nobody cares about your hot takes

Nor would anyone care about mine if I declared one either. That is why there are few things more amusing in this business than watching people running around Twitter and any other social media stating they have a “hot take” or an “unpopular opinion” and always obsessing over going against the grain just for the sake of it. In fact, one thing you can always count on is this: Whatever you’re doing is “wrong” and should be the opposite of what you’re doing now, only for the exact reverse to apply a year later where what people said is wrong now will be right. This is simply social media in a nutshell — and goes with what I said yesterday: i.e., everyone is full of crap until proven otherwise… Anyway, playing the edgelord game works until it doesn’t. But what’s far more powerful: To have, hone, and continuously harp on a clear and proven-correct Philosophy you do business by, teach, & advocate. Not something you do today and grift over to something else later just because everyone is suddenly talking about it. But something you work out, over time, and via hard experience… based on unwavering principles you know to be true, and that you happen to have an affinity for. Then, over time, you likely become known as “the guy” when it comes to that. Not because you call yourself as such. But because people just know - and you don't have to say anything. Something else: Being someone who has a clearly-defined Philosophy about what you do/advocate/teach in your business can help make you stand out far more than just being a mere contrarian zipping around giving hot takes that aren’t hot and unpopular opinions that literally everyone agrees with already. Having a worked-out Philosophy has all kinds of benefits: 1. You don’t really run out of things to create content about — you can always drill deeper into your Philosophy if nothing else 2. Certain clients & customers who your Philosophy appeals to tend to will probably automatically gravitate towards you, want to hire/buy from you, with price being less of an object 3. You are genuinely contrarian because you stick with your Philosophy instead of grifting to and fro 4. Over time you can become known as “the guy” for whatever it is you do without you having to call yourself as such 5. You can start getting the higher quality customers and clients vs the gaggle of newbies who are more impressed by style than substance 6. Your skill/knowledge mastery over whatever it is your base your Philosophy on will almost certainly get stronger day by day 7. Jealous trolls and reply guys will likely come out out of the woodworks as your unpaid interns spreading the word about you, handing your business all kinds of fodder to profit from, and behaving as your unpaid interns 8. Probably you’ll have customers & clients begging to be in your world even if your offers aren’t all that great or solve any real immediate or urgent problems (Mister Rogers — whose Philosophy was being a good neighbor — never solved any problems, just talked about them, which is about as a level of Philosophy game as you can get in my opinion) 9. You could even be spreading outright evil and have people following you like rodents following the pied piper (i.e., Dr. Fauci and his Philosophy of Fear to enrich himself — I do NOT recommend doing this, of course, just showing you the power of having a Philosophy) There are many more benefits and the above isn’t even getting creative. Point is this: Having a long-worked out (it does not happen overnight) over many years and even decades Philosophy can make your business and especially your content stand out from all the others. It ain’t how contrarian you are, how edgelord you are, how cool you are, or, really, anything else. It’s that Philosophy, sticking with it no matter what, advocating it, being willing to figuratively die on the hill for it unless, of course, raw data points you elsewhere. i.e., never sacrifice truth for Philosophy. This “secret” has been used by certain, very savvy businessmen for a long time. Like, for example: The old school Mad Men advertising guys like Ogilvy, Burnett, Norman, Cone, etc. These guys, from what I can tell, all more or less advocated the same principles of advertising. But, each one had a very distinct philosophy & speciality that made them stand apart. And that is why, according to Walter Bregman (who worked with these guys and was even consulted for the TV show Mad Men) certain clients would gravitate towards a specific agency. They weren’t mere “competitors.” They were more like co-existing in the same “ecosystem” with different purposes/appeals/strengths/weaknesses/specialities. Since the April Email Players issue is all about content creation & monetization I will add that it’s that Philosophy that can also help make your content stand out from others’ content, be charged higher than others’ content, become more influential and beneficial than others’ content. I’ve not only seen this but experienced it for a very long time. And it’s in big part due to having worked out several different Philosophies. If you want to know how I approach this see the April Email Players issue. One of the lessons inside shows you how to approach this Philosophy worldview with your content. There is nothing to swipe and there is no checklist to follow. And hiding behind fapGPT, AI, etc will do nothing for you in this regard. This all requires deep thinking, lots of work, and even more patience as you figure it out, work it out, and then play it out over many years. So the sooner you get started the better. And you can do so starting on page 17 in this special King-Sized issue. (A fat 32 pages vs the usual 20 pages) Tomorrow is the deadline to subscribe in time to get it. Here’s the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle P.S. Here’s a lil’ taste of what’s inside this King-Sized issue: * A content creation secret used by famous actor Gary Cooper to turn otherwise boring, ordinary, bland, and totally “plain vanilla” scenes into fascinating & memorable moments people remembered for years afterwards. (Especially useful if content you sell is otherwise easily found free on YouTube or Google.) * A shrewd way used by everyone from Dr. Seuss to Mister Rogers to even Quentin Tarantino… for creating content people love to pay for and consume even if it’s not mind-blowingly original. * The “fights are bullshit” secret for writing emails that can potentially make lots of sales even if you hardly even mention your product or offer at all. (This is directly from the writer who helped make The X-Men a household name and a billion dollar IP for Marvel Comics. And it can work like a charm when creating other kinds of content, too — from sales copy and emails to books, courses, talks, and everything in between.) * An old school writing trick for making your content so compulsively engaging & hard to stop reading/watching/listening to it might even piss people off! (No joke — doing this not only pisses off Stefania whenever she reads or edits my content… but it even irked my book designer when she was creating the interiors of one of my books.) * 7 ingenious ways (based on what Dungeons & Dragons in the 80’s did to help stop IP theft in its tracks) to aggravate & foil content pirates who are probably drooling right now at the chance to steal and sell your hard work. * The “Scorsese touch” content creation & monetization secret I’ve been using for the last several years to help write emails that sell like crazy without having to constantly hard pitch my offers. (Including helping me sell scads of my perfect bound books that look like they should sell for $13 at Barnes & Noble for as much as a $1,000+ a pop…) * A content creation trick (that's gone all but extinct since the rise of “Influencer” culture) that can help you sell your offers on the sneak inside your content. (I also show you an example of an email doing this that got the highest clicks, opens, & sales for us during a highly competitive affiliate campaign… even though it barely even talks about “the product” or benefits or has all that many claims.) * 2 things amateur copywriters, coaches, & online marketers can do (starting immediately) to help grow a bigger and more influential business than their more talented & well-connected peers and competitors. (These are the exact 2 things I did over 20 years ago to quickly blow right past a lot of my own more talented, better connected, and far superior copywriter and/or marketer peers.) * A cunning way to craft content that can help your business stand out head & shoulders in niches overrun with competition and distractions. * An ancient kung fu fighting tip (used by the late, great copywriter Jim Rutz did a lot in his ads, believe it or not...) that can help make even the most mundane, ordinary, and typical content/information look & feel exciting and sexy. * A 3-point content creation approach pioneered by Earl Nightingale (when he was a radio broadcaster in Chicago) and later perfected by Dan Kennedy (when speaking on the Peter Lowe tour) that can help get your content ridiculously high engagement & sales. * Why always trying to be contrarian or a “rebel” is a recipe for ending up ignored at best or even an abject failure in the content creation game at worst. * How to use your content to seize the coveted “cat bird seat” (i.e., he to whom business seems to flow effortlessly) in your industry. (Old school Mad Men like Olgilvy, Burnett, Norman, Foote, Cone, etc were pros at doing this — and it’s one reason why each had their own horde of clients who gravitated just to them, only wanted to hire them, and often didn’t care how much it cost.) * How to approach content creation in a way where your name and brand can be all but “infused” so strongly in your customers’ braincells they start seeing you almost everywhere and almost in everything they look at! (I won’t say doing this is easy — it’s not — but it is the big secret to how you achieve true marketplace omnipotence where your content can spread to the four corners of the earth and all but sell itself.) * How to summon energy & excitement “on demand” to create content when you don’t feel like it, don’t want to it, and it feels like such a chore you’d rather be doing ANYTHING else but creating content. (The late Heath Ledger tapped into this phenomenon to help create his most memorable performance as the Joker. And I've been using for a long time to pound out all kinds of content even when I'd rather be doing something else. You can, too, if you take this approach to heart, apply it, and work hard at it.) All right that’ll do it. If you want in on time for this issue you have to hurry. Once the deadline hits it’ll be too late. Here’s the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2024 Settle, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No part of this email may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Settle, LLC. Click here to [unsubscribe]( Settle, LLC PO Box 1056 Gold Beach Oregon 97444 USA