We recently connected with Salvatore Rosenblatt and have shared our conversation below.

Salvatore, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

The Road to My First Real Client (Literally)

I started my first business at 13 and knew early on that entrepreneurship was what I’d be doing for life. But the first real dollar — the first one that didn’t come from a friend, family member, or favor — came when I was 18. And it happened almost by accident.

At the time, a friend and I were running a fishing-themed Instagram account. We’d post funny or viral content and sell $20–$30 shoutouts to small brands. It wasn’t anything big, but we saw an opportunity. A lot of our friends had similar pages in the fishing niche, and we realized we could create packages across multiple accounts and charge businesses more — while paying each account less than what they’d charge individually. That margin became our business model.

We figured the best way to find bigger clients was to go straight to the source — industry events. We found the next big one: The Bassmaster Classic in Tulsa, Oklahoma — the Super Bowl of fishing tournaments. We had no plan. We borrowed a Hyundai Sonata from a friend’s mom and drove 24 hours straight from South Florida.

We knew nobody. We had no booth. No appointments. Just a couple of kids walking through the expo hall, talking to every brand we could. At one of the first booths, someone asked us, “So what do you guys do?” We word-vomited this explanation about our Instagram page, our network of fishing accounts, and how we could help them advertise to a massive audience for a fraction of the cost.

Turns out, that someone was a freshly-hired marketing director, just out of college, looking to make his first big win. He was intrigued. No one else in his industry was doing anything with Instagram, and he wanted to pitch something innovative to his team. Before we left, he gave us his card.

We drove 24 hours back home, buzzing with excitement. We had no official business, no EIN, no bank account — just an idea and a maybe.

We threw together the best proposal we could, hopped on a call with him the next week, and a few days later he said the words we’ll never forget: “We’re in.”

A $4,000 check was mailed to my mom’s house. That moment was everything. It validated the leap, the drive, the risk. That deal became the foundation of what would eventually grow into the business I still run today — The Lithium Agency.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Meet The Lithium Agency — And the Entrepreneur Behind It

My name is Sal, and I’m the founder of The Lithium Agency — a full-service creative and performance marketing agency that blends world-class content production with paid advertising to scale brands that want to grow fast.

I’ve been building businesses since I was 13, but my path into marketing and content creation wasn’t defined by a single “aha” moment. It came from realizing that I was operating ahead of the curve — using strategies that weren’t even in the textbooks my friends were studying in college. While others were reading about marketing, I was doing it — learning firsthand how to grab attention, tell stories, and drive revenue in real-time. That early exposure to a market that didn’t fully exist yet made me go all in. I knew if I wanted to make something lasting, I had to move fast and create something different.

That mindset is what built The Lithium Agency.

We specialize in helping brands unlock growth by creating high-converting content and pairing it with strategic paid advertising — especially for direct-to-consumer ecommerce, product manufacturers, and blue-collar industries like construction, marine, and equipment. Our clients tend to be mid to large privately-owned businesses that are tired of moving slow, and ready to try bold, innovative plays to scale their offers.

The biggest problem most of them face? They have an incredible business — but no way to communicate it. That’s where we come in. We help uncover the story, craft content that actually converts, and then get it in front of the right audience. And if it doesn’t convert? We keep going until it does.

What sets us apart isn’t just our creative — it’s our pace and our mindset. We don’t wait for trends. We start them. We’re not afraid to test what hasn’t been done. And we bring a level of speed, adaptability, and strategic thinking that traditional agencies often can’t match.

We’ve worked with companies like Owens Corning, Decks & Docks, ClickUp, Four Loko, and Bussin Snacks — projects that pushed our creativity, delivered big results, and proved that this model works across industries.

At the core of Lithium is a simple belief: Make content that converts. Get it in front of the right audience. And don’t stop until it works.

Whether you’re a brand looking for that next level of growth or a business owner who’s ready to finally have marketing that feels like it gets you — Lithium is here to build something that lasts.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

The Time I Sold My Car to Make Payroll

I was 23, and my business was finally hitting a groove — the kind of momentum that makes you think, we’re really doing this. I had two employees working in-office, things were steady, and I felt like we were just getting started.

Then COVID hit. The world shut down. And so did nearly every one of our clients.

In what felt like overnight, ad budgets vanished. Projects were paused indefinitely. Revenue dropped to near zero. Meanwhile, payroll, rent, and overhead stayed exactly the same — and higher than anything I’d ever been responsible for.

Savings started draining fast. And I realized I had one last asset: my car. A 2015 Lexus I’d bought for $16K. By some miracle, the used car market was booming, and it was now worth $22K.

I found a local dealer, made the sale, and used every dollar to keep the business alive — to cover rent, pay my team, and buy time to rebuild. Thankfully, my mom let me borrow her car during that stretch. A few months later, we’d pivoted, landed new clients who wanted to reach people stuck at home, and I was able to buy a new (used) car of my own.

We made it. Barely.

That was the moment I knew I’d do whatever it takes to make sure my team gets paid. If it came down to it, I’d sell the shirt off my back. That’s just how I’m built.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

How I Met My Co-Founder, Jake

I met my co-founder, Jake, in 2021 — totally by chance. At the time, I had just moved my team into a new office. As fate would have it, my landlord (who also happens to be Jake’s dad) stopped me in the parking lot one day and said, “You need to meet my son — you two would hit it off.”

At first, I wasn’t thinking about a co-founder. I was deep in the advertising and paid media world, and Jake was focused on photography and video production. But not long after, I needed help with a video shoot — and Jake was the first person I called.

That one project turned into many. Every time we got a new inquiry for photo or video work, Jake was my go-to. He showed up. Always down to work, always down to travel, and most importantly — he fit in seamlessly with our team. He had the kind of creative instincts I respected, and a deep understanding of a world I knew just enough about to realize I needed someone like him.

By the end of 2024, we had just wrapped a massive project together, and I was ready to rebrand my company under a new name: The Lithium Agency. The idea of teaming up had come up before — but now it finally made sense. We had trust, momentum, and a shared vision.

So in January 2025, we made it official. We became business partners and started building Lithium together — combining world-class creative with performance-driven advertising under one roof.

Looking back, it’s wild to think a random introduction in a parking lot would lead to a full-blown partnership. But that’s how the best things usually start — unexpectedly, but exactly when they’re supposed to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lithiumagency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/accomplished/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatore-rosenblatt-016048144/