The lost art of world-building in marketing

Almost 7 years ago a chick named Natasa Lekic, CEO of a New York firm that helps authors create a book and then connects you with sought-after editors in the industry, sent Yours Crotchety a business-altering (no exaggeration) email. Specifically, she said two things. 1. She’s NOT the biggest fan of my emails 2. But, she said she read some of my Zombie Cop novel (the first book in my Enoch Wars series), said it was good, and the book has a great sense of pacing and world building. She even graciously offered to connect me with an agent. (That’s not what her company does — so nothing in it for her.) Anyway, she got me thinking about something hardly any other marketers think about. And that is, the idea of World-Building. To me, it’s very natural after mindlessly spending my youth in cahoots with a couple other kids who also had no other friends or lives playing Dungeons & Dragons and other RPG’s. Building worlds, characters, adventures, narratives, story arcs, and all that jazz comes very natural due to that. And, it was just as natural to bring that to my marketing. And to my brand. And, yes, to my business as a whole. Like, for example, when I ran an insanely addictive — according to many of its members, at least — Facebook group called elBenbo’s Lair. I built a “world” full of surprises, rules, laws, languages, customs, characters, storylines, plot twists, and other such hijinx that made it so it wasn’t unusual to have someone call it “real life” with everything outside the group being ignored. Sometimes there were so many Thread-holes and discussions, debates, and arguments going on concurrently that people would post stuff on their main timeline they’d rather not the public see, thinking they were safely in my group, only to have their friends and family think they were nuts. Such was the power of building my own world. Very few people (if any) in marketing understand how to world-build like this. And, even those who do, do it on accident. More: World-building is the “beating heart” of my publishing model — that not only can possibly create legions of fans & customers, potentially make your business all-but “cancel-proof”… but also help grow a business where making sales can possibly become easy & automatic vs a constant struggle & chore endlessly trying to gameify, hack, and manipulate your way into peoples’ wallets. World-building can mean having a place people want to be and not a place you need to desperately try to keep people inside. It’s a privilege to be in your World, not a right. It’s also an adventure from their boring lives. And, yes, it can be a platform unto itself. Do it right and in essence, you can potentially become your own Platform. That is why I believe — even after your death, if you do World-building correctly — your business can never be truly cancelled, de-platformed, suppressed, manipulated, or controlled by Google or Facebook or any other big tech or government entity. And, perhaps best of all: World-building — when done right — means putting your business in a position where you are not being pushy or selling as much as you are giving customers the opportunity to buy. World-Building can give you the kind of super tight bond with your fans, customers, clients, and audience no other “marketer” diddling around on Facebook can ever hope to have. Especially as they reactively spank out their silly little offers desperately trying to stay relevant, and lucky to get even a fraction of the engagement, response, and sales you can get if you but build a world people want to inhabit, stay in, and buy within. In a word, World-Building equals what I have heard Dan Kennedy describe as: “Omnipresence.” The best way to have Omnipresence is to simply be omnipresent. And in my opinion & experience: The best way to be omnipresent is a World people want to to be in their every waking hour. Enter my new “elBenbo Press” book. I go deep into this subject. And it is a big topic that even the book can't fully explain. (I may hold a live workshop here in town on the subject in 2022 or 2023, we’ll see). More: World-Building is not something that can be copied or "swiped" from anyone else. As I've had to tell a few people - including the great Brian Kurtz’s mastermind a few months ago when I taught the topic there - I can't even show examples of it outside of observing what you've been seeing me do over the last 10+ years. It's like saying, "look at Disney, that's world building!" without any context, because there are thousands of variables - unique just to Walt in many cases - involved. Same with other great world-builders both dead & alive. It ain't something you look at and extract lessons from piecemeal. It's something you look at as a whole. Especially when you understand the main intricacies of how it works. Still more: This is not something you learn in a day, a month, or even a year. It requires days, weeks, and ultimately months & years of thinking about it, applying it, and growing it starting with one "cog" in the world and building from there. And as I told one of my Email Players subscribers who wanted advice on how to apply world-building to his particular business in the financial services market: "I can't tell you how to apply it to your situation, nobody can. elBenbo Press will give you the tools, but you have to plan, design, & build it out." In other words, there is no checklist or feedback required. Building a world transcends feedback. And most feedback should be ignored anyway. It's YOUR world, not theirs, after all. I can't speak for any of these guys, but Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, even the few direct response marketers I've observed who have done it, very likely did not seek "feedback." They almost certainly just did it, intuitively, based on a whole host of factors and preferences and goals and motivations unique to them, and them alone, plus knowledge of their markets, industries, and lists. Certainly that was the case in Disney and Jobs' cases. Bottom line: If it was "simple & easy!" everyone would do it. Which is exactly why everyone won't or can’t do it. Especially those who struggle with original, strategic, creative, and/or long-term thinking. Or those who need a checklist. Or who can't make a move without consulting their Facebook friends, life coach, or horoscope. And it certainly won't be something anyone lacking patience can do. Or for anyone who faps to a spreadsheet every day. All of which brings me to the punchline: This is another reason why “elBenbo Press” is very much a “Ben Settle 400-level” training. For better or worse, that means it is not at-all newbie-friendly. And while I’m not saying you have to have all my other books or be an Email Players subscriber to use it… I will say the longer you’ve been reading my emails, the more of my books you’ve read, and the more of “me” you are familiar with, the more suited you are for this information. It’s also my most expensive book yet, too. But, during the sale this week I am offering it at a thick $200.00 discount off the price listed on the sales page until tomorrow, Friday 11/19 at midnight EST. Here is the link: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/press]( Use code SIZZLE at the checkout. And make sure you see the price change before entering any info. Ben Settle P.S. Think I exaggerate about this World-Building thing? Email Players subscriber Sean Anthony said this about elBenbo Press after it launched last year: === Ben - just wanted to let you know that I did get my hands on the reship of elBenbo Press. I'm on my 2nd read through and just have to say... I've invested a smidge over $50k in the last year on coaching, masterminds, info products, memberships, etc outside of your products. There is no one that I get more "fuckin hell this is GOLD" moments, or that I implement more from, than your stuff. The world-building breakdown specifically in this book is mind-bending and I spent the last week mapping out how to apply into various areas of my biz. Written content in my FB groups+emails, paid products, coaching programs, YouTube vids, everything. I'm sure this 2nd read will yield even more nuggets to take away and apply. Appreciate you giving away a piece of the farm so that your horde can benefit. === Time is getting short on the sale this week. If you want it at a discount, go here: [https∶//www.EmailPlayers.com/press]( 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