“Ben this guy sounds like an asshole”

Here’s a story about copywriting straight outta 2004: One of my early copywriting wins was when Michael Senoff had secured the rights to a course created by an old, crusty, crotchety (and extremely likable, in my opinion, I had the utmost respect for him) guy named Art Hamel. Art sold the course back in the 1980s on infomercials showing people how to buy million dollar businesses without needing loans or any of their own money. He was in his 80’s at the time I wrote the ad while I was merely 29. i.e., we had zero in common as far as that goes. So I spent probably a 100 hours — no exaggeration — or more imbibing this guy’s personality via listening to interviews he did with Michael, studying the transcripts of those interviews, and going through Art’s materials until I started to not just talk and behave like the guy (I think I still do… one could even argue my Enoch Wars vampire character Fezziwig has a lil’ Art Hamel in him…) but talk like him, make decisions like him, and approach business as a whole like him. I’ve been talking a lot about infotainment lately. And, specifically, how I learn a lot of it from studying entertainers and performers. Well, in this case, my transforming into mini-Art Hamel during that time was not unlike how an actor starts to take on the traits — good or bad — of the character he plays. Take, for example, Leonard Nimoy, who admitted 5 days per week he played Spock and “was” Spock, and on Saturdays at home he was still thinking like, talking like, behaving like Spock and well into Sunday… and it wasn’t until Sunday night when he was Nimoy again, only to go back to being Spock on Monday. That’s how it was when I was studying, analyzing, imbibing Art Hamel. Anyway, so here’s what happened: I wrote what turned out to be a very long (I think it was 36 pages or something) sales letter. I don’t remember the exact length of that first draft. But it was long. And at the time I was in contact with and back-and-forthing with Craig Garber who graciously offered to read it for me, give his feedback, tell me his thoughts. So he reads it and we get on the phone. And one thing I definitely do remember was his first words: “Ben this guy sounds like an asshole.” I mean, he wasn’t wrong. I was so “in character” that everything came out — good and bad. At the time, I think Craig was absolutely right though, that I had to tone him down, add at least little sugar to balance the saltiness and I did. Later, we realized the sales letter probably would be better coming “from” Michael instead I believe, and so a lot of Art was removed. All for the best probably, but we will never know. What I do know is, the sales letter was extremely successful to the point where the royalties I got from it paid off all my credit card bills and my car at the time which was a huge deal for me in those days of financial woe when I was still figuring things out. Anyway, an amusing anecdote from 20-years ago. But I got to thinking about that recently. And in hindsight, if it was today? I’d have left the sales letter more or less exactly as-was. We live in a time that is absolutely craves the kind of bare bones, leave nothing on the table, real talk vs the polished, toned down, politically correct kind of language required 20+ years ago before social media, TikTok brain... and where everyone is famous but nobody’s got talent and now everyone expects a colorful personality. Even if it’s a totally made up personality that will fizzle away as quickly as it rose to fame. I also realized that early version tapped into something else. Something professional entertainers do. It’s not something you see on the surface or in the personality though. It’s “underneath” all of that. At the time I did not do it consciously. But I do remember I was looking at Denny Hatch’s “Method Marketing” book at the time. And I was likely very heavily influenced to some degree by the idea of injecting not just claims, not just benefits, and not just personality (I did not even know what “infotainment” was, that came four years later)… but a performance into that ad. None of this was deliberate, btw. I was far from being any kind of copywriting expert or wizard. Especially back then. But when prepping the July Email Players issue I looked at that ad as well as another sales letter I wrote in the work at home niche a few years later, along with some of my other emails and work and realized some of the best ads were utilizing something I heard Val Kilmer of all people talk about to make his performances memorable and better. Yes, you can learn a lot about copywriting from professional performers. Especially the Method Acting boys & ghouls. Copywriting is, at the end of the day, a performance. And the two overlap in many, many ways. Including the way I talk about in the July Email Players issue which, I believe, is a new way of approaching infotainment that I certainly have never written about before or seen anyone else talk about — except from the mouths of actual entertainers and performers. The deadline to subscribe in time for this issue is in two short days. If you want to get your meathooks on it, go here: []( 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