He served as president, producer, and creative visionary for the company, which became a major architect of the modern infomercial format.

[citation needed] Hawthorne served as executive producer of the fourth long-form TV commercial to air in the modern era—a real estate home-study program that dominated the fledgling industry for two years, grossing over $60 million in sales.

The company produced early DRTV programs for such established brands as Apple, Nissan, and Time-Life and played a significant role in bringing respectability to a medium often derided for bogus products, cheesy demonstrations, and "yell-and-sell" spokespeople.

[6] In 1995, Hawthorne was named one of ResponseTV's "25 most influential people in DRTV," and in 1996, USA Today and Ernst & Young recognized him as "Entrepreneur of the Year" for the Iowa/Nebraska region.

He oversaw the development of TimeTrack, the first software program dedicated to analyzing sales and viewership performance of purchased media time slots.

Hawthorne has also contributed content or chapters for nine direct-marketing texts, including Seth Godin's eMarketing (1995), Frank Cannella's Infomercial Insights (1995), and Robert W. Bly's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Direct Marketing (2001).