The paradox of the Dan Kennedy fanboy

First, let me be 100% crystal clear about something... I'm a huge and extremely loyal Dan Kennedy fan. I consider him the single greatest marketing mind of our time. And his teachings have changed my business in more ways than I can possibly count, and continue to do so every year. In fact, I once did a series of podcasts about my “Mount Rushmore” of favorite marketing teachers, but he is NOT on it. And the reason he is not on it is because he has his OWN mountain all to himself in my pantheon of favorites, that towers above all else.. So yes, I am a Dan Kennedy fan. But, what I'm not, is a Dan Kennedy "fanboy." Dan Kennedy fanboys - like all fanboys - don't think for themselves. All they do is parrot & quote. In this case, they can only parrot: "Dan Kennedy says..." Like Brainy Smurf always saying, "Papa Smurf always says..." these blue flame specials just quote, quote, quote, without context. For example: A few years back, a Dan Kennedy fanboy tried busting my balls - unsolicited advice, like they all give, it didn't even cross his mind to ask questions for context and data first - about not offering a guarantee because “Dan Kennedy says…”, even though ceasing to offer a guarantee had exponentially increased my overall profits and helped create a much higher quality customer base. Another example: One particularly troubled Dan Kennedy fanboy many years ago nagged me about not using testimonials because, again, “Dan Kennedy says…” And, also again, it was unsolicited advice. But, if he'd bothered asking, he'd have known the ad he had heartburn about performed way better without testimonials and with a lot less potential fallout from the alphabet agencies. For a more recent and detailed example: Another one went into Dan Kennedy fanboy mode after I switched out the old spiral bound manual I used to give to new “Email Players” subscribers with the current “Email Players Skhēma Book” — which (admittedly, and deliberately) breaks pretty much every rule I've heard Dan Kennedy teach about information marketing, product packaging, titling, and cover design. In this one’s case, the little Dan Kennedy fanboy declared I “devalued” it. He also incorrectly assumed the new format saves me money and that’s why I changed it. (It costs more, not less, to produce) And then proceeded to complain about the font, the format, and even the title. Then, still without gathering a single fact first, he started talking about his business and experiences — which was like comparing apples to dandelions — and how he used to talk to Dan Kennedy, and was told to turn his book into a 3-ring binder full of photocopied pages, and his sales went up by millions. All of which I have no doubt happened. But what the Dan Kennedy fanboy missed is this: While the reasoning behind his product packaging was sound in his situation, it doesn’t apply to my business whatsoever. The short story long of it was: Many markets have a hard time paying for high ticket “books” that look mass market like you’d find in a bookstore (such as my book), since that makes them look like they’d be $12 books at Barnes And Noble. And people who respond to those kinds of offers tend to refund them in droves when they get them for the reasons the Dan Kennedy fanboy cited. However, I neither sell those offers, or to those markets, or offer refunds. Plus, I use email in ways hardly anyone else does (hint: they aren't buying the "product", they are buying me, which is a whole other lesson in and of itself) making the comparison to my business completely pointless and, frankly, stupid. To further illustrate why I found this part of his unsolicited critique so amusing: At the time, my "Affiliate Launch Copynomicon" & "Copy Troll" books - both with slick mass market-like covers that supposedly don't work (and, again, ironically, were designed by the great Kia Arian, who is the exact same graphic designer who Dan Kennedy often hires for his graphic design work...) - were not only both several hundred dollars, but were two of my most successful launches in the history of my business at the time. I don’t know. Maybe those customers didn't get the memo they weren't supposed to value them? Afterwards: My Brand Barbarian book kicked both of them out of the top selling slot. And, I can only imagine the candlelight vigil the little Dan Kennedy fanboy made about that cover — not only perfect bound and slicked up mass market-like cover, but oversized, and awkward to hold while reading probably, to boot. Same goes for all the books I published afterwards: Infotainment Jackpot, Breakneck Content, elBenbo Press, Social Lair, NOfluence, and the list goes on... especially my Markauteur title on sale this week at a fat discount. The point: The Dan Kennedy fanboy didn’t have an opinion, his opinion had him. All of which was only made worse with his blind appeal to authority. (i.e. “Dan Kennedy said…”) Another ironic part: As he was busy chanting “Dan Kennedy says…” while stroking the belly of his Dan Kennedy bobble-head on his desk for magical good luck powers... he completely missed the reason why the new version of my book has been so successful, with more overall positive testimonials and feedback than the old manual-style version ever got. And that is because my entire re-design was inspired by, and in strict accordance with, a Dan Kennedy teaching I’d been aggressively & rapidly implementing to have the biggest run of growth in my business’s 16-year history at that point in those past 16-months at that time. Even more ironic: One thing Dan Kennedy says (Lordy, now even I’m saying it…) is: “All marketing dogma is bad” And never to blindly believe it. Which, of course, is what these Dan Kennedy fanboys do, even as they dole out their unsolicited advice without context, or bothering to ask a single question, first, in the name of Dan Kennedy. Now, let me be clear about this again for the slower thinking reply guys: This email is NOT an indictment of Dan Kennedy. I have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for him, his teachings, his books, his products, and his impact on the industry, even pioneering many things the rest of us young’uns take for granted today. He’s a for-real “legend” in this industry. And it simply doesn’t get more high level than him. But the reason I have even been doing all these things over the years that drives these Dan Kennedy fanboys batty with cognitive dissonance and paradoxes they can't see right in front of their turned up noses is precisely because I am strictly obeying many of Dan Kennedy’s teachings. Which brings me to the point of all this: My book about the visual & design-side of marketing — “Markauteur.” Everything about it will almost certainly disturb the Dan Kennedy fanboys. The fact it is not a cheaply made spiral bound manual or binder stuffed with pages. The fact it is designed like a mass-marketed book that looks like it belongs in a bookstore for $11.00 instead of the $1108.00 it normally costs (on sale for less during this weekend’s sale). And the fact it doesn’t blindly preach “everything has to be low brow!” any more than saying everything has to be slicked-up, pretty, and perfect. Yet more irony: The cover of the book… the interiors of the book… and the vast majority of the examples in the book… were all done by, yes, the same designer Dan Kennedy has hired on many-an-occasion —Email Players subscriber Kia Arian. It seems to me if I was somehow profaning the great professor of harsh reality himself she’d have refused to do any of my projects, much less work on this one… including writing the forward for it (her idea, she offered after reading it, I did not even ask) and letting me interview her for almost two hours on the subject of direct response design, of which the transcript is included in the book. All right enough of this. To get in on the sales pricing this weekend, here is what to do: 1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase 2. Buy it before Sunday 11/19 at midnight EST 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: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/design]( Ben Settle This email was sent by Ben Settle as owner of Settle, LLC. Copyright © 2023 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