In today’s show, Chris Cox Au.D., and Riley Bass Au.D. are joined by Andrea P. Howe, the co-author of The Trusted Advisor Field Book. Andrea is an expert in the area of building trust and is on a mission to, as she says “kick conventional business wisdom to the curb and transform how people work together as a result.” This was an awesome conversation and we thank Andrea for dialing in to speak with us!
Reach out to us if you’d like a copy of The Trusted Advisor Field Book. Free to listeners while supplies last! Get in touch with Chris and Riley using their contact info at the end of this episode!
Did you miss our series on Transitioning from Student to Provider? Catch up on what you missed by visiting our special series page.
Listen to the Episode Below
Read the transcript:
RILEY BASS: So Chris, I have a question for you.
CHRIS COX: Yes, please.
RILEY BASS: Do you trust me?
CHRIS COX: It kind of depends. I trust you with my daughter, but I don’t necessarily trust you with a box of donuts.
RILEY BASS: Oh, well, that’s acceptable. Would you trust me if you were about to jump off the back of a boat and I was trying to save your life?
CHRIS COX: Which boat, and which ocean?
RILEY BASS: Titanic, Atlantic.
CHRIS COX: Oh, I don’t know. Is there going to be room on the door for me to climb aboard or anything?
RILEY BASS: No. You’re going to have to keep it in the water, Jack style. Don’t worry. I’ll never forget you.
[CHUCKLING]CHRIS COX: All right. So trust– is that what we’re getting at? Is that what you’re getting at?
RILEY BASS: Yes.
CHRIS COX: Have you ever done a trust fall before?
RILEY BASS: Gosh, I can’t remember. Maybe in summer camp when I was much younger, but not any time recently.
CHRIS COX: OK. I did one yesterday. No one was around. I ended up taking a nap.
RILEY BASS: Speaking of trust, we are very, very excited to bring a special guest to you guys today. This guest came and spoke to our entire company about a month ago, and we asked and were prepared to beg to have her come do a podcast with us. And she so graciously agreed to do one, and we are–
ANDREA HOWE: Can I laugh out loud now?
CHRIS COX: Yes, you– please.
RILEY BASS: Yes, please.
[CHUCKLING]ANDREA HOWE: I’ve been containing myself this whole time. Then I heard the beg line and couldn’t keep it in anymore.
RILEY BASS: Well, laughing is allowed and encouraged on the podcast. We are so excited to welcome Andrea Howe. Andrea, welcome to the podcast. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
ANDREA HOWE: Thank you. I’m so excited to be here. I love everything and everyone Audigy related.
CHRIS COX: Oh, stop.
[CHUCKLING]ANDREA HOWE: True statement. I’ve never done a trust fall, just for the record. So that’s one thing you should know about me. And I’ve never made anybody in my workshops do it either, although sometimes I threaten to when I think it’s important to do that. But I always say we cover that in the advanced program, so you’re off the hook for now.
I am a recovering IT consultant. So I’m not a medical professional. I’m a consulting professional, although I suppose some people might consider that an oxymoron. But I’ve been in and around the consulting world for a little over 25 years now.
CHRIS COX: Oh, wow.
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah. Don’t do the math. And spent the last 10 focused specifically on the subject of trust-based relationships. It’s become a specialty or a niche, or I guess fancy people say niche. It’s a niche for me.
I am the co-author of a book called The Trusted Advisor Field Book, which is a companion guide to two books that preceded it, one called The Trusted Advisor and another called Trust-Based Selling. And that book, The Trust Advisor Field Book– we were just celebrating our fifth anniversary.
RILEY BASS: Oh, wow.
CHRIS COX: Congratulations.
[APPLAUSE]ANDREA HOWE: [INAUDIBLE] Yeah. So this is my life. I teach workshops. I do virtual learning programs. I have traveled various corners of the world and various digital corners of the world, teaching mostly consultants or people who were in consultative roles– that includes sales people; it includes internal consultants– what it really takes to be extraordinary in their client relationships.
CHRIS COX: Consultants– that sounds like what we as hearing professionals do.
ANDREA HOWE: Oh, absolutely.
CHRIS COX: I have to make another note that it sounds somewhat strange to hear that the trust genre or trust niche is a niche and that it’s not something that everybody is using.
ANDREA HOWE: Oh, yeah.
RILEY BASS: Right?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]ANDREA HOWE: I guess that is kind of– I don’t know. Is that sad? It’s a sad state of affairs.
CHRIS COX: It kind of is, isn’t it?
[CHUCKLING]ANDREA HOWE: Well, certainly, it’s a very narrow subject area, right? Some people would consider it to be, in some ways– when you think about the kinds of training that your typical consultant would go through, they’re learning a lot. They’re spending a lot of time focused on their industry expertise, their subject matter, trying to get really smart in that way, and I help them be really smart about the relationships side of it.
CHRIS COX: Ah, relationships. I think that’s one of the key things that we talk about here on the podcast, as being a hearing care professional, about building relationships with both your teammates and with your patients. So I’d love to hear that from you as well about the importance of these relationships.
ANDREA HOWE: Well, I think they’re really critical because I think for anyone who’s in any kind of service-oriented role, medical professionals and professionals in general, what really differentiates you, what has you stand apart isn’t actually your experience or your subject matter expertise. It’s other people’s experience of you. And I think we typically don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that and honing our skills in that regard.
RILEY BASS: Absolutely.
ANDREA HOWE: Which is job security for me, so that’s good, right?
RILEY BASS: Perfect. Well, that leads right into our first question, Andrea. We primarily on this podcast talk to audiology students and new graduates, so our listening base is usually a little bit on the younger side and new professionals into the field.
And I’m sure you know that there is sometimes that stigma attached to being a young professional, where maybe you’re looked upon as– they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re too young. They’re too inexperienced. So what is your take on being a young professional in the field and really building those trusted relationships and building that credibility for yourself with patients or clients that might not see that in you?
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah, it’s a great question. Well, let’s talk about the new part first because I think any time you’re new in anything, whether it’s the workforce, or a new job, or a new phase of your career or phase of your life, or whatever, it’s a critical time to do two things, one is establish yourself, and the other is, like I said before, really differentiate yourself or figure out how you can stand apart.
And when you’re entering the workforce, there’s a lot that’s new, and not the least of which is using that R word again, relationships. This whole new set of relationships– if you’re an audiologist– now, I’m imagining, right? I’m putting myself in your shoes because I don’t live that life. But you’ve got new patients, new colleagues, new vendors, new– probably a very long list.
And I think we human beings mistakenly believe that trust-building takes time, so because we’re new, we can’t really get in there and build great relationships. We have to do it over time. And one of the first things I teach anyone is that it’s a myth that trust-building takes time, and there’s a lot that you can do to accelerate the levels of trust that you have in all those new relationships.
RILEY BASS: Awesome. What are some of those things you can do?
ANDREA HOWE: If you’re just entering the workforce and seeing patients independently for the first time, I think there are three key things that you can do. First is don’t either undersell or oversell yourself. Just be yourself.
[DING]So you said the word, Riley, “credibility.” One way to build credibility with other people is by citing your credentials and talking about your experience. Another credibility builder, and it’s the one that most of us fail to really appreciate, simply is honesty.
So from a trust-building standpoint, I would say don’t try to hide or gloss over a lack of experience. It’s OK that you’re just out of school. In fact, there are most certainly some benefits to it. You may be familiar with newer technologies, for example.
And so by the way, don’t try to hide or gloss over those either. Just be real about all of it, and not in an apologetic way, but in a simply– I know who I am and who I’m not. I’m confident in my abilities, and in fact, I’m so confident that I’m willing to tell you when I think I have a knowledge gap or a skill gap or I might need to call in a colleague to help. And if your patients or your colleagues have concerns about your lack of experience, either they say so or you sense it, be glad. They’re being open with you about it, and you have an opportunity to listen, to understand more about what worries them about you. In other words, don’t be– I wouldn’t be afraid of a quote, unquote, “lack of experience.” Just be you. Know your gifts, your strengths, your talents, your weaknesses, and bring them all to bear. So that was one of three tips I had.
[CHUCKLING]CHRIS COX: Well, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to share the story that you shared with us back a couple of months ago with your experience as a first-time consultant going out to a place that was probably not as open to young females coming in and telling them what to do. Would you mind sharing–
ANDREA HOWE: You must be talking about the naval shipyard.
[CHUCKLING]CHRIS COX: Would you mind sharing a little bit about that story? I thought it was really relevant to what we’re talking about right now.
ANDREA HOWE: Thank you. I don’t mind at all. I love that story because I think it’s so illustrative, and I love flashing back to remember some of my biggest consulting failures.
[CHUCKLING]This story is actually– it goes back to my first ever client meeting as a young– I was a 23-year-old IT consultant. That’s the kind of consulting I did for the first 10 years of my career. And I was assigned to a project on a naval shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, or as they say down there, they call it Nawfawk. It’s Nawfawk, Virginia.
And literally, I’d been on the job for two weeks. I’d been out of college for a couple of months. And I went to this first ever meeting, and I was there with two other colleagues, and there were nine clients in the room, all of whom happened to be men, by the way.
So a shipyard is a very unique place. It’s very industrial. It’s very big. The scale is huge. And it’s a very male-dominated environment, and the client who was leading this team– we were there to kick off a six-month project.
And the client who was leading the team opened up the meeting saying, well, let’s have everybody say how long you’ve been on the shipyard and what are you bringing to the party. So you can imagine, if you think back to a time in your life when you just wish that the ground would open up and swallow you whole, right? This was one of those moments for me because–
CHRIS COX: Pretty much all of middle school for me.
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah, maybe even most of high school for me too.
CHRIS COX: Yeah.
[CHUCKLING]RILEY BASS: Agreed.
ANDREA HOWE: And for sure, this moment in my consulting career– because the honest answers to those questions were, how long have I been on this shipyard– if we’re generous and round up, 15 minutes, not just for this shipyard, but any shipyard. And what am I bringing to the party? At best, I really didn’t know, and at worst, I didn’t bring anything.
So I scrambled. I started to panic, all quietly and internally, of course, and decided that I would choose my first brilliant consulting strategy, which was to orchestrate it so that I could go last, be the last person to answer the questions. Turned out to be one of the first and last time– I mean the first of many times that I made a really bad call in the middle of a client meeting because by the time it was my turn to answer the questions, how long have you been on the yard and what do you bring to the party, I had learned that every single member of the client side of the team– there were nine of them. Remember, all of them are male. They’d been working on the– each of them had been working on the shipyard longer than I had been alive.
[CHUCKLING]CHRIS COX: Wow.
ANDREA HOWE: True. You laugh, and it’s a true story. So there I am. It’s the first of many moments of truth for me in my consulting career. What the heck do I do now, is what’s going through my mind. And I basically– I tap danced. I ignored the first question, how long have you been on the yard, pretended like I just– forgetting to answer it.
And for the second question, I proceeded to regale my new colleagues with everything I could remember from the prior semester that sounded as impressive as it possibly be. This is the IT world, so I told them how I knew [? Jordan ?] DeMarco, data modeling and IDEF modeling, and blah, blah, blah.
RILEY BASS: I don’t even know what that means.
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah, I went on and on and on for two minutes too long. And I learned a really important lesson in that moment because– well, looking back at that, there’s so many things now that I wish I’d done differently because I understand things differently now. Like understanding that honesty is one of the best ways to build credibility. Understanding that the thing that we’re most afraid to say in any given moment is often precisely what will build the most trust in that moment. And also understanding that there is a very close relationship between trust building and personal risk taking.
You don’t get deep trust without a willingness to take personal risks. So while how I responded was understandable– nobody stood up and said, “you’re fired”– I imagine they all sort of rolled their eyes and went, “here we go, another young one that they’re charging us too much money for.”
In hindsight, I wish I’d had the presence of mind to say, “all right guys”– and I do mean literally guys– “how long have I been on the yard? If we’re generous and round up, we’re going on 15 minutes. And that’s any yard, not just this ship yard.” I could have added, “all you have to do is look at me and you know I’m young and new to these parts, so I’m not going to start off by BSing you. And what am I bringing to the party? I’ve got some modeling skills that I understand are going to be relevant more than anything, bring a complete commitment to the success of this team. And I’m really looking forward to getting to know you all better and work with you.”
Something along those lines with confidence and presence. And if they had a problem with the honesty in who I was, then they could have spoken up, and we could have dealt with it instead of it hanging like a black cloud over my head, which is what it did for weeks and months.
CHRIS COX: One of those things that you wake up five years later, and are like, ugh, why did I do that.
RILEY BASS: In the middle of the night. You could of always brought balloons to the party. Nobody would ever be mad at you for bringing balloons to the party.
[LAUGHTER]ANDREA HOWE: That’s awesome. That’s perfect, Riley. That never occurred to me.
CHRIS COX: Always carry balloons with you.
ANDREA HOWE: I love it.
CHRIS COX: Riley does. She always has balloons with her.
RILEY BASS: I do. I have a whole bunch of balloons, right now.
CHRIS COX: As you talk about it, it seems like building relationships and having a strong knowledge of how relationships work is maybe a facilitator or a lubricant to performing whatever the tasks that you normally do on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s selling doughnuts, or whether it’s working with patients, or building a team, or even working with family. That knowing how relationships work and how to connect with people just makes your job so much easier.
ANDREA HOWE: I think that’s absolutely right and well said. Makes your job and your life easier.
CHRIS COX: Yeah, for sure. As we talk to our audience, we would like to give them some things that they can take with them and use immediately wherever they are, whether that’s still in school or out in their business. And Riley has already asked once for some things. I think you went through one out of three–
ANDREA HOWE: I did.
CHRIS COX: –bullet points? So I’m curious. What are some of the other things that you recommend for building trust and establishing trust as a new professional.
ANDREA HOWE: What’s it worth to you, Chris, to get the other two? No, I’m just kidding.
RILEY BASS: He’ll give you one of his doughnuts.
CHRIS COX: I’ll give you one Riley’s balloons.
ANDREA HOWE: Can I have a balloon and a donut? So another piece of advice, or a tip I have for a new professional– aside from be yourself, don’t undersell or oversell– is to be willing to take risks, unlike me in the shipyard. Part of what I was doing was trying to protect myself, trying to look good, trying to have the right answer.
And there are a lot of different ways you can take personal risks. For example, when you’re first connecting with a patient, sharing a personal story about why you chose audiology as a career path or sharing something personal about yourself, not private, not inappropriate, not TMI, just personal. Being willing to open up to other people means that they’re far more likely to be willing to open up to you.
I think it’s especially true in a medical context. Coming to a medical professional for a consult, especially around a hearing challenge, I think it’s a very, very personal thing. It might be hard to admit that you’re struggling. It might be embarrassing. There’s so much associated with that. And creating an environment where people are really comfortable opening up and saying what needs to be said and telling you what’s really going on for them, or what they really care about, or want is critical.
You’ve got to have trust to do that, and you don’t get there as quickly as you otherwise could, or to the extent that you otherwise could, if you’re not willing to take some personal risks yourself. So be the one to go first, and they will usually follow. So that’s my tip number two.
CHRIS COX: Great tip number two.
RILEY BASS: One more tip? Because it’s for the doughnut.
ANDREA HOWE: It better be good, right? If it’s really good, maybe I get sprinkles?
RILEY BASS: And it has to be really good for Chris to share a donut. He’s pretty protective of his doughnuts.
CHRIS COX: And actually you can have this apple fritter.
RILEY BASS: That’s kind of a recurring theme on our podcast. We tend to talk about doughnuts a lot, so this is no exception to that rule.
CHRIS COX: I wonder if we could get sponsored by somebody.
RILEY BASS: We should. Voodoo Doughnuts, right down the street in Portland.
ANDREA HOWE: Consistency is good, right? That’s another key to trust building is being consistent. So you’re doing a good job with your audience with the doughnut theme.
RILEY BASS: Yes.
CHRIS COX: Oh, great. Yes.
RILEY BASS: Who knew?
[LAUGHTER]ANDREA HOWE: All right, so drum roll, right? Big buildup for this last one, so it better be good. The thing I like the most about this third tip is that it’s really simple and it’s available to anybody any time. It’s something you can start practicing immediately. Now it’s simple. I didn’t say it was necessarily easy. And what it is, is becoming a masterful, or being a masterful listener.
So my advice is to work your listening muscles like you would a real muscle in your body. And in two particular ways, or two exercises, or two skills. I usually call them being great at paraphrasing and empathizing. Those are the two critical listening skills. Paraphrasing is repeating back what you’re hearing somebody say, not in a parroting, robotic kind of way. Simply, OK, so what you’re saying is x, y, and z. Did I get that right?
And empathizing is a way of mirroring back, or connecting with any emotions that you hear people communicating. So you might have a patient say– say it’s an elderly patient, “you know, it’s so hard to hear at family gatherings anymore. I can’t follow the conversation at dinner time.”
CHRIS COX: That’s a good one. Yeah.
ANDREA HOWE: All right.
CHRIS COX: We hear that.
ANDREA HOWE: They might say that a lot of different ways. But the way I just said it, there’s sadness. There’s maybe a bit of– what’s the word?
CHRIS COX: Embarrassment, maybe?
ANDREA HOWE: Well it could be embarrassment, but I was thinking more like you feel there’s kind of no hope. You feel– what is the word?
RILEY BASS: Hopeless.
CHRIS COX: Oh, that’s a good one, hopeless.
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah, it could be hopeless.
[LAUGHTER]CHRIS COX: We’re not getting it. I guess we’re just totally missing the marker.
ANDREA HOWE: I think it starts with a D. Or it has a D in it, or something. I don’t know. So if you can connect with that and there’s data in what they said. So you know that there are issues in certain settings. “So it sounds like you’re having trouble, in particular, at family gatherings. And it also sounds like that’s sad for you.” And just then pausing and letting them respond. And maybe you hit the nail on the head, and it is sad for them. And they say, “you know what, it really is.” Or maybe sad is not quite right. Maybe “it’s really frustrating more than it is sad for me.” “Oh, OK. I got it, frustrating. Well I can appreciate why that would be frustrating. Of course you’re frustrated, you can’t connect to people the way you’re used to.”
So if you’re really willing to get into conversations like that, you’ll be amazed at, not only how much more you learn about the people you’re trying to serve, but how much more willing they are to share with you, to take and act on your advice, and how much connection, or loyalty, you can build relatively quickly.
So there’s a big secret about listening. Or it’s not really a secret, but there’s a hidden driver of influence that most people don’t understand. And that is that influence is not fundamentally about how articulate you are when you’re talking. Influence has everything to do with how effective you are when you’re listening.
CHRIS COX: I love this concept because we talk about that here when we’re training providers and talking to them about connecting with their patients. It’s all about understanding what is emotionally underlying all of these things that they deal with on a daily basis that are affected by this hearing loss that they may have.
And too many times do we just talk over it, or glaze over it, not really address the root issue of why they have come in to see us as hearing care providers. They just move on here like, get your case history. We’ll do your testing, and then here’s what I recommend. And it’s kind of in and out without any real connection, or without any real understanding of what that person across the table from you is really experiencing and how they’re truly feeling on a day-to-day basis because of this loss of connection through hearing loss.
ANDREA HOWE: It makes sense that we all have a tendency to diagnose too quickly. Consultants do that too. We tend to be high achievers. We like to have answers. We like to fix things. We get the gratification of solving something. There are two problems with doing that.
One is very often you find you’re solving the wrong problem, or you’re missing a key cue that might suggest a slightly different path, or a slightly different approach, or even a massively different path or approach. And the other big problem with it is you miss myriad opportunities in the process to really connect with the person you’re trying to provide the solution, or the answer to. And that includes having them feel at ease and comfortable with you, feeling like you really understand. You really get it. You get their world.
And that relates to their willingness and ability to actually take action on the things you recommend. You might manage to sell them the super high-end hearing device, but what if they only wear it an hour a day. It doesn’t do any good. And, yeah, maybe you can check the box and say, we made that revenue for the practice, and I feel like I gave them what they needed.
But you’re leaving so much on the table, including the real sense of satisfaction of having truly made a difference in that person’s life, their family’s life, everybody they interact with. Knowing that they’re likely to wholeheartedly refer you. That’s where we go back to developing business with ease. It’s easy if you build great relationships because your patients become the people who are the ones doing the selling for you.
CHRIS COX: They’re the ones that go out there into the community and spread the word about how you did, either good or bad. So I wanted to ask you a little more specifically on this, you said to exercise and do this on a daily basis. And those two things that we’re supposed to do is– I’m sorry I wasn’t listening. What was it?
RILEY BASS: Paraphrase and empathy.
CHRIS COX: Very good.
ANDREA HOWE: Riley was listening.
CHRIS COX: Paraphrase and empathize.
RILEY BASS: Yes. Gold star.
CHRIS COX: How do you do that? What does that look like? I was just kidding. It was a joke, you guys. I was listening. How do you practice that day in day out? It seems like maybe it’s self explanatory, but in your mind, how do you work that out?
ANDREA HOWE: There’s a little exercise I suggest people try. I call it every day empathy. And what everyday empathy is, is that you practice at least once a day empathizing with somebody who’s outside of your typical work environment, so the barista at Starbucks, the grocery store clerk who’s checking you out, the person behind the counter at the dry cleaner, your daycare provider. Somebody who’s in that service role who you encounter. Somebody who answers the phone when you call customer service to get help.
And you simply practice tuning in to them, not just tuning in on a rational or logical data level, but tuning in on an emotional level. And just practice at least once saying something empathetic. You can see the face of the grocery store clerk. They look exhausted. And my first reaction is to get annoyed and indignant because they’re in a customer service role and they’re supposed to greet me with a smile.
And if I can choose to set that aside for a minute and say, “all right, I’m going to use this as my everyday empathy practice.” I’ll look at that person and I’d say, “it looks like maybe you’ll be glad when your shift comes to an end,” something along those lines. “I kind of get the feeling maybe you’re having a not so great day.”
And there’s some great benefits to doing that. One is, if you get it wrong, the stakes are relatively low. Some might feel differently for their Starbucks barista. Like oh god, they’re going to screw up my coffee order forever. This is catastrophic.
CHRIS COX: I’ve got to go to another Starbucks on another corner.
RILEY BASS: We have a Starbucks right down the street from our office. And everyone in the office goes. And the guy that’s the barista that works the drive-thru knows all of the employees of Audigy. Every morning he asked me, and he’s like, were you off last week for the holidays because I didn’t see you all week. I’m like, yeah. So he knows.
CHRIS COX: Maybe don’t practice on him.
ANDREA HOWE: So the stakes might be really high if you screw something up with him. For the most part, the stakes are going to be low. You’re probably not going to screw it up anyway. Even if you do, they’ll say, “oh, no. Sorry, as a matter of fact, I was just starting my shift,” and whatever.
RILEY BASS: “That’s just how my face looks.”
ANDREA HOWE: Yeah, exactly. You also have the added benefit of treating somebody in a role who typically gets a lot of customer complaints rather than any kind of affirmation and validation. You really can make a difference for them. And in the process, you’re building the muscle.
And I don’t care where you practice. You can practice anywhere and everywhere. And you will find once the muscle starts to develop that you naturally bring it into all dimensions of your life, including your work life. It starts with just setting an intention and saying, all right, in this interaction I’m going to– and then it ends with noticing when you’re starting to rush to problem solve, or rush to move along, or rush to diagnose, or rush to fill in the blank, and making a conscious effort to step back and then say something, mirror back what you’re hearing or experiencing from the other person.
RILEY BASS: So now you and my doctor are both telling me I should exercise. Great. All right. So as we kind of start to wrap up here, Andrea, can we really quickly review those three quick points of establishing trust? And then I want to talk a little bit more about how our students can maybe–
CHRIS COX: And professionals.
RILEY BASS: I was going to say how our listeners can get in contact with you. So what were those three points one more time.
ANDREA HOWE: The three points for new professionals–
CHRIS COX: Oh, I know this one.
RILEY BASS: You weren’t even listening.
ANDREA HOWE: Go ahead Chris.
CHRIS COX: Just be yourself. Don’t overdo you and underdo you. Second is take a risk.
RILEY BASS: Be honest.
CHRIS COX: Be willing to take risks.
RILEY BASS: And number three?
CHRIS COX: Be a good listener.
ANDREA HOWE: Excellent.
RILEY BASS: You were listening.
ANDREA HOWE: Well done.
RILEY BASS: Good job.
CHRIS COX: Thank you. Thank you. Can I have a balloon, Riley?
RILEY BASS: Yes, you can have a balloon. Like we said earlier, The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook is your book that you co-authored. We happen to have a few copies here around the office. If any of our listeners would like to get a copy of that, please shoot an email, or tweet, or a Snapchat. I don’t know, whatever. Get in contact with Chris and I, and we will make sure to get a copy of that book out to you as soon as possible. It’s a phenomenal book.
CHRIS COX: It’s a really good one, easy read.
RILEY BASS: Like we were saying, we just did an entire company training. We took a day and a half, and Andrea came and spent a day and a half with our entire staff. The whole company read the book. And everyone loved it and unanimously wanted to bring her back. We had her here a few years ago, and we wanted to see her again.
So I highly, highly recommend it. And it’s something that’s going to be extremely valuable to all of our listeners in both your professional and your personal lives. So Andrea, if our listeners want to get in contact with you, what’s a good way for them to do that?
ANDREA HOWE: Well one way is to go to my website, which is thegetrealproject.com.
CHRIS COX: Get Real Project.
ANDREA HOWE: Thegetrealproject.com.
RILEY BASS: The Get Real Project.
ANDREA HOWE: Thegetrealproject.com. You’re also welcome to email me Andrea@thegetrealproject.com. I’ll also give out my cell phone. If anybody wants to call me on my mobile it’s 202-906-0485.
CHRIS COX: Beep. That’s really risky. Wow, you take risks for sure.
ANDREA HOWE: Do you know why I do that? I saw a super famous author do that at a conference speaking to 15,000 people. He gave out his cell phone to 15,000 people. And I said, you know what? If he could do, it I can do it. Because the reality is most people don’t call you. And if they do call you, they really want to talk to you, or they’re taking a risk, or they’re really stepping out to do it.
RILEY BASS: Absolutely. Well we appreciate it so much. We will make sure that all of our listeners get your contact information. We’ll post on to social media whenever this podcast goes live.
CHRIS COX: Do you have a Twitter account?
ANDREA HOWE: I do.
RILEY BASS: Oh, yeah. Do you have a Twitter account?
ANDREA HOWE: I have two of them. Personal one is Andrea @AndreaPHowe. And then there’s @ProjectGetReal, is another Twitter account.
RILEY BASS: Andrea, we very much appreciate you coming on and doing this podcast with us. We don’t want to take anymore of your time. We know you’re very busy.
CHRIS COX: Thank you so much.
ANDREA HOWE: You’re welcome.
RILEY BASS: But we really do appreciate it. And I know our listeners do too. So thank you so much, and we hope that we can maybe record with you again someday.
ANDREA HOWE: I would love that.
CHRIS COX: It’s been awesome.
ANDREA HOWE: My pleasure.