Andrew Embry, Brand Manager and Spoken Word Poet

We are back for another great interview, today with Andrew Embry, a brand manager -- plus a wordsmith, poet. and creative alchemist. 

Andrew combines spoken word & poetry with his data research and marketing roles at Eli Lilly and Company.

Listen to the entire podcast to hear Andrews poem “bringing love into work” starting at 15:47

Andrew has been writing and performing poetry since he was a child. He has managed to not only use poetry skills offstage but also bringing these skills to work too where he has performed in front of 1000 of his colleagues.   

He is an avid reader of books, blogs, and watcher of films to keep his creative juice flowing. One of those books is Radical Candor by Kim Scott. The book focuses on the importance of giving quality, direct feedback to individuals, which has enabled him to give and receive feedback better. Andrew says, if you can help people see how they're using their own style of creativity, then they can see how much that's valued and they can lean into who they are and bring even more value to you and your team.

• Andrew has been writing his blog Striking Matches since Jube 2013, and he gives us pointers on how he has been able to get creative ideas over the past 9 years to keep writing. The way he has done this is by having a creative mindset-believing that there is a story and hidden beauty inside everything.  Looking at the world (experiences) as your oyster.
• A few ideas on how to bring creativity to work especially in remote settings or working from home can include: getting up and taking walks, working out in the morning, or even taking breaks during the day just to go play with your kids.
• As part of the brand management team, you can bring creativity in your solutions by being empathetic to your customers’ needs, while at the same time using the data you collect to make heart-level decisions when telling stories.

Andrews Blog: Striking Matches

Youtube: Andrews performance at Eli Lily's 140th anniversary

Company Website:Eli Lily & Company

Kim Scott’s book: Radical Candor

Summary.

The future of marketing will be more innovative in the digital space, as we focus on meeting customers at their point of need.   We need to know how to use machine learning to help turn data into insights that we can use to be better. 

Listen to the entire podcast to hear Andrews poem “bringing love into work”

Original creative work is copyrighted, provided by the artist, and used with permission.