If you’ve been reading these emails for very long, you will no doubt have noticed I not only do not cater to newbies, but in some cases even show contempt for some of them.

Not all of them, of course.

I am specifically only referring to the foolish ones who think they can start with “advanced.”

With no desire to learn the “boring”  basics & fundamentals first.

These particular types of newbies do nothing but waste my time, ask questions which would be answered if they picked up a marketing/copywriting 101 book or stopped being cowards and took some chances, and who demand coddling, handholding, a checklist to cling to like a blanky, and everything spelled out, with as little thinking as possible. Much like an employee does. All while thinking — and proclaiming to their other newbie friends on social media — they are an “entrepreneur!”

Yes, it can be – and is – quite amusing.

But sometimes it’s annoying, too.

Especially when these lazy types sneak into my world and subscribe to “Email Players”, which is not only clearly not intended for them, but they don’t yet have the skill or experience to use even if they have the intellect to read the words – or, if they are in that position, the desire to get up to speed to use it.

Like this blue light special, who said:

“I messed up. I should’ve signed up when I had a list and an offer. And now I know why. You said that many times over and even bolded it but I didn’t listen.”

No shyt, Sherlock.

The irony:

It never occurs to small thinkers like this to use the situation to treat their business like an actual business for a change. By that I mean, they already have the info, so they might as well use the opportunity to sac up, and start building a list & creating or finding an offer to sell – which anyone with an 8th grade education can start doing in as little as a few hours using just a smart phone and social media, or even free article sites and/or JVs with other newbies, if that’s all they have. Then, they can use the info in the newsletters to write emails selling said offer.

But they don’t think that way.

Not these types of newbies, at least.

Their first & only reaction is roll over & surrender.

Thus, I find their lack of vision & ambition to problem solve downright embarrassing.

Also thus, I ban them from coming back later.

In fact, in the not-too-distant-future, technology has made it so I can start finally blocking these contemptible new product junkies & small-thinker do-nothing types not only from buying other books & products I sell, but also even start denying them access to the free info on my new business App by locking them out altogether from it, as I am very likely only going to make it accessible to “Email Players” subscribers by year’s end.

Lots of other businesses will happily take the new product junkie type of newbie’s money.

Me?

I prefer these low-quality lazy types haunt someone else, so I can focus on & make more room for high-quality business.

All that said, not all newbies are created equal.

Like, for example, “Email Players” subscriber Fotis Chat.

(Hiya Fotis!)

I remember many years ago when he was a raw, “wriggling” newbie, with no experience, offers, or list to speak of. He asked about subscribing to “Email Players” and I told him not to, it’d be a waste of his money, etc. I don’t remember the exact email thread, but that was the gist of it.

Anyway, I thought he’d go on his merry way.

But, instead, he defiantly ignored my commands and subscribed anyway.

And, since then, he’s become quite successful.

And, one time a few years back, I remember writing an email warning newbies away and he reminded me of his accomplishments and that not all newbies are the same, etc. And he was right. There are a few such types such as himself and, when I was getting started, Yours Crotchety, who were able to figure things out without needing checklists, an endless string of coaches, constant coddling & handholding, everything spelled out, etc, where we found what resources we needed, bought them, and used them, figured things out, made mistakes, learned from said mistakes, and plowed forward.

I have to stress though:

These types of newbies are as rare as honest politicians.

And if you are a newbie reading this, chances are you are NOT one of them, no matter how much your rationalization hamster after listening to a Gary Vee or Grant Cardone or Anthony Robbins pep talk may be telling you otherwise. And, thus, you should not be buying the newsletter, and would be better off educating yourself with the free training in my mobile App (while you can), media page on my blog, daily emails, or low cost Kindle books, and implementing those first, instead.

How can you tell if you are one of the chosen few (fewbies?) who is ready?

If you have to ask, then you’ve answered your own question, Maynard.

I don’t teach email “hacks” newbies endlessly chase. I know hacks are all the rage these days. Email hacks, copywriting hacks, funnel hacks, this hack, or that hack, or whatever.

But my newsletter doesn’t teach said hacks.

Neither do any of my other books.

In my experience, only two types of people chase hacks & tricks:

(1) experienced marketers who have mastered the basics, for whom a legitimately ethical & valuable hack/tactic/trick can potentially add some significant coinage to their pockets. And (2) hapless newbies with no list, offer, or business to speak of who think they can use shortcuts or advanced info without the experience needed to use said hacks or understand them in context.

Thus, I prefer newbies wait until they get out of the diaper phase of craving hacks & swipes, and hold off until they are ready for wisdom before subscribing.

After all, there are no “hacks” to learn.

No subject lines, body copy, or closes to “swipe.”

And, no secret ninja tricks to run on your customers.

i.e. It’s mostly far more strategical than tactical.

And this is especially true of the upcoming February “Email Players” issue. If you don’t have a list, content, or a business… there is simply no way you can profit from the information inside. And if you are a contemptible new product junkie looking for your latest dopamine fix of “NEW!!” information?

Then, as I say on page 10:

“There is nothing ‘new’ here, just a new way of applying what I’ve already taught you, assuming you were wise enough to read The Email Players Skh?ma Book, at least.”

Okay, enough.

The deadline to get this issue approaches fast.

Here’s the link to subscribe in time to get in while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the tag lines I’ve given myself — that some dork will probably copy/swipe for their dopey little Linkedin or Facebook profile to try to sound “cool” now — is:

“Email Supremacist”

I do it for several reasons.

One of which is it is literally true:

Email is — at this time, and likely for many more years to come — a superior marketing medium above all others for my business. Yes, I know this contradicts certain direct mail supremacists who like to talk about low email delivery rates, and all the gazillions of dollars they make for their clients, etc. I don’t doubt their sincerity, by the way. There are some markets where a sharp business with tight marketing game can make direct mail far superior. But unless you have their mastery of direct mail, money to invest to test, and the patience to wait, find/test the right lists to rent, and crunch all the demographics, psychographics, costs, percentages, response rates, profit margins needed, and probably over a dozen other metrics, email is where it’s at for speed, convenience, simplicity, and bigger ROI for the vast majority of business people in my particular corner of the business world.

If you want to fight me on that because a guru said different, you’ll have to argue with me in your mind.

I’m not here to attack direct mail.

I use direct mail all the time myself on the backend, as it’s built-in to my main offer. Not to mention some aggressive postcard ideas I am keen on testing to certain segments of my buyers list, as well.

I am simply saying why I think email is superior for my business.

Case in point:

I’ve talked to two of the planet’s foremost experts on direct mail – including the great Craig Simpson. And both of them told me the same thing – there are no lists you can rent to get the kind of customers I want and prefer dealing with.

Thus, my Email Supremacist attitude.

Others’ experiences will obviously vary, depending on their product, industry, preferences.

But for Yours Crotchety’s front end operation, email has always blown direct mail away in terms of ROI, speed, and off-the-wall response. And the amusingly ironic thing is, I have yet to get a direct mail letter about how email is dying, how opens & engagement & sales are down with email, and all the other typical sky is falling doomsaying about email from anyone. I only get *emails* telling me about these things. And make no mistake, I keep checking my mail each day looking for such a direct mail letter. I also keep asking the long-suffering counter workers at the post office if they’ve seen it, have been complaining to my local Postmaster about it, and even cosidered burglarizing the mail boxes around mine to see if they got the letter by mistake.

But so far, no such direct mail letter.

I have only heard about the death of email via *email*… just like the first time I ever heard about the so called death of text sales letters was in a text sales letter selling a video sales letter (VSL) info product, with a “death of sales letters!” headline.

The irony is nothing if not entertaining.

And this goes quadruple with social media supremacists.

Take, for example, when one of my daily email readers told me how Gary Vee was teaching people to push out 100+ pieces of content on social media daily.

It’s insane.

Especially knowing they are building another company’s platform & revenues & content library first, before their own, doing so.

But, it’s a prime example of email’s supremacy over social media, too.

I’d bet green money someone who knows what they are doing with email can make more sales sending a handful of emails they quickly write and load in an autoresponder, dripped out over 4 or 5 days to a list of 1,000 people… than a chest-pounding social media rockstar can make sending 100+ posts per day to 100,000 so-called followers during that same time frame.

Enter the February “Email Players” issue.

It shows how you can potentially make far more of the green stuff using a handful of emails, you’ve already written in most cases, to quickly – with the push of a few buttons – blow away any results you’d get using direct mail, social media, or any other media that is supposedly “best” now.

You can spend hours pushing out 100 social media posts per day if you want.

Or weeks writing, sending, and tracking direct mail, renting lists, babysitting letter shops, calculating your ROI and margins, etc.

Or, you can use my ridiculously simple recipe in the February issue, spending mere minutes loading up your autoresponder with a handful of emails you’ve already written, to a sales page you’ve probably mostly already created, selling content you’ve already created or could create very quickly.

The key part of this is, if you have a list and some content you’ve already created.

And, if you have the character & ambition to follow my commands.

Whatever the case, the deadline to get this issue looms.

Hit the jump below to get it while you still can:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

There are certain movies I’ve profited from immensely over the years.

Some have obvious “how to” lessons.

Others are a bit more esoteric, but all can bring far more money, sales, influence, and overall dominance in your market than you are getting now.

One of these movies is:

“Cinderella Man”

It’s based on the true-life story of Depression-era ex-boxer James J. Braddock (played by Russell Crowe) who works as a day laborer until his former manager Joe Gould (played by Paul Giamatti) offers him a one-time slot against a rising young contender. After he wins a shocking upset he wasn’t “supposed” to win (and was to be a fall guy), Braddock goes back into the ring full time, to ultimately fight the villainous champ Max Baer — known for literally killing his opponents in the ring.

It’s one of my all-time favorite movies.

And, this is especially due to it showing the power of Keeping Up Appearances.

There are two scenes in particular that illustrate this.

The most powerful is when Braddock is fighting one of the highest ranking boxers in the world. He takes a devastating hit to his face, with the impact so hard, it knocks his mouthpiece out. To which, enduring near intolerable pain, Jim merely smiles at him.

Added to which what his cut man Joe Gould tells him to do when he goes to his corner.

Not sit down.

Not rest.

Not even spit in a bucket, I don’t think.

No, he says:

“Don’t sit down. You’re not tired. You’re fine.” He also waves off the sponge man with the bucket and water. Then he tells Braddock, while looking at his opponent. “Shake your head like you don’t need it. You don’t want it. Yeah, now he’s gonna wonder “if Braddock is such an old man, why is he still standing. Why is he still coming at me?”

The result?

This top ranked boxer, who just gave his very best, to this old man underdog who should have gone down… is completely psychologically beaten & intimidated.

You’ll have to see the movie to watch what happens next.

But, I’ll just say this:

It’s one of the single greatest success lessons I’ve seen from Hollywood.

It’s also a shining example of the power of Keeping Up Appearances.

There’s another, more obvious example of this in the movie, too.

But if you want to mess with your competition… while actually being the successful boy or ghoul you want everyone to think you are on social media and giving yourself an advantage over every single business you ever compete against for the rest of your days, master the art and craft of Keeping Up Appearances. Especially when you are at your lowest, most dejected, and blackest hour, when people think you are beaten.

Always keep up appearances, my little fledgling.

Nobody else is, I can assure you.

Especially people on social media who always eventually crack when under enough pressure and start complaining about their lives, their setbacks, and their problems.

Don’t be that guy or ghoul.

Be better…

Okay, enough spit bucket water for the soul.

I have a list of movies I’ve drawn lessons from like this.

Lessons that, if you watch and apply, can be some of the most valuable business & overall success educational experiences you will ever get anywhere else, including in high-priced courses, programs, and seminars.

And the February “Email Players” issue contains said list.

Specifically, in the bonus elBenbo’s Lair insert, along with the main take-away I got.

There are 6 such movies on this list.

And if you want to have a figurative “Movie Night With elBenbo”, simply watch these movies, have your antenna up for lessons like the above while watching them, and you’d have to be nearly brain dead not to make yourself better at virtually everything you do in business — whether writing emails and sales copy or intimidating your competition.

The deadline to get this issue is coming up fast.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Not a big fan of the whole publicly counting money thing.

But, I am not sure how else to explain the following method of creating a reliable, repeatable, and very customer-loving way for creating some smackola on demand, once, twice, even three times or more per year, depending on how ambitious you are, how well you have your act together with your offers, and how serious you are about being in business as opposed to being a contemptible, do-nothing little new product junkie or marketing hobbyist.

Anyway, here’s the story:

Early last year, Yours Gruesome tested a special sale that, unlike virtually all my offers… was intended specifically for the hyper buyers on my list.

Usually, I ignore the hyper buyers.

i.e. those who buy everything & anything – especially low priced “impulse” offers.

The reasons are many, and I’ve yapped about them before.

But, for reasons that included wanting to help a lot of ye olde hyper buyers out for a change, wanting to test a new kind of offer, and (the biggest reason of all) also I had just bought a new Lair, and I wanted to more easily pay it off as soon as the 6 month window I had to carry a mortgage for in order to not screw over my mortgage guy (he wouldn’t have gotten paid his commission had I paid it off earlier) hit… I decided to do this special sale.

Anyway, short story long:

This sale — when used in conjunction with my Email Players methodology — was the fastest, simplest, and easiest scratch I probably ever done made up in this business.

It took about an hour to set it up — sales page & emails.

And, due to being burned out from moving to a new Lair, I completely half-assed it.

Spent only an hour or so combined on the emails & sales page.

The result:

$16k in sales.

Not exaggerated goo-roo launch numbers, or anything.

But not too shabby for about an hour or so of “work.”

Plus, if I’d done a few of the simple things I was too burned out to do, I’d have very likely doubled or tripled that.

Which brings me to the plop:

You, too, can possess this template for a tried-and-true profitable offer to use and reuse (I will be doing another one later next month) each year once I instruct you in the alphas & omegas of how to do it for your business. And potentially do it the same day you learn it, if you choose.

The only caveats are:

1. You will have to have a list

2. You will have to have at least a modest amount of content already created or be willing to create said content — whether full fledged products (eBooks, videos, audio, does not matter)

3. You will have to not be a contemptible new product junkie or marketing hobbyist

In other words:

Maybe 5% of the people in all of the land of Internet Markania can use this template.

But, it’s only to those 5% I cater too anyway.

The rest can continue being social media bar flies or excuse makers, or whatever it is the vast majority of wannabes do when they aren’t idiotically swiping, mining pirate sites for free content they’ll never use, and searching for shortcuts to prevent having to do any real work.

Harsh?

I certainly hope so.

I intend to quadruple down on my customer curation this year.

That said, this sales template is something I will be using over and over and over going forward, and there’s no reason you can’t also use it to make sales on demand, practically any time you desire to, using content you’ve *already* created, sending emails you’ve *already* written, and, yes, utilizing sales copy you’ve *already* slaved over, and would like to get paid on perpetually instead of just once or once in a while.

The details of this little ditty are in the coming February “Email Players” issue.

Including what to do.

What NOT to do (I screwed myself quite badly in lost sales).

And, how to make it go smooth as honey for your righteous business.

This issue, of all issues I’ve written in over 100 issues published, contains the most immediate, cash-in-the-bank info I’ve taught. Simply follow my special “recipe” with the ingredients I lay out, shove it in the oven, and wait for the proverbial timer to ding and pull out some quick profits.

All right enough teasing.

The deadline to get this issue is coming up fast.

And, as people who try to subscribe after the deadline each month are fast learning — I am a tyrant about not letting people in. Including going as far as turning the newsletter off in the shopping cart after the deadline — always prompting the procrastinators to think they are doing me some kind of favor “letting me know” my cart has a glitch or whatever.

It’s no glitch in the software, Maynard.

The glitch is your procrastination.

Okay enough.

If you do NOT have the qualifications above, don’t bother subscribing.

This issue will do nothing but add to your pile of other trainings you never use.

Go find some goo-roo on facebook to haunt instead.

Here’s the link for the 2 or 3 people left both qualified & interested in this:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Let’s talk about so-called “good will emails.” I first heard it at one of our Oceans 4 events a few years back, and the idea is (from what I can tell) one day a week (or however often you want) you send out an email that is pure content.

No sales pitch.

Nothing to buy.

Not so much as a link.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

A noble and generous deed.

I get the idea behind it, I just don’t agree with it. In fact, I think you are doing the exact opposite of good will if you have something that can help someone solve a problem or pain in their life and not at least let them know there is a solution out there, and show them where to get it.

Think of it this way:

Imagine you have a terrible urinary tract infection.

Feels like you’re pizzing razor blades.

And, there is a product at the drug store you know works.

And you really need that product right away or you’re going to suffer all night in agonizing pain every time you take a whizz. But, when you get to the drug store there is nothing for sale. They refuse to sell you anything for your pain.

Instead they tell you it’s a “good will day!”

Today, they only educate you about urinary tract infections.

They don’t want you to think they’re just out to get your money.

So instead, you will learn all kinds of interesting info about it, to build “good will” in you, so you feel good about the store and realize they aren’t just vulture sales people wanting to take advantage of your situation.

In other words… they really CARE, dambit!

What would you think of that store?

Would be more like bad will emails.

And, probably, you’ll be miffed and go somewhere else.

Whatever happens, you’re going to spend money to solve your problems or attain your desires. And, if it’s not at the drug store you wanted to go, you’ll find it somewhere else. And, there’s a good chance it’ll be an inferior product than the product you wanted.

So it goes with good will emails.

Want to spread good will about your business?

Then sell people a solution to their problem.

Do it ethically, yes.

And in good taste, of course.

But you do your list zero good by not at least letting them know your product exists and showing them how to get it.

Do with this what you will.

Me?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t pitch each day.

And on that note, if you’re interested in writing emails that are fun for your list wants to read and buy from, check out the “Email Players” newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

I have talked a lot about dopamine addicts in the not-so-hallowed issues of these emails.

I first became aware of this phenomenon while talking to one of my former Oceans 4 Mastermind clients Michelle Spiva, who taught the room about why some people buy one product after another after another… never committing to learning, never even opening the products they buy in many cases — and constantly demanding new products instead. And she explained how they do this because they are literally addicted to the dopamine drip they get when they buy something new.

I call ‘em opportunity-minded buyers.

(As opposed to investor-minded buyers.)

And, I do everything I can to persuade them NOT to buy anything I sell. I don’t want ‘em around. I don’t want their money. And, I don’t want them wasting my time.

I’m not saying they are “bad” people.

But, I have no desire to help them until they sober up, first.

Anyway, sometimes after writing about this one of my readers will ask why not just sell to them then? What does it hurt? Wouldn’t I make way more of the green stuff if I sold to them, even if they never use the product, and just go on to the next bright shiny object?

The answer is:

Yes, of course I would.

I’d multiply my up front sales.

But, I’d also multiply my backend headaches.

Plus, I don’t want to enable them. I don’t want to be like Jesse Pinkman in “Breaking Bad” when he starts selling drugs at addict meetings. It’s just not my bag or how I want to run my business, or the kind of people I want to associate with in any way, shape, or form. And, in the case of my “Email Players” newsletter, one of the perks of membership is they can ask me (via email only) short, quick-to-answer questions I’m qualified to answer. And I don’t want their idiotic questions about why their emails keep getting terrible results selling their latest “make mooney online” (when they haven’t made any themselves…) offer clogging up my time.

Anyway, do what you want, but in my opinion:

If you want less headaches, don’t sell to dopamine addicts.

Especially if you plan to use my wily email ways designed to sell to investor-minded buyers, and not feening dopamine addicts who despise solid fundamentals (like, for example, the list-building method I teach in depth in the February issue next month, which is not new at all, but works like crazy when done right nonetheless…) and are always looking for their next product “fix.”

It’ll still work on the addicts, unfortunately.

But, it’s designed to get the quality buyers.

The buyers most people never get because they pander to the addicts.

More info on the newsletter here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

At the risk of doing some shameless self shilling, a true story:

In 2019 especially, I may have come off a tad more snobby & maybe even pretentious than usual to certain podcasters, online summit hosts, and even businesses holding events wanting me to speak. In fact, as these good people were willing and wanting to promote me to their audiences, free of charge… I ended up turning a lot of them down I’d normally have dived into.

Why would I do this?

Because I didn’t “like” them?

Have so much money I swim in a giant treasure bin like Scrooge McDuck?

Or maybe am just plain uninterested & indifferent?

No, it was because I wanted to focus on pounding out/launching all the books (around 9 or 10 of them), email campaigns, and other publishing projects – including hammering out a novel – I wanted done by the very specific, and downright tyrannical, self-imposed deadline of year end 2019.

It wasn’t just a sense of urgency on these things.

It was a full bore sense of *emergency*.

Some of the reasons for that sense of emergency were rational.

Like for example, I wanted to finish them all so I could launch my anti-affiliate program which, ironically, I don’t think I’ll be doing. Or, if I do, it will be on a much smaller scale than intended.

Others were irrational, but that turned out to be true.

Like for example, an “alarm-bell” sounding gut feeling I’d run in to some big opportunities I’d require time to take advantage of — which ended up happening, as the Caveman of Copywriting officially bought into 3 different tech companies last year. If I was still bogged down in all the book publishing and launching, Yours Time Temporal would have a huge time problem right now… especially with our new mobile App platform for businesses I’ll be demonstrating soon, which we’ll be launching in the not-too-distant future.

All of which meant, something had to give.

And that “something” was doing speaking, podcasts, & other interviews.

Having my work flow disrupted by flying, traveling (which I hate doing as it is) and/or intermittent zoom & skype calls with people from different time zones was what had to go, even though they have always been my single best source of lead generation, and even though I highly enjoy doing them, and the people who invite me on them.

I still squeezed a lot in, of course.

But, had to forgo many others for the Cause.

Which brings me to one of the many rubs of this email:

Lead gen is the beating heart of a business.

And, I mostly ignored it last year.

But, only for as long as I had to — call it a bit of deliberate short term self-sabotage for the greater good of the company as a whole, if’n you want. And it shows in how slowly my main list grew in 2019 compared to prior years, even though sales were way higher than prior years — which, in my biased opinion, is a testament to the email ways I sell with. And now that I have my time more or less back under control, I’m already getting booked back on various podcasts and summits, have been in touch with people wanting me to possibly speak, etc.

Incidentally:

If you’re a podcaster or online summit host especially, and if you’d like me on your show to teach your audience my ways to get more sales, go here:

www.BenSettle.com/media

You can get a feel for the kind of info I share with audiences.

And, also, see the kind of shows I teach best on.

Okay, enough shameless self-shilling.

Tomorrow?

Something better…

Ben Settle

“Is that all you’ve got? A cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?”

— The Villainess Brandt
“Ironman 3”

One of the most entertaining business-related parts of the holidays is watching all the abysmally awful marketing & copywriting going on.

The neediness.

The desperation.

The begging…

It’s morbidly fascinating to watch in the same way it’s morbidly fascinating to hear about a social media “influencer” desperate for attention and likes will plunge to their death from a cliff to get that perfect selfie for Instagram.

On a not-entirely-unrelated note:

I got an email from an “Email Players” subscriber earlier this morning who has been using exactly what I am teaching in the January “Email Players” issue to generate quite a bit of the green stuff – to the tune of 7 figures – in his world. He also teaches it to his private clients, and a few others who understand “nuance” (as he said – a perfect way to put it) he knows. But, there are others he purposely doesn’t bother teaching it too. And the reason why he doesn’t teach it is because he knows — as I also have been warning in some of these emails over the last few days — most will treat it like a cheesy dating line.

Thus, he said he is a bit bummed I am teaching it.

He knows it will be completely butchered by the majority of “online marketers.”

And he is 100% right, too.

It is astonishing how stupid the average internet marketer & copywriter is.

It’s why 90% of them are either broke or figuratively “living on the run” — one failed launch or JV away from being on the street. Because they chase “hacks” before seeking wisdom. Care more about building a swipe file than building a business. And are the types who, even if they learn legitimate copywriting & marketing tactics like what I got cooking up in the January issue, will completely abuse and misuse the info. They are too stupid to think beyond the next sale & too small thinking to realize building a business on mere “transactions” vs relationships first is a recipe for working harder and making less profit.

Which brings me to the rub:

Like I told him in my reply:

“I see-sawed on whether to teach it at all, but if I don’t do it to my list, some scum bag goo-roo on social media with the wrong intentions who treats it — as you said — like a cheesy dating line, will first.”

Whatever the case, let’s tie this bag up.

The deadline to get the January issue is in just a few short hours.

After that, too late, Pokey.

And, as always, no exceptions will be made.

Here’s the merry, jingling & jangling link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

One of the best biographies I ever done read is Dan Kennedy’s:

“My Unfinished Business”

The part I liked best?

A chapter on why he thinks if you’re in America, now’s the time to make whatever money you’re going to make. And the reason why is, the unsustainable levels of debt, spending, entitlements, liabilities, etc our politicians have been kicking down the road each election is eventually going to create a huge problem simply printing more money won’t solve.

As Mr. Kennedy put it:

“The race is on to get out of the game before the rules become so unfair that you cannot possibly win…Have the home you live in paid off. Have enough cash to last your lifetime if all you do is eat principal, so there’s no income to be taxed at all.”

Sobering words indeed for a New Years party night.

But, they are also words of wisdom from a man who has fought everyone from multiple bankruptcies, to insanely corrupt government bureaucrats to, so far… even Death itself.

Ignore them at your peril.

Especially if you think you will be “exempt” from it all — because you won’t be.

Point is, make your money and get taxed on it now.

Before it shoots up to God-knows-how-high it will have to go in the very near future.

This is especially — and let’s face it, nobody deserves it more — going to hit class warfare artists preaching “tax & spend!” the hardest, I am predicting. It always has during such times, after all. Including people who thought they were somehow protected from the fruits of their own agendas they want pushed only on others.

I’ll give two real life examples of this.

First is the late publisher William Randolph Hearst.

Nobody preached being “progressive” as much as him.

In his biography “The Chief” there is an especially amusing example of how his class warfare antics to sell his papers threatened to come back and take a big, wet bite out of his empire.

Here is a quote from the book to show what I mean:

“All his life, Hearst had advocated government regulation…But he never imagined that such regulation would ever be extended to…newspaper publishing, which he believed was explicitly protected by the First Amendment. He was not only astounded then, but outraged…that [FDR’s adminstration] expected the newspaper publishers to draw up their own industry-wide code, with regulation on minimum wages and maximum hours.”

Suddenly, his own employees wanted to unionize, etc.

Something he was all for, when it applied to other industries.

Just not his own…

Ah, the sweet smell of hypocrisy never ceases to be pleasing to elBenbo’s righteous nostrils.

Amusing stuff, indeed.

Just as I am finding a more contemporary example of this phenomenon amusing. Specifically, a push by the tax & spend politicians who want to alter the social security taxes laws in a way that will dramatically reduce the paychecks & severely punish the way of life – with the stroke of a pen – of the very professional occupations (like teachers, professors, journalists, so-called life coaches, etc) whose ranks are mostly filled with virtue signaling “tax the rich!” types.

Anyway, those are just a couple examples of this.

The law of unintended consequences always hits the very people who want to push their nonsense on others, while exempting themselves, the hardest, and rightfully so.

Such is the fate of all useful idiots…

Thus the two reasons for bringing all this up:

First, as a nice little taste of what to expect eventually.

Dan Kennedy’s advice is more real now than when he wrote his book. Make your money, now, as fast as you can now, as later it’s going to get a helluva lot more expensive to make it. And especially seek professional advice on how to better weather this now, well in advance.

Secondly, to tease the January “Email Players” issue.

The deadline to get it is today.

And, it includes a bonus elBenbo’s Lair insert making the case for why I think we actually have much bigger problems than mere taxation. And, in fact, I don’t believe the US will even exist in its current form past another 2-3 election cycles. And I not only talk about this in detail in that bonus insert, but give some other dire predictions about it, as well as some more warnings.

Of course, maybe everything I predict will turn out to be false.

And, maybe life will go on as it always has.

People have, after all, been predicting this sort of thing for 100+ years now. But, the exact “perfect storm” of socioeconomic, cultural, ideological, political, moral, and other unique factors at play is pretty compelling.

Anyway, I don’t really give any answers or solutions.

But, I do think I make a decent case for the problem.

What you do with that info is up to you…

Whatever the case, whatever happens, the ability to sell, market, and persuade will be always be valuable and, in my opinion, necessary in the coming months and years and decades regardless of what happens.

Thus, the secret copywriting technique the January issue teaches.

It is not only extremely effective today, but I believe as people get more weary of marketing, and quicker to discard, and more likely to have contempt for those trying to sell them anything… this info will be vital.

The deadline to get this issue is in mere hours.

After that, you won’t be able to get it, as I shut stragglers out.

Here’s the link:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

P.S. If you are going to celebrate New Years Eve tonight, act responsibly, keep your wits, and, if nothing else, if you run out of stuff to talk about you can always talk about the end of the US for a few giggles or squeals of delight.