something new to the table, there’s no seat for you. Business is a little more tolerant of ‘knock off’ artists, but in the long run the prize goes to businesses that develop a unique personality. The ‘me too’ business makes for slim pickings.”
Want to excel at what you do?
Get the best customers and clients?
Make the max amount of of the green stuff?
Then think and solve problems, instead of incessantly aping and copying. (Every ad/email is a unique problem you can’t solve by mindlessly swiping someone else’s personality, writing style, ways of talking, etc).
Do that and you may be copied, but never duplicated.
Why?
Because you’ll be an original you.
(Instead of a fax of a copy of a scan of someone else.)
To learn how to write emails this way, go here:
Ben Settle
