This weekend, as millions of people celebrate Valentine's Day, take a moment to thank the people you love.
This week, millions of people will celebrate Valentine’s Day. Sure, it’s another cheesy excuse to give a Hallmark card as a way to express your love for the ones you care about most (unless, of course, you are more of a hopeless romantic). But for me, it’s a chance to say thank you.
Thank you, Sharon.
As many of you know, when I started No Limit Media Consulting (now No Limit Agency*), I quit my job, broke up with a girlfriend and moved to Atlanta. And it was 2008—meaning I picked the worst economy of our lives to take the biggest career risk of my life in a city I knew no one in (INSERT SLAP OF OLD SELF).
When I moved to Atlanta, I had some great support. First, my parents gave me a loan to double my savings (to a whopping $8,000). Second, from the start, I had the great support of some franchise people in Atlanta. Third, I had my basketball team—which, ultimately, led me to my wife. Let me explain.
In Atlanta, I didn’t know many people. I relied on Stan Friedman (now of
FRM) to have dinner with me on a weekly basis; Jerome Allen (my first Atlanta friend) to join me in awkwardly (care to see me dance?) hitting the club scene in Atlanta; and various random people I met or knew from Chicago to keep me company during some of those first lonesome nights. To help fill out my empty social calendar, I also joined the JCC (thanks to a recommendation from Matt Friedman of
Wing Zone), where I played in an amazing pick-up and basketball league and signed up to coach a little kid’s basketball team.
When I agreed to coach the kid’s team, I requested the support of an assistant coach,
Mitchell Kopelman. He was the dad of one of the best players on the team (we only won one game—against the other JCC team—so take that with a grain of salt); he was in the franchise industry as a partner at a big CPA firm in Atlanta (
HA&W); and, most importantly, he was the boss of my future wife.
Everything has a weird way of making sense over time.
Being that the franchise world is smaller—and even smaller in Atlanta—I found myself hobnobbing at various franchise business events. At the Roark Capital holiday party in 2008, I saw Mitchell and decided to say hello. He introduced me to a young lady (then 27) named Sharon, who he had brought to the party (primarily to work the room for new business). Still having a knack for immature moments (I, too, was 27), I tried my best pick-up lines and failed—only to later leverage my knowledge of social media (a.k.a creeping) to find Sharon and ask her out again, and again, until she finally said yes.
Persistence paid off.
Without Sharon, I am not sure the business would be where it is today. Not only is she the most supportive wife to someone on a fast-paced mission to create the greatest mid-sized agency that ever existed, she is an amazing CFO and protector of the company. Even more valuable than her commitment to NLA is the venting shoulder and sound advice she provides me. She has been an important rock to success.
Many talk about the inside operations—those important people who help you go from good to great. I believe external support and foundation is just as essential.
Sharon, I probably don’t say it enough—so, here it is in the public eye—thank you. Happy Valentine’s Day.
*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.
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