About Jack

I grew up in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. It was an awesome place to be a kid. I wanted to be a rock & roll star, so I went to Baylor University. (No, that didn’t make any sense.)

I graduated with a degree in Music Composition. Yes – in answer to your unspoken question – I actually learned how to write a string quartet. Corporate recruiters however, were not impressed. So, I got busy learning more “commercially marketable” skills.

Thus began an eclectic career that included stints as a telephone technician, house painter, computer salesman, chauffeur, software developer, project manager, futures trader, systems analyst, webmaster, business process consultant, school teacher, rock-n-roll keyboardist, published author and stage actor.

• I was the 11th employee at Dell Computer, but left too soon to get rich.
• I taught myself to program, started and built a software company and eventually sold it to a competitor.
• Later, I ran software implementations for some of the biggest retailers in the US and Europe. My road-warrior lifestyle cost me my health, so I quit that job because being alive mattered to me.
• I taught myself to day trade stocks and commodities. (You may notice that “I taught myself…” plays a prominent role in my biography.)
• When I discovered that new traders needed a lot of help, I wrote and published the definitive guide for beginning traders.
• When the stock market crashed in 2008, it scared me. I made money on the way down, but still…
• The flash crash of 2010 convinced me that there had to be better way to make a living.

So, I turned my back on day trading and returned to my first love: writing. Writing led to copywriting. Copywriting led to marketing. Marketing led to Cult Your Brand.

You’d like me if you knew me

Yeah, I’m a tall, bald, white guy. That’s obvious. Six feet, four inches to be exact.

What isn’t obvious?

I am a damn good piano player, and I play by ear. Blues, rock, pop, country, jazz – almost anything you want. If I hear it once, I can probably play it for you.

What scares me most?

I’d rather die than be a burden on my kids.

(Probably) irrelevant details

I survived a nasty divorce and lived to tell about it.

I’m a promiscuous reader and passionate learner. I enjoy the writings of C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse, Winston Churchill, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. (Yes, they’re all British. I hope they’ll forgive me for being an American.)

I love loud motorcycles, Black Adder, single-malt scotch, (Lagavulin 16 if you don’t mind), Lane 1Q pipe tobacco (IYKYK), hot jazz, gritty blues, classic rock, (Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Chicago and Steely Dan), and – most of all – my beautiful wife DeLawn.