By forces of evil I refer to gov and corporate bureaucrats with lots of power who take a, shall I say… “interest” in your righteous business.
In no particular order:
* Have 10+ merchant accounts, minimum and even more if you can find them, and use a gateway service that lets you rotate them so no one merchant account gets all the sales at any given time
* Make it a goal to become a platform unto yourself like all the extremely polarizing people you either love to hate or hate to love who always grow more influential the more they are attacked, hated, prosecuted, and persecuted
* It only takes one rogue employee or bureaucrat at a tech platform or bank or in the government who doesn’t like you to lose access to all your data and ability to sell
* Have an email list on a privately owned platform that is not run or financed (i.e., corporate or bank loan funded) you mail regularly and back up daily to at least 3 places besides your phone: like a secure cloud untouched by any big tech… your own hard drive of course… and if you’re really paranoid put it on a flash drive on a keychain you take with you everywhere you go…
* Realize any device with a speaker in your home or place of business can and probably will be turned into a microphone…
* Never say or write anything online (anywhere, in any app, in any email exchange, yes, even if you think it is “private” and secure — including in Gmail even if a draft you don’t send) you wouldn’t say in front of a judge or jury deciding your fate, the police, a hostile reporter, and especially the folks who provide you merchant account, banking, or other professional services your business relies on
* In other words… before writing that joke or making that flippant reply imagine it being discussed at a deposition passed around the room (happened to me once… very sobering) or in front of a jury or group of alphabet agency people trying to decide what to do to you and then proceed accordingly…
* Assume there is no such thing as truly being “anon” — hiding behind a cartoon or statue avatar on Twitter is fine and well, but assume you’ll be ratted out or discovered some day and behave accordingly now, if you want to have a chance to save yourself from a lot of potential bull shyt later
* Assume every sales page on your site, every email to your list, every webinar pitch you give will be looked at by a competitor with one of the alphabet agencies in his hip pocket wondering if you’re competition
* The above is where legitimately advanced copywriting, email, & selling game comes into play
* Have all ads and sales pages reviewed by a sharp attorney
* Impose harsher and stricter rules for any claims in your advertising and in following direct marketing laws than even the alphabet agencies require
* Learn how to make the skeleton dance (turn legitimate flaws into benefits/reasons to buy) and learns how to monetize haters/trolls/slanderers/1-star reviewers/media reporters/goo-roos, etc — not only can it be good for sales, but can also help make your business the proverbial “porcupine” surrounded by aggressive creatures wanting to bring you down
* However paranoid you think you are, you ain’t nearly paranoid enough
* You’ll know you’re probably doing it right when the death threats, black mailing, doxing, swatting, and coordinated de-platforming attempts begin…
* Read Gary Halbert’s The Dark Side of Success newsletter issue (easily found online), then read it again, and again… and again… and then read it several more times, especially if you are seeing quick success and find yourself getting overly arrogant
* Consider alternate forms of generating income that do NOT rely at-all on merchant accounts, customers, clients, or being in the spotlight in any way like investing/Options trading (like taught at Low Stress Trading) or a local side business in your community (one of the things we will be doing with Stefania’s business when Willis is a little older), etc
* When your business gets big enough you might want to have your business and asset affairs set up like politicians set theirs up… (will not explain, and, frankly, am not even qualified to)
* It probably won’t always be this way, just ride it out for the next 5-15 years, after the inevitable collapse it will straighten out depending what part of the country you live (if in the US, at least) when it happens
None of this is legal advice obviously
And it won’t all apply to most reading this anyway.
Just depends on your business, niche, market, product category, size, revenue, etc.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately for reasons I won’t go into here.
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Ben Settle
