Ben Settle

Every December, I list off the books I read that year to Email Players subscribers.

Excluding the books I read and didn’t think we’re good or books I re-read, of course.

Usually I put this list in that year’s December issue.

But this year, I am posting the list publicly.

Here goes:

* The Circadian Code — if I had to pick ONE book to hand child Ben for health… it’d be this. I was telling Ken McCarthy a few weeks ago how I believe this to be THE most important book for health ever written in a lot of ways. Willis will be required to read it and I will revisit again.

* Pride & Discipline by Jack Lalanne — lots of insights from the guy who all but created modern fitness industry as we know it, and if you’re the lazy type who needs motivation to exercise this book should turn the trick.

* The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien — If you’re Tolkien fan you will love this book. And if you are a Lord of the Rings fan you will get all new insights into those stories not spelled out, but that are there, “beneath the surface” so to speak. He even has a “what if” scenario about what if Gollum had kept the One Ring or Frodo had learned to use it to control minds? And if you can’t be bothered to read The Silmarillion (too dry for me…) he summarizes the entire history of Middle-Earth in one letter. A bit of a downer, though, how he was always hurting for money, yet his idiot grandkids have made out like bandits whoring his IP out to social activists with Rings of Power, etc.

* Kubrick — Robert Kolker’s bio of the filmmaker. If you like Kubrick’s movies you will probably be mesmerized by this book. If you are indifferent to his work, you’ll probably be bored by it.

* Snow Leopard — the Creepy Joe, Obama, political/media establishment-approved examples are overrated, with disingenuous Ryan Holiday “Trust Me I’m Lying” book vibes that did the same thing. But the overall lessons were spot on, with options for thinking differently.

* Conquistador — about Hernán Cortés’ expedition to Mexico where he saw, raked, and scuttled the human child sacrifices, introduced Jesus, and literally created a brand new race. Not bad for a guy in his low to mid 30’s… I even use him as an example of how to approach business in my upcoming Client-less Copywriter program that will launch later this month.

* Be Useful — Dan Kennedy recommended this book by Arnold Schsarxlkjdbtowartttzneggar. It’s technically a self-help book. But is far MORE than mere self-help. In fact, it was one of those “got to read 10 times” books for me. His naive politics aside, it’s extremely, er, useful to anyone in business, copywriting, email, or marketing.

* Last Action Heroes — lets you relive all your favorite action 80’s action movies from behind-the-scenes. I also scooped up a few extremely useful marketing lessons I have been using and likely be teaching in Email Players in 2025.

* If I Really Wanted To Beat Stress I Would… — I first heard about this book from one of the Scuttlebutt Tapes John Carlton produced back in 2002 or 2003 where he interviewed Gary Halbert about prospering in a rotten economy. I had started re-listening to it last December, and caught Gary’s reference at the end to this book. It’s short, bite-sized, and practical advice for lowering stress.

* Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs In His Own Words — “back room” conversation-style memos, emails, talks, and communications by Steve Jobs. Even if you think Apple is the devil (an argument can be made) you can pull a lot of profitable advice from this book.

* Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power — Thomas Jefferson’s excellent biography. Probably the #1 lesson I drew from this is there really is nothing new under the sun. The same kind of forces fooking with the American experiment today were happening when Jefferson was President. Same crap, different bung holes…

* Rules For Radicals — When I got this book written by Saul Alinski, I was hoping for more violence, extremism, and cheap tricks & nonsense from Obama’s community organizer hero. But alas… no. If anything, the advice inside is very sound, practical, and non-violent. His advice on persuasion and influence is not at all sexy, but it’s powerful — i.e., it’s just having conversations with people, getting to know them, their problems, etc. I think he missed his calling as a network marketer.

* How To Get Rich — Felix Dennis’ book lots of broke goo-roo fanboys fap to, ironically enough. But excellent info if you are in the publishing (info or otherwise) business especially.

* The Right Way To Do Wrong — Dan Kennedy gifted me this short book from Harry Houdini when we first started corresponding by FAX this year. It’s a quick read, and fascinating. It could also help you not be a victim of theft, too… in some ways, it reminds me of the book Gene Schwartz recommended for financial writers “Barbarians At The Gate”, i.e., books that show you how people got away with it.

* Sargon the Magnificent — literally nothing at all useful for business purposes. Very politically incorrect too, as a lot of books written 100 years ago. And it argues the ancient Babylonian King Sargon of Akkad was the Biblical Cain. It’s not all bid’niz around here… sometimes a guy’s interests in the strange and unusual must also be satisfied.

And that goes with something Gene Schwartz also recommended:

Read everything and anything that interests you.

That has always been great advice for copywriters.

And this goes especially for email copywriters.

As far as email goes, to learn about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Came a question:

… you reference so many different ideas, movies, marketers, items from history and current events – how do you keep track of all your ideas?

Do you have notebooks, notecards, post-its or some physical way of noting things that interest you or that you might use later?  Or a digital system?  Or do you have a phenomenal memory and just track down the movie line, story, or reference when ideas come to you as you’re actually writing?

Love to get a glimpse into how you do it!

No super memory or special system needed.

For over 20 years I have been slavishly adhering to what Gene Schwartz said about reading everything and anything of interest from as wide array of topics as possible. I also like to re-read, re-watch, revisit anything I find especially interesting or potentially relevant whether for now or in the future.

Some stuff sticks, most doesn’t.

But certain bits start to get ingrained in your psychology, and over time you learn how to access it when needed and without even really thinking about it.

It’s the only “app” I’ve ever used.

Something else:

In my experience the best solutions for having more productivity and stronger creativity than the other guy are almost always simple and non-complicated, as well as boring and totally anti-climactic. The more complex and sophisticated the more likely using said solution or app or whatever is simply majoring in the minors.

It reminds me of when I first met Stefania.

She told me about someone’s app for fasting and asked if I’d ever used one.

And I joked:

”yes, it’s called a clock.”

And so it is..

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A tale from the celebrity gossip files:

For some time now, Sylvester Stallone and Hollywood producer Irwin Winkler have been feuding.

The basics of this feud are:

1. Stallone wrote, created the characters, starred in, and made the Rocky franchise and its spinoffs (the 3 Creed movies) possible and beloved

2. Winkler and his business partner at the time took all the financial and professional risk, including taking a risk on Stallone (who was a nobody – as much a nobody from the neighborhood as the character he wanted to play), and even had to put their houses up as collateral to get the funding so the movie could be made at all

3. It was spelled out and clear the producers owned the IP, not Stallone

4. Years later, Winkler gave ownership of the IP to his sons

5. One of his sons wrote a book about it that pissed Stallone off

6. Stallone believes he should have gotten at least some kind of ownership to pass on to his own children considering he IS the franchise at the end of the day — his ideas, stories, characters, movie direction (in all but two of the Rocky movies), acting, influence, box office draw, star power, etc

7. Stallone has been publicly complaining about it on social media ever since

There may be more to it but that is the gist.

But you know what I think?

I think one hundred years from now when people are still watching Rocky, nobody will remember Winkler or his NPC sons. But they will remember Stallone. And he will be remembered and respected with a legacy that will long outlive him, his children, and their children, and probably even their children’s children.

So what we got here is quite the irony:

After the 1st movie’s Rocky vs Apollo fight, Apollo admitted that, yes, he won against Rocky.

But, he did not “beat” Rocky.

And so it is with Winkler — he won, but didn’t beat Stallone.

It’s too bad Sly doesn’t realize that and is complaining about it on social media.

And so it is..

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

A few months ago, a would-be BerserkerMail client said he decided not to use our platform because his marketing manager insisted they use something more “mainstream.”

That sounded like a guy asking his wife before making a business decision.

And it’s doubtful we can help guys like that either way, so was for the best.

But it got me thinking, if BerserkerMail was “mainstream” it would almost certainly…

* have managers who care more about getting your pronouns right than building a stable platform that helps make your business more sales

* be more proud to feature podcast episodes about DEI, with guests who look like they should not be allowed within 1000 feet of a public school, instead of episodes about how to make more sales with email

* keep raising prices even while taking on $100s of millions in loans, investors, series C funding

* charge for a laundry list of pointless features you’ll never use, and then brag about them with a list comparing ourselves to all the other mainstream platforms

* encourage you not to mail often because it’s expensive and takes away from the owner’s piggy banks

* cater to mommy bloggers who think they need to plaster their emails with graphics, pretty borders, and a dozen different links in each email

* create features around what’s more convenient for the development team instead of what’s most convenient for the clients

* have a ‘free’ option that gets shyt deliverability to turn on the email marketing proles who don’t know any better

* have support run by people who have never sent commercial emails to their own lists selling their own offers in their entire lives… and just stack & reply to tickets with copy & paste answers

* give nonsensical advice about “gaming” Gmail for more engagement instead of encouraging businesses to write better emails people want to engage with

* tell you to focus on open rates instead of sales

* chase and appease price shoppers instead of value shoppers

And so it goes.

We’re definitely not mainstream.

And, in fact, will just continue to do the exact opposite of mainstream.

The same can be said for the paid Email Players newsletter. I’ve been publishing it for almost 15 years, and the reason for its longevity ain’t my sparkling personality. It’s because the info goes so much against mainstream email, copywriting, and direct response marketing nonsense that all just majors in the minors about things that don’t matter, celebrates goofy tricks, and gives milk but no real meat.

To learn more about Email Players go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Since it’s election day here in the US, below’s my most recent Oregon Eagle article titled:

“Persuasion Secrets of America’s Most Revered & Reviled Presidents”

If you own a business and want to have more influence over your customers, then these extraordinarily persuasive Presidents can show you how:

GEORGE WASHINGTON — Nothing attracts customers like having a Mission. And Washington pursued his against all odds and at great risk to his life. I doubt one in a million Americans understands the hair-raising odds stacked against him living to even see the Revolutionary War much less surviving it and then keeping the Republic together. I’d argue it was because he believed in his Mission so strongly he considered it divine providence. And a businessman with a Mission like that automatically inspires people to take action — including wanting to buy.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT — His “Bruce Wayne”-like backstory is universally persuasive. He started as a weak, sick man, moved to the wilderness, then came back a superhero. It’s the essence of a lot of great advertising and worthy of study.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT — FDR knew if you don’t have what you need to make the sale, you manufacture it. Take, for example, packing the courts to pass his unpopular agenda. Businesses can do the same thing. Product boring? Make it exciting. Offer weak? Create incentives to make it more appealing. Pack your offers like FDR packed the courts and you can’t lose.

JOHN F. KENNEDY — He’d have cleaned up on social media with his charisma. In fact, many experts say he’d have lost his debate with Nixon had it not been televised. He also oozed inspiration with big ideas and vision. These are attributes that can make any businessman more persuasive.

RONALD REAGAN — Called “The Great Communicator” despite his infamous gaffes due to his entertaining way of selling his ideas to the public. He also projected strength which inspired loyalty, and was the master of what great negotiators refer to as “un-okay.” People are comfortable with humanity. And nothing demonstrates humanity more than being imperfect.

BILL CLINTON — Friends and foes alike say he comes off as the most empathetic guy in the room. Real or fake (i.e., sociopaths), empathy is a nuclear bomb-like weapon of influence. In fact, his powers of influence were so potent he sailed right past #metoo unscathed despite his guilt.

BARACK OBAMA — He had tight message-to-market match game, which means having the right message, to the ideal prospect, at the exact time they want to buy. Women fainted at his rallies without him saying anything substantive, and his email fundraising team alone raked in over $600,000,000 in donations.

DONALD TRUMP — He also had incredible message-to-market match game, plus he’s almost supernaturally polarizing. He is hated and loved, mocked and revered… but never ignored. He doesn’t just make the news, he IS the news, with the media giving him all the free air time (i.e., free advertising) he wants. He is what I refer to as a “platform unto himself” — who cannot really be “cancelled”, and only grows stronger the more he’s attacked, vilified, or prosecuted. His powers of persuasion go beyond mean tweets and sound bytes and are something else entirely.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. And no… “likes” got nothing to do with it. I despise half of these presidents myself. But that doesn’t stop me from profiting from them. And unless you hate money, it won’t stop you either.

An inquiring affiliate marketing mind wants to know:

“If you’re willing to indulge me, why DON’T you have affiliate offers… considering you regularly sell them yourself? I imagine plenty of people would love to promote you if they could get a cut.”

The list of reasons is long but distinguished.

And while my other companies (Learnistic/BerserkerMail & Low Stress Trading) do have offers affiliates can sell… it is true I do not allow affiliates to sell my books or newsletter and very likely never will. And the reason I probably never will has to do with all kinds of reasons, like, for instance:

* Physical products are an absolute pain in the arse to sell via affiliates.

* FTC rules mean me having to “police” what affiliates say, and I don’t have the time or inclination to do that.

* Nexus rules about sales tax that might come into play — at the very least I would forbid anyone living in the Socialist Republics of California, New York, Illinois, or New Jersey from having anything to do with selling any of my offers.

* I am an awful money manager and don’t want to deal with paying affiliates.

* Most important of all…

I preach to the already-initiated, and not the uninitiated in my advertising. And because of that, my sales letters do not appeal to. and my offers are not-at-all suitable for, anyone not already on my list, sold “on” me, and who does not know me or is at least somewhat familiar with how I operate, think, and do things.

For those and many other reasons it has zero appeal to me.

And no, I don’t care about the money left on the table.

Not everything is about money.

I value my time, energy, and emotional bandwidth a helluva lot more than I value money, because without those precious assets, money would mean very little to me. And, ironically, I would have much less of it anyway as a result. Something a lot of businesses who do the solo thing find out the hard way, as they spin wheels and burn out thinking everything is about “response.”

I have, however, been toying with the idea of licensing for years.

I even wrote about my plan for it in my elBenbo Press book.

And eventually I will probably do that sort of thing.

In fact, if/when I decide to semi retire by writing fiction by morning and trade options in the afternoon… I will probably only sell the Email Players newsletter anymore, and then just license my books to some businesses with gigantic lists and deep pockets who can better exploit them than I can, and let them do their thing with them.

Admittedly, I have no idea if/when I will ever do that.

I am simply typing my thoughts out loud here.

As for the offers I am associated with you can sell as an affiliate, they include:

* BerserkerMail

* Learnistic

* Low Stress Trading

Contact me personally if you want to sell them.

Although with Low Stress Trading you’ll have to be a client to sell it.

That’s all for today.

Ben Settle

I’m going to miss this election season.

The ads alone make me wish it’d go on for at least another few months.

For example:

One of the more effective political ads over the past several months especially was the one editing and juxtaposing various clips of Kamala in a way where she is basically debating with herself… saying how terrible the economy has been under her and Creepy Joe, while simultaneously insisting how great Bidenomics is and how proud she is of it.

You can probably find the video on YouTube which I highly recommend.

But here is the transcript:

KAMALA: Every day prices are too high. Food, rent, gas, back to school clothes … That is called Bidenomics. A loaf of bread costs 50% more today. Ground beef is up almost 50%. There’s not much left at the end of the month. Bidenomics is working. The price of housing has gone up. It feels so hard to just be able to get ahead. We are very proud of Bidenomics.

That ad is a beautiful example of what I call:

“Upstairs Trolling”

Or, maybe a better term is “Troll-o-nomics”…?

Whatever the case, downstairs trolling is just what it sounds like — the fat loser sitting in his mom’s basement watching pournos and eating cheetos, pulling his mask down between bites so he doesn’t catch covid, yelling at the screen about whatever person more successful than him just wrote or said. But Upstairs trolling is quite different. In this ad’s case, it does not attack or devolve into carpet-drooling angry pushup trollery like the dorklords do on Reddit. Nor does it try to fight Kamala or argue with her, nor need to, as she does both to herself in the ad.

The result is influence, persuasion, and chipping away at closed minds.

And the reason it works:

It’s a demonstration.

And a dramatic demonstration at that.

And one dramatic demonstration can do all the heavy lifting in your advertising.

Something email the way I teach can let you play like a fiddle.

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

The late copywriter Jim Rutz once told a story about how something he wrote accidentally went viral.

He said  he’d write a financial promo and put one of his own opinions in almost as a throw-away thought… and suddenly it sails through the process of approval from the client, the legal department, and the editors and is being quoted as fact in the financial news, even though it was an opinion from a copywriter who is admittedly not an expert at all on the subject.

Christopher Nolan said the same happened when Batman Begins came out.

There is a scene where Bruce Wayne falls through some ice.

Next he’s in front of fire freezing being told:

“Rub your chest, your arms will take care of themselves”

Sounds legit? Maybe it is, maybe not. But Nolan said it was a bit hair-raising when he noticed suddenly it was being taught to boy scouts or whatever as some kind of survival tip even though he basically pulled the line out of his arse.

Another example:

Many years ago I decided to probe around in the prostate problem niche.

I wrote an eBook with a backend offer in place, started generating traffic via a particularly aggressive kind of SEO (that briefly worked in the early 2010’s, does not work anymore) that was getting me sales and things were looking pretty good. So good, something I said as a throwaway opinion was suddenly popping up in a bunch of forums, etc, that while was not something that would hurt anyone (it was not a health tip, just a tip about an obscure kind of doctor people might want to get an opinion from that had nothing to do with urology)… it was being quoted as some kind of breakthrough for a couple days before petering out.

Related to this:

I have lost count how many times I’ve been given credit (or blame) for things I did not say by people on social media by both friend and foe alike. But eventually, at some point when you are enough of a threat to certain competitors or annoying enough to jealous losers who follow you… you will have people writing emails and posts about you, with or without mentioning you, lying through their teeth for clout or sympathy or God-only-knows.

And when that happens?

The last thing you should do is get defensive or attack whoever it is.

Instead, turn it into an email to sell something.

You will not only do your own business a favor, but probably the people on your email list who know, like, and trust you will find it amusing and good sport, too. And if you are selling something they want, then many of them will probably even buy from you, of course.

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

This won’t win me any points with the “body positivity” crowd.

But I’ve been keeping up on a lot of celebrity drama over the years. And I’ve been especially doing so this year for reasons I will write about next month. And I am convinced it was NOT sending Lizzo “good thoughts” or “positive vibes” that prompted her to recently start trying to get healthy and showing everyone her progress along the way.

No, I argue it was good, old fashioned, life-saving…

Trolling.

Yes, a lot of it was no doubt very nasty, mean, even cruel trolling.

But I would bet the biggest peanut buster parfait in the Land of Dairy Queen from those 1980’s commercials that it was that trolling that pissed her off enough to change. And, yes, I would also argue it was trolling that could end up being something that not only prolongs her life, but also prolongs her career, her time with her family & friends, and her health, happiness, and future successes. Not to mention inspiring others in her fanbase to make changes too.

Fight this all you want, argue with it all you want, hamster-spin it all you want.

But nothing motivates like revenge.

And while only she knows for sure… if I had to bet:

I’d say Lizzo did it to get revenge on her trolls first and foremost and/or just shut them up. It’s not the most honorable or society-approved or Facebook like-worthy of motivations. But it is one of the best, most reliable, and most likely to succeed motivations you can tap into. Some very profitable ad campaigns for weight loss have had strong revenge angles.

Revenge is not a dish best served cold.

It’s a dish best served SOLD.

And when you start using email marketing in a way that can do it in a way that is tasteful, and in a way people like to read, you can monetize your trolls from now until the zombie apocalypse if you want.

Just one of many benefits of email marketing.

To learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle