For a long time, a good share of our leads came through traditional sales reps tied to our sister publications. We operated separately, but their reps could still send business our way, and that helped.

The challenge was that digital was never an easy sell for a traditional rep.

One of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done has been helping build a digital marketing agency and watching it grow to nearly $3 million annually. I still work at Flex, and I’m still proud of what we built.

When we first took on this waste management company, we did not know much about waste management. We certainly did not know much about porta-potties.

What we did know was how to listen.

One of the things I always wanted to know in digital was not just whether campaigns were producing clicks or leads, but whether they were producing actual business.

That sounds obvious, but it is not always easy to measure. A lot of agencies stop at traffic, impressions or form fills and call it success. I never liked that. I wanted to get closer to the real number.