John: Welcome to Episode 43 of the Green Apple Podcast where each Wednesday I interview a professional known for a hobby or a passion which makes them stand out, like a green apple in a red apple world. And don’t miss future episodes by subscribing on iTunes or Stitcher at greenapplepodcast.com and then if you’re listening on one of those services, please just go in and leave a quick review and rating. It really helps share the message and let everyone know what they’re missing out on. There’s also links to connect with me on Twitter and LinkedIn and I really enjoy hearing from everyone who’s listening, so thank you so much.

And now it’s time for this week’s guest, Greg Papineau, the Director of the Audit practice at BiggsKofford in Colorado Springs. He started his career in public accounting and bounced to be a controller and found his way back so he’s got some really great work experiences.

First of all, Greg, thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today on the Green Apple Podcast.

Greg: It’s my pleasure, John, I’m so happy to be here.

John: Oh, man, I’m so excited and you’re in the audience for my keynote at the Rainmaker Super Conference in Miami a couple of months ago and you’re probably just now recovering so I appreciate you taking time. I gave everyone a little bit of a quick and dirty of your background but maybe in your own words, just in your CPA career like where you’re at now and a little bit of how you got there.

Greg: Well I’ve been living in Colorado Springs, I worked for a CPA firm called BiggsKofford, the firm has been around for 35 years. And I joined the firm back in 1999 so I guess that makes it almost 17 years this fall that I joined them. I started my career up in the Northwest, I grew up near Seattle and work for a large regional CPA firm up there called Moss Adams. And then we moved down here, my wife and I did, in 1982 and… I sort of forgot one career from there but I worked for a local CPA firm down here in Colorado Springs for several years and then left public accounting when our son was born in 1985 and then went into industry for eight years. I was the Controller and Chief Accounting Officer for two publicly-traded financial institutions also knows as savings and loans. That was a real interesting time. In the mid-’80s, savings and loans were not the valued business that you really wanted to be in. I got stuck in the downturn of all the savings and loans here in Colorado Springs in the mid-’80s and ended up moving back to Southern Oregon for a couple of years to work on another recapitalized institution up there.

Anyway, to make a long story short, they sold the business, sold the institution in Oregon and we moved back to Colorado Springs in ’93. I ended up back into public accounting after being out of it for eight years and worked for a couple of firms here in town and then joined my current firm, BiggsKofford, in 1999, became a partner in the firm in the early 2000s where I was a partner in the audit practice. And so for the last several years I’ve been the Director of Audit and Assurance for the firm here.

John: Wow, that’s fantastic, man. That’s great!

Greg: It’s been a lot of fun. But just kind of unusual I spend more than half my time in the tax world and it was kind of interesting how that happened.

John: Did you lose a bet, like what happened there?

Greg: It was a bet, it really was. We acquired a CPA firm back in the early 2000s and this guy had primarily a tax practice. So we all sit around a conference room one day talking about who’s going to take this group of clients, who’s going to take that group of clients. So everybody said, I’ll take this group, I’ll take that group, and they came to the last group which was the physicians and all the doctors and everybody sat on their hands, literally. I raised my hand, I was looking for some work to do, so I’ll take the docs. We started our Physician Services Division within our firm and so I headed that up for several years and then my partner came along, Deborah Helton, a couple years back. Now she heads that up and runs that so right now I work in the physician world and I work in a non-profit world. So I work a lot with non-profits here in Colorado Springs and then when I joined the firm we had no non-profits that we worked with and now it’s our third largest niche within our firm.

John: Wow, look at you, man, you’re a machine. You’re like the golden touch.

Greg: Thank you very much. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve taken a real personalized approach to our service, spent time with them, get to know them, know their business, know their mission and we hire good people. I couldn’t do it without the people that we hire.

John: Sure. Well, that’s exciting. So going back in time even before that, what made you want to get into accounting to begin with?

Greg: It’s kind of interesting, that’s a really good question. I figured I wanted to know a lot about money and I want to know everything that was to know about money. And I got into it for all the wrong reasons, I really did.

So I took some accounting courses in college and enjoyed them and I decided to go full time into accounting. But what I really enjoy the most about this profession is really working with people. It’s a service business, it’s out there to serve people and you get to know people and you get to know people on a personal basis, get to know how their businesses operate and see the different ways that people make a living and how they make money is just fascinating.

John: Oh, yeah, I know. It’s crazy how especially within accounting that world, there’s so many different things that you can do to service clients whether it is tax, whether it is audit, whether it is internal audit controls, procedures, all those things that you can do.

Greg: Right, exactly. And just how to help manage their life as far as their finances are concerned, put them in touch with the right people — investment advisors, insurance people, bankers — my goal is to make their life easier as much as I possibly can in my little world that I run but that’s what I really try to do.

John: Yeah, yeah, I know, that’s so cool. And I know that you’re very, very busy but when you have some free time what sort of passion drives you and I think this is so unique and obviously a first for the Green Apple Podcast.

Greg: Well, that’s interesting. Currently my passion is I got ordained a Deacon in a Catholic church five years ago. That’s been a total life-changer in my life to go out and serve people. I kind of got the call to become a Deacon back in 2000 and I always wanted to serve in the church in a greater way. But I went to this great event in 2000 in Rome called World Youth Day. The Pope at the time was John Paul II and he had started this program called World Youth Day. So my wife and I were chaperones on the trip and we brought our son with us who was 14 at the time. And we went with two-and-a-half million other pilgrims to the city of Rome and had a great time.

And then in 2005, I went on another pilgrimage to Rome. It was about 50 people on this pilgrimage and there were five deacons on the trip. And at that time, I was thinking about it, is God really calling me to serve as a Deacon in the church. And somebody said to me, you ought to consider it, you ought to go for it. A couple of months later the little ad came out in our church. I looked in about the Deacon Information Night and I talked to my wife about it. I said, well, if this is what God’s calling me to do, at least call the Information Night because if I don’t figure out what’s going on, I’m not going to get into it.

So to make a long story short, I went through the whole application process which is about 50 pages long in itself, I had to go through psychological evaluation and get letters of recommendation and all those things and go through interviews. I was selected to enter in the formation program and in 2007 I entered formation and we did that formation which is really study time. We learned about the church and about the teachings of the church–

John: It is a couple years of history there to go through.

Greg: Yeah, just a few years, yeah, exactly. And so we took some Masters level courses in Scripture and Theology and after four-and-a-half years of doing that I was ordained by our local Bishop and I now serve in the Diocese of Colorado Springs.

John: That’s awesome, yeah.

Greg: As a Deacon. And that’s been the passion of my life here for the last five years, actually for about the past ten years.

John: Yeah, that’s so great. And what would you say might be one of the most rewarding things ever since you became a deacon that you’ve gotten to do or see. And I’m sure maybe the pilgrimage to Rome probably are pretty impactful but…

Greg: Well that was really interesting, I’ve had the chance to do a lot of things. As a Deacon in the Catholic Church we can I say marry, bury, and baptize. And so we can witness marriages, in fact this past weekend I was up in Seattle and I got the chance to marry my sister and witness her marriage. That was cool, that was really cool. And then we can baptize sacramentally and then we can preside at wakes and funerals. But the primary purpose of a deacon is the ministry of service. And so we serve those people within our community, within our parish, locally, that are underserved. And this could be the homebound, it could be the people in nursing homes, it could be somebody who’s struggling with life.

And so I’ve had the chance to go and visit people that can’t make it to church and go take communion to them and sit down and talk with them. And you just spend time with them and get to know them and pray with them and walk alongside them. And some of these people were in their final stages of life and so I got a chance to walk through that with them and their family. And then it went on to preside at their funeral. Also as a Deacon, we can preach and teach so we can preach at Mass on Sundays when our priest allows me to do that, but we get to teach people about the faith. Attends to the people who want to come in the church, we have a program that’s called Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, RCIA, and so people who want to come in to the church or explore it, we put them through a program where we teach them the teachings of the church and the history of the church. So I get to teach them about the faith and so that’s been a lot of fun.

John: Yeah, that’s cool!

Greg: I’ve had a chance to be a Deacon all over the world which has been kind of interesting. I’ve been a Deacon in St. Peter’s Square or St. Peter’s Basilica, with the Cardinal, of all things. Yeah, I was a Deacon in the Holy Land in Jerusalem. I’ve been to some of the holy sites in Jerusalem. I’ve been a Deacon when we had Mass at some of the holy sites. Of course, I’ve been a Deacon kind of all over the United States in different towns that I go to and I get permission to go bring my ministry there or some kind. So it’s fun.

And my wife is involved with me a lot in this stuff so she’s been involved in the homebound ministry so I would go with her to the nursing homes or people see us at home and go with her and watch her in action too. So that’s been really cool to do that and certainly keeps me busy especially as a CPA as well.

John: Right, right, how did that go down when you get that calling five years ago and start that, how do you bring that up… I’m sure you’ve talked about this before with your coworkers and what have you, or how did that all come about?

Greg: That’s a great question. I first of all talked to my partners about it because I said listen, this is a process I feel I really need to go through and want to go through. So they supported me 100% and it has been great. And they were very supportive, I’d leave work early on. Every Monday night we had class from 6:00 to 9:00 so I’d leave work early so I can go down to class. And then usually once a month we would have a retreat as a group where we get together so I wouldn’t work on a Saturday during busy season or something like that. And so they were then very supportive on that.

And so I didn’t really walk around, I kind of got into it for all the wrong reasons. I thought it’d be really cool to be up on the altar and wear vestments and be up there and be part of the Mass celebration. But I’ve learned pretty quickly it’s not about me because I really had kind of say, this is not about Greg, it’s not about what Greg wants to do, it’s really about what the Lord wants me do in my life and to help people out.

I mean I don’t walk around here, I don’t wear Roman collar to work or anything like that where people look at me like “Oh, my gosh, here he comes”–

John: Going around with the incense and you’re tossing it on–

Greg: Exactly, no, I haven’t done really a whole lot of that although every now and then I’ll be in a meeting and somebody will say something and they’ll look at me, we’ll see how the Deacon responds to this one. But every now and then it has come out over time that I’m a Deacon and so I’ve gotten a lot of respect from a lot of the people in the office and that’s been good.

But I think the biggest thing, John, that I’ve had to do is I live in a glass house. I’m not a Deacon just on Sundays or just on Wednesday nights or whatever or anytime I go somewhere, I’m a Deacon 24/7. And so how I conduct myself at work is really critical to my ministry as a Deacon because what I do here is somewhat ministry because I’m working with people and I’m trying to have a life that would live up to the standards or the calling of being a Deacon. So I try to treat people with respect and talk to them and take interest in them personally and if they want help I’ll be more than happy to help them. But I’m not here to proselytize and I don’t pound my Bible on my desk or things of that nature but I surely try to act, treat people with dignity and respect. If they want to talk they can come in and talk to me then I’ll talk to them and that’s happened a few times in my career here at work but not very often and that’s okay. I just want to be an example and out there in the world.

John: Right. And I’m sure that being a Deacon has helped somewhat in your career, I would imagine, especially just from this service-oriented side of things and that point of view and how you act. I would imagine three are several ways that that’s benefit your career I would think.

Greg: Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt. As you know “deacon” derives from a Greek term called “deaconus” which means “servant” and you’re here to serve. You’re kind of like I don’t want to say a glorified altar boy but sometimes you are. But really it’s a very humbling experience because it is not about you because you’re there to serve other people, to help them out. But at the same time from a professional life is this is a business of service, we serve clients, we help them with their needs and kind of take an interest in people and treat people with dignity and respect is really critical for me in my career. It’s allowed me to develop relationships with clients and I’ve been serving some clients for 20. 25 years and they still keep coming back every year, it’s kind of surprising. But they keep coming back every for me to help them or I call them during the year whatever the case might be.

John: Yeah, I think that’s so great because I think that professionalism and what have you just teaches you it’s me, me, me, everything I know and my degree and my certification and me, me, me, and this is so great because that completely flips that upside down and the rewards that you’re getting are tenfold which are fantastic.

Greg: Oh, without a doubt, yeah, it is. I live with the life a little bit you’ve got to give to get so you try to give things to get things back. And sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes you get burned in that process but most of the time people are very appreciative of whatever, the service, the quick phone call, they call me or I call them, the advice I may give them over the phone, I don’t send them a bill for it. I’m sure a lot of my professionals out there say well you just got to bill them for everything but I don’t try to nickel and dime on the dot. Yeah, we charge them a good dime for what we do and people realize that but I kind of bill that all those year-round consultations with clients and do a year-end bill that I send them when I help them with their taxes.

John: Yeah. And one thing that’s crazy to me is when I have that survey that’s out at greenapplepodcast.com and I ask what are some reasons why people don’t share some people say well there’s no charge code for socializing or there’s no charge code for getting to know your coworkers or clients and I’m like “Well, that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard”, like oh, my goodness.

Greg: It really is. We do actually have a code. We call it Client Retention.

John: That’s so great!

Greg: Yeah, it is. Last night I did a presentation to a group of docs, it’s just a midyear tax update but it was after work. So I went up there and met with them and I just charged my two-hour time to Client Retention because I’m out there marketing, I’m out there trying to give them something. The hope is wow, I got information from him and he can send me a bill for it.

John: Right! There should be a coworker retention charge code, as well. People are doing it anyway, why not, and that would be so fantastic. But that’s so cool you guys have that.

Greg: We have that here and we’re actually encouraged to go do that. And that’s been great. I read a book many years ago called True Professionalism, David Maister is the author. And great, great book for people who are in professional services. And his adage was “Act as if you care”. He says go out and go to their meetings, just be there, give your time away, give to get. And it’s paid off for me professionally and for our firm professionally. We’ve got a good reputation in the town, we’re one of the larger firms in Colorado Spring. We’re not the largest but we’re one of the largest and we’re known for good service, taking care of our clients, taking care of our people.

John: Yeah, what more can you ask for, goodness.

Greg: I’d like to say we hire good people, we have good processes and we’ve got great clients, what more could you ask for.

John: That’s it right there. And I guess one question that I have that I’m thinking about is since you got into being a Deacon maybe five years ago or a little before that, was there a hobby or a passion that you shared earlier on in your career or something that you were known for then?

Greg: Oh, yeah, it was interesting. I was in high school as a long-distance runner and I did a marathon in 1984 and I hit the standard stuff, hit the wall at 20 miles, walked the last six. I could barely walk —

John: I always see people doing it, it’s like they’re going against their will, like someone’s forcing them to run. At the beginning, everyone’s smiling and whatever and then about at mile eight or ten, they’re like, yeah, but you’re getting well into double digits, people are just crying and their legs are shaking.

Greg: Oh, gosh, I could barely — I mean I did this thing and I could barely walk after it for like three days. Actually, I did it in Crested View, Colorado in the middle of the state. But anyway, that same weekend, there was a three-day, four-stage bike race happening and I watched a guy from Colorado named Alexi Grewal ride his bike here. And Alexi just won the gold medal in LA that summer in the ’84 Olympics. So I watched these guys ride their bikes for three, four hours a day and doing a day-in, day-out. I just got done running for almost four, about three-and-a-half hours and I could barely walk.

So I went about a month later, bought my first bike and I got into competitive cycling and head over heels into competitive cycling. So from ’84 to ’90 I competed on a bike from Colorado. Now if you read anything about Colorado we got a few mountains out here —

John: Yeah, I was going to say. That’s intense.

Greg: Yeah, Colorado Springs itself is about 6,000 feet above sea level. And so I started training and I started racing, I started competing in Colorado. So I did that for five years, even did it up at Oregon when I moved up to Oregon for a year and then we came back here to Colorado Springs and life kind of took over and work kind of took over and I couldn’t train anymore. But I competed and I won State Champion in 1989 in the State of Colorado on a bicycle.

John: Congrats, man, that’s so cool!

Greg: Oh, it was awesome! We had the World’s Cycling Championships here in 1986 in Colorado Springs and we built the world-class Velodrome here. And so two weeks before that I took third place at the State Road Race Championships in my age class for the State of Colorado at the time and it was a 63-mile road race to the Airforce Academy. And so I took third place in that and then two weeks later went down into the track and rode into track and I won the overall championship down for Velodrome for the State of Colorado.

John: Wow, that is so huge!

Greg: So I was a state cycling champion, oh, it was awesome!

John: That is so huge!

Greg: It was awesome.

John: So that’s just like doing laps, right?

Greg: Oh, yeah, you go laps round and round and round. But there’s various races. There were three events and I did four of the three and I got one first and two seconds so based on overall points I won the overall championship.

John: Wow! Like out of everybody, out of like the whippersnappers and everybody.

Greg: Exactly! There was probably in the group that I was with, probably about 30 riders and I won the overall championship. That was so much fun. But I love cycling.

John: People at work knew obviously that you were way into that?

Greg: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Some people I come on a Monday, what did you do over the weekend, I did a bike race here, well how did you do? I took tenth or I took third or… And then one year I came and well I won state championship and everybody was like “What?” But I won a state championship and that was so cool. And I had the chance to race with some incredible people, my training partners here were national champions, I had the chance to train with Chris Carmichael who was a US cycling coach and he was Lance Armstrong’s coach when Lance won the Tour de France. One of my training partners was a two-time national champion, all these competitive athletes are coming here for Olympic training center camps that they would have and we’d get a chance to ride with them.

In fact, one of the guys that works for our firm right now was a nationally-ranked sprinter on the Velodrome here in Colorado Springs and he fixed my bike up. I got my old bike out, he cleaned it up and fixed it up, so I said we just got on it for a while.

John: He’s egging you on there, I like that. That’s so great.

Greg: So I did that for six years and that was great, gosh, loved it and really got into it. I still enjoy the sport. And now I play a lot of golf, now golf’s my other passion.

John: Sure, sure, I think that comes with being a partner.

Greg: That comes with being a partner, you got to go out and take care of clients and things of that nature. But I played golf in college and then got out of golf and went into cycling and now that cycling’s sort of in the backseat, now I go back to play a little more golf now.

John: Right, that’s so great, and I imagine that the coworker that’s the world class sprinter, I imagine that you two have a little bit of a bond there that maybe some other coworkers don’t.

Greg: A little bit, yeah, because he just started with the firm in January so we got a great chance to talk. And the great thing is about being here, I bet other people and some other partners ride bikes and have done triathlons and do marathons and things of that nature. So we actually have a little group that gets together in the summer time in a Friday morning and go off for a bike ride. So we do that on a periodic basis. But we all talk cycling or if the Tour de France is going on in July, oh, what happened in today’s stage, or they have an app on their phone or we pull it up and watch it and so that’s kind of cool. In fact, just yesterday, one of the ladies in our office, she started here in January, her husband was competing down in Rio in the Olympics this year.

John: What? How cool is that, that’s awesome!

Greg: Yeah! He’s in the Army and the Army has its elite sports program. Anyway, this guy was in Kenya and now he’s a US citizen and the US Army and he competed yesterday in the 3,000-meter steeplechase finals. And with two laps to go, he was right there behind the leaders and then the leaders took off. He finished in about eight minutes and 20 seconds but he competed so we all watched in the team meeting and so that was fun.

John: That’s so neat, yeah.

Greg: So a little bit of connection with the Olympics and of course the US Olympic Committee is headquartered here in Colorado Springs and there’s a lot of what’s called national governing body. So USA swimming, USA figure skating, USA judo, USA fencing, things of that nature are here and so it’s been kind of fun. So I’ve been watching. We have two clients, USA fencing and USA judo, and they’ve won medals in Rio. So it’s a chance to kind of connect with clients and you call them up and say “Hey, congratulations on winning that medal today.”

John: Yeah, those are such great examples of real world stories that wouldn’t have happened if you would have kept all these to yourself and never shared it at work with coworkers and clients. So it’s a win-win all around. Are there any things that BiggsKofford does or maybe some of the places that you’ve also been that help encourage that sharing, like you said the bike riding group during the summers or things of that nature?

Greg: Well, every month we have a team meeting here at our firm and so somebody within the team leads the meeting. And so we always have them give a little something about them. And so people throw up pictures or whatever they’re interested in, maybe it’s a pet or maybe they like to climb mountains. One of my partners just climbed Mount Kilimanjaro this summer.

John: Wow, yeah!

Greg: Yeah, wow is right. I didn’t realize that thing was 19,000 feet above sea level but–

John: You don’t do that on accident, you got to really want to do that.

Greg: You really got to want to do that. But we’ll share the things that people do about that. When you did this Rainmaker Conference down in Miami I was thinking maybe we should do some more of that here just to get people to say “Hey, what are you doing outside of work, what are your passions outside your work” so you get to know people a little bit better.

John: Yeah, that’s what people remember about you. When it comes to the new staff, the sprinter, the cycling sprinter, he would just be a staff person, a new person, if he didn’t have that identity because everyone else is also doing audit and tax. But he’s the one that does audit or tax and is a world-class sprinter and that’s also what I like to do so now all of a sudden that person stands out.

Greg: And you could connect with people like you said and get to know them on a personal basis. And people feel like they’re real people.

John: Right, which is just so weird, who wants that?

Greg: Right. In accounting, there’s not many life and death situations in accounting, let’s be real about it. We file a tax return, we do an audit, and okay, so somebody’s loan is dependent upon whether we get the audit done, I understand it’s important, don’t get me wrong.

John: Don’t get the secret out, right?

Greg: Right. Nobody’s going to die if we don’t file something on time or if we do it wrong, we can always amend a tax return. But people are people and people have real lives and it’s fun to get to know people and it’s fun to connect with them. Then you have an interest in them and they connect with you and you connect with them and then you can help them succeed in life and help them succeed professionally too.

And that’s a great thing about where we work here is that we try to encourage people to have a good work life balance, we try to encourage people to work from home, we buy computers for them and screens so they can set up an office at home so that they can work. If they have a sick child, they don’t have a client coming in during the day but they can get more done at home, or the weather is bad. I mean, every now and then we do get snowstorms here in Colorado, so it gives the people a chance to work at home. But it gives the chance to connect with people. Again, it’s our livelihood, it’s what pays the bills, it’s our bills or retirement nest egg, whatever the case might be, in the long run it’s about serving the people, it’s about having fun, it’s about enjoying the people that you work with and connecting with them and getting to know people on a personal basis. I spend more time at work than I do at home.

John: Right, so many hours.

Greg: Too many hours. Well, at least waking hours and there are times when I’ve spent more time at work during the day than I did at home period including sleep time. So you’ve got to enjoy what you do, if you don’t enjoy what you do go do something different.

John: Yeah. Well, this has been so fantastic, Greg, just golly.

Greg: It’s been great.

John: Like so cool. And we started out talking about you being a Deacon and all of a sudden you’re a state champion cyclist and all these other, wow, like so many layers. It’s so fantastic.

Greg: It’s about life, it’s about helping people out, it’s about just giving of yourself to other people. And I’ll tell you, the more you give the more you return, it’s in giving that you’re receiving. And that’s the beauty of life is in giving we receive we enjoy it and that’s what it’s all about, John.

John: Yeah, this is so awesome, just so fantastic, Greg, like really, really great and I know everyone’s definitely enjoyed hearing all these. But I do have one rule for whether or not we should hang out and it’s my 17 rapid fire questions. That’s where we really get to know you. So let me fire this up and here we go.

All right, here we go. So the first one’s going to be Star Wars or Star Trek?

Greg: Star Trek.

John: Interesting, okay. How about a PC or a Mac?

Greg: PC.

John: And when it comes to a mouse, right click or left click?

Greg: Right click.

John: Ooh, you’re throwing a curve ball there.

Greg: Right hand, I mean, but maybe that’s left click.

John: Now I don’t even know what I’m asking anymore. What did you have for breakfast?

Greg: Juice.

John: Juice, nice. That’s how you stay so slender. Do you have a favorite animal?

Greg: Dog.

John: A dog, all right. That was the next one, cats or dogs. So obviously, dogs. When it comes to financial statements, balance sheet or income statement?

Greg: Oh, balance sheet.

John: Yeah. Jeans or khakis?

Greg: Jeans.

John: Okay. Do you have a favorite number?

Greg: 13.

John: Interesting, why is that?

Greg: My wife’s birthday, 13th. She was born on Friday the 13th.

John: Oh, my goodness, that’s so great. How about do you have a movie that makes you cry?

Greg: Rudy.

John: Oh, solid answer. You just moved up to number one in my heart. Very good answer.

Greg: It’s a great movie.

John: It’s such a great movie, not totally accurate but… I went to Notre Dame myself, that came out right before I started there so…

Greg: I know people who were at the game.

John: At the real game, yeah

Greg: It was a real game.

John: That’s so cool, man. Do you have a Sudoku or crossword puzzle?

Greg: Crossword puzzle. I don’t know how to do Sudoku.

John: That’s actually how I do my tax returns, just randomly guessing in numbers. Do you have a favorite color?

Greg: Blue.

John: Okay. How about a least favorite color?

Greg: Pink.

John: All right, good answer. Do you have a favorite sports team?

Greg: Denver Broncos.

John: Denver Broncos, yeah, that’s what I figured. How about do you have a favorite actor or actress?

Greg: Oh, that’s a good question. Actor, I like Kevin Costner. And who’s the guy that played Jesus in The Passion?

John: Oh, yeah, I know who you’re talking about but I can’t think of his name on top of my head.

Greg: Jim Caviezel.

John: Yeah, that’s his name exactly. And since you’re a Deacon, New Testament or Old Testament?

Greg: New Testament.

John: Yeah. He gets like way nice and all the good stuff happens.

Greg: All the great stuff happens, great book.

John: And the last one, the favorite thing you own or the favorite thing you have?

Greg: My golf clubs.

John: Oh, yeah, that’s as brutally honest as you could be.

Greg: I love my golf clubs, I got them custom fit and everything. They’re great.

John: Oh, wow, that’s so cool, man. Well thank you so much, Greg, this was so great. Thanks for being with me on the Green Apple Podcast.

Greg: John, I appreciate it very much.

John: I really like how Greg said that he always tries to have the mindset that he’s there to serve whether its clients or coworkers and remembering that it isn’t all about you will go a long way in your career and how do you establish these relationships that last. Be sure to go to greeanpplepodcast.com to see some pictures of Greg performing mass all over the world and also some links to his social media. And while you’re there please click on that big green button there and help me out with my research.

Thank you for sharing this with your friends so they get the message that we are trying to spread which is to go out and be a green apple.