From Fenway Park to Performance Marketing: Why I Built ControlClick
March 2020. My wife Chelsea and I were sitting on the couch in our Boynton Beach, FL home, both of us trying to process what had just happened. I’d lost my job three days earlier – right at the beginning of a global pandemic. Severance package? Nah, I started that job six weeks prior. We were on our own. I had given myself a few days to feel bad for myself, but very quickly after getting laid off, I knew my plan.
“So what are you going to do?” she asked.
I took a deep breath. “I’m going to try something different.”
That conversation changed everything. But to understand why I built ControlClick – and why it matters for your business – I need to take you back to the beginning.
The Unlikely Journey from Sports to Search
If you’d told me in 2004, standing in Fenway Park as a Red Sox intern (yes, I take full credit for breaking the curse), that I’d eventually become a digital marketing specialist, I would have laughed. Back then, I was all about sports. University of Florida sports management degree. MBA with a concentration in sports administration. Internships with USA Hockey, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and FAU Athletics.
I was going to be the next great Theo Epstein. That was the plan.
But here’s the thing about plans – life has a way of redirecting them. It turns out I stopped enjoying my career in sports, and turning a passion into a career turned me off. To work in sports you need to be willing to grind, move every year or so, and kiss goodbye to sleep during the season. It just wasn’t for me.
In 2008, my mom had accidentally launched my digital marketing career by meeting my future boss in a doctor’s waiting room. She thought he was a pharmaceutical rep and wanted to chat. He was sick but happy to talk. I called, got an interview, crushed it, and was on my way.
I found myself at Cell Science Systems as a marketing/brand manager, building my first Google AdWords campaign. That campaign increased website sales by $85,000 year-over-year. I was hooked. There was something intoxicating about the immediate feedback, the data, the ability to directly impact revenue. Sports would always be my first love, but digital marketing had become my career.
The Agency Years: Learning What Not to Do
From 2013 to 2019, I climbed the traditional digital marketing ladder. At Cendyn, I went from analyst to managing a team of 11 people handling $14 million in PPC billings. At Bullseye Strategy, I ran search and analytics as Senior Director. I managed millions in ad spend for Fortune 500 companies, drove 290% increases in conversions, rebuilt entire PPC programs from scratch.
On paper, I was killing it. But something was eating at me.
Every client meeting followed the same script: 45 minutes of reviewing last month’s report that nobody really understood, 10 minutes of answering confused questions, 5 minutes rushing through what we’d do next. Clients would nod along, pretending to understand what a “conversion” was, while secretly wondering if any of this was actually working.
The worst part? The deliberate mystification. I watched agencies create dependency instead of capability. They lock you in with a proprietary platform, hide their actual strategies, and ensure clients could never leave without having to start over.
The agency model bothered me and knew I wanted to do things differently.
The Breaking Point
By early 2020, I was Digital Marketing Manager at Expedited Travel, managing sizable paid search budgets and things were good. However, a new opportunity came along and I took it. Life was great for six weeks.
Then COVID hit.
The travel industry collapsed overnight. And on Wednesday, March 11th, 2020, I was let go. Just like that, after 12 years of building my career, I was driving home with no severance package, no financial security, and no idea what to do in the face of a global health crisis like we haven’t seen in ages.
I spent three days in a funk, but on the inside I knew what direction the universe was pulling me. Not gonna lie – I ate a lot of ice cream and questioned everything. After a few days of wallowing, I set my intention on that Sunday and on Monday I was going to take my first steps toward controlling my own destiny as a full time marketing consultant.
That’s when Matt reached out. He was building a new division at The Motley Fool and needed some SEO help. We worked together at Bullseye Strategy and he was very influential on my career.
“I need some help with some SEO projects.” he said. “Can you help?”
It Was Meant To Be
That first day, it’s like it all started to come together. “Yes, of course I’ll help you out!” I said to Matt. And we were off. A few days later I was introduced to the team, started training, and I was off.
Then, new projects started to come up. I created a real estate training program with a longtime friend. I was introduced to new clients through friends. People started reaching out.
I didn’t do anything, really, except set my intention, and the universe brought new business to me. I don’t know if it was because I needed it and my eyes were now open to it, it was more noticeable, or if it was plain luck. But my network came to me in a time of need – without me even asking.
All of a sudden within a few months I had four or five clients and I was making a real living.
One of the most influential books I have ever read was How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to. It shaped how I wanted to interact with people and put into words the way I thought some principles I always felt were important.
Regardless of why that business came to me, I’m thankful and grateful to everyone who has helped me out.
The Birth of ControlClick
Word spread. New clients came along, some clients left, and I kept growing. They referred me to others. Without any marketing, without a website, without even business cards, I had more clients than I could handle.
After five years of doing business as “Daniel Lassman,” I decided I needed a business name. A brand. Something that captured what made my approach approach different.
One evening, I was explaining my philosophy to Chelsea – how I wanted to give clients control over their marketing, how every click should be intentional and understood, not mysterious.
She grabbed a notebook and started writing. An hour later, she looked up: “ControlClick.” Perfect.
The ControlClick Difference: Radical Transparency
Here’s what makes us different, and why it matters for your business:
We open the books – literally. You get full access to every account, every platform, every decision. No black boxes. No “proprietary systems.” No mystique. When we meet, I share my screen and show you the actual account. We look at real data together. You see what I see.
We teach while we optimize. Every change we make, you understand why. Not because you need to become a Google Ads expert, but because you should understand what you’re investing in. My goal isn’t to create dependency – it’s to make you dangerous enough to never be taken advantage of again.
We focus on business metrics, not vanity metrics. I don’t care about impressions if they don’t drive revenue. We tie every campaign to real business outcomes. If it doesn’t impact your bottom line, we don’t celebrate it.
We build systems, not campaigns. Anyone can launch ads. We build sustainable marketing systems with guardrails that prevent waste and guidelines that ensure growth. Think of it as the difference between giving you fish and teaching you to run a fishing business.
What We Actually Do
At ControlClick, we work with two types of clients:
Growth-focused businesses that are tired of the agency circus. They’ve been burned by the “trust us, we’re experts” approach. They want transparency, education, real partnership, and results. We manage their Google Ads, Meta campaigns, and full-funnel marketing – but always with complete visibility and understanding.
Marketing teams that need strategic guidance, not more execution. Through our coaching programs, we work with in-house marketers, entrepreneurs, and even other agencies to level up their capabilities. These aren’t theoretical courses – it’s practical, hands-on training using real accounts and real budgets.
The 90-day coaching programs are my favorite. We meet weekly, dive deep into strategy, and transform how people think about digital marketing. One client told me, “You taught me more in three months than I learned in five years at agencies.” That’s the goal.
The Results Speak for Themselves
I’ve now managed over $30 million in ad spend across 50+ industries. I’ve worked with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to local roofing businesses. The results aren’t just about ROAS or conversion rates (though those consistently improve).
The real results are in the transformation:
- CMOs who can happily shares results in board meetings
- Business owners who see the growth that their former agencies missed
- Marketing managers who get promoted because they drove growth through our marketing channels
- Entrepreneurs who build million-dollar businesses using strategies we developed together
I’m not just a marketer. I help build departments, processes and growth campaigns.
Why This Matters Now
The digital marketing world is changing rapidly. AI is revolutionizing how we create and optimize campaigns. Privacy changes are reshaping targeting. The old “set it and forget it” approach never worked, and it won’t even with AI for a long time.
You need more than an agency – you need a partner who ensures you’re not left behind. Someone who explains the changes, teaches you to adapt, and builds your capability to thrive in whatever comes next.
That’s what ControlClick is about. Not dependency, but empowerment. Not mystique, but mastery. Not confusion, but control.
The Philosophy That Drives Everything
I learned something important from my mom in the years before she passed. She had this way of listening – really listening – that made you feel heard and understood. She’d ask questions that cut straight to the heart of things. No pretense, no judgment, just genuine curiosity and care.
That’s how I approach every client relationship. Listen first, prescribe second. Understand the business before touching the campaign. Treat people how you’d want to be treated – with respect, honesty, and transparency.
The traditional agency model is broken. It’s built on information asymmetry, manufactured complexity, and intentional dependency. It treats clients like ATMs instead of partners.
We’re building something different. An agency model for the AI era where:
- Transparency beats mystique
- Teaching beats gatekeeping
- Capability beats dependency
- Partnership beats transaction
Ready to Take Control?
I’m not for everyone, and that’s intentional.
If you want someone to pat you on the head, tell you everything’s fine, and keep you in the dark while spending your money, there are plenty of agencies happy to oblige.
But if you want a partner who will:
- Show you exactly what’s happening in your accounts
- Teach you to spot opportunities and threats
- Build sustainable systems that scale
- Tell you the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable
- Celebrate when you don’t need us anymore
Then we should talk.
I only take on 5-8 clients at a time because real partnership requires real attention. I don’t have a team of junior associates to hand you off to. When you work with ControlClick, you work with me – directly, transparently, honestly.
Your marketing is too important to leave in a black box. Your growth is too critical to trust to mystique and jargon. Your business deserves better than the agency status quo.
Welcome to ControlClick.
Let’s fix what’s broken in digital marketing – starting with your campaigns.