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Carla Youngblood [00:00:05]:
I am Carla Youngblood, the CPA by day, and Carla “The Truth” Youngblood, the comedian by night. And when I’m not on stage making people laugh, you better know what I’m doing. I’m listening to John Garrett on What’s Your “And”?.

John Garrett [00:00:20]:
Welcome to episode 645 of What’s Your “And”?. This is John Garrett and each Wednesday, I interview a professional who, just like me, is known for a hobby or a passion or an interest outside of work. To put it another way, it’s encouraging people to find their “And.” Those things above and beyond your technical skills, the things that actually differentiate you when you’re at work. It’s the answer to the question of who else are you beyond the job title? And if you like what the show’s about, be sure to check out the award-winning book. It’s on Amazon, Indigo, Barnes and Noble bookshop, a few other websites.

John Garrett [00:00:51]:
All the links are at www.WhatsYourAnd.com. The book goes more in-depth with the research behind why these outside-of-work passions are so crucial to your corporate culture. And I can’t say how much it means that everyone’s reading it and writing such great reviews on Amazon. Thank you so much for those. And more importantly, changing the cultures where they work because of it. And if you want me to read it to you, that’s right. This voice reading the book. Look for What’s Your Hand on Audible or wherever you get your audiobooks.

Carla Youngblood [00:01:17]:
And please don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast. You don’t miss any of the future episodes. I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week. And this week is no different with my guest Carla Youngblood. She’s a CPA with Urban Impact in Birmingham, Alabama. And now she’s with me here today. Carla, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

John Garrett [00:01:36]:
Awesome. Thank you for having me. It’s just great to be here.

Carla Youngblood [00:01:39]:
Now it’s gonna be so great. So much appreciated you meeting you when I was in Birmingham for the Alabama Society of CPAs annual meeting. So now able to connect with this, and this is gonna be so much fun. I’m excited. I have rapid fire questions. Probably should’ve asked you when we were hanging out then, but I thought why not do it for the podcast?

Carla Youngblood [00:01:58]:
Alright. Let’s go.

John Garrett [00:01:59]:
Here we go. You’re ready. How about a favorite color?

Carla Youngblood [00:02:02]:
Black.

John Garrett [00:02:03]:
Black. Solid. Okay. How about a least favorite color?

John Garrett [00:02:07]:
No, miss. I love all colors for real.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:09]:
Oh, okay.

John Garrett [00:02:10]:
Black is just easy to wear.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:12]:
Alright. There you go. There you go. Yeah. Just in case all the colors are listening, we don’t want to. Exactly.

John Garrett [00:02:17]:
But I love all colors.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:19]:
There you go. How about your first concert?

John Garrett [00:02:21]:
Oh my goodness. My first concert, Rick James and Tina Marie. No way.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:26]:
Oh my lord. That’s amazing.

John Garrett [00:02:28]:
They were in Birmingham, Alabama and it was out of the park. So it was amazing.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:33]:
That is wow. That I am super jealous. That’s awesome. It was hot.

John Garrett [00:02:38]:
It was hot. It was when I say hot, I mean, the concert was hot and it was doing just what Vic James do. Everybody was firing up and I’m like, oh, what have I gotten myself into? But we had a blast. It

Carla Youngblood [00:02:47]:
was awesome. That’s amazing. That I love it. This is a fun one. Socks or shoes? Socks. I’ve gotta have socks. I even sleep

John Garrett [00:02:56]:
in socks.

Carla Youngblood [00:02:57]:
In a really short time,

John Garrett [00:02:58]:
I have to put them on.

Carla Youngblood [00:03:00]:
Okay. Alright. Alright. How about puzzles? Sudoku, crossword, jigsaw puzzle?

John Garrett [00:03:05]:
Combination. But I think Sudoku is my favorite. It’s a little challenging for me. Yes.

Carla Youngblood [00:03:10]:
How about, a favorite actor or an actress?

John Garrett [00:03:13]:
Oh, man. That’s a big one. But if I had to pick one now right off top of my head, I would say Angela Bassett.

Carla Youngblood [00:03:21]:
Oh, there you go.

John Garrett [00:03:22]:
Okay. And she’s done a little bit of everything. She’s played all kind of roles. So right now, 911 is on fire, so I’m loving it.

Carla Youngblood [00:03:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. How about, toilet paper roll? Over or under?

John Garrett [00:03:34]:
Oh, it’s gotta be over. If it’s under, I have to put something in my purse when I go to other people’s houses and use my own. If theirs is under, I can’t do it. I mean,

Carla Youngblood [00:03:41]:
you use your own.

John Garrett [00:03:42]:
That’s hilarious. Over. If they got it under, I don’t

Carla Youngblood [00:03:45]:
wanna use it. That’s amazing. That’s next level. This is alright. We’ve already set all kinds of records. That’s awesome. How about do you prefer more hot or cold?

John Garrett [00:03:54]:
Oh, definitely hot. The hotter the better.

Carla Youngblood [00:03:57]:
Okay. Okay. How about a favorite animal? Any animal at all.

John Garrett [00:04:01]:
Oh my goodness. It would be a lion because I’m a Leo, so I love Leo the lion. So when I go to the zoo, I always see the lions. They’re one of the most beautiful pictures God has made.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:12]:
Yeah. Very Leo of you. I love it. That’s awesome. Is your computer more of a PC or a Mac?

John Garrett [00:04:18]:
PC. Me and Mac just have not become good friends.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:21]:
Right. This is a fun one. How about on your mouse? Right click or left click?

John Garrett [00:04:27]:
Right.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:28]:
Right click. Yeah. It’s the one that opens up all the cool stuff. Right?

John Garrett [00:04:31]:
All the cool stuff. It just comes alive. Even when you don’t want it, it comes.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:35]:
Look at it. There you go.

John Garrett [00:04:37]:
Every time then you’re clicking, you get a supplies because you don’t know what you’re getting.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:41]:
That’s exactly right. Brownie or ice cream?

John Garrett [00:04:44]:
Oh, I want both.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:46]:
That is the right answer.

John Garrett [00:04:47]:
That is the combination. You can’t have one without the other. It’s gotta be both.

Carla Youngblood [00:04:51]:
No. You can’t. A warm brownie? Absolutely. I love it. That’s awesome. How about a balance sheet or income statement? Oh.

John Garrett [00:04:59]:
I like doing the income statement but the balance sheet tells the real story.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:04]:
There you go. And you know when it’s done because it balances.

John Garrett [00:05:07]:
Exactly.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:08]:
That’s awesome. How about a favorite number?

John Garrett [00:05:11]:
7. My birthday is always the 7. 7 is the number of completion.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:16]:
There you go. There you go. I love it. How about a least favorite vegetable?

John Garrett [00:05:21]:
Least favorite vegetable. Oh, and it’s amazing. I really like a lot of vegetables, but what is it I don’t like? Oh, those little early peas, field peas. I don’t know what they’re the green peas. I don’t know what they’re called, but sweet peas. That’s what it I least favorite.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:38]:
Yeah. Yeah.

John Garrett [00:05:39]:
Vespas shouldn’t be sweet.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:41]:
Yeah. Right. Especially naturally, I’ll do it myself. 2 more. Star Wars or Star Trek? Neither. Neither. There you go. Neither.

John Garrett [00:05:53]:
I am not into that at all.

Carla Youngblood [00:05:56]:
At all. Here you go. Alright. And the last one, the favorite thing you have or the favorite thing you own?

John Garrett [00:06:00]:
Believe it or not, one of the favorite things that I own is the Wii. It’s a old game. Most people have moved on to something else, but I hold on to my Wii. I love it.

Carla Youngblood [00:06:11]:
The we. That’s what I remember that where when and then you could act it out. Yeah.

John Garrett [00:06:15]:
All of a sudden you’re

Carla Youngblood [00:06:16]:
waving your arms around like

John Garrett [00:06:17]:
You can dance. You can play sports. You can, you know, go in here and get your tennis shots, your basketball hoop on. So, yeah, I love my we.

Carla Youngblood [00:06:24]:
That’s awesome. I love it. So let’s talk comedy. And how did that get started? Because you don’t do that on accident. I know for sure.

John Garrett [00:06:32]:
You know, believe it or not, that’s crazy. I always think about it. I set I did entertain the family, but nothing just said, hey, I wanna get on stage. I wanna perform. I always enjoy watching comedy, but just never thought, oh, I gotta do it. I gotta do it. As a CPA, I was working for a real estate attorney. And they said if you had a real real estate license, you could do more work for me, so I woulda got one.

John Garrett [00:06:58]:
So I think I got that license just to get the comedy because they had a realtor’s got talent show at a live comedy club, lights full of people. So I said, you know what? I’m gonna perform. I’m gonna write me a 5 minute set and do some comedy. You know, I’m always doing it at home, cutting up with the family. And I did, and then I told myself, go ahead and do it. If it goes well, you can keep doing it. If not, you can say, okay. Forget it.

John Garrett [00:07:25]:
That’s not your thing. Move it. Leave it alone. Yeah. After that 5 minutes, people were asking me, how long have you been doing this? And I’m like, I think that went okay. And so that was 13 years ago. And I think about 6 months after I started doing the company, I stopped doing real estate altogether. I let it go.

Carla Youngblood [00:07:46]:
Wow. Okay.

John Garrett [00:07:47]:
I got rid of that and picked up the company.

Carla Youngblood [00:07:50]:
That’s so great. So do you have some favorite shows that you’ve done?

John Garrett [00:07:53]:
One of my favorite shows, which I thought was odd, but I guess everybody has to have the association. What is it? A Funeral Association of Alabama.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:04]:
Oh, there you go.

John Garrett [00:08:05]:
And they asked me to come and be their entertainment for their annual conference.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:10]:
Oh my lord. Oh my god.

John Garrett [00:08:12]:
I didn’t even realize I had so many dead people jokes. They eat it up.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:18]:
They love

John Garrett [00:08:19]:
that material. And they just went on and on and on about that. So it was amazing.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:26]:
That is amazing.

John Garrett [00:08:27]:
That was one of my favorites. I was like, who knew that they didn’t have an association and have an annual conference? But they did and I enjoyed it.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:37]:
That’s amazing. I mean, to do comedy at a funeral director association, That’s that’s amazing.

John Garrett [00:08:44]:
I’ll tell them, they’re all somebody watching the news hoping somebody gets shot so they have nowhere to go.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:50]:
They’re not going out of business.

John Garrett [00:08:51]:
They are not going out of business.

Carla Youngblood [00:08:54]:
At some point, we’re all headed there.

John Garrett [00:08:55]:
At some point, they know we’re headed there. And so that’s what business as day in and day out.

Carla Youngblood [00:09:01]:
That’s so funny. And so do you feel like the comedy gives you a skill that you bring to the CPA work that you do?

John Garrett [00:09:09]:
Well, you know what? It keeps me personally light. It keeps me light. You know, at times, CPA work, it can be cumbersome. But because of my view of life, because of comedy, it keeps me light so I don’t get bogged down by it.

Carla Youngblood [00:09:25]:
I agree. I mean, it it’s a reprieve. It’s a break. It’s you not having to worry about all the accounting all the time or having to there’s no right answer too when it comes to comedy.

John Garrett [00:09:35]:
Exactly. There’s no right answer. But what I like even better, there’s no wrong answer.

Carla Youngblood [00:09:39]:
Yeah. Right. Exactly.

John Garrett [00:09:41]:
Everybody may or may not take your flavor, but still there’s no wrong answer to it. It’s your approach. And I’ve really learned that about I’m a say about going on 9 years ago. I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And so I went through that, had a double mastectomy, did radiation, did chemotherapy. And after I finished with all of that, I did a one woman show called the truth about breast cancer. And I tell you, the response I got from other survivors was amazing. So I thought that was pretty cool to go and be able to talk about a subject that hard and make people laugh about it.

Carla Youngblood [00:10:20]:
Yeah. I love that so much because, I mean, a lot of comedy is pointing out where life is hard. And, I mean, going through that, I mean, I can’t imagine. But, I mean, that’s as hard as it gets, I would think. And, you know, to be able to come out of that and still have that perspective and be able to smile and laugh about the parts of it that are funny, it provides an outlet for the other people that are going through it or also went through it. So that’s beautiful that you did that. That’s so awesome.

John Garrett [00:10:49]:
And that’s why I was so drawn to you when you came and spoken. You talked about being a CPA and being transitioning to comedy and being transitioned to speaking because now I’m in a slow transition to speaking because I’m going to more doctors and nurses conferences talking about my situation, but of course, doing it in a humorous way, giving it a chance to understand the whole subject, but yet providing a covenant relief in the midst of the conversation. So I’m slowly transitioning.

Carla Youngblood [00:11:21]:
Absolutely. I love that. Because if you wrap the subject matter in in funny, then if they’re laughing, then that means that they’re listening. And so that means that, you know, okay, I’m able I’m dropping these seeds in the middle of their laughs, and then you know for sure that they’re on it. Comedy is such a powerful art, and it’s so hard to do. And I don’t think people appreciate it and how fragile it is and sensitive it like, an acoustic guitarist could just get up in the corner of some cafe and just go play your thing. And then comedy, no. I’m not doing that.

Carla Youngblood [00:11:54]:
Are you crazy?

John Garrett [00:11:55]:
Exactly. Exactly. Because early on in my career, when I was doing comedy, I had some friends say, Hey, we’re gonna be down here at this bar. So I went, I’ve never gone again. When people go to the bar, they go to drink and do just what you said. They’ll hear music, but they didn’t go listen to comedy. So that is not the place for it. So you’re absolutely right.

John Garrett [00:12:15]:
They can listen to music or guitar or either a horn or even somebody’s singing, but they do not go to a bar to hear comedy. So never again have I done that. I learned my lesson.

Carla Youngblood [00:12:27]:
Yeah. Comedy requires the rest of the audience to shut up. It requires

John Garrett [00:12:31]:
their undivided attention if it’s gonna be successful. Exactly. So like you said, it’s hard. You can sing, you can dance, you can do it. But to go in and tell a group of people I’m gonna make you laugh because that’s essentially what you’re telling them when you take the stage that I’m going to make you laugh. Yep. And you gotta deliver or else.

Carla Youngblood [00:12:51]:
Yeah. Yeah. Or else. Amen on that.

John Garrett [00:12:53]:
There’s always the else.

Carla Youngblood [00:12:55]:
That is brutal for sure. And so I I love that that skill set that you bring to work now. And did you always have that mindset before doing comedy? Or was it something else that maybe was your hand going through the CPA world?

John Garrett [00:13:10]:
Well, it was always, like I said, enjoying being with my friends and my families. And it was as if I was always the center of attention, always the life of the party. And so just having that conversation and getting people to just laugh at themselves has always been a part of me. Not really thinking I would take it to the stage, but knowing I can get people to laugh that I can laugh at myself and get them to see it’s okay to laugh at themselves.

Carla Youngblood [00:13:38]:
Totally. And now that you’ve taken it to the stage, you’ve sharpened that saw. So now when you’re back at work, you can the jokes are sharper, funnier, and tighter. People are laughing more like everything’s better now.

John Garrett [00:13:49]:
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. If you’re holding that skill and sharpening the knife, things are definitely better. And it’s just everything is it’s quicker. It comes even quicker now.

Carla Youngblood [00:13:57]:
Right. Absolutely. It’s just more reps. Yeah. And and so this is something that you do talk about at work. People know the combination

John Garrett [00:14:03]:
of Everybody know when I host shows, they come out to see me. And the the first time my boss saw me, he was like, he couldn’t look at me for a week. I was like, you know because he was just so so he was like, I know you cut up in the office, but I didn’t know how bad you cut up on stage. But everybody now, they talks about it. And when they introduce me to different people and people come in the office, that’s one of the first thing they tell me. And I’m like, okay. That’s not my first go to conversation. But it relaxes everybody to hear that.

Carla Youngblood [00:14:30]:
I love that so much. It’s you know, that it’s the human side of Carla.

John Garrett [00:14:35]:
Yes.

Carla Youngblood [00:14:35]:
It’s not the work side of Carla. That’s incredible. You know, this is Carla. She does comedy. It’s not this is Carla. She does our income statement. Exactly.

John Garrett [00:14:45]:
Exactly. It’s weird. He introduces me as this is our CPA. She does comedy. And I’m like, okay. I’ll take that. I’ll take that.

Carla Youngblood [00:14:55]:
Hey. I’ve been called a lot worse in life. That’s for

John Garrett [00:14:57]:
sure. Exactly. So if that’s the way I’m getting ex deduction, I would take it every time.

Carla Youngblood [00:15:01]:
That’s incredible. I love it so much. And how much do you feel like it’s on the organization or on leadership to do that? You know, know your hand and introduce you that way or create that space to shine a light on that? Or how much is it on the individual to raise their hand and

John Garrett [00:15:18]:
After you came to town and I heard you, that’s something I’ve been trying to work on with my executive director. Because also I have as a small non profit, you have to wear many hats, sort of a HR hat as well. And so that’s one of the things that I want us to we’re gonna have you we have sessions every Monday, every other Monday. And that’s one of the things I’ve been working on to put together to figure out everybody else’s end. Because if you can talk about what they’re really enjoying with their life, it makes for a smooth transition at work. It makes for everything to just flow. And like you said, not just talking about what it is we do for the nonprofit to find out what this person likes to do when they are not in the office. It makes a huge difference.

Carla Youngblood [00:16:03]:
Yeah. I love it. And plus then they feel valued as a human. You know, like, oh, they they see me for me, not just me for the work that I do here type of a thing. And you’d wanna talk comedy all day versus talk about accounting.

John Garrett [00:16:19]:
Exactly. And so we’ve gotta pick I’m working on I’ve got put something together that we’re gonna host throughout the office to figure out what everybody else’s and is. And if they say they don’t have Anne, we’re gonna help them discover their Anne.

Carla Youngblood [00:16:31]:
There you go. Come and hang out with Carla for a day. I’ll find you an Anne.

John Garrett [00:16:35]:
We’ll find you an Anne because because as you stated, everybody has one. There’s something somewhere where they have a Anne.

Carla Youngblood [00:16:42]:
Yep. And it’s hiding. Maybe you put it down in the basement corner and said I’ll come back for you later. But no, it’s there. It’s just you have to peel back the layers and acknowledge that there’s more to who you are than just your job. And then all of a sudden you start to think of, well, I used to like to do this or I used to like no. No. That’s it.

Carla Youngblood [00:17:02]:
Right there. You didn’t used to. You still do, you know, type of thing.

John Garrett [00:17:07]:
Well, I never thought about it the way you put it. What’s your and? But I’m always prior to hearing you say, what’s your and. I would always just ask people if you could do anything in the world all day or any day you wanted to, what would it be? And you’ll be like, well, what do you mean? I’m like anything. If it’s dancing, if it’s playing cards, whatever it is, just go into the zoo. I said, what is it you would do 2, 3 days a week if money was not a object? What would you do? But now I like the perspective from saying, what’s your end? Because, yeah, we work and we do x, y, and z. But what is that thing that when you leave, what did you look forward to doing? You look forward to doing on the weekend, at night, in the evening, on your day off. So I’ve always asked people that, but I just never put it in that phrase, what’s your aim? But I like that.

Carla Youngblood [00:18:00]:
I appreciate it. Thank you for the kind words on that and the impact that it made, you know, from hearing me speak because it just makes it simple. Because it also acknowledges the work part of you and the other parts of you, you know, type of a thing. We’re not one dimensional, and we’re raised to think we’re just one person. But we’re a whole collection of cells inside our head. And, you know, who else are you? Let’s find out because there’s probably some really cool versions. I mean, I remember when I worked as a CPA myself back in the day. You you work, and then all of a sudden you go to, like, a happy hour, and you you talk to somebody, and you’re like, man, you’re, like, really cool.

Carla Youngblood [00:18:37]:
You should bring that version of you to work on Monday because, like, this has been really sucking for, like since I started here. So, you know, like, why is it a different you know, it should be the same you. Like, how you bring the funny and and the right times to work. And, you know, why would you not bring in those skills and that mindset and those things that you get from your hand to work? I mean, it makes you better at your job. It makes you different than everyone else in a good way.

John Garrett [00:19:08]:
In a good way. Right. And it makes you more relatable because we’d be surprised at the things that different ones would have in common if they would just have discussions about it.

Carla Youngblood [00:19:16]:
And then it starts to bridge generational differences. It starts to bridge DEIA differences. It starts to bridge all those things when we just bring human and human together. Then all of a sudden, we’re not so different.

John Garrett [00:19:29]:
We’re not so different. When we but when we don’t talk about it, we don’t know it.

Carla Youngblood [00:19:33]:
Absolutely. Well, I love that you’ve taken that initiative. Do you have any words of encouragement to people listening that maybe they have an end, but they feel like no one cares or it has nothing to do with my job?

John Garrett [00:19:44]:
Yes. What I would say to people is, believe it or not, your a n is gonna make your everyday whatever it is even better. Because when people can relate to it, they will incorporate your a n. Because like I said, at work, it’s amazing. Everybody has a joke to tell me. It is not a joke to work and tell me what they heard funny over the weekend. When you find out what it is that person’s thing, you’re gonna share with them when you run across it, when you see it, when you hear it. So it’s gonna make you a better, more conversational individual and understand how, like you said, we can really bridge.

John Garrett [00:20:22]:
But if they don’t know, they don’t know to talk about, they don’t know to see it. But, oh, and we didn’t go by without somebody saying I got a joke for you.

Carla Youngblood [00:20:29]:
Yep. There you go.

John Garrett [00:20:30]:
Got a joke for me or they will tell me about everybody now wants to talk to me about other comedians, if they went to a comedy show, if they saw something funny, I’ve gotta see it, I’ve gotta hear it. So I tell them, if it’s golf, we gonna be talking to you about the famous golf people, about these golf shoes we sell. But whatever it is, people will be drawn to you for that conversation. But if they don’t know what to talk to you about, sometimes they just don’t.

Carla Youngblood [00:20:57]:
Yeah. And and then they don’t talk to you and then you’re completely forgettable. And it’s it becomes a transactional sort of two dimensional thing that’s very surface level and gross.

John Garrett [00:21:07]:
And that’s boring.

Carla Youngblood [00:21:08]:
Yeah. No. I man, it’s so fun when other people tell me jokes. And my favorite thing of all time is when a little kid tells me a joke. Oh my god. It’s like they learn the magic of, like, if I say these words, then people laugh. It’s like, wow. And you could just see it in their eyes when they hit the punch line and especially when they nail it.

Carla Youngblood [00:21:27]:
And you’re like, oh my. That’s so good. You know, even if it’s a joke I’ve heard, I still laugh super, super hard, especially for kids.

John Garrett [00:21:33]:
And it’s funny that you say that because my grandson who’s now 9 oh my goodness. Every time we talk, he’s got a joke for me. Every time I see him, he will sit there and he’ll say, I’m a tell you a joke then you tell me a joke. I’m a tell you a joke. So now he’s really paying attention to little funny things that he could share with me. So and I really like that because that’s got him paying attention to something different, but that’s something he could share with me. So I really like that.

Carla Youngblood [00:22:06]:
That’s incredible. I love that so much. And it’s so I have to have an Evernote, like, on my phone of kids’ jokes because, yeah, they’re always like, now you tell me one. I’m like,

John Garrett [00:22:15]:
Exactly.

Carla Youngblood [00:22:16]:
It’s like, none of these I’m allowed to tell you, but then I have the kids’ jokes ready to go. And I’m like, ah, perfect. Here we go. And I still think they’re funny too. So they’re hilarious. So so that’s awesome. Well, Carla, this has been so great having you be a part of What’s Your Ann, but I feel like since I rudely peppered you with questions at the beginning, it’s only fair that we turn the tables and make this the Carla Youngblood podcast. And I’m your guest.

Carla Youngblood [00:22:40]:
You’re the host. I’m all yours. Whatever questions you wanna ask me, fire away.

John Garrett [00:22:44]:
Well, good. I wanna walk through a transition from not way from I wanna do it backwards, though. Let’s go back to where you were a CPA. What drew you to become a CPA? How did you get there?

Carla Youngblood [00:22:54]:
A d in physics. And that’s not a joke. I got absolutely destroyed my freshman year at University of Notre Dame. I mean, there were kids coming in with AP credit. And my tiny little public high school I thought AP was a college football pool. I didn’t know what AP credit was. So I just got absolutely destroyed in engineering. And so then I transitioned over to business, and then I was like, well, what’s the business degree that I can get and get a good job but with the lowest GPA? And they were like, oh, accounting.

Carla Youngblood [00:23:36]:
Yeah. And I was like, perfect. And I worked hard. I got it up to almost a 3.1 cumulative, and I was pretty excited about that. So that’s how I that’s how I ended up in accounting. And, also, too, it’s kicking the can down the road on deciding what you wanna be. Because with an accounting degree, you can go into finance, you can go into management, you can go into IT, you can go into all these other jobs, but you can’t go the other way around. So I was like, okay.

Carla Youngblood [00:24:00]:
Well, yeah. I’ll get the accounting degree, and then I’ll decide later what I wanna do when I grow up. And so that it was a kind of a perfect storm of all those things.

John Garrett [00:24:07]:
Awesome. Because they yep. Once you get that accounting degree, you can just count this out on another area and go right into it.

Carla Youngblood [00:24:13]:
Absolutely. Because everybody wants numbers. I mean, at the end of the day, there’s gotta be dollars involved in these ROI decisions.

John Garrett [00:24:19]:
Exactly. And you gotta know them.

Carla Youngblood [00:24:21]:
Absolutely.

John Garrett [00:24:21]:
And so from that now, from a CPA to comedy, how did you get to comedy?

Carla Youngblood [00:24:27]:
Oh, man. Yeah. Also on accident, I was at a training in Pasadena, and it was a couple of weeks long. And every Thursday, Whose Line Is It Anyway would film in the studio, and then most of them would come down to the improv in Hollywood. And so we would go. There were 4 or 5 of us that would rent a car, and we would go down. And there were comedians before and after, like, a full, like, 3 hour show of, you know, 15 minute sets. And then in the middle there was 45 minutes of Who’s Line, which was awesome, not for TV uncensored, off script, whatever.

Carla Youngblood [00:24:59]:
But stand ups before and after, I mean, one night, Adam Sandler dropped in at the end. Drew Carey, of course, is there. Like, Vince Morris was so I talked to him after and he I’d seen him on premium blend. So I just asked him, you know, like, hey, how do you get into this? And and he said, well, you know, you you record yourself at an open mic and then you listen to it, and then you make changes and you go back up and keep going till it gets better. And I was like, alright. You know? Yeah. And so then I went to an open mic at the Funny Bone in Saint Louis in Westport Plaza, in February of 2000.

John Garrett [00:25:32]:
Wow. Yeah.

Carla Youngblood [00:25:33]:
I had friends there. I had couple of coworkers there. I had my parents there. We had no clue. My mom videoed it holding the video camera. We didn’t even put it on a tripod. Like so the video of my first stand up is, like, my mom laughing, shaking the camera, and it’s such an amateur thing. Like, obviously, you know, after that, I realized, oh, yeah.

Carla Youngblood [00:25:55]:
You put it on a tripod and put it at the back of the room, and don’t worry about it, you know, type of thing. But but, no, it’s a it’s classic. So, yeah, so that’s how I got into comedy, was doing that. I did a little improv as well and stand up for a little while, but then stand up was my thing.

John Garrett [00:26:09]:
That’s awesome. And it’s funny you said that everybody was there and they recorded. A friend of mine was at my show. I had a whole table with family and friends, and she recorded on her cell phone. Oh, wow. And yeah. And she made me have a camera recorder. She just pulled out the cell phone and recorded this set.

John Garrett [00:26:26]:
But because that was my first, didn’t, you know, I just wrote it and said, we’ll see what happens. We did put that out there. So at some point in time, just go and look up Carl A Youngblood and it’ll say my first stand up

Carla Youngblood [00:26:37]:
Oh, that’s awesome.

John Garrett [00:26:39]:
Is out there. So I understand that. So now you’re doing your stand up and that’s going great. But now you’re transitioning, now you’re speaking. How did that come about?

Carla Youngblood [00:26:49]:
Yeah. So, I mean, as a comedian, it’s weird because we’re trained to think as comedians that doing corporate is where comedy goes to die. Like, if you’re not funny, go do corporate or go do cruise ships or go do whatever. And that’s so wrong. It’s where people go to make a living. That’s really what that is. And also, there are some not good comedians that are able to skate by in that space, where in a comedy club, they would not be able to. But I would also say there’s some not good comedians that are skating behind the clubs too.

Carla Youngblood [00:27:21]:
So meh. So yeah. So I was doing the clubs, I mean, 50 weeks a year. I mean, I’ve been on stage 25 100 times almost now. And so just all the shows all the time. And I was living in New York City. I had a couple of near misses that would have been pretty amazing to share and talk about. And it’s not because I wasn’t good.

Carla Youngblood [00:27:44]:
It was because, you know, Letterman retires and then the dominoes start to fall from that. And so now, you know, you’re on the radar for Letterman but now you’re not because he’s done. And so, you know, that’s not because I wasn’t good. It’s because, you know, the universe, God, whatever, has other ideas. And so I just got frustrated with the entertainment machine. You know, they don’t really treat you as people. They just treat you as a a hunk of meat that they just throw in and grind out. And so I decided to marry corporate John and comedian John.

Carla Youngblood [00:28:17]:
And that’s when speaking at conferences, emceeing, things like that started. That’s how that all came about. And then the whole what’s your hand message was because I was doing that at guy told the meeting planner, I know John Garrett. That’s the guy who did comedy at night. And it was 12 years after I had left Wow. The last PwC office. 12 years later, a guy I never worked with ever, I never met him in person. And 12 years later, he remembered John Garrett as the guy who did comedy at night.

Carla Youngblood [00:28:46]:
And I think we all deserve to be remembered 12 years from today.

John Garrett [00:28:49]:
Exactly. That is awesome.

Carla Youngblood [00:28:51]:
Mean, it’s not for the work. It’s not for nailing the journal entries the first time, you know, or for, you know, whatever. It’s for who you are behind the job title. Bring that human out. And then, you know, good things happen.

Carla Youngblood [00:29:05]:
Awesome. And then when did you decide that you was gonna have to turn that into a podcast and write the book?

John Garrett [00:29:10]:
Yeah. And then it became, you know, me sharing other people’s stories. It’s not just my story. It’s our story. You know, I didn’t climb a mountain and I’m telling you about it. This is our story. And everyone that’s been a guest on the podcast, everyone that’s listened to the podcast that has an end, you’re all a part of this movement, of humanizing the workplace and valuing the worker as much as you value the work.

John Garrett [00:29:32]:
I love it. Okay. Awesome. Well, that is just wonderful. I’m just glad I met you at Birmingham and glad I have a chance to come and talk to you. I’m glad I have opportunity to be on the podcast. So thank you very much.

John Garrett [00:29:43]:
I can’t wait to catch you live one day, and that’ll be amazing. And but thank you so much for being a part of What’s Your Own and just being a living example of this, Carla. Thank you so much.

Carla Youngblood [00:29:52]:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. It’s just it’s been blast, and I’ll continue to do what I do, make it laugh, and I’m doing like you. I’m kinda married and corporate now with the humor and doing a little transition, especially because after going through the breast cancer and being able to make a light of that, but getting people to understand. And it’s amazing because doing it for other people who are going through it is good. But I’m finding that when I do it for doctors and nurses, sharing my perspective, which is a patient’s perspective, has been eye opening for them. So I think that’s really good.

John Garrett [00:30:23]:
I love it. I love it so much, and you’re making the world a better place.

Carla Youngblood [00:30:26]:
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

John Garrett [00:30:32]:
That’s awesome. And everybody listening, if you wanna see some pictures of Carla on stage or maybe connect with her on social media and get links to her books, be sure to go to what’s your anne.com. And while you’re on the page, please click that big button to the anonymous research survey about corporate culture, and don’t forget to read the book. So thanks again for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or whatever app you use and for sharing this with your friends. So they get the message that we’re all trying to spread that who you are is so much more than what you do.