The first online product launch I was a part of did $8 million in a single day. At that point I had only been with the company for a little under two months… I had no idea you could make that much money all by sending a few emails to folks. It didn’t make any sense to me.

Before my introduction into the direct response marketing world I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was taking Computer Science classes online, working a job I didn’t care about, and making just enough to pay rent and buy a 24-pack of Ramen every couple weeks for meals.

The only reason I picked Computer Science is because I liked to play video games and I liked to create things. Working with computers allowed me to be creative anywhere I had a computer and electricity.

Desperate for a change of pace I quit my job and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. I put in applications for a dozen “techy” positions without doing any research. I accepted the very first job I was offered.

The title of the role was HTML & CSS Production Specialist which is fancy speak for “guy who sends the emails.”

The company that hired me was Agora—a massive, billion dollar direct response publishing company…

And my job was simple. I was a “button presser.”

Others dreamt up the ideas, crafted the promotions, produced the content, and wrote the messaging. My job was to copy and paste that messaging into a templated HTML document that was mailed to many thousands of inboxes.

After that first launch I became obsessed with learning how it worked. How could a few emails amount to $8 million in sales?

I began trying to figure out why certain things were successful, why some things weren’t, and how to improve the strategies used by Agora for over 40 years.

Within the first six months, I joined the marketing team. Within the first year and a half, I led the marketing team. Within two years, I was the Director of Monetization. In just three years, the division catapulted from $0 in gross revenue to over $250 million.

Today I work with brands and personalities to create, produce, and launch brand-new businesses using the strategies and lessons I learned over the years.

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If you’re interested in talking with me, check out my contact information on this page. I’m always looking to help people and find new opportunities.

— Jake