We’re building a big, happy family of folks who are dedicated to making you richer – and we want you to meet us!
Clayton Makepeace
Founder and President
As a working direct response marketing consultant and copywriter since 1971, Clayton has produced hundreds of direct mail, Internet and print ad promotions – including many of America’s most effective campaigns for investment and health newsletters, books on personal finance and health, nutritional supplements and many other products.
Clayton’s sales copy and marketing guidance have generated as many as two million new subscribers for a single publisher … produced annual revenue and profit growth of up to 3,700% for his investment and health newsletter and nutritional supplement clients and, all-told, have sold well over $1 billion-worth of products.
Clayton’s marketing agency, ResponseInk™, currently produces successful customer acquisition and house file promotions for many of the most successful marketers in the investment and health industries.
In June, 2005, Clayton founded The Profit Center™ and his weekly e-letter, The Total Package™ to share his proven response-boosting techniques with younger writers, business owners and marketing pros.
Wendy “The
Redhead” Makepeace
General Manager
Wendy began her direct response career in 1982 as a customer care representative at Phillips Publishing International. A natural-born firebrand with a steel trap mind, she quickly moved up through the ranks, learning, then improving each aspect of that company’s operations and making significant contributions to its amazing growth.
By her tenth anniversary at Phillips, Wendy had become Marketing Director for the entire health group, in which capacity she supervised mail planning, mail list selection, printing and mailing – both for promotions and fulfillment.
In fact, Clayton and Wendy first met when “The Redhead” called to critique his copy for a health package!
Wendy and Clayton officially “merged” in 1993 and have two beautiful children together. Today, Wendy directs all day-to-day operations for The Profit Center™, The Total Package™ and ResponseInk™, including the planning and flawless execution of our annual Power Marketing Summit™.
She’s also a redhead and rides her own big-block Harley, which is cool.
Martha Shelton
Customer Care
Martha’s job is to make you happy.
Martha is in charge of duplicating the CDs and DVDs of our teleseminars, webinars and live events. And when you order a Profit Center product that needs to be shipped, Martha’s the one who makes sure you get it promptly.
Plus, everytime you write us to ask a question, file a complaint or send us a testimonial, Martha jumps on it the same day and makes sure your communication gets to the right person in our organization.
Martha, a native of the Smokies, is also our local translator. Being fluent both in “Mountain English” and “Regular English,” she is indispensable in dealing with local vendors and helping keep Clayton clear on the difference between “dinner” and “supper.”
She’s also one of the finest amateur comediennes around. On the drive to Washington D.C. recently, her jokes kept Clayton and Wendy in stitches for eight solid hours.
You’re going to love Martha. We sure do!
Deanna Blanchard
Copywriter
Deanna considers herself extremely fortunate to have begun her direct response career as one of Clayton’s staff copywriters.
Talk about starting off on the right foot!
By day, Deanna cranks out all the daily copy needed to keep The Total Package exciting and growing and soaks up all she can about the direct response business.
By night, she returns to her first love – writing fiction – and has a book in progress that she hopes will give the indomitable J.K. Rowling a run for her money.
Did I mention that she’s a bit of an optimist?
Harun Bahri
Marketing Strategist & Copywriter
Harun beat over 800 applicants for one of our newest copywriter positions through a series of creative, exciting and humorous sales letters and marketing creatives – he even sent us a pet Giraffe!
He is a bright, energetic, experienced copywriter and marketer who put his publishing and consulting businesses on hold and moved all the way from sunny and hot (but it’s a dry heat) Phoenix, Arizona to join us.
Besides helping us grow The Total Package, Harun will be working with our clients to significantly expand their businesses and profits.
We are very excited and lucky to have him with us here at the Total Package and Response Ink.
Len Bailey
Copywriter
Len – like Harun – beat out more than 800 applicants to land a position as one of our newest copywriters. But don’t let his “new guy” status fool you. His sample sales letter knocked our socks off.
A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Len hails from the snowy slopes of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He cut his teeth writing copy for Littleton Coin Company, but had rapidly outgrown his position. So he packed up his family, said goodbye to the 6-foot snowbanks, and drove a thousand miles to balmy (by comparison) North Carolina.
Here at Response Ink, Len will help our clients expand their lists and explode their profits. You’ll also find him lurking around The Forum, doing his best to help other “newbies.”
Jill Chandler
Project Coordinator
Jill is our Scheduling Queen. Her formidable spreadsheets – detailing even the smallest projects and who’s responsible for them – are the law of the land.
She keeps everyone on track – even our rambunctious web guys.
As the mom of an active little boy and a former business owner and manager, Jill has developed some amazing organizational skills. For her, keeping our office on schedule is a piece of cake.
Jackie Stone
Partner Relations
Customer Development. Joint Ventures.
When it comes to building strong – and profitable – business relationships, just ask for Jackie. One way or another, Jackie’s worked marketing and PR since she was 14 – when she boosted sales at a small dress shop by 65% in just two short weeks. And her career has been a fascinating journey ever since.
She’s produced concerts and promoted bands for five entertainment centers. Published phone directories for Bellsouth (the “real” yellow pages). And helped form a successful catering company. Not to mention raising three sons and running her own home business!
Here you’ll find Jackie tirelessly developing new ways for ResponseInk and our customers to create bigger winners more often. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
David Dittman
Director of Web Design
Before David joined us, Clayton used to say we didn’t know “R-S” from an RSS feed.
Dave is a Virginia Tech alumnus, a Marine, and one of the tech savviest computer, network and web guys we know.
Dave’s background includes tech consulting and support, web design, wireless and wired network design and maintenance and has taught classes on all of the above.
Now a full-time member of the ResponseInk and Profit Center staff, David designs websites and handles tech issues for clients including Health Resources, Jefferson Financial, and other major marketing clients.
Dave helps marketers better understand the technical side of web marketing every Saturday in The Total Package’s WORKING IT OUT column.
Craig Burgwardt
Graphic Designer
Craig is an award-winning graphic designer and artist whose creations have a proven track record of increasing revenue for any company lucky enough to hire him.
And did we ever get lucky!
He moved his family from Colorado to Western North Carolina, lured by the promise of easy access to NASCAR … abundant hunting and fishing in our scenic mountains … and a thriving arts community.
And we were quick to snatch him up.
Craig now puts his exceptional creative abilities to work for ResponseInk and The Profit Center, punching up the power of our promotions and Internet marketing with his innovative designs.
Graham Livengood
Web Designer
Graham is focused. His one goal is to make websites that are faster than a speeding T1 line and can leap tall monitors in a single bound.
E-mail blasts? Got it. New product pages? Done. Site re-design. Finito. Help with an affiliate’s site? Done and done. Graham is here to dig deep into the code to help get bigger winners more often.
Besides being a dedicated champion of more efficient and effective digital business solutions, Graham has a background in creative and comedy writing. So if you ever have the pleasure of working with him, you’ll probably get a laugh out of the deal, too!
Forest Livengood
Web Designer
Forrest recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in Multimedia Arts and Sciences. When he’s not designing animated banners and other eyecatching web elements for The Total Package and ResponseInk clients, he moves silently through the web, striking down problems efficiently and invisibly.
With the Zen mindfulness of a wind swept bonsai he contemplates the mercurial essence of the Internet. He is not here for glory or accolades. Assassinating problems, confronting issues, fulfilling needs, these are their own rewards.
Pete Schissel
Web Designer
A graduate of Ithaca College in upstate New York, Pete worked his tail off to earn a degree in Mathematics, then promptly discarded it to work in the publishing industry almost exclusively since graduation. Resisting the temptation to follow his college buddies to NYC to hit it big in the super-hot tech boom, he instead stayed behind for true love. Broke and single four years later, Pete relocated to Asheville, NC to start over.
Taking to mountain biking, walking slowly, and sweet tea, Pete is now a born-again Southerner with a sudden fondness for the word "y’all" (and its plural, "all y’all"), missing only the Finger Lakes, Wegman’s, and adverbs. He couldn’t be happier.
In addition to designing e-mails, web pages and banner ads, Pete is indispensable in his seconday role as testing ground for Graham and Forrest’s Improv Comedy Troupe and is also one of the brightest guys around (despite being 26 before realizing it was OK to leave Upstate New York).
Tanya Lopez - Finance & Operations
Tanya has been with Team Makepeace longer than anyone except Clayton and Wendy. And frankly, we wouldn’t know how to live without her.
Tanya joined us in 1999 as Clayton’s personal assistant, helping out with invoicing, banking, bill-paying, tax filing, purchasing, arranging all of Clayton’s travel plans – and pretty much anything else that needed doing in the office.
In addition, to her duties at The Profit Center™ and ResponseInk™, Tanya’s marketing degree has led her into a nice side-business inventing, producing and marketing great products (and a book on how to do it) with her significant other, Jon.
No bones about it. Tanya is a cherished member of the Makepeace family. We love her, our kids love her, and we’re going to keep her as long as she’ll have us.
