N: You are afraid of heights.

P: No, I’m not.

N: Yes, you are.

P: No, I’m not….what are “heights”?

I just started laughing. Don’t we all get like P from time to time? Arguing just because we can.

Ha ha….

Heard this at my last Vistage meeting from Jay Rifenbary. It’s Emerson’s definition of success. Great speaker introduced me to a great quote.

To laugh often and much,

to win respect of intelligent people

and the affection of children;

to earn the appreciation of honest critics

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others;

to leave the world a bit better

whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch, or a

redeemed social condition;

to know even one life

has breathed easier

because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

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.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

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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.