Proof elBenbo is a bully and the Defiler of hopes & dreams

An ex-Email Players subscriber was not amused... Specifically, with an email I once sent about why I consider those who try to fraudulently sneak back in to “Email Players” after being blocked & blacklisted to be the "herpes of the online marketing community": === As for you, Ben. Wisen up. It is my understanding that you want to use polarity in your marketing. However some of the very people you look up to (John Carlton included amongst many other esteemed and much richer entrepreneurs), both dead and alive. Were once in the very position I was in. Many who stand head and shoulders above you now, in the field of direct response. Yet, they never had to defile those who might be only temporarily beneath them (in the aspect of mindset and wealth attraction). I am still on your list because I like your emails. Even this one, to a degree. Everything, good and bad, to whose judgement is lesser known, teaches. And only a fool would think himself the wiser. In other words, don’t bully people. Especially when you’re not much different, yourself. You never know who someone might be in the future. I hope this email finds you well. === I think he missed his calling as a woo-woo Facebook life coach... Anyway, I didn’t reprint the entire bit, since it was really long. But here was the gist of it: 1. He subscribed to “Email Players” at some point and liked it. 2. Decided he had no use for it because he wasn't in a niche he loved. 3. And thus was blocked after leaving, due to my “no letting people back” policy. But, he eventually found the business he loves, and works really hard. And he wanted me to know there are probably all kinds of people on my list who are hard working champs like him my policy is turning away without me realizing it, who would otherwise be great customers, and so on, and so forth. All of which struck me as astonishingly small thinking at best. And outright self-sabotaging hamster-spinning at worst. Example: I started out in MLM back in 1998 which I hated. I can not think of a business that’d be less fun, that I wanted out of more than anything, but stayed in long past the time I should have. When I found the direct marketing world in very early 2002, I subscribed to Dan Kennedy’s “No BS Newsletter”. It was mostly teaching info I was not in a position to immediately use at the time. But I knew I would be able to use later, in some kind of business, selling something else besides MLM. I had no offer, no product, no list, no clients, no nothing. All I had was a crappy little MLM distributorship I hated and did nothing with. But Dan's newsletter prompted me to do something about that. And, thus, I acted like a grownup who votes and pays taxes and figured things out. But if I'd applied the reply guy above's reasoning? I would have quit the newsletter until I was “ready!” Which would have been a demonstrably stupid decision based both on how it motivated me to sack up and figure things out, as well as on the benefits I got from those issues I loved reading and learning from but couldn't use at the time, not yet knowing what I really wanted to focus on. And it'd have been quite shallow decision-making dragging me down. Especially since, to this day, I still dip into those issues and still get a lot of ideas and tactical application from all that content I had nothing to use it on at the time. If I'd bailed on continuing to get great info I already got a lot of value out of and that I was already paying for and found valuable simply because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do just then — and declared "I will be back!" like an idiot — I'd have shot my business right in its big toe. To paraphrase my boomer family members: Those types simply aren’t Email Players material . Yes, this policy protects my time & keeps the riff-raff out. But, I also have found it sometimes makes people more responsible decision-makers. As for those who came before me not “defiling” people: They don’t call Dan Kennedy “the professor of harsh reality” for nothing. I am pretty sure direct mail legend Dick Benson made grown men literally cry (from stories I hear at least). And clearly the above guy has never heard about the brutally harsh, yet life-changing mentors & copy chiefs many of these old school direct response copywriters had. Some of those guys were just one boss's bad day away from being fired. Do a study on Email Players subscriber Gary Bencivenga’s first copy chief, if you doubt me on this. But these hard-nosed types forced them to succeed or they might have ended up living on the street with their families. More: Nattering on about how I am being a “bully” simply because I created & adhere to a very strict, and clearly-defined policy, that has grown my business while creating a ravenous horde of successful customers is the kind of irony that writes itself. The policy is as clear as day: Leave any time you want, no hard feelings, no problem whatsoever. Go away with my blessings, Spanky. No explanation is required, or will probably even be read. And I promise you nobody will try to talk you out of anything or so much as miss you one way or the other, so no worries on that front either. Far as I am concerned, my offers are not for everyone. And I am certainly not for everyone. I'm not your mother or your keeper, so do what you need to do. And way I see it, if it ain't your cup of chowder, there is no reason to be getting it. But the consequence for leaving is the same across the board: There is no coming back later. Very simple, and clean policy. Still more: I’ve tested, tweaked, experimented with, and practiced this policy for nearly 10 years. And I have found, without exception, the harsher I am with this policy, the stronger my business gets with far more successful customers. On the other hand, the more lenient I am with this policy, the weaker my business gets with far more weak-minded customers. It’s such an integral part of what makes my business model work, that it’s “part” of my marketing now, just like clean parks are “part” of Disneyland's customer service. I don't know who all needed to hear this. But judging by the handful of lollipops who have been trying to fraudulently return after being black balled in the last few weeks today's as good a time as any to write about it. Finally: The upcoming July Email Players issue. It is a King-Sized issue - nearly twice the size as usual - that talks about ways to sell to and build relationships with your list without having to “give value”. This is more important today than ever, since just delivering “VALUE!” doesn’t cut it for getting engagement anymore like it did in the 80’s & 90’s, before there was a glut of free information and value floating around the internet. All right, that’s all I got for now. If you want to subscribe to “Email Players” after this, then hit the jump: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2021 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