Ben Settle

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…

My “Christian Business Secrets” book is one of the best (in my humble and purely BIASED opinion) overall business books on the planet. It’s designed so you can turn to any page and get some kind of tip, idea, insight or thought to make your business better — whether in sales, marketing, positioning, customer service or just being the kind of business people LIKE buying from.

And no… you don’t have to be Christian to profit from it.

In fact, check this 5 star amazon review out:

(From a self described Agnostic)

Agnostic-Or Possibly Buddhist, January 4, 2014

But I couldn’t resist and I bought this just for the title. I think this must be an excellent example of “exclusionary” or “tribe” marketing. And I really want to see how that rest of it plays out!!! Honestly, Business has no secrets. It’s all just things that you haven’t learned yet. In this case, I am expecting to learn how to do “exclusionary” marketing from an obvious expert.

So, there ya go.

Smart entrepreneurs find lessons everywhere.

And, in this case, you can learn things like:

• How to sell your products and services without feeling like you’re manipulating anyone.

• How one of the world’s top eBay sellers prospers online using scriptural principles freely available to the world.

• How to use your small business to bring about real changes in big corporations. (Boycotts don’t work — but THIS will.)

• How to use your house keys to discern if someone would be a good business partner or not.

• How to use popular persuasion “tactics” ethically and in a way that makes people glad and happy to do business with you.

• Why King Solomon (who was granted divine wisdom by God) probably would have been a HUGE fan of sending daily emails to his leads and prospects.

• A “can’t miss” way to win the trust of cold (and even hostile!) prospects.

• How to “arrange” it so nobody in your market wants to buy from anyone but you. (Even if you don’t have the lowest prices.)

• The Apostle Paul’s simple 3-step advertising system that’s since been used (consciously or unconsciously) by some of the most successful salesmen in history.

• And a ho’ bunch mo’…

Grab it here:

www.ChristianBusinessSecrets.com

Ben Settle

Burping along on my 2014 goals…

Last couple days I talked about having more patience and more self discipline — both of which will be invaluable in helping me achieve my next 2014 goal, which is none other than…

Pumping out more projects.

For example:

• Write a sequel to my zombie book (which will be about a vampire, not zombies)

• Start a weekly podcast

• Write 6-7 emails per week instead of 5

• Write more “How to” Kindle books

• Do more consulting type deals (like the “Oceans 4” mastermind workshop I’m doing with Andre Chaperon, Jack Born and Ryan Levesque in Vegas next month)

• Do more media appearances (radio and print)

• Write a book (about email marketing) for a traditional publisher

• And the list goes on…

Here’s the thing:

Over the past couple years I’ve kinda coasted.

By that I mean, I have mostly focused just on writing the “Email Players” newsletter, along with these emails, and emails for other ventures I have my fat fingers in… plus a few books here and there. But recently (for reasons I will go into later) I’ve been motivated to do more…

To push myself harder.

To conquer new territory.

And, build a legacy that outlives me.

I can’t do that by staying comfy.

Instead, I have to get out of my comfort zone.

And you know what?

You should do the same.

Not just in 2014.

But, for the rest of your life.

(Otherwise, what’s the point?)

More tomorrow.

Go here for more beef soup for the soul:

www.ChristianBusinessSecrets.com

Ben Settle

Yesterday I talked about patience.

How it gives you power.

And, how one of my 2014 goals is to have more patience, and use this attribute to accomplish more in all the important areas of my life (business, personal, family, etc).

Here’s another 2014 goal:

SELF DISCIPLINE

I have more than most people I know.

But, I still fall way short.

And thus, I want to have more.

This idea of having lots of self discipline is something I’ve thought a lot about ever since I first read Dan Kennedy’s excellent (“must read”) book “NO BS Time Management” waaaay back in 2002.

But, like with patience, I lost a lot of it in 2013.

And, like with patience, I had to rediscover it.

And not a moment too soon… because recently I got to thinking about how the times when I have the most self discipline are the times when I have the most control over myself, when I have the most patience, when I have peak health and energy levels, when I make the best decisions… and when I kick ass all around in my business and personal life — where everything just kind of falls into place.

It’s like a “magic pill” for success.

On the other hand…

When my self discipline falters, it’s the opposite.

Sales shrivel up.

My personal life goes into the dumpster.

And, I then have to work twice as hard to get things back to where they were before when I finally pull my head out of my bootay and get back into a disciplined frame of mind.

So anyway, that’s another 2014 goal:

To have more self discipline.

More tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out:

www.ChristianBusinessSecrets.com

Ben Settle

Gonna do something different today.

I’m cracking open my skull and letting you look at my brain.

(egh… that sounded gross, didn’t it? Hey, cut me some slack. I’m working on the second draft of my zombie novel I’ll be publishing in a few months, and the gore is bound to “seep” out into these emails from time to time…)

Specifically, I’m gonna tell you my 2014 goals.

This’ll take multiple emails.

But, maybe they’ll inspire you.

We shall see…

Anyway, my most important goal is:

PATIENCE

Why is this my #1 goal?

Because, my little droogie, patience is what separates the boys from the men. Patient men lead and inspire people to trust them… impatient men bring down and hurt people through their bad decisions and lack of discipline. Patient men are confident and have power over themselves and over others… impatient men are insecure and have no power over their urges, emotions or others. Patient men don’t waver and buckle under pressure, they endure and wait for the right time to act… impatient men react to pressure and often do the exact opposite what they should do, wasting their shot and often causing misery around them as a result.

You get the picture, yeah?

Patience is power.

Power over yourself.

Power over your opponents.

And, power over your world.

But you know what?

I lost a lot of my patience in 2013.

Frankly, I used to have this patience “attribute” in spades.

“Delayed gratification” was my middle name.

I would eagerly wait weeks, months even YEARS to implement plans and ideas simply because I knew that would be the best chance of those ideas succeeding in all the important areas of my life:

• Business
• Family
• Relationships
• Education
• And the list goes on….

But, something happened in 2013 to change that.

Exactly what happened, I know not.

What I DO know is I had unstoppable patience in 2012.

And in 2011.

And in 2010.

And, really, my entire business life.

(Going back to 1998.)

Then, about mid way through 2013… it was gone.

Vanished like a fart in the wind.

Good news is, I recently found my patience again.

(In the last place I looked — where all my lost time is found too).

Now it’s just a matter of getting it back to the “unconscious competence” mode it used to be in — where it was as automatic as breathing, instead of the “conscious competence” mode it’s in now, where I have to sometimes remind myself of it.

Hey, you can NEVER rest on your laurels.

I don’t care how great your life is now.

Or, how successful you are.

In fact, the more successful you get, the more you have to be on guard about losing the things that made you successful in the first place.

Now, let’s wrap this email up:

One product that takes patience to read is…

“Christian Business Secrets”

It’s a looooong book.

Thick with information.

And, not for “casual” readers.

It’s also *patiently* waiting for you here:

www.ChristianBusinessSecrets.com

Ben Settle

“About the whole no guns thing… not sure I feel as strongly about it as you”

– Catwoman
“The Dark Knights Rises”

Let’s talk about guns.

It’s been a while since I stirred up the gun haters on my list who think guns are the devil and only unaccountable government agents should be allowed to possess them (because, you know, that worked so well historically with the Nazis, Commies and other monsters who have slaughtered their own people when left defenseless).

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah, last time I talked about this was a year ago.

It was right after the Sandy Hook tragedy.

And, it was about how, at the EXACT time that tragedy happened, I was at a shooting range, with well over a dozen guns popping off on both sides of the shooting bay I was in. And yet, I was a gazillion times safer there than your child was that day sitting there exposed in a “gun free” public school classroom.

Yes, it’s true.

All those “icky” guns around me posed no danger.

Yet, at that school where those innocent kids were slaughtered, the “no guns” rules did nothing to protect them.

No amount of gun control will change this fact.

And, no amount of anti-gun drama queening will change it, either.

Now, of course I got a bunch of angry mail (lots of funny, mindless “hulking out” comments) that day — most of it just “link bombs” (when people send you a dozen links to biased websites, thinking you’re going to spend all day reading them). All of them ignoring the facts (like what the FBI says about the issue). And, basically relying on various straw man arguments more full of holes than the target I just got done riddling with bullets at the gun range that day.

Anyway, why am I bringing this up?

To make some people shake in anger?

Rally others to the cause?

Amuse myself with the flurry of emails I’ll get from people who have nothing to say except accuse me of watching Fox News (I don’t even have cable TV), being a Tea Party member (I’m not) or being in the NRA (never have been)?

Well, there may be a little “amusement baiting” going on.

These emails exist to amuse me first and foremost.

But also, I want to talk about something important.

And that is…

Being armed and prepared in 2014.

And no, there is no marketing lesson here.

So if you’re just going to squawk on about how you joined this list to get email marketing info and not my views on saving your life, then the opt out link is below.

Don’t let the unsubscribe page hit you in the butt.

Come, stay, lay or pray, I care not what you do, either way.

What?

You’re still here?

Okay, good.

Then, check this out:

Last week I read an article about a Wall Street advisor recommending stocking up on guns and ammo for protection in case of a collapse (which he and many of his colleagues believe very possible thanks to growing debt and deficit spending, the devaluation in the U.S. dollar, the idiocy that we know as Obamacare, the NSA dismantling your freedoms day by day… and the list goes on).

Don’t worry.

This wasn’t doom-saying.

He wasn’t even saying it positively WILL happen.

Only that we should be prepared.

And, let’s face it:

Only a fool would say you shouldn’t be prepared.

And the first part in prepping in my humble (but accurate) opinion… is gunning up, babycakes.

And, doing it fast.

As in yesterday.

It’s so simple, too:

Buy a gun and then get trained on how to use it.

Now, whenever I write about this topic, some sob sister or mush cookie will tell me a story of woe about someone she knows who was killed with a gun (no doubt in a “gun free” zone or city). Apparently, I’m supposed to let her story persuade me to give up my Second Amendment right to bear arms and defend myself.

Uhm, no.

It just emboldens me more.

And, serves as another example for the importance of arming yourself.

So to my sob sister and mush cookie friends, some advice:

Instead of telling tear jerking stories, buy yourself a gun.

Or two.

Or three…

(I’m adding at least another 2 to my collection in the next week or so, and trust ye me, guns are NOT getting cheaper).

Give one to your spouse.

Another to your parents.

And any other loved ones, too.

And if things don’t collapse into hell in a handbasket?

What then?

Good!

If you never have to use it in self defense it’s done its job. Kinda like having 6 months of savings in cash, or a well stocked pantry you never have to use.

On the other hand…

If there is a collapse and “every man for himself” chaos?

And you and your family’s backs are to the wall?

Well at least you’re prepared.

You’re ready.

And, can take action instead of being a helpless victim.

That’s why I say “gun up or shut up.”

Because all those silly anti-gun platitudes and faux statistics passed around the media from the talking points of politicians and fat celebrities who live in gated communities and have body guards won’t do you a lick of good in a crisis situation.

Neither will hiding under your bed.

Or even calling the police.

Plus, who knows?

You may even like your gun once you give it a shot…

Alright, end of Ben Settle Service Announcement.

(BSA?)

One last thing:

If you also want to be “prepped” for business this year, I also highly recommend (and I am obviously biased) this book:

www.ChristianBusinessSecrets.com

It won’t save your life.

But, it could help save your business.

Happy shooting…

Ben Settle

Few months back, I received this interesting question.

A question a LOT of people wonder about.

(Especially those swallowing the “move the free line” nonsense.)

And, my little droogie, if you take what I am about to say to heart, methinks you will find yourself getting a lot more sales, with a lot less effort, and with a lot more fun.

Behold…

I am wondering if your daily marketing advice applies to people in fields such as mine. I’m a recipe “blogger” I guess who writes recipe ebooks and cookbooks as my only way of supporting myself. I had turned my aweber unsubscribe comments off for about a year and I turned them on again recently and I’m getting a lot of nasty complaints from people.

I send out 1 free recipe, 1 free article (sometimes has a plug for something on amazon or one of my recipe books), and 1 promotion with 1 reminder a week.

And I get so many emails from people saying I send too much stuff they cannot read it, and then others who are downright livid I use emails to promote my books. My readers seem to be the 40-70 year old range, female, overweight, sickly, cheap American who is highly offended by anything that’s not free.

Some say I should give even more free content and less promos (how do I pay bills?) and you say send daily emails. Not sure what to do because my readers do not like/understand the purpose of email marketing.

This email begot a LONG response from me.

And, I put my entire response in the January “Email Players” issue — which goes to the printer in a couple short days.

But for now?

Here’s a “sneak preview” for ya.

She is making a CLASSIC marketing mistake:

Not selling to *buyers*.

There’s a marketing formula that goes like this:

Your list is 50% of the battle.

Your offer is 30%.

And your copy is 20%.

In her case, she is simply generating the wrong traffic and is the first “bottleneck” she must figure out before going further. And if she simply fixes that, most of her other marketing problems disappear.

If not?

Then, mailing daily won’t do her any good.

In fact, it’ll actually work *against* her.

I know, I know…

Kinda simple advice isn’t it?

Mayhaps it is.

Yet, how many people follow it?

How many people waste their lives slaving over creating videos, reports and other “content” to try to prove they aren’t (gasp!) sales people and businesses that exist to make a profit… instead of just learning how to SELL?

Far too many, I say.

Selling.

It’s like a dirty work.

Yet, it’s what your prospects want.

What they enjoy.

And, frankly, what they need.

So give it to ’em already, Chuckles.

What are you afraid of?

I even show you how to sell with email in a way people like reading and buying from in the “Email Players Playbook” that comes with your subscription.

Details at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Recently I got an earful from an angry customer.

No, not one of my customers.

Some goo-roo’s customer.

And she was saying how she bought a product that was supposed to help with SEO (something like that) but was outdated info, didn’t have a prayer of working and she wanted her money back which she assumed she would get.

But alas, it wasn’t so.

For one, she had to jump through a lot of hoops.

Then, ended up talking to half a dozen people who kept shunting her to another person and then another…

And after all that, she still hasn’t gotten her money back.

But, here’s the thing:

She KNEW she shouldn’t have bought in the first place.

The seller had a bad reputation. The ad was full of hype and nonsense. And, she had even known someone else who had gotten burned by the exact same seller.

It’s loco.

(Yes, she’s reading this, but needs the tough love…)

Frankly, it’s like some guy in a ski mask hopping out of the back of a windowless van with a rag in his hand, asking her “does this rag smell like chloroform?” and her agreeing to smell it.

Anyway, the point?

It’s like comedian Dante Nero says:

“When you feel a tingle in your nuts chances are you’re going to get kicked in the balls “

True ‘dat.

And you know what?

This is especially true buying online.

Now, let’s talk about something else:

The January “Email Players” issue goes to the printer Wednesday.

Here’s what’s inside:

• An email (word for word) that made a small fortune for the subscriber who sent it to me (and how you can “model” it for your own products)

• When daily emails work AGAINST you

• How to use email to nab sales from crappy Clickbank traffic

• How to use a 100-year old classified ad to make even your most outrageous claims 100% believable

• Gary Halbert’s “ignore proof” subject line template

• How to “trick” clients into writing 80% of your emails for you

• And a ho’ bunch mo’

Get your New Year issue lovin’ here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Change of plans today.

I originally wanted to show you some hate mail since I LOVE me a hot, steamy piece of hate mail in the morning.

It sends a tingle up my leg.

And, serves as a reminder I’m doing things right.

But alas, I’m fresh out of hate mail.

So, I’m gonna do something else, instead.

I’m gonna show you some marketing LOVE mail instead.

Starting with…

Casey Meyers, who recently sent me this on facebook:

“Your email drip has neutralized my ability to say no. You seem like a cross between Alec Baldwin in the movie GlenGarry-GlenRoss and Nine Inch Nails.”

I REALLY dig that comparison.

(If you’ve seen the movie you know why…)

This next piece of marketing lovin’ is especially cool.

Why?

It’s from the co-founder of the #1 company on ClickBank.

(i.e. the biggest distributor of digital products on the Internet).

And, here’s what he sent:

“Hey Ben – (this is Joshua Pellicer) I just wanted to acknowledge you and thank you for giving Jim Clair a shout out in the email you sent out. he came to me with no copywriting experience less than a year ago (maybe 8 months or so?) and now he’s doubling conversions for our upsells and basically carrying the company on his copywriting skills – not least of which are the emails he sends out – which are in my voice and are very impressive. He’s a better copywriter than I was when I wrote the Goldfish VSL with Jon Benson. Thanks very much for supporting him like this.”

Next…

Some lovin’ from website reader Misha Miller.

She says:

“Your book Copywriter’s crib sheet was recommended on my kindle and the sample copy made me buy it. You gave away the first 8 chapters filled of great, straight-to- the-point tips. Nobody is ever that generous. Really appreciated the one about using negativity to your advantage. I bought it to see what other great things could be done in the name of copy. Thank you.”

Finally…

Here’s a fat one from Email Player Patrick Williamson:

“I just wanted to thank you… not just for the training and the philosophy of what you do, but (maybe) more importantly for the fact that you’re the ONLY marketer in my inbox every single weekday! Nobody else has pulled that off. Not even close. At this point, I can’t imagine you NOT being in my inbox every weekday. Just wouldn’t be the same without you 🙂 That daily reminder of your existence and the common sense you’re trying to instill in the internet marketing industry on a daily basis has made ALL of the difference in the world. Persistence, alone, is omnipotent, and you’ve proven that maxim and lived it to the hilt with your daily emails. My hats off to you, Ben!”

Anyway, the point of all this?

To stroke my ego?

No…

I wanted to show off my “harem” of recent marketing love mail.

And, tempt you to look closely at “Email Players”.

Subscription info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One thing I never say is “Email Players” is for everyone.

Because it ain’t.

In fact, I not only make that abundantly clear on the sales letter, but I “pepper” my daily emails with verbiage to discourage those who either won’t last or won’t implement the information properly even if they do.

Still, sometimes people slip through the cracks.

And, when they do, I tell my list about it.

(So those NOT qualified don’t bother subscribing.)

For example, here’s a recent comment:

We have a corporate marketing staff that approves everything we send out and I just can’t get them to buy into some of your practices and ideas. They insist on us using Gitomer’s Ace of Sales product with all of the cutesy clip art and other trappings.

I understand.

Really, I do.

This guy is in a no-win situation.

And this is one reason why my newsletter is (except in rare cases) intended ONLY for independent entrepreneurs who wear the pants in their own business, not corporate clients or business owners who take orders from their own clueless “creatives” who couldn’t make a sale if their lives depended on it.

Hey…

Need wifey’s permission to make a business decision?

Afraid your employees will bristle at testing my methods?

Filter your emails through 17 idiots to get them “approved”?

Then get thee away.

It ain’t personal.

But, I don’t want to disrupt the balance of power in your business if your employees or “creatives” make all your marketing decisions… or if you work for clients afraid to test my (admittedly unconventional) email marketing methods just because it makes them nervous.

Save your money.

And, save your time.

There are lots of “safe” methods out there.

But, you won’t find them here.

On the other hand…

If you think you got the right stuff, check out:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle