SteelToe Digital didn’t start in a classroom or behind a computer screen. It started in the Pro Services department at The Home Depot — and on the job sites, in the grease traps, and behind the wheel of the trucks our clients drive every day.
My name’s Alex Laldin, Principal Partner here at SteelToe Digital. I got my start at 18 pushing lumber carts and loading concrete bags in the summer Georgia heat.
It wasn’t glamorous, but it taught me something invaluable: work ethic. And more than that, it introduced me to the people who would change my career — contractors.
Working the 5 AM to 2 PM shift, I helped contractors get what they needed before the job site. Those early mornings turned into side jobs — renovating mobile homes, priming tar-stained subfloor, flexing metal roofs. I didn’t know it then, but I was laying the foundation for SteelToe Digital.
Back then, I was studying computer science and finance and figured I'd be writing code in a cubicle. But life had other plans. A contractor asked if I could build him a website. I said yes — that one project was more than I made in three weeks at Home Depot.
That led to another question: "Do you know anything about SEO?" I didn't, and I was honest about it. Turns out, it worked out well for both of us — I learned fast, diving into forums and tools and applying everything I could in real time.
Along the way I met a mentor — a wildly successful entrepreneur — and learned everything I know about leadership and running a business in the trenches next to him. It was that investment from someone I could never repay that let me walk away from retail and step fully into digital marketing. He's since passed, but his son and I still work together, having grown his little business into one of the most prominent in its field across the entire Southeast.
Before we talk strategy, you need to know something: we’ve lived your reality. One of my first clients — a septic service — hired me on one condition: that I come work with them. How could I market their business if I didn’t understand it?
I’ve run field lines and pumped septic tanks. To this day, one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had was opening a grease trap inside a Baskin-Robbins — I can still smell it. I also invested in and built a 7-figure tree service.
So when I sit across from a plumber, a roofer, a remediation expert, or a septic company and talk about scaling from $1M to $5M, I'm not quoting theory. I've done it. I'm still doing it.
That's the difference.
We're not a marketing agency. We're your business partner.
Some of our clients have been with us for over a decade. We've helped them go from "just getting by" to building businesses, changing their families' lives, becoming pillars in their communities — and even exiting their companies. They stay because we earn their trust, we get results, and we never forget where we came from.
Every decision at SteelToe Digital flows from a single guiding principle. For us, “Serve” isn’t a marketing tagline — it’s the lens we see everything through. It means acting in your best interest always, operating with honesty and integrity, putting ourselves in your shoes, and building relationships that last.
Serving means doing what's right even when no one's watching.
Too many owners see marketing as an expense — right next to the kid’s soccer fees and the truck payment. It’s not. Done right, marketing is a machine.
And when things slow down, when the economy gets tight — that’s when you double down. That’s when the right marketing becomes the difference between surviving and thriving.
A growth engine — not just the shiny truck it rides in.
From a one-man shop to a team generating real revenue for service businesses across the Southeast.
Company founded.
Digital advertising services offered.
$20 million in revenue generated for our clients.
SteelToe Digital puts your brand on the web.
410+ campaigns launched and a team built to scale you.
I come from the restaurant world — the long shifts, the hot lines, the pressure of Friday night service. I’ve been a chef, a coach, and a systems guy. I’ve never worked directly in the trades, but I’ve lived in the same rhythm: work hard, take care of your people, do what you say you’re going to do.
When Alex and I met, it was clear we shared more than marketing ideas. We both coach. We both believe in doing things the right way. Because let’s be real — if you do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, and treat people right, you’re already better than 90% of your competition.
Whether you’re just getting started or taking your business to the next level, we’re here to build something real with you — with marketing that works as hard as you do.
Free 15-min call · No contracts · No pressure