Author: Andrew Embry

If you mixed diet mountain dew, funk music, dragons, hip hop, superheroes, and lightning in a blender you’d end up with Andrew Embry. He is part wordsmith and part alchemist, able to use his Batman utility belt to turn anything and everything into a story worth telling that is equal parts insightful, memorable, inspiring, humorous, and entertaining. Andrew is comfortably creative in almost any setting, but especially when he is performing spoken word poetry. His enthusiasm for words comes from the way he loves people and the little nuances of life that make it worth living.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Cheese on Pizza (10-30-19)

Last week we reflected on why we shouldn’t take the crust for granted.  This week we will think about diversity, inclusion, and cheese on a pizza.

A few months ago I called a pizza place and ordered a pizza that was ½ meat lovers and ½ just cheese.  What I got from the pizza place was a pizza that was 100% meat lovers, and no cheese on the pizza.  That’s right, someone made a pizza without cheese on it.  #unforgiveable  Anyway, you wouldn’t think that the absence of cheese would be such a big deal, but it was.  The absence of cheese messed up the flavor balance of the entire thing.  The absence of cheese meant that there was not a binding agent to hold everything together in place, so as I tried to eat the pizza the toppings would slide around.  As I took bites it was more like biting into individual toppings vs. having the combined flavor of a pizza in one bite.  Not a good experience.

What does a cheeseless pizza have to do with diversity and inclusion?  Pizza is a great analogy for diversity and inclusion.  Each topic brings its own unique strengths and flavor profile, and together they create something more than the sum of the individual parts.  At least that’s what happens when there is cheese.  When there isn’t cheese, it’s just a bunch of individual parts moving around. 

In this metaphor, I’d argue that cheese on a pizza is the trust that we build between each other.  Much like cheese, trust starts as small individual shreds of mozzarella and it grows and spreads with the application of warmth and time.  Much like cheese on a pizza, trust is the bond that holds everything together and in place.  It’s the thing that connects all of the individual toppings (people), and helps them unleash their inner awesomeness.  Think about a time when you were on a team that was built on trust.  What did that feel like?  More importantly, what did it enable you to be and to do?  I always do my best work, when I’m rooted in a relationship of trust.  Now, think of a time you were in a group where the trust wasn’t there.  How did that feel?  Did you feel like an individual component, disconnected from people and purpose?  That’s the way I’ve felt in those situations.  If cheese is the ultimate connector on pizza and trust is the connector that brings out the best in us, then it’s important we are putting in the work to build trust and help trust grow. 

The challenge: What are you doing to build trust?  How are you creating the warm environment to ensure trust grows and spreads?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Embracing Styles that aren’t Yours (9-25-19)

Last week was about power outfits and triggers.  This week we will explore the need to embrace styles that aren’t our own.

I don’t wear earrings, but one of the things that first drew me to my wife was her collection of cool dangling earrings.  I don’t like having marker or pen on my skin, but I think tattoos on other folks are awesome.  I don’t regularly wear suit jackets (because I’d melt in the middle of a meeting), but there are men and women who look sharp and cool as heck with jackets of all different colors and designs matched with dress shirts or a graphic t-shirts.  I never wear scarves, but I think it’s cool how they can be used as an accessory in so many situations and that there are so many different types of scarves.  There are a million other fashion things I wouldn’t partake in, but I still have a lot of admiration and appreciation for the various styles people rock, especially because they can rock and do things that I can’t.

Personally, I enjoy my geek chic look.  I get a kick out of color coordinating superhero socks with the shirt I’m wearing.  I like hiding Easter eggs in my outfits to see if anyone notices them.  For example, I’ll wear Tetris cufflinks when we are in big meetings about making things click and connect together.  I wore a Captain America bowtie, cufflinks, and socks, to a meeting where I was a captain of something, just to see if people would pick up on it.  I know this is totally ridiculous, but it gives me joy.  While I’d never expect you to want to rock superhero socks, I’d hope you’d say, “Not my cup of tea, but I appreciate it for Andrew being Andrew.”

You might already see where this is going.  We talk about people’s style quite a bit.  We talk about how important it is for people to be able to flex their style for different situations.  I feel we waste so much energy and effort focusing on the need to constantly flex styles.  Often, I feel that we do this, because of the inflexibility of certain individuals to receive information and people in a way that is not their own.  Using the clothing analogy, it would be like me saying, “I don’t wear scarves, so anyone who wears scarves is bad.  They shouldn’t wear scarves.  They should wear superhero socks.”  Have you ever been in one of those situations where you worked with someone and if it wasn’t done in their exact way then it wasn’t done correctly?  How did you feel?  This always made me feel miserable.

I agree with the need to flex styles to a certain extent, but shouldn’t we be more focused on accepting and embracing people different from ourselves?  Shouldn’t we be more focused on understanding what the individual styles of people can give us?  I can remember one situation in particular where I was working with someone, and we had very different styles on how we approached things.  What I appreciated is that even though it was so obvious we were very different, this person appreciated, trusted me, and empowered me to leverage my style to do things.  They understood that while my way of doing things was different, it could still deliver great outcomes.  His willingness to accept my style led to me better realizing and embracing the benefits of the way he approached things.  Together, we were quite the team, and over time I even incorporated some elements of his style into how I operate.

The challenge: How can we embrace styles beyond our own?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Power Outfits and Triggers (9-18-19)

Last week was about clothing that goes together and building teams.  This week is about power outfits and triggers.  If I asked you to wear your “power” outfit to work tomorrow, what would it be?  Power outfits are those outfits that seem to magically give you an extra boost of confidence.  For example, a few weeks ago I had a big presentation.  I was going to be part of a small group to present some of our marketing plan to a gaggle of VPs across the company (<-I love this phrase).  I knew I had to deliver, so this could only mean one thing.  It was time to bust out my power outfit which is built around a purple shirt and black tie.  (Side note, shout out to Tara, Beth, and Adam for presenting with me.  They did great!  They aren’t pictured, because I don’t have their permission and because I’m afraid our combined awesomeness might blind some of you and I don’t want to be held responsible for that.  I cause enough trouble as is.) 

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of a power outfit, and its ability to increase people’s confidence.  Why is it that some clothing can boost your confidence and other clothing has no real impact on confidence?  It all comes down to how we decide to make a certain outfit a trigger for increasing confidence.  In my case, a purple shirt increases my confidence.  Why?  The short version is that I’ve received some compliments from folks on how nice the shirt looked especially with the black tie.  This made me feel good about the shirt.  Then, I began to associate feeling confident with wearing this purple shirt.  Now the purple shirt is a trigger, which shifts me to feeling confident.

What does this have to do with anything?  This story isn’t about clothing.  It’s about understanding how triggers work and how triggers can shift your mindset.  What are some of your triggers?  Listening to The Gorillaz and The Roots puts me in a funky frenetic free flowing idea state, which leads to better writing and creativity.  Getting overwhelmed/stressed triggers me to binge eat comfort food and to stop exercising, which are basically the worst decisions you can make when you are stressed (#doublewhammy).  Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Similar to how a purple shirt can trigger me to be more confident, behaviors at work can trigger us to think of certain things.  Someone missed a detail, which triggers you to think they aren’t organized.  Someone doesn’t know the answer to a question, which triggers you to assume they are unprepared.  Someone talks a lot and speaks loudly, which triggers you to think they must know what they are doing.  A person is being quiet during conversation, which triggers you to assume they don’t have any value to add.  Maybe these things are true in some instances.  Often, we just believe these things, because that is what we associate the trigger with. 

The bottom line in all of this is that we are the ones who assign meaning to the triggers we experience, and if we are the ones who assign meaning, then we have the power to change what the triggers mean.  It all starts with awareness of what certain things trigger you to believe/do, and then working to examine that trigger and thought/behavior pattern to see if it’s appropriate.  The challenge: What are some of your triggers and what do they lead you to do?  How can you evolve your triggers to help you become the best version of you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Matching vs. Clothing that Goes Together (9-11-19)

Last week was about how the choices you make communicate things to the world.  This week is about color palettes and coordinating outfits.

I’ve always been confused by the concept of “matching” clothes vs. choosing clothing that “goes together”.  To me, matching is about finding things that are exactly the same.  For example, you match socks.  Each sock is identical to its partner.  With this line of thinking, if you matched an outfit, you’d choose an entire outfit that was all the same color/pattern/fabric.  For example, the entire outfit would be grey cotton.  At its core, matching is easy, because you look for identical things.  With that said, the matching results can look nice, but they’ll never have the pop of combining different colors together.

Choosing clothing that “goes together” is a different beast.  It’s about figuring out which colors coordinate and combine to create something better.  I am horrible at this.  The amount of time I’ve spent asking my wife if certain ties go with shirts and/or looking up color wheels on the internet to understand how colors complement each other is ridiculous.  Color coordinating outfits take more time and effort, especially as you work to incorporate more colors.  With that said, when you do find the right colors that go together the outfit pops and the result is something so much better than an outfit of just one color.

So where is this going?  Matching vs. choosing clothes that go together is a lot like assembling a team and building a culture.  It’s easier to match.  It’s easier to find people who are just like you.  It’s easier to recruit them, talk to them, connect to them, and bring them into the fold.  While it’s easier you end up with a team just like yourself, which in many ways will limit your ability to achieve new things.

It takes more time build a team with individuals that “go together”.  It takes more time and effort to figure out how we make the yellows, blues, reds, and greens of the world work together in the “outfit” to bring everything to life.  What do we do with this lime green over here?  How can we use this pink to accent certain things?  How do we leverage polka dots in our ensemble?  While it takes more time and effort, to recruit different people and/or cultivate the differences within individuals the end result is worth it.

The challenge: As you build and develop teams/groups are you matching or are you building teams of people who “go together”?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Bright Dress Shirts and What your Choices Communicate (9-4-19)

Last week was about the gift of socks and nudging people forward.  This week is about understanding that your choices communicate things.

One day I went to work and someone stopped me and said, “You’re off brand today.”  I was confused, and asked what they meant.  They explained that my brand is to wear bright solid colored dress shirts.  On that day I was wearing a striped shirt.  The picture to the right is from my closet.  Yes, it is color coded.  Yes, my t-shirts are also color coded.  As you can see, most of the shirts are solid colored, and many of them are bright.  I have 4 shirts that aren’t solid colored.  Anyway, after he finally helped me understand why I was off brand he said, “Yeah, you must really love the bright colors.”  Since then, other people have made similar comments.

Here’s the thing.  Until that person pointed it out, I didn’t realize I had a style or a “brand” when it came to clothing.  I never realized that my choices were communicating things.  The other interesting thing is that he was wrong.  He thought I had the shirts, because I liked bright colors.  That’s not what it is at all.  It’s more practical than that.  I hate shopping, and fashion isn’t my thing.  I found a brand of shirt I liked, the size that fit, and decided to buy a variety of colors.  I didn’t want to get all white, because they would stain.  Didn’t want to do all black, because I’d feel I was always at a funeral.  Therefore, I purchased the exact same shirt in the exact same size in multiple colors.

You might be wondering where this is going.  There are a couple of lessons we can take from this.  First, whether we realize it or not, all our choices communicate something to the world.  How often do you pause to ensure you know what your choices are communicating?  How often do you pause to ensure you are communicating what you want to be communicating?  If you don’t do so on a regular basis, you should spend time reflecting on this and getting feedback from folks to figure out what kind of vibes you’re putting out into the world.

The other lesson is that if we are the receivers of a message, it’s up to us to make sure we understand what the message means.  This guy thought my clothing choices were about me liking bright colors, and he was wrong.  If he would have asked earlier, I would have explained it to him.  In the same way, when someone does something that we don’t like or agree with, it’s easy to begin passing judgment on them before you ever realize their intentions and what they were doing.  Have you ever found yourself misinterpreting someone’s words or actions?  Take the time to understand before you jump to conclusions.  Just the other day I had a conversation with someone where I said, “I’m seeing X and feeling  Y.”  The person responded with, “I didn’t even know I was doing X.  I thought I was doing Q.”  Having this conversation, helped tremendously.

The challenges:  Be aware of what you are communicating.  Seek to understand before passing judgment.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Socks and Nudges (8-28-19)

This week I’d like to start a series inspired by clothing.  We’ll start with a story about the gift of cool socks.

If you go back in time about 5 years, my sock game was boring.  I wore basic solid colored dress socks every day.  That’s what I had been doing for years.  Fashion/style isn’t my thing, so my main goal in life is to not look like an idiot (this pertains to clothing, not general life, because you all know I’m always a slightly weird mess).  This all changed when I met Reggie Chris .  In case you don’t know these fine gentlemen, they are style mavens.  They are always on point with their sock game, bow ties, shoes, and other stuff.  Anyway, I noticed their sock game and would give them compliments from time to time.  One day Chris and Reggie gave me a gift.  They gave me my first pair of cool Happy socks, and that turned out to be the gateway to elevating my sock game.  Now my sock game consists of different superhero, video game, and nerdtastic socks. 

So what does this have to do with anything?  The story isn’t really about socks.  The story is about a small act.  It’s a story about giving people a nudge.  You never quite know what a small act will turn into.  They bought me a pair of socks for a few dollars, and it became a nudge for me to further explore and express my nerd side.  What I’ve come to realize is that cool socks are fun and they make me happy.  They also sometimes make other people chuckle too.

Think about your career for a moment.  What are some of the small acts and little nudges that you’ve received.  Here are a few of my favorite personal smalls acts/nudges throughout my career.

  • A guy I worked with in training, told me that he believed my poetry and storytelling could move people.  This led to some of my first blogs and poetry performances, and now I blog weekly and perform poetry on a regular basis at work (this still blows my mind).  This has opened me up to so much and given me a chance to impact so many people.
  • I was new to a role and was given a last minute project that needed to be handled right away.  I was unsure of whether or not I could deliver and my supervisor said, “I know you can handle it.”  That little nugget of faith was all I needed to keep going.
  • One of my bosses sent me a text message that basically said, “You’re crazy, and we need your kind of crazy.  Keep it up.”  This was a small nudge to keep being me, even though there were a lot of people looking at me like I was a Martian.  (Full disclosure- I’m from Pluto and ticked that you punks don’t view my home world as a planet.)
  • I believe I have all the thank you cards people have written for me over the past few years.  The thank you cards all essentially say the same thing.  “Thanks.  Keep being you,” and often that’s the fuel I need to keep going.

The challenge: What small act will you do to nudge and move people forward?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Running, Personal Records, and Doing your Best (8-21-19)

This will be the last in the series about running.  We started with gutting out tough runs, and then looked at refueling and giving fuel to others.  From there we focused on understanding where the finish line is, and how we might need to train to get there.  Last week was about accepting that we are worthy.  This week is about running, doing your best, and striving for growth.

A few months ago, I finished a race.  When I got home Alice (7), asked me, “Daddy, did you win?”  I chuckled at the question, because the only way I’d ever win a race is if all the runners were miraculously hit by a magic spell that made them run backwards.  Anyway, I told Alice that I didn’t win, and that most of the other runners are faster and better than I am.  Then Alice said, “Okay.  Well, did you beat your personal score? (She meant personal record aka PR)  Did you do your best?  Those are the things that matter, right?”  I smiled a ridiculously proud smile, and let her know that I had done my best and today doing my best also meant beating my personal record.  Then, I told her I agreed that trying to get better and doing your best are the main things that matter, and those are the main things we can control. 

You probably see where this is going.  We are all running our own race, and we are all facing obstacles, many of which are out of our control.  When we face these obstacles, it’s so easy to get focused on them that we lose sight of what we can control.  One thing we can control is the amount of effort we put in.  We can control whether we come in and give it our all every single day.  We can control the energy and effort we give to our projects and our relationships.  The other thing we can control is our drive to improve and grow.  It’s easy to get into a routine.  It’s easy to fall into the rhythm of a role where things are going smoothly.  I don’t know about you, but when this happens it’s easy to be content with getting by vs. being focused on improving.  I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that I spend a decent amount of time reflecting.  One of the reasons I do this is because it helps me understand where I currently am, where I’m still falling short, and what I can do to beat my personal best.  Each day is another run, another race, and another chance to get better.

The challenge:  Keep running.  Keep striving.  Keep beating your personal records.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Running and being Worthy (8-14-19)

Last week was about adjusting your training for new goals.  This week is about accepting that you are worthy. 

After I finished my first marathon a friend sent me a message that said, “You can’t say you’re not a runner now.” (#lovedoublenegatives)  This made me laugh, but it also hit me in a powerful way.  I’ve been running for years, but for the longest time I never claimed to be a runner, because I had decided that all runners were graceful elks effortlessly bounding on their runs.  I didn’t fit that mold, so I wasn’t a runner.  At my core, I refused to call myself a runner, because I felt I wasn’t worthy.  With that in my mind my friend’s comments basically said, “Only runners do what you just did.  If that doesn’t make you a runner, nothing will.  You are worthy of being called a runner.”  My friend was right. 

What does this have to do with anything?  I kept shrugging off the title of “runner” because I didn’t feel worthy.  I sometimes do that with compliments and kind words, even if they are objectively true, because deep down I don’t know if I’m worthy of the praise.  Do you do anything similar?  Embry poetry example.  If you’d look at the evidence (won slam competitions, participated in nationals, received standing ovations and countless positive comments, continue to get asked to perform) objectively you’d say that I must be a pretty good poet.  Still, for the longest time when people gave me compliments, I would shrug it off and say things like, “Thanks.  I don’t know if I’m a good poet.  I think I’m just a good performer.”  I did this because the visual in my head of what a good poet is was something unattainable.  I didn’t feel I was worthy of being called a good poet. 

This happens at work too.Throughout my career I’ve had people say, “Bob, Susie, and Joe all believe you are really good at X, so they sent me to get your perspective on X.”  Objectively speaking, that means multiple people thought I was good at something, which means at least to them my opinions had real value.  I’d often respond with, “Oh thanks.  I don’t know about that.  I don’t know if I’m really all that good of a X or good at Y…”  It’s another case of not feeling worthy enough to accept the compliment, accept who/what I am, and accept that others see me as worthy.  Over time I learned that I am in fact worthy, and could accept the kind words.

The fact is that we are all more worthy than we ever can readily admit, and we just need to be willing to embrace this fact.  In case no one has told you lately… If you influence people, bring out the best in them, engage their hearts and minds, and achieve results that wouldn’t be possible without you, then you are worthy of being called a leader.  If your children know that you love them, and you invest your time and energy into helping them grow, you are worthy of being called a good mom/dad.  (<-Parents, read this one twice.)  If you are a person, you are worthy of love, kindness, and compassion. 

The challenge: Will you accept that you are worthy?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Adjust Training to Reach New Goals (8-7-19)

Last week was about knowing where the finish line is.  This week is about knowing your destination and training accordingly.

Last year I had a goal to complete a half-marathon in under 2 hours.  This was quite a stretch for me.  In order to run a half-marathon under 2 hours, I would need to run approximately 9 minute miles, and my normal pace for a mile is around 11 minutes.  As I trained for this, I had to force myself to train faster than what I was accustomed to running, so I could build up the speed and stamina to carry me through.  In November of 2018, I reached my goal and finished a half-marathon in about 1 hour 59 minutes.  (#skinofmyteeth #itstillcounts).  A few months after that I decided to run a full marathon.  My goal was to just finish the marathon.  I knew that if I ran the marathon at my half-marathon pace, I wouldn’t be able to safely complete the race.  As I trained, I ran slow and steady (around a 12 min 30 sec) pace, and I built up my endurance over time.  I also spent more time stretching and doing yoga to keep my body relatively fresh and healthy.  I finished my first marathon in April in about 5 hours and 30 minutes. (#turtlepower)

What does this have to do with anything?  The thing that led to me having a successful half-marathon would not be the same thing that would make me have a successful marathon.  In the story above I had to change my training and the way I operated based on the goal I had.  Think about work for a moment.  Think about the times that you’ve started a new role or a new project.  What did it take for you to be successful in that new role vs. your old role?  What did it take as your responsibilities changed?  How did you have to adapt to deliver on these new responsibilities?  What I’ve found throughout my career is that there are always things that transfer from one role to the next.  At the same time if I leveraged ONLY what I did in my old role in my new role, I’d never reach my new goals, because new challenges require new skills. 

Embry example, before my current role I worked in market research, where I spent a lot of my time thinking about big picture strategy, defining problems, and figuring out how to answer questions.  In my new role, half my job is strategy, which leverages previous skills, and the other half of my job is more operational focused.  This operational component has caused me to think more about timelines, processes, and how things work at a more detailed level than I’m accustomed to.  This has caused me to stretch and use muscles I haven’t used as often in the past.  If I attacked this job the same way I did my market research job I would fail.  I’ve had to adapt based on my new goals.  My main goal right now is to not get fired for being incompetent 😉 #sofarsogoodbutit’sstillearly.  Actually, one of my goals is to figure out how to operationalize things in a way that causes the least amount of swirl and wasted effort possible.  I haven’t mastered this yet, but am learning things and adapting in ways that might help me reach this goal in the future. 

The challenge: Are you adapting your “training” to new goals or are you stuck doing “old things” that will only help you meet old goals?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Running, Fuel, and Water Stations (7-24-19)

Last week we kicked off a series about running by looking at gutting out tough runs.  This week is about running and water stations.  It’s inspired by one of the responses to last week’s blog.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned since I began running is the importance of fueling up as you run.  It can make or break your run or race.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some runs and races where things started out okay, and then everything started falling apart.  All of a sudden it was like my body was out of rhythm, and my legs turned into cement.  Often that happened to me because I didn’t fuel up during the race.  I didn’t drink enough water and/or I didn’t eat and give my body the calories it needed to keep going.  Has this ever happened to you, either during a race, a run, a workout, or another activity?

What does this have to do with anything?  Last week was about tough runs, and someone responded to me and said, “But I will not quit.  I will keep running – despite the bruises, bumps, scrapes, and then some.  I do love it – my family, my career, my life.  Just some days I need someone at the water station to give me that cheer and cup of water – telling me to keep running!”

I found this insightful and inspiring, and I think it connect to us in two ways.  First, it speaks to the importance of taking the time to refuel.  We all are in the middle of our own tough run, but how often are we taking the time to refuel?  How often are we taking the time to pause for a moment to make sure we get some “water” and “fuel” into our system?  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so caught up in running around in work and life that I don’t pause to refuel.  While I can run for a long time, sooner or later it all catches up and I end up crashing hard and falling apart.  We all do.

The other connection is that we can all be the person at the water station giving encouragement and water to other people.  As I reflect, I realize that I have no idea what kind of race other people are running.  I don’t know if it’s a tough run for them or a smooth one.  I don’t know if they are tired or if their legs are still fresh.  Regardless, what I do know is that everyone needs fuel, and we all have the ability to give each other a little fuel in the form of a smile, a kind word, encouragement, and any other gifts we have to offer.

Challenge 1:  Will you slow down and refuel?

Challenge 2:  Will you give fuel to others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry