Ben Settle

One of my favorite “business” biographies is not even about a businessman… it’s from a movie director.

Specifically, the late, great Frank Capra.

In fact, I have a proverbial laundry list full of business & marketing lessons I learned from Mr. Capra’s autobiography – “The Name Above The Title” – about making movies that apply directly to marketing.

Here are a few of them:

• There are no rules to filmmaking, only sins. And the cardinal sin is Dullness
• What interests people most is people
• Self aggrandizement will get you a lot farther a lot faster than modesty
• Entertainment is an amazing tool for rallying people against the “bad guys”
• Laugher disarms skepticism, cynicism, and even hostility
• Don’t look for objective criticism or praise… look for gut reactions
• Creating Vision can literally win wars
• Don’t make the best picture you ever made in the same year that someone makes Gone With The Wind
• FDR was such a great listener he almost converted Frank Capra into becoming a Democrat
• Too many filmmakers get their ideas from other’s pictures and not from life
• Wealthy hypocrites and celebrities in Hollywood constantly virtue signaling about “social justice” secretly had just as much contempt and hatred for the very people and causes they virtue signaled about in Capra’s day as they do today
• Trying to not offend people ruins movies
• And the list goes on.

Anyway, recently I did a video about Capra with the great Brian Kurtz, who did his college thesis on Frank Capra. And we talked about many of the lessons we learned from that great man, and how to apply them to copywriting, marketing, and business.

If you want it, you can get it free in the Ben Settle mobile app.

Inside the elBenbo TV channel it’s titled:

“Mr. Smith Goes To Marketing”

If you don’t have my mobile app, you can get it free by signing up for my free daily emails on this website, and then following the instructions in the P.S. of the welcome email.

NOTE:

Do not download my app directly from the Apple or Google Play stores. Go to the URL above and get a username & password first.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to access it.

Ben Settle

Not long ago, I shot and uploaded to my free mobile app a short “power lesson” about copywriting, inspired from something I read in an Alfred Hitchcock bio I am currently reading.

It’s one of those copywriting “twists” that can make a huge impact on your sales.

And, something I probably should include with a paid product.

But alas… it’s waiting for you inside my mobile app in the elBenbo TV channel.

Specifically, the video titled:

“Alfred Hitchcopy Presents”

If you don’t have my mobile app, you can get it free by simply opting in to my free daily email list on this website, and following the instructions you will get in the P.S. of the welcome email.

NOTE:

Do not download my app directly from the Apple or Google Play stores. Go to the URL above and get a username & password first.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to access it.

Ben Settle

A few years ago, when I was still on Facebook, I got a DM from a buddy who was intensely excited about a print newsletter he was about to publish.

And it turned into a huge “doh!” epiphany for me about pricing.

An epiphany that, frankly, pisses me off when I think about it.

In fact, I woke up thinking about it recently.

(Yes, 3 years later I still think about it.)

So in the pitch darkness right after waking up, your pal Count elBenbo shot a video talking about this epiphany, the huge mistake I had been making, that probably you are making too… and the story behind it.

If price is something that frustrates you, I highly suggest watching it.

You can find it inside the free Ben Settle app inside the elBenbo TV channel.

It is the one titled:

“The Price of Darkness”

If you don’t have my mobile app, you can get it free by opting into my free email list on this website, and following the simple instructions in the P.S. of the welcome email you will get right after opting in.

NOTE:

Do not download my app directly from the Apple or Google Play stores. Go to the URL above and get a username & password first. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access it.

Ben Settle

I recently put a new video up in my mobile app titled:

“Thank God For Rednecks”

You can find it in the elBenbo TV channel inside.

It was partly inspired by recent events with the economy, but also something the great John Carlton said many years ago (2004-ish) back when he had a print newsletter. Specifically, something he said about how there will come a time when it’ll be more important to be friends with the town redneck than the town mayor.

I daresay many are seeing that wisdom play out…

Whatever the case, there is a valuable business lesson in that, too.

To watch or listen to this video simply go into the Ben Settle mobile app.

If you don’t have my app, you can get it free by opting into my email list and following the instructions in the P.S. of the welcome email you will get right after opting in.

NOTE:

Do not download my app directly from the Apple or Google Play stores.

Go to the URL above and get a username & password first.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to access it.

Ben Settle

Recently, I was sent me a Forbes article about email. And amongst all the inanely bad advice, it laid down this incredible doozy:

Email less.

It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s been found that 43% of subscribers would like businesses to email them less frequently.

I can only HOPE any competition of mine takes this advice.

In fact, it instantly reminded me of these words of advice from comedian Dante Nero:

“Don’t ask the deer how to hunt it, ask the hunter.”

This is very good news, though, if you mail more often.

After all, the more who listen to its advice, the fewer businesses you compete with in the inbox…

All right, that’s enough for today. If you want to start thinking more like the strong hunters in business & marketing, and less like the timid deer out there prancing around chittering away about mailing less like the Forbes author, simply study the strong words of the hunter and avoid the timid words of the deer. One way to get started is to go into the Ben Settle mobile app, call up the elBenbo TV channel in there, and look for video #9 called:

“Bookshelf of Boom”

I show you what works adorn my own bookshelf.

And there won’t be a single internet marketing goo-roo or other deer in sight.

Don’t have my mobile app?

You can change that by subscribing to my daily emails, and following the instructions in the P.S. of the welcome email you will get shortly after opting in.

Ben Settle

P.S. Do not download the mobile app first from the Apple or Google Play store, before going to the URL above and following the instructions. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access the app.

Also if you have any problems, don’t tell me, use the support email at the URL above.

That’s what it is there for.

First, let me be 100% crystal clear about something…

I’m a huge and extremely loyal Dan Kennedy fan.

He’s easily one of the greatest marketing minds of our time. And his teachings have changed my business in more ways than I can possibly count, and continue to do so probably more than just about anyone else currently. People who possess the September 2019 “Email Players” issue know this better than anyone, as it has an entire insert dedicated just to him.

So yes, I am a Dan Kennedy fan.

But, what I’m not, is a Dan Kennedy “fanboy.”

Dan Kennedy fanboys – like all fanboys – don’t think for themselves.

All they do is quote.

In this case, they can only quote:

“Dan Kennedy says…”

Like Brainy Smurf always saying, “Papa Smurf always says…” these blue light specials just quote, quote, quote, without context.

For example:

A few years back, a Dan Kennedy fanboy tried busting my balls – unsolicited advice, like they all give, and didn’t even cross his mind to ask questions for context and data first – about not offering a guarantee because “Dan Kennedy says…”, even though doing so had exponentially increased my overall profits.

Another example:

One particularly troubled Dan Kennedy fanboy nagged me about not using testimonials because, again, “Dan Kennedy says…” And, also again, it was unsolicited advice. But, if he’d bothered asking, he’d have known the ad he had heartburn about performed way better without testimonials whenever it was tested.

For a more recent and detailed example:

Last year another one went into Dan Kennedy fanboy mode after I switched out the old “Email Players Playbook” I used to give to new “Email Players” subscribers with the new “Email Players Skh?ma Book” — which (admittedly, and deliberately) breaks pretty much every rule I’ve heard Dan Kennedy teach about information marketing, product packaging, titling, and cover design.

In this one’s case, he declared I “devalued” it.

He also incorrectly assumed the new format saves me money and that’s why I changed it.

And then proceeded to complain about the font, the format, and even the title.

Then, still without gathering a single fact first, he started talking about his business and experiences — which was like comparing apples to dandelions — and how he used to talk to Dan Kennedy, and was told to turn his book into a 3-ring binder product, and his sales went up by millions.

All of which I have no doubt happened.

But, what the no doubt good-intentioned Dan Kennedy fanboy missed is this:

While the reasoning behind his product packaging was sound in *his* situation, it doesn’t apply to my business whatsoever.

The short story long of it was:

Many markets have a hard time paying for high ticket “books” that look mass market like you’d find in a bookstore (such as mine), since that makes them look like they’d be $12 books at Barnes And Noble, and people who respond to those kinds of offers tend to refund them in droves when they get them. However, I neither sell those offers, or to those types of markets, or with refund guarantees. Plus, I use email in ways hardly anyone else does (hint: they aren’t buying the “product”, they are buying me, which is a whole other lesson in and of itself) making the comparison to my business completely pointless and, frankly, silly.

To further illustrate why I found this part of his unsolicited critique so amusing:

At the time, my “Affiliate Launch Copynomicon” & “Copy Troll” books – both with slick mass market-like covers that supposedly don’t work (and, again, ironically, were designed by the great Kia Arian, who is the exact same graphic designer who Dan Kennedy hires for his graphic design work…) – are not only both several hundred dollars, but were two of my most successful launches in the history of my business.

Maybe those customers didn’t get the memo they weren’t supposed to value them…?

Afterwards, my Brand Barbarian book kicked both of them out of the top selling slot.

And, I can only imagine the candlelight vigil the little Dan Kennedy fanboy made about that cover — not only perfect bound and slicked up mass market-like cover, but oversized, and awkward to hold while reading probably, to boot.

Point is, he didn’t have an opinion as much as his opinion had him.

All of which was only made worse with his blind appeal to authority (i.e. “Dan Kennedy said…”)

Another amusingly ironic part:

While he was busy chanting “Dan Kennedy says…” while rubbing the belly of his Dan Kennedy bobble-head on his desk… he completely missed the reason why the new version of my book has been so successful, with “Email Players” subscription sales far higher than ever since swapping the books out… and with already more overall positive testimonials and feedback than the old “Playbook” version ever got. And that is because my entire re-design was inspired by, and in strict accordance with, a Dan Kennedy teaching I’d been implementing to have the biggest run of growth in my business’s 18-year history in those past 18-months.

Even more ironic:

One thing Dan Kennedy says (Lordy, now even I’m saying it…) is:

“All marketing dogma is bad”

And never to blindly believe it.

Which, of course, is what these Dan Kennedy fanboys do, even as they dole out their unsolicited advice without context, or bothering to ask a single question, first, in the name of Dan Kennedy.

Now, let me be clear about this again:

This email is NOT an indictment of Dan Kennedy.

I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for him, his teachings, his books, his products, and his impact on the industry, even pioneering many things the rest of us young’uns take for granted today. He’s a for-real “legend” in this industry, and it simply doesn’t get more high level than him. But, the reason I have even been doing all these things over the years that drives these Dan Kennedy fanboys batty with cognitive dissonance and paradoxes they can’t see right in front of them is precisely because I *am* strictly obeying one of Dan Kennedy’s teachings.

Speaking of which:

Not long ago, “Email Players” subscriber Ken McCarthy recommended a book by Dan Kennedy.

And, of all the Dan Kennedy books I’ve read, this is by FAR the best of them all.

It’s called “Almost Alchemy.”

And it’s like a “digest” of all his best info, in one short book.

I highly recommend.

All right, one more Dan Kennedy fanboy spanking before moving on:

When I announced I was no longer offering back issues to paying subscribers to my newsletter a couple years ago, a strung-out Dan Kennedy fanboy went into detail (without gathering a single fact) about what a mistake that was, even though my back end sales went up well over 500%+ when I ceased offering them. And in some months, back end sales are 1000% — not exaggeration — higher than even the best month selling back issues.

The paradox of how wrong these fanboys can be is as amusing as it is astounding.

They are true “secret gurus” (that I talked about in the October 2019 Email Players issue).

But, guess what?

This month I WILL be selling back issues to paying subscribers again, from 3/6-3/9.

And, doing it in such a way where I am literally giving issues away free.

If you are an “Email Players” subscriber, keep your eye on your email inbox (the emails will be coming from 1Shoppingcart, not Aweber, and may be more likely to show up in spam/promotions) next week.

If you are not a subscriber, I have turned it off in the shopping cart.

So if you suddenly try to subscribe, no need tell me there is a glitch or whatever.

The glitch is you not having subscribed when you had the chance, and being a small thinking procrastinator.

I will say this, though:

The April issue next month — already written — is like my 9th symphony issue.

It’s the best one to date out of 100+ issues, with the most valuable & need-to-know info I’ve ever learned, used, and published, with the subject being about building your own media empire.

Small thinkers and new product junkies won’t get excited by that.

Too worried about learning the latest useless email or copywriting “hacks” or whatever.

But there’s a reason why, while I AM an unrepentant email supremacist, I am far beyond just talking about “email” anymore, and have — for the past couple years especially — been focusing way more on mixing, matching, and most recently help building my own media platforms… and using them all in conjunction with each other, all compounding on each other… and, thanks to my business partner and former Navy nuclear engineer-turned-business-software-developer Troy Broussard , about to be positioned high atop my industry with what I believe the “new internet” is going to be.

And, of course, I will be bringing my loyal Horde with me.

That’s the April issue, though, which won’t be hitting mailboxes for another month.

I simply want to tease this now, so not a single procrastinator can say they weren’t told. But procrastination is a curable disease of the mind. And, later this month will be their chance to wise up and change their evil procrastinating ways.

Okay, that’s enough internet for me today.

If you want to get a small taste of what the April issue is about, simply go into the free Ben Settle mobile app and look for the video inside the “elBenbo TV” channel called:

“How to create your own media empire”

If you don’t have my mobile app, simply do this:

1. Opt-in to this website and get on my email list

2. Follow the link to the page in the “welcome email” (in the PS), and follows the simple instructions to get a username and password (if you try to be an overachiever and download the app in the Apple or Google Play store you will not be able to access it without a username and password)

If you have ANY problems with the app, or questions about it, do NOT email me.

Use the support email address on the page.

That’s what it is there for.

Funny story:

When an “Email Players” subscriber last month had some kind of problem accessing the app, and I told him to use the support email, that’s what it is there for, he got butt hurt and canceled his subscription.

And I couldn’t have been happier.

I am growing more and more impatient with dimwits like that.

If someone can’t follow a simple instruction, they have no place amongst the rest of my Email Players of the Horde.

Just like procrastinators don’t.

All right, enough.

That’s all I got for today.

Ben Settle

P.S. Soon I will have another mobile app JUST for “Email Players” subscribers, loaded with a ton of content nobody else will ever see, including content that is now on my free app you can still access for now, but won’t be much longer after I set the Email Players-only app up.

More on that soon…

Recently I’ve been reading Dan Kennedy’s new book “Almost Alchemy.”

And my favorite part of it so far is this:

“If you are guilty of such negligence, I’d like to kick you in the ass. You piss me off. If your business wastes opportunity like I’ve just described, when it files for bankruptcy, its demise cheers my heart. I root for your extinction.”

He was talking about lazy & willfully ignorant types who squander marketing opportunities.

But it reminded me of another group of blue flame specials I have a similar contempt for.

Specifically:

The skeevy IM’ers & contemptible new product junkies who I’ve banned & blocked from returning to “Email Players” after quitting or being kicked out, who try to fraudulently sneak back in on the sly.

In fact, they always fall into one of these 3 categories:

1. People not motivated or ambitious enough to use the info, but could use it, yet didn’t

2. People who were not ready to use the info, and were simply too dimwitted to do what’s necessary so they can use it – i.e., start building a list and find an offer to sell that list, which ain’t exactly rocket science

3. People who are simply too low IQ to use the info, so can’t use it

As for #1 & #2, they are self-explanatory.

But as for #3, the low IQ internet marketer types?

When I say they are “low IQ” and can’t use the info, I don’t mean they are literally low IQ people per se.

Probably, they are very intelligent people overall.

Some of them even well above average.

But, they demonstrably ARE low IQ when it comes to marketing.

These are the types of people who, as just one of many examples, get offended (even outraged!) that a paid newsletter like “Email Players” includes ads inside (currently, I am testing 3 ad inserts inside, along with an accompanying full sales letter, with each issue). In fact, they are so astonishingly low IQ when it comes to marketing, they completely miss the free marketing & copywriting education those ads are giving them. They also are the ones who will natter on about how there’s “nothing new” when they see fundamentals being applied in different ways (which I do a lot, ain’t nuttin’ sexy about anything I teach), but don’t do any of the things they supposedly know. Not implementing info they supposedly “know” is another big, flashing red sign of the low IQ internet marketer. As is when someone lets several issues pile up, unread & unused, due solely to their own lack of ambition & discipline to read a mere 17 pages per month (about half a page per day — which can be easily read on the toilet while pinching a loaf, if need be) that are designed to put more money in their starving little piggy banks… and then panic, think leaving to get “caught up” – instead of just sacking up and reading them – and coming back later will somehow magically fix their irreparably busted inner game at how success works.

Such is the plight of the low IQ internet marketer:

Too blind to see the abundant harvest before them, and too broken to do anything with it even if they did see it.

All that said:

As strong as my contempt for them is, I also pity them in some ways. Especially when the looming white collar depression hits in late 2020 or 2021. One can “get away” with being a new product junkie, being lazy, and not really doing much when times are good, the stock market is roaring, and unemployment is low, and people are buying. But when it goes south — and it will, what goes up always comes down — and wallets start closing, customers & clients become more discerning, and big tech platforms and merchant accounts start cracking down and tightening their rules… I hope for their sakes they can find a good, secure job that’ll accommodate their low attention spans & despicable lack of discipline or ambition.

Maybe they can learn to code…

All right, enough picking on the low IQ internet marketers.

There’s nothing I can do to help them, nor do I care to.

So let’s move on to the fun stuff:

The March “Email Players” issue is all about a secret way of selling and positioning your business that even raw & “wriggling” newbies can use to potentially command outrageous fees & pricing, and create loyal customers for life.

It’s very much an attraction by repulsion type of training.

And, I have always found, the more you reject, repel, and disgust the low quality customers who want to waste your time, buy on price alone, and project their emotional damage onto you and/or your offers… the more you automatically turn on the high quality customers & clients.

And the 10 methods I talk about in the March issue can help you do just that.

But, only if you’re subscribed by tomorrow’s deadline.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I can’t say I ever watched the movie “The Secret” nor do I care to.

I find just about everything written about the so-called law of attraction takes a backseat to the law of repulsion (i.e., focusing NOT on attracting what you do want, but on repulsing what you don’t want…) And if you don’t believe me about that, then come closer and sit next to your pal & long-suffering daily narrator, and I’ll show you exactly what I mean with a real life story that says far more than anything you’ll see in some goosed-up movie designed to make the proletariat feel good about themselves.

Behold:

Last year when I moved here to elBenbo’s Bluff by the sea, sitting here for 3+ months without high speed internet and having to read to entertain myself… I dug up all my old Wizard magazine (a magazine about comicbooks, comicbook creators, titles, the industry, etc) back issues.

It was an extremely profitable activity, too.

And gave me all kinds of ideas for product & book launches and campaigns.

And, I was reminded about why I chose to so aggressively focus on the law of repulsion in the first place, when I re-read an interview with comicbook writer Peter David and his wildly profitable run on “The Incredible Hulk” — which are some of the best comicbook stories I’ve ever read, incidentally. He basically turned the savage green hulk back to its original smart & crafty gray version Stan Lee created, pissing off the hardcore green hulk fans. Then he spent some 4 years building up the gray hulk, so the readers loved that version and were invested in his story… only to turn the hulk back to green and savage, then into a hybrid of all 3 personalities (Banner, angry dumb green hulk, smart gray hulk), showing Bruce Banner had multiple personality disorder due to being abused as a child.

Deep stuff for a mere “comicbook”, especially at the time.

Anyway, Peter David dropped a fat bomb of knowledge in the interview when he said:

“The people who like the book read it and recommend it to their friends. These people who are outraged by what I’ve done, pick it up each month to see how much more outraged they can get. It’s easy to find comics that bore you or don’t surprise you, but to find comics that royally piss you off is really difficult. Considering how many people complained about Claremont’s X-Men, I figured Chris’s secret was pissing people off.”

Beautiful.

Like marketing poetry.

And when you realize how insanely profitable Claremont’s 17-year run on the “X-Men” was, you will especially see just how valuable a lesson that one paragraph is.

Also, one more thing:

I talk a little more about this story, and about some lessons from that industry I’ve used to completely baffle my scoffers & haters over the years, profit from them, and how you can do the same thing in the bonus “elBenbo’s Lair” insert in the upcoming March “Email Players” issue.

Fun times.

But only for those subscribed in time by tomorrow’s hard deadline.

Here’s where to subscribe in time to get it, while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I once heard the late, great Earl Nightingale tell a story about how Walk Disney would decide which ideas to test and which ones to ignore.

The short version is this:

If 10 or more “experts” gave him the exact idea or advice for something, he would not only ignore the idea, but test doing the exact opposite! Such was Walt’s contrarian way of doing things. And, judging by the enormous sums of money his company and brand were worth then and are worth today, I dare say he was on to something.

More:

I read a book a few months ago by Gene Simmons (singer of the enormously successful band KISS), that talked about his opinions of so-called “critics.”

And he has a similar contempt for the opinions of others.

In fact, had he listened to others’ opinions, he’d never have ran with a lot of his most profitable ideas. My favorite example being his outrageously priced book “KISSTORY” which no publisher wanted to touch due to the $152.00 — for a mere book about his band — price tag he wanted to charge.

So he self-published, instead.

And, at the time he told the story, that book had generated $12 million in sales.

Lots of lessons in that for info publishers.

Here’s another lesson, from the aforementioned Earl Nightingale:

“We all know the cynical type of individual who will laugh at this. I know them; you know them. But I don’t know one who could be said to be doing well, do you?”

Anyway, the point of all this?

There’s a lot of money in having contempt for critics, cynics, and experts.

And this attitude is absolutely mandatory if you want to use the info inside the March “Email Players” issue. Especially since, as you implement it — if your experience is anything like my own over the past 20 years — you will almost certainly get a flurry of unsolicited opinions from these types telling you not to do any of it.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Of course, none of this matters if you aren’t subscribed in time to get said March issue.

To remedy that sinfully gross error of negligence, go here today, while you can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle