102: #Hustle with Andrew Hermalyn

Pete Mockaitis
Andrew, thanks so much for joining us here on the How to be Awesome at Your Job podcast.

Andrew Hermalyn
Thanks, Pete. Happy to be here.

Pete Mockaitis
Well, you have a really unique hobby. I want to hear all about writing letters to CEOs and collecting business cards. How did this start, and what’s the backstory here?

Andrew Hermalyn
Sure. I was always a weird kid growing up. When I was nine years old, I started going to work with my grandfather who is 90 years old. He celebrated his 90^th birthday this past summer. And I started going to work with him. He’s the CEO of a small defense contractor that builds equipment for the U.S. Navy. And I started going to work with him (it’s a small business, about 45 employees) and walked around to everyone and asked for their title and asked for a business card so that I could remember their name, but also what they did.
And I started going to work with him on all my sort of school breaks and then decided, “You know what? I want to learn more about other businesses, about larger businesses,” and started then developing this idea that I wanted to be a CEO when I grew up. I was looking at my grandfather and said, “You know what? It’s a cool job and I want to do that.” So I started writing letters to CEOs of the biggest companies I can think of (Merrill Lynch and Citigroup and General Motors and Disney and Starbucks and Toys R Us), sending letters to the CEOs, asking for a signed business card and an annual report.
And it was a pretty basic letter. It was typed up, and I started off by saying “I’m Andrew Hermalyn. I’m nine years old and interested in your company, and I read a couple of articles about you.” So I started writing all of these letters and didn’t necessarily think about the responses I’d get. But growing up at that age, it was always really cool to come home from school and get a whole bunch of mail.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, yeah.

Andrew Hermalyn
And all of a sudden, I started getting all of these responses back from all of these letters, and almost all of them responded.

Pete Mockaitis
No kidding.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yep.

Pete Mockaitis
The vast majority in fact responded. That’s something.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. You know, honestly, pretty much all of them. I actually never got a note back that said, “No, I’m not going to send you a business card,” and “No, not an annual report.” I either got a note back or didn’t hear from them or no response. And so I got all these really neat letters back, and some of them really thoughtful responses telling me about how they got started and what they studied in school and advice. And it always included a signed business card and an annual report.
And as I wrote all of these letters and got all of these great responses back, I just kept writing and writing and writing because it got to a point where it was both fun to build this collection of business cards as all my friends were collecting baseball cards. And as you probably remember, back then, we’re going back almost 20 years, companies spent a lot of money on annual reports.

Pete Mockaitis
Right. They’re snazzy and glossy and imprinted.

Andrew Hermalyn
Right. Hardcovers and pictures and all that. And it was actually really fun to look at all of them. And one of the saddest things for me, as I continued to do this, is they just got progressively worse. Then we got paper and no images and all that. Anyway, I started writing all these letters, kept writing and writing, got a ton of just incredible responses back, and really continued writing to CEOs and executives from all different companies and industries really throughout my teenage years.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that is so cool and fascinating. And it just seems like there’s a book there.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah.

Pete Mockaitis
Pretty easily. I want to know, how big did the collection get in total, in terms of the number of cards?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. I probably have in nice books about 500 CEO cards or executive cards.

Pete Mockaitis
So it’s like you’re doing about as well as Fortune Magazine, then, in terms of who’s included. That’s cool.

Andrew Hermalyn
It’s also that at nine, I was one of earliest subscribers to Fortune Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and still today, read them as they come out.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s cool. I’d love to hear. Boy, maybe this is a whole other podcast episode, but that’s fine. We could go here a little bit. So what were some of the key themes that you picked up from these folks? So they’re hyper-successful in their careers and they’re thinking reflectively on “What should I tell a young person who’s interested in that?” And I’d like to hear a few things that seemed to come up over and over again there.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. One of the things that the letters evolved into was, on all my breaks, there was a point at which I was old enough and thought, “You know what? I’d really like to meet them in person.” And so I stayed in touch with all those that I wrote and scheduled meetings with them. So I’d gotten to meet well over 300 or 400 CEOs and execs through my teenage years. And I’d go with my grandfather. As a CEO, he was my chaperone. My parents were both teachers and loved what I was doing, but my grandfather was with me.
So that’s where I really sort of went in and had a list of questions that I’d love to ask, and it was some really great meetings. So the things that I feel like, for me today, I look at as themes, one of the questions I always liked to ask was, for them, what’s the most important leadership quality to have in business? And it was pretty fascinating. Most of them had very similar responses. They all said you need to have trust. Your partners and your employees have to believe that you’re competent and honest as a leader. And you need to have passion. You need to have humility.
One person I remember says, as Walt Disney once said, “It’s good to have a failure early in life.” It makes you humble and determined. And so that always came up that great leadership is all about managing people and resources and communicating well. So those were really common themes. Trust and passion and so forth.
The other thing I also found really interesting is we talked about management styles and we talked about management philosophies. How do all of these leaders operate? And also, again, some similarities. Some would say that what they want to look for in those who they surround themselves with are smart and kind, hardworking people, less worried about experience and specific areas of expertise, and more along the lines of “Are you passionate, and are you hardworking and driven?” So that word “passion” would frequently come up. Using good judgment and being accessible to employees and being happy and sane.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s cool. And so I’m curious to hear. Did you get any advice that was just sort of like shocking or counterintuitive or like, “Hmph.”? Because that sounds like tried and true wisdom of the ages that you’re sharing there, which absolutely is real and true and helpful. I’m wondering, is there anything you heard that made you go, “Really?” but you found out it was dead-on later in life?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. The one thing that surprised me, and this again was my early teens, so way before college, is you read articles, and growing up, I always thought you had to go to college and major in finance, you had to major in accounting, you had to major in engineering to get a job. And if you didn’t do that, you wouldn’t be successful.
But what was fascinating is when I’d ask these individuals what their advice would be on choosing a college major or ask them what they studied, the vast majority of them said, “Follow your heart,” that your college major and what you study is not important and doesn’t matter too much, and that you should be doing something that you’re interested in and passionate about. And take your undergrad education as a way to explore things that maybe would take you out of your comfort zone. And then perhaps go to graduate school and get formal training in whatever you’d like to go into.
And that actually really did surprise me that they encouraged me to do what I found interesting. Don’t worry about whether it leads to a job or a successful career. And I thought the other thing that they said which I was a little bit surprised by was all of them, for the most part, would encourage me to take risks early. And the feeling there was because it’s later in life where you draw upon a range of experiences that are often hard to take later on. And so they can all point to risks that they took early on that really led them to have successful careers. So those would be the two pieces that would come to mind.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s cool. Thank you. Well, now, it seems like you’ve taken some risks along the way in order to move so quickly to your current professional role. So you’re there, and it seems like you got there pretty fast. Can you give us a little bit of a context for where are you now and how did you get there so fast?

Andrew Hermalyn
Sure. So where I am, my particular role with 2U is I’m our Executive Vice-President for Strategic Partnerships, and so my job is to focus on building relationships and partnerships and driving growth for the company with university partners. And so for me, it’s, in a lot of ways, taking the early experience I had in life, meeting with successful individuals and networking and developing relationships, and really doing the same thing today with faculty and deans and provosts and university presidents. And so I’ve been able to lean on a lot of what I learned early in life to get me to where I am today.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s great. All right. Executive Vice-President. And can you refresh us? I’ll be rude. What’s your age?

Andrew Hermalyn
28.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s good. That is good.

Andrew Hermalyn
Got married last year.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, congratulations.

Andrew Hermalyn
Thank you.

Pete Mockaitis
I got married a few weeks ago.

Andrew Hermalyn
Congrats to you.

Pete Mockaitis
Good stuff. All right. So now I’d love to hear. So what you’re currently doing is a lot of networking and relationship building stuff. And I think there are many listeners who are pretty ambitious, motivated, driven. They kind of would love to see themselves with a cool range of influence and responsibilities quickly. So what do you think are some of the things that made a difference for you to get to a quick ascent there?

Andrew Hermalyn
I believe it’s very important to network and seek out a mentor, and to be a mentor. And for me, I enjoy mentoring others. I love when people reach out and ask me for advice and ask me questions. And for me, it’s kind of a little bit of a role reversal because I had done that and still do today with a lot of the folks that I met and wrote letters to and network with. And so for me, really important is sort of the networking aspect. I’ve benefited from my mentors in such meaningful ways. So I think one is you’re developing and expanding a social and professional network and being really thoughtful about that. So that’s one thing.
For me, too, it’s all about confidence. For me, it’s being confident in my ability to be driven and to do the things that I want to do and be able to accomplish those. I don’t hold myself back. And if I feel ready, I’m going to take on a bigger challenge or ask for more to do. And therefore, what I’ve seen in my early career is consistently taking on more responsibility. I think that’s all how we grow. During my time at 2U, I’ve made it a practice of volunteering to take on the tough assignments. Now, 2U for me is… I’ve been with the company from Day One, and so it’s the only company I’ve truly worked for during college and then, of course, post-college.
The other thing I’d say is, for me, it’s leaning on experiences that I’ve had, sharing those with others, but at the same time, throughout that, taking note of the things that I want to personally improve on. And so it’s not only just taking on the tough assignments. For me, that has gotten me to progress throughout my time here, but it’s also surrounding myself with individuals who are guiding me and driving me and are passionate and sharing the same interests and are there to lean on for questions. I mean, one of the things someone told me early on in my life is that if you’re not saying “I don’t know” often, you’re probably not doing much.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, there you go. That might be the featured quote of the conversation. That was good.

Andrew Hermalyn
And I say that to my team all the time. “I want you to say ‘I don’t know.’ I want you to be comfortable saying that.” And for me, I do that often, and I’m not afraid to do that. And therefore, I’m learning new things every day by saying that.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Great. So when you say leaning on experiences, you don’t mean leaning on your own experiences as a means of building your confidence, but rather, you recognize, “I don’t have this experience, but I know I’m close to people who do.” And therefore, you have that confidence to go into some territory where you may well be a bit clueless and freaked out, but you know that you’ve got some resources to go to.

Andrew Hermalyn
That’s right. And I have no fear of saying, again, “You know what? I have no idea what you’re talking about,” or “Please explain that.” And yes, for me, I also know that, again, 2U is where I’ve been and what I know really well, but there’s a whole lot else out there that I’m learning from on a daily basis.

Pete Mockaitis
Now, I want to go deep, if I may, into your brain and mindset there.

Andrew Hermalyn
Sure.

Pete Mockaitis
So you said you have no fear or whatsoever with regard to having to say, “Hey, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And I think many people might find that terrifying, like “I am in over my head. I don’t belong in this meeting. I am red-faced. I’m getting hot. I’m getting embarrassed.” Freak out mode. And that doesn’t even trouble or faze you. I mean, I got to know. Why? What is it that gives you the superpower?

Andrew Hermalyn
You know, it’s a couple of things. I mean, I can honestly say I almost enjoy being in uncomfortable situations. In some way, I sort of thrive on them. And we all deal with uncomfortable and awkward moments probably on a daily basis, in some way. For me, at a relatively young age, I’ve learned that life is very precious and life is short. And for me, one of my mantras, if you will, is “Don’t ever be afraid to ask” and “Don’t ever be afraid to push yourself or to push others if, where, and when appropriate.”
And so for me, that was sort of instilled in me at a very young age. It really, I think for me, started with my family. It’s had the biggest impact on me. I mentioned my parents are both lifelong educators. Both retired now, but they instilled a set of values in me that provided sort of a foundation to build upon throughout my career. And for me, if you have good values, they help you make the proper decisions when difficult decisions have to be made, or when you’re in uncomfortable situations. So for me, it’s always saying “You know what? It doesn’t hurt to ask.” The worst you get is a no, or the worst you get is not a response. And you know what? You move on. You learn from it, and you move on. And I say that to myself often.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. That’s really good. So life is precious. Time is scarce and short, so go after it. And I guess I’m thinking a little bit about maybe the meaning you assign to “I don’t know.” I think that seems to be the difference is that many people assign “I don’t know” to “I’m a loser. I’m a failure. I’m ill-equipped. I should have done my homework. I’ve screwed something up.” And you assign the meaning to “I don’t know” to “We’re going into some interesting territory in which we’re learning and growing, and this is fun.”

Andrew Hermalyn
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think, for me, “I don’t know,” being able to say that is both not easy, as you’ve said, but in my opinion, it’s a positive and not a negative.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Understood. Well, that’s fantastic. And I also wanted to hear, when it comes to confidence, I imagine there are probably times (in most professional lives, there are) where you feel not so confident. You feel like, “Uh-oh. This isn’t looking so good here. I really am in a tight spot,” or “I’m about to screw up or fail,” etc. What sorts of things do you say to yourself or things do you do to get back to that centered, strong place where you’re rocking and rolling with the typical Andrew confidence?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. For me, I certainly can point to cases where that’s been. I think where I learn from those experiences, where I kind of pick myself up and get out of those, is by surrounding myself with individuals who will help sort of guide me in the right direction and who will offer both advice and wisdom and can have an honest, open conversation as to what a particular issue is and how to go about solving it. And one of the things I encourage on my team, and I feel like it’s something that carries through the entire organization here at 2U, is sort of being thoughtful in really all that we do.
That’s a very broad statement, right? But what I mean by that is don’t be quick to act. Think about the second-, third-, fourth-order effects of a decision that’s being made today. And so for me, it’s putting everything into perspective. I feel like I say that a lot. Maybe my wife Sarah will tell me I say it too much, but let’s put it into perspective. This isn’t brain surgery. This isn’t the end of the world. The world is not going to end tomorrow. And let’s figure out how to make the best of what’s been given us. That, I think, is a lesson that I learned, but as you know, Pete, it’s not just in your work, right? It’s in life. That’s sort of a life piece, life statement.

Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s so true. That reminds me of one time. I was in one of my very first cases at Bain when I was doing consulting there. I was screwing up. I was in over my head. There was a lot of intense demands that required some late nights, and I wasn’t doing such a great job. I was making little mistakes on short timelines where those little mistakes became visible and kind of made us look dumb as a team, so it wasn’t a shining couple of weeks of my career.
And I remember Brett. He was so awesome. He looked at the work, and we had a chat, a little catch up. Once things calmed down, he said, “Well, you know, it’s just work.” So I was like, “Oh, man.” He’s not saying this isn’t bad because it’s bad, but he’s saying it’s just work. And it’s true.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. It’s totaly true.

Pete Mockaitis
The way I think about it, in a lot of professional jobs, and this kind of helps calm me down, is that no matter how bad you screw up, in many professional jobs, nobody is going to die. And that’s not true of folks who work at the military or police or transportation, trains and planes, or medicine. There are numerous careers where if you screw up, people will die. And so if you’re working in finance or some kind of other role, education, training, etc., if you screw up real bad, it will be embarrassing, it will be a waste of people’s time and money and resources, but no one dies. And that, I find, has been a helpful touch point whenever I start getting a little anxious about how things are going.

Andrew Hermalyn
Completely. Right. You live and learn.

Pete Mockaitis
And speaking of perspective, so you’ve got a personal motto, #hustle, which is fun.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah.

Pete Mockaitis
And so I’d like to hear, when it comes to perspective, about how much hustle is too much hustle? In terms of I see that work is, when it’s really fun and interesting, it’s energizing and you can just pour more and more and more of yourself into it. So now you’re married and such, how do you think about working (I don’t want to say the word “balance,” but I will) balance? The hustle and the quick progression and making things happen with personal care, the rest of life, and making it work out okay for your health and the wellbeing of those you care about.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. You used the word “balance.” When someone says “So how do you think about work-life balance?” my answer is always “I don’t think about it.” And it’s not that I don’t believe in work-life balance, but for me, I don’t think about it because I really love what I’m doing at work. I love the energy. I love the people. I just love everything about what we’re doing, and therefore, the hustle, whether it’s too little or too much, but let’s go all out. Let’s just do as much as you can.
I don’t think about it. And how I balance that with outside of work, when I leave the office, is Sarah is an amazing partner. We met in college. We both went to Lehigh University. We’ve been together for, technically, I guess, six years or so. We’ve known each other longer, got married last year. And just having a great partnership in sort of the home front. Now we’re newlyweds, so it’s important to be around. And I travel a great deal for work, and so, yeah, I guess I’ll go back to saying putting all of this into perspective. For me, it’s not a question of whether it’s too much hustle because I’m fortunate enough to, again, love what I’m doing, and therefore, don’t need to think about it all that much.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s great. So just a quick follow-up. Do you have any rules, standards, guidelines, protocols in terms of like leaving at a particular hour or not looking at email during dinner?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah.

Pete Mockaitis
Or any key rules that you follow such that you don’t have to think about it because they’re just things you follow?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. I certainly take advantage of time when Sarah and I are on the weekends and so forth. I’m really not on email, unless there’s something big coming up. But yeah, I mean, weekends I’m always around. And at night, when Sarah and I are together, I do my best to discipline myself to not have the phone next to me. When we’re out on vacation, I will leave the cellphone in the room so that I’m not tempted to look at it in any way. And it’s not easy to do that, but when I do it, I feel great.
The other thing I’ll say is I really do love waking up very, very early. I feel like the time between let’s call it 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., I can accomplish so much. And I love that feeling when I’m accomplishing a great deal before I feel like anyone else has started to work. So I’ll take advantage of those times as well. I’ll also say it’s sort of a habit of mine is I love running. I love to run, and so I’ll make sure I discipline myself to run and use that as sort of an outlet both for keeping active and healthy and so forth, but also breaking up the week a little bit.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Yes. So now I want to talk just very briefly about the particulars of your role when it comes to partnership and development, in terms of your quick tips on growing relationships effectively as well as in moments in which you’re trying to be extra influential or persuasive, what you do such that you are indeed easy to say yes to.

Andrew Hermalyn
I think it’s pretty simple. The way I think about that is we’re all people. Whether it’s Wall Street or Main Street or whatever it is, it’s all people. And remembering that we’re all living lives and we all have a lot of things going on. And so when I think about that and remind myself of that, it becomes a conversation. It becomes a getting to know you. It becomes developing a relationship. Now, having said all of that, my approach is always being very honest, being very direct and transparent, and being very confident.
And so when going into a particular meeting, I want to know that I am well-versed on any and all questions that I may get right now at this point. I sort of anticipate the questions and the concerns that will come up in work. But being able to develop a very, very strong relationship that’s built on trust, I think, is the key to success.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Very good. I think maybe it’s on my mind because… I don’t know if you’re familiar with Dr. Robert Cialdini and the six weapons of influence. And he just wrote another book, which I was reading on my honeymoon. It was that good.

Andrew Hermalyn
Oh, neat. Okay.

Pete Mockaitis
It’s called “Pre-Suasion.” I hope to get him on the show soon.

Andrew Hermalyn
Great.

Pete Mockaitis
So I’d like to hear. That sounds great. Trust and relationship building, and knowing that we’re people and not some magical unicorn superstar, and keeping grounded there. That’s great. I’d also like to hear if there are any particular words, phrases, or do’s/don’ts that you kind of keep in mind when you’re engaged in some sales of persuasive activity, like in particular and specific tactical stuff.

Andrew Hermalyn
So I’d go back. One of the things is when you’re being asked a question and you don’t know the answer, what do you say? You say, “I don’t know.” I’ve actually used that quite a bit, not just internally but externally. And I’d rather say that and then go get an informed answer and be great in follow-up versus saying something that I don’t have complete confidence in.
The second thing in all of this is I always think about follow-up. Follow-up is key. I think a lot of people are not great at it. So it’s knowing how to follow up appropriately and then, therefore, developing a relationship when you’re not in front of the person all the time. I mean, today I had to manage communication both on phone and email. So follow-up is always key.
The other thing for me is it’s developing a relationship and starting out a conversation in a meeting that doesn’t just dive in right to the work or right to the specific topic that you’re talking about. Again, I love the interaction with people. That’s where I get most excited about. It’s the relationship building. It’s getting to know them. It’s getting to know their interests. And really, it’s becoming sort of a lifelong learner. And as part of that, for me, I like to ask them questions about their successes and their aspirations.
So I think for me, one of the tips is you want to infuse, in any conversation, in my particular role with faculty and deans and provosts and presidents, a level of discussion that’s not directly tied to what we’re going to talk about, which is online education. “What’s some of the research that you’ve done? What are some of the books that you’ve read recently that you found interesting?” And so you’ve got to bring that personal element, in my opinion, to make it all real.

Pete Mockaitis
Perfect. Well, thank you. So tell me, any final things you want to make sure we cover before we hear about some of your favorite things?

Andrew Hermalyn
The one thing I thought of coming on this, Pete, was I told you about writing all those letters to CEOs. Well, I did this thing with my grandfather. He came with me to all these CEOs and to all these meetings, and finally I’m like, “You know what? I’m going to write my grandfather a letter. Pretending that I’m not his grandson, I’m going to write him a letter as I would any CEO, and I’d like to see how he responds.” And so I did this when I was in my early teens again, and he said two things to me that will always stick with me.
He says, “People who have long-reaching dreams, given proper balance in their life always become successful.” And he mentioned Oscar Hammerstein wrote words to a song “Happy Talk” in South Pacific, where he says, “You have to have a dream because if you don’t have a dream, how are you ever going to have a dream come true?” And my grandfather says, “So true.” And that will stick with me because it’s sort of something that has kept me both motivated and excited to continue to follow what I learned at nine, which is I want to be a CEO and have a great deal of impact and have an amazing team and mentor others. And so I sort of end with that, Pete, just as something special for me that he shared that with me.

Pete Mockaitis
Brilliant. Thank you. So now, could you start us off by sharing a favorite quote?

Andrew Hermalyn
Sure. One of my yearbook quotes, actually. The quote is by Roberto Clemente, and he says, “Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you’re wasting your time on earth.”

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Thank you. And how about a favorite study or piece of research?

Andrew Hermalyn
You know, this one is difficult for me. I read almost too much, and I find that sometimes they all sort of blur together. My studies are largely around companies that I find fascinating. So a couple of years ago, there was a study around Starbucks when Howard Schultz stepped down and then they brought him back to sort of reinvent everything that they were doing. So reading case studies on how companies have done complete turnarounds.
The other thing I like, I love reading studies on how companies, both on the consumer’s side, on the research side, and even some of the defense contractors, how they’ve grown as companies in this sort of digital age. So how companies are evolving so quickly with social media and Twitter, and how companies like Gap are organizing themselves around customer service relative to tweets and things like that. So no specific study, but I think the digital age piece and how companies are really turning themselves around, I love reading and find fascinating.

Pete Mockaitis
Thank you. And how about a favorite book?

Andrew Hermalyn
A childhood favorite book. Still today, I have it at my desk. It’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss.
Pete Mockaitis
Oh, that’s so great. Our guest number 100, Topper Steinman, my uncle and a mentor to me—

Andrew Hermalyn
Oh, very cool.

Pete Mockaitis
Sometimes, that is his keynote speech is just reading that book slowly, dramatically, and well, with some Pepperdine… And it’s good. And you’re all going to be like, “Yep. That’s good. That’s a good speech.”

Andrew Hermalyn
That’s good. I might use that.

Pete Mockaitis
Take it away. He reads something and he points out, “Oh, yeah, you’ll see some of this in customer service and analytics, won’t you? Yeah, you will.”

Andrew Hermalyn
Nice.

Pete Mockaitis
So that’s good. And how about a favorite tool, whether that’s a piece of software, a gadget, or just products you like to use?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. Because of my travel, I actually, several months ago, got on the iPad Pro, the smaller version, not that gigantic thing, the smaller one. And I’ve really disciplined myself to use that over a laptop. Love it for travel. Love it as a tool. So I guess I’d say iPad Pro.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Super. And how about a favorite habit, a personal practice of yours that’s been really useful?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. I’d say two things. On the sort of routine front, I mentioned running. I love to run. But I also love taking… I take a ton of notes. I can’t remember a lot of things with all the things going on, so I write in journals all the time.

Pete Mockaitis
All right. Cool. Thank you. And I want to follow up with that. Do you have a particular system for segmenting all of the notes and journals and things you’re collecting such that you can readily find it later? Is it designated notebooks for different topics or color-coding? How does it work?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. That’s a great thing. So I turned on to this amazing company called Shinola. I don’t know if you know Shinola. They’re in Detroit. American-made, and it’s awesome. So they make these awesome journals. I give them out as gifts a lot of times. So yes, color-coded based on work, personal, and sort of other. And travel with them.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. Very good. So does that mean that you have two with you in your bag for work and personal?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yes.

Pete Mockaitis
Okay.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yep, two.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s good. Thank you. And how about a key sort of nugget or thing that you share that seems to really get your teammates or folks that you’re presenting to kind of nodding their heads in agreement with “Yes. What you’ve just said, Andrew, is so smart.”?

Andrew Hermalyn
You know, I think they all nod when I use the word “hustle.” You said it before. That’s my motto. I use it in emails. They all understand what it means when it comes to me, so I’d say my nugget is “hustle.”

Pete Mockaitis
Okay. And what would you say is the best way for folks to get in touch with you if they want to learn more and see what you’re up to?

Andrew Hermalyn
You know, some people say I’m old school when I say email. Email is always best, but I’ve gotten really big on Instagram. I actually love Instagram. But email is best, so andrew@2u.com. I’m also on LinkedIn and Twitter as well.

Pete Mockaitis
Just the first name. It’s so hip.

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. You get into a company early enough, and I guess you get to get that.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s right. And with a name that’s Andrew. It’s extra cool as opposed to one of a kind.

Andrew Hermalyn
Right.

Pete Mockaitis
Super. And would you have a final challenge or a call to action that you would issue to those seeking to be more awesome at their jobs?

Andrew Hermalyn
Yeah. It’s something that I was told by a close mentor of mine, and I’ll share it. “Mentor your strengths, and surround yourself with people that will help you with your weaknesses” is the challenge that I’d like to share.

Pete Mockaitis
That’s great. Thank you. Well, Andrew, this has been a real treat. I love how we’ve covered your childhood to now and collected lots of useful pieces along the way. So we really appreciate you taking the time, and I just wish you and 2U tons of luck with what you’re up to there.

Andrew Hermalyn
Thanks for having me, Pete.