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// whoami

Mikel Jorgensen

AI consultant and autonomous agent builder. I design systems that think for themselves — multi-provider LLM routing, Dockerized deployments, memory architectures, personality design. One guy and a fleet of AI agents, shipping since 2011. Musician on the side. No fluff.

ai agent architect founder @ chess club media musician clermont, fl

§01

SECTOR · CHRONOLOGY

THE LOG

$ cat ~/.career —all · 20+ years of sales DNA, one boot sequence at a time

Key insight Pivot point Foundation

2000–04

USF HONORS COLLEGE

Public & Cultural Communication, IMC emphasis. Graduated cum laude. Bartended at Splitsville in Channelside, Tampa — developed the "Double Tall" upsell (offered it to every customer, blew everyone else's sales away) and the courtyard recruiting method (on dead shifts, walked outside and recruited passers-by). Core lesson: "Don't wait for demand — create it."

FOUNDATION

2004–06

VERIZON YELLOW PAGES

#1 on inside sales team. #1 White Pages salesperson. Started selling SuperPages.com alongside print. That's where it happened — the accidental discovery of Profile Funnels. Filled out a free SuperPages profile for his dad's welding shop in San Diego. Checked every box. Dad started getting calls — from a free listing. That wasn't in any training manual. It would become the foundation of everything. Key principle absorbed: "Never sell out of your own pocket."

KEY INSIGHT

2006

SENDTECH

Recruited by former #1 Verizon salesman for a PPC-focused bridge role. $50K base, own office. Made real breakthroughs on the deals he closed. The experience clarified what kind of work energized him — and what didn't. Valuable contrast that sharpened his direction.

2006

MICROSOFT NEAR-MISS

9 rounds of interviews. Flew to Seattle. Ended up at the wrong campus on the final day. The PPC knowledge gap the process exposed became fuel — he went all-in on learning digital advertising. Turned a near-miss into a year of intense skill-building that would later define Chess Club Media's capabilities.

PIVOT

2007–08

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

First outside sales role — driving to businesses, meeting owners face-to-face. Won Most New Accounts contest (prize: Fedorchuk-signed Lightning hockey stick). Sold a quarter-million-dollar ad deal. Doubled his territory from $500K to over $1M in a single year. Mentor: Mary Fallison (from Kodak). Learned what he was capable of when the only limit was how many doors he knocked on.

MENTOR

2008–09

TAMPA BAY DIRECT

Same desk, base jumped to $65K. 15-16 salespeople warming leads for him to close. Developed his signature method: "What's your experience been with direct mail so far?" — listen first, pitch never. Everyone listened for buying signals. He listened for pain, desire, and context.

SIGNATURE MOVE

2009–10

HOLLYWOOD / LA

Quit the newspaper, drove cross-country with best friend Matt. Lived on Beachwood Drive (the road up to the Hollywood sign). Worked at the Little Big Room — the studio Eminem bought when he moved to Burbank. Cold-called Mark Cuban. Cold-called Jeffrey Katzenberg. Cold-called the inventor of Guitar Hero — and landed work on Guitar Hero production. Coordinated musicians for American Idol sessions. Helped remix Kanye West's "Heartless" — Kanye performed it live on American Idol. Worked with Brad Gilderman (TLC, Boyz II Men) and Aaron Leapley (songwriter on Eminem's "Stan").

PINCH ME

2010

SAN DIEGO — ROCK BOTTOM

Moved into the back of his dad's welding machine shop in the barrio. Truck repossessed. Rode a bicycle to the San Diego public library. Built a Yahoo website for his dad's business — the phone started ringing. Proved he could generate leads from absolutely nothing. Had business cards printed: "Five Optimized Listings." Knocked on every door on US 27 in Clermont. Zero clients. The zeros taught as much as the wins.

RESILIENCE

2010

WEST COAST TOUR

Road manager for Canadian band Stella. $1-5 per show. Learned the grind of live production. Begged a record label owner for a plane ticket back to Florida. Built character through sheer proximity to the bottom.

2010–11

BACK TO FLORIDA

Moved back in with his mom in Groveland (rural Florida). Sold timeshare listing services — made $10K in two weeks. Got a dog named Reason (nickname: Wolf) — his constant companion for 12+ years. Giving up Reason years later forced the realization: "I need to change."

REASON

2011

CHESS CLUB MEDIA FOUNDED

The name was improvised in a Hollywood meeting with an A&R guy who asked "What's the name of your business?" — Mikel said "Chess Club" on the spot. Started as an SEO agency at $300-500/month. Websites at $2K-5K each. Joined the Chamber of Commerce, co-founded the Young Professionals group. Became "the SEO guy" in Clermont/Lake County. The foundation was laid.

EST. 2011

2014–17

SEATTLE

South Lake Union — Seattle's tech hub. WeWork office. Became an official LinkedIn Community Advisor. Three years of exploring, connecting, and expanding his worldview. The network that would fuel international work was being built here — friendships, partnerships, and the confidence to think bigger.

NETWORK

2017–18

DUBAI — THE EYE OPENER

A fraternity brother ran a 40-person agency (L-M-T-D). Flew Mikel to Dubai for two weeks. Consulted all clients on-site. Cultural breakthrough: discovered a company's website builder named after a dog Muslims find offensive — flagged it. They got signed by Techstars within a month. First taste of international high-stakes consulting. The world got bigger.

EYE OPENER

2018–20

GLOBAL SCALE

Mondo Ride (Nairobi, Kenya) — full-spectrum marketing, 150% business surge, covered by Quartz Africa. Kasha (women's health e-commerce, Africa) — 936% growth, ~$2M to $18M in sales. VenturePort (Sweden) — interim CMO, 150+ beta sign-ups, EU-Startups coverage. Rocker AB (Sweden) — #1 personal finance banking app, growth hacking. The methods worked — across continents, cultures, and verticals.

MOMENTUM

2021–26

THE AI PIVOT

Started with Jarvis (now Jasper) at the end of 2021. ChatGPT paid account on day one. Been using AI for client fulfillment for years. Built the AI Brain Clone method, custom GPTs, prompt frameworks, Sora video bootcamps. Now: designing and deploying autonomous AI agents — multi-provider LLM routing, Dockerized deployment, memory systems, personality design. Solo entrepreneur with a fleet of AI agents. This is now.

PRESENT

§02

SECTOR · DOCTRINE

HOW I THINK

$ cat ~/.principles — 6 operating rules forged on the sales floor

Context over prompts

The very best prompt can't fix missing context. AI works when it knows who you sell to, what you sell, and how you think. He treats AI like an employee — gives it the full picture, talks straight, and it delivers.

$ echo "treat AI like an employee" > ~/.rule_01

Systems over hustle

Hope is not a strategy. Every problem has a system. Build the framework so you don't need to be in the room. The Breakthrough Protocol works whether the fix is AI, content, ads, or strategy — same method, different tool.

$ cat ~/breakthrough_protocol 01 find the blocker · 02 fix it fast · 03 scale the channel

Scar tissue teaching

His IMC degree gave him the framework. 15 years on sales floors gave him the scars. He teaches from what he's actually done — cold calling, losing deals, winning big, building from zero. No theory. No "growth hacking."

$ echo "theory != experience" > ~/.scar_tissue

Design joy, not spreadsheets

AI shouldn't feel like a spreadsheet. He builds systems with personality — agents that talk like humans, tools that feel like magic, automation that disappears into the background. If it's boring, he's not done.

$ grep -r "boring" ~/projects/ · 0 matches

One more call

The call you want to skip is the one that converts. 9 out of 10 days are shitty. That's okay. Make the call anyway. This applies to sales, to building, to everything.

$ for day in $(seq 1 10); do call; done # 1 converts

Direct over polished

He talks like a human, not a brand. Profanity when it helps. Never says "leverage," "synergize," or "empower." If you want corporate polish, he's not your guy. If you want someone who tells the truth and builds systems that work — that's him.

$ alias talk='say-it-straight' # installed by default

§03

SECTOR · DEPENDENCIES

IDENTITY TREE

$ brew deps mikeljorgensen --tree

mikeljorgensen @14.3.11 # one guy + a fleet of agents
├── ai-agent-architecture @4.0.0
│ ├── deepseek-v4-pro · hermes-agent · openrouter
│ ├── multi-provider-routing · dockerized-deployment
│ └── memory-systems · personality-design · YAML-configurable
├── sales-dna @22.0.0
│ ├── cold-calling · story-selling · profile-funnels
│ ├── context-over-prompts · listen-first-pitch-never
│ └── one-more-call · scar-tissue-teaching
├── chess-club-media @15.0.0
│ ├── breakthrough-protocol · SEO · paid-ads · content
│ ├── 150+ clients · 7 countries · est. 2011
│ └── interim-cmo · growth-hacking · international-consulting
├── music-production @7.1.0
│ ├── hip-hop · remixes · audio-engineering
│ ├── little-big-room · eminem-studio · american-idol
│ └── spotify:@mikelj · youtube:@mikeljmusic · Apple Music
├── content--teaching @3.2.0
│ ├── youtube:@MikelJorgensen · 108 videos · 80K views
│ ├── framework-prompting-cheatsheet · AI-video-bootcamp
│ └── voice-agent-blueprint · getgoodwithai.com
├── tooling @2.4.1
│ ├── n8n · supabase · airtable · playwright
│ ├── docker · ollama · homebrew · mcp-servers
│ └── macOS Tahoe 26.5 · MacBook Pro M3 Pro · 18GB RAM
├── location: Clermont, FL · metro Orlando · Remote
├── email: info@chessclubmedia.com
└── built with: too much coffee & zero corporate jargon

§04

SECTOR · VOICE

STRAIGHT TALK

$ grep "mikel" ~/.quotes — no filter, no polish

"The IMC degree gave me the framework. The sales floor gave me the scars."

$ source: aboutMikel.md · line 1

"The very best prompt can't fix missing context."

$ source: core principle #01

"Nine out of 10 days are going to be shitty. That's okay. Make the call anyway."

$ source: core principle #05

"AI shouldn't feel like a spreadsheet. If it's boring, I'm not done."

$ source: core principle #04

"Don't sell out of your own pocket."

$ source: verizon era · lesson #1

"Write like a human, not a brand. No 'leverage,' 'synergize,' or 'empower.'"

$ source: core principle #06

> STATUS: AVAILABLE FOR PROJECTS

If you have a project or business that could benefit from a system that actually works — let's talk. No sales pitch. Just a conversation about what's possible.

brew install collaboration cat ~/email