Read Time: 7 minutes

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, Bill Sebald stands out as a pioneer and thought leader. As the founder and managing partner of Greenlane Search Marketing, LLC, Bill has dedicated his career to refining search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) strategies, helping businesses thrive in an ever-evolving online landscape. With over two decades of experience and a passion for cultivating a healthier agency culture, Bill brings a wealth of insight and innovation to the table. In this interview, he shares the journey behind his entrepreneurial success, the lessons that shaped his leadership, and his vision for leaving a lasting impact on the industry.

It’s a pleasure to have this conversation with you. To kick things off, I’d love to hear more about your entrepreneurial journey. Can you share what inspired you to start your business?

I’ve always been someone who thinks critically and constantly looks for ways to improve. I enjoy building and optimizing systems, which likely led me to pursue search engine optimization. Even as a younger employee, I would observe how operations worked—analyzing employees, systems, technology, and even interpersonal relationships. I couldn’t help but think about how I’d do things differently.

Looking back, I believe this mindset planted the entrepreneurial seed that really took hold when I turned 30. The challenge wasn’t convincing myself that I wanted to be an entrepreneur; it was figuring out what I wanted to build.

How has your personal background and experiences influenced your approach to entrepreneurship?

Before starting my own business, my life revolved around music. I discovered a passion for songwriting and performing in rock bands at 15, and I’ve always been part of a collaborative musical project involving other musicians.

Looking back, being in a band is a lot like participating in team sports. Every musician brings unique personality traits and creative ideas to the table, and navigating those dynamics requires both diplomacy and resilience. Musicians tend to have strong opinions and diverse goals, and when a group of four or five people can’t find common ground, it takes real skill to manage the friction. Without those skills, the band simply falls apart.

Through this experience, I learned the importance of respectfully advocating for ideas I believed in, while also recognizing when to step back and let someone else lead—whether on stage or behind the scenes. When I launched my digital marketing agency, I carried this mindset with me. As a boutique agency, we operate as a tight-knit team, and I believe the lessons I learned in my band days have been instrumental (pun intended) in shaping my leadership style.

What qualities do you look for when building your team, and how do you foster a positive company culture?

Two qualities stand out as the most important to me: passion and curiosity. When someone is genuinely passionate, they have a natural drive to dig deeper and fully understand the work they do. Similarly, when someone is truly curious, they are inherently motivated to excel and master their role.

When we hire individuals with these attributes, their energy becomes contagious, fostering a culture of excellence and high achievement. As a business owner, these are the types of people I want to invest in. I would rather bring on someone with less experience but a high level of passion and curiosity, knowing that their drive and eagerness to learn will lead to exceptional results.

I really appreciate how intentional you are about focusing on passion and curiosity in your team—it’s a powerful way to cultivate a positive environment. On a more personal note, how do you maintain a healthy work-life balance as a business owner, and what practices do you recommend to others?

I’ve always been part of hustle culture. While I’m not sure how in vogue it is today, I’ve always embraced the blend of work and personal life. But as I approach 50, I’ve noticed that my energy for constant hustle isn’t what it used to be. One of the best decisions I’ve made is to start letting go of responsibilities—tasks I know I can do well and that are important, but that are also incredibly time-consuming.

I’ve learned to trust others to shoulder part of the load and trust that they, too, can act in the company’s best interest. I’m still passionate and curious, and I enjoy the hustle, but only as long as it doesn’t spiral into stress—which has a way of sneaking up on you if you’re not careful.

What legacy do you hope to leave through your business, and how do you envision your impact on future generations?

I work in the agency world, focused on digital marketing. Agencies have a reputation for being high-pressure environments, often likened to sweatshops or dog-eat-dog workplaces. I started my career at one of the more intense, large agencies, and the experience took a significant toll on my mental health.

When my business partner and I founded Greenlane, we brought with us the valuable lessons we learned from those big-agency days. But we also made a deliberate choice to create something different: a boutique agency. We’re not striving to be the biggest—we’re focused on being the best. And a healthy place at that.

I take pride in knowing that my team isn’t enduring the kind of environment I went through. I’ve proven to myself—and hopefully to others—that agency life doesn’t have to lead to burnout. I’ve seen far too many talented people leave the industry for good because of it. My goal was to build a smaller, highly specialized agency that could deliver extraordinary results without the traditional hardships of big-agency culture, and I believe we’ve succeeded.

Bill, your journey is truly inspiring. By creating a boutique agency that prioritizes mental health and a positive work environment, you’re setting a new standard in the industry. Your commitment to delivering exceptional results without the burnout of big-agency culture will leave a lasting impact on future generations of professionals.

Thank you for sharing your insights and vision for the future of digital marketing. It’s been a privilege to learn from your experiences and witness the positive legacy you’re building.

Marc J. Bernstein JD, ChFC®, CLU®, CAP®

Financial Planner and Consultant, Bestselling Author, and Creator of the Forward Focus Forums

Marc helps high performing entrepreneurs and business owners create a vision for the future, accomplish their business and personal goals, financial and otherwise, and assists them in following through on their intentions.  Marc recently co-founded March, a forward-looking company with a unique approach to wealth management.  He captured his philosophy in his #1 Amazon Bestseller, The Fiscal Therapy Solution 1.0.  Marc is also the founder of the Forward Focus Forum, a suite of resources tailored specifically to educate and connect high performing entrepreneurs, and to help them realize their vision of true financial independence. The forum includes;

• the Founders’ Forward Focus Forum: a series of articles focused on entrepreneurship
• the Founders’ Forum Radio Show and Podcast: featuring interviews with some of the area’s top founders and their experiences in business
• the Manufacturers’ Forward Focus Forum: a specialized resource group for owners/founders of manufacturing companies, including a private Facebook group; a private discussion group for high performing leaders of manufacturing companies to share resources, news, network with each other, and collaborate