Amy Horner 0:00
When you’re playing a sport or when you’re taking a leadership role or when you’re doing something like a change agent where there might be more arrows aimed at your back, they realize the most important person to believe in you is yourself.

Anne B 0:14

Welcome to Unexpected Journey Season Two. I’m your host, Anne Bibb. Welcome Amy Horner to the show today, Amy is founder and principal consultant of true nine business consulting, advocating for change management and motivated by the firm belief that people can find joy by embracing change. She is a true change enthusiast, keynote speaker and podcast co host of DBA Chronicles. Before we begin, don’t forget to subscribe and leave your comments below. Now let’s get started. Welcome, Amy. How are you?

Amy Horner 0:55
I am fabulous. Anne, how are you today?

Anne B 0:58
Oh, hanging in there hanging in there. I got a little flower over here sticking out in the corner. So you know, actually it’s not a flower. It’s just the just the end of June. Girl. It’s floor. It’s floral. So there we go. You know what? There we go. So but you know what? I’ve been doing the show for a while people know that I just do what I do. So here we are. And we’ve been talking about keeping you on the show for a while. We keep rescheduling and coming back because you and I both have such busy crazy wild lives. Here we are, we finally made it to the same place at the same time.

Amy Horner 1:38
I love it and wild in an appropriate fashion just in case anyone in my family is listening.

Anne B 1:45
I can’t say the same. well aware of that. So there it is. So you have been incredibly busy lately aside from school and speaking and I think there was like even a book going on at some point or a newsletter and a book and, and a launch. Oh my gosh, Amy, do you know how to sit still? No.

Amy Horner 2:19
And as a matter of fact, I’m actually not sitting right now. So that’s your case in point right about my standing desk. And I’m not I’m not good at sitting. I’m not good at sitting still? No.

Anne B 2:32
So congratulations, by the way on the launch of True Nine.

Amy Horner 2:38
Thank you. I’m so excited about it. And I’m sure you noticed I launched on the ninth because I’m an athlete and we’re superstitious and we appreciate I think most of us that people think we’re a little crazy for being superstitious. It does not stop us.

Anne B 2:55
No, no. I had to as a fellow serial entrepreneur, I mad respect it because you have these things. And your mind is going and all of these places and you just you just have to keep going you just have to keep moving. So let’s talk to everybody about your you know about Well, let’s start with true nine. Where did it come from? Where’s it going? What is it about?

Amy Horner 3:24
Absolutely. Before, I guess maybe starting at the beginning, so before launching true nine, in really for the last 15 years leading up to it, I have been hired full time by organizations to lead their strategic planning strategic change. And to put them in a place where they felt more comfortably prepared for either growth, or some sort of organizational transformation, either revenue, new revenue streams, diversification of revenue, expanded market share different service offerings. And I really enjoy it. However, I felt I would be more fulfilled if I could work with more people at the same time, instead of working with just a single organization. And so it’s really where true nine came from. It’s a strategy consulting firm, it’s led by me, I’m the Principal Consultant. So I’m involved in all of the work. And it’s all about helping people find their love of change, and their willingness to embrace change, and their creative, innovative mindset and helping them move from where they are today into a more successful future.

Anne B 4:41
Love of change. I tell my kids all the time, the only constant in life is change. And so helping people find the love of change.

Amy Horner 4:56
Yeah, and people who feel negatively about change if it’s the one call Since then you’re constantly feeling negative. And that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.

Anne B 5:05
I also one of my kids is a Swifty and was born on the 13th. And so it’s very much like the 1313 is their favorite number, I love that you have the favorite number nine. And I love that you embrace that and put that into your company name. And just so that everybody knows, I’m going to toss it out there. Because I’m an I’m an AMI fan. This was actually your jersey number when you were a soccer player, wasn’t it? Yeah, so

Amy Horner 5:42
I wore the number nine, or some variation thereof, sometimes I had to be 19 or 29. Jersey, Jersey numbers sometimes come in different different sizes. So but there was always a variation of the number nine on my back and mostly number nine. And in a true nine is a soccer term. And the person on the field who is the true nine is the person who’s most responsible for the focus on the goal, and particularly scoring goals. They’re usually the top goal scorer. But if they aren’t in a position where they can score goals, it’s their responsibility to collaborate with their teammates and make sure that the ball gets in the back of the net. And when you’re leading strategy, you are responsible for collaborating with others to really advance the ball. And make sure that you’re aiming for that that goal, the ultimate goal.

Anne B 6:31
And look at how it came together with the company that you are now focused on goals and strategizing and collaborating. It is just beautiful, how it all came back together. And you’ve essentially been true nine, throughout.

Amy Horner 6:47
That’s all you superstitious

Anne B 6:49
lately. Absolutely. So I’m going to take it back even further, knowing that you have been true nine from college through your career, and now you have a company true nine. How did that happen? I mean, did you have a love of soccer when you were younger and just kind of fell into it? Or Did somebody see this in you and identify it what happened here,

Amy Horner 7:18
I started playing soccer in elementary school. I am the beneficiary of Title Nine. So Title Nine, of course, passed in the early 70s. And really took root in the late 70s and early 80s. Getting a lot of young girls involved in sports where maybe hadn’t been hadn’t been a good pathway for us to be involved in athletics before Title Nine. And that sweeping increase in young ladies and young girls playing sports, not only increased numbers and existing sports, cheerleading in basketball and volleyball, but also got us involved in some of the tougher sports, soccer, rugby, and lacrosse. Some of the more physically violent, I suppose sports. And then ones basically the fun fun ones, the fun ones, the ones where you got to get really muddy and dirty. And as soon as girls in my age group were able to be registered for soccer, my father signed me up. And I remember I had zero idea what it was the first day I set foot on the soccer field. People were asking if I had the specific equipment that you need to play soccer, and I had no idea what they were talking about. And very quickly, obviously talk to him, it turns out, I’m left footed, which is much like in baseball when the pitcher is left handed, that’s a unique, a unique skill or a unique capability. And so I spend a lot of my time on the left side of the field, which is funny now as an adult, like when I’m running or when I’m walking, you will find me very often on the left side of the lane, which in America is the wrong side of the road. So it’s still you know, you don’t break habits very easily, I guess.

Anne B 9:06
So from that perspective, and I’m thinking of all the little girls, or little NBS out there. That coach or that individual who saw in you that characteristic of have somebody that is good with strategy, somebody that’s a good leader, somebody that helps the team collaborate. Who saw that in you.

Amy Horner 9:46
I mean, I would hope all my coaches saw that me, right. But I think when you’re when you’re playing a sport or when you’re taking a leadership role, or when you’re doing something like a change agent where there might be more arrows aimed at your back After you realize the most important person to believe in you is yourself. I really appreciated a few weeks ago, the actress Niecy Nance, Betts, she won an award, did you? I don’t know, if you

Anne B 10:12
did, I love it. And

Amy Horner 10:14
she stood up there in front of a microphone. And she said, I want to thank me for believing in me when no one else did, or paraphrasing, of course. And I thought that was so powerful. And I, you know, I think it resonated with me so much is because looking back, I did do a lot of believing in me and take a lot of risks and take a lot of chances. And I think when you believe in yourself, and you have that self confidence, not to the point of arrogance of this course, but to the point of self assuredness, other people will believe in you too. And they will want to collaborate with you. And they will want to put you in positions where you get a little bit more autonomy than you might have otherwise, can you get the lead? I’m

Anne B 10:56
so glad you said that, because that is the characteristic of some great leaders, across industries across continents, and not always CEOs, right. Sometimes, the person sitting next to you it could be appear, that is actually leading. And it to your point, it’s not arrogance, it is just that individual that has the confidence and the capability that is showing that leadership skill, and people gravitate towards it. And sometimes they never get that recognition. And they’re not the individual that’s sitting on the podcast, or is in front of the cameras, or is in that news article. But they made a difference in somebody’s life.

Amy Horner 11:55
And I think it’s important to know what your values are in that situation that you’re describing. The title doesn’t automatically make you a leader. It’s a title, your core values, the way you treat people, and the potentially unknown impact that you have on others. That That’s leadership. More more, I think, than, than anything else, more than accomplishing things. And more than checking boxes are more than the metrics that come out in the quarterly reports or at the end of the year. You know, what you do and how you help people remember you is is a lot more of a definition of a leader to me. So

Anne B 12:42
whether it’s AMI or AMI through true nine, or your team at true nine, as you’re going in, and you’re helping these organizations, you’re strategizing, you’re, you’re helping them become comfortable with change. How are you identify identifying these individuals that are the change leaders that may not necessarily stand out to everybody within the organization?

Amy Horner 13:13
Absolutely. And you do need to look throughout the organization for those key employees as change leaders, those change champions, so they might not be the ones that are at the top of the org chart or the bottom of the org chart, depending on how the organization has it set up? I think a few key components that I notice and that I look for is a willingness to try something new and a willingness to fail. A willingness to go into something without all the answers. No, I really like someone that says, I have no clue what I’m doing here. Absolutely. Let’s go. Let’s run fast with that. Let’s see what kind of creativity will come well with the unknown. And lastly, most importantly, is a willingness and the ability to not only say, you know I might not have done that the best way or that might not have been the best decision to not only have that experience, reframe the decisions you make going forward but also to admit those to others. You think people are so nervous about failing that they won’t talk about their failures to others and then you do become a little untouchable. If you want people to collaborate with you into follow you have into the unknown. They have to connect with you as a person. And they also have to think you know, this person hasn’t doesn’t have all the answers. They haven’t done it 100% Right on or percent of the time. Those are some of the key skills and the key characteristics and traits that I look for. As I’m as I’m going in I’m putting together a team so

Anne B 14:59
as You have I mean, you were, you’ve been on a board of directors, you’ve been in several different roles. You weren’t a CEO? Why did you decide to go out and start your own? Or? I mean, I can answer this for myself. But I’m always curious why somebody else has done it too.

Amy Horner 15:20
I’ve done the C suite, the COO thing multiple times, I really enjoyed it. But I was looking for a different type of challenge. And I have had a few people ask me a very similar question. I honestly can’t pinpoint whether or not I was just at a certain place in my career or my life, or if this is a post pandemic reaction, but I don’t know. And, and like, it doesn’t necessarily matter, right, I’m here. And so if I don’t know, I just don’t know. And that is okay. But I’m really energized and excited about it. And I’m feeling more positive energy from the people I’m talking to on a daily basis from the work I’m hearing about the challenges that people are facing everything that they’re looking to have in the future that they might not necessarily have today. I’m feeling like a much broader energy because of it. And so while I might not definitively know why I made the decision, I know I’m in the right place.

Anne B 16:26
Isn’t that odd, though so many of us, I get it, I feel like it is somehow tied to that three year time period, because we came out of it. And whether it was wanting change, or just being energized from coming out of that funky period, or something, so many of us said, I am, this is my time, this is my mind was it’s my year of Yes, it’s my, I’m not being pulled down anymore, or I’m going to do my thing, you know, so many of us out of that time period, that era, that phone, whatever it was, and said, I’m doing it.

Amy Horner 17:15
I agree. And I you know, I really enjoyed my time working for in with other people. I just I wanted something different. And this was good timing. For me. I recently moved, you know, recently relocated, and just seemed seemed right. So like I said, I’m superstitious. And so a lot of arrows were pointing in this direction, I decided to follow them.

Anne B 17:39
we just all need a change, like just fresh start of something and say, You know what, let’s wipe the slate clean. And poof, this is it. And we’re moving forward. And I mean, there have been some bad things that have come from change. But there have been some many amazing, great things that have come from this. Mentors, and there’s what’s Horners corner, I started paying attention to Horners corner, a year or two ago. And that was very interesting. And I’ve learned so many things from that, and watching your community build and grow. And there’s been some amazing things happening from that as well. So it’s just interesting to see how each of us have lifted and supported each other up over the last two years.

Amy Horner 18:38
Yeah, and you touched on, you know, change, we choose change a lot more often than I find we give ourselves credit for when people choose to make a change. And it feels much differently when the change is something you choose taking a risk to start a company, figuring out all the software to spin up. Either a podcast or a blog, learning a new skill, taking on a new certification, going to a networking event making new connections, maybe getting on stage for the first time ever, or for the first time to talk about a new topic or to a new audience. We choose change very often. And so I think that we forget the feeling of when we choose Change versus the feeling of when we react to change or we were act to something that we feel is out of our control. It feels much different. However, it’s still change.

Anne B 19:35
So along those lines, though, but if you’re choosing to change, you’re also choosing not to change.

Unknown Speaker 19:42
So those individuals who make a choice, like

Anne B 19:45
their I mean, it’s it is still a choice. I mean, I’ve I’ve taught my kids regularly and I’m like you if you’re in a funk you choose to get up every morning you choose To go out of the house and everything is a choice, and choosing not to do that is also a choice, it’s a lack of choosing to get out of the house, it’s a your everything is a choice, like not getting out of the house is choosing not to change your location. Choosing not to change. So Lee

Amy Horner 20:24
from the band Rush is very proud of your lyrics right now. Rush that said, if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice at least twice,

Anne B 20:34
exactly. And it’s choosing not to change. And sometimes, sometimes, that is, it happens in business a lot. When your business is not thriving, have you chosen not to change.

Amy Horner 20:55
And I equate that to if if you choose not to change, what you choose to do is something that looks a lot like standing still. And a standing still is comfortable for you, then it’s comfortable for you. But as you look to either side, is everyone rushing past you because they have made the choice to change. And that is a good visual of what can happen. With innovation. I think chat GPT is one of the easiest if we’re going to cherry pick an example right now Chechi PT is one of the easiest if you choose not to take advantage of GPT in some segment of your business or in your daily operations, to lead to efficiencies, or just even expand knowledge or bandwidth, you’re standing still. And the people who are choosing to embrace it are moving forward. And eventually if everyone moves forward and you stay where you are, you’re left behind. That’s the best way I know to explain why you do need to, to embrace that change and to make a change.

Anne B 22:09
That is a really good point. I recently had a conversation with I think, a fellow a fellow chief Serena Riley she is with, she’s just recently moved over to conversate AI. And we were talking about how in the customers customer experience area. We are having to really embrace and think about different ways to measure success to track metrics and things along those lines. Because everybody in some way, shape or form is going to have to think about how they’re utilizing AI. And even if an individual is using chat GPT to answer emails or look at something your organization has now used AI? And how is that impacting your overall strategic vision view? The client focus, you’re using AI. So when you factor that into your overall strategic client focus, the the whole vision and how you’re handling your clients. How are you utilizing AI? How is that coming into things? So it’s interesting to hear you talk about chat GPT. Now, being that I recently had that conversation with her, it’s, it’s going to be everywhere. And then how is that impacting other things.

Amy Horner 23:52
And I think that’s a great point and not to strike fear in the heart of any sort of any executive who is listening to this, but you don’t have a clue as to what your employees are doing with 100% of their time. You know, regardless of how regimented or and regimented the the tactical part of their roles are, and the checklists and the in the reviews, that you could have three people sitting in a row with the same outcome and the same reports they’re going to get there three different ways. And I love that comment you just relayed to me from from her, because yes, you might not have an AI strategy, but if your employees are using it, your organization is benefiting from AI. And so doing this still from at a minimum a risk perspective, if not an innovation strategy perspective. Someone needs to be aware of that and get their arms around it put parameters and training around it. So that so that you’re doing it is right is right can be as this thing changes not You can’t even say every day, you have to say every minute,

Anne B 25:02
every hour, it’s all it’s like every middle millisecond. Like, it’s just insane. And, and it’s because everybody’s inputting data into it. And it’s constantly changing. So it’s, it’s wild. So I do want to talk to you a little bit more about change and strategy client strategy. But I want to get you a little bit of a chance to let everybody know me with this or that. So I know you’ve watched the show, and you know how it works. But for our first time watchers, this or that we do two words or phrases. And from that perspective, we both play, we have to pick, we can’t say neither, we can’t say both. Which is sometimes interesting. So

Amy Horner 26:02
overall, what can possibly go wrong? What

Anne B 26:04
could possibly go wrong? It’s sometimes it’s interesting. So we’re gonna randomly and get some words and phrases here. We’ll go from there. All right. Up first, we’ve got ghost tour, or historical walking tour.

Amy Horner 26:24
Historical walking tour, definitely. That’s

Anne B 26:27
where I’m gonna go. I’m not into the ghost tours. Although I was in New Orleans once, and that kind of seemed like it would have been interesting. But isn’t that kind of the same thing as a historical walking tour in New Orleans? I mean,

Amy Horner 26:43
I feel like once during the day, and once at night, that might be the largest noticeable difference in New Orleans.

Anne B 26:50
Although Have you been to New Orleans? They have the most amazing cemeteries, like, the historical tours through the cemeteries, they’re gorgeous.

Amy Horner 27:03
I end and you learn a lot of things that if you don’t live on the Bayou, you didn’t know before.

Anne B 27:11
Exactly, exactly. So my ex and his family are from Louisiana. And so we used to go there and it was just amazing. And I would take all these pictures in the cemetery and he’s like, this is like your family. But it’s so pretty. cemeteries in Texas.

Amy Horner 27:33
No, no, it’s very unique. And it’s, it’s, it is very interesting.

Anne B 27:40
And it’s historical. So it might for some people be ghostly, but for me, it was very historical.

Amy Horner 27:50
I have done both a walking tour and a running tour in New Orleans. So I’ve I’ve covered a lot of ground on my own two feet and that city.

Anne B 27:59
There you go. I love it. It’s just beautiful. All right, next, urban exploration or stargazing in the wilderness

Amy Horner 28:12
1,000% urban exploration on the city file, give me concrete every any day or a month. Okay,

Anne B 28:19
so I was gonna go with stargazing, and then it popped up with that in the wilderness. I was like, Okay, I’m all about the stargazing but in the wilderness is kind of creepy. Like what’s happening out there? What, why are we in the wilderness stargazing? Can’t we stargaze from? I don’t know, a rooftop all or, like, why do we have to be in the wilderness? Can we be in a field that’s open and not worried about a serial killer coming in during us in the middle of a bear? Or a bear? I mean, a wide open field, I get that you can’t be in the city on a rooftop. I know. I heard it come out of my mouth. As soon as it came out. I’m like okay, and you can’t be in the city. On a rooftop all the lights, I get it. But you can be in a field in the middle of nowhere. And see all the gorgeous I mean, I’ve seen the Milky Way It’s beautiful. And all the like shooting stars. So I’m gonna have to go with the urban exploration because it’s the wilderness and the bears and now and bugs. Yes. All of the above. All right, here we go. Why? Forest hike? or coastal walk.

Amy Horner 30:06
Coastal walk Why much more into the beach? I think the relaxing sound of the ocean barefoot in the sand. Sounds more appealing to me.

Anne B 30:20
I love the sound of the ocean. Yeah, it’s very relaxing. And, again, the forest is like, why are most scary movies in the forest,

Amy Horner 30:37
or cemeteries but you’re like,

Anne B 30:42
No, no, no, not all cemeteries. Just the New Orleans

Amy Horner 30:46
was a good clarification. Clarification clarification like

Anne B 30:50
pay attention Amy. Now I think I’m gonna have to go with coastal walk to it’s the it’s the sounds, the sounds associated with the coast. All right. Last one, are you ready? I am. picnic in the park. Or dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Amy Horner 31:11
Dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Anne B 31:14
The city girl coming out. It is. As

Amy Horner 31:17
soon as you said picnic in the park, all I could think of was ants.

Anne B 31:23
Like, I want to be romantic. It sounds nice, right? It sounds sweet and romantic and rom com ish. It really does. But they don’t show those things. Like the bugs, and the sweat, and the flop. stuff going on downstairs. I mean, they don’t show any of that. Not to mention the ants, and dirt getting in food. And yeah, all the effort that goes into it’s just not fun. Hiking that stuff into a place and putting the blanket down. And making sure dirt doesn’t get on the blanket. It’s just not all that the movie makes it out to be. So I’m gonna go with you to dinner at a fancy restaurant, then everybody else gets to make sure that everything ends up on the table.

Amy Horner 32:16
Very true. Hello, it. So

Anne B 32:20
well, thank you for playing this or that. It seems like Amy and I are very aligned and a lot of our our thought processes there. Back to talking about strategic change planning with clients. I would like to understand and help our listeners understand. You said that you help people with change and help people to be comfortable with change. How do you tackle that?

Amy Horner 32:58
One of my favorite go twos is the concept of beginning with the end in mind. So oftentimes a leadership team or ownership group will know what their end game is, there’s a reference for your one of your kids, you said was this Swifty? Right? They will know what their endgame is what the end result is, or at least a future significant milestone that they want to hit. And typically when I talk to people, they know what that is, they’re very unsure of how to get there. And the most important step is defining where you want to be. And then developing a step by step kind of dismantling understanding of what needs to happen to get there. So if an organization wants to spin up a new business line, a new service line new product, they define what that is, and then work backwards on the steps to put that into play. By doing that, you have an actionable plan with steps and milestones, you know what you need to put in play or in process to get there. And it becomes what was a dream or a concept and now becomes a workable action plan.

Anne B 34:28
So thinking about some of the clients that you’ve worked with? What was one of the situations or can you share a situation without naming anything that you can’t name of a client that was the most prepared and came to you ready to go and helped you help them?

Amy Horner 34:54
Well, that’s a great question. I think Motivation is the most preparedness piece. And that everyone is on the same page and agrees on that motivation. And that might be a pre step to actually defining that end game for some organizations, some organizations now, right like, like organizations who are doing things in a little bit more of a manual process that know they need to automate and have a big system change over, that’s more of an operational and a tactical switch, versus a strategic switch. But an organization that wants to expand its footprint into a different market that wants to spin up a new line of business that wants to diversify its revenue that wants to completely and totally overhaul its recruiting, retention, hiring practices, that’s more of a strategy. And that requires everyone to be on the same page. So So to your question, I think people come in varying degrees of preparedness, because it depends on whose big idea the strategic change is, if it comes from the boss, and usually does, because they’ll be the ones who are supporting the initiative financially, everyone else needs to also be on board. And so oftentimes, that needs to happen first, if the organization already has mission, vision and values, that’s much easier. Because whatever the strategic planning initiative is, it will align with that mission, vision and values. So those if those three things are in place, and really in place more than just words on paper, but really part of the culture, those would be the organizations that I would say, are the most prepared to come in to a strategic change, or to a strategic planning initiative. You just

Anne B 37:03
said something very interesting that I’m not sure I just want to make sure it’s gonna resonate with some of our listener, listeners, sure. Companies that have mission, vision, and values. A lot of companies have them. But you just said, that are not just words on paper. What does that mean?

Amy Horner 37:29
Well, I think not only that people know what they are, but they’re a part of the day to day, a lot of places where you can see them as in execution, if there’s a goal setting, or an annual review process that that has mission, vision and values, if there’s some sort of regular communication around those, and then at the front end, they need to be involved in the hiring process. So if one of the organization’s core values is innovation, you should be seeing an incubator group, you should be seeing time built into everyone’s day to day responsibilities to innovate and come up with new ideas. You should be seeing cutting edge technology, if when you walk into that organization, and those things aren’t very obvious, prevalent, celebrated, encouraged. Innovation, while it might be written down, as a core value, might not be a living core value.

Anne B 38:38
Sounds good,

Amy Horner 38:39
though. Sounds amazing. Sounds competitive.

Anne B 38:45
So when you run into this situation where a company has these amazing competitive sounding? Absolutely, is it sounds great on paper, mission, vision and values, but you see, they’re not really ingrained within the day to day culture. What do you and your team how do you address that? I mean, how do you go that? Yeah,

Amy Horner 39:23
depending on how the how deep it is survey, the anonymous survey, if it really is, you know, if what is written on paper is very much in conflict with the culture of the organization or what does happen or what is supported the day to day, a listening tour. So qualitative interview process to go through and ask, how if we’re going to stick with innovation because that was when I started with, you know, how are you encouraged to innovate on a daily basis? When was the last time you brought a new idea to the table? Do you feel supported and encouraged if you suggests a different way of doing things, the questions like that, that you can go through. And if you talk to enough people and enough levels, you will get a sense as to where the company really lives from an innovation as a core value perspective.

Anne B 40:16
So when, what is your advice to an individual that they’re working at a company? They’re watching right now? They are not the boss, but they know they need change. And how do they approach the leadership of the organization? To say, we need change? This is what we mean, how do they approach this? What do they need to do? So on and so forth. So I’m gonna give you the floor to talk to this individual to give advice on how to approach it, and what they need to do.

Amy Horner 41:01
Yeah, value prop value proposition, though, the first, the first way that you’re going to get the attention of your manager or someone who’s even your managers, manager, or someone higher in the organization, and visuals. So stick with the V, the Double V, right value, prop and visuals, though I think a slide deck, or even a visioning board, or something that you can put together that shows here is what let’s say it’s a problem, you may need to choose a different word. But here is the problem. Here is the impact of it right? Either extra days in the process, extra dollars extra person, here is the solution. Here’s potentially how long the solution will take to get implemented. And here is the new outcome. And be prepared to answer a lot of questions. You really have to do your research, make sure you’re coming at it almost like a consultant presenting a new solution. What you don’t want to do is whine, throw anybody under the bus or criticize anyone’s decisions. There is no faster way to end a conversation about innovation than to approach it that way. I think also be prepared that the answer might be no. But don’t let it defeat you. If the answer is no, make sure you have a good understanding of why it’s probably not anything personal about you, your idea, your capabilities, it’s more than likely just the timing, or the comfort level of whomever needs to sign off on that. And if the answer is no, I think not only understanding why, but saying Would there be a better time in the future to revisit this?

Anne B 42:52
Love that. So why would somebody want to get in touch with you? And how would they get in touch with you?

Amy Horner 43:03
Well, why I have a lot of amusing stories about change and how I have learned through change, and even how I’ve fallen back into old habits, even though I’ve known better. We’re none of us are immune to that. Like we said earlier, none of us are perfect. But I think making sure that we learn and grow from our experiences and go forward. I also really enjoy collaborating with others. I think regardless of what size of side of the mentor mentee relationship you’re on, you can learn so much from another person. Because we all have different viewpoints and different questions that we ask and different ways of absorbing what’s going on around us. So that would be the why the how is either through LinkedIn. So I am backslash Amy Horner, a m y HR ner looks like it will be in the scroll, as well as my website, which is true hyphen, nine.com. Also in the scroll,

Anne B 44:08
all of that will be down here and in the comment section. So feel free to just go there and click on those. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get in contact with Amy and her team. Very much appreciated. Amy, thank you so much for coming on the show. Finally we were able to make it work.

Amy Horner 44:30
Yeah, such anticipation. I hope it’s been everything that it needed to live up to. Absolutely.

Anne B 44:36
Absolutely. And for everybody that joined us today. Thank you for joining us and we will see you again next time. As we wrap up the episode we would like to take this time to thank you for joining us this week on Unexpected Journey. Our guest information will be linked in the episode description along with a link to our hosts website annebibb.com and Our sponsors websites, remoteevolution.com, ethossupport.com, and yourcohort.co Please don’t forget to like, subscribe and share on your favorite podcast app and on our YouTube channel so that you never miss an episode and we can continue to bring them to you. Let us know your thoughts on what we discussed in the comment section. And once again, thanks for joining us. We hope to see you again next time on Unexpected Journey.