Here are the pictures and a video from Kerri and Michael’s Engagement Party. Beth threw a great Vegas night event. You can click one to view it or start a slideshow. The video, below the pics, will blow up to full screen easily.

This gallery will not look good on the iPad. There’s a geeky explanation, but I’ll skip it for now.

You can leave comments below the video if you like.

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Engagement Party from Bill Dotson on Vimeo.

Happy New Year!

So here’s the list of who & what I’m thankful for:

• My boys: Parker, Nash, and Ian
• My mother for helping me keep it together and always being there
• Beth and MB for allowing me to be a part of their lives (and their family is great)
• My neighbors, Martina, Jon, and Adrian
• My doc who suggested starting krav maga
• My friends — I hope other people have friends like I do — Jeff, Steve R, David P, Jason, Phil, David H, Steve A, Ed & Brandy, John W, Debbie G, Matt
• Traditional Bank – Sarah and Buddy
• Vistage: Lou and the speakers
• WebMedley
  • The team is better than ever
  • Our clients who help us progress and allow us the opportunity to help their companies grow
  • The lesson that great work needs little said about it
  • All the referrals from our clients and fans of the company
  • The lesson that all change requires friction and energy
  • Clients and co-workers who are also friends
• Things I am thankful for
  • Pandora
  • Evernote – as I’ve aged like a fine wine, my memory needs help and this service does it for me
  • My phone
  • Kindle
  • Dropbox
  • My fräulein (pic is large!)
• Other
  • Take advantage of time — we don’t get any of it back
  • All the genuine smiles I’ve seen on people this year
  • Getting in shape — tougher now, but worth it
  • Surrounding myself with happy, open-minded people

I look forward to 2012 and writing this again next year!

Image courtesy of entophile (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41060081@N03/)

Chad and I made the decision to change WebMedley from an entrepreneurially run company to a professionally managed company. The change will be positive for our clients, teammates, and for us personally. This post explains why we’re doing it, what’s involved, and how we’re going to share the details of this journey.

Why Make The Change?

The company is about to reach its third birthday under our ownership. When we bought the company (2008), it was in need of a serious resuscitation — you can call it a turn around job, if you like. Here’s what accompanied the business we purchased:

• Crazy books: some clients were being billed incorrectly or not at all
• Too many servers for the true volume of client need.
• Two content management systems. One was three years out of date and no longer being developed or serviced. Some clients want to stay with older systems — which is fine — and those who want to be current can now do so.
• No vision for what the company could be.
• From the end of 2008 until mid-2009, we cleaned up, transferred data, upgraded, etc…and turned it into a profitable company. From 2009-now, we grew the company through sales efforts and wonderful word-of-mouth referrals.

We find our time is spent wearing too many hats. This isn’t uncommon in small businesses. Everyone chips in when work needs to be done. When a company is in growth mode, this must occur and it helps everyone working together touch multiple parts of the business.

It could continue to work for us if we didn’t want to continue to grow and improve. It would be fine if we just wanted a general marketing company: one that paid everyone enough to live a simple life in Lexington KY. We’d turn into another local <10 person ad agency and coast into mediocrity.

And if we wanted that, I wouldn’t be writing this post.

When I was in my 20′s and had my first company, TransDigital, I got to ride the dot com wave. Everyone wanted web sites, systems, etc. We had good cash flow and were profitable. So I did what any 20-something would do: had fun traveling and spending. If I had used some of that cash to hire executives with more experience than me, I might still be traveling! Lesson learned.

This time around, it’ll be different and better.

We know we should focus our time on tasks we both want to do and perform with excellence. Am I the best HR manager? No. Who is? Let’s find him/her to work with us so we can do what we do best. Everyone in the vendor, company, client food chain will be better off for it.

One last answer to “Why?”: because I don’t want to look in the mirror in 2012 and be in the same place I’m in now. I want to be better.

What Does the Change Involve?

A change like this is subtle at first.

We started by interviewing for an operations person, a Chief Operating Officer (COO) for WebMedley. Chad and I reviewed what we want to do and what we are good at. Then we compared the list with what must be done in order to operate as is and where we want to go. It was quickly apparent neither of us want to run the day to day operation of the company and weren’t going to be good at it if we continue to grow. Time to find someone who wants to do it, is good at it, and has a demonstrated success in the ops area.

Luckily for us, someone was looking for just the right opportunity.

After a number of meetings, discussions about structure, spending, and vision, we agreed to pull the trigger with our new COO.

In less than eight weeks, we have a plan for the rest of 2011 and a project workflow that improves on what we were doing. More checks and balances to ensure our clients get a great experience and our team enjoys it. There’s more, but it’ll do to know these major parts for now.

Everyone inside the company will have more accountability, but its matched with empowerment. Everyone also has a financial interest, meaning bonus, if they hit their personal goals. And another one if the company hits its overall goals.

We’re on the lookout for sales hunters, graphic designers with web experience, and account managers.

Everyone becomes more efficient. We have a great culture. That can lead to hanging out together and talking about life, friends, family, etc. This won’t change. What has changed is the output of each person in fewer working hours. Why? I’m not sure. It’s just happening.

One of the personal changes is that I have to remember not to be involved with everything. When people inside the company bring me questions, I need to help them by asking only questions back. How does this help? It helps someone think through their original problem (opportunity ;^) ) and arrive at the solution on their own.

There’s a weird phenomenon going on inside my head: I’m accepting the change quicker than I thought.

Conclusion

Everyone should benefit from the changes.

It’ll be a fun ride.

I might have learned something since I was in my 20′s.

Chad and I have a goal: in six months we have transitioned from wearing too many hats to wearing only a few. It is our responsibility to work with our clients and mentor our team so everyone has a great experience with WebMedley.

Last night, I was lucky enough to have friends and family come over and share the birthday-eve festivities.

Thanks to Debbie Green for ordering, Brandon for picking up, Justin for double-checking, and my mother (saint of all saints) for helping me put it all together. Couldn’t have done it without her. Couldn’t do a lot without her.

Thanks to Jen for allowing the boys to come over and have fun with me.

My boys always show me the path to the good side of the Force (ha ha). Ian, Nash, and Parker — I’m proud, thankful, and humbled by you.

Barbara and Jeremy: I love being the guy you two use as an excuse to go out and party.

Meghan for the most hilarious birthday gift I’ve received in years.

The guys at the office for allowing me to vent, share, and learn.

And I suppose I should thank the gods of Liquor Barn for the new bounty in my bar.

Thanks to Beth for the surprise limo, dinner, and drinks. You topped off the evening wonderfully. Marcus, I’m glad you joined us.

It was a perfect birthday celebration.

As I write this, bloody mary in hand, its about to rain.
Hard.
Metaphorical.
Change and growth.
Required for life.

Its a year of change for me. I’m rounding second base on the way home. I appreciate all of the support from friends and clients (most of whom are friends). Most of you know the changes we’re enjoying at WebMedley. It’s not going to be easy, but it will be fun and I’ll continue to learn. Thanks for the opportunity to do it.

And now, a few fun pictures from last night…

Have a great June.

(Via A VC.)

I love it.

This is an example of a bad customer service policy — and it’s not just an AMEX issue. Many companies forbid their overseas support teams from calling anyone. There may be good reasons to limit outbound calls, but to forbid them when a client requests a call is the wrong policy.

Wiz Khalifa’s song is too catchy. My 2 year old, Parker, loves this song. Then Lil Wayne did a quick freestyle which is great, too.

Funny thing is: these songs will get more play than any commercial!

The Packers version: Black and Yellow (opens in YouTube)

and the original Steelers version

(when you watch this one, imagine if I had a hit like this. I just don’t think my neighbors in Andover would come out to support me like Khalifa’s do)

Green and Yellow (opens in YouTube)

Go Steelers!

photo © 1910 Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane | more info (via: Wylio)

The online marketing business has seen excellent growth in 2010. Online ad spending continues to set records. One in four pages viewed on the web in the US are now at Facebook.

People are looking for alternatives to traditional advertising. Online marketing certainly fits the need. Why? It’s generally less expensive than traditional media and can be tracked using a variety of tools. This isn’t to say one should forego traditional media outlets (TV, print, radio). Integrated marketing using all of the methods is generally the best place to start and then one would refine as results arrive.

We’re expanding our online advertising options to include local media and niche site ad buys. For instance, WebMedley already offers online ad management for facebook, Google, and a few other well-known sites. The expansion allows us to help our clients buy online ads at local media sites like WTVQ, WKYT, WLEX, Smiley Pete’s sites, and more. If the client operates in a particular niche market and local ads do not fit, then we’ll seek out blogs and forums applicable to the niche. For example, if our client sells Ford Mustang parts, we’ll find sites like http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ to place ads.

This move makes WebMedley Lexington’s first and only independent, full service online media buying company. There are other firms placing ads through a third party service and outsourcing almost all of the work. Not us. We use the tools that sites like Google offer, but the work is performed by WebMedley staff and tracked using some third party and home grown tools. We analyze all the data and make recommendations based on the analysis.

Keep an eye out on the WebMedley blog for the full service description and official news release.

This change helps us increase service to our existing clients and will grow the business through new clients in need of help. Instead of a client managing 3-10 online media outlets, the client can work directly with us and we’ll manage the buys, changes, and analysis.

Thanks to everyone who provided input and advice related to this decision. I’d name names, but some requested anonymity.