Jason is a pilot, serial entrepreneur, best-selling author, perpetual sponge for knowledge and retired corporate executive. He has founded countless successful offline and online companies since 1986.

My journey into Guerrilla Marketing started while in high school in the 1980s, shortly after Jay published the first book. The timing was perfect, and I embraced the concept immediately. However, I was pretty much always a Guerrilla, perhaps by necessity.

You see, I grew up as a child of parents that were construction workers. They moved us all over the country, from one project to another, and we had times of feast and times of famine. This instability, living in the cycle of being middle-class then dropping into barely scraping by, meant that I had to always be creative, curious, and committed to lifelong learning. I wanted “more,” and I knew I could achieve it.

I learned sales and marketing—as many kids did—by reselling candy to my classmates. Often, I would get lunch money on Mondays, with a promise that the lunch money for the rest of the week would come later. To be sure that it did, I would invest my Monday lunch money into a pile of candy, and by Monday at lunchtime, I would have earned the entire week’s lunch money. I still remember the first time I told my mom that I didn’t need the rest of the week’s lunch money. The marketing aspect came in the packaging and positioning. I would try different types of candy and combinations. I would try telling compelling stories of the origin or my adventures acquiring the candy. I learned that people want to buy a story; they would pay more for that than they would for a commodity. I went on to learn to sell many things using these important lessons.

My first business was a Guerrilla fusion marketing experiment. It started when I learned computer programming; I’d buy a computer video game, modify the game, and sell those re-engineered copies to my friends. This led to an intense interest in video games and an introduction to a local amusement company that owned the full-sized coin-operated video games. I inquired about how the business worked for an arcade and before I knew it, I had organized the delivery of a truckload of video games to my new arcade business. We had agreed to split the revenue, and the entire setup cost me nothing to get started. It was a true fusion, joint-venture relationship. As a teenager with an arcade, the next step was to develop my marketing plan. Fortunately, I discovered the first Guerrilla Marketing book and the genius idea that Jay Conrad Levinson brought forward to help small businesses implement intelligent marketing.

My first fifteen minutes of fame came when, inspired by Guerrilla Marketing’s concepts, I covered my car with refrigerator magnets for a pizza shop. As I drove around, people stared. When I parked the car, people would “borrow” the magnets. The pizza shop saw an increase in sales. Then, the local newspaper decided to run a small article with a photo of the car covered completely in magnets. The pizza shop was incredibly happy to get the free press, and I became small-town “famous” for a minute. I felt so Guerrilla!

Those early lessons allowed me to start a second business, which grew quickly and had more business activity than I could handle at times. I learned so much from applying the methods and concepts in the first edition of Guerrilla Marketing. Eventually, when that business ran its course, I found my way into a management/leadership position in the telecom industry, and my marketing and sales skills allowed me to stand out in a rapidly growing industry, and I achieved many successes.

As I transitioned back into entrepreneurship, my decades worth of Guerrilla skills—be it marketing, mindset, management, and money-making skills - really paid off. I have started, invested in, grown, and sold dozens of businesses and am often called upon to help others grow their businesses. I’m passionate about mentorship, coaching, and applying Guerrilla techniques.

Since starting to learn and apply Guerrilla Marketing back in the ‘80s, I’ve dedicated a chunk of my life to perpetually pursuing knowledge and experience. I think you should, too. During this journey, I’ve discovered that anyone who has learned effective sales and marketing skills will never go hungry. These two skills are the most important, self-empowering skills that exist, and they form the foundation for entrepreneurship. I encourage everyone to learn these as early as possible and take control of their financial futures.

I consider Jay to be one of my most significant mentors. His lessons helped form who I am today. To honor him, I have dedicated myself to carrying on his legacy by ensuring that the entire concept of Guerrilla is relevant today and tomorrow for millions more people.

I encourage you to learn as much as you can about Guerrilla Marketing and apply those lessons to your business and share your successes with others. This book is a great next step, and we’ll be providing many more steps going forward, to help you and your business grow and succeed—now and long into the future.

I’ll see you at the top!