How to use copywriting to create cults & indoctrinate people into your wicked ways
Published: Fri, 02/19/21
elBENBO: Let’s riff more on the cult & indoctrination power of copywriting.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: It does bear certain relations to cult indoctrination.
And I was careful in my course, I didn't want teach people too much. Because knowing how people use stuff, I didn't want to be responsible for the formation of some psycho cult. But the dynamic is very, very similar. You're creating a world, you're creating an alternate reality in which you're the King.
And people, we're wired that way.
We're wired to be social, cooperative beings.
I mean, we're born that way, it's in our nervous system.
And some of us maybe are a little more Maverick, iconoclastic and all that. But at the end of the day, we're social beings and we're most comfortable when we know we're surrounded by people who we're similar to. This is so, so important. I don't know anybody else, certainly previous to the creation of my copywriting course, who explicitly created a course about how to be world-class copywriters, but also teach them how to start, grow, and maintain and profit from an info marketing business.
And the way you do that is by creating a following.
And the way you create a following is this idea of imprinting.
Not only are we social beings that like to know we're part of a tribe, we also, and this is neurological, we also have this tendency. I almost want to call it a vulnerability, but whatever. And this was first identified by a biologist named Konrad Lorenz. And he noticed that the very first thing that walks by a duckling after it comes out of the egg, that duckling will follow as if it's his or her mother, whether it's a duck or not.
That's imprinting. Okay?
The same thing happens in education.
If I'm the first person to teach you something, and you never even knew this subject existed, I'm the first person to light your brain up about it. I have imprinted you with me, and it's mine to lose. You know? And so the very role of being a teacher, or positioning yourself as a teacher, automatically puts you in the position of being able to influence and mold and hold people.
Dan Kennedy talks about the cage, the iron cage.
He's, by the way, I didn't realize how sophisticated he was about that until years later.
But everything he does is designed with that in mind.
But, so anyway, my course was about creating the information. And, how do you know what to create? And, how do you package it and how do you price it? And, how do you position it? But the thing that I also talked about was the creation... I don't know what language I used, but the creation of basically a following. But it did follow pre-existing, embedded, hardwired, neurological realities about human beings, which is that we like to follow.
We like to be part of a group.
We like to have a leader.
elBENBO: I have a real story for you, and I guess this would be a testimonial of sorts. I mean, I've picked up a lot of this from many different sources. But you know I went through your course, like 15 times. Literally.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: I know.
elBENBO: For about a little over a year back in 2016, the summer of 2016 to the summer of 2017, I don't know if I should be proud of this or not, but I ran probably the most engaged Facebook group in our entire industry. Now, that's not my words, that's the words of people in it, it was called elBenbo’s Lair.
I'm actually launching a book about it in April.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: Oh, great.
elBENBO: But the point is, is that all that stuff you're talking about, I was using to one degree or another in there, it was one big social experiment. People would tell me to this day, four years later, I hear how, "Wow, Ben, I built my whole business because of that group and the relationships I made in there. And the rules you put in there."
People told me it improved their marriages.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: Yeah, yeah.
elBENBO: I mean, it was just crazy engaged.
It was one of those things where people would post on their main Facebook timeline thinking they're in my group, and they're saying the most personal stuff they don't want their families and friends to know. And they don't realize it because there's so many posts going on. On mine, it looks like their main timeline. But my point is, is I learned the "seeds" of that from that part of your course. And that's why we use the word cult, we don't necessarily mean it negatively. It's just, that's the same effect.
You build yourself up as the teacher, the leader.
And what do people do?
They follow.
And, I mean, I had people doing the craziest stuff in there, I can't even go into it here. I couldn't believe it. Other groups would complain about me. I was picking fights and creating wars with other groups. But that's the point. I don't know if you ever studied Count Dante. The martial arts guy, Count Dante, from the 60s and 70s. It was the same the stuff he did to get like a cult-like following. And he would have dojo wars and all this stuff.
But I'm giving you credit for planting the seeds of it all in your course.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: I can't wait to read it.
Human beings are funny. We really want to latch on.
And there's another aspect to cult, which is some people will be repelled and they'll go away, and you don't really care. And we got to give all credit to Gary Halbert, because ultimately, if you study Gary's work, everything is in his work.
And he said the great thing about his book Maximum Money in Minimum Time:
"It's the great meat cleaver of humanity."
And that's kind of what we do, you're a clear beacon.
And those who are inclined to latch on, latch on.
You almost don't have anything to do with it. It's almost like you're there, you're going through your routine. You're going through your show. You're doing all the things. And some people are repelled and some people are not interested, but then there are these other people that for whatever reason they just think it's the greatest thing.
And so you should know that and take advantage of it.
Don't think you're operating a rational organization.
It took me a long time, I did a lot of seminars. And finally I realized, I always thought it was all about the content. And finally I realized, “oh my God, no.” Half of it is they just want to hang out with each other for two days once a year.
elBENBO: I don't know if you've talked to him yet or not, Troy Broussard.
But him and I, he was in my group too. And he was amazed, because we partnered on a small event in Napa, doing a training at a little winery I liked. And so the thing was, I would get the leads, and the only call to action was a phone. They had to call Troy’s phone. And he said it was the easiest sales he ever made. Not just because they wanted to hang out with me or meet me, but because they had formed relationships with each other in there, which is what happens in great community building.
And they wanted to hang out with each other.
It was standing room only and I barely promoted it.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: I love it. I love it.
elBENBO: People talk about copywriting tactics and hacks and all that, and those are great, but this stuff we’re talking about here is where the power is.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: Yep. Yep. Yep.
So the course was consciously designed to say, look, there's a thing called copywriting. And if you're going to be in this game, you better learn how to do your own copywriting. Forget this idea you're going to be able to hire somebody to do it for you, because an info marketing business has to float on a sea of ink, and nobody's got enough money.
Like Kennedy writes his own copy, case closed, right?
If he had to hire someone, first of all, he wouldn't get the quality.
He wouldn't get the targeting.
He wouldn't get the intelligence.
And who can write those kind of checks to get all that copy written? So my thing was, hey, everybody's telling you about info marketing, and maybe you've got something. Great. We had one guy that was one of the nation's greatest tango instructors, he was actually in the copywriting course.
elBENBO: Yeah, I remember that, you talked about the movie Assassination Tango.
THE GREAT KEN McCARTHY: Yeah. Yeah. So, what I wanted to tell people, is if you have something great that you want to teach and you want to build it and you want it to be international, it's going to float on copy.
So you got to learn these copywriting things.
So part of the course was to try to systematize and demystify copywriting.
I'm learning music now, I'm finding this crazy. I got traumatized by a horrible piano teacher when I was eight. And now I'm 61 and I'm actually playing the piano, it took that many years to overwrite. And what I learned, this is unbelievable. There are tools, there's building blocks for composing. They're not infinite, there's only a handful of them. And believe it or not, once you learn them, I mean, I'm not Tchaikovsky here or anything, but I could sit down and amuse myself for hours.
Right?
And it's the same thing with copywriting.
Someone said this about music, and it's true about copywriting. This is really good. It's not magic, but it should look like magic. In other words, there's tools, there's fundamentals, there's building blocks.
So it's a craft.
And I've always said this. I said:
“Look, we're plumbers, don't get a big head. We're electricians, we're wiring a building. If we're doing our job right, the building doesn't burn down. Don't think you're a genius."
So I wanted to get that attitude across about copy.
A, anybody can write, be a copywriter. If you're a writer and willing to do the writing person's life. And two, it really is technique on the copy side, and you can learn all those techniques.
# # #
That ends part 2 of my “back room chat” with Ken McCarthy.
On that note:
Ken is offering his prestigious “Advanced Copywriting For Serious Info Marketers” course at a gigantic discount for my Horde only, until Sunday, 2/21 at midnight EST. Plus, if you use my affiliate link below you get two extremely valuable (unadvertised — not listed on the sales page) bonuses you can’t get anywhere else:
1. “Crypto Marketing Secrets”
This is the entire 30-issue run of my old “Crypto Marketing Newsletter” in a book.
This print newsletter ran from early 2010 through mid 2012.
It is also not for sale anywhere else, and less than a few hundred people — give or take — on the planet even possess it at all.
NOTE: This is NOT a book about crypto currency.
But it is a *physical* book that will be shipped to you at my expense.
Retail value: $810.00 (30-issue run, each issue costed $27)
2. Access to Ken’s upcoming:
"End of the World Seminar"
This private zoom call (dates & time TBA) will reveal the multi-billion dollar copywriting lessons you can witness in “real time” from the two bit celebrity-created conman currently orchestrating the greatest fraud in world history.
A lot of what this fraud is doing is pure copywriting.
And, in a lot of ways, he’s the best “copywriter” who probably ever lived.
Ken has a lot to say about this.
And, while I have no idea exactly what he’s going to say, I know it’ll be fascinating for anyone interested in the art, craft, and science of creating business empires using the information inside Ken’s course.
Both bonuses are yours when you buy with my affiliate link by the deadline.
Here’s the link:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com/secret-course
NOTE: if you order the virtual version of it, put your shipping address where it says:
"Additional information
Order notes (optional)"
That way I can send you the Crypto Marketing Secrets book.
Ben Settle