What a porno director can teach you about the visual and design-side of your business

Many years back, when the movie Braveheart had come out, there was some guy who directed pornos talking about Braveheart’s director Mel Gibson. Specifically he was talking about the movie's outside love scene. (After William Wallace marries his wife in the woods in secret to avoid Prima Noctae) Everything about that scene, including their breath in the cold air, her extreme nervousness, and the semi-awkwardness they both had, is quite authentic. Thus the gist of what the porno director said was: “That was a true love scene. My movies don’t have that.” The reason for bringing this up: The director knows his porno is not real even if they’ve created the facade of something that pretends to be. It’s completely fake. It has no soul. The audience has no real connection (with anything other than themselves, I suppose…) with it, with nothing real about it in any way, shape, or form. The audience can’t truly engage with what’s going on any more than you can engage with an NFT or an airbrushed model on a magazine cover or flashy MidJourney AI collage. People inherently know perfection is a lie. And it tends to bother us psychologically. Take Rocky 3 as an example. A big theme that goes through the movie is, now that Rocky is the champion, he goes from a bum-looking guy in torn sweatshirts, barely able to make the rent, and no professional confidence… to being this guy who now is the opposite. He has all kinds of fame, wealth and celebrity, and is seen everywhere, from magazine covers to TV show guest star appearances to credit card commercials, the Muppets… and everything else. Rocky is heavily merchandised, sponsoring varied products and services, becoming a true product and media platform unto himself. He’s also no longer the same imperfect underdog just wanting to go the distance audiences connected with in the first two movies. In many ways he’s unlikable in Rocky 3 — and even his brother-in-law and his own trainer can barely stand him now. The reason: Because he was inherently being dishonest. Even his successes were lies as his trainer picked the easiest guys to beat. The result is a guy who's life looks perfect. But he's complacent, and out of touch with who he is, and an insecure head case. There was nothing real about him anymore. Thus, Clubber kicked his ass while barely breaking a sweat. And the audience utterly rejects him until he gets his act together afterwards. People always reject perfection because it’s never real. That’s why “Mary Sue” characters are so boring & ultimately destroy sales. Because art — in whatever form, even if it’s business-related — that is perfect is boring. It’s one of the downfalls of AI-generated imagery the dorklords love to use to look "edgy" that pretends to be art... but that can only parasite and rearrange actual art in a way that, in many cases, is TOO perfect looking, and everyone knows it. It not only has zero Novelty but, like porno and an airbrushed Kardashian on a magazine cover… it lacks the humanity needed to be actual art and not a fake & twisted version LARPing as art, regardless of how well it’s presented. That sort of thing has a place (subversive memes, etc). But people know the difference between fools gold and the real thing. All of which brings me to my book: “Markauteur” One reason snobby designers will reject it is I don’t teach trying to be perfect in your business’ visuals & designs. I don’t teach purposely going low brow and ugly, either. I teach something else quite different altogether. And it’s a theme that runs through the entire book — including how I go about using the visual & design-side of business to engage in World-Building, which is also riddled with imperfections when done right. In fact, Markauteur includes a long, in-depth transcribed interview I did with Email Players subscriber Kia Arian (who does almost all my various business’ graphics, book covers, etc, and is, from what I understand, one of the few designers the professor of harsh reality himself — Dan Kennedy — lets anywhere near his designs) about direct response design. And here’s what she said about how I approach World-Building: (using just the visual & design-side of my business) “Honestly Ben, in the whole world, you're talking about the 1% who can think at this level. Very few people can operate at this level. Now that doesn't mean that they can't, some people, they just haven't seen it. They just haven't been introduced to it.” And that’s what Markauteur does: Introduces you to the subject from a visual & design perspective. Yes, in all its gloriously imperfect ways. And it goes back to why this is the highest priced of all my books so far, and why in my (obviously biased) opinion I think it is far more valuable than all the others I sell. Because it can help you create a visual marketing universe in your business. A place that is far from perfect but that people potentially love to enter, and hate to leave. And that they also potentially buy from no matter how good or bad your other marketing skills are. Thus the sticker shock price. But to take some of the sting out of the price, it’s on sale until tonight. To get the full details on the book do this: 1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase 2. Buy it before tonight, Sunday 8/18 at midnight EDT to get it at the discount. 3. Use code POMPOUS at the checkout (Make sure you see the price change before entering your info) Here’s the link: [( 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