Ben Settle

When I put a call out to hire for Learnistic last month, I included this in the email:

+ Are not a low information person who uses terms like: “follow the science!” or “trust the plan!” or “the science is settled!” or “climate denier!” or “follow the process!” or “wear the mask!” etc. If you like to say or post such things on Facebook then it’s obvious you make decisions based on needy social media signaling, low IQ hashtag propaganda, or what hollow-minded media-created experts say… and not the scientific method all Learnistic employees are required to use (the app’s inventor, Troy Broussard, is a Navy Nuclear engineer, and mandates it) to help find software bugs, which is an extremely important part of the job. If this bothers, offends, or makes you go “huh?” that’s good. We just potentially saved both you and us a lot of time.

I included that for a multitude of reasons.

One of which was the delightful weeping & gnashing of teeth from the low information Facebook armchair scientists who think media created celebrities giving advice and nurses on TikTok doing a choreographed dance outside a hospital are “pRo sCiEnCe!”

I prefer they go haunt someone else and get away from my corner of the internet.

Which, I hope, many did after reading that email.

More:

Another reason I want nothing to do with low information people as customers is their gullibility makes for terrible decision making. That’s why politicians who break their own stay-at-home orders and only wear masks for the TV cameras pander to them so aggressively. Why the media talking heads fool them so effortlessly. And why those who would sow discord in any organization – corporate or otherwise – manipulates them so deliberately.

All because low information = bad decision making.

Bad decision making = easily manipulated.

Easily manipulated = used & abused by horrible people to do equally horrible things.

In marketing the tells of low info bros are the blind, out-of-context use of terms like:

“sell the click!”

“open rates!”

“swipes!”

“test!”

“funnels!”

“End your prices with a 7 or 9!”

And, that old chestnut… guru name dropping.

None of them are inherently bad or incorrect.

But the context behind how they are used could very well indicate low info.

For example:

When some rando pounding his chest on Facebook tells you to “split test it!” when you have a question, even though you only have a list of 13 people, any split test is all-but completely pointless. Not even worth your time to set the test up. You’d be much better served quickly writing an email or sending traffic to the thing you are wanting to split test just to see if your offer has any legs in the first place – and then use those sales to pay for more traffic or to build a bigger list you can perhaps do a real test with some day.

Same with the other one-liners marketers like to squawk & parrot.

Gullible marketers mindlessly fall for them all the time because their goo-roo told them to.

Some even foolishly wrap their entire business models around them.

Thus, we have an industry where, for example, almost everyone blindly ends all their pricing with a 7 or 9 just because. Why almost everyone foolishly obsesses over their so-called open rates vs focusing on writing better emails people want to open and read in the first place. And why almost everyone incorrectly thinks selling the click is the ideal way to build a long term, sustainable business, when almost the exact opposite is true.

Anyway, I don’t know where I’m going with this.

Except, maybe to say:

Whoever first said “in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king” wasn’t just whistlin’ yankee, it’s true across the board, in every market, niche, and product category.

On that note:

The persuasion technique taught in the January “Email Players” issue can give you that eye.

I would even go so far as to say you can be a complete newbie at copywriting & selling, and it can work for you to blast up response and sales, while creating a far better, higher quality, and more eager-to-consume what you sell customer or client.

The evil deadline to get this issue is practically here already.

To subscribe while you still have a little time left, go here right away:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber Paul Campo checks in:

Hey Ben,

From the Republic of the Socialists, that we call CA…I don’t know if this is intentional by you (or maybe I’m the only one) but there’s an element that you bring to your Horde.

Let me explain… I’ve been noticing a lot of “Accountability” products on the shelves. I’ve never been a fan of those. It’s weird, having a stranger “root” you on and hold you “accountable” to forward progression

(I don’t care about letting this fool down he’s probably wacking it on his time-off instead of working).

However… there’s a hand full of people in my life (that I’ve never met expect brief phone calls and email exchanges) that are my “accountability” list. Meaning, when I start feeling down, discouraged, hard on myself, I hear that little el Ben tell me:

“Stop being a bitch and get back to work. Or I’ll kick you out of the horde. Get your shit together – this takes time, and you have all the time the world”.

And yes, you can use this for what you want.

I’ve ruthlessly mocked so-called “accountability” groups, coaches, etc for years.

I ain’t talking about “devil on my shoulder” accountability like Paul is referring to my voice as.

But the accountability industry.

At worst, it’s just flat out pathetic and weak.

At best, it shows those craving accountability aren’t all that “in” to whatever it is they are being held accountable for, and should be doing something else to sell or do (i.e., do you need to be held accountable to watch your favorite TV show each week?)

My opinion.

Do whatever you want with it.

But you now know what I think you can do with an accountability group…

All right, let’s get down to the business.

The January “Email Players” issue deadline is right around the corner.

As a subscriber I expect you to be fully accountable to yourself.

To your market.

And, yes, to your business.

If you need a coach, group, book, or other product for that, don’t bother.

You’ll simply be wasting your money.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

“Email Players” subscriber & pizzeria owner Brad Davis chimes in:

Ben,

If there’s one thing i learned from owning a restaurant for 10 years it was this:

Profit is directly related to the amount of facetime you get with your customers on a daily basis.

If you’re running it right, then you should get text messages from your regulars on your night off telling you they came in and missed seeing you.

When you stop getting text messages on your night(s) off then that means you’re taking too many and they’ve stopped expecting to see you.

Soon, they’ll stop coming in as often… or altogether.

And your sales will suffer.

Now I’m learning that daily email is the equivalent to facetime in the restaurant. In fact, I’d say it’s even more important for online businesses as it’s literally the only way to build and maintain a long term business relationship.

I’m loving your newsletters and books. Keep up the good work!

Just more proof of this undeniable fact:

Daily — not weekly, monthly, or when you are “inspired” — contact moves mountains. And it does it for no other reason than something the late, Chicago advertising genius Leo Burnett said many years ago.

He said in a speech:

“… the No. 1 factor in building confidence is the plain old-fashioned matter of friendly familiarity. You simply can’t have one without the other…When you meet a man on the same street corner every morning and learn to like the way he smiles, the way he dresses, and the way he conducts himself you are much more likely to be a prospect for the automobile or the insurance policy he may sometime want to sell you than you are for that of a stranger.”

All right, onward to the important stuff:

The pitch.

If you start applying what I teach in the January “Email Players” issue to your daily contact — emails, social media, videos, podcasts, blog, articles, whatever it is you like to do — I would be green money you’ll see a quick & dramatic “uptick” in new business, new sales, and new profits.

It’s by the far the most powerful persuasion tactic I use.

And, anyone can do the same.

That is, if you understand how it works.

Something the January issue teaches in spades.

Here’s where to subscribe in time to get it before the 12/31/20 deadline:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

There are 3 persuasion tactics I believe work above all others.

I have personally used & tested each thoroughly over the years.

And, I have yet to see them not work over and above all others — especially over the fancy closes, NLP one-liners, & objection-handling techniques used by the Zig Ziglar fanboys.

Anyway, these 3 tactics are:

1. Damaging admissions

This is where you find a flaw in your product and service and admit it. Something the late advertising mogul David Ogilvy used to play like a fiddle in his own ads, and mandated his employees do at every opportunity.

Difficulty to pull of: Not very difficult at all, which is the beauty of it

2. Make the skeleton dance

This is something the great sales trainer Barry Maher worked out years ago, and is where you spin flaws about what you offer into benefits & reasons to buy.

Difficulty to pull off: Usually extremely difficult, which is why it’s so rare

As for the #3:

It’s a topic I wrote about in detail in the January 2020 “Email Players” issue.

An issue that generated many testimonials and case studies from other Email Players of the Horde who started using it in everything from their sales letters and emails to their marriages and love lives (it is, frankly, how I closed Stefania, when I possessed probably none of the traits on her “Checklist” of things she was looking for in a man.) In my own businesses, in just the past 12 months alone, I have also used this persuasion tactic to write the sales copy & emails to launch two offers to the tune of the two most successful launches of my entire business career (when launching Learnistic & when launching my “elBenbo Press” book).

Which brings me to the rub:

The January 2021 “Email Players” issue.

I revisit this topic again inside its crisp white pages.

But, this time, I show many more examples to model & adapt & be inspired by… including the above Email Players of the Horde examples (with their permission) and how I’ve used it in the two above launches, amongst other examples to mine for your own business.

More:

This tactic can be used universally.

With the exception of certain low class markets (like biz opp and “make money online” type offers, where I admittedly have seen it backfire and NOT work), it works across the board in all kinds of markets, niches, industries, and product categories to create customers but who tend to be a much higher quality & caliber to the point where sometimes they even thank you for doing it in many cases.

Best part:

You don’t need any special talents or powers of copywriting, selling, or marketing to use it.

In fact, the weaker your skills, the better it tends to work.

(I have many theories on why, but that’s a tale for another time.

All right, so that’s that.

If you want in on the January issue, here’s what to do:

1. Go to the URL below before the looming 12/31/20 deadline

2. Read the sales letter carefully

3. Patiently wait for your first issue

Here’s the URL:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

After yesterday’s rant about why I hate getting unsolicited books…

Below is a list of all the books I plowed through in 2020.

It excludes several I started but got bored by or decided to put down in favor of something else. But maybe it’ll help inspire someone somewhere to read & curate their reading more.

They are listed in no real particular order.

Except, as you will see, the ones I’ve read multiple times are listed first:

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (second reading) — one of my all-time favorite business books
• Marvel Comics the Untold Story by Sean Howe (second reading) — a must-read for anyone wanting to be in the info publishing business, in my opinion
• Slugfest by Tucker Reed (second reading) — ditto above
• Walt Disney: Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler (second reading) — lots and lots of business lessons embedded, in fact the chapter on Disneyland is one of the single best lessons about World-Building in business I’ve ever run across
• Obvious Adams by Robert Updegraff (probably my 50th reading, not an exaggeration)
• Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz (well past my 20th reading)
• Me, Inc by Gene Simmons — single best book on personal branding I ever done read
• No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent by Dan Kennedy — wish I’d read this years ago
• The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo — nothing anyone who studies persuasion a while doesn’t know, but it reminded me of a few things I had been slacking on doing in my own marketing that’s making a big differences, probably I’ll write about it more in a future Email Players issue
• Bandersnatch by Diana Pavlac Glyer — excellent book for writers, about Tolkien & CS Lewis and their processes for writing & helping each other when they were in the Inklings
• Kobold Guide to World-Building by Scott Hungerford, Jeff Grub, Michael A. Stackpole, Chris Pramas, Keith Baker, & Steven Winter — you have to read between the lines if you want to apply the lessons to business world-building
• Win Your Case by Gerry Spence — anything by Spence is worth reading
• Veneration by Sharon K. Gilbert & Derek P. Gilbert — fascinating book for anyone into digging up some deep Biblical teachings about the real life zombie apocalypse on the horizon
• Corporate Cancer by Vox Day — anyone who hires anyone for business, even a lowly gopher or intern, should read this three times, minimum if you want to protect your business from the SJW rot that’s bringing down billion dollar companies one-by-one right now
• Tales from the Customer Crypt by Vance Morris — I liked it so much, I gifted it to “Email Players” subscribers last month
• Backstory 1 by Patrick McGilligan — all kinds of great psychological insights you can apply to your copy & marketing from Hollywood’s Golden Age screenwriters
• Writing for Comics & Graphic Novels by Peter David — his Trump Derangement Syndrome on his blog that makes him sound bat shyt notwithstanding, he’s one of the most prolific & successful comicbook writers in history, and definitely some valuable insights for any writer
• Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D by David Kushner — best “micro lesson” World-Building I ever read
• Washington A Life by Ron Chernow — bio of George Washington, not only is it clear that he is part of a very long list of men who accomplished great things at least partly to get a disapproving mom’s approval, but it’s also clear he was either the single luckiest man alive when it came to not being killed in battle or God really was looking out for him… to the point where even his enemies marveled at it. There’s a lot of lessons embedded in that alone for the discerning marketer
• Larry Hama: Conversations by Christopher Irving — I pulled lots of ideas out not only for my writing, but also the publishing-side of my business
• How to Sell Anything to Anybody by Joe Girard — incredible book I cannot recommend enough

Okay, enough about books I didn’t write.

Let’s talk about the one I just finished writing the first draft of.

If you were an active member of my old elBenbo’s Lair Facebook group (and if you weren’t, no need to keep reading this email) I’ll soon be launching this book about how to create and profit from your own elBenbo’s Lair-style social media platform. And if you have any testimonials or success stories about when you did your time in the Lair, and would like it included on the testimonial list inside the book, email it directly to me before the end of the week.

If I think it’ll enhance the reader’s experience, I’ll include it with your URL.

In the meantime:

One thing I will say about this book I am working on is, the info inside won’t work nearly as well if you don’t know how to build a relationship with your email list beforehand. The framework that made it work so well was not so much a tactic but an ethic. So if the upcoming book interests you, I suggest rapidly implementing what I teach in my “Email Players” newsletter starting right away, and well before I launch the book next year.

Here’s the link to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Below is an email I got not long ago, along with a screenshot of some traffic stats he pulled up about my Email Players domain, with a rather ironic typo in the subject line.

Enjoy:

Subject line: PROOF: You are a lair

Hey Ben,

I have been following you for the past 4 months and finally found out what you do and say about email marketing is a complete B.S.

You’re sending daily emails to your huge list and directing them to the email players website.

See your websites traffic analysis (in the attachment)

With a huge list and sending daily emails, how can one get such low traffic?

A confession:

I’d rather watch paint dry than stare at my site’s stats & metrics. I’m more a fan of how Henry Ford built his empire according to his autobiography, focusing primarily on my work & service (what I can control) and not on the numbers/stats/metrics/sales (what I cannot control).

But, from what I am seeing, I kinda like them numbers.

And I don’t think the poor schlub is doing this troll thing right.

In fact, when I forwarded it to to my pal, computer scientist, and SEO/AdWords/traffic “puppet master” Jim Yaghi (we’ve been comparing our tales of trollery since 2008, it’s like a game for us), he was just as amused as I was:

“bro your bounce rate is RIDICULOUSLY low and your average visit duration is ridiculously high. This dumbass didn’t notice those, only the number of visits. That’s 5,600 very engaged visitors.”

Yeah, I’m thinking his troll game needs more work…

But, there’s more to this story:

A true “the irony writes itself” phenomenon happening.

Specifically, that typo in his subject line calling me a “lair” instead of “liar.” Because for completely different reasons than he grunted out, I AM both a liar and, in a sense a “lair”, too.

And I figured I might as well come clean about it.

Here’s what I mean:

I am currently hard at work on my next book.

It’s about how I once created the proverbial social media “cult” (not my words, but many of those who were inside it) via my old elBenbo’s Lair Facebook group. And, also, how others can do the same thing I did to potentially get people literally addicted to hearing every word you say and all but frothing-at-the-mouth to buy everything you sell.

And loath as I am to admit it, this makes me a bald-faced liar twice over:

1. As I told Stefania upon completion of my last book (“elBenbo Press”), “I’m done — not writing any more fugking business books for a long while now. Just fiction.”

2. Inside that same book I boldly declared I had no interest in or would ever bother writing a book about social media. I also declared social media “stupid” in the book, too.

Even yesterday’s email condemned social media.

Yet here we are…

Anyway, as far as the above book goes:

I’m having a blast finally assembling all my notes & ideas & antics I plotted out to run and make a lot of loot from that group before I abruptly killed it off and pissed off a whole horde of people in the process. But maybe they’ll forgive me when they see how I’m methodizing the exact same game plan I used, so they can do something similar on most any social media platform they choose — Facebook or otherwise. And especially with the social media platform “Email Players” subscriber & enterprise-class software developer Troy Broussard & I are creating specifically for businesses (which will work in perfect harmony with my old elBenbo’s Lair methods) who are sick of all the incessant de-platformings, surprise bannings, privacy-mining, and anti-business crackdowns imposed by big tech social media platforms.

The only other thing I’ll say about my upcoming book for now is this:

It won’t work nearly as well if you don’t know how to build a relationship with your email list beforehand.

Otherwise, there’s no point in buying it.

So if the upcoming book interests you, I suggest rapidly implementing what I teach in my “Email Players” newsletter starting right away, and well before I launch the book next year.

Here’s the link to subscribe:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. Not long after sending the above email calling me a lair, troll boy asked:

1. Which of your products will you recommend for a newbie like me?

2. Is there a way I can get access to all the Email Player Newsletter from the beginning?

It’s official.

The guy is the best Christmas present I could ever have asked for…

One of the tipping points for realizing it was time to finally high-tail it off social media a couple years ago — and Facebook in particular — was not long after one of my cousins posted some inane meme of Kermit the frog drinking tea, talking about ebola and the flu.

I already was 3/4 out the door due to Facebook whoring out private info.

And, also, because of its hivemind, “borg-like” nature infecting even otherwise intelligent people.

Not to mention it being a time-suck, even for those like me not on there very often.

But when I saw the Facebook hive mind in all its glorious action to such a silly degree with the Kermit meme, I figured it was high time to move on, lest I become like one of them.

In this case?

Merely questioning that sacred Kermit the frog meme — and in jest at that – set a bunch of people off, including a couple of my other cousins, one of who was particularly worked up over it, with some kind of bizarre hangup on the subject to the point I expect to see him in a hazmat suit at the next family reunion.

I can only imagine his shrieking hysteria with Captain Covid now.

He probably wears a mask while driving alone and slurs behind it while yelling at people in grocery store lines.

Anyway, getting some of these blokes worked up was mildly amusing and fun.

Especially since I was sitting in an airport bored on a long layover, anyway.

But, what was not amusing was seeing otherwise intelligent people — my own kin! — not being able to communicate without parroting the hive mind so precisely. It was like they were all reading from the same script word-for-word. Complete with the usual social media intellectually dishonest butchering of logic, showing an embarrassing inability to follow a subject and an object, and constantly moving the goal posts & getting off point to try to make another point to cover up the fact they really had no point in the first place. Not to mention resorting to having to make arguments with even more irrelevant hive mind generated memes, all topped off with a chest-pounding magnificent lecture about how “correlation doesn’t equal causation!” while linking to a newspaper article that didn’t even have a single source cited, and that was pure, not-even-trying-to-hide-the-fact, propaganda.

And those were just the more amusing highlights I remember.

Frankly, I didn’t even care enough about the subject to have an opinion. I simply asked a question about a Kermit meme.

The result:

You’d think I burned an effigy to their deity.

Actually, in some ways, I think I did…

Anyway, that’s when I had a Cartman (from South Park) moment when he saw the absurdity of the existence of Mr. Hanky the talking turd, and threw in the towel:

“Alright that does it.
Screw you guys, I’m going home.
Talking poo is where I draw the line.”

And so it is with Facebook especially.

Because at the end of the day, with all the virtue signaling, hive mind parroting, speech & thought policing, incessant de-platforming, privacy plundering, and news manipulating… not to mention the way it is designed (which it’s co-creator fully admitted) to have all kinds of negative effects on peoples’ brains & hormones… Facebook is nothing if not the digital equivalent of –

Talking poo.

“But Ben! I need it for list building!”

Do you, Mr. Spanky?

If so, you’re doing internet marketing wrong.

There have always been far more reliable ways to build lists than with social media.

Whatever the case, whether you stubbornly SPURN your King & Taskmaster elBenbo on this or not, if you want to sell with email and not rely on social media, check out my “Email Players” newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. What do you do when you are convinced social media is clearly & demonstrably an overall net negative on society, and hate it with the passion of a thousand media talking head lies like I do?

You create your own social media platform, of course.

Specifically, for businesses wanting privacy & data protection, along with built-in mechanisms for rabid engagement and making more sales. Which is something “Email Players” subscriber, enterprise class programmer, & my business partner at Learnistic Troy Broussard are already actively cooking up for next year.

More on that later…

One of the most intriguing facts about how Disney got so big I first heard a couple years ago is this:

They put enormous thought, planning, effort, & expense into the little things probably only 10% of their customers will ever see or notice, but that turns those 10% of people into upwards of 70%, 80%, even 90% of their sales.

Especially if you factor in referrals, word-of-mouth, etc.

But it ain’t just Disney that figured this out.

Steve Jobs did the exact same with Apple Computers.

In fact, one word Jobs used a lot was:

“Craftsmanship”

Believe it or not, that single word can work almost like magic to build the proverbial business empire & create the proverbial marketing king. In Jobs’ case, he was inspired as a child by his father who was an expert craftsman. His father used to tell Steve that when building a cabinet, for example, you use the highest quality wood and put just as much effort into the design and the parts a customer will probably never, ever see (the back of the cabinet, the interior, etc) as you do the parts they will see. Years later, Jobs had his engineers at Apple do the same with their computers and phones and other gadgets. In many cases, they put the highest quality parts and used the highest, most expensive metals & screws for the parts nobody but maybe an Apple engineer or repairman who opened it up would see.

The shallow thinker & low information marketer won’t see the wisdom in that.

But the bigger thinker will.

And they will see because, if nothing else, it connects the dots that if Disney & Apple — two of the most profitable businesses that ever existed — do that, then we all should.

Whatever the case:

While I’m not a huge fan of the Disney company, especially with how they are so rapidly destroying brands millions of fans used to like… I am a fan of the way they systematized the ways in which they extract as much money out of their customers as humanly possible… while leaving those same customers happier, more fulfilled, and eager to tell everyone they know about how great giving that money to Disney was.

Which brings me to the rub:

The December “Email Players” issue.

It teaches a very special kind of “craftsmanship.”

Not the kind Jobs used to build computers… but the kind Disney and other smart companies have done to build gigantic, generations-spanning, customer bases of what I call “berserker customers” — who, like Jobs’ fans, practically froth at the mouth to buy, refer, and enjoy whatever it is you sell to the farthest extent possible.

Ain’t nothing else that works like this skill, in my experience.

It can potentially make price irrelevant.

It can potentially make you and/or your product/service’s flaws irrelevant.

It can even potentially make any lack of experience a raw & wriggling newbie struggles with irrelevant.

Tomorrow (11/30/20) is the deadline to subscribe in time to get this issue.

If you want it, here it is, come get it:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I never thought I’d write the following words.

But the DMV is no longer its own circle of hell.

And to prove it, a true story:

This past July Stefania and I had to go to the local DMV — she to get her Oregon drivers license, and me to renew mine. We went on the same day. But, we did not wait in line. We did not have to stand around or sit near smelly, dirty, and obnoxious people.

Frankly, we did not even “wait” at all.

Believe it or not, we had a pleasant experience.

I still cannot believe it.

But fact is, due to Covid, you had to make an appointment to go to the DMV in my area. And, when you’re there… you are the ONLY one there.

There is no line.

Everything is sprayed down & clean.

And there are no rushed & frustrated employees who look like they’d rather be getting a prostate exam than doing their jobs. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful, including getting on the phone with social security for Stefania for almost an hour on her behalf. Apparently, due to a laundry list of reasons outside her control, they technically were not supposed to give Stefania a license at that time. But they pulled some kind of strings for her, at the main office in the Capitol, and got it done on the spot.

There is no way that’d have happened with a huge line & miserable employees who hate their jobs.

Anyway, I couldn’t help but wonder:

“Why don’t they always offer this option?”

I suspect many people — like me! — would happily pay a premium just to be able to get that kind of experience at a DMV, skip the line, have an entire hour dedicated just to me, with nobody else, no lines, and no having to deal with people.

About the only thing that’d have made it more pleasurable is if they’d been serving food & drinks.

Whatever the case:

I write about this in more detail in the December “Email Players” issue.

Specifically, how to “tap” into what the DMV and many otherwise miserable institutions have been doing just to survive to make giving your business money so fun and, yes, pleasurable… if you do it right, it can make price, your copywriting/marketing skills, and any other drawbacks, weaknesses, or “flaws” in your business irrelevant.

Let’s face it:

If the DMV can do it, you can.

To get your hands on this issue you’ll have to hurry.

It goes to the printer very soon.

After that?

Too late…

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle