Thank you, Aleksander Tomalski and Counsel Collective, for this absolutely lovely feature: counselcollective.org/roy-se… Hands down, this is one of the damned nicest articles anyone has ever written about me. I truly feel seen. Someone please take note … read this this whole thing at my eulogy one day! 😅 Hopefully, other legal leaders, marketers, business development professionals, humans will find some inspiration in the thoughts, concepts, and experiences detailed here. And even more importantly, my dream is that more and more young people still deciding what to do in life will see in this piece what a desirable and rewarding career path legal marketing can be. To my dear friends Iris Jones, Diana Lauritson, Jenna Schiappacasse, and Ashley Stenger, what you said about me here has touched my soul in ways words can’t properly express. In my deep down, only child heart, I’ve always (erroneously) felt myself to be a perpetual outsider in life, practically phobic about overstaying my welcome anywhere. I know that’s anything but true. However, reading what you said about me was truly a tonic for my neurotic inner saboteur. 🥹 As Alex writes in the article, “Trust, in his telling, is built by honoring what came before, learning what actually drives the people already there, bringing forward opportunities that fit them, and then following through on what you said you would do.” counselcollective.org/roy-se… 🥹

Observation: do you have friends reach out to you (their initiation - text, email, LinkedIn, etc), saying they’d like your advice on XYZ and when can you connect? You respond (quickly and politely) with your availability … and weeks go by before (if) you get a response? At what point do you just never respond again?

Last week was a *bit* of a tire fire for me ... so I'm just now catching up on this STELLAR conversation between Stage's Jennifer Ramsey and Megan Senese and the Legal Marketing Association CEO Ashley Stenger. Listen here: stage.guide/podcast-episodes… This episode does such a fabulous job showcasing Ashley's inclusive, transparent leadership style and the loving support she offers our legal marketing community. The candor in their dialogue around the importance of accessibility and breaking down silos to provide all our members meaningful career development experiences is so very refreshing. Plus, listeners get such a wonderful overview of Ashley's journey, how she builds teams, how she engages with volunteer leaders, and how beautifully focused her work is on bringing as much member value as possible. They broke the mold with Ashley, and our community is truly fortunate to have her. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Where is legal marketing headed, and is there room for you to help shape it? We asked the CEO of the Legal Marketing Association.   Ashley Stenger, CEO of the Legal Marketing Association, joins Megan Senese and Jennifer Ramsey on So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People to talk about the future of the profession and the opportunities available to the people building it.   Legal marketers spend their careers helping lawyers succeed. But what does support, visibility, and advancement look like for them?   We get into the questions that matter: Has LMA become more accessible? How is it responding to members’ changing needs? And how do you get involved if you’re unsure where to start or whether you belong?   Ashley shares her unexpected path into legal marketing, how the profession has moved beyond asking for a seat at the table, and why opening doors to new voices and future leaders is a priority for LMA.   @LMAintl

What Happens to Marketing When Law Firms Deploy a Lakehouse? youtu.be/sg0g-mLgaS0?si=-dLA… Excellent and timely conversation from two brilliant minds in our space - Tom Baldwin and Jason Kennedy - thank you for this! (And thank you to my Vedder colleague Lexie Blaner for flagging this for me to watch!)   What actually happens to marketing when a firm's data lives in a central lakehouse instead of a stack of disconnected systems?  In this episode, Jason Kennedy, CEO of Choate Frazier Frazier, makes the case that modern legal marketing requires a marketer who can speak the language of IT, knowledge management, and innovation.  Jason shares his journey from CMO to marketing ops to data strategist at Holland & Knight, and breaks down how Big Law firms are rethinking their MarTech architecture to move past fragmented spreadsheets and second copies of the truth. He argues that you can’t prove marketing value when your team spends all its time putting out data fires. That philosophy shapes everything from how firms evaluate CRM options across the Am Law 200 to why headless CRM is gaining traction.    He explains why lakehouse architecture gives marketing unfettered access to governed firm-wide data, why data silos are giving rise to expensive AI sprawl, and why finding your North Star is key to earning a seat at the table. Jason also gets honest about why measuring ROI is so hard when partners act as the sales force, and how data helps you tell a partner why a prospect is a waste of time.   youtu.be/sg0g-mLgaS0?si=-dLA…

“You can’t go home again.” - Thomas Wolfe … or maybe you can? Had a fabulous experience earlier tonight participating in a Zoom reading of a brilliant new play in development from my Wabash College classmate JS Simpson. It was fun to dust off acting skills I haven’t much used since before the pandemic, but more significantly it was a delight to hear Simpson’s sharp character development come to life alongside fellow Wabash grads, friends, and readers Scott Smalstig, Ken Ogorek, Hugh Vandivier, and Jason Strasser as well as newly adopted honorary Wabash fellow Mark Holley. Without spoiling anything, in “Indiana Beta,” Simpson (always a bright, incisive, witty voice and observer) deftly captures perfectly and poignantly a unique moment in time: the early 90s with its intersection (and conflict) of much-vaunted collegiate tradition with a sociocultural milieu that was evolving rapidly, progressively. And what that now means in 2026 for the (cough) fifty-something men looking back on those formative moments with nostalgia and regret, wondering how decades of arguably arrested development have flashed by in the blink of an eye. In the process, Simpson offers a provocative, thorny critique of our collective assumptions around race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class, while still embracing the flawed humanity that ultimately unites us. Can’t wait to see where he goes next with this, and honored tonight to have been part of the piece’s ongoing development. @WabashCollege

Saturday with #Hudson and #HenryJ … #dogsarethebest #dogstagram #dogsofinsta #dogsoftwitter @johnfmola

New #playlist … with low-key #Halloween vibes … enjoy! #spookyseason Life On Mars? AmpliMix ’26 open.spotify.com/playlist/6E…

We had to say goodbye to Duncan today. He was such a sweet, loving boy. His little brothers will miss him. A lot. As will we. His wide ranging vocalizations, his prancing dancing, his drive by cuddles. We are so grateful he was part of our wacky wolf pack even for a short spell. But I’m sure he bounded across that Rainbow Bridge toward his sister Duchess whom he loved, worshipped, and admired. Goodnight, sweet prince. 😔 🐾 #dogs #rainbowbridge #dogstagram #duncan #goodbyefornow #dogsoftwitter @johnfmola