On the Road Again: The February of the Laurens

In our industry, travel is inevitable. Our clients are scattered across the country – from Staten Island (Hi, Charles and Ilana!) to Seattle (Hi, Hao!) and everywhere in between. Traveling for client meetings and conferences is pretty common, but February was a particularly heavy month. Lauren Kaminski and I (among others) had three trips planned together during that time, so we deemed it “The February of the Laurens.”

We kicked things off in New Orleans for a launch meeting with Smoothie King, the original smoothie and juice brand. We spent the first day cruising around in the Smoothie King van, visiting stores and sampling smoothies (rough life, I know). We got to experience firsthand how Smoothie King’s smoothies truly are so much different than the sugary calorie bombs its competitors are serving. Pro tip: Order the high-protein banana with extra peanut butter. You won’t be sorry.

That evening, we headed to the Smoothie King Center for a New Orleans Pelicans basketball game. The best part? We got to watch the game courtside. Our Matt Diaz spent the game essentially sitting next to and chatting with Jrue Holiday - so much so that when the game was over, Jrue walked over to personally say goodbye to Matt. The next morning’s meeting was incredibly successful; to say that we are excited to be partnering with Smoothie King would be a gross understatement. With 713 units and counting, Smoothie King is going to explode this year. Check out this Wall Street Journal article and see for yourself.

The month’s second trip was to IFA in Las Vegas. You can read my recap of the actual convention here, but the team-building and client moments are what made this a great trip. From talking to our clients and potential new clients (in between bites of Girl Scout Cookies) in our booth to a delicious final team dinner (EXCEPT SEAN, HE WAS TIRED) at Emeril’s, I challenge you to a find a team that’s more fun and more productive than No Limit. Watching Matt channel a carnival barker from the dunk tank was a major highlight. Jumping in the dunk tank to look for Sean’s lost phone only to find out that Nick had it the whole time… not so much.

Our final trip for February was back to New Orleans for the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK* conference. We spent three days listening to inspiring talks from President Randy Shacka and keynote speaker John DiJulius, among many others. I enjoyed hearing various members of the TWO MEN AND A TRUCK team talk about how important it is to tell the company’s stories – which is exactly what we tell our staff every day at No Limit. Our business is based on telling stories – and this conference gave us plenty of material!

We also acted as moderators for the cause marketing roundtable, which gave us some great face time with some of the brand’s most passionate franchisees. We brainstormed ideas about how to promote the various cause marketing programs, like Movers for Moms, Movers for Mutts and Movers for Military. Franchisees from across the country offered really solid ideas on what worked in their markets, which will make everyone’s programs stronger.

As I wrapped up February’s month of travel, I was grateful to have had face time with so many clients, and I headed back into the office feeling inspired and excited to keep telling their stories.

The February of the Laurens may be over, but our dedication to spreading the story of what makes each client unique is stronger than ever.