Ben Settle

Last month on Twitter, a fellow named Alex Tsel observed about me:

I don’t how and why but you might be one of the most misunderstood people in our space… Unless it’s on purpose ?

If that’s true (and that is for others to decide, not me), then it’s not as if it ain’t my own fault. I’m a walking contradiction in a lot of ways. Which is why everything I say, do, teach, say should always be taken with a big, fat block of salt.

For example, I have:

• written 9 novels, yet don’t read fiction
• penned 10k+ pages of books/8k+ emails so far, yet still can’t spell to save my life
• hosted 237 podcasts, have done hundreds of hours of audio work, yet suck at pronunciation, and constantly butcher the language
• spoken at many events, masterminds, etc… yet I shun people
• sell a single video course for $2500, but absolutely loathe video, and will not rest until the internet to goes back to plain text
• have a coaching program, but have never hired a coach in my life in the business, marketing, copywriting, email, sales arena
• love being around my child, don’t like being around anyone else’s children

And that’s just a few contradictions.

Which should give anyone hope that whatever they want to do, they can…

Here are some more:

• Despise MLM, yet I enjoy teaching lessons I learned from people I respect in that industry
• Own a SaaS company, yet couldn’t write line of code if my life depended on it
• Hate seafood, yet live across street from ocean in fishing town
• Invested half a million in a mobile app platform based on audio/video/pdf content, but still prefer writing print books & newsletters

And the list goes on.

On and on and on it goes.

One contradiction after another.

And this “contradiction effect” is probably something that also happens (not on purpose, if it does, or you see it happening) throughout the content inside my Email Players newsletter in a lot of cases.

Subscription info here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of my all-time favorite writers to study is Chuck “The Legend” Dixon.

He was the co-creator of Bane from the Batman comics & movies. And he has also written stories for pretty much all the most well-known characters at both Marvel & DC & other major comicbook publishers — including The Punisher & Batman… GI Joe & Conan the Barbarian… Spawn, Green Arrow, The Lone Ranger, The Simpsons, SpongeBob Square Pants, and even Raggedy Ann & Andy. Not to mention dozens and dozens of other beloved and well-known characters over the past 30+ years of his career. He is also the only person who has ever been allowed to adapt “The Hobbit” into a graphic novel, which the Tolkien estate did not allow lightly.

One of the more powerful writing tips I learned from studying his stuff:

“The Slob Hero”

The slob hero is the guy who is far from perfect, often kind of a slob (thus why Chuck calls them that), flawed, but still likable, who you can identify with because of his imperfections… and somehow gets the job done anyway, with all odds stacked against him.

Think almost any 80’s or 90’s Bruce Willis action movie.

(Die Hard, The Last Boy Scout, etc)

The slob hero is the epitome of being “un-okay.”

And un-okay is the epitome of high-level selling, even though a lot of marketers try to pretend to be perfect with their filtered selfies, perfect production value videos/audios, and perfect spelling & grammar in their sales copy & emails.

But the slob hero?

Doesn’t care about perfection.

Couldn’t be perfect even if he tried.

And so, instead, leans into it, uses it to accomplish his goals, win the day.

This has, in many ways, been my email game for 21-years.

My copywriting game, too.

And if you are paying attention you’ll see the exact same phenomenon playing out with many successful copywriters, email marketers, salesmen spanning all kinds of markets, niches, industries, and product & service categories.

Perfect is boring.

It’s also a bald-face lie.

Nobody and nothing is “perfect.”

So to try to pretend to be perfect is the exact opposite of honesty, transparency, and, yes, authenticity — which people have somehow lost the ability to be, where there are literally courses, books, seminars, and trainings (yes, trainings — with an “s” — for the uptight boys & ghouls who get upset by a letter…) teaching how to do it.

But you don’t learn it.

You “are” it.

Because unless you’re God, you ain’t perfect anyway.

Anyway, the slob hero phenomenon is embedded all throughout every single offer, book, course, teaching, brain fart, post, and even customer service reply I create.

And this is especially the case with my Email Players newsletter.

You can read more about that here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Behold a tale of two courses:

Both from marketers who I immensely respect, whose teachings have radically increased my business’ sales over the years, and whose “DNA” weave & strand through just about everything I do, say, teach, sell, and promote — from my books, emails, & newsletters to my business philosophies, sales copy approach, and even the software platforms I’ve been helping design and co-create the last few years.

The first:

Gary Bencivenga.

i.e., universally considered to be the world’s greatest living copywriter.

And his “Farewell” course is tied for my #1 favorite course of all time as for having the most immediate and long term impact (first ad I wrote using it was a control for like 9 years before the client retired it, if that tells you something… with many more after that, including my best sales letters to this day) on my sales copy.

It’s also a high class course.

Nothing low brow about it — prestigious, refined, & high quality, just like his advertising.

Every single aspect of it is pure class.

In fact, I remember writing to Gary — I couldn’t not let him know — how the course gave me “goose flesh” (literally), that’s how much of an impact it had from the quality of the DVDs/video, to the atmosphere he taught in, to the high-level information, to the illustrated transcript book, and even the ordering process itself.

All pure class.

A+ in every way.

And he spared no expense with it.

One of the themes of the course is literally:

“Why not the best?”

And the way he created it fulfills on that nicely.

So that’s course #1.

The course that is tied with Gary’s course for #1 on impact on my business is the great “King of Email” himself Matt Furey’s (original) Furey Formula For Making A Fortune with Email course. It has had just as much impact on my business, sales, & response. I even told Matt that without him and sharing his knowledge I’d probably be pumping gas at a Chevron for a living, and that is more true than not.

Matt changed everything for my business, just like Gary did.

And yet, Matt’s course is the complete opposite in production values:

For one thing, it’s pure audio.

And instead of being polished, a lot of it taught off-the-cuff.

Sometimes you can’t even understand what people in the room are saying (good reason to listen multiple times…) With lots of amusing profanity, dirty inside jokes, back-and-forth banter with the people in the room digging deeper into the craft than one can possibly go with a structured talk, and sometimes it sounds like it was recorded ten feet away from everyone talking compared to today’s technology. (He recorded it it in 2005, when I don’t even think they had half the options we have today).

i.e., it’s the kind of content I personally prefer consuming & creating when I sell digital:

Low brow production, 100% raw, pulls zero punches, little or no refinement.

Again, both these courses tied for #1 on my list.

I proselytize both of them, to everyone, to this day, and always will.

But at the same time:

You could not have two different kinds of production values. Or two different kinds of teaching styles. Or two different kinds of approaches to course creation. They are both the most valuable courses I own, and both are equally valuable to my business. You could also say the same thing about Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters (came without a cover due to hot Florida sun melting it in fulfillment, oversized, hard to hold, no structure or table of contents, goes off topic constantly, hand written — i.e., sometimes hard to read — pages) vs the more professional and prestigious-looking books that have had equal impact like Dan Kennedy’s No BS Time Management book or Joe Vitale’s (original) 7 Lost Secrets of Success book… which both had profound impacts on my business and, in many ways, my life.

All of which brings me to the point:

When creating a course do it 100% you.

If you prefer fast, low brow, get-it-out-and-benefiting people (like I do) do that.

If you’re like my biz partner in software Troy Broussard, who loves high production, do that.

Neither is “better” just like Gary & Matt’s courses are not worse or better than each other.

Only the snobs for one or the other will care.

Regular humans, who aren’t anal retentive don’t.

They just want the info, and to benefit from it.

Those are also the kinds of customers who benefit most from Email Players.

More info on that here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

An Email Players subscriber (not sure she wants me naming her) asks the most important question of all:

Hi!

What Would Ben Do?

You are an overachiever. I am, too.

Because of your teachings (would you believe that my phone kept trying to autocorrect “teachings” to “ravings”? I’ve attached evidence, haha) I’ve gotten farther than I thought I could as an in-house copywriter. Thank you, truly.

I’m just… not cut out for entrepreneurial stuff. I know this caps my earning potential. I’ve truly felt drained when I’ve done it, maybe the same way you’d feel drained by working at a company.

I’m thinking of… just, forcing myself to do it. I need to make as much money as possible to support my special needs kid well after I’m gone. And I’m willing to sacrifice to do it.

I don’t know exactly what I’m asking.

I’ll feel like another drop in the bucket creating some dumb copywriting course, writing a book, building my list.

Is it worth it? Should I try? I have a lot to share, sure. I could make it happen. It’s just… that cOpYwRiTeR cesspool, you know.

I’m a woman, too, which doesn’t help. Sad, true, important.

I just don’t know if it’s worth all the effort, that drained feeling… the bobs and vagene emails, haha.

If you were a woman with a successful, 16-year, mostly in-house copy career, who desperately wanted to make sure her autistic son would be okay, but hated entrepreneurship… what would you do?

You tend not to talk about things you don’t know, but I’m feeling a bit lost and you’re one of the only people I trust to give an honest answer.

Probably I’d do one or more of these 3 things:

1. Take a few coaching clients — no shortage of new copywriters looking for that

2. Slowly start an agency of your own — finding a business partner who’s good at all the stuff you hate, and just be the copy chief

3. Find a business partner who’s good at all the business side of things you hate doing — and who hates doing all the copywriting stuff you love doing

You possess a valuable skill.

And there are many ways to use it.

In fact, you could do any of the above starting with just your current network, probably.

And without needing to grow a list, etc.

Play your game, not anyone else’s.

Nothing worse than playing someone else’s game.

And there is no rule saying you have to…

More on the Email Players newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I was asked about spam recently on Twitter.

And, specifically, what’s the best way to get spam complaints down.

My first answer (short) is basically this:

Take a swipe out of the ol’ Chicago Democrats’ playbook:

Email early and email often.

Besides that:

1. Bite the bullet — and pay to have your email list scrubbed

2. Write emails correct — the kind people want to read, click, buy from.

3. Follow CanSpam rules — they are surprisingly useful for building, growing, maintaining relationships via email. (That is not why they were written by a bunch of bureaucrats, but that has been the effect in my business over the years, I see no reason that can’t be anyone else’s experience)

4. Sell the relationship not the click — do the former & the latter is more likely to happen in my experience

5. Mail daily — not monthly, not weekly, no just when you have something to launch

Why on this last one?

Because, also in my experience, many if not most people push spam due to legitimately not knowing who you are from not hearing from you — and they’ll be far more likely to use the regular opt-out button instead.

Plus, doing so forces opt-ins to go hot or cold, while turning off the lukewarm.

Lukewarm leads push spam.

Hot leads stick around.

Cold opt-out — usually peacefully.

For more on the how tos of email go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I am not sure he wants me to name him.

But not long ago, I got a question from an Email Players subscriber asking about the strategic-side of the business. He’d made a deal with a client to write their emails, and get a cut of the sales, profits, revenue, and so he was (very wisely) thinking beyond just “copy” — and wanted some guidance.

My advice:

Do a very long – as much time as you can invest – deep dive into:

1. Their market, really get to know them, and try to talk – one on one – with as many in the market as you can, ask them to tell you stories about the pains and problems the products you’re selling solve. Stories, is key. Get them telling you stories. Record or take as detailed notes as possible. Ideally record, and have them transcribed. All the emails you’ll ever need are going to be in those transcripts.

2. After that, and only after that study all the competition, all their ads, sales pages, emails, offers, secret shop their offers, take notes on everything they are doing or not doing but maybe should be doing that you could be doing in your ads. Especially note the “holes” (hot buttons, etc they are NOT talking about)

3. Think of all the things your client does, or could do if they aren’t now, do for the market nobody else is doing or is willing to do, and start working that into all your copy and emails when it makes sense and where it makes sense.

4. Obviously write the best copy you can – emails and ads and anything else. But, also, suggest product ideas, premium ideas, and other ideas that will make those offers more enticing.

If you did all the above, and negotiate enough time to do it with the client, and get them to cooperate, I really believe you can blow this out of the water.

And so it is.

Maybe not necessarily easy, but nothing complicated about it whatsoever.

More on Email Players here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

No, not that kind of trans.

In fact, while I can’t say for sure (never met him), so I cannot in any way, shape, or form speak for the guy… I suspect the copywriter I’m referring to probably would have assumed anyone with so much as pronouns in their social media bios is a pedo.

The copywriter I speak of:

The late, great Jim Rutz.

And while I learned many great lessons from him — and still do when I see his work, takes me to school every single time — one of the most practical was how he wrote his transition sentences.

Or, as I like to call ’em:

“trans sentences.”

Especially the line under a subhead.

I once heard him explain how he wrote them in a way so there is no reason to stop reading.

Another master at this:

The late Gene Schwartz.

He is another big influence when it comes to transition sentences.

And over the years I’ve invented many of my own based off studying his work.

Especially since getting deep into email.

Go thou and do likewise.

You can never have too many great transition sentences in your copywriting arsenal. The goal is to get so good at them, and so comfortable writing them, that you don’t even think about it – you just “do.”

All right, on to the business.

If you want more info on my Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I don’t know how much value anyone will get from this.

And it will certainly not apply to every copywriter 100% across the board.

(Let the “that’s not actually how it works…” reply guys take note..)

But, if you are ever curious about how old or how young a specific copywriter is, I have developed a way of knowing with great accuracy over the years that hardly ever fails when I use it.

All right, here goes:

• Carnival barker or tabloid style headlines = boomer
• Dark, “death of”, & societal collapse, everything going to hell themes = GenX
• Sexually repressive headlines & blind bull shyt claims = Millennial
• ChatGPT & Crypto are the Second Coming to save the planet = Zoomer

I don’t know how valuable this info will be for anyone.

But if you’re the discerning type, and want to learn copywriting from those who have been doing it for at least a couple decades, I suggest ignoring any zoomers, being extremely skeptical of all Millennials, testing the hell out of anything us GenX’ers say (and our incessant doompilling), and forgiving boomers their trespasses if you see headlines that bore younger people but work like crazy on older markets.

In other words:

Believe nobody.

Try to break everything anyone says on the subject.

And use what works for you, discard the rest.

For more info on the Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Here’s some irony:

The late, great “world’s most feared negotiator” Jim Camp — who routinely had his fingers in multiple billion dollar deals simultaneously — was not a “copywriter.” In fact, when I had a chance to be on a call with him many years ago, I distinctly remember him saying how fascinated he was with copywriting because he didn’t understand it or really know what it was. And yet, if you read his books, listen to his teachings, etc, you quickly realize he was one of the greatest copywriting minds who ever lived.

Case in point:

One thing he taught was chaos indecision creates.

People absolutely cannot handle indecision, things left hanging, non-closure.

It can create a lot of stress, irritation, and sometimes even pain for people.

And one reason he would never allow a “maybe” in his negotiations (either yes or no, to getting to the next step in the process — he didn’t tolerate maybes) is not as some double top secret copywriter ninja technique… but because he understood the principle of indecision being the worst outcome for any kind of sale.

Nobody benefits from a maybe.

Not the client, not the copywriter, not the lead/customer.

A No absolutely can benefit everyone.

And so can a yes.

But a “maybe?”

Waste of time.

Something to think about.

Especially if you choose to use my Email Players methodology.

More on that here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle