Growth Club
1851 Growth Club
Happy Birthday, No Limit Agency—You Did It
In celebration of No Limit Agency's 8th Birthday, take a moment to reminisce about some of the company's greatest moments.
On March 3, 2008, I took a risk—a risk that would not allow for a rewind. I jumped off the entrepreneurial ledge and started No Limit Media Consulting. Today, I can look back on that decision and confidently say that the last eight years have been nothing short of amazing.
In celebration of our 8th Birthday, I wanted to share some of the greatest moments from each year we’ve been in business.
2008
Our first office was in Marietta, Georgia. It was a stone’s throw away from a Starbucks. Ever since, I try to maintain that same guiding principle when choosing a location—if a Starbucks is near, then we are interested in occupying the space. Now, we have two Starbucks coffeehouses in our building in downtown Chicago.
We started off as a social media agency. It seemed like a great idea for the time—no one had created anything similar at that point. To start, we built MySpace profiles and Facebook groups for our clients. But seemingly overnight, every ad agency turned into a Social agency. To this day, I still believe that was the right move to get us started—but ultimately, PR prevailed.
Very early on, I was also lucky to find the greatest inspiration to fuel this business—my wife, Sharon. She may have rejected me three times (including at the Roark Holiday Party), but eventually, she said yes.
2009
We moved into our second office in Decatur, Georgia. President Barack Obama ran his Georgia campaign from that space prior to us taking over. It was a former AAMCO location, and the landlord turned each garage bay into a loft office. There was a strip club across the parking lot, too. We have come a long way since those days.
We signed Wireless Zone, Wing Zone and Toppers Pizza* that year—and we still work with them. Genuine relationships lead to great results. I am appreciative for the relationships that have remained strong throughout the years.
Lois Coker started working at NLMC in 2009. She left. And then came back in 2015. It’s pretty cool when the bridge does not get burned as life moves forward.
2010
We doubled the size of our office space in Decatur—taking on a second garage bay. We were pretty disruptive early on and had a wonderful staff committed to competing. I appreciate all of you who were a part of the journey from the beginning.
We started working with Coupon Cabin in 2010—our contact was Lauren Boukas (now Moorman). She has since turned into our VP of Client Services
2011
I married my better half in 2011. She has supported every risk I have taken. I am grateful for that. She is our CFO, and I’m lucky to have the smartest financial person I know managing our money.
We relocated to Chicago (keeping Decatur open until August 2012). And by relocate, I mean that our staff started occupying my new home in Chicago through October 2011 to April 2012. Having 12 people working out of your home is pretty insane.
We hired our first Chicago employee—a friend of mine from Chicago, who was also from my old agency. He was a great addition and important piece of the puzzle in our relocation.
2012
In April 2012, we located our office to Chicago & Franklin. It was a wonderful home and helped elevate our recruiting of great talent in Chicago.
We changed our name from No Limit Media Consulting to No Limit Agency*—in doing so, we made a commitment to our clients that we would figure out a way to be disruptive in every form of communications. It was a great decision.
On May 18, we unveiled the first issue of 1851—marking the beginning of our journey into digital publishing. We haven’t looked back since.
2013
Our staff broke the 20 people mark—a monumental moment for our agency that started with one person (me) and one intern (Carrie). We’ve certainly come a long way.
That year, we also hired the first President of No Limit Agency. He was the right decision for that time period. I appreciate the contributions he made.
2014
Happy Birthday, Sean Fitzgerald—he has been in my life from client to groomsman to partner in crime with 1851. He left behind a career of franchise development for a chance to help me bottle unicorns with 1851. Thank you.
My brother left our company to become press secretary for a senator. Good move. But I still miss seeing him every day.
“Fox & Friends,” Wall Street Journal, “TODAY Show,” “Good Morning America,” “Early Show,” “Undercover Boss,” USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, Kiplinger’s, Associated Press, New York Times—NLA set the record for most interviews and secured placements in a year (spoiler alert: we broke this record again in 2015.)
2015
In March 2015, we launched the current form of 1851—giving brands a platform to tell their stories in a controlled way and deliver it to a controlled audience. The large investment has paid off for the brands using it. We crossed over 200,000 readers on the site—all interested in franchising news.
In June 2015, we relocated the office to the 19th floor of the Prudential Building. This is an iconic building in the heart of downtown Chicago, giving NLA and 1851 the chance to be iconic companies.
We hired our first VP of Digital and our first VP of 1851—two big moves that marked incredible growth of our original business plan.
2016
1851 has on-boarded a client a week throughout 2016. We will continue to offer great service, strategy, relationships and results to those who jump aboard this bus.
We also had a wonderful IFA convention. We brought 11 people.
Happy 8th Birthday, No Limit Agency. It’s been a great ride so far. Pinch me.
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
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