Some careers are developed through dedicated networking and making the right connections. Some careers are inspired by a lifelong passion or an innate desire to accomplish something. The career of The Content Store's J$TYLE$ began with a decision to learn about the phone-sex business.
While few career advisers would consider phone sex to be a launching pad, it got J$TYLE$ involved with adult industry, made him some money and taught him many business lessons that would come in handy down the road.
After doing his research, J$TYLE$ went to work for Bureau One, a company that sold (900) numbers. The company advertised in the "Business Opportunity" sections of top daily newspapers around the country. J$TYLE$ was one of about 40 operators taking a steady stream of calls from people hoping to profit from the (900)-number boom. "I learned a lot about the implementation and application of practical sales and marketing skills during this period," he said. "I also learned that I had no qualms about asking people for the sale, no matter what the amount. In retrospect, the phone-sex [business] was like high school for me in relation to my career."
While selling (900) numbers, J$TYLE$ discovered two keys to success in the adult industry: the upsell and the cross-sell. Using his newfound knowledge, he began directing the phone-sex lines to advertise in magazines, on television and on a still-new arena known as the Internet.
Intrigued by the potential profits to be had in Internet advertising, J$TYLE$ did a little research and found that it was a relatively untapped marketplace.
Through a series of smart business maneuvers, J$TYLE$ raised enough money to start out on his own, while accumulating a stable of clients and employees eager to work with a hot new company, Internet Unlimited.
Shortly thereafter, he hooked up with a company that made it possible for Web surfers to see naked girls in real time. He built a few sites that integrated the software and started pitching them to phone-sex clients, telling them it was a logical extension of the phone-sex business. "They were like kids in a candy store!" J$TYLE$ said. "Most of my serious clients were making money with the (900)-number stuff, so they jumped at the chance. It made perfect sense! If guys surfing the Web were spending money on phone sex, wouldn't they pay to see live girls naked instead?"
The next few years brought J$TYLE$ a whirlwind of opportunities, advances, connections, life lessons, moves and excitement. "In between all of that we released the Pamela Anderson-and-Tommy Lee video on ClubLove.com and [former business partner] Seth [Warshavsky] became known as the Bill Gates of porn. It was a very surreal and interesting time and an extremely fun part of Internet history to be involved with."
A huge opportunity in the content business arose when J$TYLE$ held the first Content Blowout. During and after the Content Blowout, J$TYLE$ was inundated with content providers' requests for him to "blow out" their content, or sell large quantities of content for low prices. Not one to let a great business opportunity slip by, J$TYLE$ launched ContentBlowout.com, positioning himself as the go-to guy for bulk content. Offering everything from top-of-the-line porn-star content to the most obscure amateur antics, J$TYLE$ takes pride in offering webmasters "a tremendous amount from me for a very reasonable price. ... Webmasters can go out and buy $40 and $60 sets and spend $1,000 a month on content, or they can come to ContentBlowout.com ... and get seriously high-quality images and videos for pennies on the dollar."
An integral part of a company's success is its ability to adapt to changing market trends. In response to the content business' shift to a more video-driven marketplace, J$TYLE$ launched TheContentStore.com, which now is the primary source for many webmasters. J$TYLE$ is proud of how TheContentStore.com "has grown tremendously over the past few years and is now positioned at the top of the food chain in the content-licensing business. It features nearly 800 titles in almost 50 different niches, all from studios that have signed exclusively with me."
Although steamy late-night commercials probably won't lure our nation's bright young minds away from business school, perhaps the success of J$TYLE$ will inspire future entrepreneurs to enter the phone-sex industry. After all, one man's success story is another man's titillation on a lonely Thursday night.
This story first appeared in the February 2008 issue of AVN Online magazine. To subscribe to AVN Online, go to https://www.avnmedianetwork.com/subscriptions/
