In this town we call home
Everyone hail to the pumpkin song
In this town, don’t we love it now?
Everybody’s waiting for the next surprise

—“This is Halloween,” from The Nightmare Before Christmas

October: a time of crispness in the air, crunchy red leaves underfoot, scrumptious cider and doughnuts, college homecoming football games, pumpkin spice everything — and Halloween.

I was that kid whose parents crafted bespoke costumes I had to explain to everyone my age. Imagine showing up at school dressed like Clark Kent (pic #1) Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Cousteau or Schneider (pic #2) from “One Day at a Time.” Yep, that was me. Everyone else had those awful plastic superhero masks that cut into your face, and I was dressed like obscure Hollywood actors and undersea explorers.

I suspect that is why this month holds so darn much nostalgia for me. And why this playlist might be the one I’ve been most excited to create. Enjoy these jamming “Happy Haunts” on Apple Music and Spotify!

October also means we are knee-deep in our incredible lineup of regional conferences. Two down (and SOLD OUT), four to go! Way to go, Southwest and Midwest Regions for knocking your events out of the park. The momentum is mighty for our remaining offerings. 

Do NOT miss out on the fellowship, education, and fun ahead — click here to register for Northeast (October 19-20), Mid-Atlantic(October 26), Southeast (November 8-10), and West (November 13-14)!

As a sidenote, a few people have asked me if I am planning to attend XYZ regional conference. The answer? Nope. I did attend the LMA Midwest Region conference, but the truth is we have an incredible international board, beautifully geographically distributed. They all will be appearing — many even speaking — at their home region conferences. In my opinion, the celebratory focus needs to be on our incredible regions and all they do.

(Plus, I do have a day job, hubby and cute puppies who need me. 😉)

October 2-3 in the Windy City was grand. I joined my pal and LMA Midwest Region Prez Jennifer Shankleton on the mainstage to welcome everyone — no, no drag queens or disco showtunes THIS time! But there was a low-key musical surprise [CLICK TO VIEW “A Quiet Thing”] — right before phenom keynote Rich Bracken wowed us all.

This post from member Casey Harrison about the Southwest Conference (September 13-15) is a great reminder of why we do what we do. Give it a quick read, and I think you will smile. The Southwest Region kicked off our regional conference season in incredible style. SOLD OUT event, vibrant and so engaging. Whether you were there in person or saw the fantastic array of posts on social media, I think you will agree. 

Let’s get ALL of these conferences sold out and end this year like the fireworks finale at Disneyland! Kudos to our regional presidents, regional boards, conference chairs and conference planning committees for their exceptional work and their dedication to the mission. You all inspire! 

And thank you to HQ’s Ashley Stenger and her colleagues Ashley Nunzio and Eric Himsel for their hustle, heart and grace, burning the midnight oil behind the scenes to support it all so beautifully.

We work in demanding environments and this TED video resonated. For me, there were some a-ha moments of reflection regarding how I conduct myself as a leader at work and at LMA. I suspect you will feel similarly and hope you find this as helpful as I did. This video frames how we treat each other impacts the bottom line and how our well-being drives our behavior, all in one smart three-minute clip. And yes, there’s data to back it up.

A lot of heart, hard work and brilliance has gone into our regional events. We are so grateful to our volunteer leaders for everything they are doing. I’m excited to see the social media posts that will follow — truly a party that never ends! 

Finally, I want to acknowledge the passing of industry legend Burkey Belser. In terms of design and positioning, he challenged the status quo and, quite frankly, rocked the legal world in the way we thought about advertising and imagery. You no doubt saw countless posts from leading lights who were influenced by him and whose careers he positively impacted. We must always honor those who came before us, as we are privileged to stand on the shoulders of giants. 

I’ll share this link to one such post — the way Deborah McMurray framed her tribute spoke to me professionally and personally. She writes, “A visionary, pioneer, icon and iconoclast, he was a mentor to many legal marketers, including me. The positioning strategist that I am today is because I got to work with him, watching not what he did, but how he thought.” And that’s what true community is about.

(Don’t miss the P.S. below for the “suit” reference!)

Love you,

Roy

President, 2023 LMA International Board of Directors

Roy E. Sexton
Director of Marketing
Clark Hill

P.S. A tale of a tailor found

A few weeks back, I went a-wandering to grab lunch at this Indian food truck I’ve spied a few times — Paradise Street Eats & Biryani. I love Indian food and, given my recent bout of COVID and the rampant increase of cases, I’ll be eating outside for a while until it snows. And then I’ll be in my basement.

Anywho…I walked back to the office on a different path and passed a store, Hot Sam’s Detroit. 

This suit was on a clearance rack out front. It spoke to me. Love the color. Love a bargain. Love… being impulsive. I grabbed it and walked inside. I was in AWE of this place. Every bit of clothing was pure joy. I’ll likely go back, a lot.

I walked up to one of the dapper gentlemen running the store, and said, “How much is this?” Happy with the price, I said, “I’ll take it.” As I waited to check out, we made some small talk. And here’s where my exuberance failed me.

I said, “This is such a cute store!” “Cute store,” he replied with a tone that suggested that wasn’t a desirable adjective. 

“Oh, I’m my mother’s son. That’s a high compliment for us!” Now feeling like I stepped in it, I added (unhelpfully), “How long have you been here?” 

He replied drily, “Since 1921.”

Now I’m feeling the flop sweat on my brow and kicked into overexplaining mode. “Well, I was just trying the Indian food truck.” He added, “It’s really good.” I replied, “So I don’t normally come down this way. And I’m from Indiana originally. But I’ve lived here for 25 years. I do live in Ann Arbor though. But I come to Detroit a couple days a week.”

At this point, he was getting pretty amused at this nut buying the suit in his store. He handed me his card. It read: “Tony Stovall, CEO/Co-Owner, Hot Sam’s Detroit.”

He added with grace and good humor, “Check us out on social media. And learn about who we are and what we do.”

I said, “I sure will!” and took my Indian food and beautiful new suit, exclaiming, “I’ll be back.”

And then I did what he asked and realized how sometimes we know absolutely nothing. Sometimes we should pause and listen and learn to appreciate the history and good work around us. Similarly, I’ll leave you to it to learn more. But DO take a moment and check out their website: https://hotsamsdetroit.com/.

Elegance personified. Community engagement. Leadership. Authenticity.

Ain’t nothing “cute” about that. That’s pure fire. And I’m proud to be a transplanted Detroiter — even if I do say well-meaning stupid things sometimes!

File under: well-meaning things we say/do that land with a thud!

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