How Jake Doubled His Income Through Remote Closing

All right, here we are. We've got Mr. Jake in for a community member interview. Um, for context, you guys, Jake has been in the community since, I think you said, October of 2022. It is now March of 2024, so a lot of time has passed. Um, and he's a closer. He's a closer right now. He's doing pretty good. I'll let you take it away, Jake. Jake, can you give us like a little introduction on yourself and, um, let the people know who you are.

Yeah, big time. So I'm a bit of an old head in remote sales, just crossed 30, um, had 8 years of corporate experience and during COVID was working for myself, little marketing copywriting offer of my own. And like a lot of guys in this space, quickly realized I only liked selling. I didn't like fulfilling. So I was chatting with a buddy of mine on kind of, hey, what is this like out there? What are you seeing? We knew about like Outbound Solar. We were kind of doing some stuff together. And then one day he sent me a PDF by this guy named Dylan V. And it was an A to Z, one document about remote sales. And I said, wow, this is a, this is a thing. There's no way. So had to jump into the community and see for myself. And You and I hopped on a call and it was the real deal. And I asked you, hey, should I start a Twitter account? And you're like, yep. And it's been kind of running ever since. Yeah.

Were you in, you said you were in corporate. Were you in like a sales-facing role or what kind of role were you in specifically?

Yeah. So when I first joined and kind of got into the space, I was at, I had an account manager job. at an influencer marketing agency, big sexy clients, Advil, Sensodyne, Colgate, Emergen-C, Kinder Joy chocolate, kind of a prestigious job as most guys would have it. But I was an order taker. It wasn't fun or fulfilling. I was on 7 AM status meetings, like just dreading it, surviving on caffeine. And I had gotten there because I had wanted an account manager job because I had done outbound sales, I had done inbound sales, I had done You know, walking the streets door to door, like had done and run the gamut and finally got my nice cushy office account manager job and just wasn't for me. Like, wasn't getting better. I was getting fat. Like, I literally, none of it was working out for me.

Was there a, was there kind of like a straw that broke the camel's back moment or was it like, hey, this PDF looks legit. Let me just kind of Scope it out a bit?

Yeah, it was a bit of both. Like, there was definitely a few moments where I was like, man, this is not what it cracked up to be. I'm not really liking this. Agency is tough. It's a tough environment to sell in, tough environment to retain clients in, and it's just a grind. And I had wanted and desired that location freedom, time freedom, set my own schedule, and then the earning potential, right? I was on a nice cushy salary. With really no incentives to perform. And I wanted that again, because when you're running your own stuff, like, you get paid every time you make a sale and you know that's runway for you. I missed that. And specifically, like, the earning potential. I felt capped and trapped. And I heard about guys doing, you know, $10K months. And I said, that would be a great way to earn a living, just taking calls, not fulfilling, not doing any of my own stuff, no status meetings. None of that. Um, and so kind of prompted to reach out and then I saw firsthand, like you, once you see it and you're like, oh, this is real. Okay. And then once I chatted with you, I was like, okay, I think this could actually work. Now, how do we actually get started?

Yeah. And you were former, former, uh, collegiate athlete. I find that a lot of guys, athletes or I mean, not even athletes, just, but like guys who hold themselves to high standards, they often do, or oftentimes do find themselves in that position of, okay, you know, I got the, I got the cushy corporate job and now I'm like, like kind of bored, you know? Like maybe you are putting on the weight or you're, you're hitting your ceiling or whatever it might be. But yeah. Do you think, do you think like the competitive side of you was just like ready for a new challenge or what?

Definitely. 100%. Like I, the way I can articulate it the best is that I got into a spot where my inputs don't match my outputs and my out— my like outputs were kind of outta my control. And as an athlete, like you go to practice so you can perform in games so you can earn time so you can perform and you get more time. Like that feedback loop is tight as an athlete and everything that you put in usually turns into results if you're doing it right. And I missed that for sure, cuz I was putting in time, energy, and effort and you couldn't see it on the other side. And so you just kind of just go in your shell and you're like, this is not matching up to what I want. And to your point, like that competitive spirit, I wasn't competing against anything. And I don't know about other athletes, but like that, I can't operate like that. In fact, the other way, I only thrive in competitive environments, whether it's through myself or against others. And it helps. Yeah.

Makes sense. So you, you found this mysterious A through Z PDF through some guy that you know, and then you looked into things, you're like, yeah, this looks, looks like it's worth looking into more. How did you go about getting from salaried corporate role to like fully in this space? Was it a matter of kind of like an overlap period or did you find something that seemed to be great and then you jumped all in? Like, what did that look like for you?

Yeah, a bit of both. So I was lucky, super lucky in that corporate job was East Coast hours. So I was like 7 to 2 or 2:30 usually. So for most offers, like they want time zone coverage. And so I was able to give time zone coverage from a West Coast perspective on Pacific time. So then I would take calls from like 3 to 7 closing. And that seemed to work out just fine. So that was kind of my in, was just the luck of the draw schedule.

Yeah.

And then started to see at least some results or at least a path forward. And again, luckily again, I didn't have— I already had experience running my own business, still had my LLC active, taking on consulting clients. So that part about going like W-2 to 1099 and running your own business in a box, I was familiar with that. So it was just more of like, hey, very clearly here's 20% of my time going to something I enjoy more with a higher earning potential and 80% of my time doing something I don't want to do. How can we start to flip that? And it was, it was that kind of, that simple. So it wasn't like an all-in moment, but it was, okay, let's take on a lot of commitment and then choose. And after like 2 months, I was like, oh, this is very clearly a better path for me.

Yeah, that makes— I mean, a lot of guys that come in have that same experience. I had like a very, very small overlap with mine. It was like, Oh, I landed a trial and then like second day on the trial closing, I like saw what other guys on the team were doing and I put in my notice. Now I like, I was younger and I didn't have much responsibilities. Like I had rent, I didn't have a car payment. Like I try to always keep my expenses low, but I like, you know, had money saved. I was like, I'm just gonna make this work. Sometimes it's easy for kids to get into this who are like 18. While they may not have the resume experience, they can fail like so many times over. You weren't 18 when you got into this. From what I know where you live, it's not cheap either. How did you, how did you, I guess what was the moment when you were like, all right, this 20% of my time, like I'm just gonna commit more to this. Like, did you line up a better role? Did you start having better months or like what? prompted you to like leave the corporate job?

Yeah, having good earning months was part of it. Um, I think you and I had a brief chat too on like what's the best way to go about this, and you said something along the lines that when you started, all you needed was $3K to really have proof that this was going to work for you, cover your expenses, just cover your burn rate. And so I kind of went through the same exercise on my own of like, okay, Worst case, what do I need to bring in just to cover everything and be at stasis and not totally harm my financial foundation? And that number was like $2,400, it was like $3,400 or something like that. You do the math backwards. Okay, that's this many deals, this much here, here, and there. And I realized I had a few months of runway that I felt comfortable with and then got into a good earning role. And was covering that and more. At that point, I was like, okay, this is very clearly the space for me. Because when you set your expectations super low and then you cross them, you get that confidence. Like, aha, if this is just the floor, what's the ceiling? Where can we go from here? And so once I had that covered and then I did the math, I'm like, okay, that's like one deal a week. All right. I'm confident in my skills and my experience. Like, that's going to happen. Now we just gotta cover all the external factors, good offer, stuff like that. Yeah.

How, uh, what was your experience like? Because it's no secret in this space, there's a lot of offers that you want to stay away from, right? So like, what was your experience finding and vetting your first few offers to make sure that they were going to be a good use of your time?

So They were poor experiences, but valuable and necessary. Most of it was like, can I speak competently about the product? Do I have some sort of experience? Like you and I chatted again and figured out, hey, there's clearly like a B2B background here. You could, this would work well in lead gen services, stuff like that. So that's where I started. And then from there it was just honing in on, okay, what am I interested in? What do I want to learn more about? Because a little-known secret about this space is being on a sales team is a great way to learn a new skill set that's not sales— real estate, trading, making money, you know, stuff like this. And so real estate was kind of where I wanted to go, and that was just the direction. And so then it was about getting into real estate offers. And so I had one, didn't go well. Now I'm on this one going very well and still get to learn real estate while I'm actually selling a product and a service.

Yeah. And you've, in this time, I mean, we were talking about it, you had, and you got the opportunity to like manage a team and do more than just like be a closer. Um, how valuable, how valuable was that experience and being able to put that on your resume? Like, did that, do you think that helped you get the role where you are now?

Yes, 100%. Because I realized in the managing side how valuable a good closer was from a time perspective and from a revenue perspective on like, hey, if you have a closer that's pretty competent, can close at a 30% or more clip, managing becomes easier. So it gave me perspective on that side. Also got to manage setters. So realized, hey, what does it actually take to motivate and drive a setter to continue performing? After they've got that nice base. And so it's like, how do we actually— I got to see the full picture from 30,000 feet and then going back into a closer role, it was nice because I then knew what the good qualities of a good effective manager were. I saw that in the managers that were on this offer and I just told them like, hey, I want to put my head down and earn. And I know that you'll support me in that. And so it definitely boosted my credibility because on paper it was like a step down. And I was willing to do that because I knew what my goal was, right? I didn't want to manage it. I just wanted to make it simple, put my head down and earn. I was like, fill my calendar and I'll be happy. So perspective was helpful. And I think a lot of guys like this experience this, right? You've said this too. And a lot of guys like, you're going to find your sweet spot in this space. Manager, center manager, agency owner, going back in your own offer, closer. Like you get to pick and choose and having kind of climbed that ladder and then taken a step down, huge confidence boost and perspective to be able to perform.

Yeah, I think this is a good thing to, to hit on too, is You know, there's a lot of guys that come into this space that might have a lot of sales experience, like a lot, a lot. And if you don't have the right people around you, the right connections, as you've come to learn, like so much of this, so much of like what's possible in this high-ticket closing space is dependent on the offer, right? Like what's, what's been your experience with like The value of network, knowing the right people, getting connected to the right offers versus just like, hey, I'm, I'm decent at sales. Like, let me go off and try this on my own. You know?

It is everything. First of all, like good salespeople attract good salespeople. So positioning yourself around good salespeople will get you into better offers. Knowing the right people, hiring managers, folks like you, just like accelerates your ability to get on good offers. And then also like, if you're on a bad offer and you need to get out, you feel confident. Like when, when that, when I was in that role, specifically managing, it went really bad. I had to resign on a Sunday. I was hired on a Wednesday because I knew you. I knew folks, I knew hiring managers, like. You just have more confidence and you're not worried about so much if you are on a bad offer. And then it helps you evaluate the good offers because you tend to see some of the same folks like, hey, I know you, we were on the same thing over here. So I know, you know, what a bad offer is or a bad situation. We're both here. That's a good sign. And so again, this community is so small. It's like developing a positive reputation, performing well, even not performing well, but being professional. Saves your butt a lot of times.

Yeah, man, I tell people this, um, but I, I know guys who, um, they're not the sharpest, they're not the brightest, they're not the best, but they make $20 grand a month closing because they know the right people. Like, and I also know guys who are Very good who make $5,000 a month, you know. So it really does come down to— a lot of it comes down to timing too, you know. Are you, are you there when that role is, is open, or are you going to catch it next time? Um, and that, that just comes with proximity. Like, if you surround yourself with people like the ones that are in the community, it's like when that role is open, like, you'll hear about it, you know. If you're, if you're just Imagine you're not in any, not even mine, but like you're not in any community and you're just like, you're lone wolfing it. It's like if you lose your job or you decide like, I'm outta this job cuz it sucks, what do you do when you're, when it's time to find a new one? Like, are you gonna go to Indeed and cold apply? Like you're gonna find yourself working for an insurance agency that way. So, um, no, man, it's huge. And I, I wanted to touch on this too. You posted a tweet.

Yeah.

Um, by the way, I'll, we'll, uh, direct people to you at the end of this, um, for Twitter or whatever. But, um, you posted a tweet a little bit about kind of the lifestyle of the high-ticket closer the other day. Um, what's it, what's it been like for you? Like obviously getting deeper into closing, like really finding your stride and then like not hating your life. Like what's that experience been like?

The experience has been good. Um, I think a lot of what attracts people to this space is the flashy stuff. that matters to the folks that don't matter, frankly. But as you start to progress in your sales career, you realize it's a grind, it's a game, it's competitive, it's highly volatile. And so if this is a path for you to live a lifestyle that you want, like for me, it's wearing UGG slippers and having extra time with my dog and not worrying on my Saturday mornings. Like, I'm not gonna flash Louis Vuitton, I'm gonna flash Eddie Bauer.

Yeah.

You know, that's for me and figuring out what's important with this earning potential and putting that earning towards stuff that matters to you. I don't know. I think it's, it's a gift. And I think that maybe we need to do a little bit of work resetting expectations around, hey, you could go spend your $5K commission check on whatever, you know, down payment on a $25K watch so you can flash it on IG, but like, I don't know, just figure out what matters for you, and this space can be a path to that, whatever that means for you. And also, like, don't try to get caught up in your own expectations on, I need $25K months, I need to be making $100K a month, or I'm a failure. Nah, it's not, it's not quite it, man.

Yeah, I think another good thing about the community, and it's maybe the way that I've, I've built my brand over the couple of years is like, people don't really come to me or the community to learn how to get the Lamborghini, right? Like, they're coming because they're like, hey, I saw you talk to Jake on this video and like, I want that, you know? Like, I, I want the, the no stress on Saturdays and the Ugg slippers and the Eddie Bauer vest. Um, it's like everything that we do, I mean, I, I try, I make an attempt to, even as we continue to grow, is like Just, just give like the most real insight as to what is working right now and, and the biggest levers that you can pull based on the position that you're in coming into this, whether you have some type of certain experience or restrictions with the current job or whatever. Like, it's all about expectation setting. And as long as people aren't saying, oh dude, you know, I'm gonna get in the community and in 2 months I'm gonna be down in Miami, like, I'm gonna be at 11 with the boys or whatever. Um, I mean, that, while that could happen, like if that's what you're after, like, you know, I'm not gonna go out and, and market that to people. Like I, I've never even been to Miami, dude.

So, yeah.

Um, no, it's good. And, and I'd like to add too that inside the community, um, even, even to me, so I, I'm running an agency these days, like The connections have been super valuable because I, I posted a win on my Instagram story. This guy Carson, um, I was just talking to you about it, like he joined and he was making $20 grand a month already. This guy Philip joined a few months ago, he was making $12 grand a month already. Derek joined 2 months ago, closing on an Airbnb offer, was making $20 grand a month. So like the people that are joining, they're not trying to go from 0 to 1, they're going from like 1 to 10.

Yeah.

Right. Um, and so just, you know, you can imagine, obviously there's, there's a paywall. Like, you, you put your chips in the middle of the table. Like, good things can happen if you show up, right? Just by getting surrounded by the right people. Um, let me think, man. Not to mention, you and I also met in Austin. So if you ever, um, You know, basically if you're ever in like any city, any major city, like you're gonna know somebody who's, who's in the community who you could meet up with and eat some tacos, maybe grab a beer.

Yeah, 100%. I mean, this bringing this space to life in real life is, is the game changer. I mean, I think that's, that's one of the main reasons I was able to get out of that thing that was not going so well. Was I was like, hey, let's meet up. Let's chat about what's going on and develop a relationship like old school sales. Funny enough, and it's like the more that you do bring it to life in person, the better off your results will be. And it's also the same thing about being realistic about expectations. Like this is such a gift, man. Like everyone in tech is getting laid off. Everyone is stressed about their retirement account. Like Everyone is going through stuff. Meanwhile, the remote ticket, like high ticket remote sales space is like stagnant, or at least maybe creeping up. More people are entering. Hormozi invested into school. So we're gonna see the kind of the benefits of that down the line too. And it's like, I don't know, from a guy with corporate experience talking to another guy with corporate experience who are now in this space, I can't imagine a better opportunity than to go this route. At least in the short term, like go all in for 6 months and see what happens.

Yeah. And not to mention, like a lot of salespeople are pretty entrepreneurial too. Like there's a lot of people, including yourself, who like, if you decided to, like, you could now go and start an agency. Like you can now go start coaching programs. Yeah. So you're learning, like, these are very lean businesses. Like you're learning very valuable skill sets. Um, worst case scenario, as a high-ticket closer, like, you're having more cash flow than you probably would have had otherwise while you are getting paid to learn how to run online businesses or learn real estate because you're selling for a real estate offer, or learn e-commerce because you're, you know. So it's a cool opportunity to make a lot of money helping people do something that you want to do yourself. I know a guy, he sells for a small business acquisition coaching program He's making like $1,820 a month. He's in the community, Dennis. I've had an interview with him. Um, but he's like actively going through the process to acquire a small business and he's in Turkey. He's not even in the US. Like he's, you know, there's some workarounds there, but, um, yeah. And then in your case, like you're getting to learn just like real estate strategies. Um, which is also another huge pro that I haven't really thought of much before this.

So yeah, big time. I think a lot of guys out there, I think the gurus on LinkedIn are saying like, hey, don't start your own business. Hey, person got laid off, don't start your own business. Go work for an entrepreneur. I think there's some truth in that, but it's like, hey, don't start your own offer agency. Like go sell for one, realize how much work it is that you can't even think of right now. Realize what it actually takes to drive daily value and hit numbers and make sales. And then you can talk to yourself into, hey, I can actually pull this off. Hey, I could manage a team of 2 to start off. Like, that gives you full insight into what it's like instead of like, I have a good idea for an offer, or I think I want to do this a little bit different in my mechanism. I wouldn't go full into entrepreneurship if I had to do it over again. I would go sell for a company first and be like, ah, this is what it takes to drive a sale from 0 to 1. All right. Maybe that sounds good, but honestly, stayed on the sales team. Sounds pretty good too.

Yeah. Yeah, man. You get to a point like when you're making good money, it's like, do I, I can get more, but is it worth what I give up, which is the time, the peace of mind, the increased stress? I mean, there's, there's pros and cons to that. That's like a, a whole other conversation really. But in true closer fashion, I think you and I both have a call in 2 minutes.

Um, it's gonna be a yes or no.

Yeah, so we'll, um, we'll bring it to an end here, but I do want to direct people. Um, one, anybody who's in the community, they can find you in there. Um, but where, where would you want to direct people if they want to connect with you, uh, outside of that?

Yeah, uh, DM me on Twitter, Jake Jaybee. Jake J-A-Y-B-E-E. Um, I'm super down to help wherever you're at. Corporate, starting off fresh, like DM me. I respond to every single one, at least I can. Um, and I'll point you in the right direction. I think we know enough guys to at least get you started. So JakeJB on Twitter.

I'll link it below.

Um, cool.

But no, guys, if you made it this far, I appreciate you watching. Jake and I are gonna go close some deals and, uh, we'll see you on the inside. So peace.