Student by day and salesman by night, junior Russell Sage of Wall Township makes roughly three times the monthly salary of the teachers he is meant to learn from.

When not in class at Communications High School (CHS), Sage spends his time making money from the comfort of his computer screen. He considers it far from a job. In fact, it is his aversion to employment that brought him to the business he profits from.

“My goal has always been to not work a job, if I can,” he said. According to his YouTube account @russell_sage22, Sage earns an estimate of $25,000 each month, a number that The Inkblot was able to independently verify. So if not with a job, how is Sage filling his pockets? His answer is “high ticket remote sales,” a completely web-based business model. The exchange of money begins with a content creator who aims to sell a set of courses. Referred to as infoproducts, these courses most often discuss lucrative ventures that align with the creator’s personal brand.

The creator then approaches someone like Sage, who manages the sales of the infoproducts in exchange for equity in the creator’s business. From there, Sage splits the sales process into two halves, hiring a setter and closer. The setter works out of the content creator’s inbox, responding to messages from potential customers and convincing them to spend the four to five figures that these infoproducts sell for. Once the setter is convinced that the customer will purchase the course, they schedule a closing call. The closer then picks up the baton and talks to the customer over the phone, guiding them through the purchase process and securing payment. Once the course is sold, both the setter and closer make a commission on the sale.

Among Sage’s clients is the creator behind the YouTube channel @GamersReact, an account with more than three million subscribers that regularly posts edited gaming clips. The creator, according to Sage, wanted to start a coaching program that teaches customers how to make money in the video game content space.

“I built out his entire sales team. Now, he’s going to teach people how to make money through faceless YouTube.” Sage has gained each of his clients through referrals, building his network with each new connection.

“The proof is in the stuff that you’ve done already,” he explained. “I can show them all the things I’ve built out, the sales teams I’ve built, the revenue being generated from other teams.”

But a network must grow from somewhere, of course: Sage’s work began with an entirely separate business venture. As a freshman, Sage founded the clothing brand, No Limit Apparel, a business that opened the door to high-ticket remote sales.

“I met a couple people through that [business], and then they wanted to teach people how to start clothing brands. I started working as a setter for them and then eventually a closer.”

Once he had mastered setting and closing, Sage took a step up the ladder and “advanced to scaling other people’s businesses.”

With a few connections and a few thousand dollars invested into online courses for himself, Sage learned the ins and outs of remote sales. As a result, he has emerged with something much more tangible than knowledge.

“I make enough money, I have enough money,” he said. “My main goals are just to build more

relationships, meet more people and build my name further.”