| February 12, 2020 |
In the second half of The Legal S/ant podcast, I enjoyed chatting with two exceptional people, Vanessa Petrea and Jessica Jaramillo, about moving out of our comfort zones and the connectors that are a part of our lives.
One of those connectors is the first person who taught me how to build communities and grow movements - John Reagan “Tex” McCrary. Tex McCrary was an internationally recognized publicist who helped create and popularize one of the earliest talkshows. He also helped train many well-known journalists from Gabe Pressman and Ted Yates to Barbara Walters and Barry Farber.
Tex was perhaps most well-known for conceiving of the “I Like Ike,” campaign and rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City that served as the catalyst to convince then General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for the presidency of the United States.
Working with Tex for several years, I learned the essence of team collaboration. Tex showed me that if any individual member of the team had a ‘win,’ it benefited the collective good. He certainly thought individual recognition was important but it needed to be paired with humility. Most importantly, as an instructor, Tex imparted his knowledge and kindled my interest to approach every project with the same dedication and vigor that he exhibited.
When I conveyed my experience about building communities and growing movements to Vanessa Petrea, she responded by sharing a connector - her grandmother’s “I Heart Ike,” pin that was worn during General Eisenhower’s campaign. It was, in part, a catalyst to help her recall and delve into some of the defining moments that have helped her with respect to building communities. I inferred Jessica Jaramillo’s podcast commentary about pivoting effectively as opportunities to help all of us grow personally and professionally.
Vanessa Petrea's Grandmother's Pin
Tex McCrary would have most certainly been a listener of The Legal S/ant. Vanessa and Jessica are working on their own community – focused on bringing the legal marketing community together to provide wisdom, humor, camaraderie, and life hacks.
For more of part 2, listen via the website: http://thelegalslant.com/season-1/ or on your favorite podcast platform.
