Live from No Limit: 4 business lessons I've learned from SNL

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I started at No Limit Agency* in June and consider myself lucky to work with such an incredible group of people. I am a huge fan of “Saturday Night Live” and have noticed parallels between the show and our agency. With the season premiere this weekend (“schwing!”), I present four things I’ve learned from my all-time favorite show.

One Crazy Idea is All You Need If someone would have said, “I have the funniest idea for a character: It’s this woman who loves working at Target and gets super excited to ring people up to see what they buy,” you probably wouldn’t have cracked a smile. I’m sure that when Kristen Wiig first presented it, people thought she was nuts, but the Target Lady quickly became an iconic recurring character. Before he broke out as a movie star, Will Ferrell put himself on the map in the late '90s with SNL characters like the Spartan Cheerleaders and his impressions of Alex Trebek and George W. Bush. But for every Debbie Downer and Church Lady character that takes off, dozens of other ideas are discarded in the writers' room each week at SNL. At No Limit, we’re constantly coming up with out-of-the-box pitching angles. Some are great – like TV segments for TWO MEN AND A TRUCK*® showing viewers how to make Halloween costumes out of empty moving boxes – and some don’t quite hit the mark. Luckily, in PR, it’s not about quantity, it’s about quality, and one great idea is all you need to put your client in the press. Digital Is King When Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island started doing Digital Shorts in 2005, it was totally unprecedented and strayed from the classic SNL formula. “Lazy Sunday” introduced the world to the quirky charm of Samberg, showed off Chris Parnell’s rapping chops and enabled SNL to connect with a younger audience. At No Limit, with each passing day, digital becomes more and more prevalent. Whether it’s creating a new franchise development website for a client or shifting our strategy alongside the quickly changing social-media landscape, digital is no longer a novelty, it’s a mainstay. The People Matter To promote their new movie “The Skeleton Twins,” Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader went on a press tour last week, which was easily the highlight of my week. I’ve always loved their on-screen chemistry (particularly in The Californians), but their off-screen chemistry is just as palpable. On “Watch What Happens Live,” they could barely get through a sentence without cracking the other person up. It’s similar to how I feel at NLA. This group of hardworking, crazy and fun people makes coming into work every day a breeze. In between client calls and meetings, we laugh, do SNL-worthy impressions (ahem, Brian Jaeger), sing songs and truly enjoy each other’s company. Without this as a foundation, we could not be a successful agency. Celebrate the Good Stuff When I first started working at NLA, I was happily surprised to learn that the whole agency gets together every Friday afternoon to celebrate the “wins of the week” over drinks. After a long week of hard work, we get to kick back, laugh and get our minds straight for the week to come. It is unlike anything I’ve experienced and sets the tone for the weekend. Our weekly wins are similar to “good nights” at SNL, when that week’s host ends the show by thanking the cast and you can see all the cast members onstage, high-fiving and hugging each other. Taking the time to celebrate hard work is key to avoiding burnout and keeps employees happy.