Let’s rap about Bruce Barton.
(Legendary ad man)
A story I tell sometimes when I speak at event is about how that guy is the reason I’m even in business.
Back when I was just starting out I wanted to quit so many times I could taste it.
Just one humiliating failure after another.
One frustrating set back after another.
One sleepless night worrying about how I could possibly pay the rent or my bills after another.
I was well over $50k in debt with just a part time job.
The IRS and wolves were at the door.
And, I was technically homeless — sleeping in a cramped little office without a shower or clean water trying to peddle MLM cassette tapes door-to-door and getting constantly rejected, laughed at and, sometimes, even yelled at. My ex-wife and I were driving 100+ miles per day (between getting me to my job and her doing office cleaning gigs) in a lemon car with defective braks and engine problems (both of which could have malfunctioned at any time — made for some hair raising driving let me tell ya…) while trying to sue the POS car company that refused to take responsibility for it. All this while feeling like a total loser since she had traveled 2500 miles and sold everything she had to be part of my big dream, only to end up living homeless, driving around in a death trap and having to face the humiliation of friends and family who looked at me with nothing but pity, disappointment and, in some cases, a whiff of contempt (for daring to be the one crab trying to escape the bucket — the others trying to pull me back in with their doubting, naysaying and passive aggressive shaming).
That’s when Bruce Barton swooped into my life — cape & tights and all.
What happened was this:
I picked up a book written by Joe Vitale called “The 7 Lost Secrets Of Success” and read it all the way through—cover to cover—in one sitting.
I can even remember the exact part of the book that got me.
It was a story of how during a bad economy Bruce Barton told a struggling, out-of-work and down-on-his-luck salesman, who had a talent for writing sales letters, to look out the window at all the office buildings, and come up with a sales letter that would “sell” one of those businesses on hiring him.
After reading that story, it was like I’d been living in a cave and someone dragged me out into the light.
Reading that one simple story turned my brain on fire.
And it’s what got me into direct marketing.
Without that book, I’d probably be pumping gas at the local Chevron still while trying to hand out MLM tapes.
Every success I’ve had, every success someone who has bought one of my products or listened to one of my interviews, or read one of emails has from doing that is all because of Bruce Barton and Joe Vitale’s “7 Lost Secrets Of Success” book.
And guess what?
On today’s Ben Settle Show podcast, I walk you through these 7 secrets in detail.
These secrets changed everything for me.
And, I reckon they’ll do the same for you.
Download this bad-boy here:
Ben Settle
P.S. This should go without saying but I highly suggest you get the book on amazon right after listening.
It’s short (can be read in one sitting), and will teach you a different kind of mindset than the usual business books do.
