Bellmont Partners Celebrates 29 Years

Ah, 1996. Movie­go­ers flocked to see Will Smith in “Inde­pen­dence Day,” the “Macare­na” hit the top of the music charts and Tick­le Me Elmo gig­gled and shook its way into homes across the country.

Amid all the aliens blow­ing up land­marks, glob­al dance crazes and Mup­pet laugh­ing fits, Bell­mont Part­ners was born. It was a weird, won­der­ful year, and kicked off a near­ly three-decade adven­ture that gets even weird­er and more won­der­ful every day.

To com­mem­o­rate our 29^th, we asked our team to share some fun facts about our agency. Read on to learn a bit more about our sto­ry, peo­ple, cul­ture and shenanigans.

About BP

1. “When Bri­an and Jen told me they were going to start their own agency, they said that they want­ed to build some­thing dif­fer­ent – not your typ­i­cal agency. And, they did it. Long-term clients and employ­ees are just part of the proof of true part­ner­ship. I feel very lucky to be a part of it.” – Kath­leen Hennessey
2. “Bri­an, Jen and I met 29 years ago at Weber Shand­wick and have been friends ever since. In the very ear­ly days of Bell­mont Part­ners, they invit­ed me to part­ner with them on sev­er­al free­lance projects. From the start, I could see what a uni­corn the agency was and is – from how they approached clients and oth­ers like me as true part­ners to liv­ing out their core val­ues of col­lab­o­ra­tion, trans­paren­cy, flex­i­bil­i­ty and con­nec­tion. Fast for­ward 29 years, and they con­tin­ue as ser­vant lead­ers who walk the talk.” – Shel­li Lissick
3. “A con­stant across Bell­mont Part­ners’ 29 years is authen­tic sto­ry­telling. We have the amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with orga­ni­za­tions from all around the world, reach­ing audi­ences all around the world. No mat­ter where our clients are based, or who they are try­ing to con­nect with, we lis­ten, ask ques­tions and dig into what makes them unique. Then, we craft mes­sag­ing and strate­gies that will not only help their sto­ries shine but will also deliv­er the busi­ness results they’re look­ing for.” – Sara Grasmon
4. “About six months after we moved into our first office in 2011, a for­mer work­out stu­dio in Pri­or Lake, a woman dressed in full exer­cise garb showed up and was hop­ing to start exer­cis­ing again. We couldn’t accom­mo­date her, but we con­sid­ered ask­ing her to help write a press release.” – Bri­an Bellmont
5. “Mov­ing from the small Pri­or Lake office to our cur­rent Edi­na office in ear­ly 2014 is a favorite mem­o­ry and water­shed moment in our growth tra­jec­to­ry!” – Brid­get Nel­son Monroe
6. “Bell­mont Part­ners embraced a hybrid work approach years before it became com­mon in 2020, while also con­tin­u­ing to invest in our beau­ti­ful office space in Edi­na. Per­son­al­ly, I ben­e­fit from this and our dig­i­tal col­lab­o­ra­tion great­ly as a remote team mem­ber based in Duluth.” – Mic­ah Carroll

Supporting Our People

7. “Bell­mont Part­ners con­tin­ues to put its peo­ple first. After being here for near­ly 13 years, I’ve seen plen­ty of changes, but cul­ture, ben­e­fits and work/life bal­ance remain pri­or­i­ties.” – Megan Anderson
8. “Every­one cares about one anoth­er and their fam­i­lies, along with doing great work. We’re nev­er forced to sac­ri­fice one of those to achieve the oth­er.” – Kalli Plump
9. “The col­lab­o­ra­tive nature of the team means we each are able to cre­ate suc­cess­ful and mean­ing­ful work for our clients. We are a team of extreme­ly tal­ent­ed pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als, and we also gen­uine­ly care for one anoth­er. We cheer team­mates on dur­ing accom­plish­ments and are there to lift each oth­er up in dif­fi­cult times.” – Krista Kuzma
10. “Every per­son is respect­ed at Bell­mont Part­ners, no mat­ter where they’re at in their career. I’ve always felt val­ued, ever since day one as an intern, and Bell­mont Part­ners has sup­port­ed all facets of my growth.” – Hope Hansen
11. “At Bell­mont Part­ners, there’s flex­i­bil­i­ty to work at a top agency while pri­or­i­tiz­ing fam­i­ly respon­si­bil­i­ties in a way that match­es my core val­ues.” – Angela Seutter
12. “There’s sense of com­mu­ni­ty that is shared by the entire team, not only at the pro­fes­sion­al lev­el, but more specif­i­cal­ly the com­pas­sion and enthu­si­asm that is shown to those who are hav­ing life moments that are up or down, the team is there to sup­port and ele­vate their co-work­ers.” – Andrew Fritz

Evolving as an Agency and Professionals

13. “Our agency, team and work have evolved over the years. This has pro­vid­ed the abil­i­ty to work on a vari­ety of projects and in a wide vari­ety of indus­tries, which has allowed our team to find what we tru­ly love and hone skills to devel­op pro­fes­sion­al­ly. Think­ing back to ALL of the projects we’ve worked on and how many times we’ve col­lec­tive­ly said, ‘I can’t believe I get paid to do this!’ is prob­a­bly the best way to sum up all of the great work (and fun!) we have at Bell­mont Part­ners!” – Bre­an­na Welke
14. “Our team and orga­ni­za­tion have a cul­ture of life­long learn­ing. I’ve been set up for suc­cess when work­ing in new ele­ments and expand­ing skillsets. Pro­fes­sion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, paired with coach­ing, has helped me grow immea­sur­ably in my time at BP.” – Gretchen Sitzer
15. “We have a sharp team, with many hav­ing spent the last decade work­ing togeth­er. Our blend of tenured and ris­ing tal­ent makes our team dynam­ic. We pack a punch with our cre­ativ­i­ty and results-dri­ven work.” – Mic­ah Carroll
16. “Bell­mont Part­ners is an amaz­ing place that nur­tures devel­op­ment. The team has sup­port­ed my pas­sion for the health space, pro­vid­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to grow and evolve Bell­mont Part­ners Health through­out the years. The company’s suc­cess and growth has been such an incred­i­ble jour­ney to be a part of.” – Hye­di Nelson
17. “Month­ly Lunch & Learn ses­sions give us the oppor­tu­ni­ty to hear about new top­ics, client case stud­ies, busi­ness updates, out­side ven­dors and dig­i­tal tools that help us work more effec­tive­ly and effi­cient­ly. L&Ls also give us a chance (or an excuse) to catch up and con­nect with each oth­er in the office.” – Katie Fitzpatrick
18. “Bell­mont always gives oppor­tu­ni­ties for and encour­ages con­tin­ued learn­ing and growth both pro­fes­sion­al­ly and per­son­al­ly. Because of this, we’re able to show up as the best ver­sions of our­selves for our team and for our incred­i­ble clients.” – Julie Goulette

Giving Back

19. “Our Bell­mont Gives Back pro­gram is tru­ly unique, allow­ing team mem­bers to give of their time dur­ing the work­day to caus­es they sup­port and care about. From local non-prof­its, school fundrais­ers, muse­um tours and more, the team has ded­i­cat­ed count­less hours to giv­ing back through this impact­ful employ­er-sup­port­ed pro­gram!” – Saman­tha Liebhard
20. “On top of our paid indi­vid­ual vol­un­teer time to sup­port caus­es we care about, Bell­mont Part­ners also donates com­pa­ny time for pro bono projects. These oppor­tu­ni­ties to use our pro­fes­sion­al skills to help non­prof­its and events we believe in is a true tes­ta­ment to the val­ues of our lead­ers and team mem­bers.” – Sara Grasmon
21. “For almost a decade, our Bell­mont Gives Back pro­gram has made an impact on our com­mu­ni­ties while enrich­ing our team and broad­en­ing the ser­vice we’re able to pro­vide to our clients. Between vol­un­teer­ing at our own schools/churches, con­nect­ing with non­prof­its who need pro bono com­mu­ni­ca­tions sup­port or just find­ing a pas­sion project, we col­lec­tive­ly con­tribute thou­sands of hours to dozens of orga­ni­za­tions each year.” – Jen Bellmont
22. “The com­mit­ment to giv­ing back is at the core of who we are! We are all bet­ter when we share our time and tal­ents to make the world a bet­ter place!” – Mau­reen Cahill

Eclectic – and Fun!

23. “Bell­mont Part­ners encour­ages our team mem­bers to be their authen­tic selves. It’s refresh­ing and inspir­ing to have an office cul­ture where indi­vid­u­al­i­ty is val­ued and col­lab­o­ra­tion thrives because of it. Since we all come from dif­fer­ent back­grounds and have tak­en dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sion­al paths on our jour­ney to BP, we have a wide-rang­ing mix of skills and inter­ests. It’s this diver­si­ty that makes us a stronger and more dynam­ic team.” – Stacey Robertson
24. “We are encour­aged to pur­sue our pas­sions and bring those to the table. If you love cri­sis com­mu­ni­ca­tions, we’ll find a way for you to work on fast-paced projects. If you’re into sus­tain­abil­i­ty (like I am!), we’ll help you set up a com­mit­tee of like-mind­ed folks. If you’re a huge fan of the State Fair, you’ll be able to get your fill by sup­port­ing clients on the ground. There tru­ly is space and sup­port for every­one’s unique skills and tal­ents!” – Johan­na Holub
25. “At Bell­mont Part­ners, fun team shenani­gans are a reg­u­lar occur­rence. It’s usu­al­ly not just a stan­dard hap­py hour – from corn hole tour­na­ments to water­mel­on-themed par­ties, just to name a few from this sum­mer, there’s always fun (and some­times sil­ly) team bond­ing to be had.” – Syd­ney Schoeberle
26. “At one point, we found out that every team mem­ber had played at least one musi­cal instru­ment or was in a musi­cal as a kid – some still play or par­tic­i­pate in local per­for­mances. We’re a music-lov­ing bunch!” – Megan Derkey
27. “We like to have fun togeth­er. It’s some­times as sim­ple as hid­ing weird things around the office for each oth­er to dis­cov­er, like a card­board cutout of Dan­ny DeVi­to or a “creepy San­ta” doll! Or cre­at­ing a shared Spo­ti­fy playlist of the team’s favorite throw­backs from 1996 to com­mem­o­rate the agen­cy’s birth­day.” – Johan­na Holub
28. “Many of us on the team are trav­el and out­door recre­ation enthu­si­asts. We’re for­tu­nate to get to sup­port clients in these indus­tries and encour­age respon­si­ble tourism, and we also weave these pas­sions into our BP rela­tion­ships and social out­ings. Whether it’s shar­ing favorite Min­neso­ta State Park camp­grounds ideas, plan­ning a team hike at a local park or pass­ing along buck­et list trip itin­er­ary to a col­league, we love and live trav­el and out­door recre­ation.” – Sara Grasmon
29. “Every­thing comes back to pop cul­ture at BP! From very mem­o­rable out­ings with pop cul­ture icons to the buzz on Teams or in the office about the lat­est news, there’s often a through line of pop cul­ture in almost every­thing.” – Megan Derkey

Here’s to the incred­i­ble clients, col­lab­o­ra­tors and col­leagues who have been a part of our 29-year jour­ney. The work has been ful­fill­ing, but it’s the peo­ple who have made all the difference.

Stay tuned for plans to cel­e­brate the big 3–0 with us in 2026. We promise: Tick­le Me Elmo is not invited.