Welcome to Episode 338 of What’s Your “And”? Follow-Up Friday edition. This is John Garrett, and each Friday, I’m following up with a guest who had been on the show a few years ago, to hear what’s new with their passions outside of work and also hear how this message might have impacted them since we last talked.

I’m so excited my book is out. You can order the book now on Amazon, Indigo, barnesandnoble.com, a few other websites, so check out whatsyourand.com for more. Thank you so much to everyone who’s read it so far and been kind enough to leave those Amazon reviews and how much more deeper and richer I go into this message and weave in some of the quotes from some of the guests. It’s been really fun.

Please don’t forget to hit subscribe on the podcast so you don’t miss any of the future episodes. I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week, and this Follow-Up Friday is no different with my guest, Bailey Smith. She’s the owner of Sopris Accounting Solutions in the Denver area, and now she’s with me here today. Bailey, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

Bailey: Thanks for having me, John.

John: Oh, this is gonna be a blast, so much fun. I have my rapid-fire questions that I didn’t ask you last time, and maybe I should have. No, I’m just teasing. All right, here we go. If you had to choose, Harry Potter or Game of Thrones.

Bailey: Harry Potter.

John: Okay. All right. How about a favorite Disney character?

Bailey: I think I’ve talked about this the last time, but Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

John: Right. You did, now that I remember. I was just making sure you didn’t change it up. How about, this is a fun one somebody asked me recently, socks or shoes?

Bailey: Weird. Socks?

John: Right? That’s what I said. Because I was like, you can’t wear shoes without socks, kinda.

Bailey: In the summer.

John: Yeah. I don’t know. I’m a fan of socks.

Bailey: Sandals? I don’t know.

John: Well, now that it’s winter time, too, socks are good. Yeah, in the summer, sandals. I guess socks with sandals, that would be gross. Okay, well, hold on, whoa.

Bailey: It happens in Colorado.

John: Right, it does. Actually, it very much does. How about, oceans or mountains?

Bailey: Ooh, no, can’t choose. Both.

John: Both. There you go. Okay, fair enough.

Bailey: I was born in California. I’m an ocean girl too.

John: Sure. No, absolutely, absolutely. How about, Kindle, real book or audible?

Bailey: Real book.

John: Real book. Okay, all right. Two more. Brownie or ice cream.

Bailey: Brownie with ice cream.

John: There it is. That was a trick one. That was also a trick one. You can definitely combine. Last one, toilet paper roll, over or under.

Bailey: Over, all the way.

John: Over. Okay. All right, all right. There you go. Yeah, Episode 56, four years ago. That’s crazy, first of all, that you are on so early. God bless you for being a guinea pig on that. We talked about playing bass guitar and going to concerts. Is that still a part of your life? I know, obviously, not as much now with the going to concerts, but still playing bass guitar some?

Bailey: Yeah, I am. I had a son, two years ago.

John: Congratulations. That’s awesome.

Bailey: Thank you, thank you. I was taking bass lessons and had to stop playing for a while because I was getting too big, couldn’t work around my belly. So, I had to take a break from that for a while. Once he was born, I had to be quiet during nap times, which was my only free time, so had to take a little hiatus from the bass. I’m getting back into it now. He loves music. He loves anytime mom or dad play their instruments, and we’re hoping to get him into some instruments soon.

John: That’s fantastic. Yeah, that’s very cool. In that hiatus time, did you pick up something else? Or is being a mom — I mean, that’s more than a full-time job.

Bailey: Yes, it is a full time, but I did. I actually got into tapestry or needlework. My husband bought me one for Christmas, our first year with our son, Colin. It’s something I can do that’s quiet and can watch TV while I’m doing it and pick it up and put it down whenever I need to. It’s a fun new hobby that I like to do.

John: Is that something that you had ever done before, or you just picked it up?

Bailey: I’d never done needlework, but when I was a kid, I did latch hook which is similar with more with yarn.

John: I remember that. Oh, that’s great.

Bailey: Yeah. I think when I finished that one, he was like, yeah, you need something else. His grandma had done needlepoint when he was little, so he thought it would be a good adult version of the latch hook for me.

John: That’s awesome. That’s awesome. That latch hook, I remember that. It’s like a giant mesh, and it was always — it was very bristly and hard. It was heavy duty. It had the grid painted on it, so you just color — you just drop the yarn in and do the little hook, and you frame those? I don’t even know what you were supposed — it’s like a rug, but you don’t step on it.

Bailey: Right. Yeah. I framed one when I was a kid and gave it to my dad, which he actually kept, and when he passed away, I got it back. So, I have my framed latch hook from that. This one that I finished is, it’s huge. It’s like, three feet by five feet.

John: Holy cow.

Bailey: Yeah, it’s massive. That’s why it took me so long to do.

John: Like decades.

Bailey: Yeah. I think I’m gonna frame that one and put it up in my son’s room because it’s a mama and baby panda.

John: Oh, very cool, and it’s so big that, yeah, it is a piece of art then.

Bailey: It is.

John: That’s awesome. Very cool. So then the tapestry, needlework, do you have scenes that you like to do or things in particular that are more your favorite?

Bailey: I’ve only done two so far. The one that my husband first got me is one of the Four, what is it, Times of Day by Mucha, the artist?

John: Oh, yeah.

Bailey: So, they’re very intricate and very long and big.

John: Right. A way to start big there, Bailey.

Bailey: I know, so I had to get a less complicated one to start with, to try it out. I did finish that one and started on the Mucha about two months ago. It’s going slow but progressing. It’s the same idea as the latch hook. It’s just smaller and with a needle.

John: Yeah, and you just make X’s? Is that mostly how it goes?

Bailey: Yeah, you just loop around the X.

John: Yeah, and it’s quiet, like you said, so that’s good for nap time, when you’re also not getting a nap at the same time, which that’s what I would do if I were you.

Bailey: Yes, sometimes I do.

John: No, I don’t blame you. I’m napping, and I don’t even have kids. There’s that.

Bailey: Fair enough.

John: Yeah. Do you feel like people sharing these outside of work hobbies and passions, their “and”, if you will, is something that people are doing more in the last four years, or still work to do?

Bailey: I think so. I think there are some companies out there who are hearing the message. Not necessarily concise, worldwide thing, but I think they’re understanding that people are more than just their careers. As we grow into the future, I think that, especially with so many people working from home, there’s going to be a lot more of that where you have to share with each other in a more conscientious way. Otherwise, they’re just going to lose sight of each other.

One of the things that one of my clients is doing is they do employee spotlights where they ask, similar to this, a couple of questions, what’s your favorite color, what’s your favorite musician, sports team, whatever, to kind of open up for stories. Then they send some pictures and things along with that, and then the whole company can see what you’re interested in, what your hobbies are. That spurs discussions because they post it in Teams. You can add little comments on there and back and forths. Somebody might be like, oh, I know Victor Wooten, the bass player, because I mentioned that had I met him in my bass-playing. It’s just building more connections that way, when we’re not all together.

John: No, I love that, and it’s an internal thing. It’s not like it’s customer or client-facing. It’s the spotlight of a new person, each week, and some pictures and, yeah, what are the other dimensions to the Bailey Smith? What’s going on here? That’s cool. You bring up such a huge point of, since we’ve all been working remotely, or phases of that, off and on, we’ve been in each other’s homes now. Don’t act like we haven’t. So, it’s cool to just see, like, wow, what’s that piece of art? Where did that come from? Why do you have it? It’s on your wall. It clearly means something to you.

Bailey: Yeah. Is that a vacation photo? Is that actually you on that volcano?

John: Right? Did you take that picture? What, type of thing. Yeah, that’s so cool to hear that a company like that is doing that. That’s something that everyone listening right now can start right after they listen to the podcast, just have an internal Slack or Teams channel to share that.

Bailey: It’s so easy to do. It’s something that it’s just, it makes us all a team again.

John: Yeah, because that’s the thing, when you get on those calls, most of it’s just straight to the work and then get off the call and then we’re done and whatever. It’s not a lot of the chitchat and the small talk and the water cooler, whatever type stuff that usually happens in the hallways or when we’re in person. That’s cool. That’s very cool. Do you have any words of encouragement to people listening that think that, well, I have a hobby but no one cares, or it has nothing to do with my job?

Bailey: Oh, I’d say that everybody cares. Everybody has something that they do outside of work. Even if you are a workaholic, you are not just your job. It’s crazy, to me, to see how many people have that connection if you just open up there. Like I said, I mentioned that I had met Victor Wooten who’s a huge bass player. He’s amazing. Somebody else who I’ve worked with for years but never really connected with, was like, oh, man, he’s so great. I follow all of his work, and I’ve seen him in concert so many times. It turns out, we were at the same concert together.

John: Nice.

Bailey: Yeah. So, it’s things like that. Somebody is always going to be interested in what you’re doing, whether you think so or not.

John: That is super cool. Yeah, and then all of a sudden, now you have that connection that’s far above and beyond just we work for the same company type of a thing. That’s really cool. Because then I have to imagine, the next time you’re talking to that person or whatever, music comes up. It’s just a thing that pops up. I love that, how, even if you are a workaholic, you’re more than your job. That’s so true.

So, it’s only fair, since I started out the episode, peppering you with questions, that I turn the table, and we make this the first episode of The Bailey Smith podcast. Welcome, everyone, to the show. Thanks for having me on as a guest. I appreciate it.

Bailey: Yes, yes. Thanks for talking to me. I’m gonna pepper you with only three questions.

John: Okay, okay.

Bailey: Maybe not as hard, but we’ll see. All right, here we go. New York or Denver.

John: Denver, hands down, yeah, hands down. New York, there’s an energy, and it’s cool. Everywhere you go, there’s something from a movie or a TV show or whatever. There’s history, but it’s also exhausting. At some point, you reach adulthood, and you’re like, why do I live like this? This is crazy. Denver’s just, I’m not supposed to say how great it is. It’s always cold and snowing. No one should ever move here.

Bailey: Yeah, it’s horrible. Don’t live there.

John: No one should ever move here.

Bailey: Just visit.

John: It’s just barely better than New York, Denver.

Bailey: Awesome. All right, skiing or snowboarding.

John: Snowboarding. I feel like there’s too many variables, X, Y, on skiing, ankles up, down, left, right, knees and ankles. Where, in snowboarding, your ankles are locked in.

Bailey: Your knees are locked in.

John: Yeah, so it’s pretty much just make fists so you don’t break your wrists and then just go. Plus, the fists are good to swing at people that get too close.

Bailey: So you’re one of those. I’ll watch out for you.

John: I’m really not that good, actually. I’m more worried about being in everyone else’s way. There are those eight-year-olds that are going down on one ski, backwards, and I’m like, why you’ve got to do that? Why?

Bailey: Because they started when they were two.

John: Exactly, but it’s been fun learning and doing it. Yeah, it’s definitely super fun, but I’m more in-the-way guy. Or that’s how I feel anyway. I’m probably not as bad as I think.

Bailey: Probably not.

John: Yeah.

Bailey: Last one, music or sports.

John: Oh, wow, that is really hard. Can I say music at a sporting event?

Bailey: Sure.

John: You combine some.

Bailey: I did. It’s only fair.

John: I mean, just being at a concert, that’s really good at engaging, and there’s an experience to that. At the same time, for me, college football, especially, if you’re at a really great game, that is an experiential moment. That being said, I guess that happens more times at a concert. At a sporting event, it has to be something really special. If you’re at a baseball game and the Rockies win, seven to two, and they’re, whatever; okay, that was fun. You never walk away from a concert being like, well, that was fun. It’s like, what?! So, I guess maybe a slight nod to concerts, but sporting events are right there with it, for sure.

Bailey: Awesome.

John: That’s a tough question. That was a good one. That was a good one.

Bailey: Thanks.

John: Thank you so much, Bailey, for being a part of What’s Your “And”? It’s been so fun catching up.

Bailey: Thank you so much for having me back on.

John: Everyone listening, if you want to see some pictures of Bailey and some of her work or connect with her on social media, be sure to go to whatsyourand.com. All the links are there. While you’re on the page, please click that big button, do the anonymous research survey about corporate culture, and buy the book. It’s perfect for a holiday gift.

Thanks again for subscribing on iTunes or whatever app you use and for sharing this with your friends so they get the message