Curriculum Vitae of Founder John “Sebastian” Ragazzo
The founder of Offer in Compromise has been a successful negotiator since the mid 80’s. As an aggressive east-coaster, John Sebastian Ragazzo was born in New York, and raised in New Jersey. By the age of 18, Sebastian had amassed $100,000 in savings, which was derived mostly from accumulated referral fees and commissions. His best moneymaking technique was negotiating against auto dealerships on behalf of car buyers throughout New York and New Jersey. Sebastian learned from the get-go that you never have a second chance to make a first impression, and so he has always placed his best foot forward.
In 1985, Sebastian relocated to California to grow his auto referral business. Almost immediately, Sebastian nurtured a relationship with the operators of major auto dealerships throughout southern California. Eventually, Sebastian found a niche to unite car buyers and Southern California auto dealerships, not by advertising, but through advertising. Sebastian created his own unique vehicle for bringing buyers and sellers together by creating the Auto Directory Magazine.
.
Sebastian realized that the dilemma was not necessarily what buyers were looking to buy, but whom they were looking to buy from. Hence… the Auto Directory was born.
The Auto Directory was initially introduced as a free-of-charge, black and white newspaper-type publication. It grew into a 190+ page full-color, glossy magazine, introducing auto buyers to auto sellers. The Auto Directory presented to its readers a unique auto-selling strategy, coupled with auto-buying experiences.
Rather than inviting auto dealers to advertise within the publication, Sebastian, armed with writers and a full camera crew, would [personally] go out and visit auto dealers, and photograph auto dealership showrooms, service and parts departments. He would collect information and publish full page reviews incorporating every aspect about the dealerships services, and convey to buyers why they would want to purchase their next new car from a particular dealership.
The Auto Directory even incorporated a consumer feedback questionnaire which invited consumers to provide their feedback on a particular auto dealership car buying experience.
The Auto Directory’s published opinions were unbiased, and no auto dealership could ever purchase a review within the Auto Directory.
Any business that wished to advertise within the Auto Directory was qualified by the Auto Directory’s staff, pulling business licenses, and investigating consumer complaints lodged with local Better Business Bureaus. If and when a merchant passed a preliminary screening, staff members of the Auto Directory would create and publish a combination of an editorial, identifying the most important highlights of the merchant, coupled with a brief advertisement. Hence, the winning combination created an advertorial. In 1992, Sebastian appeared on the front cover of Automotive Outlook.
.
Then came Karmac… the mall kiosk that Sebastian designed to provide car buyers with a user-friendly automated experience. He created a friendly character named Karmac who would guide car buyers with an interactive kiosk to help narrow down the vast selection of automobiles. Upon completion of the session, Karmac would provide a hot-off-the-press edition of the Auto Directory magazine.
In fact, when cellphones were first invented, Sebastian figured out a way to fit that huge, bulky phone into a briefcase, so it was less conspicuous. Hence, he created and manufactured the very first briefcase cell phone.
.
By 1988, Sebastian began [personally] fueling a private-labeled automobile dealership credit card to assist auto dealerships with increased customer retention and loyalty.
Sebastian’s appeared on the front cover of Entrepreneur, a high profile magazine that illuminated successful entrepreneurs.
.
The Service Express card was then introduced to car buyers at the time of purchase of their new automobile. Since banks only approved car purchases based upon a limited credit amount, the Service Express credit card invited car buyers to purchase aftermarket accessories, like a sun roof, or the opportunity to upgrade their tires and rims, and even purchase extended warranties.
The Service Express credit card incorporated each specific auto dealership’s name on the card, and the card could only be used at that particular dealership. However, rather than attempt to sell the Service Express credit card concept to the auto dealerships door-to-door, Sebastian advertised the Service Express card within his own Auto Directory publication.
This strategy prompted auto dealerships to contact Service Express directly, and invited them to integrate the Service Express credit card program at their dealership. Within twelve short months, Service Express Card applications were found throughout automobile dealerships across the entire United States.
By 1990, the participating lender purchased controlling interest of the Service Express program, and eventually acquired the entire operation.
Sebastian pursued his lifelong vision, and set out to design his own line of clothing. He manufactured overseas and branded his own label.
By 1997, Sebastian had opened his own clothing boutiques, selling his own (very) popular clothing lines within his boutiques.
Carefully plotting a unique retail sales plan, Sebastian appeared on the front cover of Metropolitan magazine, echoing his plan to set out and attract the most relaxed buyers into any one of his twenty-two Geneva of Beverly Hills Boutique locations… tourists.
Under the brand (and his last name) Ragazzo (meaning “boy” in Italian) and Ragazza (meaning “Girl” in Italian), Sebastian introduced his top-selling 3-piece washable silk walking suit Collection to the United States, consisting of a fashionable jacket, pants, and matching shorts. Sebastian sold the collections throughout his Boutiques.
Other product inventions and designs that Sebastian spearheaded or shared in its success includes the E-Tak Navigation system, a uniquely designed Tracking System that guided driver’s door-to-door, safely landing them at their final destination.
At the time, the highest level of technology available provided only county by county mapping elements of this tracking system to be created and stored on multiple cassette tapes.
By incorporating today’s modern technological advancements, E-Tak was acquired by General Motors, and has since been redesigned and licensed to automotive manufactures throughout the world, conveniently and optionally integrated into the dashboard of all new cars. The mapping elements have since been upgraded with today’s latest technology, and the entire country’s maps are now retained on a single CD ROM.
Sebastian’s business ventures continued with the development of a 900 telephone hotline system, which allowed callers to retrieve instant medical information, and the opportunity to speak directly with Physician Assistants to aid in their medical ailments.
Health Fone Care was manned by Physician Assistants and accessible to caller’s 24-hours a day. First-time callers received by mail, a free brochure to help guide them through an array of medical topics, and telephone assistance during their next calls to Health Fone Care. Callers were also received a magnet to be placed onto their refrigerator door to conveniently remind callers of the 900 telephone number to call, and the extensions to each medical topic. Most importantly, Health Fone Care helped minimize unnecessary trips to hospitals, emergency rooms and medical centers. Eventually a major health care provider acquired Health Fone Care’s to help reduce unnecessary insurance claims.
Onward… When you are at a lunch meeting, have you ever wished you could exchange notes with everyone at the table so you didn’t have to wait for your copy to come by mail? Introducing… the KopyKat Notepad.
This uniquely-designed, multiple carbonless copy notepad allows users to inscribe (up to) six multiple (original) copies at the time of the actual inscriptions. An International Patent License ensued and was granted in 1991.
The KopyKat notepad was eventually licensed to a major paper products distributor, who acquired them shortly thereafter.
This leads us to Offer in Compromise.
Sebastian lives by one motto… “Opportunity lends itself.” Each venture that Sebastian evolves with opens new adventurous doors to bolder, more creative and lucrative opportunities. Sebastian is an achiever; a motivator; a leader; and an inspiration to his followers. This isn’t to say that Sebastian is perfect. He cautiously shares his missteps with his ginormous team of nationwide negotiators, to ensure that his mistakes are never emulated. Sebastian is best known as a go-to guy to all of his clients; associates; and friends. Sebastian certainly makes many friends along the way. He glides through life with a perception that everyone wishes to achieve what they set out to accomplish. His charisma energizes and marries enemies, and he cherishes his ever-expanding portfolio of successful ventures, and newly-created friends along his journeys.
There are countless other business ventures that have propelled Sebastian’s career, including his team’s successful negotiations of large ticket purchase items; renegotiation of professional athlete contracts; and merges and acquisition.
In 2010, Sebastian was inducted into the California Frontrunner business magazine, voting him #7 of the top 50 smartest people in business.
SO where is Sebastian headed now? Introducing the long anticipated Plastic Coupon.
Ecologically speaking… the entire world is finally going green. Imagine how many trees would be saved if we put an end to coupon mailers? Nowadays, we practically pull a tree out of our mailboxes every day. It’s junk mail; we don’t ask for it; we don’t want it; it’s a waste of retailer’s money; and the process is destroying our forests! Everyone appears to be going paperless… so why not paperless coupons? Retailers anxiously create; design; print; postmark; and bulk-mail paper coupons to millions of customers. Those coupons offer various discounts if they are presented by or before a certain date. When those coupons expire, they become worthless volumes of useless, wasted paper.
PlasticCoupon is in the process of placing a period on such time consuming; costly, and wasteful practices by creating an instant-gratification, and cost-productive way of reaching millions of shoppers, through their wallets, not their mailboxes. And while we certainly agree that coupons are somewhat effective, grasping at a two-percent average mailer return hardly seems worth the slaughter of so many of our precious trees, for such a minimal expectation. PlasticCoupon will soon be enrolling retailers into the PlasticCoupon program. Our portfolio of retailers will join our mission, converting their mailer coupons from paper to plastic.
In a world bursting at the seams with coupon incentives; cash back rewards and fine-print come-on’s, none offer the true incentive of instant gratification, like the PlasticCoupon.
While the PlasticCoupon is a discount club-membership card and not a credit card, the PlasticCoupon will revolutionize the way retailers reach out to, and reward their shoppers.
The mission of Plastic Coupon is to help save trees by providing shoppers with a PlasticCoupon that never expires, and will forever remain in shopper’s wallets, not in their trash cans like unwanted, expired paper coupons. Soon, PlasticCoupon cardholders will be able to visit their favorite retailers, swipe their PlasticCoupon at the register, and receive whatever instant gratification that paper coupons were intended to offer its shoppers.
Be sure to look for the Plastic Coupon’s new beginnings as they progress with high hopes, and even greater expectations.
You are invited to surf our website, e-mail or call whenever you are ever in need of a personal negotiator on your side, seeking a profitable resolution.
I am curious to find out what blog platform you’re working with? I’m having some small security issues with my latest site and I would like to find something more safe. Do you have any recommendations?
Hi! I understand this is kind of off-topic but I had to ask. Does running a well-established website such as yours require a lot of work? I’m brand new to writing a blog but I do write in my diary daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my own experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any kind of suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Thankyou!
I am really loving the theme/design of your site. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems? A few of my blog audience have complained about my site not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Firefox. Do you have any recommendations to help fix this problem?
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Hey! I know this is somewhat off-topic however I needed to ask. Does building a well-established blog such as yours require a massive amount work? I’m brand new to writing a blog but I do write in my diary on a daily basis. I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share my experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any kind of suggestions or tips for brand new aspiring blog owners. Appreciate it!
Hi! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a marvellous job!
Have you ever considered publishing an e-book or guest authoring on other websites? I have a blog based upon on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would appreciate your work. If you’re even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e mail.
This is a topic that is close to my heart… Best wishes! Where are your contact details though?
Hi there! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to take a look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Fantastic blog and fantastic style and design.
I want to to thank you for this fantastic read!! I certainly loved every little bit of it. I have you book marked to look at new stuff you post…
This site really has all of the info I needed about this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
I seriously love your site.. Great colors & theme. Did you build this website yourself? Please reply back as I’m trying to create my own blog and would like to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is named. Kudos!
Amazing blog! Do you have any recommendations for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely confused .. Any suggestions? Appreciate it!
We stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i’m following you. Look forward to going over your web page yet again.
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?
Currently it seems like Movable Type is the best blogging platform available right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?
Excellent post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Bless you!
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your web site. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility problems? A handful of my blog readers have complained about my blog not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera. Do you have any suggestions to help fix this problem?
Do you have a spam issue on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; we have created some nice practices and we are looking to trade methods with others, please shoot me an e-mail if interested.
Today, I went to the beachfront with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Good day! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I truly enjoy reading your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects? Thanks a ton!
My coder is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on various websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another platform. I have heard very good things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Admiring the time and energy you put into your blog and in depth information you present. It’s nice to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same old rehashed material. Wonderful read! I’ve saved your site and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.
Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s tough to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and appearance. I must say you’ve done a very good job with this. In addition, the blog loads super fast for me on Internet explorer. Superb Blog!
Hey I am so excited I found your site, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Digg for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a incredible post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the great work.
First of all I want to say great blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I have had trouble clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out there. I do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or tips? Cheers!
Great blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere? A theme like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your design. Many thanks
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this website. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s challenging to get that “perfect balance” between usability and visual appearance. I must say you’ve done a very good job with this. Additionally, the blog loads very quick for me on Safari. Excellent Blog!
Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It is the little changes which will make the largest changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!
Wonderful blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers? I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything. Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m completely confused .. Any recommendations? Many thanks!
Hello! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog. Is it very hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Appreciate it
Good day! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!
Does your blog have a contact page? I’m having trouble locating it but, I’d like to send you an e-mail. I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it improve over time.
Excellent website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any discussion boards that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I’d really like to be a part of community where I can get feedback from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Appreciate it!
I’m curious to find out what blog system you have been utilizing? I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest website and I would like to find something more risk-free. Do you have any solutions?
Greetings from Idaho! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I enjoy the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, wonderful blog!
I do not know whether it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else experiencing issues with your website. It seems like some of the written text in your content are running off the screen. Can somebody else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them too? This might be a problem with my browser because I’ve had this happen before. Thank you
Heya! I understand this is kind of off-topic however I had to ask. Does operating a well-established blog like yours require a massive amount work? I am brand new to writing a blog but I do write in my diary daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can easily share my experience and views online. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!
Very good article! We will be linking to this great post on our site. Keep up the great writing.
Howdy, i read your blog from time to time and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam comments? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can advise? I get so much lately it’s driving me crazy so any assistance is very much appreciated.
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your blog? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having one or two pictures. Maybe you could space it out better?
Right now it sounds like Drupal is the best blogging platform out there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on your blog?
Hey there! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog. Is it very difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Thanks
Howdy great blog! Does running a blog such as this take a lot of work? I’ve very little knowledge of programming but I had been hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyhow, if you have any ideas or tips for new blog owners please share. I know this is off subject however I simply wanted to ask. Appreciate it!
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?
Good day! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having difficulty finding one? Thanks a lot!
Hey there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Cheers!
Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Hi! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog. Is it very difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Thanks