Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription<\/strong><\/p>\nDoberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Welcome, everybody, to another edition of The Doberman Dan Show.\u00a0 This is Doberman Dan from DobermanDan.com.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got the pleasure this evening of interviewing a very successful copywriter, and I also believe I can call him a kitchen table entrepreneur, like myself, Ben Settle, from BenSettle.com.\u00a0 How you doin\u2019, Ben?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I am doin\u2019 great.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good, I really appreciate you doin\u2019 this.\u00a0 We\u2019re just going to have fun.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t give you much of an outline at all for this call, so you\u2019re probably wondering what we\u2019re going to do, but this will be just like me and you talkin\u2019.\u00a0 And don\u2019t get nervous that there\u2019s about 20 people on the phone line and another 300 on the webcast; don\u2019t be nervous at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m lyin\u2019, man.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, yeah, that would be pretty cool if there was that many people.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s about 10 percent of that many people, but I could lie about that and nobody would know.\u00a0 I hear these guys on teleconferences all the time say, \u201cWell geez, we\u2019ve got 750 people on the line!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, right.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Yeah, the old inflated number game.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, exactly.\u00a0 Nah, this\u2019ll be just like a conversation between me and you.\u00a0 And the cool thing about it is I will learn more about you and get to know you better \u2018cause I\u2019m gonna ask you questions that we\u2019ve never spoken about before.<\/p>\n
With that brief and improvised introduction, I would like you to tell me a little bit about yourself.\u00a0 Tell me about if you were born and if you have a mother and then take it from there.\u00a0 Keep it brief.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to know about you falling down, skinning your knee when you were three.\u00a0 Tell me about your background your family, your work background and stuff like that and how you got involved in direct response and copywriting.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, I\u2019ll give you the condensed version for the sake of time.\u00a0 Basically, I got involved business back in late 1990s.\u00a0 Like a lot of people, I started out in network marketing, multilevel marketing and was really, really bad at it.\u00a0 I mean, just terrible at it.<\/p>\n
Low and behold, I got married, and we were both doin\u2019 the business together; had all these big plans and everything.\u00a0 One thing led to another, and about nine months after we were married we were pretty much homeless.\u00a0 I mean, we were livin\u2019 in an office.\u00a0 That\u2019s all we could afford because we were spendin\u2019 all of our money on leads and that sort of thing.\u00a0 Neither of us was very good at it.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if it was \u2013 what you want to call it.\u00a0 I considered it an answer to pray, but, basically, I just kind of ran into copywriting one night when I was just sort of sitting there staring at the ceiling.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t know what to do.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re livin\u2019 in this dinky little office for like $200.00 a month \u2018cause we couldn\u2019t afford a real apartment keeping it a secret from my family.\u00a0 It was kind of embarrassing.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know what it was, but I guess I kind of picked up this book that I had read several times before \u2018cause it\u2019s very short, but it always inspired me.\u00a0 It\u2019s called The Seven Lost Secrets of Success, by Joe Vitale.\u00a0 It\u2019s about an old-time ad guy named Bruce Barton.\u00a0 A lot of people don\u2019t know who is today, but back in the early to mid 1900s, he was the man in advertising.\u00a0 Everyone knew who he was.\u00a0 I guess he was an advisor to certain politicians and he had a lot of influence.<\/p>\n
Basically, he told a story in that book about \u2013 it was during the Depression, and it was some big city, maybe New York or Chicago or something like that.\u00a0 This guy came to Bruce Barton and he said, \u201cYou know, I just can\u2019t get anyone to hire me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m gonna do.\u201d\u00a0 But this guy had a talent.\u00a0 I guess he had a reputation for writing sales letters.\u00a0 Bruce Barton took him over to the window and he\u2019s like, \u201cNow look at all those buildings out there.\u201d\u00a0 Like I said, I don\u2019t know what city it was, but it was one of those big cities.\u00a0 And he goes, \u201cYou say you\u2019re good at writing sales letter.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t you write a sales letter to sell one of those companies on hiring you?\u201d\u00a0 There was somethin\u2019 about that that just clicked.<\/p>\n
From then on, I just started pursuing it with reckless abandon; everything I could get my hands on.\u00a0 If I made a little bit of money working on a project, I\u2019d reinvest it back into copywriting education and marketing education, found Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert and all them and you know how it goes from there.\u00a0 You just get the bug and you just start tearin\u2019 through everything you can.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I made my way up the rings and now I have the glorious pleasure of talking on The Doberman Dan Show.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Thanks.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m glad to have ya\u2019.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know that.\u00a0 I knew that you were in multilevel marketing, but I had no idea things were that bad for ya\u2019.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I was in it for about four years, and then when I got out of it \u2013 it\u2019s a good steppingstone.\u00a0 I mean, that kind of business is a great steppingstone because you have to do face-to-face sales eventually, or phone sales or something.\u00a0 So you\u2019re kind of forced to kind of discover who you are and you start seeing through the mists of what sales actually work and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
In my case, we were taught the basic stuff that you learn in most sales books, which, in my opinion, is all crap.\u00a0 I mean, almost none of it works.\u00a0 It\u2019s all based on persistence and tricks and tactics and all that.\u00a0 So I won\u2019t say it\u2019s a bad thing, but it\u2019s a great way to get started in business and it gets you goin\u2019.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, like you said, a lot of it\u2019s face-to-face or phone selling and, woo buddy, it can be brutal.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to learn really fast or you\u2019ll just get really beat-up.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0One of the adventures we had \u2013 [Laughter] \u2013 we were livin\u2019 in that office, and I don\u2019t know which guru it was \u2013 [Laughter] \u2013 of network marketing that recommended this.\u00a0 They\u2019re like, \u201cTake these tapes and go pass \u2018em around town.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So we\u2019re goin\u2019 door-to-door to all the business around the town, and people are tellin\u2019 us to get the hell out of their store!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 It was not fun.\u00a0 I mean, you start learning real fast that the stuff they tell you to do is just not what to do.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, you separated yourself from 99 percent of all the other people in network marketing in that you actually did something.\u00a0 Most people do nothing.\u00a0 So even though \u2013 I can relate to you story – being completely broke and homeless – \u2018cause I\u2019ve been there done that; a couple times, actually.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 But it was part of your education and it led you to direct marketing and copywriting so thank god for that.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u00a0 If anything, I wish I\u2019d ran into copywriting earlier.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When you found all these guys, like you found Dan Kennedy and Gary Halbert, and started learnin\u2019 about this stuff, then what was the next step?\u00a0 I mean, did you have to get a job, or did you immediately go into being a copywriter, or how\u2019d that all evolve?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, for some reason I have a very strategic way of thinking.\u00a0 Sometimes it gets me in trouble \u2018cause I\u2019ll think too long term.\u00a0 I\u2019ll try to think too many moves ahead, like in a chess game.\u00a0 I play a lot of chess, by the way, but I\u2019m not very good at it, but I think it helps to think strategically.<\/p>\n
In this case what I would do, I had a job.\u00a0 I was duplicating videos for a major video duplication company in Illinois.\u00a0 I was part time.\u00a0 By that I mean I was working 30 hours a week because when my wife and I got married, she started a cleaning business.\u00a0 Well, I was helping her clean offices, too, so I kind of went part time at the job and helpin\u2019 her.<\/p>\n
Then I found this opportunity later on to get on the second shift at my job, which was the 2:30-11:00 shift.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t know if anyone listening to this knows what I mean by duplicating tapes.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m literally was just videotapes in machines and pushing record, and then I had nothing to do, often for an hour or two.\u00a0 And I wanted to get on the second shift \u2018cause no one\u2019s there, so I did.\u00a0 Just thinkin\u2019 ahead, \u201cI should get on second shift,\u201d because now I had all this time at work where, yeah, I\u2019m doin\u2019 a job, but I\u2019m also studying copywriting and marketing stuff and I\u2019m writing ads.\u00a0 I spent a lot of time handwriting ads out back then.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m sorry to interrupt.\u00a0 You really did that?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s awesome.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 Keep goin\u2019 \u2018cause I tell people to do that all the time, very few actually do.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, what I would do is \u2013 that was a big part of my education.\u00a0 On the way to work \u2018cause I worked about 20-some miles from where I lived and through a lot of heavy traffic, I would listen to audios and that sort of thing.\u00a0 If I was working on a project, I was doing a lot of projects with Michael Senoff at the time, and what he does is he likes to interview product creators when he\u2019s helping them sell something.<\/p>\n
So I would have his interview, and would always listen to it over and over for whatever project I was working on.\u00a0 So on the way there, I was sort of working on an ad.\u00a0 When I got there, I was pretty much working on my ads.\u00a0 When I was on my breaks, I\u2019d work on my ads.\u00a0 During lunch, I\u2019d go out to the car and work on ads or read or something.\u00a0 Then at night, when everyone was gone from there for a few hours, if I had an ad to work on, I would do that, or I would just handwrite ads out.\u00a0 This was before I had any clients or anything.\u00a0 You have nothing to do but write ads out and that sort of thing and I did that a lot.\u00a0 I mean, I think anything Gary Halbert wrote I would just copy out by hand; even his entire Boron Letters book, which I think is just a fascinating book.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s just a real good way to get it ingrained in your head how to structure ads and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Wow, I didn\u2019t know you\u2019d done all that, but a lot of people have been told to do that and they don\u2019t but, yet, you did.\u00a0 Look at the result: You\u2019ve been making your fulltime living from this for quite a while now.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh yeah, I went full time in this in 2005.\u00a0 That\u2019s when I officially quit that job and my wife and I, we moved to another state after that.\u00a0 Pretty much had no choice but to do your own business at that point.<\/p>\n
I think copying out ads is essential, but the problem is most people aren\u2019t that into it.\u00a0 So unless someone\u2019s really into it, they\u2019re probably not gonna do it.\u00a0 And even if they do do it, they\u2019ll copy out the wrong ads, for one thing.\u00a0 Then for second thing, they\u2019re not going to copy out ads that are actually interesting and entertaining.\u00a0 Like, it\u2019s easy to copy Gary Halbert ads out \u2018cause they\u2019re so freaking entertaining and they\u2019re just fun.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s just fun to read his stuff.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like reading a book sometimes.<\/p>\n
But then you\u2019ll see guys \u2013 well, I love \u2013 sometimes I\u2019ll kind read marketing forms and that sort of thing and the people\u2019ll be braggin\u2019 about their swipe files and stuff, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got this ad in my swipe file.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t ever poke my nose into these things.\u00a0 I just kind of lurk.\u00a0 A lot of times, people are copying ads that really maybe they were good, maybe they weren\u2019t, but they weren\u2019t tested, like maybe big launch ads in some cases where these marketers are just such geniuses.\u00a0 They\u2019ll sell their product whether the ad is any good or not.<\/p>\n
In some cases, some of these guys will say, \u201cWell, I only put a few hours into writin\u2019 that ad.\u00a0 I just slapped it up there.\u201d\u00a0 And then you\u2019ll have copywriters, \u201cWell, hey, it made all this money.\u00a0 I\u2019m copying it out by hand.\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019m studying it,\u201d or, \u201cIt\u2019s in my swipe file.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m just shakin\u2019 my head sayin\u2019, \u201cYou don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to go back to the masters and you\u2019ve got to see how they did it when they were sellin\u2019 to cold people, skeptical people.\u00a0 It was a whole different ballgame back then.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like you could just slap somethin\u2019 up on the Internet like you can now.\u00a0 Send it out to thousands of affiliates who all hype it up for ya\u2019 first.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, exactly.\u00a0 If you\u2019re gonna copy out ads by hand to ingrain that in your cranium there and improve your ad writing ability, you really need to copy out what\u2019s a proven winner.\u00a0 That\u2019s going back to the classics, or the stuff that we know is, what they call a control, which have been tested and shown to be a winner and then rolled out to millions of names.<\/p>\n
So you had the job, you\u2019re workin\u2019 nights.\u00a0 You were takin\u2019 advantage of that time and copyin\u2019 ads out by hand.\u00a0 So what was the next step?\u00a0 How\u2019d you get into direct marketing?\u00a0 Did you start your own project, or did you start out being a freelance copywriter?\u00a0 What happened then?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, yeah, I started out just freelancing.\u00a0 In fact, if I could go back, I would have done more freelancing and less joint ventures.\u00a0 I\u2019ll explain what I mean by that.\u00a0 When I got into this \u2013 the one good thing I can \u2013 well, one of the few good things I could say I got out of network marketing was it got me reading Robert Kiyosaki books.\u00a0 A lot of people know his main flagship book, Rich Dad Poor Dad.\u00a0 It just such a huge impact on me because it talked about multiple streams of income, like you don\u2019t want to have just one.\u00a0 You want to have income coming in automatically as much as possible.<\/p>\n
So what I, and this is kind of will have the strategic part of my brain kind of got me in trouble in some ways, I said, \u201cWell, I\u2019m just gonna do joint ventures.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ll write the ad essentially for free, but then I\u2019ll get paid on sales perpetually.\u201d\u00a0 That worked with \u2013 for example, when I worked with Michael Senoff that worked fine.\u00a0 He\u2019s an honest guy, and he\u2019s a real marketer and stuff.\u00a0 But a lot of people out there try to take advantage of that, which happened to me sometimes.<\/p>\n
I guess what my point is if I could go back, I would do joint ventures like that, and I should have done a lot more just straight freelance stuff, which a lot of times I would turn down at the time because I wanted that long-term income stream coming in.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0When you say \u201cstraight freelance stuff,\u201d you mean possible offered you, \u201cHey, I\u2019ll pay you x and you write my ad and we\u2019re done?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, that\u2019s exactly what I mean by that.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0So to get your first clients, you approached people and said, \u201cHey, I will write this ad for nothing up front.\u00a0 I just want x percentage of the gross.\u201d\u00a0 Is that how you approached it?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, yeah, and here\u2019s kind of the way it worked.\u00a0 I actually stumbled into this, in a lot of ways, on accident.\u00a0 What happened was I read a newsletter Gary Halbert wrote called, Why Multilevel Marketing Sucks, ironically.\u00a0 In that newsletter he talked about how you can take your skills, you can find somebody selling something and you can basically be like a commissioned salesperson where you sell it with your ad and then they give you a percentage.\u00a0 So I found that very intriguing.<\/p>\n
It just so happens, though, that I ran into Michael Senoff.\u00a0 He actually had been reading my website at the time.\u00a0 I was just writing these little newsletters, and he just happened to be in that same mindset.\u00a0 He was willing to do that, so that was cool.\u00a0 I thought, \u201cWell, this is great.\u00a0 This is workin\u2019 out really good,\u201d \u2018cause I\u2019d done a project or two with him and it worked out very well.\u00a0 I mean, like the first project, at the time, I paid off my car and everything.\u00a0 At that time, that was a big deal, a really big deal when you\u2019re kind of struggling and everything.<\/p>\n
But the problem was is when I went to other people, I thought, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll mimic this.\u00a0 I\u2019ll duplicate this and I\u2019ll go find some other people to work with, too, while I\u2019m workin\u2019 with him.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019ll have four or five of these things comin\u2019 in at once.\u201d\u00a0 So I just kind of compiled a list of marketers, or people I knew who were using sales letters, and I just wrote them each a letter.<\/p>\n
I got one response from \u2013 I\u2019m not going to name who they are because I\u2019d probably get in some kind of legal trouble if I did because I don\u2019t have anything nice to say about \u2018em.\u00a0 But basically it\u2019s a company that sets up Nevada corporations and that sort of thing.\u00a0 I\u2019d spent a lot of time writing one of their ads, dealt with the founder of the company.\u00a0 He\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m an old marketing guy.\u00a0 I know exactly what this is all about.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do this.\u201d\u00a0 The problem is that he decided to retire when I was halfway through the sales letter, handed it over to someone in his family who didn\u2019t know anything about marketing, couldn\u2019t even understand the concept behind doin\u2019 a joint venture like this.\u00a0 It kind of left a sour taste in my mouth \u2018cause it was just a big waste of time.<\/p>\n
At that point, I decided, \u201cWell, I better start tryin\u2019 to get some real freelance, then, too, at the same time.\u201d\u00a0 So I kind of learned that the hard way.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0But that\u2019s a pretty irresistible offer for somebody who wants to do that.\u00a0 Approach a business, hopefully with an honest owner.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It is an irresistible offer, but I just wouldn\u2019t even recommend it any more.\u00a0 I used to recommend.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t say I would never recommend doing it, but they should have some skin in the game, if nothin\u2019 else.\u00a0 They should have something invested in it otherwise you could be putting yourself on the hook for a lot of your time.\u00a0 Unless, of course, you really want to get smart about it, and it\u2019s your ad.\u00a0 Once you write it you own the copyright to it and you can always take it to a competitor or something and just tweak it for their product, but then you go through the same thing again.\u00a0 It\u2019s still kind of a long shot.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll say this, after that incident, I still did some of these jobs.\u00a0 I did that with Ken McCarthy and that turned out to be a very good joint venture.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s just certain people that you could probably do it with, but going back I would have done more the straight freelance stuff and did the joint venture stuff on the side and taken my time with it and not made it a priority.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I got ya\u2019.\u00a0 I got ya\u2019.\u00a0 Hey, I just want to say somethin\u2019 real quick to the folks.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a bunch of people listenin\u2019 to us on the webcast.\u00a0 On that website, there\u2019s a box that you can submit questions.\u00a0 I can see questions that are being submitted.\u00a0 So if you have any questions for Ben, submit those now on the website and we\u2019ll definitely get to those.\u00a0 As soon as you send your question, I can see it on the website here that I\u2019m lookin\u2019 at.<\/p>\n
Freelance work you did and some joint ventures.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the biggest question that came up when I interviewed Caleb last week I guess it was.\u00a0 Everybody wants to know – all the copywriters on the line, or all the people who are considering becoming a freelance copywriter – want to know how do you get your clients?<\/p>\n
You told us how you got the joint venture clients.\u00a0 You don\u2019t necessarily recommend that right now.\u00a0 But what is the quickest way to get clients, or what are the best ways to get copywriting clients?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, the first thing you gotta do, and this is gonna sound kind of strange probably, but it needs to be said because there\u2019s not a lot of people out there saying it.\u00a0 That is you\u2019ve got to stop thinkin\u2019 like a copywriter because you gotta think like a marketer, a salesperson.\u00a0 And the problem, and I see this all the time and other people work \u2013 I\u2019m in two Mastermind groups.\u00a0 I\u2019m in yours, but I\u2019m also in another one and in that group, we\u2019re all copywriters.\u00a0 Two of them got together and actually created a whole course on freelancing.\u00a0 They were saying what I\u2019m about to say, too.<\/p>\n
That everywhere you look you see people trying to write these long sales letters selling people on why they need copywriting, which is just a huge, huge mistake.\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t know why people are doin\u2019 it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where this all started.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even understand why anybody would bother doin\u2019 it.\u00a0 Why try to convince someone they need copywriting when you could be attracting people already looking for copywriters?<\/p>\n
I mean, that\u2019s what it all comes down to: Who\u2019s already hiring copywriters?\u00a0 Go to them.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to explain to them why they need good copywriting.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to explain to them what it\u2019ll mean to have a super control and all that.\u00a0 They already know that.\u00a0 They\u2019re lookin\u2019 for people \u2018cause they\u2019re tryin\u2019 to pump out more ads.\u00a0 And believe me, there are a lot of people out there like that who just have nothing but projects right now and they\u2019re looking for copywriters.<\/p>\n
I mean, that\u2019s going after the starving crowd, as Gary Halbert would say, right?\u00a0 I mean, you can sell them burgers all day long, but if you sit there and try to convince someone who\u2019s full why they need to have your hamburger, it\u2019s kind of like an uphill battle.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0[Laughter]\u00a0 That\u2019s great.\u00a0 That is so true.\u00a0 You just probably saved people a lot of wasted time and money chasing after the wrong prospects.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I hope so.\u00a0 Well, you just see it all over.\u00a0 I mean, I live reading other copywriters sites \u2018cause I just like to see what people are up to and everything.\u00a0 You can learn something from everybody, but one thing, I just notice it all over the place, it\u2019s like their ads are written to people who have no idea what copywriting is.\u00a0 \u201cWell, here\u2019s what copywriting is, and if you hire me, I studied under guru A and guru B,\u201d but unless those people know who those gurus that you studied under are, they don\u2019t care.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going after the right people, they\u2019re already looking for copywriters.\u00a0 All you\u2019ve got to do is explain to them why they should choose you and give you a shot.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Boy, if people were paying for this call, which they probably should be, they would have gotten their money\u2019s worth from just that one tip there.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t properly set you up at the beginning.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019ve written copy for some really heavy hitters in the direct marketing world and online marketing world.\u00a0 So we\u2019re getting advice not from some young kid that just started.\u00a0 We\u2019re getting advice from \u2013 well, you are young, but.\u00a0 We\u2019re getting advice from a young, up and coming copywriter that\u2019s highly in demand, turning away clients as matter of fact he\u2019s just so booked, and is on the list of many top marketers as one of the first-call copywriters.\u00a0 If you\u2019re thinking about getting into the copywriting business, you need to listen to what Ben says.<\/p>\n
So we talked about getting clients.\u00a0 This is another question that came up quite a bit: How do you get good at copywriting as quickly as possible, and what did you do specifically \u2013 I mean, because you\u2019ve become really successful in a very short period of time, so what do you recommend for getting good at copywriting quickly?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, the problem I\u2019m about to \u2013 actually, I have three things that I think everybody should do, and almost nobody will do the first thing.\u00a0 But I promise you, if you did the first thing I\u2019m about to say, even though it goes against what a lot of people are telling people to do and it goes against the urge to buy everything that comes into your email box that\u2019s in a major launch and all that.\u00a0 If you just did these three things, I mean, these are basically the three things I did.\u00a0 I can\u2019t guarantee you anything, but I\u2019m just sayin\u2019.\u00a0 I mean, this worked very well for me.<\/p>\n
And the first thing that I would recommend, and, again, I\u2019m going to preface this with nobody ever does it \u2013 everybody says that they want to do what I\u2019m about to suggest, but no one actually ever does it \u2013 and that is when you find a good resource, for example \u2013 I can give you all kinds of examples.\u00a0 I did this with Breakthrough Advertising, which is a book by Eugene Schwartz; and John Carlton\u2019s original Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets Course; and all the copywriting issues of The Gary Halbert Letter; more recently Gary Bencivenga DVD and some other products.<\/p>\n
Go through the best stuff you have at least 10 times.\u00a0 If it\u2019s a book, read through it 10 times.\u00a0 I know that sounds really tedious.\u00a0 I know it sounds boring.\u00a0 I know it sounds like, well, all the marketers out there like to brag about how they have $10,000.00 worth of books on their shelves.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ll be honest with you, I don\u2019t think I even have more than other than Bencivenga DVD, which was kind of big investment, I don\u2019t think I even have close to that on my shelf.\u00a0 And yet, I know people who have everything and they\u2019re still struggling, and I think it all comes down to just mastering the basics.<\/p>\n
So if you find a book or a course or anything that you know is giving good information and that you resonate with \u2013 that\u2019s really important because everybody resonates differently with different teachers \u2013 go through it 10 times minimum.\u00a0 Just highlight, take notes.\u00a0 If you\u2019re working on an ad, I can almost guarantee you will get ideas for that ad that you never would have gotten otherwise, really good ideas.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re tapping into the brains of the people who wrote or created those products.\u00a0 That\u2019s the first thing.\u00a0 I mean, I know it\u2019s hard work and all that, but trust me, if you\u2019re into this and your serious, just do it.\u00a0 Trust me on this and just give it a try.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Extremely good advice.\u00a0 Well, actually, I got in this trap a few years ago, just buying everything having to do with direct response marketing and copywriting.\u00a0 Some of it was good; some of it not so good, but I think for some people it almost turns into \u2013 it\u2019s almost kind of a delusion.\u00a0 They feel like they\u2019re making forward progress because they have growing library.\u00a0 When in fact, they\u2019re not really making forward progress \u2018cause they\u2019re not getting the value out of the stuff they should have.<\/p>\n
I mean, when I read something one time, I get something out of it, but every subsequent time I get more and more out of it.\u00a0 For me, if I really need to get the maximum value out of a book or some sort of information product, the minimum for me is seven times.\u00a0 So your advice about don\u2019t spend every dime you got on building a library worth of stuff.\u00a0 Get less stuff that resonates with you and is exceptionally good information and read it 10 times each.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, this\u2019ll actually make and save you money because now you\u2019re not buying everything coming down the pike.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not saying not to buy multiple things.\u00a0 I\u2019m just saying don\u2019t go on to the next thing until you\u2019ve gone through the first thing 10 times.\u00a0 If something bores you right away, just throw it aside and start with something else.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about things that engage you and that you like.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d be amazed at what you get out of it on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth time especially.\u00a0 I mean, oh my gosh, whenever I write an ad, even to this day, when I write a sales letter, I don\u2019t let it leave even for anyone to look at until I\u2019ve read it out loud 10 times because repetition just does something.\u00a0 You just keep getting ideas and your brain just produces all these solutions to problems.\u00a0 I mean, I can\u2019t tell you how many ads wrote themselves when I was reading Breakthrough Advertising.\u00a0 It was almost like crazy.\u00a0 I almost didn\u2019t ever want to stop reading that \u2018cause it just made life so much easier.<\/p>\n
I just think that\u2019s a huge, huge thing.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell you how many people tell me, \u201cBen, I know I need to start doing that.\u00a0 I intend to do that.\u00a0 I have all these books,\u201d and then they never do it.\u00a0 Then they\u2019re on the next launch circle jerk there and they just go on and on and on.\u00a0 They\u2019re like, \u201cWell, what do I do next?\u00a0 What do I do next?\u201d\u00a0 Just cut all the noise out, focus on the basics, master those basics like nothing else and you\u2019ll just rise to the top much faster.\u00a0 I can almost guarantee it.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t want to get you off track of the next point you were gonna cover, but I do want to ask you if you could reiterate the things, either the course or the books that you consider, or at least were for you, essential reading.\u00a0 You talked about John Carlton\u2019s Kick-Ass Copywriting Course.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh yeah, in fact, I\u2019m actually rereading that right now.\u00a0 I mean, I never stop readin\u2019 that stuff, but I definitely went through that 10 or 15 times before I moved on to the next thing.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0You mentioned Breakthrough Advertising.\u00a0 You mentioned TheGaryHalbertLetter.com.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, yeah.\u00a0 I have a point to make about that that I think will \u2013 people might think I\u2019m a little stupid for this, but I honestly think it made a huge difference.\u00a0 There\u2019s another Gary Halbert-trained professional, awesome copywriter.\u00a0 His name is Scott Haynes.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t have a lot of his ads, but the few that I do, I just study those things like crazy.<\/p>\n
Early on, he used to have a newsletter.\u00a0 This was back in 2002 or 2003.\u00a0 He sold a few info products, and one of the products that he sold that I have since read 25 times probably, was he just took the copywriting issues of The Gary Halbert Letter, he had them bound and he sold them for like $200.00.\u00a0 Now, almost all of those were free on his site, but I just bought it because I knew if I bought it, especially since I really didn\u2019t even have $200.00, I think I\u2019d gotten a copywriting job of Elance at the time when I bought it, I just invested it in that.\u00a0 Gosh, that made a huge difference.\u00a0 I mean, just once you buy something, you\u2019re putting yourself on the line.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just sit on a desk if you really needed that money, you kind of have to get your invest back somehow.\u00a0 So I just want to add it wasn\u2019t just all The Gary Halbert Letters necessarily, but especially those copywriting issues.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good point.\u00a0 Yeah, there\u2019s a problem with free, actually, and the problem with free is people don\u2019t value it.\u00a0 I can tell you from personal experience that the information on TheGaryHalbertLetter.com can make you an absolute fortune.\u00a0 You can learn how to be a copywriter on there, you can learn how to be a successful freelancer, you can learn how to start your own mail-order business, you can learn how to make $1 million or more, however much you want to make.\u00a0 The problem is it\u2019s available free and people don\u2019t value it.\u00a0 I have gut feeling that you\u2019ve placed a higher value on that information and actually reading the information from TheGaryHalbertLetter.com when you invested the $200.00 to buy it in printed form.\u00a0 Is that right?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Absolutely and you know what else he did?\u00a0 At the time, I was annoyed for about five seconds when he did this.\u00a0 None of the Boron Letters are free on there, but there was a time when he sold \u2018em for like $97.00, and they were bound.\u00a0 It was actually kind of cool how they did it.\u00a0 They were his handwritten letters to his son bound together.\u00a0 I mean, everything you need to know about copywriting and marketing is basically in there.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ll tell you what, had I not spent the $97.00 on that I never would have read it and extracted the value I got from it than I had seen it free.\u00a0 In a way, he almost did people a disservice by putting \u2018em up free sort of in a way.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m glad they\u2019re up there free, but I\u2019m just saying if you don\u2019t have the proper mindset, it can kind of backfire on ya\u2019.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I may be hurting my subscribers by giving all my content away free.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, won\u2019t comment on that necessarily, but I will say that I have severely restricted the level of information I give away.\u00a0 I used to give away the farm.\u00a0 I even wrote about this last summer \u2018cause I remember this.\u00a0 I kept getting people complaining.\u00a0 How can you complain when something\u2019s free?<\/p>\n
It made me realize that the people who are actually applying information were buying stuff.\u00a0 If that means you\u2019ve got to buy something to apply it, I haven\u2019t done anyone any good if they don\u2019t actually apply what I say.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying I never give value or anything, but I don\u2019t get into strict, hard stuff that I would put in a product any more.\u00a0 Some of it\u2019s in there, but, really, it\u2019s like you\u2019re almost doing people a disservice.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yep, good point.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 What else did you do to get good so fast?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, the other products \u2013 it\u2019s funny you asked this question \u2018cause there was a subscriber to my newsletter.\u00a0 His name is Collin.\u00a0 He asked me this exact same question on Saturday night, so it\u2019s kind of fresh in my head.<\/p>\n
Another course that I just went through, not because I bought it but because I was writing an ad for it – so that\u2019s kind of nice perk to being a copywriter, actually, you get all these cool products you get to use them free – is Ken McCarthy\u2019s copywriting product, which I believe you have.\u00a0 In fact, I know you have it \u2018cause you gave him a testimonial for it.\u00a0 Man, I went through that thing about 10, 15 times too \u2018cause I was writing an ad I really wanted to impress him.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to just throw him some crappy little piece of ad and say, \u201cHere, look what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a side note on that, I also want to say that if you can find someone who will rip your stuff apart the way he ripped my stuff apart, man, that will make you light years ahead.\u00a0 You will leap light years ahead in your abilities in one second, literally.\u00a0 When somebody can just take it and objectively say, \u201cLook, this needs to be fixed, this needs to be fixed, that needs to be fixed.\u201d\u00a0 He did that for me in some ways; I should have paid him for the ad, if I think about it.\u00a0 Anyway, that was another product is Ken McCarthy\u2019s Advanced Copywriting for Serious Info Marketers, I think it\u2019s called.<\/p>\n
There was the Gary Bencivenga DVDs, which I think I\u2019m still going through those.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019ve lost count how many times I\u2019ve gone through it.\u00a0 Paul Hartunian\u2019s Publicity System, which is really good.\u00a0 There\u2019s probably some other ones.\u00a0 They\u2019re just not on the top of my mind right now.\u00a0 The key is just to find the ones that appeal to you and just tear right through \u2018em 10 times at a minimum.\u00a0 More, I\u2019ve gone through some of this stuff more than 10 times and I always will.\u00a0 I mean, why stop.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good advice.\u00a0 Hey, I want to tell you something about the Ken McCarthy copywriting course that I probably haven\u2019t ever told ya\u2019.\u00a0 He came out with that \u2013 when did he come \u2013 what year did he come out with that?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I believe it\u2019s been around probably since early 2005.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s what I thought because \u2013 anyway, I bought his course, which is just awesome.\u00a0 You\u2019ll learn stuff in there that I\u2019ve not heard anybody else teach, none of the people who teach copywriting so that\u2019s a great course.<\/p>\n
But I can\u2019t remember what blog I was on, but I was on a blog for copywriters and there was a discussion about the promotion for Ken McCarthy\u2019s copywriting course and somebody knew that you had written it.\u00a0 So somebody said, \u201cAh, yeah, Ben Settle wrote it.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the first time I\u2019d ever heard your name, and then I kept hearing more and more and more about Ben Settle.\u00a0 I hadn\u2019t met you yet, but the only thing I could think of is, \u201cMan, this Ben Settle guy has some brass balls because he took on a job \u2013 first of all, took on a job for Ken McCarthy, which is a really heavy hitter in Internet marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0He does not suffer fools.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just put it this way.\u00a0 I mean, he\u2019s like \u2013 in a way, he\u2019s like the best client you could have, but also a nightmare in a way because he will not let anything but your absolute best.\u00a0 He\u2019s just not going to put anything out with his name on it that\u2019s not top shape.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0For that reason, there are few copywriters who would have accepted that gig.\u00a0 And the second reason is, my god man, you\u2019re writing copy for a copywriting course.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to have every copywriter in the world with their arms crossed critiquing your piece like, \u201cOh, geez.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an old joke \u2013 I play guitar.\u00a0 There\u2019s an old joke.\u00a0 How many guitars players does it take to change a light bulb?\u00a0 Well, it takes six.\u00a0 One to change a light bulb and five to stand around with our arms crossed talking about how much better they could have done it.\u00a0 That\u2019s kind of the same way with the copywriting world.<\/p>\n
Actually, I take it back.\u00a0 I read your name on that blog first, and then I actually sought out the promotion for Ken\u2019s copywriting course.\u00a0 The interesting thing about that piece that you wrote was I expected this copy I\u2019m just going to be completely blown away by it, which isn\u2019t what happened.\u00a0 What happened was I was drawn into the copy, of course, but the copy almost became invisible, like I didn\u2019t notice the copy.\u00a0 And I was reading it as a copywriter with the intention of critiquing it, but I got sucked into it and I got so \u2013 it\u2019s like I didn\u2019t even notice the copy at that point.\u00a0 I was sucked in and I was so rabid for the product.\u00a0 Does that make sense?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, unfortunately, that happens a lot where people are trying to impress other copywriters.\u00a0 This, by the way, I do not \u2013 there\u2019s only about \u2013 let\u2019s see \u2013 four, five \u2013 maybe seven people, ten at the most, who I even let read my ads that are in copywriting.\u00a0 I mean, you would be one of \u2018em.\u00a0 You did actually look at one of my ads recently.\u00a0 And that\u2019s because most people don\u2019t know how to separate \u2013 they\u2019re tryin\u2019 to \u2013 they\u2019re looking for some kind of cool factor, but a good ad is not cool.<\/p>\n
I mean, it\u2019s supposed to speak to the market.\u00a0 I like to let the market read things.\u00a0 What does the market think?\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t care less what any guru thinks, as far as a copywriter or something, not because I don\u2019t respect them or anything, but because who cares what they think as an advertising critic.\u00a0 What I care about is what does that guy who has the problem that the product is supposed to help with, what does he think?\u00a0 How is he going to be affected by this?<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That was just an incredible piece of work you did.\u00a0 Like I said, it was a great example of how to write copy and it\u2019s a great example of what the copy\u2019s job should actually be.\u00a0 Not drawing attention to itself, but drawing the reader into it and sellin\u2019 a product.\u00a0 Kudos to you for that because you had the brass balls to accept that gig and then you just did an exceptional job.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Like I say, I\u2019d love to take all the credit, but he really \u2013 I mean, believe me the first draft I handed in was not good enough \u2013 [Laughter] \u2013 in many ways.\u00a0 At the time, I thought, \u201cWell, what the hell does this guy know?\u201d\u00a0 But I came to really take his advice to heart.\u00a0 I mean, it changed my writing in a lot of ways that you can never get from a book or anything.\u00a0 I mean, you just kind of have to have someone who\u2019s better than you dissect what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like if you\u2019re in golf and you play with Tiger Woods, no matter how good you are, you\u2019re probably going to learn something life changing about your game just by having someone like that look at what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
I consider Ken to be one of the top copywriters, even though he doesn\u2019t bill himself as one, but he really knows his stuff.\u00a0 Like you were sayin\u2019 in his course, yeah, he talks about the basics and the stuff you\u2019re gonna find.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s always going to be overlap with other products and stuff, but when he gets into positioning and the inner game stuff and some of that creepy stuff he talks about toward the end about other marketers out there and how to stop yourself, prevent yourself from getting scammed and hurt by other marketers and clients.\u00a0 You just can\u2019t get most of that anywhere but from real life, school of hard knocks.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Hey, I want to ask you one more of my questions, and then I\u2019ve got a bunch of people have submitted a bunch of questions I\u2019d like to get into real quick.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve got a great blog, by the way, at BenSettle.com.\u00a0 You\u2019ve built up a real nice fan base, too.\u00a0 Two things, basically, I remember you saying awhile back, I guess, I don\u2019t know if it was the BenSettle.com blog, but when you were first starting copywriting and didn\u2019t have work you took that as an opportunity to write something every day for your blog.\u00a0 You viewed that as, first of all, a way to get better at writing, and second of all, a way to consistently put copy up on your blogs.\u00a0 Do you recommend that for copywriters just starting out?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh man, even more so.\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you exactly what happened.\u00a0 I was having a year where just there wasn\u2019t a lot happening.\u00a0 I mean, I was making a lot of mistakes and that sort thing.\u00a0 I just had a lot of time on my hands, and I thought, \u201cWell, I might as well write,\u201d because you can always \u2013 and when I say write, I was writing articles for ezine directories and stuff, which is the same as if I was writing for a blog or my website.\u00a0 What happens is you start saying, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ve learned all this stuff about writing ads.\u00a0 I can practice writing ads.\u00a0 I can practice persuading people just to click a link at the end of my article just like it was a sales letter.\u00a0 So you structure.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your intro, you tell the story, you lead into some kind of a lesson.\u00a0 You\u2019re not selling anything, but you\u2019re kind of selling them on the click.\u00a0 So it\u2019s practice, practice; you\u2019re constantly honing your abilities to sell in print, so to speak.<\/p>\n
What I did was I was submitting something like 10 per day and this went on for a while.\u00a0 What I ended up doing was I didn\u2019t put them all on my website, but what happened was I compiled a bunch of them into an ebook that I gave away to people who opted in to my newsletter on my website.\u00a0 And that ebook, which was just articles I had written when I had too much time on my hands, well, like I said, I was saying how there\u2019s all these marketers already looking for copywriters.\u00a0 When I say that, I mean literally they\u2019re out looking for copywriters.\u00a0 They\u2019re just turned off by the hype and nonsense that they see from people trying to \u2013 probably from people trying to impress other copywriters instead of write good ads.<\/p>\n
I can tell you now that two of my biggest clients just came \u2018cause the read that ebook.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t even see my \u2013 they never saw any of my ads.\u00a0 They never looked at any of my work that I\u2019d done.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t know anyone I knew.\u00a0 They were out looking for copywriters, or looking for someone they could believe in and trust, and they just happened to read that ebook.\u00a0 I mean, they both told me, \u201cI read your ebook.\u00a0 I mean, I think your style is perfect for what I\u2019m trying to do.\u00a0 When can you start?\u201d\u00a0 I mean, always be writing, and that was number two of the three things I was going to say anyway about how to build your skills up fast is always, always, always be writing ads constantly.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good point.\u00a0 I probably cut you off.\u00a0 You were gonna say of three different things how to get better at writing.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go back that.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, the third thing was \u2013 you know, there\u2019s actually like 10 things I could say.\u00a0 Besides writing ads out by hand, which we already talked about, another is just to become really, really good at sales in general.\u00a0 I mean, the more you learn about selling, and I\u2019m not talking about the kind of Mickey Mouse stuff that you see people talk about, like tactics and all that.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m talking about learning how to identify problems people have and then figuring out how to talk to those problems.\u00a0 You can only do that really by learning sales.\u00a0 They don\u2019t really teach that in copywriting necessarily.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the third thing is just either just try to sell something, even if you\u2019re just selling yourself to other clients.\u00a0 Just get out there and try to sell people something and that alone will give you another quantum leap in your knowledge and you\u2019ll start realizing that you can only learn so much from a book.\u00a0 I mean, sometimes you\u2019ve got to go out there and just do things.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good advice.\u00a0 You\u2019re basically a salesman in print.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t have anything to do with being a good writer, so to speak; it has evening to do with being a good salesman in print.\u00a0 So, yeah, very good point.<\/p>\n
I take it back.\u00a0 There\u2019s one \u2013 I said I was only going to ask one question, but one more question I want to ask you \u2013 one of my questions before we get into the subscriber questions.\u00a0 How\u2019d you build up such a nice fan base for your blog?\u00a0 What have you specifically done to do that, or what do you recommend?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0This is another thing where I \u2013 I mean, there\u2019s a lot of things that I\u2019ve done.\u00a0 One thing I\u2019m purposely and deliberately not going to reveal ever for free anywhere so I\u2019ll leave that out, but this is something I was teasing my list about a few weeks back saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s the real key to selling on the Internet?\u201d\u00a0 People were saying, \u201cWell, it\u2019s value,\u201d or, \u201cIt\u2019s teaching,\u201d or, \u201cPutting out lots of content.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, no, it\u2019s none of that stuff.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s all important don\u2019t get me wrong, all that stuff\u2019s important and those are things that I definitely do, but there is one thing that almost nobody is teaching and if they just did that, I don\u2019t think they\u2019d ever have a problem getting a following.<\/p>\n
To answer you question, one thing that I definitely do, and I did this basically because through observation I noticed that Gary Halbert did it and I noticed guys like Dan Kennedy do it and I noticed a lot of other people who are very successful do it so I just started doing it, is you just let you personality shine through.<\/p>\n
I mean, I\u2019m the first person to admit I\u2019m not the coolest guy in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got some kind of weird interests and tastes.\u00a0 I\u2019m sittin\u2019 here putting videos about Bigfoot up on site and things like that.\u00a0 I mean, let\u2019s face it; I\u2019m not exactly the most popular kid in school.\u00a0 But that personality, people know that they\u2019re dealing with a real person.<\/p>\n
An example of this would be I used to collect comic books when I was a kid.\u00a0 I probably still would if I had more time.\u00a0 But I was always intrigued by some of these comics.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019ve really got rabid fans if you\u2019ve ever been to a comic book convention.\u00a0 I was thinking about Spider-Man in particular.\u00a0 This character\u2019s been worth billions dollars to Marvel Comics.\u00a0 I remember reading an interview with one of the writers of Spider-Man at the time, and he was like, \u201cI realize that people are not just buying the comic book to see Spider-Man kick someone\u2019s ass.\u00a0 They also want to see what\u2019s going on in Peter Parker\u2019s love life and stuff.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s almost a soap opera aspect of it.\u00a0 There was a lot of personality in those comics.<\/p>\n
If you look at any really successful marketer, they\u2019re not cold fish.\u00a0 They\u2019re out there giving their personality.\u00a0 You\u2019re not always going to like it, but it\u2019s like a real person.\u00a0 I mean, even guys who are really polarizing, for example, take a guy like Rush Limbaugh, for example.\u00a0 I heard something like 50 percent of the people who listen to him hate him, but they sure love his personality \u2018cause they\u2019re listening every day.\u00a0 They may hate his guts and everything he stands for, but a lot of the people just like his personality.\u00a0 A lot of TV shows are like that, like sports shows on ESPN and stuff.\u00a0 A lot of the shows are driven by some personality.\u00a0 It\u2019s not necessarily the content of the information.<\/p>\n
I would say personality is a big, big thing.\u00a0 Don\u2019t hold back.\u00a0 I mean, be who you are, and if people don\u2019t like it, there\u2019s a little link on there that says \u201cUnsubscribe\u201d and go fly a kite, man.\u00a0 It\u2019s not for everybody.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019ve never actually heard anybody say that for building a base of fans for your blog but so true.\u00a0 I mean, I hear stuff like, \u201cWell, you\u2019ve gotta consistently put up content.\u201d\u00a0 Well, okay, yeah, but \u2013 yeah, if your content has no personality, I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to return.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I don\u2019t think so either.\u00a0 If they do, it\u2019s probably on a freebie mindset, \u201cWell, this is free.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not because they\u2019re engaged by it.\u00a0 I would say that\u2019s almost as important as the one thing that I\u2019m deliberately withholding.\u00a0 Personality alone will take you a long way.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m glad you shared that.\u00a0 I think I probably need to start incorporating more of that in my blog, too.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I think you do a good job of it, especially on your Doberman Dan Show.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s the real Doberman Dan.\u00a0 It\u2019s not some shadow of someone else.\u00a0 It\u2019s not you\u2019re trying to be like someone else.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like if you send a photocopy, right?\u00a0 You take a photocopy of a driver\u2019s license and then you fax that to someone else and that fax looks blurry and then you take that fax and photocopy that.\u00a0 This is what a lot of people are doing out there.\u00a0 It\u2019s like they\u2019re trying to be like someone else and they\u2019re not being themselves.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s true.\u00a0 I do my best to try to let my personality show through in my articles, but the few videos I\u2019ve actually made for the site I\u2019ve stifled myself because I\u2019ve wanted to make a few jokes here and there and I thought, \u201cNo, I better not.\u201d\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 I probably shouldn\u2019t worry about that.\u00a0 If I make a joke and nobody likes it, well, big deal.\u00a0 I think I should probably, warts and all, you get Doberman Dan, at least that\u2019s been the goal of my articles.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to stifle myself in the future on any audios or videos based on that advice.<\/p>\n
I want to get into some questions, and the first one I\u2019m going to start with is Dean from London because he stayed up really late to be on this call.\u00a0 What?\u00a0 It\u2019s almost 9:00 Eastern time.\u00a0 It\u2019s probably almost, holy smokes, like 3:00 in the morning over there or something.\u00a0 So thanks, Dean; appreciate it.\u00a0 I hope missing sleep \u2013 I hope all this was worth the missing sleep you did.\u00a0 Anyway, he says, \u201cHi, great interview.\u00a0 Ben has an awesome blog, and I\u2019d be interested to hear any tips he has for starting out blogging and generate an audience from scratch.\u00a0 Thanks for the opportunity of this material.\u201d\u00a0 We basically already covered that, but I just wanted to give as shout-out to Dean for staying up late to listen to us.\u00a0 Do you have anything else to add to that for starting out blogging and generate an audience from scratch?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, yeah, we did cover the personality aspect and all that.\u00a0 I would say this isn\u2019t going to genuine a lot of traffic, but it will steadily build you some traffic and some good back links.\u00a0 And that is, blog every single day, or at least five days a week, and then take that blog and put it on EzineArticles.com and try to maybe keyword optimize the title.\u00a0 That\u2019s a whole other thing in and of itself and there\u2019s lots written on that for free on the Internet.\u00a0 You\u2019ll make Google happy.\u00a0 You\u2019ll make EzineArticles.com happy and you\u2019ll make yourself happy because you\u2019ll start getting some more traffic that you wouldn\u2019t have gotten otherwise.\u00a0 And you already did the work.\u00a0 I mean, you already wrote the articles.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s right, so just recycle it and put it up there.\u00a0 What was the website again, Ezine \u2013 [Crosstalk]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0EzineArcticles.com, and you can also \u2013 one cool thing you can do, too, is you can have, for example, some social media sites, like Facebook, you can have them pull your feed automatically.\u00a0 You have to go on there to see how to do it.\u00a0 So now you\u2019ll syndicate it on Facebook, too, and all your friends there will see it.\u00a0 Then maybe put a link on Twitter, too, and now you\u2019re getting out there in multiple different places.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good idea.\u00a0 Thanks for the question, Dean, and thanks for staying up late.\u00a0 Check this out, Ben: Kyle Tully in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh, Kyle, I know Kyle.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Do you know Kyle?\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 Okay.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I know Kyle.\u00a0 He\u2019s a cool guy.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I would like to know, I\u2019d like to have the opportunity to get to know Kyle \u2018cause check out his message.\u00a0 He says, \u201cI\u2019ve actually got 749 guys in the room with me right now, so your stats are off.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So big shout-out to Kyle in Australia.\u00a0 I have no idea what time it is down there.\u00a0 I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see, Angel Suarez in Palm Bay, \u201cWhat do you find to be the most effective way to create trust and remove distrust?\u201d\u00a0 Very good question.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, there\u2019s a lot of people who, unfortunately, all they\u2019ll do is say, \u201cWell, you\u2019ve got to get testimonials,\u201d like that\u2019s some magical thing.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that recently people are coming to the realization that testimonials are probably the weakest form of proof and trust and you can get these days \u2018cause they\u2019re so easily manufactured.<\/p>\n
Man, I will tell you this: there\u2019s lots and lots of ways to do this.\u00a0 But the easiest way that I know of to do it is to tell a story in you\u2019re ad about someone who\u2019s in the market who\u2019s facing the exact same problem as the people in your market and how they overcame that problem \u2013 you\u2019re doing this in story form \u2013 by finding your product.\u00a0 They will feel like they were talking to a kindred soul.<\/p>\n
I mean, people talk a lot about, \u201cWell, here\u2019s how you use proof.\u00a0 You do this.\u00a0 You do that.\u00a0 You show numbers.\u00a0 You show screenshots.\u201d\u00a0 You can do that.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying don\u2019t do it, but if you just learn how to tell a story from the point of view of someone going through the exact same problem that your product solves in your ad, whether it be you or somebody else, it will go a long way toward building trust and getting people just to not only believe you but they just can\u2019t get enough of what you\u2019re saying.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good tip and thanks for the question, Angel; good question.\u00a0 Hey, Ben, I want to ask a favor.\u00a0 It\u2019s 8:56 now.\u00a0 I told you we\u2019d only be on the phone \u2018til 9:00.\u00a0 Can you stick around a few minutes more to get through the rest of these?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0We can spend another hour if you want.\u00a0 We can keep rollin\u2019 as long as you want.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, we\u2019ve got more subscriber questions.\u00a0 I got more questions for ya\u2019.\u00a0 If people need to jump off the line, then do what you got to do.\u00a0 But I\u2019m recording this so if they\u2019ve got to run, they can catch the rest of it later.<\/p>\n
Tammy, in Pennington Gap, asks, \u201cDo you think the majority of written copy will eventually be mostly persuasion by video?\u00a0 Which do you think is the best to learn?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s a very good question because, man, there\u2019s so much \u2013 so many people who, for example, people who sell audio, they\u2019re going to tell you audio\u2019s the best.\u00a0 People who sell video stuff, they\u2019re going to tell you video\u2019s the best.\u00a0 People who are hardcore copywriters and text, they\u2019re going to tell you, you only need a sales letter.<\/p>\n
My take on this is do whatever works for you market.\u00a0 I mean, some people absolutely hate reading, and this an absolute \u2013 from what I understand, this is a neurological fact, like neurologists – and I\u2019m going on memory here, this is something Ken McCarthy told me, actually, \u2018cause he studies neurology I guess.\u00a0 He was saying that neurologists can\u2019t even understand how the human brain can even communicate through the written text, something like that.\u00a0 So it\u2019s really hard for \u2013 I mean, a lot of people just don\u2019t like reading.<\/p>\n
Those of us in marketing who are buying all these books and stuff, we love it, but we\u2019re kind of like freaks compared to the rest of the population.\u00a0 I mean, most people don\u2019t like it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t what the statistic is, like 42 percent of people never read another book when they graduate college or something.\u00a0 I would say use anything that works.<\/p>\n
I mean, I\u2019ll give you an example.\u00a0 Just six months ago, I bought a $1,000.00 info product based solely on a teleseminar.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even read the ad.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see a video either.\u00a0 But there have been times where I\u2019ve only bought from ads, like Gary Bencivenga\u2019s $5,000.00 DVD seminar.\u00a0 There\u2019s no audio or video on that at all.\u00a0 I don\u2019t even think there\u2019s a picture in it other than the top graphic.\u00a0 So text can work.\u00a0 Audio can work.\u00a0 Video can work.<\/p>\n
The most important thing you can do is get your message-to-market match down first.\u00a0 Get that down first and then you can start experimenting with whether video or audio or text or whatever works better, but the message-to-market is most important.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That is extremely important.\u00a0 I have a theory.\u00a0 One of the niches that I have a business in is the bodybuilding market because, if anybody didn\u2019t know this, this DobermanDan.com site is not my business.\u00a0 It\u2019s a passion.\u00a0 At this point, I don\u2019t make a dime from it.\u00a0 I got real work to do and I own real businesses and I\u2019ve got to steal time when I can to do this stuff for DobermanDan.com.\u00a0 Brief little rant there.<\/p>\n
My bodybuilding niche I\u2019ve noticed somethin\u2019.\u00a0 It appears to me that they younger guys in that niche, a lot of them are almost functionally illiterate.\u00a0 People my age, I\u2019m going to be 45 in December, it seems like people my age and older, as a general rule, are still readers and definitely the boomers are readers.\u00a0 Market to somebody in their 60s and 70s, and send \u2018em a magalog or a direct mail, those guys are readers.<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t have anything to back this up, Ben, but I think a lot of people in my market, especially if they went to public schools, are functionally illiterate.\u00a0 They cannot understand what they read, or possibly they can\u2019t even really read and they definitely can\u2019t communicate by the written word.\u00a0 I just judge that based on the customer service calls that my customer service center getaways and the emails that they get.\u00a0 So, I don\u2019t know, I just have a gut feeling that video may be \u2013 or audio, or both, may be more effective for that crowd, as opposed to the baby boomer market.\u00a0 Do you have any thoughts on that?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, that wouldn\u2019t surprise me one bit.\u00a0 On the other hand, and this is no reflection on anybody in particular, I\u2019m just sayin, personally, I wouldn\u2019t \u2013 this is an old Gary Halbert teaching that I always remembered is go after players with money, and usually they tend to be readers, but that doesn\u2019t mean who doesn\u2019t like reading isn\u2019t a player with money.<\/p>\n
But I was just thinkin\u2019, I don\u2019t know if this means anything to anyone in any way, shape or form, but I\u2019m just using myself as an example, I have probably the lowest attention span of anybody I know in my age \u2013 like Generation X.\u00a0 Honestly, I just cannot, unless there\u2019s like light sabers or hobbits or superheroes in a movie or TV show \u2013 [Laughter] \u2013 unless Jack Bauer\u2019s got someone strung up to a lamp post and is electrocuting them to get information or someone lost on an island out in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going down my favorite TV shows.<\/p>\n
But anyway, my point is that I have a really low attention span, and they a short video is good for people with \u2013 I\u2019ve heard this at least \u2013 is good for people with low attention spans.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even sit through a video.\u00a0 I mean, this is why I say test everything \u2018cause you never know what your market\u2019s going to respond to.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, that\u2019s true.\u00a0 Here\u2019s one from Jim in Bellevue, Colorado, another good question.\u00a0 These are all really good questions.\u00a0 Yeah, man, I get this a lot, so I\u2019m glad you\u2019re going to answer this.\u00a0 \u201cHow do you write a persuasive piece without all the hype that so many copywriters these days use?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That is a good question \u2018cause \u2013 I mean, it\u2019s like if you get grounded in the basics, in the fundamentals of selling and writing an ad, hype has \u2013 it amazes me that people actually believe they\u2019ve got to hype things up, and this is the problem with just studying any old sales letter out there just \u2018cause it pulls a lot of sales in.\u00a0 Again, some of these launches, for example, are so masterful done that nobody\u2019s even reading the ads, but people will say, \u201cWell, that launch brought in $10 million and, man, I\u2019m going to copy that.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to get sales letter and I\u2019m going to mimic it in my swipe file and I\u2019m going to use it.\u00a0 I\u2019m stud copywriter now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, nothing can be further from the truth.\u00a0 If they just threw the thing together.\u00a0 Yeah, you have like these 30-word headlines that are just nothin\u2019 but hype and adjectives.\u00a0 It really doesn\u2019t even matter what they say.\u00a0 They could put an \u201cOrder here\u201d button and they would buy.<\/p>\n
My point is you don\u2019t need all that hype if you have substance, if you do your research right, if you know exactly what that prospect that you\u2019re writing to needs to hear at that particular time in his life, talking to his most urgent problem or desire.\u00a0 You just tell them how you can solve that problem or get that whatever it is they want.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need all that hype.\u00a0 You just have to show them \u2013 remember, if you\u2019re going after people who already want something, remember the starving crowd, you don\u2019t have to hype up how good your hamburger is; just tell \u2018em you have a hamburger and here\u2019s why you should buy mine instead of someone else\u2019s, and do your research.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need all that hype.<\/p>\n
One way to really tone things down, I think, if you\u2019re worried this is right your sales letter in a blank email as if you were writing to your own mother and see how it reads.\u00a0 Would you use five exclamation points to and the word \u201cfree\u201d every five seconds?\u00a0 Or would you talk like a rational human being to someone you care about showing them the answer to their most urgent problem?\u00a0 It\u2019s really that simple.\u00a0 That\u2019s a great way to do a gut check.<\/p>\n
Of course, you may be writing to a market that your mom\u2019s not in.\u00a0 I mean, think of someone else maybe who fits the bill there.\u00a0 The point is you don\u2019t have to use all that hype; just talk to their problems.\u00a0 The message-to-market match is everything.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s a good technique, the blank email technique you were talking about: write like you were writing to your mother.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Or someone in the market.\u00a0 Remember that ad I sent you guys, the one about the grappling, a few weeks ago?<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, my mom\u2019s not in that market, right?\u00a0 But it\u2019s easy to picture someone \u2013 I know who that market is and it\u2019s not actually the martial arts crowd in this guys case.\u00a0 It\u2019s a different segment of the market.\u00a0 I mean, I know people who are in that market and it\u2019s very easy for me just to kind of write that like I\u2019m writing to them.\u00a0 I\u2019m just telling an interesting story and it just leads into the product, which leads into the benefits, which leads into the sale.\u00a0 There\u2019s no hype in that.\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t remember any hype in it.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019d just say it doesn\u2019t have to be your mom – I just use that as an example – just someone in the market that you love or care about.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, good example.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking at Kyle Tully\u2019s message again.\u00a0 Is he from Sydney, Australia, or is there another Sydney I don\u2019t know about?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 I know he\u2019s in Australia, but I\u2019m not sure what city.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh, then it\u2019s got to be Sydney, Australia.\u00a0 You think he really has 749 guys in the room with him?\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Hey, you never know.\u00a0 He\u2019s got a big-time consulting course out there, which it sounds like it\u2019s doing really good.\u00a0 Knowing what I know about him, I\u2019ve seen what he says in forums and stuff, he\u2019s one of the extremely knowledgeable guys, so I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s one of the better ones out there.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Cool.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s good to have him on the call.\u00a0 Shawn in Toledo, this is another excellent question.\u00a0 He asks, \u201cBen, how did you know when you really ready to take on your first client?\u00a0 Did you have some type of success with one of your own ads that led you to believe you were ready?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I didn\u2019t think I was ready.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you what kind of happened.\u00a0 I was still sort of flirting in the MLM industry at the time, and what I did was I wrote some sales letters.\u00a0 I bought some leads and I got their snail mail addresses and I wrote \u2013 I did one of those Dan Kennedy three sequence-type things, and those were my first ones.\u00a0 I think I did get a couple people who called me back.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember what happened after that, but I knew at that point at least there was something worth \u2013 I had something to offer.<\/p>\n
So what I did was there was this email list I was part of called the _____ ____ Roundtable, and I have no idea if it\u2019s still around or not.\u00a0 But it was basically like a little group you could join on the Internet and everybody could kind of send an offer to the whole group.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s kind of like a Yahoo group-type thing and it welcomed you sending offers as long as it wasn\u2019t \u2013 they probably wouldn\u2019t do it anymore like this, but back then, early 2000s, the hype factor wasn\u2019t quite like it is today.<\/p>\n
I did an offer.\u00a0 I just wanted to get something going.\u00a0 I just wanted to get a client just so I could get some real-world experience and I offered to write ads in that joint venture fashion, but only for like five percent.\u00a0 I mean, I was just stupid at the time.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing.\u00a0 I wrote three or four ads out of that.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t make much money out of any of those, but I knew at that point that I was at least worth getting paid to do it, let\u2019s put it that way, after I had those ads in my portfolio and stuff.\u00a0 You\u2019ve just got to get out there.<\/p>\n
One thing you can do is just find something to sell on eBay and write an ad for it, and if it\u2019s something people want, you\u2019re going to make sales and you\u2019ll that, really, writing has almost nothing to do with it.\u00a0 I mean, at its highest level, really, writing is just that kind of greased thing that kind of greases the slide there so people can get to order form, but it\u2019s mostly sales and psychology.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good tip.\u00a0 I just noticed we got somebody else with us from the UK who\u2019s up extremely late.\u00a0 John Canning from the UK says, \u201cBen, loved your book, Copywriter\u2019s Crib Sheet.\u00a0 I need to know what you think about headlines.\u201d\u00a0 Let me see.\u00a0 Sorry, I may not have read that right.\u00a0 \u201cI need to know what you think about\u00a0 Headlines, the book name; one line only or a longer subtitle as well?\u201d\u00a0 _______ talking about \u2013 I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s talking about headlines for just books or just headlines in general.\u00a0 I think he\u2019s just talking about headlines in general.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, this is the thing.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a big fan of rules.\u00a0 You test everything.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you\u2019re concerned about, I\u2019m assuming that you can test.\u00a0 I mean, there are some cases where people just have one shot and they don\u2019t intend to test, or maybe they don\u2019t have the traffic where it\u2019s even worth the time you have to test, which people will probably get on me for saying that.\u00a0 If you only have five visitors coming to your site, what are you testing?<\/p>\n
The point is if you can test it, you\u2019ll found out.\u00a0 I mean, test the long one, test the short one, test the subheadline under it.\u00a0 Hey, this is going to sound really crazy: test without a headline and just see what happens.\u00a0 I mean, what does it hurt?\u00a0 I mean, wasn\u2019t Gary Halbert\u2019s big coat-of-arms letter, that had no headline on it, and yet, that was like the most mailed letter in history.\u00a0 Of course, that was a different media.\u00a0 That was direct mail.\u00a0 But still, test everything just for the fun of it.<\/p>\n
I mean, you\u2019ll find that a lot rules are made to be broken so, in my opinion, there\u2019s no one size fits all.\u00a0 Some people have one-word headlines.\u00a0 Some people like to do these Reader\u2019s Digest headlines, like three or four words, and they all work.\u00a0 But, really, if you get the message-to-market match down, and you\u2019re saying exactly what that person needs to hear at that exact time in his life about a very specific problem that\u2019s bothering him and keeping him up at night, just say it.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t worry about length too much.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0What is Copywriter\u2019s Crib Sheet?\u00a0 Is that a book of yours?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, on one of my websites, or the Copywriting Grab Bag book that I sell there\u2019s a pop-up that comes up where you can opt-in to get a free ebook, and I called it the Copywriter\u2019s Crib Sheet.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically some articles I\u2019ve written a long time ago, some of which are floating around the Internet, some of which aren\u2019t, but they\u2019re all complied together.\u00a0 I just came up with the word \u201ccrib sheet\u201d \u2018cause everybody\u2019s using the word \u201ccheat sheet\u201d these days and I didn\u2019t want to sound like everybody else.<\/p>\n
Yeah, in fact, that\u2019s the ebook that has landed me a couple of my best clients.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, \u2018cause I got your book, but that\u2019s the first time I ever heard about this one.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, that\u2019s a free one, though, an opt-in one.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Here\u2019s a question, a couple questions from Frank in Newfoundland, Canada, \u201cIs the copy Ben wrote for Ken McCarthy\u2019s copywriting course available to review?\u00a0 Is it up on Ben\u2019s site as a sample, or is the current promo at Ken\u2019s site Ben\u2019s copy?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0As far as I know, it\u2019s still up.\u00a0 I mean, you could find it through KenMcCarthy.com.\u00a0 You could also go to SecretCopywritingTactics.com, which is my affiliate link for it, not that you have to go there or anything.\u00a0 But it should still be up, as far as I know.\u00a0 If it\u2019s not, then I\u2019m not sure where you\u2019d find it.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, everybody should go to that site.\u00a0 What was it?\u00a0 Secret Copywriting?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Oh, SecretCopywritingTactics.com.\u00a0 I will say, it doesn\u2019t look like a sales letter that a \u2013 I hope it doesn\u2019t look like something a copywriter wrote.\u00a0 I mean, the headline is about as far from hypey as you can get, but it\u2019s written to people who know a little bit about copywriting but struggling with it, they don\u2019t know where to turn and yada, yada, yada.\u00a0 It\u2019s not really actually written to someone who\u2019s never heard about copywriting before.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, everybody should check out that site \u2018cause that\u2019s just a great example of great copy, of how to write copy.\u00a0 Like I said earlier, it doesn\u2019t draw attention to itself.\u00a0 It does what it\u2019s supposed to do.\u00a0 It gets you reading about the product and excited about the product.<\/p>\n
Frank in Canada has another question, but I\u2019m not gonna ask it \u2018cause, I\u2019m sorry, you\u2019re limited to just one question.\u00a0 Nah, I\u2019m just kidding.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 \u201cBen mentioned Eugene Schwartz, Bencivenga, Halbert, Carlton, etc.\u00a0 What\u2019s Ben\u2019s opinion on Clayton Makepeace?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0I haven\u2019t read a lot of his stuff.\u00a0 I mean, obviously, I know who Clayton Makepeace is, and I have tremendous respect for him, but there\u2019s just only \u2013 not every teacher resonates with everyone.\u00a0 He\u2019s just not necessarily my cup of tea as far as teaching style, which makes some people probably throw their hands up and shriek at me or something.\u00a0 But again, everyone has different teaching styles that they resonant with.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve read a lot of his stuff, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 I think his \u2013 I\u2019ll tell what, he wrote an article about how to get inside the mind of your prospect.\u00a0 I think he wrote it back in 2006 or something.\u00a0 That one issue is just solid gold.\u00a0 I mean, I just couldn\u2019t believe how much value I got out of that one issue.\u00a0 I\u2019m a big fan of his.\u00a0 I\u2019m certainly not a groupie or anything.<\/p>\n
I do drink the kool aid of some people, like Bencivenga or Gary Halbert and that sort of thing, but I can\u2019t say I know a lot about Mr. Makepeace.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, his website is at MakepeaceTotalPackage.com, and he just gives away a ton of content so you should definitely check him out.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That might be why I haven\u2019t done it.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s because he gives away free and I just need to pay for content, – [Laughter] \u2013 which is kind of weird.\u00a0 Most people want it free.\u00a0 I want to pay for it.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, here\u2019s the deal, there\u2019s a lot of great information on Clayton\u2019s site but you know what?\u00a0 Don\u2019t go there.\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna charge you $1,000.00, so send me a check for $1,000.00.\u00a0 As soon as I get your check, then you can go on and look at his info.<\/p>\n
Well, Frank asks a third question here.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m cutting you off, Frank.\u00a0 Nah, I\u2019m only kidding.\u00a0 He says, \u201cI purchased Ben\u2019s Copywriting Grab Bag.\u00a0 Is it the same product as the Copywriter\u2019s Crib Sheet?\u201d\u00a0 Well, we kind of already answered that, right?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I get this question a lot, though, and maybe I should probably answer it just publicly.\u00a0 A lot of times people will buy the Copywriting Grab Bag, either they bought it before I put the Crib Sheet up there in a pop-up, or they just bought it first time they visited that sales letter.\u00a0 So if they go to the main CopywritingGrabBag.com, there\u2019s a pop-up box so even if you bought the book, you can just opt-in and then get the book and opt-out if you want.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you can get it for free.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay.\u00a0 All right, good, thanks.\u00a0 Most everybody seems to be on the webcast page, but we do have a few people with us on the phone.\u00a0 If anybody\u2019s actually listening in on the phone wants to ask Ben a question, you can press *2, and the will raise your hand on my little website I\u2019m looking at, if the technology works like it\u2019s supposed to.\u00a0 So if you want to ask Ben a question right now, punch in \u2013 that is if you\u2019re on the phone listening to this teleconference \u2013 punch in asterisk and the number two and that\u2019ll raise your hand.\u00a0 Then, again, if the technology works, I supposedly can unmute you and we can take your question live.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, I got a couple more if you can hang out with us a few more minutes.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I\u2019ve got the next hour blocked off, so whatever we\u2019ve got to do to get to everyone\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Here\u2019s one that came up a lot, I get asked a lot and I believe it came up during a previous teleseminar: How do you come up with big idea when you\u2019re writing copy?\u00a0 How do you come up with that hook or big idea?\u00a0 Do you have techniques for that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I do, actually, \u2018cause I remember you had this in your little bullet points so I was expecting this one.<\/p>\n
Remember that ad we were just talking about, the one about the grappling product?<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, grappling, the market that he\u2019s selling to is not martial arts fanatics who would even know what grappling is.\u00a0 So how do you make something like grappling sexy to someone who doesn\u2019t want to have to practice, they don\u2019t want to have to learn anything, they just want to kind of kick someone\u2019s butt; push a button, basically?\u00a0 Well, that was a charge.\u00a0 How do you do that?<\/p>\n
Well, all I did was a lot of research.\u00a0 The big idea was very obvious to me when I learned that people use to use grappling back in ancient Rome to wrestle lions and stuff.\u00a0 There was my hook.\u00a0 I just did a lot of research.\u00a0 I found out some things about the topic and I put it in the ad, into a story form and that was the big idea.\u00a0 By the time we got to the product, whether it was grappling or karate or whatever, it really didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 They just knew they wanted to be able to fight people like gladiators and samurai and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s your big idea.\u00a0 Just find some interesting little tidbit that you know the market will be turned on by and, boom, you\u2019ve got it.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your idea.\u00a0 You can center your whole ad around that and then the benefits and all that follow after you tell your story.\u00a0 Really, the big idea, it\u2019s just digging it up; dig, dig, dig.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Good stuff.\u00a0 Hey, Dean in London has another question.\u00a0 He says \u2013 one other thing, I\u2019ll just say this real briefly.\u00a0 I really like the people from the UK.\u00a0 It seems like every now and then, my customer service people will forward certain emails to me that I need to handle, and every single time, almost without exception, I get an email from somebody from the UK.\u00a0 They\u2019re just so polite and nice and well-spoken, as opposed to some of the other emails I get from people who are like, \u201cI-E-oh-ah-ah-bing-bang-walla-walla-bing-bang,\u201d or like, \u201cHey, gimme a training program now!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, they are.\u00a0 They\u2019re very polite, and same with Australia.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never met anyone from Australia I didn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s right.\u00a0 I get these emails from people in the US like, \u201cHey, give me a training program \u2018cause I need one!\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cI want it free!\u201d<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 The people from the UK and Australia are so nice and polite and so well-spoken.\u00a0 I probably shouldn\u2019t have said that.\u00a0 Now people in the US are going to be offended.<\/p>\n
Anyway, Dean says, \u201cHey guys, still here and enjoying the information.\u00a0 It\u2019s 2:15 a.m. right now and I\u2019m glad I stayed up.\u00a0 I actually have a history based on sales, and I\u2019ve been very interested in Ben\u2019s points about sales and psychology being key.\u00a0 Many salespeople I know have relied on being order takers for a long while and are suffering right now.\u00a0 My personally style is to play to the very basic needs of the individual.\u00a0 In business, it generally comes down to profit; and in the consumer market, it is generally security and relationships.\u00a0 Would Ben agree that you need to break even the most complex sales down to very basic needs like this?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, and in fact, I have a perfect story to illustrate exactly what Dean is saying.\u00a0 There\u2019s this guy.\u00a0 His name is Jim Camp, and he\u2019s the negotiation master of the world.\u00a0 He\u2019s the man when it comes to negotiation.\u00a0 Michael Senoff interviewed him, I think it was last year.\u00a0 These days I just don\u2019t have a lot of time to listen to newer stuff.\u00a0 I like to just kind of read, like explained, I like to kind of go over stuff I\u2019ve already heard.\u00a0 But this interview Michael did with Jim Camp was just phenomenally good.\u00a0 I mean, that was one of the 10 time things I listened to.<\/p>\n
He told this story about, and this changed a lot of the way I thought about sales by the way, he told the story about when he was just starting out selling water filters door to door.\u00a0 I guess he was kind of a younger guy, maybe even a teenager at the time.\u00a0 He\u2019d read all the books and all the tricks and all the tactics and all that stuff.\u00a0 He was ready to go out there with whatever the books were telling him to do and all that, and all the fake enthusiasm and all that stuff, fast talking.<\/p>\n
Three weeks he said.\u00a0 He did everything the company told him to do.\u00a0 Three weeks he was in a neighborhood which actually had problems with their local water supply so they would be good prospects, and yet in three weeks, not one sale.\u00a0 He said he finally just said the heck with this.\u00a0 He threw the stupid script out, knocked on the door and said, \u201cJust tell you don\u2019t want soft hair and I\u2019ll leave you alone.\u201d\u00a0 He said people started opening doors.\u00a0 He got it down to that one basic need that his thing could solve that was in that neighborhood.\u00a0 People had that problem.\u00a0 They could relate to that.\u00a0 \u201cYeah, my hair\u2019s all greasy,\u201d or whatever.\u00a0 And that is breaking it down to its most basic benefit and need, and I think Dean is absolutely right about that.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s a great story.\u00a0 \u201cHey, just tell me you don\u2019t want soft hair and I\u2019m gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, you can do that even cold calling, whatever.\u00a0 I mean, let\u2019s say you\u2019re calling marketers up who you think are looking for copywriters cause they\u2019re using sales letters.\u00a0 \u201cHey, my name is so-and-so.\u00a0 I know that you\u2019re using sales letters now, and I just want to let you know I can write some sales letters.\u00a0 I you don\u2019t need that, well, that\u2019s fine.\u201d\u00a0 You don\u2019t take it personally, right?<\/p>\n
But you\u2019ve just told them what you do and you\u2019ve given them that chance to tell you, yes, they want it or, no, they don\u2019t.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t, you haven\u2019t wasted any more time on it.\u00a0 Just tell ___ _____ ___.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t say, \u201cJust tell me you need a good sales letter and I\u2019ll leave you alone,\u201d but you know what I mean.\u00a0 Basically, you want to use that same approach of that you know they want somethin\u2019, here\u2019s how you can get it and if the don\u2019t, next, move on to the next thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s really that simple.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That is true.\u00a0 That\u2019s breaking it down to its most simple component there.\u00a0 That\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve developed this \u2013 I guess you\u2019re just launching it, or you can fill me in.\u00a0 But you\u2019ve developed the Crackerjack Selling System, which is not specifically about copywriting.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically about selling in general and persuasion really, too.\u00a0 So I\u2019d like to know how do you sharpen your persuasion \u2013 well, first of all, tell me more about the Crackerjack Selling System and where you\u2019re at with it right now, and then tell me how do you sharpen your persuasion skills.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, the Crackerjack Selling Secrets is a book that I\u2019ve written.\u00a0 I wanted to do something like this for a long time.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like a 101 \u2013 I mean, it is 101 ways to sell ethically, legally, morally; no black hat stuff, no pressure, no hype, no rejection-type stuff.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s like 101 ways that anybody can use to sell whatever they have to sell.\u00a0 The thing about it is, though, it\u2019s a book that I\u2019m giving away to people who join CD of the month thing I\u2019m developing right now where I\u2019m going to interview top sales people, and by that I mean they could be social media experts, they could be email experts, copywriting experts, negotiating experts.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019re just experts in selling and persuasion in some form.<\/p>\n
Jim Yagi, who is in our Mastermind group, he\u2019s agreed to do it.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to talk about paper click selling.\u00a0 So all these different ways to sell that everybody is either exposed to or maybe want to know more about.\u00a0 So every month I\u2019ll be talking to a different expert, basically, on that.<\/p>\n
The book, yeah, it\u2019s selling tips, but you can pretty much apply most of them to any kind of selling you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 I mean, this is stuff \u2013 it\u2019s almost like I wrote this just because I wanted to have the stuff that I use almost in like a list form, and then I decided to turn it into book and flushed it out.\u00a0 That\u2019s what that is and that\u2019s a couple months off.\u00a0 I\u2019m just really behind on it, but that\u2019ll be launched probably in another couple months or so.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, I know.\u00a0 I\u2019m still waiting on my copy.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, it\u2019s coming.\u00a0 You know what\u2019s funny?\u00a0 I swear I\u2019m not doing this stuff on purpose, and I\u2019ve been accused of doing this on purpose.\u00a0 It took almost a year to launch the Copywriting Grab Bag book.\u00a0 People are waiting sitting on my notification list, like, \u201cWhen\u2019s this book coming out and are you just jerking me around?\u00a0 It\u2019s like eight months later.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I just,\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s kind of like it\u2019s my passion __ ____.\u00a0 My real income comes from doing what I\u2019m teaching.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not dragging it out on purpose; it\u2019s just taking me awhile.\u00a0 I want to do it right, and I\u2019d rather do it right and make everyone happy than do it half-assed and make everyone mad.\u00a0 That\u2019s the explanation for that.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay.\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ll wait for it.\u00a0 We\u2019ll give you the time you need, but I do want my copy so don\u2019t forget about me.<\/p>\n
So in the research that you\u2019ve been doing for this project, what tips have you got about how to sharpen your persuasion skills?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0You know what?\u00a0 Just to kind of make up for taking my sweet old time on this and making everybody angry at me for not getting it out, I\u2019m going to give away Crackerjack Selling Secret Number 2 in the book.\u00a0 So this is in the book.\u00a0 It\u2019s number \u2013 I believe I have it as Number 2.\u00a0 That I think it\u2019s the second most important thing.\u00a0 It could even be the most important thing, but either way.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to tell you a story that this guy told me, and I think it\u2019ll make the whole idea of persuasion sales, again, down to its most basic, fundamental level.\u00a0 And that is, there\u2019s this guy, Doug Dianna, he\u2019s a top, top, top magalog copywriter.\u00a0 He\u2019s one of the few copywriters I believe Gary Bencivenga recommends people go to, like clients and stuff.\u00a0 I mean, he\u2019s just up there in the upper reaches of the whole A-list copywriting world.\u00a0 He agreed to let me interview him for my Copywriting Grab Bag book a couple years ago.<\/p>\n
At the time, I had just gotten a dog and like most new dogs, and even now, two years later, she still doesn\u2019t listen to me very well, but at the time, she didn\u2019t listen to me at all.\u00a0 I guess I had mentioned that to him or something, and he goes, we were talking about what\u2019s the key to selling and he goes, \u201cBen, do you have a dog?\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cI have dog.\u00a0 Yeah, I just got it.\u201d\u00a0 He goes, \u201cOkay, does your dog listen to you?\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cNo, she doesn\u2019t listen to me at all.\u201d\u00a0 He goes, \u201cWell, I\u2019m a stranger.\u00a0 Your dog has never seen me before, never caught my scent before, has no idea who I am and yet I bet you I could walk into your house and I could get your dog to run up into my lap and jump in my lap no matter what.\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cWell, how would you do that?\u201d\u00a0 He goes, \u201cI\u2019d simply walk in and hold up her favorite dog cookie and she\u2019d come runnin\u2019 to me.\u201d\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a dog owner in the world who couldn\u2019t relate to that story, even your Doberman, I would guess would probably do something like that.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about tricks and tactics, as Jim Camp taught in that story I related to you.\u00a0 It\u2019s just about finding out what people want and then here\u2019s how you get it.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what they want.\u00a0 How can what I sell give them what they want?\u00a0 It\u2019s really no more complicated than that.<\/p>\n
So I guess the answer to the question is not so much concentrate on a lot of tactics but use more strategies to find out what people already want, become an expert at digging up what people really want and then selling becomes much, much easier.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s a great analogy with the dog.\u00a0 Yeah, that makes perfect sense.\u00a0 I gotta ask you this because I just couldn\u2019t let you get by without answering this question.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I\u2019m real curious about your answer, too.\u00a0 What are the selling secrets you learned from Bigfoot?\u00a0 First of all, tell everybody about your Bigfoot trip, and then tell us what, if any, selling secrets you learned from it.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, I\u2019ve learned two things from Bigfoot.\u00a0 Bigfoot could be one of my, if he had a book, I\u2019d probably read it 10 times _______.\u00a0 Basically, the first thing I can is if you think about it \u2013 you know what?\u00a0 I tell the story of the trip and then the last ones will become very clear.<\/p>\n
My wife and I took a two-week road trip recently, and on our back we stopped in a town called Willow Creek, California, which is not too far from where live and it\u2019s not too far from where that original Bigfoot sighting was where you see that video, they call it the Patterson-Gimlin video.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s probably seen this video at some point or another where it kind of looks at the camera and keeps walking.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s where it was at.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re just a hop, skip and a jump from there.<\/p>\n
So this town, though, apparently is just all Bigfoot.\u00a0 I mean, the whole town just loves Bigfoot.\u00a0 I mean, everywhere you go in this town, there\u2019s the Bigfoot motel, there\u2019s a Bigfoot burger, there\u2019s Bigfoot books, there\u2019s Bigfoot statues everywhere, there\u2019s a Bigfoot museum, there\u2019s even a Bigfoot golf course there; everything is Bigfoot in this town.<\/p>\n
We went to this museum and we were just going to stop in and see what they got, maybe look at the displays and all that and we walked out with like $300.00 worth of merchandise: sweatshirts and I got a shot glass, which I use to measure fish oil in now and gave it a practical use \u2018cause I take liquid fish oil.\u00a0 Everything\u2019s Bigfoot so we came out with all this Bigfoot stuff that we had never intended to buy, and that\u2019s when you realize Bigfoot\u2019s like big money.\u00a0 I mean, people will crowd to this town just to buy Bigfoot stuff.\u00a0 The reason why is because Bigfoot has this tremendously powerful personal brand.\u00a0 I mean, everyone knows who Bigfoot is, for the most part.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re in a different part of the country, you probably have your own version of Bigfoot and it\u2019s probably just as recognizable with a name.<\/p>\n
So my thought was, \u201cMan, if you can become sort of the Bigfoot of your niche, the Bigfoot of your market, like a Dan Kennedy, everyone knows who he is, or Bill Gates in the computer industry.\u00a0 Everyone knows Bill Gates.\u00a0 He\u2019s like the Bigfoot of computers.\u00a0 Warren Buffett in investing.\u00a0 If you can become that Bigfoot in whatever it is you do, you will sell even without trying.\u00a0 I mean, people will come to you to buy things just because you\u2019re the main guy, you\u2019re like the top brand, the top person.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the first thing I learned from our hairy little friend out there.<\/p>\n
The second thing is when you go to a town like Willow Creek, California, and there are other towns like that in the United States, but they\u2019re just right next to where the Bigfoot sighting was, you realize these people have a real passion for Bigfoot.\u00a0 They really do.\u00a0 This is probably why we walked out with all this stuff.\u00a0 I mean, they eat, sleep, drink, poop Bigfoot; everything is Bigfoot and that enthusiasm is just contagious.\u00a0 I mean, you just kind of want to be a part of it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve noticed that with our bookkeepers.\u00a0 We recently got a new bookkeeper.\u00a0 Actually, we\u2019ve had him for a while, but we\u2019re dealing with him more and more.\u00a0 He\u2019s just really into bookkeeping, he\u2019s just really into payroll and taxes and figuring out things.\u00a0 He\u2019s so into it you can\u2019t help but get into it, too.\u00a0 So that was the second thing.\u00a0 That enthusiasm, if it\u2019s real, is really contagious no matter what you\u2019re selling.\u00a0 You sell muscle supplement stuff, I bet you could probably talk for hours about it and give really fascinating information about it.\u00a0 Right now we\u2019re talking about copywriting and there\u2019s people, it\u2019s 3:00 a.m. in the UK, and they\u2019re listening to this.\u00a0 They\u2019re just into it \u2018cause we\u2019re all just kind of into this.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re just really that into it at that level, you\u2019re going to attract business and sales automatically.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0So be the Bigfoot.\u00a0 Whatever your niche is, be the Bigfoot.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, and make sure someone captures the video of you and don\u2019t show your face ever again.\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Did you get to actually meet Bigfoot while you there?\u00a0 Shook his hand, get an autograph?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, I did get a picture in front of his statue, but I didn\u2019t get to meet the real Bigfoot.\u00a0 Not yet, maybe some day.\u00a0 I don\u2019t live too far from where that is.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s Bigfoot sightings everywhere these days in this part of the world.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0All right, I\u2019ve got to ask you this, and then I\u2019m going to let all these night owls in the UK, and everybody else, go to bed.\u00a0 But we gotta talk about this \u2018cause one of my bullet points was: the best way to make money as a copywriter when you\u2019re between clients or maybe can\u2019t find any.<\/p>\n
So you\u2019re what I would consider a fellow kitchen table entrepreneur like myself.\u00a0 You have started your own projects.\u00a0 Was that to basically go along with that multiple stream of income thing?\u00a0 Or was that one day out of necessity when you didn\u2019t have any clients you\u2019re thinking, \u201cHoly crap, the mortgage is going to be due in two weeks.\u00a0 I better get some money comin\u2019 in?\u201d<\/p>\n
First of all, how did that come about, you startin\u2019 your own Internet marketing projects or direct marketing projects, how did that come about?\u00a0 Then would you recommend that for other copywriters?<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, and I\u2019ll say this, there\u2019s another lesson from the old multilevel marketing industry, something I did not know about when I was in it, which would have probably made it a lot more profitable, but you can definitely take this in any industry.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve written some ads for someone, kind of the top marketing guy in that industry and he would teach something called funded proposals.\u00a0 That is where, okay, you\u2019re out there selling your MLM or whatever but you\u2019re also selling them an info product that kind of pays the bills until they join your group or even if they do join your group.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like an extra way of financing what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 I don\u2019t see any reason why copywriters can\u2019t do the same thing.<\/p>\n
I mean, like we were saying, if you\u2019re writing every day, basically you\u2019ll have a book within 20 or 30 days.\u00a0 Now, that book, you can sell it.\u00a0 This is kind of how I did it.\u00a0 I had written all these newsletters before and I just compiled them into a book and that makes up about a third of the Copywriting Grab Bag.\u00a0 I mean, the other two-thirds is interviews, you\u2019re in it, for example, and Ken McCarthy and Doug Dianna and stuff.\u00a0 But, really, while you\u2019re putting that content out, while you\u2019re writing to build your blog or your website, some of that stuff you can take off your website and make it exclusive, put it in a book.\u00a0 And not only do you have a book that you can sell people, to your audience, it also gives you a lot of positioning in your market \u2018cause you\u2019re not just some guy or gal out there talking about copywriting.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a real book.\u00a0 There\u2019s all kinds of publishing companies that you can use to do it real cheap instead of just using an ebook.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a big, big believer in whatever you\u2019re doing write a book about it, too, and you can sell it.\u00a0 Of course, if you\u2019re selling money at a discount, you can charge more for it, then, otherwise, even better in copywriting.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Explain that, please, selling money at a discount.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, you\u2019re selling someone information on how to make money.\u00a0 So basically if what you\u2019re selling is the real deal, they should make back way more than what they spent on your book or whatever product you have.\u00a0 It\u2019s like selling money at a discount so to speak.\u00a0 You\u2019re not just selling \u2013 I mean, selling how to make money is the easiest thing in the world to sell because it pays for itself.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like selling a book on \u2013 for example, I wrote a book about dogs once and that\u2019s not selling money at a discount at all, except for I had a chapter in there on how to save money on vet bills.\u00a0 But, basically, it\u2019s a harder sell then here\u2019s how you make money on the Internet.\u00a0 It\u2019s a no-brainer to pay $30.00 for something like that if you think you can make $100.00 or $200.00 a month after that.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Exactly.\u00a0 It sounds like you think that the info business is just a natural progression for a copywriter.\u00a0 That you should write a book or write a course, or if you\u2019re writing anyway, you could be in the process of developing an info product.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Well, what is the most powerful selling tool someone can have, or one of them at least, is demonstration and what better demonstration that you know what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 Look, let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 We can say this.\u00a0 It\u2019s an absolute truth, and if somebody doesn\u2019t like this, is just living in a dream world and probably drinking their own kool-aid I guess.\u00a0 Copywriters, as a whole, are very flaky.\u00a0 I mean, it is amazing to me just how flaky they are and how unreliable they are.<\/p>\n
I mean, believe me, I told you there\u2019s all these clients out there looking for copywriters, not even necessarily someone who\u2019s the best copywriter in the world, but just someone who will turn something in on time that they\u2019re not embarrassed to send to their list.<\/p>\n
And while you write a book or info product, you\u2019re demonstrating that (a) you can actually put information together in an organized way and you\u2019re kind of business men or business woman, too.\u00a0 It just demonstrates that you\u2019re a lot more trustworthy and you get to kind of show off what you know in the book without bragging or hyping yourself up.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0So not only an extra stream of income, but really establishing your credibility also.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s something that I\u2019ve been \u2013 I kept trying to remember what this was during the call.\u00a0 I meant to write it down, and I just remembered it.\u00a0 We were talking about ways to get clients and all that, and this is kind of off the subject a little bit, but I think people listening to this will really benefit from it.\u00a0 Is that whole idea of social proof?<\/p>\n
I mean, when I worked, when I wrote an ad for Ken McCarthy, many doors opened for me at that point.\u00a0 When I wrote an ad for this guy in the network marketing industry, Mike Dillard, a lot of doors opened for me just automatically just because his name, I was attached to something he was doing.\u00a0 There\u2019s this other guy that I write ads for; his name is Captain Chris Pizzo.\u00a0 He\u2019s in the self defense industry.\u00a0 I mean, that opened doors.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s not ever necessarily getting a lot of clients.\u00a0 You want to get the right clients, people who have a very good reputation in their market, in the industry.<\/p>\n
Believe me, there are people when they have their giant mastermind groups and all that, from what I understand, maybe it\u2019s not the case with all of them, but a lot of these guys are looking for people who can write ads and aren\u2019t going to skimp out or hand in something, some piece of crap that may or may not work.\u00a0 They\u2019re looking for someone they can trust and believe in.\u00a0 So kind of like when you go shopping for a car, right?<\/p>\n
You know who told me this was Doug Dianna.\u00a0 I\u2019m drawing about who told me this.\u00a0 He goes, \u201cI\u2019m going to shopping for a car tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0 This was when I interviewed him.\u00a0 He goes, \u201cI\u2019m not shopping for a car.\u00a0 I\u2019m first shopping for a salesman, someone who can kind of guide me through all this and who I can trust.\u201d\u00a0 He said, and I would totally agree with this, \u201cIt\u2019s the same in copywriting.\u201d\u00a0 People want someone that they can trust.<\/p>\n
I just got an email last week from this guy who was interested in hiring me and he was asking, he goes, \u201cI\u2019m not even actually looking for the best copywriter in the world.\u00a0 I just want someone I can work with, someone who I can kind of trust and do business I with.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think people understand just how untrusted copywriters are right now.\u00a0 We\u2019re just a dime a dozen right now and there\u2019s a lot of shady people out there.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just copywriters, it\u2019s everyone in our market.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if you remember Ken McCarthy\u2019s copywriting course, that part where he talked about just some of the shenanigans that he knows of out there.\u00a0 It\u2019s really, really bad.\u00a0 I mean, copywriters can get screwed over too, but I\u2019m just saying people are looking for someone that they can trust and be that person.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Right, that\u2019s exactly right.\u00a0 I lied.\u00a0 I was said I was only going to ask one more thing.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I thought of one more really important thing that I had on the list and I just don\u2019t want to end the call until we talk about this.<\/p>\n
As a little side note, I\u2019ve been keepin\u2019 up on a few of the gurus who have launches comin\u2019 up, and these guys always show their gross numbers, like, \u201cI made $40 bazillion last month, and here\u2019s the growth,\u201d and blah, blah, blah; and really, that doesn\u2019t tell you anything.\u00a0 Gross can be incredibly misleading.\u00a0 Okay, let\u2019s say you did make $40 million last month.\u00a0 You had $60 million in expenses or whatever.\u00a0 It\u2019s somewhat misleading.\u00a0 It looks impressive to the newbies.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019m all for making as much money as you want to make, and I certainly could make more money, and I know you could make more money, but I\u2019m more about freedom and lifestyle.\u00a0 And I know \u2018cause we\u2019ve talked about this on the phone, if you could help build the dream a little bit for the newbie copywriters or the people who want to get into direct response and want to be a copywriter, build the dream a little bit about your lifestyle and what a typically day involves.\u00a0 I know you\u2019re not slaving all the time.\u00a0 There may be some instances where you\u2019re slavin\u2019 away for 16 hours on a deadline.\u00a0 But as a general rule, you got a really nice lifestyle, so build the dream for us, Ben.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, before I do that, I wanted to say something about what you were saying about when the people hype up the numbers and the publicly count their money and all that.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to say who told me this, all right, so take this with a grain of salt, but it\u2019s someone who\u2019s pretty well-connected in the marketing world.\u00a0 He goes, this was recently he told me, he goes, \u201cThere\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned about a lot of these guys, they\u2019re all full of shit.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 \u2018Cause he deals with \u2018em, he deals with a lot of them.\u00a0 He goes, \u201cThey may be saying their making umpteen million, but you look at \u2013 they\u2019re really only netting a couple hundred grand in a lot of cases.\u201d<\/p>\n
I would say, first of all, don\u2019t be intimidated by people like that.\u00a0 In fact, anyone who\u2019s publicly counting their money \u2013 I mean, I\u2019m personally just kind of like \u2013 I mean, I wouldn\u2019t say never trust them.\u00a0 I\u2019m just saying just realize that if someone has to say it, they\u2019re probably not real confident.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like Fonzi.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have to tell people he\u2019s tough.\u00a0 People just know it because he\u2019s cool.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s the same in marketing.<\/p>\n
To answer you question I like to think so.\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t really get up with an alarm clock.\u00a0 I used to just because I wanted to keep that discipline, but our dog acts as a pretty good alarm clock these days so I don\u2019t have to worry about that.\u00a0 But yeah, it\u2019s very laidback.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really a slave to anyone\u2019s agenda.\u00a0 Some days, if I\u2019ve been working really hard, we\u2019ll literally just say, \u201cScrew it, I\u2019m not working today.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go to a movie.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re in control of your time.\u00a0 You can go take wacky two week road trips whenever you want and go visit Willow Creek, California if you want, or whatever.\u00a0 It really doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 You can go anywhere you want in the world, for the most part.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like some business crashed while you were gone or someone\u2019s playing office politics trying to sabotage you at your job or anything like that.
\nYou\u2019re in control of your life in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n
Now, I will say this, freelance copywriting is basically just a more glorified job, though.\u00a0 You\u2019re still beholden to things that you say you\u2019re going to do, so that\u2019s why, ultimately, you also want to have your own stuff going, too, so that one day you can walk away from the freelancing or maybe it\u2019s just optional at that point.<\/p>\n
But yeah, I don\u2019t think I work more than three or four hours a day total.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t.\u00a0 My brain just fries after a while.\u00a0 I go to bed whenever I want and I can go exercise whenever I want.\u00a0 A lot of times, you can go a week without really; you can just kind of relax for a couple weeks at a time between projects with no pressure.\u00a0 When you get really good at, you get really fast at it and you actually save even more time.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like what used to take you six weeks, only takes you two or three weeks.\u00a0 I\u2019m just now starting to get to that point myself where I\u2019m actually much faster at this.<\/p>\n
And even better than that, is eventually you\u2019re going to start attracting more serious players into your life.\u00a0 By that I mean, there will be certain business owners looking for copywriters to partner with because, believe me, copywriters screw people over all the time, as I was saying, even big name guys.\u00a0 When one of these bigger companies, if it\u2019s like a client of yours or something and you just get along with everyone, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re going to be offered a chance to be a part of that and you may only have to do that from now on.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to transition into to that slowly but surely.\u00a0 I\u2019m partnering with a client right now, but I\u2019m still doing freelance stuff, but eventually I won\u2019t have to do that at all or even my own stuff.\u00a0 I mean, if I do do it, it\u2019s just because I want to.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really what it comes down to.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about lounging around and not doing anything.\u00a0 That\u2019s not living.\u00a0 Living is playing the game of life on your own terms.\u00a0 And if you like doing business, and I\u2019m guessing everyone listening to this call is into this, it\u2019s fun.\u00a0 It\u2019s really fun when you don\u2019t have that pressure of freelancing on you all the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s fun even when you\u2019re a freelancer, don\u2019t get me wrong.\u00a0 A bad day as a freelancer is still 10-times better than a good day on regular job.<\/p>\n
People who work regular jobs, they\u2019ll say, \u201cI have a really good job.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got a really good boss.\u201d\u00a0 That may be true, but they don\u2019t really know what real freedom is.\u00a0 They don\u2019t really understand what it\u2019s like to be able to just live life on your own terms without having to ask someone\u2019s permission to go to the bathroom, without having to ask for anything.\u00a0 I mean, you can give yourself a raise whenever you want, just raise your fees, as long as you\u2019re delivering value.\u00a0 If you\u2019re making your clients money, believe me, they\u2019re going to keep hiring you.\u00a0 That\u2019s the name of the game.\u00a0 To me, it\u2019s the ultimate in freedom.\u00a0 All you need is a computer, or if you write by long hand, which I\u2019ve never been able to do except when copying ads out, you only need a notebook.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s right.\u00a0 Freedom with a pen and notebook, or freedom with your computer.\u00a0 Yeah, that was an important thing that I wanted to ask you \u2018cause I know that\u2019s one of the big perks of being a copywriter and being in this crazy direct marketing business.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It is crazy.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Ben, I really appreciate it.\u00a0 This was a really good call, getting a lot of feedback here on the Q&A thing, people submitting questions and getting a lot of feedback that people liked it.\u00a0 Thanks a lot.\u00a0 Thanks for staying later than we planned.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s fine.\u00a0 I had a good time.\u00a0 It was fun.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Anything else you want to say before we close the call or just tell people your websites again, please.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah, if you want, I have a daily email tip, or at least five days a week.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really just send junk.\u00a0 There\u2019s always a plan.\u00a0 I may send you a sales pitch, but there\u2019s usually a point to it.\u00a0 That\u2019s at BenSettle.com.<\/p>\n
My other two websites are CopywritingGrabBag.com, which is where you can grab that Copywriter\u2019s Crib Sheet for free; just wait for the pop-up to show up.\u00a0 And CrackerjackSelling.com is the notification list for my CD of the month deal that I\u2019m building right now.\u00a0 I\u2019ve given a couple updates on that.\u00a0 It\u2019s going a little slower, but if you want to be the first to know what\u2019s going on, just jump on that list, too.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0All right, thanks, Ben.\u00a0 Thanks again for the call.\u00a0 It was really good, and, like I said, getting a lot of positive feedback about that.\u00a0 Thanks for your time.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0All right, thank you.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, good.\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ll talk with you soon.\u00a0 Take care.<\/p>\n
Ben Settle:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Okay, bye.<\/p>\n
Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Bye-bye.<\/p>\n
[End of Audio]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Friend, I had a great interview the other day with Ben Settle. You can check it out here. And in case you would prefer the written word, the transcription is below. All the best, Dan Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Welcome, everybody, to another edition of The Doberman Dan Show.\u00a0 This is Doberman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"\n
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All the best, Dan Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription Doberman Dan:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Welcome, everybody, to another edition of The Doberman Dan Show.\u00a0 This is Doberman […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doberman Dan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-29T22:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-07-29T22:55:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Doberman Dan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Doberman Dan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"103 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Doberman Dan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70431749eb54f8e5ca6adf1ab18ac326\"},\"headline\":\"Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-29T22:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-07-29T22:55:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\"},\"wordCount\":20689,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\",\"name\":\"Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription - Doberman Dan\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-07-29T22:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-07-29T22:55:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70431749eb54f8e5ca6adf1ab18ac326\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Doberman Dan\",\"description\":\"A gathering place for renegade entrepreneurs\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/70431749eb54f8e5ca6adf1ab18ac326\",\"name\":\"Doberman Dan\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/author\/ddibanez\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription - Doberman Dan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.dobermandan.com\/blog\/ben-settle-teleseminar-transcription\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ben Settle Teleseminar Transcription - Doberman Dan","og_description":"Dear Friend, I had a great interview the other day with Ben Settle. You can check it out here. And in case you would prefer the written word, the transcription is below. 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