Blog 700! Trade-offs and Rethinking Outcomes

This is blog number 700! Thanks so much to all of you for reading throughout the years. You comments and compliments always make my heart smile. If you ever want to look at old blogs, they are all here Striking Matches – Igniting new ideas and expanding the way we think about things. With all that said, this week is about trade-offs and broadening how we think about outcomes.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to create content for a breakout room during our Marketing Summit (shout out to Todd and Sam for a great job). I had a trade-off to make, because I could have approached this in a couple of ways. Option A, I could have let it be the typical presentation. It would have worked, but it would have been relatively boring and unengaging. Option B, I could turn it into an experience, but I would have to invest more time and energy.

I chose Option B. I invested a significantamount of my time designing and partnering to build an experience focused on driving decisions with AI. I wove a movie theme throughout everything, creating movie posters, scene briefings, scripts, intentionally choosing props, and so many other things to pull this altogether. Most importantly, I found people to work the stations who absolutely KILLED IT with their stories of driving decisions with AI. (The Lilly Market Research crew is pretty special in case you didn’t already know)

Let’s make a few connections. We live in a world where we often think of trade-offs solely focused on the easily measured things like efficiency or ROI. I’m not saying those things are wrong. I’m saying that at times they can be incomplete. At times, overly focusing only on the easily measurable things will cause you to miss out on greater opportunities.

If you only focus on outcomes that can easily be measured, then nothing I did makes sense. Option A would have cost me less time and less resources. Option A would have freed up more time so I could do other things. However, if you broaden your views on what a positive outcome is, then it becomes a different story. Option B and the experience we built created more energy and engagement than Option A could have dreamed of. Additionally, all this time I invested in Option B filled my bucket. It brought joy and unlocked more creativity that is spilling into everything else I touch. Option B took a lot of my energy, but is still one of the best trade-offs I’ve made in a long time.

The challenge: How will you broaden your view on outcomes as you make trade-off decisions?

Bonus- If you want to get meta with this, if you only focus on easily quantifiable outcomes, then it doesn’t make sense for me to write blogs. I can’t quantify if the blogs save time or do anything for the bottom line. I’d like to think that they give people a smile, motivation, and a pick me up when they need it. I like to think they give folks new ways of looking of things. I also know that the writing makes my heart happy, and that counts for something. Combined, those reasons are more than enough to make the corresponding trade-offs to keep writing.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Taking Time to Soak It All In (7-20-26)

This is a bonus blog about taking time to soak in where you are and what you’ve done.

Last Friday, my boss sent me some recognition about something I recently delivered. Within a few seconds I had read the email, thought “that’s nice”, sent a quick reply, filed it away into a folder where I keep the recognition I get, and started to move to the next thing. The email was already sorted into the folder when I paused for a second. I decided to stop rushing to the next thing. I sat there for a moment and let myself absorb what I had delivered, the feedback, and the recognition I had received. I allowed myself to feel proud and accomplished. I slowed down and spent a few seconds taking it all in and felt all the better for it. Then, and only then, did I move to the next task.

Let’s connect dots. Has anything like this ever happened to you? Have you ever been so lost in the grind that you just keep moving from thing to thing? Are you ever so lost in the grind that you don’t let the achievement and recognition sink in?

If this has happened to you before, I’m sure you can also attest to how exhausting and mentally draining this is. It’s so easy to get lost in all of this. Sometimes, we just need to slow down. Sometimes, we need to take a deep breath, look around, and be proud of where we are and how we got here.

The challenge: Will you take a moment to soak in what you’ve achieved and what you’ve done?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

What would cause me to miss achieving my goals? (1-28-26)

This week will be the last in our series about questions we should ask ourselves at the beginning of the year. This week I want us to ask ourselves, “What would cause me to miss my goals?”

In January we spend time outlining goals and objectives. We focus our efforts on identifying what winning looks like. It’s easy to assume that things will go well, but the chances of everything going well is slim to none.

Recently, I asked myself, “What would cause me to miss my goals? What would cause me to lose?” I quickly identified a few things. I will miss my goals if I don’t invest my time in the right things. I’ll miss if I don’t carve out the time to do the right things. I’ll miss if I’m not being intentional about orchestrating change management efforts. I’ll miss if I don’t get certain projects moving in Q1.

After identifying the things that would make me lose, I took a second to look at my plan for the week. I quickly realized that I had been caught in the swirl. I was doing a lot of things, but they likely weren’t the right things. They were a distraction. As a result, I moved a few things around on the calendar, blocked time for key work, and I gave myself permission to be slow and non-responsive on a few other things. Ultimately, I was able to make good progress on things that mattered. Looking forward, I’m already blocking time and thinking about other things I can do to minimize my chance of missing and increase my chance of being successful.

How does this connect to work? The world moves fast. If we aren’t intentional about things we might end up participating in behaviors that will lead to us not reaching our goals. Spending time doing a pre-mortem and identifying the key things that go wrong brings awareness and gives us a chance to gameplan on how we will handle these things. Be honest. Take a look at this month. How much time did you spend on things that will lead to you being successful vs how much time did you spend on things that will result in you missing? What is getting in the way of you making progress?

The challenge: Will you identify what would cause you to miss your goals and then take action?

Bonus- You can apply this thinking to your personal life. Something that will make me miss my physical health goals is pushing myself too hard too fast. My shoulders aren’t what they used to be, and after pushing them too hard with weight that was heavier than I should have been doing I needed to take a few weeks off for them to heal. I’ll go a lot slower from here on out.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Embracing the Grimy Path to Success (10-8-25)

This week we are going to kick off some reflections from my recent obstacle course race at Midwest OCR. Our first topic is embracing the grimy path to success.

Here is the picture of me after my most recent obstacle course race. I’m smiling, striking a pose, looking strong, and proudly wearing my medal. This picture makes it look like I smoothly and effortlessly navigated the race in a perfect fashion. None of that is true. My race was ugly. You don’t see how I failed quite a few obstacles. You don’t see me red faced and feeling like I was dying on some of those hills. You don’t see the time I tripped and slid down a hill into a knee-deep mud bog that swallowed my legs and almost took my shoes. You don’t see the bruises I picked up along the way. Now that you know those things, does this make me any less successful? For me, just because it might have been a little ugly doesn’t take away from the fact that I was ultimately successful.

Let’s make some connections. Have you ever looked at a successful person and said, “Whoa! They have it all figured out. They just make success look so smooth and effortless. They must be perfect”? I know I have. Then the next thing I did was start comparing myself to them, which led to self-doubt. I would feel like a failure if everything I did wasn’t effortless and smooth. As I’ve got older, I’ve realized that success doesn’t come from things being flawless. Success is the result of continuing to persevere, especially when things are grimy and ugly.

The challenge: Will you embrace that success doesn’t have to be pristine? Will you embrace that the path to success is often grimy and ugly?

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

Lifting and Different Kinds of Success (5-3-23)

Our last entry was about using proper form to help us be stronger and more efficient. This week is about lifting and different kinds of success.

A few of months ago, I wasn’t making any progress in my physical health and lifting journey. I wasn’t gaining strength. My body composition was staying the same. I didn’t feel any better. I was doing my best at the time, but not getting anywhere. I felt like an unsuccessful failure. Then, I took a step back and realized that life was throwing a lot at me right both personally and professionally. In the midst of all of that crazy, making the progress I wanted to make would have been impossible. I came to appreciate that while I may not have been moving forward at that exact moment, the fact that I wasn’t losing ground was a win. Despite all life was doing, it wasn’t pushing me back. It may not have been my ideal goal, but maintaining was success in those circumstances.

What does this have to do with anything? Often, we picture success as crossing the finish line in first place, and anything short of that is failure. After all, as the guru Ricky Bobby once said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last!” As a result of this thinking, we often feel like if we aren’t achieving our ideal of success then we are not worthy. That’s how I felt during that month. Have you ever felt that way? In these moments, it’s important to step back and realize that victory can take many forms. Success isn’t always about winning the race. Sometimes, success is just finishing the race. Sometimes, success is finding a way to keep moving forward. Sometimes, success is not getting knocked back. Sometimes, success is finding a way to get back up after being knocked flat on your butt. Depending on what you’re doing, and the hand life is dealing you at the moment, success can look very different. We need to accept that AND accept that we are always more than enough.

The challenge: Are you giving yourself the grace to understand what success looks like in the moment?

Bonus: I woke up this morning and I’m sore and exhausted, so my lifting success today is going to be taking a rest day 😉

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Yoga, Success, and Balance (3-25-15)

This week is also about self-reflection, but is more focused on maintaining success. This week’s blog is inspired by a colleague, her love of yoga, and some conversations we have had.

The reason I said maintaining success in the above paragraph is that anyone can achieve success once in a while. The key is to maintain a level of success. One thing that gets in the way of this is that people often talk about success like it is a final destination. We talk about success and reaching the next level. We talk about it like one day we will finish climbing a mountain or achieve something and shout to the stars, “I have arrived!” Then, since we are in the land of success we will stroll in a lush valley and life will remain like this forever. The problem is that it doesn’t work like that. We don’t maintain success by just arriving.

Actually, maintaining success is like doing yoga. Have you ever done yoga? I’m not going to lie. When I first started seeing people do that stuff, I thought, “How hard can doing stretches be? Look at those people just standing still in tree pose or whatever. That’s can’t be hard.” And then I tried it and now I consider surviving the workout a major accomplishment. I soon discovered that when you do a yoga pose you are not standing still. You are not stagnant. Instead, your body is constantly recalibrating in both large and small ways. I understand that being good at yoga requires a combination of strength, flexibility, and control. The result of exercising strength, flexibility, and control is balance. Balance is not a stagnant state of being. Balance is a state of constant movement and change. Likewise, maintaining success is not a stagnant state of being. Maintaining success is about consistently making adjustments.

Take a look in the mirror. Are you consistently making those adjustments?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry