In this week’s episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of WhereAccountantsGo.com, we have the unique experience of interviewing John Garrett, the self-titled “Recovering CPA” that now makes his living as a featured speaker and professional comedian.

We invited John on the show for a few additional reasons though. Part of John’s focus is to make we accounting professionals aware of how professionalism can sometimes drown out who we are as individuals.  After hearing John speak on the topic of “What’s Your And?”, we just had to invite him on the show to share his message even further and to go deeper into the subject.

What’s Your And?

You should listen to the audio for this podcast for a more complete explanation, but suffice it to say that John’s belief is that we as accountants are truly more than just accountants. Who we are as individuals is defined by more than just our professional experience and GPA.  As a matter of fact, the more interesting items such as hobbies, passions, and even simple extracurricular interests differentiate us all much more than our generally similar professional backgrounds.

So What?

What this means for all of us, whether you are a student just trying to get your first internship or a ‘well-seasoned’ professional many years into your career, is that sharing what makes you uniquely you is actually an advantage in the workplace… not a drawback. John’s belief is that we need to work less at trying to scrub out all the professional explanations of who we are and what we do, and allow some of those more personal and unique outside interests enter into our conversations.  Often times it is exactly those conversations than end up meaning the most.

Curious to hear more? In addition to our audio episode, please check out John’s own podcast as well at GreenApplePodcast.com.

To listen to the audio interview with John Garrett, please click the link below: