23 goals for 2023! While it may have been a beast to compile, LISI’s CMO + CMBDO Robyn Addis pulled off another annual list of goals. In this Ask Me Anything episode, Robyn will sit down with Social Media + Marketing Manager Lauren Forbes to discuss how her annual list came about, which are her top three goals, and if she will continue this tradition.
Lauren:
Hi, everyone. Welcome to LISI’s Ask Me Anything. As you can see, today, I am joined in person by Robyn Addis, the CMO + CMBDO of LISI. I am Lauren Forbes, the Social Media + Marketing Manager at LISI. Today, we are going to be talking about goals for 2023, and what better time than to talk about them in the new year.
Hi, Robyn.
Robyn:
Hi, Lauren.
Lauren:
So we usually take the approach of people submitting questions and we answer them on the live but today, since we have a special edition of Robyn’s goals for 2023, we thought we would just kind of, or I would ask you some questions about those.
Robyn:
Sure.
Lauren:
So a little bit of background. Every year Robyn does a list of goals each year, corresponding to the year, so we have 23 goals for this year.
Robyn:
Ooh, yeah, we sure do.
Lauren:
How was putting that together?
Robyn:
It was a beast.
I’m not gonna lie because, so when I first started this out, I started doing this back in like 2015, just for my personal goals, and it was a beast back then, but what I try to do, as far as doing it for LISI, is I try to really do my research leading into the new year. I start back in October, really sort of like what are experts in the industry, or across the marketing industry, saying about what was big in 2022, what they thought was big, and maybe wasn’t, what they think is coming in 2023, and it’s boring to sort of write the same thing over and over again.
So I really tried to find new and exciting things, and stretch our goals into new areas. So yeah, the blog was 3,000 words. So if you ever wanna know how long 3,000 words is, go on our website and you can see it.
Lauren:
Yes, it’s published there, You can read it, maybe take your time, spread it out for a couple days.
Robyn:
Right, or if you want some light reading before bed.
Lauren:
And I noticed that you kind of did a mixture, this time, of personal and professional. What was kind of the change-up from years past adding some more personal stuff in?
Robyn:
So, it is a general overarching goal of mine to be very authentic and genuine, even though I sort of hate the overuse of those words, in my day-to-day and in how I act as a professional. So I wanted to be real that in some ways, like my last goal was focused on my mental health, I think on the spectrum of mental health I probably am not that bad off necessarily, but the last quarter of the year was really, really challenging for me. I had a lot going on personally, and professionally, and I thought, you know what, it’s time to be real about, that also needs to be something that we’re focusing on. Especially as people are going into 2023 there’s lots of stress about the financial upheaval, and the economy, and just all the things, as I say, so being real about that was really important to me this year.
Lauren:
No, I appreciate that and I think it’ll touch home with a lot of people too.
Robyn:
Hopefully.
Lauren:
Not only just new year, but it could be new things for job-wise, family-wise, it could be new for anybody, everybody across the board, so.
Of your 23 goals, what would you say the top three would be that really hit home that you really kind of wanna focus on?
Robyn:
Yeah, so I’ve heard the term E.S.G. used a lot for, I mean, like a few years I would say, since I was in the meetings and events industry, it was already a focus then, in terms of E.S.G. as it relates to in-person gatherings, and meetings, and all of that stuff, and seeing it broadly in the corporate context. It really resonated with me this year to think about E.S.G. because I was tired of writing about a focus specifically on diversity, and equity, and inclusion, which is like table stakes, we should be focused on that.
And I wanted to think of it sort of in the broader context of how to be socially conscious, environmentally conscious, and make sure that our policies, and our procedures, and all of the ways that we operate, have that sort of social justice component to it, so just like a little tangent.
So I went to a Jesuit college which is where I learned what social justice was and that has really driven my focus on service and giving back to my community, for me on a personal level, and I try to bring that into how I operate as a business professional. So sort of taking that entire universe of things.
I don’t know what the right word is, and sort of thinking about how do we, on a holistic level, focus on diversity, focus on equity, focus on social justice, and sort of put that into the driving sort of force behind how we do everything so that’s kind of where that comes. Which it feels like, as I’m saying it out loud, feels like this huge, lofty thing. But I think, it’s like with anything, you’re not gonna go from here to here. You’re gonna take little steps I would say. I’m looking at my list here too.
Lauren:
What would you say maybe number two is?
Robyn:
Yeah, so one of the things that we, you know, that we’ve been talking about for a while, is developing an on-demand educational portal. We do a lot of educational content, we produce a lot of educational content, and I actually got an incredible compliment on our content at one of the L.M.A. holiday parties this past December, which was that even though we’re service providers, and perhaps it’s because all of us are either former in-house legal marketers, or former practicing attorneys.
But our educational content is truly educational. It’s not like a secret, not-so-secret sales pitch. And so I know that we have a lot of knowledge and information to share and so packaging that in a service-value add, for clients, or in some way that people could access that content on an on-demand basis, has been a goal of mine really for over a year now, again, as you know, but maybe our audience doesn’t know, we really focused on what it would take to make that work.
At some point this year. And so putting together that project timeline we concepted the programs that we would truly want to be able to launch with, now I’m in the process of putting together that project plan and we’re looking to launch that in the second quarter so that’s a huge goal. I would feel like that’s a huge feather in my cap. if we actually get to that one.
Lauren:
It’s exciting, it’s an exciting new service that we’re able or going to be able to provide.
Robyn:
And what’s interesting to me, just to dig into that even a little bit more, I thought, so I’m completely self-taught in marketing, I have a Political Science degree. I actually tell people all the time, “I guess I did not need to go to college,” because everything I know about marketing I’ve learned on the job, or from mentors, or colleagues.
And so it’s a little bit, from me personally, it’s a little bit driven by my desire to help people who are in the jobs that I was once in, understand what it is that they do, or how to do it inside a law firm. So I think it’s a lot different 20 years after I graduated college. It’s a lot different now than it was when I was first getting into legal marketing. You have people who have not just marketing degrees, but understand the difference between product marketing and professional services marketing and that legal marketing is actually a profession, it’s not just like a thing that they sort of fall into, so I think you’ve already got entry-level, and rising stars, who are primed to understand these concepts, but just how to get better at it and how to understand it again in the broader law firm context is a big part of how we’re focusing on it too.
Lauren:
Yeah, and I’m all for that because I also did not come into the legal world with a marketing degree, trial by fire. You just kinda jump in there and see what happens. But I also think that’s great for us because we have kind of a different perspective on things and we’re able to maybe show the audience what we learned that necessarily wasn’t actually taught with a, well you know, a book, or by a professor, or something like that.
Robyn:
100%, yeah. One thing I know that you’ve put together, how did this even come together, our glossary of terms?
Lauren:
Oh, it was through some LinkedIn posts that I think you put up. I don’t remember exactly what it was-
Robyn:
But it was some term or something, right?
Lauren:
It was some term and then people started kind of adding their own kind of terms to it and then you were like, “Let’s do this.” So that will be launched hopefully, I think probably this quarter. So stay tuned for that. We’re gonna add that to our resources.
Robyn:
Wait, oh even just that, all the terms that you come into a law firm, no matter how much marketing training you have, you come into a law firm and you have no idea what leverage is, or matter billing lawyer is or anything like that, all of those terms that, to give anybody a leg up, so.
Lauren:
Yeah. A lot of Google searches.
Robyn:
I know, I know, seriously.
Lauren:
All right, so your third goal, what do you think your third goal would be to talk around?
Robyn:
Yeah, so my number, my top three goals round out with adding a Director of Client Relations to the team. So we have, we all wear a lot of hats, we have sort of this structure that understands the client journey if they enter through coming in through our website if they enter coming through our outsource legal marketing services, and for better or for worse, I’ve sort of held this role, part and parcel with another member of our team, as this Director of Client Relations, Taryn Elliott on our team, who works with you closely and does our leasing marketing, but also does client success, so sort of that ongoing client relationship stuff. And we need that, but we really need somebody who is every day focused on how our services are being delivered to our clients, and our processes, and our communication, and is really tuning into clients.
Law firms have this, other companies have this, across industries. I don’t know if service providers have it. Candidly my experience has always been between a salesperson, or a client-success person, but really somebody who’s there to make sure that that thread moves seamlessly through internally and that there’s no hurdles, or anything for our clients, is really, really important.
And I think it’s a great opportunity for us, you know we’ve grown so much over the past couple of years, which has been exciting, and now we’re in a place, all of us across the board, sort of have this goal for 2023, personally, to like, okay now let’s just get really good at what it is that we do, and this is the version of that goal for the agency as a whole, let’s get even better at what we do. And provide that great client-service delivery, so that’s what that person will be joining us to do.
Lauren:
Yeah, and is that job description up anywhere just yet?
Robyn:
Yeah, so it’s posted on our website. You can get the link through my 3,000-word blog post, and candidly I don’t necessarily post it out on Indeed, or other job boards, because I want to, it’s sort of table stakes that we have somebody who has law firm experience so they understand sort of the world, the universe in which we operate, but also I want it to be the right person at the right time, Kristyn Brophy a great example. I had had the job posted for our Director of Client Strategy and I got a number of inquiries for it, but it just was never 100% the right person, and then through a twisted turn of fate, Kristyn was made known to me as somebody who might be a great person for that position.
So I’m just sort of following that model of when it’s the right time for it to happen, it’s gonna happen, and we’re gonna keep on keeping on for right now until it’s the right time.
Lauren:
Keep on keeping on.
Robyn:
Keep on trucking.
Lauren:
Okay, great, so any other kind of last words? Well, you do plan on doing 24 next year, or are we gonna maybe pivot a little bit?
Robyn:
So, great question, Lauren. It was a beast to put this together, I’m not gonna lie, and I also just felt behind the eight-ball all December long. Next year’s LISI’s 25th anniversary. So I might do a capstone, 25 goals for LISI’s 25th. I think might be the end of my list of goals. But I don’t know, I’m also always setting goals so maybe I’ll just, rather than do it as like one huge thing…
Lauren:
Yeah, or maybe like three, top three. Pare it down a little bit.
Robyn:
Yeah, maybe, yeah, top three goals, something. Yeah. I mean, you know how competitive I am though, so it’s so great to set this ridiculously large list and then be like I did more than 50%.
Lauren:
Yeah, I mean I could say I think going back and looking at all of the lists that you’ve done, I’m pretty sure that we’ve, you, the team in general at LISI, have accomplished…
Robyn:
The vast majority.
Lauren:
Yes, vast majority. Which is amazing.
Robyn:
You know? I know, I feel good about it. As I said to my mother last night on the phone, “You just have to have a goal you’re working for and that will drive everything.”
Lauren:
Exactly. Well, thank you so much for being here today.
Robyn:
Of course.
Lauren:
Thanks, everybody for tuning in. If you were not able to tune in today you can always re-watch the replay and look for it on our website and the podcast as well. Next Friday we will be introducing a new segment called, Behind the Bio, with one of our writers, Julie Ackerman. We will be sending out and posting out some information about that, so stay tuned and we look forward to seeing you again. Bye, guys.
Robyn:
Bye, everybody.
