Over the holidays at ELEVATE, our diets often consisted of cashews, generic licorice, beef sticks and, in Jared’s case, Pierre’s sandwiches. Which probably caused all of us to grow in a way that’s not necessarily health-conscious. But during that time the company was growing in a healthy way – in clients, projects, brain power, building size, employee counts and the list goes on.

While we may not be excited about our new waistlines, we are proud of ELEVATE’s growth. We started in 2009 with a petite client list that quickly expanded to include three AOR’s and many other clients and projects. It’s a trend that has already continued in 2010, starting off with two new business pitches within the first five days of the year.

And at one year old, we’re happy. At my daughter’s first birthday party, she was ecstatic with the cake that was as big as her head and the mounds of gifts our families gave to her. We are that happy. Maybe a little happier.

We’re anxious to be in the new space – of which the build-out is coming along very well. And we’re happy that two, talented people accepted offers to join our team (more on them later!)

ELEVATE is growing and we’re proud and happy, excited and anxious. Thanks for a great first year and here’s to an even better year #2.

We’ve been going a hundred different directions lately, which is all good. Except there’s one thing that’s been on the top of my list that I just haven’t been able to get to — the introduction of Lisa Minken, our newest account director. She’s smart, talented and she can sing. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Lisa joins us from Opera Columbus where she served as director of marketing and public relations. But it’s more than her experience that brought her here. Once again, it’s all about relationships at ELEVATE. I’ve known Lisa for nearly ten years and I’m excited to work with her. Her personality, attitude and dedication fits right in with the rest of us.

Of course, her talents and skills are also a great fit. Her background includes work in healthcare, apparel, durable goods and propane industries, as well as profit, nonprofit and agency work. This is someone who knows how to provide amazing work in campaign development and implementation, event planning, community engagement and more.

Which is going to come in handy as she provides ELEVATE with stellar internal communication and project support on-the-ground at Adena. Well, not actually on-the-ground… We got her a chair on her third day. Along with adding another level of organization and account management to the group, we’re also proud that she’ll continue to support Opera Columbus while at ELEVATE.

Learn more about Lisa and ask her to sing you a song @LisaMinken