We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Brady recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I served on our local school board for 12 years. During that time, I saw many young people who, despite having pursued post-secondary education, did not have the skills to present themselves as professionally as they could. They were lacking in how to communicate well; how to interview; networking; and many other skills.

I realized that K-12 schooling does not have time to add education in these topics as there are already more requirements than can be addressed; and post-secondary institutions often do not offer these classes, either (and if they do, many young people don’t even realize how much they’re needed). And if a person does not come from a family where professional skills are taught or modeled, they may never have exposure to how to behave in a way that will support and further their career goals.

At that point, my consulting firm, SchoolComm Consultants, decided to start a subsidiary, Magnify Education, dedicated to producing programs addressing these skills. In June 2020, following the events and reactions around the murder of George Floyd, we realized what our first effort should be: a program helping teach how to increase empathy with intention, by understanding the scientific basis of how empathy works.

We spent several months deciding if and how to pursue this program, and then decided to move forward with an animated series in eight sections:
1. Introduction to Empathy: What is empathy, and why is it important;
2. Mocking Your Sight: Optical illusions result from how our eyes and brain work – but how does this relate to empathy?
3. The World of Bias: Bias is baked into our DNA and part of being human; there are lots of types of bias, and we look at four of the many different kinds;
4. Where Are You in Culture: “Culture” is more than your heritage – it’s who you are in the various groups you find yourself in; your culture is unique, and by understanding and recognizing this, you can better appreciate yourself and others;
5. The Ins + Outs of Diversity: Diversity is everywhere – in our food, our plants, in everything we do; and it’s important, sometimes crucial, for survival. Appreciating and leveraging diversity in those around us leads to better results for everyone.
6. The Impact of Our Emotions: A look at Emotional Intelligence, or EI, by examining a number of different Theories of Emotion; plus, we take a deeper dive into Cognitive Appraisal Theory, or CAT, which can help us understand and change our emotional response to situations.
7. Listening for Understanding: Our ears and brain work together much like our eyes and brain do, and this can lead to not truly “hearing” others; how can we use Active Listening to better connect with others?
8. Pulling It All Together: We have all heard of the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you’d have done unto you.” But the epitome of empathy is the Platinum Rule: “Do unto others as they’d have done unto them.” It’s like buying a gift for someone – do you get what you’d like, or do you take the time to get what they’d like?

From concept to release, this program took over 2.5 years, and countless hours from our small team of four. But the result has been well worth it – a powerful, humorous examination of how empathy works, with ways to build your skills to increase your own personal level of empathy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My background is strategic marketing, and I also have a love for supporting education. After starting my career at a large consumer packaged goods company, I moved to progressively smaller businesses, finally starting my own consulting firm. My current company, SchoolComm Consultants/Magnify Education, is dedicated to supporting school districts and non-profits in their communications efforts. We can serve as an outsourced communications department for districts that do not have the funds to have someone in-house, or we can support an existing communications department in a variety of ways.

Magnify Education currently has the one program released, and we are working on additional programs.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting is something I have done regularly throughout my career and life – without having to pivot so many times in the past, I do not think I would have taken the chance to invest in a project of the magnitude of Magnify Education. Probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my life is that things often don’t go according to plan … the ability to pivot is necessary to keep moving forward.

I started my career in one of the largest consumer goods companies in the world; and I soon discovered I hated it! That led to my first pivot: how could I focus on what I enjoyed about the job and industry yet leave behind what was not right for me? That led to me moving to progressively smaller organizations, until the point where I started my own firm and several other small businesses.

Unfortunately, pivots were also required in my personal life: health issues caused an inability to invest the time and energy needed to make several of those businesses work; and while it was heartbreaking to realize that I had to move on, there was no choice. I needed to make the investment (time, energy, focus, and funds) into my health, or I would not have had any options.

So when it came time to start SchoolComm and, subsequently, Magnify, I knew what it would take and I knew I *could* pivot when necessary. We have pivoted several times in our few years, and I believe we are stronger than ever!

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I have a remarkable team of people working with me on Magnify, and I am so grateful to have them with me! My day-to-day partner is my daughter, Natalie. She started working with me during COVID, and despite some times when we both wondered if it was worth pursuing a working relationship, we have developed strong professional ties. I am continually in awe of her grit, intelligence, creativity, and commitment. She was responsible for taking tons of information on the topic of empathy and turning it into informative, approachable, and engaging scripts.

We met our videographer, Billy, through our strategic development partner. While he had never done animation before, he proved himself to be not only an amazing live videographer, but an exceptional animator as well. He brought the scripts to life in a way no one expected, using such relatable, real-life situations (and such humor!) that if you haven’t experienced a specific situation in a video, you likely know someone who did.

Our final team member, Taylor, is an incredible graphic designer and marketer. She’s able to capture the essence of what we want to communicate in graphics, and she makes us look sooooo good! Taylor had been working with us for a couple years in SchoolComm before joining the Magnify team. She ties everything together and helps ensure we are communicating our business and programs effectively.

The four of us have become quite close through this process. We greatly enjoy each other’s company, and these three dynamic personalities have taught me so much about the upcoming generation. They have challenged me and made our program and company better and stronger with their ideas and commitment!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://magnify.education
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MagnifyEd
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreabrady/
• Other: SchoolComm Consultants: https://www.schoolcommconsultants.com