Celebrating Milestones
Hey Folks,
Celebrating milestones is a little bit different than celebrating an achievement. For example, I’ve heard my kids talk about dating someone for 3 weeks, which is a milestone but my Mom & Dad being married for 49 years is an achievement. Milestones simply mark the passage of time whereas an achievement means something was accomplished through effort and perseverance. Last week Kara marked her 6th anniversary with the company, we held our 6th Annual Chili Cook Off contest this week and I started sending out the Weekly Report 6 years ago today. Maybe we can report these events as both milestones and achievements.
Last weekend the town of Urbanna held its 58th Annual Oyster Festival and I visited for the 4th year in a row. Rain kept away some of the crowds, but it seems that the Oyster Festival Foundation is perilously close to turning 58 years of achievement into a simple milestone. I believe that the Festival’s days are numbered, unless the people who run the Foundation return to a common sense approach for running a festival. In a grab for extra cash, Festival organizers doubled the price of parking to $20/car, taxed vendors at 2x the rate and forced businesses to close at 5:00 on Saturday – which hurt their sales – in order to save money on street cleaning. I imagine they will also act surprised next year if less people show up, less vendors show up and the businesses in town contribute less to the Foundation.
But I have good news, there are only 45 shopping days until Christmas and only 356 days left until the next Oyster Festival.
Monday, November 9th– On Monday we worked hard on RFPs and had a very productive day working on new brand elements for our client Swift Creek Mill. The Theatre will celebrate a big milestone next month, 50 years of theatrical performances. You’ll hear more about this in the coming weeks as we ramp up their PR campaign.
Thanks to Facebook, which now reminds me frequently of milestones in my “Facebook life,” I am happy to report that 3 years ago today I found a new groundbreaking search engine – that allows you to search the inter webs and gives you results in Snoop Dogg language – gizoogle.net #youarewelcome #fosho #foshizzle
Tuesday, November 10th – On Tuesday morning I dropped a bomb at Rotary, when I announced the formation of an ad hoc committee called The Food Festival Reinvention Committee, tasked with collecting input – and delivering recommendations on – the Magnificent Midlothian Food Festival, which marked its 27th milestone last month. If you have suggestions on how to change or improve the MMFF, email me directly before December 1st and put MMFF in the subject header, and if you want to email me before reading the rest of this, click here –> davids@madisonmain.com
On Tuesday we launched a new campaign for Village Bank called “Lunch Hour Loans.” Need some extra cash before the holidays? Drop by any Village Bank during lunch. It’s a great time to apply!
Wednesday, November 11th – On Wednesday I joined fellow members of the Virginia Council of CEOs for our monthly meeting. It was a great discussion and thanks to my good friend JJ White at Dale Carnegie Training for hosting us.
Sue and I had to split duties Wednesday night. Our daughter Hattie was inducted into the National Honor Society, a wonderful and hard-earned achievement. I would have been there as well, but I had 150 people dropping by our office for the 6th Annual Madison+Main Chili Cook Off. It was a great evening, with celebrity judges – Meteorologists Katie Dupree with 8News, Kristen Luehrs and Nikki-Dee Ray with WTVR CBS 6. We want to congratulate all 12 teams who participated. The competition was fierce and the building still smells like beans. Special congratulations go to the Madison+Main-iacs for placing 3rd with “Plymouth Rock Chili,” the 2nd place trophy went to Worth Higgins Associates for “Worth A Second Bowl Chili” and 1st prize was claimed by Mary Ann Hartzell and the CowanGates team for their “Palm Beach Chili,” apparently so tasty they ran out before I could try some. The team from Yard Works took home a trophy for the 2nd year in a row, winning The People’s Choice Award for their “Weekend Warrior Princess Chili.”
The real winner of the Chili Cook Off was me.
CBS6 Morning News stars Kristen Luehrs and Nikki-Dee Ray joined us for the Chili Cook Off.
Thursday, November 12th – Thursday was a long day and I won’t go into the details, but I took time off to help with some family health matters. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this time. And just when we needed some good news, something to really cheer about, my son Jack came through for us. Between 7th grade & 8th grade, he grew 4 inches – and worked really hard every day on his b-ball skills – and earned a spot on the Bailey Bridge Middle Boy’s Basketball Team, which I think is quite an achievement. About 80 boys tried out and there were only 15 spots on the team. #waytogojack #tallerthanme #ballislife
Friday, November 13th – Today we celebrated 3 years of working with First Bank, and are very proud of the achievements we have compiled with our partners at the Strasburg, Virginia-based bank. We’re working on putting a plan together for 2016 and beyond.
I worked on a variety of copy assignments today, before I headed out of the office to head to see my folks in Charleston, SC.
A year ago we launched a television ad for Vera’s Fine Jewelers called “Coach” and it proved to be very successful. Check it out!
On Sunday, Vera’s will celebrate its 20th anniversary and we are proud to say they have been working for us for half that time they have been working with us. Congrats to Mike, Vera and the entire team and rest assured I will be picking up some bling from Vera’s for Sue this holiday season, or I may not be able to make another milestone in my 18-year marriage. #blingsthething #bestjewelerinrva #diamondsaresuesbestfriend
“It’s when ordinary people
rise above the expectations
and seize the opportunity
that milestones truly are reached.”
– Gov. Mike Huckabee
–Dave