Enterprise welcomes new sales associate

Published 2:36 pm Monday, October 5, 2026

The Washington County Enterprise has added Isaiah Markworth to its advertising sales staff.

Markworth will work primarily out of the Enterprise’s Blair office. He is also expected to work with the Burt County Independent in Burt County, Nebraska, and the Harrison County Times-Reporter in Harrison County, Iowa.

Markworth said he learned about the position through Echo Estep, the Enterprise’s sales manager. “She brought it to me, and I thought it would be a great opportunity,” he said.

Markworth previously worked in construction. “I had been working in construction since my junior and sophomore year of high school,” he said. “Over time, I found that I didn’t really like working in the elements. I didn’t mind the work itself, but the temperature was huge for me.”

He said both heat and cold bothered him. “I started to move into more insulated positions,” Markworth said. “And when I heard about this one, it just sounded like the best opportunity I had been presented with.”

Markworth said he was extremely nervous during his first face-to-face meeting with a client.

“I think that kind of similar experience continued for a couple weeks,” he said. “And then since that point, I think I’ve gotten more and more familiar. You know, I still feel uncomfortable every now and then going into a business, especially in towns other than Blair, where, you know, sometimes I don’t even know who I’m looking for.”

“I get anxious when I do that,” he said. “But I think that’s one of the best things about this job is that it kind of forces me to go against my own nature and do things that I don’t think there’s any way I would have done outside of this job.”

Markworth said he has grown more comfortable both inside and outside the office. “I’ve become a lot more familiar with the people of the office and that kind of team environment and solidarity, you know, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable being myself around the office,” he said. “And then going into a random business thinking, you know, I don’t even know what I’m gonna say or anything, and then having a successful encounter kind of shows to me that things aren’t as bad as they are in my head. And it makes it a lot easier to just chill out.”

“I think the anxiety is so much worse than the actual interaction,” he said.

Asked how many people he has met in Blair, Markworth said, “I would say probably over 100.”

He described the office environment as “welcoming, helpful.”

“I think everyone around here is always willing to help someone else out, no matter what, basically,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, ‘Oh, that’s not my job.’ I’ve never heard somebody say, ‘That’s not my job.’ But I have heard a lot of, ‘Do you need help with this?'”

Markworth said several sales calls have gone better than he expected, especially when he first started. “There was a lot of times I thought, ‘Oh, this guy doesn’t like me, this person. There’s no way they would buy an ad from me,'” he said. “And then, you know, I go visit them again, and they’re saying they’re happy to see me. They’re purchasing ads.”

“I think that also goes into kind of alleviating my tension around here and helping me be more relaxed in general,” he said.

Asked about his goals for the next year, Markworth said, “Well, a year is a long time.”

“I would say there’s aspects in multiple areas,” he said. “Obviously, financially I’d like to be successful. And that starts with bringing in the business and helping the paper be more successful. Other areas, you know, I would like to improve things around the office. There’s still a lot of things I don’t know, a lot of things I’m learning. But I think over the next year, in the areas that I can, I would like to help improve.”

Businesses interested in advertising or sponsorship opportunities can contact Markworth at 402-297-8298 or isaiah.markworth@enterprisepub.com.