Ben Settle

“Based on Ben Settle’s tweets, which American president (NOT Donald Trump) does he sound like?”

So Stefania asked Grok.

To which, hallucinated quote about Halloween pulled from its own platform aside (guess I’ll have to give so-called AI another two years…), it answered with a surprisingly valuable email copywriting/marketing lesson.

(Grok’s wall-of-text answer edited for easier reading)

…Ben Settle is a direct-response copywriter and marketer known for his provocative, no-nonsense, and often polarizing email marketing advice.

His X posts tend to reflect this persona: blunt, opinionated, and unapologetic, with a mix of humor, self-promotion, and disdain for conventional thinking.

He often critiques modern culture, political correctness, and business norms, while emphasizing personal responsibility and contrarianism.

His style is informal yet commanding, and he’s not afraid to ruffle feathers to make a point.

Looking at American presidents (excluding Trump), one who stands out for a similar rhetorical flair is Andrew Jackson, the 7th president (1829–1837).

Jackson was a populist figure, known for his fiery, direct communication and disdain for elites.

He didn’t have social media, but his public speeches and writings—like his veto messages or his farewell address—were bold, confrontational, and aimed at connecting with the “common man” while attacking entrenched power structures (e.g., the Bank of the United States).

Jackson’s tone was often unpolished, aggressive, and polarizing, much like Settle’s tweets.

He positioned himself as an outsider, a trait Settle embraces by rejecting mainstream marketing dogma.

For example, Jackson’s 1832 Bank Veto Message called out “artificial distinctions” and “exclusive privileges” in a way that feels akin to Settle’s rants against “woke” culture or corporate fluff.

Both share a knack for plain-spoken, divisive rhetoric that rallies supporters and infuriates detractors. Jackson’s era lacked X’s brevity, but his style translates to short, punchy statements—like Settle’s tweet on March 25, 2025:

“Most people’s advice is just their insecurities wearing a cheap Halloween mask of wisdom.”

It’s folksy yet biting, a Jackson-esque vibe.

Other presidents, like Teddy Roosevelt, might come to mind for their boldness, but Roosevelt’s style was more polished and moralistic, less raw than Settle’s. Lincoln was too measured and philosophical, FDR too diplomatic in public. Nixon had paranoia but lacked the swagger. Settle’s unfiltered edge aligns most with Jackson’s frontier-spirit bravado.

So, based on [Ben Settle’s] tweets, he sounds most like Andrew Jackson.

I never wrote that Halloween line, just typical AI hallucinating.

Amusing how Grok can’t even accurately pull quotes from its own platform.

But as for the rest, l will take that as compliment.

Andrew Jackson has long been my #1 favorite President, for a whole host of reasons.

And there are many copywriting lessons embedded in this email, nestled between the lines for those with ears to taste and eyes to smell. The best lessons about nearly anything are very often taught that way.

Including stuff I write in the paid Email Players newsletter.

More about that here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a marketing story from my MLM days in 1998.

This was when the internet was still but a wee infant tugging on the teat of various tech companies. And while the company I shilled for sold various genuinely high-quality health products, they told us to only sell the opportunity-side, with little emphasis on the legitimate retail side.

The result?

For me the result was running to & fro, constantly pressuring family & friends about something they had zero interest in… and where the more I talked about it, the more they backed away physically, emotionally, and socially.

And who could blame them?

I made quite the arse of myself, to say the least.

And I would not be surprised one bit if many of those very same people would shun me as figurative leper to this day if I still lived in the quaint Midwest town I grew up in, as literal pariah and Persona non-grata.

Anyway, I got to thinking about how I’d do it different knowing what I do now.

And instead of chasing, hounding, pressuring, and begging people to buy a solution looking for a problem… I’d do the exact opposite.

For example:

I’d find a specific health problem I was passionate about solving, that I had genuine empathy for those suffering from, that one of the products in the company could help with.

Take low energy levels, for example.

I talked to my mom about this last time she visited.

And I was a very low energy teenager and, later, adult. I used to wonder how people had so much energy most of my life, while I slogged, yawned, and struggled to move and get work done at the various retail store, factory, and warehouse jobs I held down.

Not to mention when I was in high school sports, etc.

She wishes I’d said something back then, but I thought it was normal.

Back then (80’s & 90’s) they didn’t check young peoples’ thyroids which is a family curse, it turns out.

And so I had no idea, I just knew I was always tired.

But let’s say there was a product at the MLM I was that helped with this.

And let’s further say it legitimately worked.

Instead of sounding like an idiot talking to everyone within 3-feet asking if they keep their options open for ways to make money (literally what the trainers told us to do) and leading with the business opportunity while mindlessly citing benefits, statistics, testimonials, etc… what if I’d taken an Experience & Service-approach like I do with everything in my businesses today?

In this case:

Talking to people I saw and knew also had low energy?

Not “pitching” them.

Not trying to sell them or mentioning any products.

Just talking to them, in their Worlds, about THEM.

i.e., about their fears, worries, frustrations, insecurities.

Letting them vent, just listening, and having a discussion.

Then sharing the product, that I’d have been using myself of course, to help with that problem. And whether they bought or wanted it or not… becoming a resource about that problem, and inviting them to join an email list. And in that list, writing daily emails about low energy problems, low energy solutions, and, of course, plugging products about low energy.

And doing it all at their own pace, in their Worlds, about their misery.

And then:

ONLY when I got people letting me know the product had been working, and they were emotionally invested in it, and excited about it (and having better energy levels is extremely exciting if you have ever suffered low energy levels)… would I tell them about the business opportunity side.

And then:

What if I started creating a private email list and community just for them?

And if I was really gung-ho?

What if I also had local mixers, events, & networking meetings – including paid training, destination events, country club-style masterminds with other wealth, health, marketing, and selling-related training and experts invited… to make them better at building their own mini empires via the opportunity side?

Even becoming lifelong customers who go where I go.

And if the MLM itself was to dissolve, as many do?

Wouldn’t matter – I’d have a list of leads, buyers, associates, etc.

From there, I could create or find new, even better offers and Experiences for them unrestrained by the idiotic rules a lot of MLM companies impose upon people about marketing, advertising, and promotion outside of their limp, flaccid, corporate websites.

I think you can see where this is going.

And do you think the chances of someone getting in to that MLM, under those circumstances, AFTER going through that exact kind of Experience would make a difference not only in how many people I sponsored, but who came in correct, eager to sell the retail side, and then recruit from their own happy customers… would make a difference in ALL our successes?

You bet that sweet & sour gluteus assimus of yours it would.

But not just their buying Experience, though.

But also my own Experience selling in MLM vs all the depressed-off-their-asses sad sacks (I was one of those) MLM distributors getting shunned by friends, family, peers, and co-workers?

Do you think it’t have led to strong, lifetime relationships – business and personal?

Do you think it would have led to a much bigger email-driven business, about a topic that’d be as much fun for me to write about and sell as others to buy from due to that all-powerful and impossible-to-forget Experience?

All right, ’nuff said on that.

Here’s the point I want to make:

Business, marketing, copywriting is ultimately ALL about the Experience.

And I used the MLM story as example to show how this can make even something people normally back away from hearing about to want to eagerly chase you instead, if done right – by focusing not so much on force (persuasion, copywriting, sales tactics, whatever), but the LEVERAGE of buying Experience.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t be good at force, too.

Obviously I use and teach force (email, sales copy, marketing, persuasion, etc).

But this Leverage-side of things is where the real money is.

Where the real business growth is.

And, I argue, where all the real fun, peace of mind, and long term success is.

More about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

An Email Players subscriber trapped inside the Socialist Republic of Illinois asked:

Hey Ben,

I know you’re from Illinois. So am I. Still live here, just more in the country of La Salle County. 

And I know you moved to Oregon, but deal with psychotic socialists there, too. 

For years, I’ve looked at places to move to. Missouri is at the top of the list. 

But because my family and my wife’s family all live here, we can’t seem to flee from the free childcare from people we know and trust (plus the happy memories our kids and their grandparents are making), among other reasons, despite the evil leftist policies ruining our home. 

What is your philosophy or advice for thriving as an outsider in a place you call home that’s run amok with government policies and leftist cultures you despise?

In my case it was easy:

I found a corner of the state where I’m more likely to see a Bigfoot than a drag queen.

Still, I don’t think there is any true “escape” from what’s happening to the US. I don’t care if you’re in a blue, purple, red, or fudge ripple state, either.

But, I do think one can try to stay out of the way.

The farther you can be from the consequences of leftist voting patterns, the better.

But really, even the so-called “pro freedom” guys are useless.

For instance, there’s a so-called “tax strike” in my own state this month.

And one of the people putting it together tweeted:

“Some candidates will not be attending due to leftist intimidation tactics. They were warned they would be doxxed, and because their campaigns and families matter, they made the decision to step back. That choice is respected.”

Ffs.

If they’re truly “pro-freedom” then running for public office is this day & age and ain’t being harassed, doxxed, smeared, slandered, your every word twisted & distorted, or threatened by rubbery and cowardly masked Antifa youths out past their bedtimes they ain’t doing their job.

These guys are timid little rabbits, when they should be more like porcupines.

i.e., guy coming at their families shouldn’t be cowered to, they should be target practice.

This war and they should embrace the conflict, not avoid it.

Doing so can be worth potentially millions in free media handed to them.

It can also make for meme-able content and something to rail against, etc.

Not to mention these “intimidating” leftists are daily excuses to talk to the would-be voters about the very problems these conservative politicians in my state always worried about making sure they are “above” toxic rhetoric (we could use MORE toxicity from the pro freedom guys, not less…) are supposedly out there trying to fix, even as they hide behind their families.

“Conservatives.”

In my state they couldn’t even “conserve” the ladies restroom or the ballot box from mail-in voting.

Such is how it goes in my state, and why I live on the last stop of the supply chain.

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Ben Settle

I recently heard through the grapevine that there’s a gaggle of young people in the marketing world who like to say I’m “old fashioned” and “out of touch” and “NGMI” and other such things,

And really, I don’t think it’s fair.

I mean, those labels don’t even BEGIN to describe me.

In fact, following are some old timey day truisms I put far more stock into than any tactic, technique, or corporate CEO fan fiction-pushed technology. Many were coined/practiced/implemented by extremely successful men during some particularly brutally hard times.

i.e., famines, pestilences, depressions, & persecution – social, religious, or political.

Enjoy…

* You calm an angry woman down by asking if she’s hungry, you make a boring woman fun by asking if she’s thirsty

* It’s easy to be a socialist with a roof over your head (and, I’d add, a $900 iPhone in your hand)

* The bigger the church hat, the more skeletons

* Bleeding hearts create bleeding bodies

* God doesn’t send out beggars

* Just because I’m a ____ doesn’t mean I’m not right

* You won’t worry where you’re next can of beans is coming from if you always have a can opener

* Don’t hire a cowboy with bloody spurs

* The deep stuff is at the shallow end of the pool

* No persecution, no urgency

* Isn’t there something better you could be doing?

* It’s when your eyes are tired that your scalp’s in the most danger

* Fortune curses the procrastinator

* The touch of a master is like the weight of a mountain

* A lock easily opened by a lot of keys ain’t a valuable lock

* If fish ain’t bitin’ throw ‘em a little chum

* And, finally, my one contribution to this list:

“You can’t kill a werewolf with a bitcoin”

Enough stone soup for the soul.

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Ben Settle

A recent comment about the power of using Vision for persuasion & influence:

“You know you’ve changed my mind about abortion with that description. (I’ve read it before in emails of yours.) I didn’t know it’s such a gruesome procedure. Now I’m more paranoid about not getting someone unintentionally pregnant. Thank you.”

The context:

He was referring to my latest Oregon Eagle newspaper article about using Vision to persuade & influence, and that I also sent as an email to this very list earlier this month.

There are few things more effective in the realm of influence & persuasion than Vision.

Listing and enlarging and dramatizing claims, benefits, logic, and sales “arguments” are not bad. But they mostly only create objections. Even doing great objection-handling ultimately often just creates more objections that have to then be dealt with in a lot of cases.

Not so Vision.

Vision argues nothing and it debates nothing.

And if you do it right, even if you don’t change a mind right away, you’ve planted a seed that often grows over time, with leads, customers, clients coming back later to buy what you’re selling.

Vision also gives people new ways of thinking about things.

To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes:

“A mind stretched by a new idea never goes back to its original shape”

This is why studying the late, great Jim Camp is almost like cheating in copywriting nowadays. He used Vision probably better than anyone. And he did it while never once using a Powerpoint in his decades-long career.

Because it’s not about YOUR Vision.

It’s about the adversary’s (i.e., your lead, customer, client) Vision.

Jim would say Powerpoints are designed to give Vision, but really just create intellectual information and objections. And he proved it by routinely winning and closing multiple simultaneous billion dollar negotiations using just his words and creating Vision.

The best part of it all though:

It is amusing to know people will just seethe silently about whatever you are writing about, since they can’t really argue with you, but would like to, but can’t, because they aren’t arguing with facts, stats, appeals to experts, logic… they’re just arguing with Vision, which can’t be argued with.

Vision can drive some people bananas due to this.

I’ve seen it and experienced it many times when using Vision about topics like, for example, abortion, or mocking people displaying their pronouns, or those who fell for the covid big pharma exec fan fiction shtick.

But Vision can also change even the most stubborn minds.

Including, as you can see, those still stubbornly worshipping at the altar of Molech in 2026..

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Ben Settle

It always has been despite the email agencies that are really just glorified graphic design agencies want you to believe.

But I argue the lowly plain text email is going to become even more powerful.

To illustrate why, recently I saw an AI-generated video of younger people partying and being interviewed. At a glance it looked real. But when you stared at it long enough, you could see all kinds of spurious things going on from overly shiny skin, to timing being off between expressions and words, and that sort of thing.

Of course, the AI geek chorus will now chant in unison:

“AI is the worst it’s ever going to be!”

Maybe.

Then again, they said that about movie special effects too, which look like shyte compared to movies 20 years ago in some case.

Either way, what is definitely true is as this technology becomes more used and adopted, you will only have people more likely to be second guessing if what they’re seeing/hearing is real or fake.

Something that is already happening.

In fact, now people prompting generative AI are talking about purposely misspelling things, etc to make it look more “human.”

And just as the tech is the worst it’s supposedly ever going to be, humans are as naive and trusting about this phenomenon as they’re ever going to be.

i.e., As the tech gets better, so will the scrutiny, second guessing, accusing.

Especially in already jaded and skeptical markets/niches.

So that’s my prediction.

We’ll see how it plays out.

But until I see otherwise, I am standing by this prediction too:

In a world of AI videos constantly second guessed by jaded leads the plain text email is king.

On that note, you can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

I first read the following in an online forum full of screenwriters.

And there was a discussion about what to do when writing gets too convoluted, loses its way, you’re not sure where you’re going or if what you just wrote makes sense or if you are spending an inordinate amount of time writing, fixing your writing, editing, and obsessing over some writing that is stuck, not doing what you want, sucking up your patience & time.

This can be for any kind of writing:

From screenplays, to fiction, to non-fiction, emails, sales copy, VSL scripts, etc.

And this simple tip I am about to show you has been immensely helpful to me over the years, and has radically improved my work quality. It has also radically saved me time, even though it seems like it might take more time on the surface.

Anyway, here goes:

“When stuck, throw it all out.”

Yes, literally take your entire document, trash it, start over.

I don’t care if it’s an email, a 20-page sales letter, or even a 300-page novel.

Just sac up and delete the whole dayem thing.

If you’re too paranoid and/or too much of a cowardly mush cookie to do that, then put a copy somewhere on the cloud, but don’t even look at it after that. Instead, just start writing whatever it was totally from scratch. The reason this works and even saves you time is because what you remember (and what worked) about what you first wrote probably does belong, while what you forgot is almost certainly irrelevant and can safely be cut, forgotten, and left out anyway.

Too simple for you?

Well, I don’t know what tell you then, Hoss.

Other than, this may be one of the single most powerful tips for dealing with burnout, writers block, or feeling “stuck” that has ever been invented – especially by writers who sometimes have just 48 hours or less to churn out a completed script just to get paid and feed themselves.

Screenwriters have all kinds of valuable advice like this.

It’s one reason I like to study them, and recommend other email and other marketing-related writers do as well.

You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

Let me tell you a true story.

Way back in 2002, a month before I finally hung out my shingle as a freelance copywriter, I was still shilling slinging MLM. And I was renting mailing lists and using direct mail to send leads to a video that’d sell them on the deal I was in. And to get better at it, I had just started listening to some free weekly teleseminars put on by a brilliant marketer named Art Jonak.

One of the teleseminars was about pricing.

And, specifically, why nobody really buys on price.

Instead, they buy on:

1. Comfort

2. Quality

3. Convenience

To prove this, he asked the listeners to go to the poorest part of town on a Sunday morning and look at peoples’ garbage cans and dumpsters and notice what they see. Chances are, you’d see a lot of pizza boxes, from the lowest income people in town.

Well guess what?

Ordering a pizza is the MOST expensive way to buy it.

The least expensive way would be to spend a few dollars, but invest lots of time to grow your own ingredients and make the pizzas yourself. It’d probably cost 1/10th or less of the price as one pays by ordering a pizza – especially if delivered, adding a tip, etc.

Another example Art gave:

Look at the cars driving up and down the street.

All the cars are different.

Some are expensive, some are cheap.

But if everyone bought on price, they’d all be the same cars – and likely beaters that cost $100, that barely run, but still get them from point A to point B, with any repairs costing way less than getting a car note, paying interest, or getting something of quality that won’t need repairs or break down for years.

He also said to look in the apartments and houses.

Do they sit on lawn chairs or the floor (cheap, or free)?

Or did they buy couches, chairs, etc?

Anyway, you get the picture.

There will always be some people who have to buy 100% based on price.

Can’t help that – most everyone experiences being legitimately broke at some point. But for the most part, nobody really buys on price and price alone. And that was Art’s point: They first and foremost buy on  (1) comfort, (2) quality, and (3) convenience.

But I would also add a 4th reason:

STATUS.

People will spend money they don’t have, go into lots of debt, and even resort to risking their very freedom and dignity to get something that his high Status.

So this is why I don’t listen to liars who tell you the only buy on price.

They can take that shyt to Reddit or wherever they hang out.

That said, not all price shoppers are liars. There are a ‘good’ kind. And they are the ones who buy something BECAUSE a price is high. These boys & ghouls are great. Not only are they easier to deal with, but they are far more likely to consume, apply, and benefit from what they bought.

They also value time over money.

In many cases, they use price as a curation tool to save time, if nothing else.

They also are the kind of customers I target for my own offers, including the paid Email Players newsletter, which simply is not intended for, nor does it appeal to, cheapskates.

You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle

A while back, I wrote a bit in my free Settleheads Facebook group, about a documentary I have watched many times, and have extracted much marketing & selling wisdom from.

The documentary was about the late Rich Piana, a fitness “influencer” who died young from steroid abuse.

He literally looked like a human He-Man action figure.

And the guy had some savvy and clever ways to market himself that are well worth studying.

Anyway, most people in the group who piped up found it interesting, and a few even checked it out. But, not everyone was happy with your humble daily email horror host. One of my AI-cheerleader, and now former, customers got righteously indignant.

He said:

“Love you ben but sorry, but there is not a goddam thing worth positive about this sad story. bodybuilding is joke today. . .this is beyond steroids, this is like multiple drugs and then oil injections on top of that. this guy should rest in hell. should not be glorified. you are the best in the world at what you do – stay in your lane – you dont know about PEDs”

Ooh.

It’s hard to imagine even one single person on the planet who will watch, or has watched, that documentary walking away thinking they now need to start abusing PEDs or anything else. It’d be the equivalent of watching a scene with the meth chick Wendy in Breaking Bad and her nasty teeth, and thinking it’d be cool to do drugs.

Such is the state of mind of the typical reply guy though.

Typing just to hear themselves write.

And so, to turn others like him away, I followed up with this post:

After yesterday’s Rich Piana documentary post that turned into an unexpectedly useful customer Curation device (i.e., I will be doing more such posts going forward).. below are more people you can study, and extract many legitimate & ethical principles they used for success, without endorsing them or going “darkside” yourself:

* Serial killer Ted Bundy

* Hugh Hefner

* John Brinkley (the doctor who conned men to let him sew goat testicles on them to beef up their libidos – Dan Kennedy has a whole course and also a book about this guy)

* Saul Alinsky

* Lenin

* Stalin

* Hitler

* Andrew Tate

* Any of the cultural marxists who seized control of the West for the past 50 years, right under everyone’s noses, including not only liberals who love that shyt and vote for it in droves, but also “conservatives” who prop up their ideas to this day

* FDR and Abraham Lincoln – neither of who I like, respect, or think as anything but tyrants & fiends

Dan Kennedy once said something about this that applies:

“What works to sell the incredible, works even better to sell the credible.” 

i.e., why one should study old National Enquirer ads, etc. Not to mimic the bogus offers, but to extract the legitimate principles & tactics of persuasion to sell legitimate offers that genuinely serve your customers or clients.

Same with the Rich Piana documentary and list of fiends above.

And so it goes.

You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:

www.BenSettle.com/alt

Ben Settle