Sign up to get updates from us
Meet Andie Monet who, at the age of 16, was totally abandoned by her mother and left homeless to fend for herself. None of that stopped Andie who went on to college, developed a strong personal feeling of self-worth and grew to be an expert in business development. Andie will share with you some of her processes she has used to improve large and small businesses alike. Unbidden she will even discuss persons with disabilities in the workplace. I believe this episode of Unstoppable Mindset is extremely poignant in today’s business world. Andie offers thoughts and lessons we all can use in businesses and our personal lives as well. Please listen and then please let me know what you think by emailing me at michaelhi@accessibe.com. I hope you enjoy today’s episode and that you will give it a 5 rating. About the Guest: With humble beginnings of a homeless 16-year-old to eventually become a Business Optimization Expert, Andie Monet has advised Fortune 500 corporations, small businesses and foreign and domestic governments for over 3 decades in 13 countries and 22 industries. She teaches about strategic business growth principles without adding new costs. But more importantly, she advocates and teaches about what true leadership and howe we all can make a difference in the world. https://www.linkedin.com/in/andiemonet-ssd www.AndieMonet.com About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes*
Michael Hingson 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson 01:20 Welcome to unstoppable mindset. And we're back once again. And we are glad that you're here. Wherever you may be. We hope that you enjoy our podcast today we are going to have some fun talking about a variety of subjects. We have a guest I'm gonna let you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you. Andie Monet 01:40 Absolutely. I'm super excited to be here, Michael. And my name is Andy Monet and I am a business Optimation optimization expert you would think I'd actually be able to shave Michael Hingson 01:53 he talks well too, doesn't she? Andie Monet 01:57 It's easy to write on paper. Sometimes it's harder to say. Yes. And I just I love everything about you, Michael, your podcast, your your mindset. You're just you're amazing. And I'm super honored to be here today. Michael Hingson 02:13 Let's start with you. So obviously, where do you live? Where are you located? Andie Monet 02:20 I am outside Houston, Texas. I'm actually not from Houston or Texas. Well, my dad's from Texas, but I grew up in California and then moved where East Coast. I'm mostly Northern California, San Francisco Bay area. But I also lived in Southern California. Michael Hingson 02:39 We lived in Novato for 12 years. Andie Monet 02:42 Oh my gosh. That's where I'm from. Not in Nevada specifically but Morgan County. Yes, I love it. Michael Hingson 02:47 And now we're in Victorville. So we're in Southern California. Andie Monet 02:51 Oh, see you did the same thing. Victor reals. Beautiful though. Michael Hingson 02:54 I grew up. I grew up in Palmdale. And then I went to the east coast and live there for a while. Where were you on the east coast Andie Monet 03:01 of Virginia, primarily. DC area Michael Hingson 03:04 north. I lived in Boston for three years. And I learned to say things like packet con. Yeah, you gotta say my son was on a subway with a little six year old girl who was near us. And she had the cutest Massachusetts accent. Oh my gosh, I love it. And then we also lived in New Jersey for six years, which is where we got pretty visible because of all the stuff that happened with the World Trade Center being on the seventh floor and all that, but Oh, my. Then we moved back out to California. We're in Novato. Now. We're down here in Victorville. And it's supposed to actually get up to 83 degrees today. Andie Monet 03:42 Yeah, and it gets hotter than that in the summer for sure. Michael Hingson 03:46 does get hot down in Texas, too. Andie Monet 03:49 Yes. That's why everyone lives indoors. Michael Hingson 03:53 Yeah, absolutely true. Tell me a little bit about kind of your early years and all that stuff. Andie Monet 04:00 Yeah, well, I? Well, I'm not sure how early I should start. So I won't start too early. It'll be too long of a podcast. But what the the highlight, quote unquote, is when I was 16 years old, I found myself homeless because my single mom abandoned me. And all of a sudden, I had to figure out life very, very, very quickly. And I tell that because the two things that I learned at that literally within 24 hours of that event was one, I had to I was responsible for my own success, whatever that even meant, at that time or in the future, right? And to what action would I take today to get closer to that, to that success? And I say that because at that time, whether you're 16 or 30 or 90 or however whatever age you are, if you're homeless, the first thing you have to do is figure out what to do next. Right. And that obviously means finding a place to sleep. And so the action, like my success, and I'm being sarcastic, but truthful, at the same time is my success was finding a place to live. And where was I going to do that? And I had to do it today. Right? I couldn't do it next week, or next month or next year, right? Like I needed to figure out where I was going to live today. And, you know, at that time, unfortunately, it was, you know, in the bushes and underneath decks and things like that, and the laundromat a few times. But what I learned and what I was really grateful about that this really gave me the tools to create magic in my life that I knew if I wanted to anything could be created. Michael Hingson 05:49 And that's an interesting way to put it magic in your life. We oftentimes lose sight of the magic. Oh, yes, definitely. It is so hard to just imagine, though, being abandoned, all of a sudden, it's 16, or whatever, I guess, in one sense, it was good. At least you were already 16 and had some maturity behind you. But that's just a strange and hard concept to imagine, for most of us. Andie Monet 06:17 Yeah, it is, I had one person say, he ran away from home for one night, and he slept on a park bench. And he said that was the most miserable time in his in his entire life. And he couldn't imagine even without, you know, one example of doing it, and, and I laugh only because, you know, I think that we, if you I have the opinion that we don't always make the choices we have we want to make, but we make the choices we have to do when you know push comes to shove. Right? And so what I have ever left home at 16 know what, who knows when I would have left and my mom was? We don't know for sure, but that her sisters say she was bipolar? And maybe she was but either way, there was something wrong there. Right? And would I have continued to stay in that physically in an emotionally abusive household? At, you know, how long would I have stayed? And I don't know the answer to that. But in a in a really twisted kind of a way is the universe had a different plan for me. And maybe it would have been worse? I don't know. But I was even though the whole homeless thing happened with what I always think. And I keep jumping around. I apologize, because I kind of get excited about talking about this is that you know, that whole saying about is your glass half full or half empty? And my glass is always overfilling regardless of the situation. And so in the homeless thing? Yes. Would I ever do it again? Absolutely not. Do you know what I have changed things if I could have Yes, but the glass overflowing is I was in a really good County, there was hardly any crime. I was completely safe. I mean, in retrospect, at the time, I was terrified. I was safe. And I and I live in such a great County, that there was always going to be opportunity. And I grew up with people, not only not my friends, but my friends, families where I saw success. I saw business owners, I saw people, you know, my best friend's father was on the cover of Forbes magazine twice. You know, I grew up with a lot of Hollywood musicians and actors like this was I just assumed that I would that that was normal in the sense of I would somehow get there someday, too. So there was never any no one ever told me I couldn't and I always assumed I would be successful, whatever that was, and that's a really a big blessing, even though you know, the circumstances happen the way that they did. Michael Hingson 08:57 So were you in Southern California by this time? No, I was in Marin County, your silymarin. Yeah, well, that definitely was a good place to be. Andie Monet 09:06 Yes, exactly. Michael Hingson 09:09 Because it's for those who don't know, it's a county with a lot of incredible people. Well, Jerry Garcia was from Marin County and valley from Mill Valley. And a number of people of course, that's where Star Wars originally started. That's right. And so, I mean, you had all sorts of lightsabers around you to keep Oh, Andie Monet 09:29 absolutely. Absolutely. And so it's just it's an amazing place. And, you know, I was it was really quite a blessing to be homeless in that area of all areas. Right. So, Michael Hingson 09:42 so you were abandoned? What did you do? Andie Monet 09:45 Yeah, well, the besides looking for a place temporarily outdoors, but eventually indoors, which was a terrifying 16 foot trailer shared with several people who were not pleasant to be around. But, you know, the thing is at 16, my solution was graduated from high school as soon as possible, which actually, I graduated high school formally as 16 and started college at 16. And, more importantly, related to my life now as I started a business, and people, including myself thinking, why on earth would you start a business at 16? And it really wasn't because I, you know, I never considered myself an entrepreneur at that point, I never really intended to own or not own a business, it was just because I had to, you know, at 16 years old, their labor requirements at the time and you couldn't do certain jobs and who wanted to hire a 16 year old anyway, for obvious reasons. And so I had to make money and I was like, well, here we go door to door, I'm gonna find a job one way or the other, and the quote unquote job just ended up being us, you know, self employed and making money called, you know, under the table, as they say, what so what was your business? Oh, everything I could anything and everything. I could think, of course, legally, so but mostly office stuff, like copying, stapling, you know, answering the incoming telephone lines when the reception was out to lunch, throwing out garbage, you know, literally anything in the office that I could, because I already had some Office experience at that time. So and we, you know, there were computers, I was great at working on computers still, even though it was the very beginning. Back in the day, when WordPerfect you had to program your, your text, if anybody even remembers that Michael Hingson 11:38 good old word. Perfect. Yes. Andie Monet 11:40 Oh, dear. And so yeah, just a bunch of office stuff it but what I, what I ended up getting really good at was, surprisingly, not sales, by the way, it was creating solutions. Well, you know, obviously, for myself, but also in businesses where I would see something and I would say something. And so a process wasn't working well, or, you know, I was really good at designing stuff for marketing flyers back in the day before social media and you know, coasting, digital marketing, that's what I was looking for. And just really, finding ways to save time to save money to communicate better in marketing, or hiring or anything, it was like, anyway, I knew that I noticed where a difference could be made. I said something. And as that happened, more and more people believed in me, and I had more confidence. And of course, as you build confidence, more people believe you. So it's a cycle, right? And so there's just a lot of things that I just ended up doing in general, but all in the office, Michael Hingson 12:54 what did all of that do in terms of your, your overall psyche, you had to obviously developed some decisions or mindsets about what you were going to be or the kind of person you were going to be? I'm assuming that being abandoned, probably changed. pretty much immediately. A lot of the thoughts you had about directions and your own view of the world. Andie Monet 13:20 Yeah, you know, from as long as I could remember, I always knew that I would change the world. And I didn't know, you know, being naive, and not really having any life skills. I don't know if that was going to be, you know, solving world hunger or creating world peace. Like those were the levels I was thinking about. And with the homeless nurse situation, it really kind of, you know, you had to look at that and say, Well, if this is my situation now, what does that mean, for my future? And in a gullible, or, you know, I don't know, I just still had had assumed that that would happen, it would just I just didn't know how long it would take. And part of that was going to college. So the reason that college was really important for me personally, one was that I was good academically anyway. So that wasn't a challenge or a fear. But one, how am I going to create a difference in the world without having a college education, because that was still during the time where you had to go to college to be anything, right. And it's not quite the same way now. But back then it was a big deal. And so there was a way I was going to do that. And that would be that was my first step and my first answer towards finding out how I was going to make a difference and an impact in the world. But as far as like, you know, there I didn't, I was, you know, bullheaded or stubbornness or whatever you want to call it. I was very single minded in the sense of, this is what I want to do and I will get there one way Another So regardless of what happened with my mom, it was more okay, how do I do it now without her? Instead of instead of it being now I'm not going to do it, it was more? How am I going to do it now without all of the other things I assumed I would have? Michael Hingson 15:16 And what did you decide? Andie Monet 15:20 Well, besides the college degree and, and the owning the business, Michael Hingson 15:25 just about how you're going to live in general, since you now didn't have some of what was probably at least a significant part of your support infrastructure? Andie Monet 15:35 Oh, yeah. Well, you know, again, it was just sort of chipping away, I think, so find a place to live first, which, you know, I was in college. Well, I was, so when I was six. So my birthday is in September. And so at the beginning of that school year, was toward the end of that calendar year, I was homeless. And I was still going to high school during this whole homeless fiasco. And I was applied to college and went through that whole thing with applying to college and getting in and I officially started calling the summer of the following year, two months before I turned 17. And I say that because I was at the college, I was trying to get figure out, you know, all of the things that I need to do in the in the financial aid and the in the classes and the counseling, and, you know, telling me where I need to go. And so there's, so that led to bulletin boards of back in the day bulletin boards, I guess, where you people were looking for people to hire or looking for roommates, or all of those things. So I used to ended up finding a roommate situation. And it was only a couple of $100 a month, which was pretty much all the money I had yet until that point. And so you know, found a place to live. And it was really, really far, actually, it's in Novato of all places. And which is really far from you know, San Rafael. And so there was a lot of busing going on a lot of catching the bus a lot of hours sitting on the bus. And I say that because it was not convenient to be on a bus four hours a day. But it was still okay, check, got no place to live check, you know, graduated from college, you know, check started college, you know, had to go through that whole fiasco of applying which all of this is new, like I, I don't know how, what the process is for applying to college. I just didn't I get there. But all those, you know, day to day action steps and, and lots of time in the library. Right, lots of asking questions of the librarian, you know, just for me, it was just chipping away. Okay. I don't know, what do I do first? What do I do next? What do I do? Like one question leads to an answer, which leads to a question, which leads to a question, which leads to an answer. And so it was just really digging through all of that. And I knew I needed a place to live. And I knew I needed money. And I knew I wanted to go to college. Michael Hingson 18:01 Where did you go to college? Andie Monet 18:04 I originally started at College of Moran, okay. But eventually to Stanford, and I actually now have five degrees. But you know, I don't usually share that because, you know, cuz they really had nothing to do with owning a business. Even though, even though the school is telling you and I probably shouldn't say it, but I will never recommend anybody going to business school for business usually. Michael Hingson 18:35 Well, I got my bachelor's and master's in physics. And I can't say that I don't use them, even though my job changed. And I had some choice in that, in that I was doing some scientific kinds of things, but worked for companies that decided that they hired too many non revenue producing people and I was one of the people that had to go unless I would go into sales. And I made the choice to go into sales. I love to say I lowered my standards and went into sales. But but the reality is that I would never have been nearly as successful if I hadn't gone through seven years of physics and learned a lot of discipline, learn to pay attention to details, and learned a lot of technical stuff that directly and indirectly has helped me through the years in in sales. So yeah, my degree is different than what I do but it it still helps. Andie Monet 19:42 Well, actually my original degrees and then in engineering and physics, and I I love math, because in part because I love being able to well let me back up a second. I was good at math. I love math. And that's why I did that. But what I learned beyond the math was how to identify, you know, certain aspects of things happening or systems or patterns or, you know, and then you can use math in related and not to get on geeky on us, but where you can have optimization, which is why that's why I call myself a business optimization expert, because optimization is really solving multiple formulas and equations at the same time, while you can also do maximum and minimum calculations. And so with, with business, you want to maximize your revenue, you want to minimize your costs. And if you can streamline operations also, then that's what I really consider optimization. But I can't, I couldn't do what I do now, without having done engineering and physics and calculus and statistics that, and it's just been an amazing way that I didn't even realize would apply to business. But that but does the way I think, Michael Hingson 21:04 and there you go. It's, it's all about your perspective on it. And also, it's the choices you make, and how you choose to use everything you learned up to that point. And your story is clearly all about making choices. And you can you can talk about what good choices you may have made and bad choices that you may have made. But if you learn from the so called bad choices, then so much the better. But the bottom line is they all teach things to us. Andie Monet 21:40 Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's really a perspective that, that I really wish a lot of people recognize more, because it's so I mean, I couldn't imagine living as a victim, you know, and, and I guess I shouldn't say that, but I just think that there's so many and my life has not been perfect, they can be tied to the 16 year old. I mean, I, I've been divorced multiple times my you know, you know, my first husband, before we got married, you know, we talked about getting to know each other, and that we would argue and marriage takes effort and, and you know, there's going to be times that we don't like each other and all this stuff, and that we are committed to making it work. And three months later, he wanted a divorce. And, you know, my next marriage was I didn't know it, then. But he ended up being a drug addict and embezzling money out of my company, because I made him an officer, because why would I? Why would it not? Right? He's my husband. And, and I've been homeless more than one time, unfortunately. So you know, just stuff happens. And if I had let those situations define my capabilities, and my capacity and my success, or my lack of success, my life would be really hard place. And it doesn't have to be because no matter what happens, you can always create amazing things in your life, with or without people's help. I mean, obviously, the more help, the better. But there's still things you can do. Michael Hingson 23:16 And again, you learned from your choices. So have you have you ever gotten married, it now sticks? Andie Monet 23:25 You know, I honestly, I truly hope that I will be married again someday, but I'm not married at the moment. And, you know, I someday, you know, I leave it to God in the universe to decide to let me know when when it's time I suppose. Michael Hingson 23:42 We got married my wife and I when I was 32. And she was 33. I love to say I taught her everything she knows. She reverses that. So it's okay. But we have now been married 39 plus years. Oh my gosh, for us wonderful. What we what we say? And I think rightly so is that we knew what we wanted in someone. And you're right, God lets you know when it's the right time and for us, we just knew. And so we met in January of 1982. I proposed in July and we got married in November of 1982. So I love it. Yeah. And we have, we go through all the usual things that marriages go through, but we are absolutely committed to each other and that's as good as it gets. Andie Monet 24:38 Absolutely. And I do think that, you know, again, probably not the topic of conversation, but you know, one of the reasons that I had such a challenging time with the marriage thing, in part was because I had with the relationship with my mom, I didn't really know how those you know, I needed somebody to Love Me. So there was all that I mean, not that we all don't want somebody to love us, of course, but mine was just very toxic in a sense of I need, because I hadn't gone through what I needed to go through with dealing with my mom. I mean, I love her and, and I haven't seen her in 20 years. And and that's a whole nother discussion. But the point being, I just never had that role model. We never, neither didn't have no one. I never saw it, I never talked about it. All I know is that I was empty inside and I wanted to fill that up, and it was filled with the wrong people, you know, and and I know that now, so it's different, within a good way, you know, Michael Hingson 25:43 you have developed a mentality, or let's put it as, as we should a mindset in your life, I would certainly describe it as an unstoppable mindset. But you clearly have developed a mindset by which you live. Andie Monet 25:59 Yeah, I actually realized it was a mindset until not recently, but you know, several decades, several years later, I just, I had always just assumed everybody believes the same thing I did that you can do anything you want, if you wanted to, if you wanted to. Right, and, and then I found out that that just wasn't true for most people. And it's, I'm laughing because I'm, you know, in my earlier age, because I'm in my 50s. Now my earlier age, I would, I don't want to say make fun of them. But I just I just didn't get it right. And even though I know not everybody thinks the same. I just figured it was I just figured it was a common theme. And I recognize now that I was really blessed to have it whether by choice or accident or who knows what, right. But I even talked to my, my, my son's father about it. And, and he says, which was really insightful for me. And I didn't think that, that he could teach me anything I didn't already know. giggle giggle. But he said, Well, you've just been in a habit of doing it all your life. So of course, the more times you do it, the more confidence you get the less of a question it becomes. And I had never really thought of it that way. As you know, I it's you know, and the reason I say that is because this really started when I was five years old. And my mom when I was five, she said, Okay, you're five, you're going to school, and now you have to take care of yourself. And I thought well, what does that mean? And she said, you know getting dressed, getting yourself up in the morning getting yourself dressed for school, taking yourself to school, making sure you eat breakfast, packing your lunch, doing all the things, making sure you do your all the things that you would normally do that you would get support from parents from gets a parent, that's not a complete sentence. But anyway, I said, Wow, good. I do I talk good ish. And so, you know, it's it was that practice of, of just doing it day to day to day, and there were some days that were just really scary. Like, I took the bus and went to the wrong bus stop and got on the freeway and ended up somewhere else. And I called my mom and I said, Hey, apparently I took the wrong bus, can you come and get me and I remembered because I was only eight years old. And she said basically tough go figure it out. And I was in tears walking to where I thought my school was. And it took several hours and but things like that happened to me all the time. And my mom was just like, suck it up, because I'm not going to come and get you. And so the practice of being able to problem solve and find solutions and make things happen even when you didn't want to was something that she forced me to have to do. And she didn't do it out of the kindness of her heart even though I would like to think that I mean, she just didn't want to have to deal with a child but but the benefit of that was it's something that I'm good at. And so, you know, beyond that, I also kind of feel like that you are you can you take that to more than just your day to day stuff, right? You can take that into beyond, you know, feeding yourself and, and maybe eating well and maybe exercising but how do you impact the world? How do you I mean, so many people, I think, feel like they're meant for something bigger, and they just don't know what that is or they don't know what to do about it. I mean, I think everybody really is an amazing person that can do so much once they look past themselves. And sometimes that's not easy, because you only look at your situation or how much money you don't have or what your, you know, potentially bad relationship is like, or you hate your job or your car isn't working at all these things that are stinky, poopoo, right? Yeah, but what about the stuff that is that has worked? And how do you move from, hey, I have a crappy car to, hey, I have a car that can take me to places where I don't have to catch the bus or where instead of, you know, driving 20 minutes, maybe you get a job that pays twice as much. That's 20 more minutes away. Like there's little things right? And how do you I know that's kind of a silly example. But but there are like you can, how you look at what you have changed can change your life literally. Michael Hingson 30:56 Put. Let me turn let me turn the bus thing around just for fun. Yes, my my wife is isn't a wheelchair she's used to chair her entire life until we moved to Novato actually, in 2003. So it was after we were there a year, she switched to a power chair. And as her physical medicine doctor said, The problem is that God in the universe don't give shoulders a lifetime warranty. So her rotator cuffs were fraying and some arthritis. So she had to switch to a power chair. But in the early 1990s, we went to New York, I went for some sales meetings. And I invited her to come along, because I don't think that she had spent any real time in New York as I recall. So she came. And I went on sales calls. And she entertained herself during the day. And I came home from one set of calls back to the hotel. And she was all absolutely proud of herself. Because she had gone to the concierge and she said I want to go to her the UN. And he did some research. And it turns out that the busses in New York were wheelchair accessible for at least the most part, if not totally, they had ramps or lifts, actually, that would get her on the bus. So she went out she caught a bus to the UN, oh my goodness, just like anyone else paid her fare and the whole bid got to the UN. But actually the bus stopped across the street, she wheeled across the street, went across the parking lot and all that got into the UN took the tour, came back out, got a bus back to the hotel, and was absolutely proud of herself because she was able to do all that. And I understand that it was pretty daunting, because most of the time, a lot of that stuff isn't accessible. But on the other hand driving is a whole lot more fun than in a sense than having to take the bus I understand. Andie Monet 32:59 Yeah, I think even then, you know, it, I couldn't imagine how scary it would be I mean, even and I'll say this, and it's going to sound really strange. Like for me to catch a bus now, I would be terrified only because it just takes you know, you have to organize it, which bus number is it going to go to the right place. So you need to couple buses. And God forbid, you know, if for people who don't have 100% of all their, you know, whether it's site or movement, what happens if something happens, right? I mean, I imagine you'd have to think about that. Like, what happens if, if my wheelchair doesn't work, or I fall out or I have a medical issue and I'm in public, nobody knows where I am. You know, that's, that creates a whole nother nother level of what do you do? And you know, life can be scary sometimes, no matter how good you are. Michael Hingson 33:57 I think that's true for a lot of people, though, I mean, in the sense that whether it's a physical issue or whatever, especially today, there are just so many uncertainties that we all face. I admire people who are out and about all the time, on buses and so on, because that's their only way to get around. Or maybe it isn't, but that's the way they've chosen and they learn to live with it. I know. For years, I traveled from Westfield, New Jersey into the World Trade Center by two trains. Actually, a paratransit vehicle from one end of Westfield to the other and then two trains to get in. And I I know, absolutely for certain I could still do that today. But that's a set sort of thing that you can count on unless the train breaks. Right, right. But having to use that as your main process for getting around trains and buses and so on that that has to be difficult for a lot of people. And it would be nice if other people could could have the opportunity to drive but their life conditions at this point may not make that possible. Although I think that it would be so much better if we had really good public transportation. Oh, my gosh, yes. All over the place. Andie Monet 35:20 For sure. I mean, that. Really? I mean, I think that should have been done years ago. But we don't we don't live in that kind of a society right now. You know, but we don't, I think that it would be a wonderful thing. Not for so many people, though, you know, not just, you know, there's some family that only have one car, or maybe, you know, there's some certain, you know, they're getting older, like my grandfather who's still alive, he can't he's legally blind and legally deaf. And so he still has to get around. Right. I mean, but there's only so many resources available to him. And I don't say that just because it's a family member of I mean, it just in general, we are, you know, the United States doesn't have a great system for, for transportation system in general. Michael Hingson 36:10 We're not where we should be, what are their lives, Andie Monet 36:14 He lives in San Leandro, California, okay? Well, in his own apartment, because he doesn't want to live with anybody because he's bent and stubborn, just like his granddaughter. Michael Hingson 36:28 And the other side of that is that there are techniques and there are things he could learn. And we could, if it would be helpful, I can introduce you to some some folks that might be able to assist him to improve in in his processes, because there's no reason that from a physical standpoint, he can't be independent. But on the other hand, I understand there are more aspects to it than that. But we there are, there are so many people who lose their eyesight. And some of them make the choice to just give up. And some of them make the choice, similar to the choices that you've made, not to give up. And I think that's, that's part of the the mystery I think for for all of us is why is it that more of us don't tend to believe that we can be unstoppable. And I use that in so many general ways, but to for the purposes of the question, why is it that we don't learn to choose to be able to accomplish what we need to do and overcome obstacles in our way. Andie Monet 37:42 You know, I happen to think, and, of course, there's no scientific background to this, but I happen to think a lot of it is in part due to the way that we grow up. And some families are just not supportive, you know, they don't, they don't hear the affirmations, or they don't hear, you know, their, whatever, whether it's words or actions or, like with my mom, she was not, she was either, which is kind of doesn't support what I'm about to say, but she, her actions were very, you're not, you're not valuable enough for me to me. But at the same time, she forced me to do things that that were eventually good for, for me. So she supported me in really kind of reverse kind of a way. But like my daughter, I have an adult daughter, and I have a young son at home. But my adult daughter is a complete opposite of me. And she's in she. And I don't have a solution for this, but she doesn't, she hasn't really she's very challenged with finding with doing what she wants to do for the benefit of herself. And I don't, and I don't know how to fix it. And I can't because she's an adult now. But going back to why people don't feel that way. Is you know, I think social media plays a big part of it, which again, not scientific just my opinion. You know, while in social media, you're always finding how everybody's like, it's wonderful and beautiful and perfect or great shoes or nice car, you know, handsome spouse or, or good looking friends or smart, like everything is there perfect, single second in their life, right? And when you're comparing yourself to that, especially with the children, and then the younger adults, is, well if they're doing it, and I'm not and I'm a failure, and it's constant. I mean, it's just whether you're watching a TV show or a movie or social media, it's all about how wonderful somebody else's life is. And we don't have enough input to really tell us that we're amazing inside. And we have all the tools we already need to be successful. And I don't care how smart you are, or how how you know how fast your car drives, or how many bad relationships you've built in, or how much your kids hate you, or like, there's always amazingness in you, and we don't get that input from everybody. And whether it's not from our spouse, not from our kids, not from our parents, not from our family members, not from our friends, it's not something we get on a constant or consistent basis, and you have to find it inside of you, which is not easy to do, like spending time with yourself. And being really honest about your life is not an easy place for some people, especially when they're lost or confused or anxious or frustrated. And I could talk about that on on a tangent forever. But I'd really I would love a society and an environment and a community where we really create positive messages. And we just don't have that here. Michael Hingson 40:55 I can imagine, though, that a lot of kids, in your situation, if they had been in the same kind of environment, might not have reacted the same way you did, and not learn to be self sufficient, or couldn't mentally overcome the challenges that your mom put in your way? And how do we? How do we deal with that? How do we teach kids to recognize that they can accomplish whatever they want. And I mean that in a positive way, not just to overcome people tramp on people or whatever, but recognize that within themselves, they have a lot more inner strength than they probably think they do. Andie Monet 41:44 I think sports has a lot to do can help that. I think that academics are really important because I there's a foundational, intellectual level, right? But music, and athletics, and all the creative and fine arts are critical for that. And again, not scientific, just my opinion, I think all of those make a huge impact into confidence and problem solving, and the ability to be able to find magic inside of you. And also not related to that. But this is the exact reason why, you know, I created a nonprofit organization. And certainly it's not going to solve all the problems. But it gives children a place to recognize that they are amazing. And I don't talk about being amazing. But I give them you know, tips and tools and resources in what I call six fundamental areas. And one of them is confidence and leadership and career and entrepreneurship. And just really, that everybody's different in their own amazing way. But by the way, while you're figuring out your amazingness here are some life skills that you're going to deal with that, though you might not be you might not be dealing with it now today. But these are things that you're going to need in your adult life. I mean, my eight year old, we talk about publicly traded companies and the difference between debit and credit card and why credit scores are important because we talked about bankruptcy because he said, Well, what happens if you don't pay your credit card? And I said, Well, your credit score goes down, you could go bankrupt. And if you go bankrupt, you get, you know, your interest rate goes down, I mean up and then as your interest rate goes up, you can't afford stuff like I oversimplified it, of course, but these are things that, you know, help. Again, I know, it's not confidence in the traditional sense of confidence, but confidence in the sense of when they're 18 and 20. And 30. Like this is not going to be a surprise for them. Like they'll be able to manage basics of life when we're talking about, you know, doing laundry and, and checking air in your tires, as well as as financial management and career. I mean, I really wish that again, sorry, I'm talking so fast that I get going, I get so excited about this is I wish they would bring career day back to schools because now kids just have no idea. You know, there's no leadership in the sense of the possibilities. And I think the the whole idea of possibilities and vision is so important. Not only as a child, but as an adult still, whether you're 20 or 30, or 40. Like if you don't know, if you don't have any, you know, plan or desire or goal or someplace you want to be that's different than where you are now then, of course nothing's going to change and so when children graduate high school or even sometimes graduate college, they still don't know what they're going to do. And that's okay. But having that next step is what's important, right? What do you do when you graduate high school? Okay, well, even if you're even if you don't want to go to college, you still are going to have to get a job which is you know, where are you going to start? Are you going to start it, McDonald's? Are you going to start wherever right There's still that next step, you're going to have to take today or tomorrow. And there's always going to be that next step, you're going to have to take today or tomorrow. And there's always going to be something you have to do, even if even if the end all be all is let me just get up and go to work and come home and II, you're still applying for that. Right? So exactly. Michael Hingson 45:19 Well, let me ask this, it's generally acknowledged that we learn a lot of our formative stuff, at pretty young ages by five and seven years old, and so on. And that leads to developing a mindset, whatever it is, can those mindsets change, though later in life? Andie Monet 45:43 My opinion is that there's always a core set of mindset that you're going to grow up with, right, and some of them are good, and some of them are bad. And I think all of them that both the good and the bad, can absolutely change. But the good ones you really want to take hold of and develop those and, and that's where I really think where the you're really inner superhero can come that comes out is when you can identify and strengthen those really positive mindsets that you have. Because once your eyes again, this is what I think is that once you're able to not devalue them, not minimize them, not ignore these innate mindsets, and strengths that we have, and really like, you know, just build them up. Like it can create an amazing, amazing impact in your life. But by the same token, as you can identify not helpful mindsets, that it's just like eating if you ate candy all the time. And you know, it's bad for you, why do it? Right? Michael Hingson 46:54 How do we change those? How do we change those bad mindsets? Andie Monet 46:58 Well, I mean, I just think education is really the big piece of that, you know, you have to, you have to want it, you have to search for it, you have to find books, or mentors, or even YouTube, like I love looking at motivational speeches on YouTube. They're so fun to me. You know, counseling is helpful. I mean, there's so many things, Michael Hingson 47:18 all about making choices, Andie Monet 47:20 how about making choices, and even, you know, churches and synagogues and, you know, meditation places, like, if you ask, and you're like, hey, I would like to get, you know, be better at it. Or, you know, I tend to have a negative mindset, how, you know, Can you can you have any recommendations, like, I used to put affirmations on my bathroom mirror, that would bring me to tears, literally, because I knew they were true. When, like, logically, but emotionally, it was hard. Like, you know, I'm valuable. I love myself, you know, I'm pretty, whatever they is right? say them out loud, to yourself in the mirror, you think is an easy thing to do. And it was not, even if no one else knows just you it's a hard thing to do. But it's so I think it's one of the most important things that you can do for yourself. Michael Hingson 48:15 We just don't learn enough. Nor are we talked enough about introspection. And yeah, and recognizing that when you do something that you really feel is wrong, recognizing me wrong, maybe it's not good choice. But when you when you do something that doesn't turn out the way you expected. And I'm operating under the premise that that's morally a good thing, as opposed to, you tried to rob a bank, and that doesn't count. But when you when you truly are trying to better yourself, and you do something where it doesn't go the way you planned, if we don't stop and look at it, and try to understand more of why it happened. No matter what we do, we're not going to progress. Andie Monet 49:06 Absolutely. Very, very true. And that I believe that that happens in anything, anything and everything, whether it's career or owning a business or being a better spouse, or a better, you know, driver or I mean, for example, you know, if you get in a car accident, what's the first thing you do you blame the other person, right? But nobody often thinks about what they did that they could have been done differently. You know, not, you know, hopefully not texting, of course, but you know, driving the speed limit or doing that three seconds or whatever their seconds is, you know, the safe distance or you know, just whatever it is and that, again, going back to I feel like you're saying is looking at what you did and how you contributed to the outcome of it. I think makes it really, really Big difference. And even for me even It's even good stuff, right? Well, what can I do that will make it even better? And so what am I, and I'm probably talking too long about this, but you know, I love, I love loving on people. And if and it's just, it comes from my heart, it's genuine, it means it means a lot to me to be able to do that with people. And even if they're strangers like, and so you know, looking them straight in the eye when I'm talking to them, or calling them by their name or saying thank you, or whatever, like, those are really important to me. But I don't do it 100% of the time. So how can I go from whatever the loads, just throw out a number, say 75% of the time? How do I move from 75% to 80%? Like, it takes a conscious effort to recognize when I'm not doing it, to know why I'm not doing it, because maybe I was just in a bad mood, and I or I missed a deadline, or I didn't eat lunch or whatever, like that's on me. But you have to recognize when I have to recognize when I do it so that I can get better at it, or at in this case that are not better at moving from 75 to 80 percents. Michael Hingson 51:06 Well, and and you really are expressing this very well, because the other thing I was going to talk about was the fact that even if you were involved in something and did it absolutely the right way, it's still a good idea to go back and look at it to be able to ask the question, could I have done it even better? Or it worked out? Okay, for me, I did what I was what I needed to do, and I made exactly the right choices. But these other things happened elsewhere. What kind of effect could I have had in maybe making it better for other people, it all gets back to self analysis and introspection that we just tend not to want to do with ourselves in our lives. And the reality is, we're our best, worst critic. Absolutely. And we should do more of that. So I have a question. What did you do after college, you went and started a career do we what? Andie Monet 52:06 I got my engineering degree, but never went into engineering. And it's been business my whole life. So my I ended up being originally being an accountant. And I, my biggest client, by 20 years old was actually Price Waterhouse, which is one of the big four international accounting firms. And I consulted with them. So I was already consulting. By the time I was 18, I had almost graduated college by the by Dean. And I just been really, the short version is honing my skills into better and better things. Mostly because I have a growth mindset also, like I believe there's always something to learn. And even, like what I do with business development is I still love listening to other people and other books and taking other courses from other people who also do business development, because maybe there's something that I can learn. Or maybe there's a trick I didn't consider. Or maybe there's a different way to explain something, which I have learned over the years. Like, even though I'm an expert, quote, unquote, I say that because, you know, you never know everything. But even though I'm an expert at what I do, there's always room for growth. And then I find over the last 35 years that other things complement what I do. And so it helps me to know what happens after I'm doing what I'm doing with them, I can give them direction as to what to do next. That is not necessarily what I do, right? So there's just always ways that you can really impact the world, which is what I really my end goal is how do I how do I make a difference in people's lives. And for me, you know, financially, it comes through my business, but I teach them about leadership and communication, which is not, I don't teach them that in as a consultant. That's what I bring to the table as a friend, and as a mentor, and as a colleague, and as somebody who cares about people who want to who hopefully also want to make a difference. Michael Hingson 54:09 So what is your business today? Andie Monet 54:13 I do business optimization. And so I basically I tell people this way, I help people create explosive growth without adding cost to their business. And everybody's like, what, what does that mean? And so how do we increase your revenue and decrease your cost? Where we're reducing the cost to operate your business, which really partially, you know, there's several ways to do that, but but over simplified ways, is streamlining your operations and streamlining your processes, which increases time of the day. But the decreasing and cost, in part has to do with productivity, increasing the productivity and I don't like that word because it makes it sound like whatever you're going to do in eight hours. Want you to do more, which is not really the intention, the intention is more. Okay, it takes you four hours to do this. Let's, let's take do it in two. But here's a really overseas a really good small example. Quick example is a guy came to me and he said, Hey, I want you to fix my Excel worksheet. I thought, why is this man calling me to fix his Excel worksheet? That's not what I do. And I said, well, but then in my, hey, let me help the world. I want to know. So I said, Okay, well tell me about your worksheet. So what do you do with it? He says, I will I bill clients. And I said, Well, how do you get into the worksheet? Tell me, tell me your process. And he says, Well, I help people in the field. They upload their hours to an app. We download the data from the app. It's in an Excel worksheet, and then we divvy up that information into 17 other worksheets, and then we both the clients and I said, Well, how long does that take? You said three weeks, about three weeks. And I said, Well, here's the thing, I'm not going to fix the Excel worksheet. But what I am going to do is fix your process. And then literally, one day, I moved him from a three week process to a two day process. And in two months, he doubled his revenue. So little things like that we didn't add any cost. He created more hours in his day, he created more revenue and more profits with literally in 24 hours. Except I do that on a bigger scale, usually, like I helped monster energy, save $14 million, and within a month, like, and then I help small businesses too, of course, but it all there's always a way to optimize something. And maybe it's all three of them. Maybe it's maybe it's streamlining processes, and optimizing your IT systems and improving your your your costs, but not always, sometimes it's just one of them. How Michael Hingson 56:56 do leadership and communications play a part in the whole process of what you do to fix processes. Andie Monet 57:07 So the processes are the processes, but what the way the leadership and the communication work is really critical for my own personal passion, not as much for the business, although I'll tell you the good points and the bad points. So I don't like saying this every day, because I think people misinterpret it or jump to conclusions. But as you can, as you have happy employees or productivity is gonna go up. And as their productivity goes up, their profits are gonna go up. This is not why I talk about communication and leadership, it just happens to be the result of it. But more importantly, I think that the leadership, leadership responsibility is to, again, my opinion, is to empower people and to lift people up and to be a version of themselves that they want to be or that can be and showing them that they that they can be that and this goes back to that positive. Really culture that we don't really have is how do we support each other? And maybe in some cases, that person instead of friend, I'm just throwing this out there instead of a McCallum they want to be an artist, well, then I happen to think that you should help them do that. Not everybody believes that. And I know why. But that's just what I think. So as a leader of a company specifically, and you know, even in the home, in your home, of course, but in a company is your job is to empower them and to uplift them and to give them tools to be successful. Yes. Was it? Is it going to cost $50? More a month? Potentially, yeah, but what are you going to do $50 is a small price to pay for having somebody's effectiveness, increased productivity, increase happiness increase. And that's the leadership role, the communication piece comes into play, because besides the positive, of course, but also in the sense of how it's my job to be able to communicate with you in a way that you're able to hear me and understand me, and be supportive. And we all have a communication style. That doesn't speak to everybody, right? I mean, there's, there's in the basic four, and I won't go into detail, but the basic four the relationship, structure, technical and action. And so I'm mostly a relationship person, I want people to feel good, I want people to be loved. I want people to feel like they belong. And so that's how I communicate and that's how I operate. And that's how I, that's where I am. But if I'm, if I'm in sales, or even if it's an employee, and I'm going to be talking to a technical person who that language is about the numbers, about the data about the resources about the statistics and all those things, then telling them that I love them is not going to get them to be excited about their job right or a sales potential client to be excited about doing business with me. I have to be able to communicate, where I'm like, Hey, I love you. But also, and here's the information that's going to make you successful as an employee, or here's the information that are, these are the statistics, or these are the articles, or this is the information that's going to have a potential customer, be my customer or an employee, be an empowered employee, where they're like, Yes, that makes sense, I'm ready to go. And so that's where communication really plays a part in, in leadership and in profitability. And in really just making a difference in other people's lives too. Because as your customers and employees and again, at home to, as they feel like you're, you're able to communicate with them in a way where they are appreciated, or loved, or empowered, or all of those things, they're going to go, they're going to want to come back to work, of course, but then they're also going to go home, and they're going to be more patient people, they're going to be more understanding people, they're going to be more like all of these other intangible things that they bring, you give to them, and they bring out into their lives. And that's why I think that's such an important piece of learning how to communicate better and have been the leader that I think we all can be. Michael Hingson 1:01:17 So person comes up to you and says, I want to be an artist, not an accountant. And they let's assume, just for the sake of discussion, they're a good accountant. Do you, although you want to help them? Do you try to drill down a little bit and find out why they really feel that way? Andie Monet 1:01:36 Yeah, I do. I do. Because one of the hesitations, I actually have this happen, which is why I thought of it. But I said, Okay, well, you know, what is it about? art that you really like, Andy, you know, because His concern was, he wouldn't have an income, which has pretty reasonable, you know, concern. So I was like, Okay, we have, we have two ways to handle this one. And this is this is my inside voice talking, by the way. One is that we find out how to be creative in his accounting role. Or two, we transition him from an account to creating a place in his life where he can be an artist, and make money, you know, because again, you have to eat right, eat and not be homeless. And so with him, we ended up and I've had this happen actually multiple times, but with him, we actually he kept his job. And we found a way where really, he just wanted to be creative. It wasn't necessarily art, per se. So he stayed an accountant, but he was more into the processes and the workflows and the systems design, and how do we really create a system that's going to not only be more productive, but where he can create that system? Create, Michael Hingson 1:02:58 where there's where the creativity comes from? That makes perfect sense. Yeah, exactly. What are some of the biggest challenges that you've seen that Cust your clients have when it comes to dealing with processes and so on? Andie Monet 1:03:12 Well, besides not having them, there you go. I just had a call today, actually. And it was it was a it was a friend that I met through an event. And she said she called me she's like, I'm losing my mind. I'm literally going to the doctor for an EKG, because my life really my business is unmanageable. And I just wanted to talk to somebody. And long story short, you know, she just felt really lost in being focused about her responsibilities as a business owner. And she felt like she was pulled in multiple ways. And that was stressing and it was now affecting her physical health, which is not a good thing. So my first question to her to her was, do you have processes which i i asked a question, I try to ask the question where she's going to say yes. And she said, Yes, I do. Nice. Okay. Are they documented? And that's where the note came in. Do you have a workflow? On paper? No, I'm like, Okay, so the short answer is, let's get that and you're not allowed to do anything else. If there's a fire, you're not allowed to put it out, because that is somebody else's job. If this is really what you want to do, and she told me what she want to do in her company, then you need to focus on that, and this is how we're going to do it. So I say that because sometimes clarity is a feeling that can only be handled with a technical answer. So with her, we needed it on paper and she needed to her focus was on what we were going to write but other people as An example is they just feel like they can very afraid of numbers. And there's a lot of math anxiety. In fact, I had a, I had somebody recommend never say math on the podcast, because people automatically shut down and I can see that happening. But there's what, there's an education process of explaining, without using the word mouth, what it is that we can provide to them. Right? Would you like to sleep better at night? Would you like to what I say? Would you like to be transformed from a small business owner to a corporate executive in your own business and be able to make financial and operational decisions with ease within a matter of minutes? Or yeah, like, well, then we need to build your infrastructure. That's it. So I actually Michael Hingson 1:05:51 very well, may very well involve bath but you didn't use the word. Andie Monet 1:05:55 Exactly. And in fact, some of the courses I teach are not talking about that. But they're doing that. But because because I started, I started by saying what they're going to get out of the answers that they're going to be able to answer. So they're willing to do a little bit more than they would had I started with the end, as opposed to well, excuse me, instead of starting at the beginning, I started at the end. And it makes a big difference. And I probably didn't even answer your question, frankly. But I was so excited about the, Michael Hingson 1:06:27 you're done. Good. I appreciate that. Let me ask this question that comes to mind changing the subject. So a lot of us who deal in one way or another with disabilities, because we are part of that community and so on. often hear people say, well, it's just too expensive to hire you or you have to buy special things for you. We can't afford that our business doesn't make much money. How do you deal or would you deal with that? Andie Monet 1:07:05 Well, first of all, I think that that's poopoo, poopoo answer. Because you can always get around other days to know I, I just think that's an excuse. And that, again, I know is just my opinion, but if it was important to you, you would find a way. And let's say worst case scenario, worst case scenario is that it does cause a lot of money. But there's more to your business and, and your life than the money that it costs. I think what how are you? Again, it goes back to contributing to the community. And I think that if you can get, you know, whatever, 1000 10,000 50,000 more people that you couldn't get to before, wouldn't that be a good thing, right. And even if, let's say they're not even customers, let's just say it's free to offer something for free. That's still creating intangible and non financial benefits to the world. And although I, of course, I'm more on the philanthropy side of why you should do it. But the financial pieces, there's always a way to do it. And I can pretty much almost guarantee that that anything is possible. Financially, if you have the right things in place, like maybe streamlining something that's going to like something costs $10,000. So let's streamline your operations where you're basically re creating 10,000 in your own company without spending money. So effectively, you have a net zero, like from a financial standpoint, there's always a way, I think, I mean, I've never yet in 35 years ever found something that I haven't been able to solve. We might have had to change the scope a little but other than that, it's all there's always a way. And I just think I just think that the the excuse of money for anything is usually not valid. Michael Hingson 1:08:59 I love the answer. And let me add to it a little bit. The bottom line is in businesses, we spend money all the time to provide accommodations for people. We spend money to have the lights on so that you can see in the dark, if you will. And I don't mean that sarcastically but it is absolutely true. We pay money, to have electricity and to turn on lights to give people computers with monitors and so on. We pay money to have a coffee machine oftentimes, I love to use the example of a touchscreen coffee machine that people who can't see the screen aren't able to use exactly. We spend money in so many different ways. Is it really more expensive to bring in someone who is different than us? Or isn't a time that we start to truly view that as in part, the cost of doing business? I also like what you say is that oftentimes, if we deal with processes, we can save money anyway and make it better. But the fact of the matter is, we spend so much money in businesses on providing accommodations for people. Why is it that we exclude some, and that's what we really need to get away from? Absolutely. There's another side of it, which is, typically speaking, even today. If you hire a person with a disability, and you provide accommodations, to allow that person to become successful in your company, and you encourage that person, and then do what you can to learn, what you need to know, to help make that person successful, there is a much greater chance that that person will stay loyal to you, because you did that, then you will find in most other people in what they do, because they take accommodations so much for granted. They don't think the coffee machine is an accommodation, they think it's something that is perfectly within their right to have because they need to drink coffee. But it's an accommodation by any standards and any definition in the book that you want. So if you provide reasonable accommodations to make it possible for people who are different to be able to function, you will probably very much gain a much more loyal employee than you otherwise would have had. Andie Monet 1:11:30 Absolutely. And I and I still think that goes back to how do you empower people and give them tools to be successful, not just technically in their role, but living with your business? Right. And? And I don't think that, I mean, pretty much what you said, I don't think that hiring somebody that is not like other people should prevent you from hiring them. Right? I mean, if they're, if they're, if they fit your qualifications for getting a job done, and they need some extra things, so Well, that's just, I mean, I'm oversimplifying it, but it's just like, some people only use certain kinds of pens, because that's their favorite pen, or they buy a new chair, because it's more comfortable, or it has a higher back or it has whatever, right? Like those are just tools that you use, and what if you're going to be, you know, taking it in a different way, if you know that you don't like quiet people, that doesn't prevent you from having to hire them, because they're a good fit. Right? It's just, it's the whole the whole mentality of exclusivity of somebody or something, something, but of someone who doesn't fit what you I don't want to say envision but is outside your normal of envisioning, right, prevents you from making that decision, then you're and you're not fit to do your role? Well, I mean, that's again, my opinion, you're not doing your job. Well, if that's preventing you from making a good decision. Michael Hingson 1:13:14 Yeah. What kind of insights might you have for marketing and business development for people and businesses, Andie Monet 1:13:23 communication that, you know, is again, one of those pieces that I think is really critical in marketing and, and sales? Because once you go back to who are not, I'm not talking about target market, I'm just talking about techniques of talking to them, if you can actually talk to your clients in a way where they're listening, and they're understanding. And you know, of course, it goes without saying, being respectful and genuine and all that stuff, of course, then why wouldn't they want to do business with you, right? But you, but it's a, it takes a conscious effort to make those choices about how you're going to communicate with somebody, and that before you can even decide how you're going to communicate with them. You have to know they communicate, and that requires listening. And I think listening is a skill that is not used as much as it should be myself included. You know, we want to share our answers, share our opinions or tell what we think or what we experience and that's great. But when do you when are you quiet? Right? When do you let somebody say what they have to say without interrupting or, or interrupting and saying how you solved that problem. Here's how you can help them or, you know, whatever the case is, so listening and communication are, I think, just so painfully important in business and in sales. But also how do you this is a piece even more so than that, that a lot of people really, really miss is how are you creating value for that person? So for example, How are you getting them more sleep, making them more money, be more confident, communicating better, gaining more revenue, hiring better people like how you have to know how you're going to make their life better. Because once you figure, if you don't do that, there's no reason for them to hire you. Right? You have to be able to provide a value. And whether it's your client or your employee, it doesn't matter, you still have to provide value. And I don't think the average business really recognizes that. And some people defect depend mostly on marketing, like, and I love Coke, but you know, they have you know, life is better with coke. Well, maybe. I mean, it is for me, but that's just because I like Coke, not because I like your motto, you know, what value are you bringing to people's lives? And I can see that over and over again. But it's so so so, so important. Michael Hingson 1:16:06 And that commercial has been around forever things. Remember, from the 60s, I remember going to many movies in the limelight is always saying things go better with Coca Cola? Oh, yeah, it's the commercials. Well, we have been talking a long time and could probably talk forever. But I don't want to bore people too much. Hopefully, we have bored them at all. But we we just need to come back and do some more of this. Right? Yes, absolutely. But I want to thank you for for being here. If people would like to reach out to you and learn more about you and your business and see how you could help them and coach them. How do they do that? Andie Monet 1:16:49 Yeah, well, I always try to send people to my website first, because that's where it's sent. That's my central life. So my domain is Andy monae.com, which is a n d i e, m o n, e t.com. But I also always love to give out freebies. So the freebie this month is explosive profits planner, for those who have a business. They're also not business downloads on my website for those people who just want some communication leadership or other Tips and Tips and Tricks. But those are usually the two best ways. Michael Hingson 1:17:27 Well, and also, going back to our conversation, even before we started recording, I really appreciate you having gone and looked at accessibility and maybe we can explore ways that you and accessibly could work together to get more people to make their websites accessible. Andie Monet 1:17:42 Yes, I you know what I am super excited about that. I because again, I'm all about loving and being inclusive. And the more we do that, I think that we build our community and, and just love on each other. I mean, even if I don't ever meet anybody, I I know that that's out there for people. Michael Hingson 1:17:59 Well, a much less the process is is inexpensive, and a whole lot less than other ways of doing it. But if people want to reach out, I hope they will, I hope that they will contact you. And we will definitely have to continue these discussions. Oh, I'd be delighted. Now, you said you were starting a podcast at some point? Andie Monet 1:18:21 I am. I am. June, hopefully? Michael Hingson 1:18:26 Well, if you need to guess let me know. But I'm sure other people will express an interest because they're gonna want to learn from you. Andie Monet 1:18:33 Oh, it's gonna be so fun. I mean, I want to interview people and spread the love spread the knowledge, spread the wealth. And it's just one of many ways I always thinking of something that I think of really benefit people. Because, again, I think we just we have as we come together and just really create an environment where we can make a difference. Michael Hingson 1:18:57 Well, you definitely are a person who has demonstrated what I would regard by any standard is an unstoppable mindset. Since that's the name of our podcast. I ought to get it in there. Yeah, definitely. And I want to thank you for being here and helping inspire all of us. And I hope people will take away the knowledge that you've passed on to all of us today, and it'll make everyone's lives a little bit better. And that's as good as it gets. Andie Monet 1:19:24 Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm super excited to share my little insight in the world. Michael Hingson 1:19:29 Well, thanks for being here. And I want to thank you who are listening for coming and listening today. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this. Feel free to email me at Michael H I, that's M I C H A E L H I at accessiBe A C C E S S I B E.com. michael@accessibe.com. You can also if you want to learn more about the podcast go to Michaelhingson.com that's M I C H A E L H I N G S O N.com/podcast. Wherever you're listening to us from please give us a five star rating. We really appreciate your your comments and your ratings. And I look forward to hearing from you about what you thought about today. And I hope that you will reach out to Andy, she's given us lots of good insights. Thanks for listening. Hope you're having a good day. Make it a great week and come back and visit us again next week here on unstoppable mindset. Michael Hingson 1:20:34 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.
