Ben Settle

Recently, there was a revelation in my Facebook group.

Some of my fine feathered drooglings inside were discussing their Myers Briggs personality types. And, after a while, I decided to have mercy on them and chime in with this zinger:

“Revealing your myers briggs stuff is all well and good, as long as everyone is crystal clear that, behind every personality type, there’s an INTJ like me pulling your strings, manipulating you, and getting you to do my bidding… without you even realizing it and even thinking it’s all your idea when really it has been mine probably for weeks, months, and even years in advance…”

Followed by a YouTube clip of Emporer Palpatine (another INTJ) saying:

“Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design”

And, so it is.

What?

You think you’re on this list on accident? That you keep reading these emails (even though you may despise me and everything I stand for) because it’s your choice? You actually think I won’t eventually sell you — even if you opt out today and swear you never want anything to do with me ever again?

Foolish mortal.

Your ass belongs to me.

And, it always has.

And if you’re not mine already, you will be.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. And when you finally submit to my ways, you’ll be so happy and content, you’ll wonder why you ever struggled at all.

Search your feelings, you KNOW it to be true.

But, with knowledge comes responsibility.

So, now you have a choice:

1. You can keep fighting submitting to me and learning my email ways to make yourself a boatload of new sales, give yourself financial stability, and have a helluva fun time doing it…

Or…

2. You can save yourself the agonizing pain and despair of having to admit to me “Ben, you were right…” later (and leaving who-knows-how-much money on the table), by giving yourself sweet release now via subscribing to “Email Players” before the looming deadline here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Adventures in Twitter advertising:

I’ve been dabbling with Twitter advertising for the last month or so via Shane Hunter who always whips up the most controversial ads for me. In fact, I know when Shane has cooked another Twitter ad up because sometimes I’ll start getting weird troll replies to my Twitter ads.

It even doesn’t take much to wake a Twitter troll up, either.

For example:

Shane put up a Twitter ad that said:

“DO NOT follow this guy if you LOVE being a broke business owner. DO follow if you want email marketing advice that works”

Kinda tame for a Shane Hunter ad, actually.

But, apparently not too tame for the trolls.

What happened was, a little troll hungry for attention got so obsessed with my tweets (I basically retweet lots of right wing pro freedom, anti-liberal, anti big government, anti abortion, etc tweets, which is like my version of TV — it entertains and amuses me) he took the time making a collage of some of my retweets with the caption “email marketing that works!”

Ooh.

There was a time I would have blasted the little troll.

Nowadays?

I simply take trolls’ silly little comments and use them in emails (like I’m doing in this one) to make more sales with. I’ve done it with Kindle review trolls, iTunes review trolls, website trolls, Flakebook trolls, and many other species of trolls.

It’s fun once you get into it.

And, profitable to boot.

I highly suggest you try it some time.

To learn my “troll bait” email ways, check out the “Email Players” newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Several months ago someone on Flakebook asked their friends what podcasts they listen to and why.

I am not friends with this particular bloke.

But, one of my podcast listeners tagged me in the comments.

(A cool thing for him to do, I might add.)

So I click over there to see what’s going on… and right under the comment recommending my show some chick goes (paraphrased) “I tried listening to Ben’s podcast but all he did was talk about Jesus and the Bible”

(Something like that, you get the gist.)

Which is kind of amusing.

Especially since, there have only been but two shows (out almost 100) where I pulled business lessons from the Bible (each of which has put many a shiny sheckel into elBenbo’s money bag). And, both couldn’t have been more clear that those episodes weren’t church, I couldn’t care less what you believe, and there was no evangelizing going on.

Anyway, why do I bring this up?

Because today I’m doing something similar:

Pulling profitable business lessons out of the book of Luke.

But, not just any ol’ business lessons.

Extremely profitable lessons.

Including one lesson that, if you *only* learned this one lesson about persuasion and selling, you would be able to make a lot of sales even if you struggle with selling now.

These lessons work for anyone:

Christian, pagan, and fire-breathing atheist alike.

They’re like the law of gravity:

They “work” whether you believe in them or not.

And, these same lessons have been used for thousands of years in all kind of sales and persuasion situations. Thus, it’d be foolish to not use them just because I teach them from (gasp! oh no!!!) the Bible.

All right.

Enough.

You can download this bad-boy here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Behold this recent iTunes podcast review:

“I recently got into marketing and I wanted to learn how to write better. Not sure how I came across Ben but he really does shoot it to you straight. You know exactly what you are getting and quite frankly I think that is why a lot of people either love him or hate him. The ones that hate him probably have a pussification factor about that that they cannot accept the truth. The truth is hard to swallow but thank you Ben and Jonathan for cutting through the noise and giving the cold hard truth because ultimately it will make us all better for it whether we agree or disagree. Truth is truth.”

The reviewer’s opinion is correct, of course.

And tomorrow’s episode is no different.

It’s guaranteed to offend the pussified.

Can’t be helped, either.

Because, in 2015 you can’t swing a bat without offending someone.

In fact, recently I saw a meme on Twitter with this guy playing “Twister” with some light beams, all contorted and twisted around to avoid any of the lights touching him with the words:

“Trying not offend people in 2015”

Anyway, new episode airs tomorrow.

In the meantime, download our other shows here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

True story:

I was recently talking to a friend about how my dog Zoe is a living, breathing, and barking example of how to get all the clients (coaching, consulting, freelancing) and customers you want. And, get them coming to you, instead of you going to them.

Here’s what I mean:

My dog Zoe is part corgi and basenji.

The basenji part is strong with her.

And, because of that, she has an instinct to chase things (basenjis are African hunting dogs). In fact, I was told when I first adopted her from the dog shelter that, if she were to get away from me, the LAST thing I should do is chase her because that’ll just make her run. Instead, I was told to do the opposite — and run the other way, so there is a chance she will want to chase me, instead.

And guess what?

So it is with getting clients:

(If’n clients is your bag, baby.)

Person becomes a coach or freelancer or whatever.

Person starts buying into all the so-called law of attraction.

Person realizes it doesn’t really magically work the way their favorite woo-woo universe-worshipping vibrating shaman selling them all the law of attraction products via Facebook says it should.

Person then gets desperate.

Person then gets needy.

Person then starts chasing, instead of positioning themselves so people chase them.

Person then gets mad at elBenbo for (obnoxiously) saying “I told you so”…

Which reminds me:

One of the sales letter inserts in the January “Email Players” issue is a pitch for one of the single best products I’ve ever seen for coaches, freelancers, and consultants getting booked with all the paying clients your greedy little spleen desires.

How about that?

This email isn’t pitching content.

It’s pitching another pitch within a pitch.

I bet that’s a first…

Here’s where to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An amusing observation:

Over the weekend I made an offer (via 4 emails spanning Thursday through Sunday) to everyone on my list. If you bought my new “Demon Crossfire” novel (and sent me your receipt) I would send you a copy of a valuable eBook called “Blue Chip Email Secrets”.

The deadline to do this was crystal clear:

Midnight EST last night.

And, for the most part, everyone made it on time.

Except about a dozen or so people.

These stragglers sent their receipt either just after the deadline or, in some cases, way after the deadline (as in this morning when I woke up, people were still sending them in).

Same with the Bob Bly offer I did on December 1st.

I made it clear:

If you opted in to his list and forwarded me the welcome email before midnight that same night (24 hour time frame), I would give you a valuable tip I learned from Bob about how to get more freelance clients (copywriting, coaching, consulting, whatever service).

The result?

Like with my novel, most people got theirs in before the deadline.

But, several moseyed on in after.

Anyway, here’s the point:

For a bunch of people in direct marketing, these fine feathered Burgle timers (Burgle time is being late — as *almost* (not you Jodi, Tim, and Shaun) everyone I know in The Burgle when I lived there was late for everything, zero respect for other peoples’ time) sure are clueless about what a deadline is or how to use Google to know how to calculate time zones.

Which is both pathetic and amusing.

But, you know what’s even MORE amusing?

And, even MORE pathetic?

While I am generally never late (and irritatingly early, according to some people)… I can never figure out all these stoopid time zones either.

Thus, I kindly sent the eBook to the late stragglers anyway.

(With a jerky little note, of course.)

Anyway, there’s probably a lesson here.

But, hellz if I know what it is.

In the meantime, check out “Email Players” here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. Yes, it’s too late to send me the receipt.

But thank you for buying my novel, even if you did do it late and aren’t going to get anything in return for doing it. You’re an even more wonderful American than Obama for doing that, and I appreciate it…

Today’s controversy-free Ben Settle Show podcast episode reveals:

• The real reason why single chicks love to own cats. (And why investing in cat supply companies could be one of the best investments someone can make in the next 20 years.)

• A fast and simple way to eliminate the anxiety of finding a new market to sell to.

• Why I almost always do the exact opposite of what all the gurus and experts say. (It’s not a rebellious thing — it just works out where I make a lot more sales. Here’s why.)

• A real life example of how to turn a one-shot sale product into a continuity product.

• The coffee tax secret for finding out what people *really* want to buy instead of what they simply say they want to buy.

• Yet another reason not to trust email open rates over sales.

• Why the vast majority of people who claim the Bible is their favorite book are lying through their teeth (and how to use this information to make more sales with regardless of what you sell).

• How to use the Bible to predict hot new investment opportunities.

• A scientific way to manufacture your own luck. (Nothing mystical or woo-woo about this, it’s just common sense and it works virtually every time it’s tried.)

• How The Secret is keeping so many otherwise intelligent men and women lonely, single, or “settling” (heh) with the wrong person.

• How to use “short cuts” to write ads that make lots of sales even if your copy sucks.

• And lotza more…

Download today’s not-so-righteous show right here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

True story:

A few years back the city of Seattle wanted to tax coffees to pay for child daycare and local opinion polls (i.e. “surveys”) showed a whopping 70% of people were for it.

Oh, how all the coffee-drinking liberals loved the idea.

Finally — a government who cares about the chilllllldren!

Thus, everyone was for that tax.

People were excited to support it.

And, the voters were all geared up to pass it.

Except, for one thing.

The measure fell flat on its gluteus assimus.

A full 68% rejected it.

(The exact OPPOSITE of the poll data.)

The point?

People often say they want one thing, but then proceed to “vote” for the opposite (with their wallets, their feet, whatever).

Anyway, there’s a powerful marketing lesson here.

And, that is:

“Votes trump polls”

This applies in politics and in business alike.

And, in tomorrow’s Ben Settle Show podcast, Producer Jonathan and I rap about this and 6 other new “Email Players” rules.

To check out past shows while you’re waiting, go ye here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a story.

Few years ago, my friend (who works a full time corporate job) became intrigued by how my day basically consisted of getting up at whatever time I wanted, writing an email (and sometimes nothing at all), grabbing something to eat, then going to the beach or doing something fun (golf, road trip, hanging out with whoever, etc) the rest of the day.

Zero stress.

Zero drama.

And, zero angsting.

At the time I was worn down from 10 years of working 15+ hour days (sometimes 7 days per week), some personal crap (divorce, etc), and burnout.

So, I really did do the absolute minimum.

(i.e. my daily email, write the Email Players issue, etc).

And I had been doing the minimum for almost a year.

But, here’s the thing:

During that time my income did NOT go down.

It went up.

And I was (shall we say) financially content.

Thus, my friend started calling it “The Ben Settle Lifestyle” (heh) and asked how she could do the same thing.

Ironically…

(funny timing?)

Around that time a website subscriber also asked:

“Does [Email Players] also  share the business model you use… so that we can actually live the lifestyle.”

Thus my lightbulb flickered.

Hey, the email “how to’s” are important.

But, so is the business side.

And guess what?

Last Fall I spoke at Ryan Lee’s Freedym Fest about this. In about 3 minutes I explained my business model (it’s laughably simple), and the rest was email marketing “how to” info — including a few things I have never taught before, not even to my “Email Players” subscribers.

Until now, that is.

Here’s what I mean:

The December “Email Players” issue includes the 20-minute video of that talk. I had to boil 14+ years into 20-minutes (that was the allotted time I had), and I believe I did just that.

Anyway, people paid $700+ to be there.

You can get it free.

That is, if you’re an “Email Players” subscriber in time.

Subscribe here immediately (today is the deadline) to get this bonus training:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle