Year-end Legal Marketing Coffee Talk holiday extravaganza 2021: zany costumes, beloved pups, heartfelt sentiments, plentiful laughs, and maybe a show tune or two

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Facebook: https://fb.watch/9XP8lzXK6-/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robkates_legalmarketingcoffeetalk-legalmarketing-lmct-activity-6875147102234648576-j7aF

YouTube: https://youtu.be/GVE6T6Ye32k

We had a ball this afternoon with our year-end holiday broadcast. Yes, there were zany costumes, beloved pups, heartfelt sentiments, plentiful laughs, and maybe a show tune or two. (Yes, I sang – about midway – WITH prerecorded accompaniment because I’m fancy like that.) So grateful to be part of this fab Legal Marketing Coffee Talk crew: our fearless leader Rob Kates and fellow hosts Tahisha Fugate, Jessica Aries, and Andrew Laver. The kind words offered during the show about my late mom Susie Sexton, our honorary sixth cast member, were so appreciated and healing.

Thanks to today’s incredibly brilliant special guest stars, including Gina Furia Rubel, Amy Payton Verhulst, Nancy Leyes Myrland, Brenda Pontiff. You are such beautifully authentic souls.

Shout outs aplenty during today’s show: Heather Morse-Geller, Gail Porter Lamarche, Terry Isner, Nikki Girard Sherrill, Toni Wells, James Barclay, Ed Lovatt, Marcia Delgadillo, Nikki Bagdady Horn, Scott Lawrence, Nathalie M. Daum, Jay Harrington, Heather Harrington, Jennifer Forester, Cyndy McCollough, Timothy Corcoran, Jenna Green, Rachel Shields Williams, Shade Vaughn, Jennifer Simpson Carr, Trish Desilets Lilley, and likely many more I won’t remember until I watch again tonight! 🤣

Thank you to Kates Media: Video Production and By Aries for supporting this show and to amazing Katelynn Audrey Wynn McGuire and Clarita Bonilla for the exceptional promotional work on our collective behalf.

See you in 2022! #LMAMKT

Postscript … I am truly lucky to have a wonderful friend with whom I also happen to work. I’ve known Megan McKeon maybe about 10 years now? But we first actually collaborated in 2015 on a Legal Marketing Association – LMA International annual conference quick start panel. Fellow panelists Heather Morse-Geller and Gina Furia Rubel said, “We gotta get Megan to join us!” They were absolutely right. Few people are as devoted, as hard-working, as caring as Megan.

Flash forward a few years later, and Megan introduced me to Clark Hill. Heather told me that I MUST take the job – as she saw it as the right next step for me. Don’t tell Heather I said this, but she’s darn right 99% of the time! 😉

This community blesses us with guardian angels at every turn, and three years ago when I received the distinct privilege to work with Megan my life improved for the better. I’ve never worked harder in my life, been challenged to be a better professional, or had someone so consistently in my corner as I have had with Megan, and our wonderful boss Susan Ahern, and our incredible colleagues.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s late. And I’m in a reflective mood. And this magical surprise (pictured) appeared on our front doorstep today. Admittedly, one can argue it’s a year early as I will be president elect of the international association next year and president the following. Nonetheless, when my husband opened this, thinking he was going to find new floor mats for his Jeep 😅, we both squealed with delight. Of course, being me, I couldn’t get this on our movie poster wall fast enough.

This gift puts such a big smile on my face after one hell of a year, and I won’t lie that it tickles me to be side-by-side with fellow Hoosier James Dean here. Everyone knows I love movies obsessively, but Megan has a distinct giftgiving prowess and somehow she found somebody who could turn me into my own movie poster. The tagline is hysterical: “Only the marketing is legal.” 🤣

Fun fact, Megan took this picture of me – and it is one of my favorites. We were in Chicago, on a sidewalk patio, shortly after I had started with the firm (halfway between a couple of my quarterly nervous breakdowns 😂), waiting for Ray Koenig and Susan to join us for drinks. Little did that naive Roy know what incredible adventures were ahead. But I’m looking at this poster, reflecting on the past year, the past three years, the past 10 years, incredibly grateful for what our legal marketing community has given all of us and for this friendship with dear Megan. Love you, Megan.

Open Book Theatre’s incisive, ingenious iPoppy + #LMA20 … it’s a wrap (yet so energizing!)

Thank you to Krista Schafer Ewbank and Open Book Theatre Company for continuing to find innovative, fun, and provocative ways to deliver theatre to our community in these dark days. iPoppy is by turns riotous, satirical, poignant, incisive, but always engaging. A one-woman ten minute show delivered 1:1 to each audience member via the quarantine-ubiquitous #Zoom, iPoppy is a frothy yet searing indictment of our present “culture,” one that wallpapers over socioeconomic inequities, familial trauma, rampant materialism, and the corrosive intersection of racism and sexism with a relentless and soul-crushing press of social media self-promotion and digital deception. iPoppy packs a wallop in its brisk and breezy ten minute run-time. Give it a go, and support local theatre.

“Check out some clips from iPoppy, along with some quotes from audience members. Sign up for your own 10 minute, live performance of this original piece! Written by M.X. Sotero. Directed by Topher Payne. Featuring Marcela Gazaro.”

Preview clip: https://www.facebook.com/699433083431924/posts/4543148755726985/?vh=e&extid=0&d=n

Tickets: http://openbooktheatrecompany.net/one-to-one-virtual-theatre/

This year’s Legal Marketing Association annual conference was a virtual affair, and it was just as vibrant and engaging (if not more so) than our in-person meetings. I’m happily energized AND utterly exhausted. I’m one proud international board member tonight! Below are some highlights …

Enjoy this #lma20 chat with the ever-charming Ashraf Lakhani, Matt Parfitt, and Rob Kates! We discuss their conference sessions (general counsel interviews and email marketing trends respectively), the finer points of long-distance chess, the importance of family, quarantine basketball, and outback policemen!

VIEW VIDEO HERE: https://www.facebook.com/KatesMedia/videos/929010134294388/?vh=e&extid=0&d=n

Yes, there is singing. Dave Matthews, in fact. And a shiny gold jacket. ⭐️ Rob Kates, Meghan Frank from Lexis Nexis, and yours truly with fab host Michelle Friends talk #lma20 🥰

VIEW VIDEO HERE: https://www.facebook.com/KatesMedia/videos/345659206511172/?vh=e&extid=0

Enjoy this final “coffee talk” of #lma20 with yours truly, Rob Kates, Joe Przybyla, Amy Payton Verhulst! We talk about the amazing discoveries of this year’s conference, the wonders of Introhive, what makes a great Legal Marketing Association leader, children’s art, online car shopping, and frosty treat rewards.

Yes, one more song – that I barely make it through without crying. One of my mom Susie Sexton’s favorites from “On the Town” and a fitting tribute to this incredible week. Kudos to conference chairs Kristen Bateman and Jon Mattson and the conference committee and support team (including Kristy Perkins, Malaika Palmer, Christina Abes) as well as rock star president Jill Mason Huse for their truly remarkable work.

Thanks to the SmithBucklin team, including Danielle Holland , Holly Amatangelo , JenaShay Russell , Ashley Stenger , Kimberly McBride , Kat Seiffert , Kristin Frankiewicz, Alexia Malamis for all of the ongoing support.

Thanks to all of the guest hosts and guests this week who made this show such a special addition! Shout outs during the show to Carman Janenne Akins, Jim Jarrell, Megan McKeon, Vanessa Vines Petrea, Jessica Jaramillo, Tahisha Fugate, Andrew Laver, Jessica Aries, Brenda Plowman, Stefanie Marrone, Jennifer Petrone Dezso, Tanya Riggan, Nikki Girard Sherrill, Michelle Friends, Kelly MacKinnon, Christine Mitchell Harris, Patrick Fuller, Gina Rubel, and more!

Lord, this was a neat week!

VIEW VIDEO HERE: https://www.facebook.com/LegalMarketingAssociation/videos/347783449831325/?vh=e&extid=0&d=n

LOVING these stats from now-legendary #lma20!

5 days of crucial content
1 excellent keynote speaker named Baratunde Thurston
1 new hashtag #LMACitizen inspired by #HowToCitizen
140+ speakers
40+ interactive live sessions
3+ hours of 1:1 attendee networking sessions
5 engaging virtual social events
17 countries and 43 states represented
45+ sponsoring organizations
1200+ legal marketing professionals
10 costume changes (MY contribution 🤣)
Too many “skills” to count

Read more: http://view.exacttarget.com/?qs=9be0d726adac2acc771141161d225ef964e0067928f9a4660847b8f66ff4b7921605091cc412d0fd7821fa4d731e442c2583b46ff6dd4b65a54d7607a01428d2eac6e4ae282ba9dc5ba1b9a0c148ac560c3592cae46130d6

LMA20 tribute to the ever-delightful Patrick Fuller … this will only mean something to the people who watched the comedy night event with Last Comic Standing winner and celebrity comedian John Heffron. To the rest of you, I’m sorry … not sorry. 🤣 I generally hate inside jokes. But I can’t resist this one. #skills!
Some final thoughts on #lma20
A closing song – “Some Other Time” from the musical “On The Town”
Smart sartorial choices of #lma20 … “The first but not the last.” Kamala Harris