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

Time, Perspective, and Type 2 Fun (9-22-25)

A bottle of white liquid pouring out of a dropper

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

Happy Monday!

You’re getting a blog on Monday, because I’m going to do a few things for work this morning, and then I’m taking the rest of the week off. Last week was about making the most of a situation. This week is about time, perspective, and type 2 fun.

Recap: Diane and a 4-month-old Alice are living with my parents. It’s chaos. My wife is looking at potential houses to buy, which is totally stressing her out. My dad goes with my wife to check out houses to help out with Alice. Anyway, they go to a house and long story short, my dad knocks over the bottle of Alice’s milk and gets it all over the dining room table in the house. This takes an already stressful situation and makes it worse. They are frantically cleaning it up, and Diane is worried about potentially ruining someone’s table and is feeling more overwhelmed than ever. Ultimately, everything is okay. Fast forward a few hours, and the milk spilling incident has turned from super stressful to hilarious. They tell the story to my mom when she comes home, and everyone is laughing. Fast forward to today, and the milk spilling incident is one of our favorite stories to tell.

Let’s connect some dots. When you read the story above, I hope you smiled or chuckled a bit. It’s kind of funny. It’s also a situation we can all relate to. Maybe you didn’t spill milk, but we’ve all made a mess which turned a stressful situation into something even worse. However, with a little time and perspective, we can begin to see the humor in the moment. My family calls these kinds of things type 2 fun, a phrase we learned from a friend. Type 1 fun is when the situation is enjoyable and funny as it happens. Type 2 fun is when the situation is bad at the moment, but later on you see the joy and humor in it. As I get older, I’ve learned that most initially stressful situations in life end up as Type 2 fun.

The challenge: When you run into something tough/stressful/bad will you be able to create the distance and perspective to see the joy and humor?

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

AI and Being Brave Enough to “Fail Fast” and “Fail Forward” 4-2-25

This week is about AI and being brave enough to “fail fast” and “fail forward”. I dedicate this to Jax Penso and our tech team.

A few months ago, Jax approached me with an idea. She had a complicated dataset filled with quant and qual data. She wanted to explore if AI could help dissect, analyze, and make connections faster and more effectively than humans could. I loved the vision and the willingness to experiment.

I told Jax that what she was asking was going to be incredibly difficult, and no one (in our company or beyond) had quite figured out how to do this with AI yet. Jax wasn’t phased. She was willing to explore, so we got a team together and started working. The team acknowledged that what we were setting out to do would be incredibly difficult. We knew that there was a good chance that things would not work out perfectly. We also knew that by pushing the boundaries of what was possible we would learn a lot. In the end, our prototype didn’t meet our lofty expectations. HOWEVER, we gathered a lot of learnings along the way.

Let’s make connections. How often do you hear people talk about being brave enough to “fail fast” or “fail forward”? I’m sure you hear it a lot. Those are some of the all-time most popular corporate buzz words. Now, how often do you see people who are truly brave enough to fail fast or fail forward? That’s a rarity. It would have been easy for Jax and the team to decide not to pursue the project, once they understood that the chances of perfect success was slim to none. It would have been easier, BUT it would not have been as fruitful.

Imagine how different work would be if more folks acted like Jax and the team? At the end of the day, the team didn’t fail. They learned. The team didn’t fail, they created a new foundation. Pursuing the impossible led us to exploring new technologies and approaches. It also challenged us to rethink and better embrace the Agile mentality. We didn’t make it to the summit, but other folks will be able to leverage our learnings to get them a head start.

The challenge: Are you brave enough to explore, even when you’re not 100% sure how it will turn out? Are you one of the rare people brave enough to “fail fast” or “fail forward”?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Your Brand Is Not for Everyone… and That’s Okay (4-17-24)

Last week was about exploring the problems your personal brand uniquely solves. This week is about understanding you and your brand aren’t for everyone… and that’s okay!

I was in an interview once and they asked me what one of my favorite brands was. I explained that it was Sprecher Root Beer. I enjoy a high-quality root beer, and that’s exactly what Sprecher stands for. It’s root beer made with Wisconsin honey giving it a smooth taste. It comes in thick glass bottles. You only put things in glass bottles if they are worth something, and we all know beverages from glass bottles are always better than beverages from cans or plastic. Restaurants and places that carry Sprecher root beer show me that they care about quality and about doing things a little differently.

I imagine that most of you reading the blog this week don’t care much about root beer. You probably read the above paragraph and was like, “That’s nice… I guess.” You won’t think about root beer again or you’ll say to yourself, “A+W and MUG root beer are just fine.” All of this is okay. At the end of the day Sprecher is NOT a brand for everybody. It’s a brand for people who enjoy high quality root beer, and not everyone can be as awesome as me 😉

What does this have to do with personal branding? As humans, I think we naturally feel the pressure to please everyone, and as a result we want a personal brand that is liked by EVERYONE. I know I feel this way sometimes (or a lot of times). When this thought kicks in, I try to remember two things. First, pleasing everyone is impossible. Second, attempting to please everyone would require you to water down so much of who you are that you wouldn’t be you anymore. Much like Sprecher root beer, if your brand is truly built on you and who you are, then your brand shouldn’t be for everyone and for every situation. There is power in embracing this. Just because my brand doesn’t work for you and for a situation doesn’t mean it’s bad or I’m bad. It just means the situation isn’t the right fit, and having the right fit is more important than force fitting something.

The challenge: Can you accept that your brand isn’t for everyone and every situation? (Per previous challenges- Who and what situation is YOUR brand for?)

Bonus deep thought/confession: I’d argue that reflecting to define your brand is relatively easy. The harder thing is deciding to accept yourself (and your brand) for who you are, what you do, and how you do things. Earlier in my career I had this weird love/hate relationship with being known as this inclusive storyteller poet guy. (Truth be told, this love/hate relationship still continues sometimes, but it was fierce and brutal when I was younger). I had decided that “the world” only rewards people who are seen as “technically smart” in certain areas and often doesn’t appreciate “soft skills”. As a result, I had this inner battle and sometimes outward flinching even when people were giving me compliments about my inclusion and storytelling skills. It’s like I’d get irritated at them for seeing me for who I was, because I didn’t think who I was would be valued by the organization. People would give me compliments and I’d essentially be like, “Yeah, but nobody cares about that stuff. I need to do and be X.” Does that make sense to anybody? Have you ever felt that way? I often felt that I was less than and not good enough. Over time, I’ve come to realize and embrace that my inclusive nature and storytelling skills are superpowers that make me unique and enable me to make a difference wherever I am. If you ever go through something similar, I hope you ultimately stumble into this understanding and peace as well. (Side note, Tori Brown, if you are reading this, I know you’re smiling/laughing/smirking after having this convo with me a few times in my career. At least this shows I heard you 😉. Along those lines, I hope you all have a Tori Brown in your life who helps you realize you are just totally wrong and blind for not embracing yourself.)

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Personal Brands, Being You, and Owning Space in People’s Minds (4-3-24)

This week we are going to kick off a series on personal branding. This week is about brands, being you, and owning space in someone’s mind.

I can’t remember who told me this, but my favorite definition of what a brand is goes something like this, “A brand is the place something/someone owns in your mind that is uniquely theirs.” If I told you to think about Apple, I’m sure a few things would pop into your mind. If I told you to think of Android or Microsoft, I’m sure you’d think of different words, even though they are all in the tech sector they each own a different piece of real estate. Similarly, if I said Toyota or General Motors, you’d likely have different ideas instantly popping up into your brain. We could play this game over and over again with things like McDonald’s vs Panera, Nike vs. Under Armor, etc. Over time these brands have earned that space in your mind, by communicating AND fulfilling a promise to you. That promise consists of their mission, what they do, and how they do it. The more often they fulfill that promise, the stronger the brand becomes.

What does this have to do with personal branding? Similar to those other brands, I believe someone’s personal brand is the piece of real estate you own in someone’s mind when they hear your name. A person owns that spot in someone’s mind, because they have CONSISTENTLY lived and acted in accordance with their mission. They have demonstrated values and behaviors that align to that mission over and over and over again. When people hear my name, I hope they instantly think something like, “Spark igniting storyteller. He cares deeply for people, is a creative problem solver, keeps it real, brings the energy, and communicates in a way that moves people forward”. I hope at this point in my career I’ve delivered on that promise and those things enough times that I own that space in people’s brains. I didn’t get there overnight. I had to spend time to figuring out who I am, my mission, what I do, and how I do those things. From there, I had to consistently live those things over and over again and continually refine myself along the way.

The challenge: If someone hears your name, what space would you own in their mind? What is your mission? WHAT do you do? HOW do you do it? Do you live those in a way that other people feel them?

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

Lies of P and Scoping out a Situation Before Taking Action (2-28-24)

Last week was about Lies of P and expecting difficulties. This week is about boss fights and the importance of understanding the situation before sprinting forward.

I had made it through the first few bosses without much trouble and then I ran into Fuoco, the King’s Flame. It was a giant incinerator like puppet (robot). I went all in and was super aggressive for my first attempt. It didn’t go well. He quickly killed me. After that, I switched up my approach. I started playing more cautiously and slowly for a few rounds. My kids saw this, thought it was weird, and asked why I wasn’t rushing in aggressively again to win. I explained to them that I wasn’t trying to win the fight right now. Right now, I was trying to better understand what I was up against. I was spending time learning his moves and finding his weak spots. I knew that after I had a better understanding of the fight, I would be able to be successful. Sure enough, when I finally went all in, I was able to get him down to about 10% of his health before he ever hit me the first time. My kids were amazed at how I was virtually flawless in the battle. (I’m virtually flawless in life too, so they shouldn’t have been surprised 😉)

What does this have to do with anything? In the above story, I quickly failed because I didn’t know what I was up against. If I would have kept charging in super aggressively then it would have taken me a long time before I was able to win that battle. I would have kept failing over and over again, because in my rush to move fast I would not have been learning the critical things about the boss fight to be successful. Investing time in approaching the situation more slowly, so I could understand it, ultimately enabled me to move faster toward success.

Now let’s look at the parallels with work. Have you ever had a project or assignment where you just went blindly barging in full steam ahead? How did that turn out for you? I’ve done that and it never works out particularly well. When I just rush in, I often fail to understand the true problem or miss important bits of information, and both lead to failure. Throughout my career, I’ve had to learn that the most important thing I can do for any project is understand what we are trying to accomplish, why, with whom, and how the deliverable is going to be used. I’ve learned that if I invest the time to slow down to understand those things, then I will be able to be faster and more successful in the future.

The challenge: Will you be willing to take your time to understand the situation before trying to charge forward?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

One Word or Phrase for 2024 (1-3-24)

Happy Wednesday and Happy New Year!

I hope you had fabulous holidays filled with joy, love, and peace. We will kick off 2024 with a focus on identifying a word/phrase that will be your north star for the year.

At the beginning of every year, I take time to reflect and choose a word or phrase that will be my north star for the year. I’ve found it helps ground me versus getting lost among setting too many goals. To identify my one word/phrase I ask myself things like: What went well last year that I want to continue? Where could things have been better? What do I want to achieve? How do I want to feel about things? What do I want to give more focus and energy toward this year? What do I want others to notice and say about me?

In 2024 my phrase is intentionally invest. This is all about making sure I’m being intentional about how I spend my energy. In any given facet of my life, there is A LOT that I could do. There are dozens, if not hundreds of different challenges I could tackle and areas of my life where I could try to grow. Since there are so many, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and feel like I must solve all of them. In the past, this has led to me spiraling and spending energy in too many disparate places to make the impact I want to make. Have you ever felt like that? With this in mind I chose the phrase intentionally invest to remind me that I need to pause and think about where I truly need to invest my time and effort to achieve the outcomes I want. If I take a moment to pause and think, out of all of the different challenges I could tackle, there are only a handful that I should or need to work on in each phase of life. Whether it’s health, work, social, or financial aspects of life, if I’m clear on my goals then there are usually only like 2-3 things I need to get right in order to be successful. Intentionally investing is my nudge to remember that I need to be clear on the outcomes I want, select the investments that will get me there, and continue to make consistent daily deposits so I can reap the rewards of compound interest over time.

The challenge: What is your one word or short phrase for the year? What is your north star?

Bonus: On top of choosing a theme, I also build a vision board to print and keep in a visible spot at home. The picture from this week is that vision board.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Open Letter to 2023 (12-6-23)

Happy Wednesday,

The year is coming to a close. I’ve enjoyed sitting near my Christmas tree and letting my mind wander for a bit. Here is my open letter to 2023, and the lessons it gave me.

Dear 2023,

How are you doing? By the end of 2022, I felt like I was crawling over the finish line just trying to make it. 2023, you were different. You were a much-needed breath of fresh air. You were good luck, new chances, and exciting achievements. As we end our dance together, I’m thankful for the wind you put in my sails, and I feel ready for the next adventure.

My mantra this year was “protect my peace”. I’m so proud of myself, because I did that better this year than I have in years past, and because of this I was a better version of myself in all aspects of life.
I’m in this interesting moment where I can see my kids for who they are and catch glimpses of who they might grow up to be. I’m so proud of them for embracing who they are. I have no idea what they will do when they grow up, but if they continue down this path, I know they will be good humans. What could matter more than that?
It’s amazing to see the power of being around people who get you. Part of the reason why my kids are flourishing is because they are finally starting to find their people. People who accept them and embrace them for all of their nerdiness and who they are. I’ve cried happy tears a few times just thinking about this.
Not only am I in love with my wife, I’m in awe of her. I’ve watched her growth so much this year and she inspires me to be a better husband, dad, friend, and human.
Whenever I felt lost, it was because I had fallen out of the rhythm. I just had to remind myself that all I needed to do was start dancing again and the rhythm would come find me. That may not make sense to anyone else, but it’s clear in my mind.
Building the foundation and infrastructure in any situation is hard work, AND worthwhile work. A house is only as strong as its foundation.
Sometimes strength is being able to do something to solve the problem. Sometimes strength is sitting there with someone, beside them, sifting through their pain and emotions with them, and knowing the most compassionate thing you can do is listen and not flex your muscles.
I performed what might be my favorite poem I’ve ever done at work- Fitting In, Belonging, and Glass Slippers. I look at that guy on stage performing, and while I don’t always feel he and I are the same, I hope that the people around me see glimmers of him on a regular basis. (And I know how weird this sounds. That guy on stage might as well be a different person, and is always the best of me.)
My goal at the beginning of the year was to finish a marathon length obstacle course race. I knew it would be a major stretch, and I did it. (Technically, the course designer messed up and made it 29 miles instead of 26.2, but who is counting besides my body that day 😉) It was exhausting and a great reminder that there is a lot of grit inside I can tap into. In 2023, I survived the races. In 2024, I hope to continue racing and celebrating what my body can do.
I was fortunate enough to earn a promotion this year. It’s not the promotion so much as it’s feeling seen. It’s feeling like all the hard work, all the grinding, all the times I found a way to make something out of nothing, all the setbacks, were seen and valued. I realize that when I don’t feel seen I tell myself stories, and none of them are ever positive.
Speaking of getting a new job, the work and the opportunity fill my cup so much. So much of the role is aligned to what sparks joy in me.
The new job also humbled me a lot. I’ve never been in a situation where there was so much I didn’t know or understand. I continually had to remind myself it was okay to not always know and that it was okay to be open about not knowing. If I had a dime for every time I’ve said, “I’m not exactly sure how the tech works, but we need it to do X”, “I don’t think I’m following, can you explain that again?”, or “I’ve never done this before, so I need you to walk me through it.” I could probably retire. Seeing the warm faces and looks of understanding from the folks on the other end of those phrases makes my heart smile.
Whoa! That was a lot in 2023! Thank you. I’m closing this year feeling energized and hopeful for more brightness and exciting adventures in 2024.

The challenge: If you haven’t taken the time, take a few moments to reflect on 2023 and the lessons and emotions it gave you this year. How will these shape you moving forward?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry