Terri Suresh & Andrea Jones on The Wellness Curve P1 – YouTube.
Transcript:
Terri: Hi there, I’m Terri Suresh with the Wellness Curve. I am a nurse practitioner and CEO of Hormonal Health, Wellness and Skin Centers here in the DFW Metroplex. One of my biggest passions is sharing any kind of education with my audience whether it’s live, on television, in print, ways that we can be healthy. And that’s not just healthy physical health, that’s mental health, emotional health, spiritual health, and relationship health. Relationship health is key.
My guest today, that is her big genre is relationship health. Andrea Jones is The Relationship Coach. I’ve known Andrea for a couple of years now and she has been an amazing gift to my life and to my patients’ life. What we find is I balance hormones and I get people feeling healthy on one side, but they still have a lot of unhealthy communication styles with their partners whether that’s at home, their family, their business partners, their spouses, whatever that is. I brought Andrea here to share a little bit about herself and about what she does and how it can help you in your relationship health.
So welcome, Andrea, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your expertise. I’ve enjoyed so much watching you blossom into this role of The Relationship Coach and some people call you the modern day Dr. Ruth because you speak to intimacy in relationships and gender communication. But before we get into all that, just tell me a little bit about yourself.
Andrea: As you can tell, I have an accent. I’m originally from Germany. I moved to the States twelve and a half ago. I’m a mother of eight. I gave birth to four (I have twins in there too) and then I’m the stepmother to four more kids, so I have eight kids.
Terri: Wow. It’s like the Brady Bunch at your house.
Andrea: Yes, very much so. We have three boys at the age of eight, so I’m very busy and I’m also happily married, so I have it all.
Terri: That’s awesome. I know when you lived in Germany you worked mostly in a male dominated field, so that has a lot to do with where you are today. Let’s talk about your time in Germany. How did this evolve to come into teaching people gender communication?
Andrea: I think everything happens for a reason and made it full circle. When I finished high school I wanted to go to college. College is a little different over there. I went to go to college, and in Europe it’s common to go and do an apprenticeship (that’s what it’s called) at a company where you work and study at the same time. So I did that and while I was there they voted me into executive leadership program with that bank and I found out later I was the only woman that has ever been elected into that program.
Terri: Wow.
Andrea: That was the first new thing for me to be the only woman.
Terri: So that was a cue to you that maybe you’re doing something different that other women weren’t.
Andrea: Yes. I thought maybe I’m more determined than others and I have more set goals than others, but that was the beginning. When I finished with that program in college then I worked for a professional basketball team and I became the business manager for a male professional basketball team.
Terri: Talk about that because that’s pretty impressive. I don’t know, are there very many female business managers for professional teams? How does that work?
Andrea: Again, I didn’t know. I was asked to take over that position and I always loved sports. I did professional sports myself when I was younger, so I thought why not just give it a try? And I did. Then again I found out later that I was the first woman in the entire Europe that was the business manager for professional basketball team.
Terri: Wow. So you found all this after the fact. It wasn’t very intimidating because you were already in the role and you felt comfortable.
Andrea: Yeah.
Terri: How was that? What did you do? Not necessarily get into what is a business manager do, but how was your interaction with the players and the men on the team? How did that develop to what you’re doing today?
Andrea: I think what I never did is I never gave up being a woman, and that made a big difference because I didn’t try to become a man in this man’s world with other men. I always stayed close to be a true to myself to be a woman, so I brought female qualities to their basketball team. Years later when I left the basketball team they still said, “I wish you were here” or “We wish you were here” because the female touch to this entire very professional sports world was kind of gone when I left, just because of the female qualities.
Terri: Can you give an example? I know you’re not talking about bringing flowers.
Andrea: No. As women, we care more about others and you can be in professional sports and corporate America, but you can still care about others and show that care. I was very involved not only with the player but I was also very involved with the family of the player. The player was happy, that’s great, but if the wife who came from another country maybe didn’t speak the language wasn’t happy, the player was not happy. So I made sure the family is happy, the wife is happy.
One time I remember I had to go to back then Serbia. There was a war in Serbia. One of the players, his fiancée was in Serbia and they won’t give her a visa. So I travelled by myself. I had to fly to another country, cross the border by foot, go over there to the German embassy and Serbia to get that player’s fiancée out of there. That’s not a normal thing to do for a business manager; however, we knew that was a key player on our team, and without his fiancée there, he would not have played as well. Up to this day they’re still thankful.
There are just different things that you wouldn’t think about they are necessary. We were a team with a very small budget, but we were hugely successful and I contribute that to just being different making different decisions.
Terri: How well were you received in the beginning when you got into this role?
Andrea: It was funny because we teams in Italy that we played with. You might know Andrea, my name, in Italy, is a male name.
Terri: Correct.
Andrea: Back then we send faxes all the while back. I sent faxes to Italy and made arrangements for other teams coming, I signed with my name, and then I said “Andrea” and then they always wrote back “Dear sir” – but I was a female.
Terri: So it worked to your favor.
Andrea: Yeah. Then when they meet me at the airport they’re always shocked then say, “Where is Andrea?” and I was like, “That’s me.” They’re always shocked that a woman would have that.
Terri: So once you got past that initial shock, you were well received and they didn’t really have much issue. And the players received you well as well?
Andrea: Yes.
Terri: What about coaches and some of the others? Did you ever have any butting heads?
Andrea: No, not really.
Terri: That’s something I would expect in the States and not so much of Europe maybe. I don’t know.
Andrea: No. It’s just I think because I stayed a woman. I didn’t try to become a man and compete with them on a male level. I was a woman in a man’s world, but I didn’t become a man.
Terri: And staying a woman is one of the key things that Andrea really points to in her education. It’s a really important concept. What does that mean? It doesn’t necessarily mean flowers and frilly, etc. It means a lot more than that. So stick around with me and we’ll find out a little bit more about what Andrea does and what staying a woman means. We’ll be right back.
This is part 1 of a 4 part TV show that I (Patrick Dougher) produced a few weeks ago. Terri Suresh is a Nurse Practitioner in the Southlake TX area specializing in hormonal health and wellnes… In fast that is her website. http://hormonalhealthandwellness.com/
Terri’s guest on this show is Andrea Jones. Andrea is a communications expert between men and women. Her site is, http://www.menglish.com/our-trainers.html