Episode 283 – Mariette Martinez

Mariette is a Financial Educator & Salsa Dancer

Mariette Martinez talks about her early days dancing at rave parties, putting together the salsa popup dance party at a conference, and what it takes to build a great culture at the workplace!

Episode Highlights

Getting into dancing
Salsa popup party on YouTube
How finding joy in your life can lead to professional success
What holds people back from being open
Building a great culture in the workplace

 

Please take 2 minutes

to do John’s anonymous survey

about Corporate Culture!

Survey Button

Mariette’s Pictures

(click to enlarge)

Mariette hanging out at Quickbooks Connect

Mariette getting ready for a Facebook live

Mariette’s Links

Transcript

  • Read Full TranscriptOpen or Close

    Welcome to Episode 283 of What’s Your “And”? This is John Garrett. 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 differentiates you when you’re at work.

    I’m so excited to let everyone know that my book’s being published very, very soon, and it’ll be available on Amazon and a few other websites. Check out whatsyourand.com for all the details. I can’t say how much it means that everyone that’s listening on the show and changing the cultures where they work because of it, and the book will really help to spread this message.

    Please don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any of the future episodes of the podcast. I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week. This week is no different with my guest, Mariette Martinez. She’s a financial educator and accountant near Los Angeles, California, and her birthday is in two days. Oh, my goodness, and now she’s with me on What’s Your “And”? Mariette, thank you so much for taking the time to be with me here today.

    Mariette: Thank you so much for having me, and right before my birthday. I’m super pumped.

    John: No, I’m so excited to have you be a part this. I know a lot of your friends, and you’ve been a long-time listener as well, so thank you for reaching out and being like, “Hey, I want to be on too.” This is so perfect.

    Mariette: You know what? You have so many cool kids, I just have to be part of it. I’m feeling a little left out, so thank you for bringing me in.

    John: You’re the president now. You’re the president. All right. So you know, 17 rapid-fire questions, get to know Mariette at a new level here.

    Mariette: I’m a little worried about these because every time I’ve heard them, I don’t know how these people answer them. So, let’s go. Let’s do it.

    John: Okay, I’ll do an easy one. I’ll do an easy one. Cats or dogs.

    Mariette: I’m not really a pet person.

    John: Okay, people, people?

    Mariette: People person, yeah, I have a lot of people in my life, so, people, yeah.

    John: All right, how about a favorite number?

    Mariette: Yeah, seven.

    John: Okay, is there a reason?

    Mariette: Yes, because it took seven days to make our life, this earth and everything that we breathe, so, seven days, seven life, my favorite number.

    John: No, that’s most popular number, for sure, but I’ve never had that reason. That’s really great, really great. Okay, how about least favorite vegetable?

    Mariette: I think anyone I can’t pronounce usually.

    John: That’s great. I love that. Because then you don’t have to order it because you don’t even know how to say it.

    Mariette: Exactly. I don’t know how to say it, so I don’t feel bad that I’m not eating it. There you go.

    John: I love that answer. That’s so good, so good. How about Star Wars or Star Trek?

    Mariette: I’ve never watched either of them, sorry, guys.

    John: Okay, no worries. Fair enough. How about your computer, PC or a Mac?

    Mariette: PC, for sure.

    John: PC. Yeah, me too, me too. How about on your mouse, right click or left click?

    Mariette: I’ve never really understood that question. It’s just my finger goes where it’s supposed to, so I guess, left, I think.

    John: Left. You just make a decision. I can click on that. Bang. There you go. I love it. Oceans or mountains.

    Mariette: Definitely, oceans that have mountains around it because I like hiking.

    John: There you go. Okay, but do you like to look at the ocean while you’re in the mountain?

    Mariette: Yeah.

    John: Okay. No, that works. California is good for that. How about a favorite adult beverage? And don’t even tell me you don’t do adult beverages.

    Mariette: Yeah, I do do adult beverages. I feel really fancy when I order a martini.

    John: Yeah, it does sound fancy, doesn’t it? That’s great. How about balance sheet or income statement?

    Mariette: Oh, well I need to love both, so, both. Can I say both?

    John: Okay, trial balance? You need everything?

    Mariette: Let’s just say TB. Yeah, we’ll go with that.

    John: All right. Pens or pencils.

    Mariette: If it’s a really good pen, pen; but I love being able to erase and restart, so, pencil. I’m making this really difficult. I’m choosing both.

    John: No, that’s fine. It sounds like an enrolled agent to me.

    Mariette: Exactly.

    John: Well, it depends.

    Mariette: It depends. Yeah, let me go back and look at that.

    John: How about puzzles, sudoku or crossword?

    Mariette: I like it much more simpler, just something you can buy in a box and put it on your table and make it.

    John: Jigsaw. Okay, all right, jigsaw.

    Mariette: Yeah, I’m a jigsaw kind of girl.

    John: All right, this is super easy. Favorite color.

    Mariette: Definitely, and I know some of your guests are going to be irked, I love hot pink actually.

    John: Okay, okay. Fair enough. How about least favorite color?

    Mariette: If I had to choose, it would probably be black because I love color.

    John: Interesting. All right, okay. How about chocolate or vanilla?

    Mariette: Can I mix it together and have a swirl?

    John: Oh, fancy.

    Mariette: I like to swirl it up.

    John: Okay. All right, I see where you’re going here. How about a favorite actor or actress?

    Mariette: Ooh, that’s a great one. Let’s go back to Al Pacino.

    John: Solid answer, solid answer. We’ve got two more, two more. Early bird or night owl.

    Mariette: Both. I get up about five in the morning and I stay up until close to 12-ish.

    John: Wow, you are a robot. That is amazing.

    Mariette: I like to think Energizer bunny actually, but.

    John: Okay. Yeah, if I did that, I would just sleep during the day and then be like, yeah. I’m up at six. I’m awake at midnight. Because you’re awake at night.

    Mariette: Yeah, I’m awake at night pretty much. This is saying that.

    John: Excellent. Favorite thing you own or a favorite thing you have.

    Mariette: A favorite thing I own is my own life, and a favorite thing I have is my family.

    John: That’s very good. Just in case they’re listening as well then they don’t kick you out. And especially you, I mean, it sounds like, with all your aunts and uncles and cousins, how many?

    Mariette: Well, my mom immigrated with 14 siblings, so I have 14 aunts and uncles, and we have over 500 cousins. That’s first, second and already third generation.

    John: Holy cow. Wow.

    Mariette: Yeah, pretty much I have my life set with my family.

    John: Very cool, very cool. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome to have as well. So let’s start dancing.

    Mariette: Yeah, let’s start dancing. We were talking about it earlier that what brings me joy or what brings joy around other people with so much family members when there’s really not too much more to do, you dance. You just put the music on, or you bring a mariachi in or a big band. We love to bring the bands to our party, and we just dance. We just jam it out, and that’s it.

    I dance for fun. I danced when I was younger. My daughter dances now. She’s 14. Honestly I love dancing wherever I’m at. I was a club kid in the ‘90s, so I used to go to raves, and I’d dance at the raves. I’d get there at two in the morning and danced until 11 in the morning. I danced at conferences. One of your guests, Byron Patrick, he’s my dance partner, so if he’s listening, Byron, see you at the next conference.

    John: I would pay good money to watch Byron Patrick dance.

    Mariette: He’s a pretty good dancer. He’s a lot of fun.

    John: He seems more like a stand and clapper there guy.

    Mariette: Yeah, he’s a clapper, but he’s putting his arms up.

    John: Oh, man, this is so good.

    Mariette: It just brings a lot of joy to people. One time, with my partners, I have a bilingual platform called “Tu Tres Maestras,” we had a pop-up salsa party at Scaling New Heights in 2018. It’s on YouTube if you want to watch it.

    John: Very cool. Is it just like, hey, we’re doing this salsa party and everybody come?

    Mariette: You know what? It was a super — I don’t know if you guys ever seen The Simpsons where they actually had a pop-up party. It’s this really funny episode where the whole episode was about how he wanted to have a party, so he started sending messages. At the end, they had this pop-up party at this random place. It was pretty much like that.

    Since the day of the conference started, we started texting people and putting things on Twitter and on social. Then on the second day of the conference, at 6:00, in an actual, one of the rooms where we taught, we moved the tables and the chairs. We put on Despacito on the video, and we actually had a salsa party. We had over 100 people in there, and it was really amazing. That was one of those times when you ask for forgiveness, not for permission.

    John: Oh, totally, yeah, which is very un-accountant of you.

    Mariette: Yeah, it was very un-accountant of me, but there was a lot of accountants, a lot of partners in there, half partners. It was a lot of fun. Again the footage is on YouTube if you want to go search for it.

    John: That’s awesome. We’ll definitely have a link from whatsyourand.com. People can go and just click the link there, for sure. That’s so great.

    You just grew up from going to family gatherings and the mariachis and the bands and just everyone dancing and just getting into it. Did you ever do formal dance as well like what your daughter’s doing now?

    Mariette: I never did formal dance. My parents, they actually were competitive in salsa dancing. One of my nieces, my sister’s daughter was also competitive, she still is, in salsa dancing. I never went competitive. I just honestly did it for a lot of fun. Now my daughter, she also does it for fun. She’s been in hip-hop now for a year. I don’t think she ever wants to really go competitive. It also brings her joy, so that’s why we do it.

    John: No, that’s exactly it. I mean, it doesn’t have to be competitive. It doesn’t have to be for money. It doesn’t have to be anything like that. It’s just, you’re taking lessons so you become better. That’s great. Even if you don’t do lessons, it’s like, I just love to dance, and I should be teaching the lessons. Pretty much, that’s…

    Mariette: You know what? If you bring me on for a Follow-Up Friday, let’s say, two, three years from now, my dreams or passions is not to teach dancing but to teach Zumba because I like crazy dancing. That’s one of my goals, so let’s see if I meet them in a couple of years. I do want to become a Zumba instructor, so we’ll see.

    John: No, that sounds very awesome. It’s something that, like you said, brings you joy. How important is it, do you think, for professionals to have something that brings them joy, whether it’s work or, more than likely, something outside of work?

    Mariette: Yeah. I would say more than likely, something outside of work, but eventually you can bring it into work. I think it’s critical. I think it’s critical for sustainability in yourself and believing in yourself and growing yourself. I’ll just give you an example.

    About five years ago, I’ve already had my business for seven years, and I was just burned out, been in the accounting industry for 15 years, had my own practice for seven years, and I’m like, what’s up with this? I’m a pretty joyful person. Again, I’m a dancer. I jam it up. I’m just not feeling like dancing.

    So, I started learning more about how to bring more joy, how to transform your life, how to focus more on your why and your purpose. That was critical to me being where I’m at now. So I think it’s critical for you to actually continue being an entrepreneur, being successful is to make sure joy is a huge part of it.

    John: Yeah. That’s really powerful, and just to hear your story from that. Because it’s so easy to let professionalism just suffocate what we love and what we want to do and who we really are because we think we have to act a certain way or do certain things or whatever. We forget about those things that bring us joy, which is so powerful to hear. Joy is deep. That’s a big thing.

    Mariette: I think it is a big thing. I think that’s what it is too, is I think that this idea of a professional and a personal life — you actually recently put a tweet on there, and I said I kindly have to give you some push back. I don’t think there’s such thing as a personal and professional life. We live blended lives every day, more every day.

    When we have to work with so many different people and we have to believe in inclusion and really opening ourselves up to a bigger world, it blends everything that we believe in. It blends our beliefs, our values. We have to align more with that, and that’s very personal, like you said. That’s deep. We’re talking about deep connections.

    So, yeah, I think that we need to be more open, to understand it’s okay to be professional, but to bring that personal uniqueness into your world is what brings the joy into your world.

    John: That’s huge. It’s also what differentiates you. When you’re an accountant, let’s be honest, there’s another accountant within a block that does the same work you do pretty much. When clients are looking for work or when you’re looking to attract and retain talent as you grow, what’s the difference between your firm and the next one? Well, if you have no answer there, and it’s not the work that you do.

    On the rare one-tenth of 1%, a person that’s a wizard at something, okay, I’ll give that to you, but for the other 99.9% of us, no. There are other things to us, but even if you do have that thing, what is the joy, and where are you getting the joy in your life?

    Mariette: I love when you mention, let’s say you put ten accountants in a room and you ask them to tell you about themselves, the people that say, “I am an accountant, and I do this,” you lose those people. The people that say, “I believe in this, I am helping this community,” those are the people that you’re going to pull towards because you want to work with people that have a belief, that are passionate, that have a purpose.

    Everybody could do anything, honestly. Let’s be honest. But do you believe in it so much that you are just that green apple? That was your first name of your podcast. How are you really differentiating yourself? How are you that — the other one is the purple cow. How are you the purple cow? How are you sticking out? So, don’t be afraid to say, “I believe.” Truly, what do you believe in? Because I want to follow someone that has beliefs.

    John: That’s great. Yeah, that Seth Godin book is so awesome. In there, he says, “If you’re not standing out then you’re completely invisible,” which is so good. What do you think it is that holds people back from wanting to share that or wanting to open up like that?

    Mariette: Yeah, I love that question. Honestly I think it is that disbelief or that limited belief that as soon as you get personal, people are going to pull back. Actually it’s the complete opposite. It’s as soon as you get personal, you actually draw people in. We have to share that.

    That’s actually one of my biggest passions is sharing that when you actually share what you’re about, that draws the right people in, but you need to be open to do that. That’s why, again, I’m so honored and thankful to be here, John, because you gave me the opportunity to share what I believe, and those people that like it or are drawn to it or resonate with it, they’re going to now connect with me. Right?

    John: Absolutely, because you could help or be around anyone but you want to be around the right people. The other people are going to drag you down. They’re going to suck the joy out. It’s going to be exhausting. It’s going to be frustrating and all that. Going back to the dancing, do you feel like there’s a skill set or a mindset there that you bring to the accounting work that you do?

    Mariette: Yeah. It’s funny you bring back the dancing because just think about dancing. For instance, I teach a lot. I am part of the Intuit Trainer/Writer Network, so I create a lot of content for them, write for them and teach a lot of their courses, both live and at their conferences. If you see the feedback, people will say, “Oh, my God, she’s so enthusiastic. It sounds like she’s dancing. She has so much joy when she’s speaking. I can connect with her.” To be honest with you, ladies and gentlemen, I actually have a standing desk. I stand and dance all day long.

    John: Okay.

    Mariette: So, if you are watching or listening to one of my trainings, I am probably dancing or at least moving around in the background. Obviously that can help. So, yeah, I definitely think it’s that mindset that, it’s okay. You can be happy and excited about what you’re doing, but more importantly, if you’re not happy or excited about what you’re doing, what’s wrong? What’s going on? How can you change that? Because you can change that too. You don’t have to be stuck in misery.

    How do you change that mindset and be open to, now, having a happier, joyful, abundant life? Absolutely. I think dancing gives that to you. If you want to bring some kind of joy, even if it’s something small, just start moving around. Get that blood moving. Let that blood flow.

    John: Yeah. Even if you’re not good at it, if you’re having fun, who cares? That’s the thing. We’re so worried that we’re still in sixth grade, and everyone’s judging each other and going to shove you in a locker or whatever, just pass notes around about you or whatever. It’s like, yeah, I’m not a good dancer, and I don’t care.

    I love how you said that where if you don’t have joy, then find something that does and then bring it to other source. Work can bring joy, for sure, but there are times where it sucks. It’s hard and busy season or whatever. If you’re able to bring that dance to it, then it’s not as painful for you and also everyone around you.

    Mariette: Exactly. You know what? When you’re working with people that bring you joy too, for instance, I love the fact that we were talking about dance and talking about dance and work at the same time. That could be a great conversation starter. Hey, what do I like to do? What do you like to do? Now you have an opening.

    Sometimes also, when you said, what will draw people back to get more personal, they don’t have an opening. They don’t know how to start. They’re like, well, where do I start? Start with something you like to do. Then ask the next person, “Well, what do you like to do?” Right?

    John: That’s a great tip. Yeah, because the reciprocity, they feel like they have to share then.

    Mariette: Exactly.

    John: And it’s also you being a little bit vulnerable first. It’s not like you’re going to ask them, they’re going to answer, and then you’re going to laugh and point fingers and run away. It’s like, no. It’s amazing sometimes what our subconscious does to us to sabotage cool things, which is really, really a shame. Is this something that you do talk about? I mean, clearly, you do because you started a pop-up too.

    Mariette: Yeah, I do. I do talk about that a lot. I’m in a few groups really deep into my heart. I’m in a women entrepreneur group with over 60 women, and we talk a lot about mindset and joy and being in our zone of genius and our zone of excellence and our zone of joy. We talk a lot about that. I like to share about it through all my social media. If you follow me, you’ll hear me say that a lot.

    I even talk about it daily to my family, to my kids. They get home, and I’m like, so, what was cool about today? Not, what happened? What was cool about today? I try to bring that happiness out because nothing is cool when you’re a teenager sometimes.

    John: Right, right.

    Mariette: I try to pull it out of them. Don’t tell me the bummer stuff. Tell me what was cool. That’s where the conversation starts.

    John: Yeah. Wouldn’t it be awesome if a public accounting firm or a professional organization, whatever, an office, at the end of the day, the manager is like, “Okay, what was cool about today?”

    Mariette: Isn’t that cool?

    John: How great would that be if people did that, and how simple is that?

    Mariette: Yeah.

    John: What was cool about today? Someone is like, “Well, we didn’t kill each other.” Okay, well.

    Mariette: Well, John, you just gave me an idea. Imagine if you’re trying to bring that to your culture because company culture is so big. You’re talking about, how do we keep working on the mindset from a company perspective? It’s building your culture. But just imagine walking outside of the door, every time you walk and leave, there’s a big sign that says, “What was cool about today?”

    John: Yeah, yeah.

    Mariette: You leave with that in your mind. You leave with that, driving home to your kids or to your families. If you see that — or put it on a Post-It on your rear view. What was cool about today?

    John: Yeah, exactly. Then cover up the whole rear-view mirror so that when you get pulled over, you’re like, “But, officer, you don’t understand. I did this macro, and it was amazing.”

    Mariette: Put it up. Put it on your rear-view mirror right now. Put it on your radio. Put it somewhere.

    John: Yeah, yeah. No, but that’s such a great idea. I love that because what if? What if? That would be a cool place to work. How much do you feel like it’s on that organization to create that culture and maybe have these signs or whatever, where it’s cool for people to share outside-of-work passions, or how much is it on the individual?

    Mariette: Honestly, at this point, I think it’s probably 90% on the culture. If you want to build that culture, you do need to go over and beyond to bring that to them every day. I think, little by little, you’re going to gradually see that the team is going to just incorporate it, whether they’re going to just start asking the questions back or whether they’re going to start doing some organic just collaborations. Hey, I hung out with John today after work. We were talking about what was cool about what’s going on with our culture.

    It will happen. If you build it, they will go. They will get to it, and it will start becoming something natural to them, but absolutely it’s on the company to do it. Go back to the example, walking out and seeing a big, ugly, white wall or walking out and seeing this whole message saying, “What was cool today?” So, I think the company would do it, and they’re going to feel it. The people will feel it.

    John: Yeah, I believe what you’re saying, for sure. Because, like you were saying about the asking for forgiveness instead of permission, so many of us operate in a permission-based world where, well, they didn’t say we could. Yeah, but they didn’t say we couldn’t. At no point was there, you can’t use a conference base for a pop-up salsa dancing. You never told me. What do you want from me? Did we break anything? No. What’s the damage here? Nothing. If anything, it’s the opposite.

    Now, it’s cool. It’s on YouTube. Everybody knows. They know the name of the conference where it happened. That’s where cool stuff goes down. So many of us operate in asking for permission, but if you give them the permission, if you build the sandbox, if you will, then it’s like, okay, anything in here, go nuts, play.

    Mariette: I think you closed it perfectly when you’re like, that’s where cool things go down. So, someone needs to do it. In the case of me, yeah, I did a pop-up party, but now people are going to be like, that’s where the cool people are. That’s where people can get away with having salsa parties. So, now, they’re going to attend that conference.

    Even if the host didn’t necessarily give you permission to do it, I probably brought more people to the conference for the following year without really intentionally doing it. That’s exactly what that does. It brings in people you want to align with your business, with your culture, with your long-term plans and goals.

    John: Yeah, and I mean whether it’s a conference, whether it’s an organization that’s every day. Yeah, and if somebody’s out there and they’re like, I hate salsa dancing, well then don’t come. I don’t care. Don’t work here because if you work here, you’re not going to be a right fit anyway because if you don’t like salsa dancing, then you’re not going to like Mariette; and if you don’t like Mariette, then you don’t like these other 99 people. You’re eventually going to get angry anyway, so we might as well filter you out now. Instead of being for everybody, let’s just figure out who we’re actually for and then go love them even more.

    Mariette: I love that. Oh, my gosh, I’m so into that. Yes, love even more the ones that are your people. Absolutely.

    John: No, no, that’s awesome. Do you have any words of encouragement to anyone listening before salsa pop-ups start happening in all the conferences everywhere?

    Mariette: I would say the words of encouragement is just to break down really what we were talking about, is that everybody has something in them that they love doing, and I think sometimes we forget. We haven’t done it for a long time. You’ve had some guests here that have talked about things that they haven’t done in years or even decades, but when they start doing it again, they feel alive.

    I’ll just give you an example of Kristen DiFolco. You had her, and I was so touched by her interview when she started talking about singing. It really brought me in because it helped me to remember. Am I still doing things that bring me joy, that I love doing, that I can bring in to my, both, personal and professional life, which I call the blended life?

    You all have it. Every single one of you guys have it. You just have to go back and sometimes go real far back and remember what it is. John made me go back to the ‘90s when I was raving and dancing. He said “Really tell me what brings you joy, what makes you get on fire.” I’m like, well I used to be a raver, a club kid in the ‘90s. Is that cool?

    John: But it leads out to so many other things today even, your love of dancing even in your home and then sharing that with your daughter and going to see her perform and living vicariously through that and your family events and all that.

    This has been awesome and so much fun. It’s only fair that since I started out rapid fire questioning you with all these hard questions, now you’re the host, and it’s your birthday. Why not? So, two or three questions, anything you want to ask me, and I’ll let you be in charge.

    Mariette: I did have a question for you, and I want to find it because I — oh, yes. The first one was this one. First, I wanted to ask you, why do you do rapid fire questions?

    John: Oh, okay. I do it because I think it’s a really fun way to just get to know someone, off the bat, with just some mostly surface level questions that might lead to something where you’re like, I would have never guessed that. Somebody, what’s your favorite band? They’re like, Slipknot or some heavy def, metal, whatever. You’re like, what? You’re a managing partner of a law firm. I would have never guessed that. Or something where you’re just like, that’s cool. You just get to see different sides of people.

    I think it also loosens people up where it’s like, okay, we’re just talking about silly stuff, but it’s actually who you are. I try not to have my questions be super, super deep because that’s not the purpose for this podcast, but certainly, you can have questions that are like that, that are –plus, those would you rather sort of questions are super fun too.

    Mariette: Yeah, and I love that. Actually, I love your answer because especially, I’ve heard you say, when people say something, you’re like, “That’s cool.” I love that. You’re kind of shocked, but then at the same time, you’re impressed. Oh, I would have never thought that about you. That’s awesome.

    John: Well every answer is cool. It’s like, oh. Especially when, pens or pencils, and people are really particular about, well, it’s got to be this kind of pen and this kind of thing. I’m like, wow, you really love your pens. It’s cool.

    Mariette: The next one was, what is the craziest response you’ve ever gotten to a rapid question?

    John: Oh, craziest. Yeah, I guess it would probably be like a band or musician kind of question. I’m trying to remember. It was something like that where it was like a very heavy def metal sort of band that you wouldn’t expect any professional type person to be, just stereotypically. Oh, I didn’t see that one coming.

    Or sometimes too, the favorite thing you have or the favorite thing you own, those are really touching. It’s something that someone’s grandfather passed down type of a thing, or grandparents gave me when, whatever. Those are pretty cool answers as well.

    Mariette: This is one that I really wanted to know. Since you started the podcast, how, or if, has this happened, has your “And” changed, has it evolved, and how?

    John: Mine is definitely college football and ice cream and music. Those have definitely always been there even when I was a kid and to now. I would say mine hasn’t changed, but my confidence and my message has definitely gotten stronger because I see that I’m not the only one. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of us.

    My own research has showed that it’s like 92% of us that have something, so we’re actually the stereotype. We’re the norm. It’s by far, the most — I mean, it’s not even close. It’s not a 50-50. It’s 92 to 8. For too long, that 8% has bullied the 92 to think that if you don’t have something, or if you do have something outside of work, then you’re less dedicated to your job. You’re probably not very good at it. You’re less professional and whatever.

    In my research and other studies that I’ve done that when I speak, it’s the opposite. Like you were saying, you think people are going to run away. They don’t. They run to you. If anything, it’s just my confidence has gotten stronger, and hearing your story today, it just helps that, to hear, when you were burned out and all that, what did you turn to? More accounting? No. You turned to dance.

    Mariette: Right.

    John: You still did the accounting just fine, but you don’t double down on the thing that’s not maybe the source of total joy at the moment. Dance always brings you joy. You’ve never once danced and be like, I probably should — well, maybe in those raves — you’re probably like, well, maybe I shouldn’t. You’re like, oh, it’s noon, and I’m now just going to bed. You’ve never danced and once regretted it, or been like, that didn’t bring me joy.

    Mariette: Exactly. I love that. I love the confidence that that’s brought you. I agree. I love how we can evolve in our “And” or even strengthen our “And” based on learning from others or hearing other stories. I think that’s awesome. Thank you. I love it.

    John: Yeah, and it can definitely change. It can definitely change for people. It’s just mine are pretty generic, so it’s easy. So, that’s cool. This has been so much fun, Mariette. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

    Mariette: Thank you so much. I had so much fun. Talk to you soon.

    John: Awesome. Yeah. Everyone, if you’d like to see some pictures of Mariette or maybe catch that YouTube link or maybe connect with her on social media, be sure to go to whatsyourand.com. All the links are there, and while you’re on that page, please click that big button. Do the anonymous research survey about corporate culture.

    Thanks again for subscribing on iTunes 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.


		

Related Posts

Episode 78.5 – Green Apple Slice

Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn   The Top Three Factors Driving Employee Burnout  ...

Episode 395 – James Sinclair

Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedInJames is a CEO & Animal Rescuer James Sinclair, co-founder...