I hope we are all like the Grinch (12-10-25)

This will be the last blog of 2025. If you’ve been on this distribution list for a while, you might recognize that I usually end the year with this entry. I feel it is just as relevant now as it was in years past. Besides, we watch the same holiday specials every year, so we can revisit the same holiday themed blogs, right? 😉 For our final blog of the year we will look at How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

During this holiday season I hope we are all like the Grinch. Pretty strange thing to say, right? Let me explain why I feel this way. You may know the story of the Grinch. He is a grumpy creature who decides he will try to steal Christmas from the Whos. He concocts an elaborate scheme and then steals all of the presents, decorations, etc. in an effort to ruin their holiday. This negative attitude is what we often associate with the Grinch, but this isn’t the end of his story. The Grinch grows as a character, and life is all about growing, changing, and becoming better.

The Grinch has stolen the gifts, and then he hears the Whos singing. Suddenly, it hits him right as his sleigh full of gifts starts to go over the cliff. “And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of *ten* Grinches, plus two!” He saves the gifts from falling over the cliff, rides into Whoville, and serves the roast beast at the feast.

The reason I hope we are all like the Grinch this year is because he grows and becomes a better person. He begins filled with apathy, malice, and grumpiness, and then he allows love in and it fundamentally changes him. How have you changed and grown this year? Wherever you are right now, we have the chance to be better. Imagine how different the world be if all of our hearts grew like the Grinch’s. Here is to all of us knowing what it feels like when our hearts grow three sizes in a day.

As always, thanks so much for reading. Your reading and encouragement throughout the year is the best gift I could ever ask for. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and happy holidays for anything you might be celebrating! I hope you disconnect and recharge. I hope you find peace, love, and fulfillment.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Mario Kart and Choosing the Right Set up for the Task (8-13-25)

Mario Kart 8 Kart Customization

Happy Wednesday,

Recently, my family and I have got back into playing Mario Kart 8 on Switch, which is the inspiration behind this blog series. Our first entry will be about choosing the right set up for the task in front of you.

In case you’re not familiar with Mario Kart, here is how it works. You choose from a collection of Super Mario characters along with a variety of vehicle, tire, and glider options. These choices impact your speed, acceleration, weight, handling, and off-road capabilities. Here was my predicament. Typically, I would choose characters and set ups that were higher on speed and not so much on acceleration. This was great at the lower difficulty levels. Then, once I got to 200cc, I was no longer able to have success with this set up. I slid off courses, struggled, and ultimately lost. As I reflected, I realized that 200cc is more about stopping and going vs staying at a continual top speed. My builds focused on speed may have worked in previous situations, but now I was facing a different challenge. I needed to adapt. Maxing out speed was no longer serving me. Instead, I needed to choose characters, carts, tires, and gliders that would give me high acceleration. Once I switched to this new set up, I started winning!

Making connections. Work is a lot like Mario Kart. We have different options of tools and skillsets we can use to solve problems. Over time, we find set ups that we become comfortable with that we can use over and over again. This serves us well, until things change. Then, our tried and true methods are no longer effective. Has this ever happened to you? You better believe it’s happened to me. From time to time, we need to take a step back to understand the problem we are solving for. From time to time, we need to take a step back and ask whether our current tools and skills are the right ones to solve this problem.

The challenge: Will you be willing to switch your set up when the environment and challenges around you change?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

I Hope We are all like The Grinch (12-11-24)

This will be the last blog of 2024. If you’ve been on this distribution list for a while, you might recognize that I usually end the year with this entry. I feel it is just as relevant now as it was in years past. Besides, we watch the same holiday specials every year, so we can revisit the same holiday themed blogs, right? 😉 For our final blog of the year we will look at How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

During this holiday season I hope we are all like the Grinch. Pretty strange thing to say, right? Let me explain why I feel this way. You may know the story of the Grinch. He is a grumpy creature who decides he will try to steal Christmas from the Whos. He concocts an elaborate scheme and then steals all of the presents, decorations, etc. in an effort to ruin their holiday. This negative attitude is what we often associate with the Grinch, but this isn’t the end of his story. The Grinch grows as a character, and life is all about growing, changing, and becoming better.

The Grinch has stolen the gifts, and then he hears the Whos singing. All of a sudden it hits him right as his sleigh full of gifts starts to go over the cliff. “And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of *ten* Grinches, plus two!” He saves the gifts from falling over the cliff, rides into Whoville, and serves the roast beast at the feast.

Here is to all of us knowing what it feels like when our hearts grow three sizes in a day.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

When and Why Impostor Syndrome Shows Up (11-6-24)

Spiritual Growth Last week was about impostor syndrome and listening to the positive whispers. This week is about understanding when and why impostor syndrome rears its ugly head.

I’ve had a lot more impostor syndrome over the past couple of months than I normally do. This has caused me to pause and wonder why, which led me to an epiphany. Impostor syndrome doesn’t show up as I brush my teeth. It doesn’t show up when I make myself breakfast in the morning or when I drive into work. Impostor syndrome doesn’t show up whenever I’m doing anything at home or work that is routine or easy.

Do you know when impostor syndrome shows up? It shows up when I’m pushing boundaries. It shows up when I’m doing something new. It shows up when I’m doing something challenging. All of those things bring nervousness and fear, and that’s when impostor syndrome shows up. Everything I’m doing at work right now involves challenging the status quo, carving paths through new frontiers, and pushing myself as a leader further than I thought possible. No wonder impostor syndrome has been so loud lately. 😉

What does this have to do with anything? When impostor syndrome first shows up, I often think it’s a me problem. I view it as a sign of my own weakness. I view it as a warning that I’m about to fail. Do you ever feel this way? Now, I’m beginning to view impostor syndrome a little differently. If impostor syndrome only shows up when I’m pushing myself, then impostor syndrome isn’t a sign of my weakness. Impostor syndrome is actually a sign that I’m on the verge of growing. If I view it this way, I can lean in and push forward instead of being paralyzed by it.

The challenge: How will you reinterpret what impostor syndrome means?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Expanding Your Comfort Zone (6-26-24)

A person holding a staff

Description automatically generated Last week was about parenting and tailoring support. This week is about expanding your comfort zone.

About a year ago, Cameron watched his sister in The Wizard of Oz on the big stage in the spring play. This sparked Cam’s interest in doing something similar. The only problem was that he was nervous and scared to do something like that. This was outside of his comfort zone. Instead of giving up, Cam thought about things he could do to expand his current comfort zone, so being on the big stage wouldn’t be such a big leap. He started by signing up for a puppet camp last summer. Then he signed up and participated in a fall show with younger kids. He found he enjoyed those two things, and this gave him the confidence to be in a bigger show. A few weeks ago, he was on the big stage in Beauty and the Beast. He was in the ensemble, so mainly in the background as a villager and a dancing spoon. However, he ended up getting one line. He’s proud of being the angry mob member who yelled, “Kill him!” which started everyone to go after the Beast. Now that he’s had one line, he’s starting to think about auditioning for a bigger part next year. The audition is a little daunting, so he’s already thinking of smaller things he can do to stretch his comfort zone for that.

What does this have to do with anything? Cam saw how far out of his comfort zone being on stage was, and instead of giving up he became INTENTIONAL about taking small steps to expand his comfort zone. The first couple of shows gave him confidence. Then practicing for the big show set up him for success. By the time he was on the show, he was 100% feeling himself, and I loved his swagger 😉 Now think about your own life. Are there things you’d like to do outside of your comfort zone? Those things might seem too big and too scary now, but are there small steps you can take to move toward them?

The challenge: How will you expand your comfort zone?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Professional and Personal Quarterly Check-in (3-27-24)

This week’s entry is about quarterly check-ins for work and for yourself. It’s a longer email, because I’m including my own quarterly self-assessment as an example.

As we finish out the end of Q1, I find myself doing a lot of reflecting on the progress that has been made on various projects and tasks at work. I’m asking myself things like, “Where are we now compared to where we were at the beginning of the quarter? Were we able to achieve our goals? If so, how do we keep up the momentum? If not, what should we adjust to do better? How can we ensure we regroup and are clear and focused for Q2?” It seems like a perfect moment to pause, reflect, regroup, and plan before attacking Q2.

What does this have to do anything? While this is great for work, we could apply this same thinking to our personal lives as well. What are some of your goals for 2024? How did you do with them in Q1? Have you stopped to CELEBRATE your progress? Stop RIGHT NOW and celebrate something you’ve achieved. After you celebrate, then you can reflect and see if there are any gaps. If you have gaps, why do you have gaps? What happened? What got in the way? How can you adjust to reach your goals for this quarter?

The challenge: Will you take the time to do a quarterly check-in? What changes will you make to set yourself up for the rest of the year?

Bonus: Here is my review based on the dimensions in my life I set goals for. Hopefully, it sparks a thought or two for you. Also, just know if things have been tough lately, you’re not the only one. Bottom line- tough quarter, and I need to bounce back. The picture of me flipping a tire is from my most recent obstacle course race and summarizes my Q1 in a nutshell. It was all about moving heavy stuff and getting through it. I did it, but dang it was so much harder and uglier than I wanted it to be, or it needed to be.

Intentionally Invest (D+)- This is my mantra for the year. This is about being intentional about where and how I invest my energy. Investing my energy means doing the right things that help me be the best version of myself. I gave myself a bad grade, because I wasn’t intentional. I got overwhelmed by a lot of things and just started recklessly spending energy. It wasn’t helpful and it didn’t help me get to where I wanted to go.

Mental Health (C-)- Overall, I want to feel like I’m in a good, strong, solid mental state. In full transparency, life and work just kicked my butt this quarter. The stress was overwhelming and was too much for me to manage in an efficient way. I got really lost and stuck trying to trudge through everything. Feeling lost and stuck drained so much of my mental energy. I spent so much energy here that I didn’t spend it on taking care of myself. I am proud of myself for getting some help. Moving forward, I need to use the new tools I’m developing, so I won’t get so stuck. If I can do that, everything else will improve dramatically.

Physical Health (C-)- The goal is to take good care of myself, so I can do the things I want to be able to do. The only reason I’m not giving myself a worse grade, is because I did manage to at least hold things together enough to complete a couple of obstacle course races. Other than that, I was inconsistent with working out, my sleep was poor, and my nutrition was abysmal. I’m ready to do better in Q2.

Family (ugly hard-earned B)- The goal is to feel like I’m being an amazing husband and dad. As they say in The Inside Job podcast, “Life gets lifey.” It’s been a hard few months with each day seemingly bringing new challenges. I give myself an “ugly hard-earned B” because it’s like one of those things in school where you have to put in so much effort you dang near exhaust yourself just to make it. I was not necessarily excellent, but I found ways to hold it together. It’s an ugly B, but one I can be proud of. At the same time, I think some work and mental health challenges got in the way of me being on the top of my game here.

Career (ugly hard-earned B)- The goal is to feel like I’m delivering magic. It’s a high bar about being in a flow state and getting incredible things done. Similar to my Family category, challenges kept popping up and compounding on themselves day in and day out. As a result, this quarter was filled with nothing but peaks and valleys, and they couldn’t have been further from each other. At times I was operating at a high level, and there were other times when I felt like an ineffective burned-out piece of garbage. This is another hard-earned ugly B that left me a little bruised and roughed up. I believe I focused on the right things. It just so happens that all the right things were the extremely difficult, and it was like carving through ambiguity made of marble while walking through quicksand. It took so much energy to keep slogging forward, and I know I was burned out for a period of time. On the positive side, I’m proud of myself for finding a way to regroup. I feel I’m getting my energy and magic back. All I need is a little more momentum, and then I’ll be like the Juggernaut (bonus points if you get the X-men reference)

Financial (B)- The goal is to ensure we are saving/investing money in the right way. I’ve already shifted money for investments. Some of these have been home repair things (replacing the hot water heater has been AMAZING!) and some of these are investing in fun vacations for later in the year. I do acknowledge that I was wasting too much money on junk food and stuff as I was super stressed.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Performing Poetry in Bars and Embracing Discomfort to be Successful (1-24-24)

Last week was about choosing when to feel discomfort. This week is about performing poetry in bars and embracing discomfort to be successful.

I remember one time earlier in my career, when I had crushed a presentation in front of a difficult audience that peppered me with tough questions. Afterwards, a person asked me what my secret was. I replied, “As a hobby I perform poetry in bars. Imagine presenting in a room where everyone is loud and obnoxious. Imagine sharing deep parts of yourselves and then getting a low score on the poem. Imagine being booed. None of that is pleasant. Besides the poetry, I do dry runs where I ask people to come at me hard with stuff to throw me off my game. That gets bumpy. You live through that ugliness a few times, and the official presentation becomes a lot easier.”

Where is this going? A large reason why I was successful presenting in a tough situation is because I had spent so much time embracing discomfort. As a result, my mind and body were ready for the discomfort when the stakes were real. The pressure from the situation and the tough questions weren’t anything new. They were things I had dealt with and more importantly overcome time and time again. Once the pointed questions started coming, it’s like my muscle memory took over and just handled things. However, if I would have never experienced discomfort like that before, I would have frozen.

Think about work for a moment. How often are you embracing situations that cause discomfort? How often do you truly encourage people to challenge you and your thinking? How often do you do a dry run and ask people to critique you before the real presentation? How often do you role play through difficult feedback and conversations, so you can be prepared for the real convo? If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t create or invite these situations as often as you should. While none of those situations are particularly pleasant, consistently embracing discomfort in lower stakes instances make it a lot easier to tolerate that discomfort when things are on the line.

The challenge: How are you embracing discomfort to grow and be better?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

I hope we are all like the Grinch (12-13-23)

This will be the last blog of 2023. If you’ve been on this distribution list for a while, you might recognize that I usually end the year with this entry. I feel it is just as relevant now as it was in years past. Besides, we watch the same holiday specials every year, so we can revisit the same holiday themed blogs, right? 😉 For our final blog of the year we will look at How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

During this holiday season I hope we are all like the Grinch. Pretty strange thing to say, right? Let me explain why I feel this way. You may know the story of the Grinch. He is a grumpy creature who decides he will try to steal Christmas from the Whos. He concocts an elaborate scheme and then steals all of the presents, decorations, etc. in an effort to ruin their holiday. This negative attitude is what we often associate with the Grinch, but this isn’t the end of his story. The Grinch grows as a character, and life is all about growing, changing, and becoming better.

Here is to all of us knowing what it feels like when our hearts grow three sizes in a day.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Feedback and Discomfort (11-29-23)

This will be the last in our series on feedback. This week we will reflect on feedback and discomfort.

The other night Cam made a poor choice, and his behavior didn’t meet our minimum expectations. I had a calm conversation with him about it. I explained that his behavior wasn’t where it should be. Ultimately, he lost privileges. There was no yelling or harsh words involved. Still, Cam didn’t like being told he did something wrong. Having to admit that he fell short made him feel discomfort. After our talk he told Alice all about it and Alice came and told me I made Cam feel bad. I explained to Alice that I didn’t want to make Cam feel bad. At the same time, me making Cam feel good by only telling him positive things and ignoring his behavior when he doesn’t meet our standards is not good for him or fair to the family. Ignoring his behavior sets a precedent that it was acceptable when it wasn’t. I was okay with him feeling discomfort. I didn’t tell him he was a bad person. I held him accountable, talked to him about the negative impact of his choices and behavior, and asked him to own up to his mistake so he can grow. I wasn’t surprised that he felt upset with the conversation. Owning up to your shortcomings isn’t a pleasant process.

What does this have to do with anything? Sometimes we value comfort so much that we assume discomfort is bad, and that’s not true. Furthermore, when it comes to feedback, if it causes you to feel discomfort then it’s easy to decide that the feedback is bad and the person giving it is bad. Have you ever received feedback that struck a nerve, and your first instinct was, “Forget them! They don’t know me! They don’t know my work!” I’m not particularly proud of it, but I’ve done that before.

Truth be told, most of my best growth has come from feedback that was initially uncomfortable. Being told that the work I did on a project wasn’t good caused discomfort. Not getting roles I posted for and being told I wasn’t as qualified as other candidates caused discomfort. Being told I wasn’t bringing enough value in a situation caused discomfort. Being told I messed up a parenting situation caused discomfort. All of this also led to growth. I’d rather have moments of discomfort that led to growth, than people telling me everything is great when it’s not. The latter will keep me from growing.

The challenge: How will you handle it when feedback makes you feel discomfort?

Bonus thought: If the feedback hijacks you, it’s okay to ask for time to process it. Asking for time and space is ALWAYS okay, and I’ve done that on more of a few occasions. I say something like, “I need time to process, because right now my wheels are turning, and I can’t really have a productive conversation.”

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Parenting- Doing the Right Thing is Exhausting (8-30-23)

This is going to be the last entry about lessons I’ve learned being a dad. This week is about how doing the right thing is exhausting.

The other day my wife and I collapsed on the couch. We were mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. Parenting had beaten us down over the past few weeks. Have any other parents felt like that? Anyway, we looked at each other and started talking about how it would be so much easier things could be. It would be easier to use our authority to control our kids vs give them freedom. It would be easier if we just told our kids to suck it up vs helped them identify and deal with their emotions. It would be easier to tell the kids that the things that bother them don’t matter vs helping them figure out how to work through them. It would be so much easier stop them from ever experiencing pain and rejection vs watching them go through those things. Those things would be easier, and we probably wouldn’t be so tired. All of those things would be easier, but they probably wouldn’t be best for our kids. The hard things are exhausting, and they are worth it. My kids are so much stronger, compassionate, independent, and well-rounded than they have ever been. They have grown so much, and I couldn’t be prouder.

What does this have to do with anything? Doing the right thing is exhausting. The above examples might have been framed as parenting situations, but they likely apply to any relationship you could be in. Think about work for a minute. What are other scenarios we find ourselves in where doing the right thing is exhausting? It’s easier to go along trying to do everything vs taking the time to make tough prioritization decisions. It’s easier to not give tough feedback to someone vs holding them accountable for their performance. It’s easier to get lost in the day to day vs carving out time to be strategic about where you are trying to go. Doing the right thing is hard. If you ever find yourself exhausted after doing the right thing day in and day out, just know that’s okay. Know that’s normal. Doing the right thing is exhausting, AND it’s necessary for growth. When you find yourself tired, take care of yourself, rest up, and continue doing your best to fight the good fight.

The challenge: Will you keep doing the hard thing, even when it’s exhausting?

Bonus- Last week I had the honor of performing poetry at our Level Up DEI conference. The poem is about fitting in vs belonging. Follow this link if you want to check it out. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7102454896259469312/

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry