“There is a community of 4,000 people I can lean into 24 hours a day for support and inspiration.” Thank you, Ben Paul and The BD Ladder, for this lovely opportunity to tell a bit of my story and for all you do for our profession and community! #lmamkt #lma24

7 May 2024

Thank you, Ben Paul and The BD Ladder, for this lovely opportunity to tell a bit of my story and for all you do for our profession and community!

View here.

“The latest in The BD Ladder’s quickfire views of the Business Development and Marketing Leaders series features Roy Sexton, Director of Marketing at Clark Hill Law, and International Past President of the Legal Marketing Association – LMA International.

“Find out what led Roy into a career in legal BD and marketing, how he stays on top of upcoming trends, and what he thinks is key to a successful career in marketing and BD within legal and professional services.

“Learn from Roy how to find that ‘Memorable moment.’

“This is one episode you won’t want to miss!”

P.S. Thank you, Ryan Koral and Tell Studios, for this lovely case study on our work together for Clark Hill …

Journey to Triumph: Clark Hill’s Award-Winning Re-Branding Campaign

This is how we crafted compelling videos that vividly showcased and amplified the rebrand of one of the nation’s leading law firms, driving vast engagement and clinching industry accolades.

Overview

Enter the world of Clark Hill: a dynamic international team of legal advisors with a singular mission – to drive transformative growth for businesses. With a sprawling presence across 27 global offices and a formidable team of over 700 attorneys, Clark Hill stood at a pivotal juncture. Their challenge? To craft a brand message that resonated with their rich culture and showcased their revamped, sleek brand identity. The answer? Video, and a partnership with Tell Studios.

The Challenge

Rapid growth and expansion brought Clark Hill to a unique challenge: How to unify the diverse narratives of its expansive team into a cohesive brand story? The complexities of the COVID-19 era further underscored the need for a solution that transcended geographical boundaries, echoing the unified voice and values of Clark Hill’s global family.

The Solution

Teaming up with Tell Studios proved transformative. Together, they birthed a series of videos, each narrating a distinct facet of Clark Hill’s rebranding journey. From brand announcements to heartfelt testimonials and industry-specific spotlights, every video was a mosaic piece of Clark Hill’s renewed identity. The process was marked by collaboration, warmth, and a commitment to ensuring every attorney felt seen, heard, and valued.

The Results

The numbers were nothing short of spectacular:

A staggering 500,000 views in year one, soaring to 750,000 by year two. 📈

Social media reach catapulted from 7 million to a jaw-dropping 12 million, with engagement rates skyrocketing by 69%. 🤯

But the crowning glory? Clark Hill clinched the 2023 Managing Partners’ Forum Marketing Excellence Award.🏆

“Clark Hill was a standout in this category. Their ‘Simply Smarter’ rebrand and engagement campaign was a masterclass in strategic brand deployment, reflecting the very DNA of the firm’s people.”

Beyond accolades, the campaign enriched Clark Hill internally:

1️⃣ Attorneys radiated with renewed confidence, poised to engage with clients.
2️⃣ The videos served as conduits, expanding the client base.
3️⃣ A palpable sense of pride and morale upliftment resonated within the Clark Hill community.

Conclusion

Clark Hill’s collaboration with Tell Studios wasn’t just about creating videos; it was about weaving a narrative of transformation, connection, and legacy.

“All the World’s YOUR Stage” on Expert Webcast … You Won’t Break My Soul: The 8.8 Trillion Dollar Question of Employee Engagement with guest Kacy Fleming

6 May 2024

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View here (free login/registration may be required).

Thank you, Anna Spektor and Expert Webcast for the opportunity. We offer words of condolence to Nancy Slome’s family in the opening. And shout outs to previous guests Jay Harrington and Laura Gassner Otting throughout the interview.

In this episode, Roy Sexton and Kacy Fleming unpack the formula for workplace engagement. Spoiler alert: it centers around authenticity and empathy. There are five core concepts involved: investing in leaders, recognition through a feedback loop, empowerment and autonomy, purpose and mattering, and career growth and development.

Kacy Fleming is an award-winning well-being strategist and life-coach, with a Master’s in Organizational Psychology and a passion for building cultures where individuals feel safe and have space to grow and thrive. Having moved from traditional marketing leadership roles to Head of Global Well-being for a Fortune 500 organization—she has gained invaluable first-hand experience driving change throughout complex corporate hierarchies.

In her article “How to Keep Employees Engaged: The 8.8 Trillion Dollar Question” for ThriveGlobal, Kacy writes, “There are a litany of factors that have been shown to improve employee engagement and performance, including autonomy. Over-indexing on where people work appears to have a negative effect on both organizational commitment and productivity. While there is much more research to come on employee engagement in distributed work, organizations must remember that what we reward gets repeated. Recognition and promotion belong to the people who help achieve company outcomes in a way that enhances culture, not those who log the most hours in-office or at the bar after work.”

Kacy has won multiple awards for her work in corporate well-being. She has built strategy for large global employers with populations working in a wide variety of work settings. From traditional knowledge work to the frontline, she has launched, co-designed, and deployed well-being strategies and solutions from the ground up. Her approach is guided not only by 20 years of practical experience working in some of the largest biopharmaceutical companies, but also from her academic research and writing.

Kacy is a sought after speaker and writer. Her TEDx talk on “The Limitlessness of Flexible Work,” was based on her master’s thesis. She has spoken for the Business Group on Health, MH Work Life, Randstad USA, and Wellbeing at Work and has appeared on numerous global podcasts. Kacy is the author of articles on hot topics in the workplace ranging from menopause and mid-life transitions to flexible work, humane leadership, and the key to employee engagement. Kacy loves to share top tips earned from her two decades of experience working in a variety of leadership roles. Learn more about Kacy at https://kacyfleming.com/

Latest “All the World’s YOUR Stage” – Leaving the Margins and Grabbing the Spotlight with Aarash Darroodi

10 April 2024

2 Comments

Latest episode here.

At six months old, Aarash Darroodi’s parents, who were foreign students in the US, sent their son back to Iran to live with his grandparents so they could complete their graduate studies at the University of Houston. That was 1979. A year later, the Iran-Iraq War erupted. It took seven years and attempts in many countries to get a US visa before Darroodi would reunite with his family in America. That experience, Darroodi says, shaped his life, which would forever be changed.

As General Counsel & Executive Vice President of Fender, Aarash Darroodi has developed a successful 20-year in-house legal career on the idea of melding a traditional legal education/experience with business acumen and business intelligence. He leverages his personal history to lead with empathy and pragmatism. Aarash is quite simply and beautifully a connector. He also has developed the course “How to Build a Rain Machine” through which he teaches lawyers what in-house clients really want. Equipping outside counsel with the secret skills and tactics to maximize client billings, client retention, and client satisfaction. Learn more here: https://www.rainstaracademy.com/.

“Everybody has a story when you connect to humanity,” Darroodi says. “What you realize is that those stories bring a lot of life learning, and there is a lot of power that’s locked up within people that they feel that they should hide it away and not embrace it. I fundamentally disagree. I think you embrace it because those are where the learnings come from. … I just don’t want to see the resume, I want to know the story. What were some of the challenges you faced in your life? How did you overcome them? What did you learn from those challenges? How do you think those challenges will help you in the future? That’s valuable. That’s what I want to see. I want those people, the ones that have overcome difficulties and challenges. … People are more capable than they know … But people themselves, a lot of times, we need somebody to see that within us and push us, and then we can achieve greatness we never thought possible.”

The fundamental power of storytelling, of reclaiming our individual narratives, and of celebrating our differences will be the focus of this episode. The human condition can be one of “categorizing” others, and thereby limiting potential. Aarash and Roy will discuss how important it is to break that cycle and how each individual can embrace respective heritage as a means of authentic differentiation and professional branding. They will also address the business benefits to leaders who model this for their colleagues and their teams.

Darroodi is an in-demand speaker and pundit, having offered commentary to Bloomberg Law, Thomson Reuters, The Legal 500, TedX, the American Bar Association, American Lawyer Media, South by Southwest, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Legal Marketing Association, Fox Business, The Los Angeles Times, and the Maryland State Bar Association.