I started an agency before I knew how to run one.

In 2024, I started Marcsix, a content marketing agency.

I was still figuring out my skills, my direction and the kind of work I wanted to do. But I had reached a point where learning alone was no longer enough. I wanted to put those skills into practice, work on real problems and see whether I could build something around them.

Starting an agency felt like a way to do that.

I did not have everything figured out. I was learning what it meant to package a service, communicate its value and think about the needs of a business. There is a big difference between being interested in marketing and being responsible for delivering work that a client has paid for.

I was about to experience that difference.

The gap between knowing a skill and running a business

When you are learning a skill, you can focus on improving your own work. When you start an agency, the work expands.

You have to understand what a client actually needs. You need to explain what you can do, set expectations and deliver consistently. You also have to think about how the business will find its next client.

That last part became especially important to me.

I had started with an interest in creating things. But running an agency introduced me to the business side of creative work. A good service does not automatically find customers. People need to understand what you offer, trust that you can deliver it and see why it matters to them.

I was learning that the quality of the work and the ability to sell the work are separate challenges.

Learning through the work

Marcsix was an important step because it moved my learning out of tutorials and into the real world.

It made me think beyond the tool or deliverable. I began paying more attention to the business behind a project: what the client was trying to achieve, how the service was positioned and what would make the work valuable.

My experience around design, websites and agency projects also helped me see how different parts of a business connect. Creative work is not isolated from sales or growth. It has to support a larger business objective.

I was still learning how to make those connections, and I made plenty of assumptions along the way. But the experience gave me a reason to keep exploring the commercial side of the work.

A new question appeared

As I spent more time around agency work, I became increasingly interested in where clients came from.

How did an agency find the right businesses? How did it start conversations with decision-makers? What made someone respond to an offer? Why did one conversation move forward while another went nowhere?

These questions pulled my attention towards lead generation and outbound.

It was a different kind of work from designing a website or creating content, but it was closely connected to the same goal: helping a business grow.

I had started Marcsix because I wanted to turn what I was learning into something real. I did not know that one of the biggest lessons would come from looking beyond the creative work and learning how businesses find opportunities.

That became the next direction I explored.

Next chapter: I started spending more time on lead generation and outbound. I thought that sending more messages would help me find more clients. I was about to learn how much more there is to getting a response.