This is john Garrett and welcome to Episode 168 to the Green Apple Podcast. Where each Wednesday, I typically interview a professional who’s known for a passion or an interest outside of work, making them stand out like a green apple, and kind of a boring red apple world. And I just love how many people are out there, shattering the stereotype of what people think of accountants and consultants and lawyers and engineers. And, you know, we’re true humans that have passions and interests outside of work. And for some reason, the first thing that we want to do is leave those outside the office because we feel pressured that they don’t belong, or there isn’t a charge code to talk about this, or to actually get to know each other.

And what I found in my research and in the book that I’m writing that will be out sometime early part of next year is, is that you know, people’s passions and interests outside of work, are actually the heart of the culture of your organization. And that’s the very thing that we leave outside first, which is crazy. But if you think about it, your organization, what makes you unique is your people. That’s what everybody says, and what makes the people unique. It’s not their technical skills, it’s their passions, it’s their outside of work passions and their personalities. For instance, if you think about your firm, if you were to replace all the people with new people that have the same skill sets the same degrees, the same certifications, it would be a completely different firm and a completely different organization. And the reason for that is because people have different personalities and different passions outside of work. And so therefore, we need to shine a light on those. And we need to celebrate those. And we need to figure out more ways to bring those into conversations in the office. Because that’s the cool stuff that’s happening in people’s lives.

And so it’s been so fun doing consulting work across the country, with firms bringing more of that in and seeing the benefits from that. It’s been really fantastic. And it has been great traveling all over and meeting so many of you in person. It’s been really cool. I started out the year in Las Cruces, New Mexico. And then was fortunate enough to do all of the Sage Sessions, conferences all over the US and Canada. And I was all over Texas this year, for some reason, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas twice. I mean, it was just so fun. And New York City and Portland and Seattle and Tucson, Arizona even got a trip to Kauai in there and finished up the year in St. Louis. So thank you so much for everyone that’s come out and heard me speak and brought me into your firms. And, you know, I’m so excited to see what 2019 brings.

Yeah, and all the guests that have been on the podcast as well. I mean, because that’s where the magic that is just finding out that it’s such as my story. It’s It’s so many of our stories that we have these passions and interests outside of work. And therefore the stereotype of what we think or what most people think is completely upside down. The stereotype is all the people that I’ve had on this podcast, the 167 plus that have been on the show. I mean, I started out the year with Becca Shane talking about running and I loved her quote, “If you only talk about work, you’re going to be pretty boring.” Like, that’s so true. And then later on, I had Sean Stein Smith that so many people have been like, what he’s a drummer, like he drum like a drum set. Like, how awesome is that? And then Mathew Heggem talking about how making dances like making business, which is great. No one tells you that in Business School, one of my favorites was Mark Winburn talking about how his singing is him breathing in happy. And I remember asking him “Well, what about IT audits?” And he’s like, “Yeah, not so much.” I mean, just breathing and happy. And how many times do we suffocate our people and not let them go and breathe in, they’re happy. And then firms wonder why engagement solo and turnover so high, maybe let your people breathe, and they’re happy and see what happens. And then it was so awesome, talking with Hannah Horton and Abby Parsons about how they took their fiddle lessons during busy season. And everyone now at LBMC and all over their firm knows them as the women who did fiddle lessons. Like how great is that? It’s so cool. And then Jennifer Warawa, you her quote of your vulnerabilities are what give you a unique perspective at work, which dovetails so perfectly with the message of you know, your vulnerabilities are actually your strengths. Those are the things that make you better at what you do, and it seems like they have nothing to do with your job, but they totally totally do. And Elizabeth Pittlekow Kittner, talking about how her swing dancing allowed her to connect with her co workers on multiple different levels. Which is so fun and and how cool is that Chris Meshginpoosh Managing Partner talking about how we break dances like that’s so great than all the guests that have been on this year in the podcast. Overall, it’s been really awesome just sharing people’s stories. And I can’t wait to continue to share the more of those stories. And so if you or someone you know, has an interesting passion outside of work, and it could be anything at all, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming, just please reach out and share that because the more that we share, the more that it shows that this is actually normal.

And like I mentioned earlier, I’m gonna have a book coming out in the first half of 2019. I’m so excited about it. And really appreciate all the support going into it. And so be on the lookout for that. And you can actually go to the recovering CPA calm and sign up for the email list to be on a notice for some launch surprises and extra things that you can get in on early and once again, please don’t forget to rate and review the show on iTunes or whatever app you’re using. Because that’s so important and boosting the ratings of the show and getting more listeners coming in that are new. So if you could take just 60 seconds to do that, that would be fantastic. So once again, thank you guys so much for listening and for being a part of this movement of showing that there’s a human side to all of us. And this is what the true future professional looks like someone who has passions outside of work and is also really good at their job. So thanks again for subscribing and sharing this with your friends so they get the message that you know we’re all trying to spread which is to go out and be a green apple.