Nobody buys from a Mary Sue

One of my favorite writing teachers is Chuck Dixon. He is the world’s single most prolific comicbook writer who has written probably every comicbook character you’ve ever heard of from Batman and Conan to the Simpsons and even Raggedy Ann and Andy. And one of the most useful things I’ve heard him talk about from a marketing perspective is what he calls: “Slob heroes” Think almost any popular Bruce Willis role. (from his Die Hard movies, The Last Boy Scout, Pulp Fiction, etc especially.) Basically it’s a hero who is a bit of a slob. Completely flawed. And probably the least likely to save the world from impending doom. And people dig that. And the reason why people dig that is they can relate to the slob hero. He’s less “okay” than they are. In many ways, his life sucks, and he is far worse off than the audience is. And all that brings a lot more drama, tension, and excitement to the story by default. Contrast that to Rey from the fake Star Wars movies. A total Mary Sue character who magically knows how to fix everything and do anything. Almost no real flaws. And even those "flaws" are just manic pixie dream girl fan fiction nobody cares about. Very boring. In real life, think people like Donald Trump as a slob hero with this hair and everyone on the planet trying to bring him down. Dan Kennedy’s biographical book “My Unfinished Business” (highly recommend) gives his theory on Trump’s goofy hair. Since Dan actually knows Trump, has spoken at the same events, etc he is in a unique position to speculate. Dan’s theory: That goofy hair makes him more relatable. i.e., un-okay. Certainly it makes people underestimate him. And I would not be surprised if that was the case. More: The late, great Jim Camp — “world’s most feared negotiator”, who had often had multiple billion dollar negotiations going simultaneously — was a huge fan of doing this in the game of negotiation & influence. He would talk about how people are comfortable with humanity. Someone who is too perfect, too polished, has everything too figured out is automatically less influential and less trusted than someone who is a bit ‘un-okay’ — whether it was Abraham Lincoln purposely riding a short horse and wearing clothes that didn’t perfectly fit when talking to soldiers on the battlefield… or, as Michael Senoff pointed out in the 4-hour recorded call he did with Camp: serial killer Ted Bundy wearing a cast on his arm to seduce women into trusting him and getting in the van. Very powerful stuff. And, yes, it can be used to do great good or great evil. Whatever the case: My pal Michael Senoff had a chance before Jim’s death to record an intense 4-hour, 174 question Q&A with Jim about his best methods and ideas, and packaged it into a a $597 product that is — in my opinion, at least — some of the most powerful info you’ll ever hear on the subject of not only negotiation, but sales, the psychology of influence & persuasion (even if he didn’t particularly care for the term “persuasion”), and marketing. Plus: Until this Sunday, 6/9 at midnight EDT you can have this $597 product for just $20. This is a deal so generous it borders on ridiculous. And, I cannot imagine it not significantly making any marketer, any copywriter, any freelancer, any coach/consultant, and anyone in business who carefully listens to it, intensely studies it (i.e., goes through it multiple times, not just one-and-done like amateurs do), and eagerly applies it make a ho bunch more sales, nab higher fees, and experience far greater success, while having more fun and peace of mind all around. Certainly has for me. And I believe it can for you too. Anyway, time is short on this offer. If you want it, hightail it immediately to my affiliate link below: [( Ben Settle 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