How to Tell Secrets

Imagine that someone offered you these secrets:

1. A secret way of marketing (used by everyone from William Randolph Hearst and Steve Jobs to Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump…) that can potentially make people feel stupid for even considering buying from your competition.
2. A popular standup comedian’s secret I routinely used late at night in my old Facebook group to generate hundreds of rabidly engaged member comments by morning.
3. The God Emperor’s secret trick for sucking up all the attention, engagement, & money you want out of your market.
4. A talentless A-list actor’s secret for having an influential brand that works like gangbusters even if you don’t deserve it!
5. The secret to how Trump (pre-presidency and now during his presidency) gets the media to hand him millions in free exposure & engagement whenever he wanted it.

Do you want to know the secrets? You can know them all, courtesy of notorious copywriter Ben Settle. For a $100/month.

I’m not gonna lie, I want to know these secrets even though… I already know them. I want to know because Ben is a real copywriter. Which is because he publishes not every day, but multiple times every day – and has done so for years.

Even his email subjects hint at secrets.

But here’s the thing:

If you think people are paying for your secrets, you’re crazy
–Seth Godin

That is to say, the secrets Ben reveals aren’t really secrets. Sure, not everyone knows them or thinks about them. But he wasn’t the first to identify them.

They’re all discussed in academic detail in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. And 2000+ years before that book was published, they were discussed in detail in ancient Greece or Rome. 

That’s why people aren’t paying for your so-called secrets. That’s also why you should give away everything you know – if you do so artfully. Because they’re paying you for how you tell the old secrets. For how you apply old ideas to new problems. 

My best,
Rowan