In my second email season I’m going to explore individual and group behavior and how it can be used to create cumulative advantage in the winner take all market of publishing.

This will take a bit darker turn because your teachers are going to be some of the most notorious con men, grifters, and cult leaders that have ever fleeced a mark or fooled their fold.

We all think we’re immune and too smart, but I’ll show you that we're powerless against the siren's call.

This cast of characters has had people willingly give them millions by using our most base instincts, fears and desires to get what they want.

I’ve compiled the research and will share with you how to use individual and group psychology to drive behavior that will influence the publishing market.

You may be familiar with this quote.

"You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich you start a religion."

It’s attributed to L. Ron Hubbard.

There is also this quote from him printed in the Los Angeles Times in August of 1978.

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be start his own religion."

What does this have to do with selling books or being a content creator?

Organizing in groups serves a vital human function.

What I’ve learned is the one common factor of successful authors is their ability to build a community of readers. The most successful create pop culture cults.

While I’m not telling you to go start a fake religion, what I’ll teach you is to help you build a brand cult.

In the pandemic we saw the best and worse of what happens when our social structures are put under stress.

Much of the behavior you may have been shocked to see.

You may have said, “those people are stupid or crazy.”

That absurd behavior that shocked you was the behavior of people triggered by cult-induced beliefs.

Before you get high and mighty and begin nodding your head about “those people,” I never identified who "those people" were. You subconsciously filled in the blank with a group and assumed I agree with you that the "others" are the crazy ones.

You just fell for a strategy called the granfaloon.

In season two you’ll learn what that means and the author that created it.

We will explore cults and what makes them turn normal smart people into fanatical followers.

But the next season is called Game of Cults, so where’s the game component?

I’ll show you how to use gamification as a powerful method of self-indoctrination.

Gone are the days of you needing to get people into the tent to indoctrinate them.

Through gamification, we can use meaning, accomplishment, ownership, and social influence to get minions to make the Kool-Aid and drink it all on their own.

Gamification, coupled with the internet, has become a powerful recruiting tool.

I’ll show you how gamification systems can get people to self-indoctrinate faster than some of the most coercive cult tactics.

Don’t think this is true?

Maybe you know someone that has been indoctrinated into the cult of social media?

You can tell because they believe that social media platforms are the salvation for their business.

They act as instructed by the leaders of the cult to behave in ways that are detrimental to their own well being.

They were likely self-indoctrinated through a gamification process where they were awarded intangible awards like followers or likes to continue favorable behaviors such as creating content for free.

Did that sting a little…

If you think you’ve been indoctrinated, this series will deprogram you, as well as teach you how to use these strategies to build your own cult.

Now, before you think that this is all nefarious and dirty tricks, understand that we all belong to cults.

Here are a few that you may participate in or know someone who does;

• Crossfit
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• The rites and community associated with a faith practice
• A political party
• Fandom like Game of Thrones

Are you a Lannister or a Stark? If a Stark, is it Tony or Sansa?

Griffendor or Huffelpuff?

We need to have our tribe to fulfill our human givens. If there wasn’t a strong benefit to our lizard brain, it wouldn’t happen so easily.

Sound interesting?

How season two will work:

Given the work that goes into my email season, I've created a premier subscription.

If you want access to Game of Cults, there’s a cost...

$48

That's it!

Only a $4  a month, or $1 an email for outlining gamification and cult indoctrination strategies for content creators.

But wait there's more...

It’s more than just a newsletter…

• You’ll get the emails a month before I release the season for free.
• You’ll get 45 emails, one a week.
• A total of over 40,000 words of research backed story-based learning for creators looking to zig when the herd zags.
• I’ll have a members-only access area where you’ll find past emails and comment on them with other paid members. This way you can get those emails you missed and see what others are saying.
• At the end of the series, I’ll send all the emails to the editor for a clean up, formatting and publish it as an ebook for you. This single document will act as your guidebook to building your brand cult.
• You'll be grandfathered in for the annual subscription price of $12 per year for future seasons.