Welcome to Episode 294 of What’s Your “And”? Follow-Up Friday edition. This is John Garrett. 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 to let everyone know that my book is being published in September and will be available on Amazon, Indigo and a few other websites. You can go to whatsyourand.com for all the details, or you can sign up for my exclusive list. You’ll be the first to know when the pre-sale is going to happen.

Please don’t forget to hit subscribe so you don’t miss any of the future episodes of the podcast. You don’t miss anybody that I’m having on, and I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week. This Follow-Up Friday is no different with my guest, Byron Patrick. He’s the VP of Growth and Success at Botkeeper, and now he’s with me here today. Byron, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

Byron: No place I’d rather be, man, so good to catch up.

John: Ditto, man, ditto. It’s always a blast. When we’re in person, it’s almost illegal, so it’s probably better that it’s over the internet.

Byron: We don’t have to talk about those moments.

John: Exactly, exactly, statute of limitation hasn’t passed yet. That ping pong place in Nashville, Capitals won the Stanley Cup.

Byron: Stanley Cup, yeah.

John: There was a ping pong store. I don’t even know. It was like a beer and ping pong place. It was insane.

Byron: It was insane.

John: We had fun.

Byron: Good times, great times.

John: John, we said that didn’t happen.

Byron: It wasn’t Nashville.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Byron: Never been there.

John: Never been there. Yeah, but I had my rapid fire questions right out of the gate here, things I probably should have asked you before we hung out, but I didn’t. Here we go. Here we go. If you had to choose, Harry Potter or Game of Thrones.

Byron: Neither I’ve done neither.

John: Okay, okay, fair enough, fair enough. How about a favorite cereal from growing up?

Byron: I was just talking about this the other day, Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

John: Oh, wow.

Byron: Yeah.

John: Yeah, they had great commercials, too.

Byron: Oh, yeah. They had the chef from The Muppets. You remember the —

John: Right, right. That’s exactly it. There you go. Okay, how about a favorite adult beverage?

Byron: You know what, I would have to go with rye whiskey right now. Sagamore rye is definitely my favorite these days.

John: Nice. Okay, all right. How about more cats or dogs?

Byron: Dogs.

John: Dogs? Yeah, me too. How about this one, brownie or ice cream?

Byron: Ice cream.

John: Ice cream? Okay.

Byron: And you’re welcome to put it on top of the brownie.

John: Yeah, for sure. That’s actually the right answer. It’s a trick one. It’s both together, and warm brownie, warm brownie.

Byron: Absolutely.

John: Two more here. How about when you’re flying on an airplane, window seat or aisle seat?

Byron: Oh, my gosh. So, it depends on the flight. If it’s under two hours, it’s window. If it’s more than two hours, aisle because I just hate having to ask everybody to move to use the restroom.

John: Okay, fair enough, fair enough. The last one, this one’s important, restroom-related. Toilet paper roll, over or under.

Byron: This is rhetorical obviously because over is the only answer.

John: Okay, okay, I just have to ask. Because every once in a while, there’s an under, and sometimes there’s a reason.

Byron: You know what, out of 400-plus episodes, you must have that short list of unders. Did you write them down somewhere, know the people to avoid?

John: They’re elbow bump people. I used to elbow bump my kids.

Byron: Exactly.

John: That’s awesome, man. That’s so cool. I know when we last talked, Episode 64, good Lord, that was a long time ago. We talked horse farm and showing up to clients with straw hanging out your shirt and whatever else. You still have the horses?

Byron: I still have the horses. In fact, I just bought another one, so I am knee-deep right now in the barn expansion project, so, yeah, busy times.

John: That is not easy. You need some Amish friends. It’ll be over by the afternoon.

Byron: You know what? Almost did that, almost. I’m in Maryland, so it actually is not unusual to hire Amish for these types of projects, but I’m taking it on myself, just having that debate this morning, almost done, a few more weeks and it’ll be wrapped up.

John: Man, that’s really cool. How many horses are you up to now?

Byron: So that’ll bring it to — we have four on property, one is a friend of ours, so, three technically that we own and then a pony who is on loan, if you will.

John: That’s quite a few. That’s cool, man.

Byron: It’s a lot of fun. It definitely keeps you busy and especially keep you active. It’s so easy at the end of a busy day to just plop down and do nothing, but you can’t when you have 1500 pound animals that need to be fed and clean up after.

John: And clean up after.

Byron: Right.

John: When you said you were knee-deep in the project, I was like, wait, knee-deep in what? Different project.

Byron: As I tell people all the time, horseshit on the farm is so much better than horseshit at the office.

John: Right. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So true. So, is there something new, a new hobby? I feel like in social media, I’ve seen a couple of references to a new hobby as well.

Byron: There is a new hobby. The only reason this even worked out is because this hobby is useful on the farm. I recently acquired a one-wheel. If you’re familiar, this is a — some people call them hoverboards, but it’s not a hoverboard. It’s got one big, fat go kart tire in the middle, and it’s motorized. It goes off-road. It goes everywhere, top speed is 19 miles per hour. I may have taken it to 21 miles per hour.

John: Going downhill?

Byron: It was a bit downhill. It was lesson learned though. Apparently, the reason for the 19-mile per hour top speed is, above that, you actually overheat the motor, and it will actually just shut down.

John: And you have to walk.

Byron: And you have to walk after you pancaked on the pavement and kind of cracked a rib and knocked the wind out of you.

John: Oh, no. That’s awesome.

Byron: It was awesome. My favorite part of it was it actually happened in a spot where there was nobody around. So, actually, I jumped off the pavement. I’m looking around and nobody saw me. It’s like, nobody saw it happened. Two weeks later, I’m at a community get-together, and we had a new neighbor at the time. So, I’m meeting him for the first time, and the guy says, “I gotta let you know something. I was looking out the window at the moment you belly-flopped on the pavement.” I was like, “Oh, that’s awesome.” He’s like, “Are you okay? I thought he might have died.”

John: You’re just now asking? What kind of neighbor are you?

Byron: He said, “I watched to make sure you moved. Then I called my kids over because I was like, ‘Check out what happened.’”

John: That’s awesome.

Byron: It was. So, I learned a lesson, but that thing was so much fun. I used it to take out the trash. I use it to zoom around the fields. It’s awesome.

John: I use it to bring glasses of water to dinner.

Byron: Yeah, there was somebody who outlawed that very quickly.

John: Actually, yeah, I would do that. Never mind.

Byron: But, yeah, it’s so cool because it actually has an app, so you can track your speed, you can track — I’ve put over 400 miles on the thing. It tracks it as odometer.

John: You’re going to have to get the tires retread.

Byron: Actually, you know what, I was just looking at my tire, and I have started to wear a spot, so that’ll probably be this summer, replacing the tire on it.

John: That’s impressive, man.

Bryon: It’s so much fun. It’s a blast. I actually, pre-world shutdown when we actually traveled, I actually bought a camping backpack that it fits into, and I’ve traveled with it. I’ve taken it to Boston and a few other places. It’s just so awesome. I zoom in through an airport on that thing. It’s so convenient.

John: Oh, wow, I didn’t even — yeah, that is pretty great.

Byron: Yeah.

John: Yeah, that’s a good idea, yeah, that, and the moving walkway.

Byron: I have not attempted that.

John: Life goals, buddy, life goals.

Byron: Yes.

John: You just call me. You’re like, dude, what do I got to do next? I got all of them. Don’t worry. You have health insurance.

Byron: Right. As long as it’s not your body, it’s fine.

John: Totally. You’ve got other ideas?

Byron: Tons of ideas.

John: Barbecue sauce, this is weird. It’s all good, man. It’s all good. Is this something that you’re — I mean, obviously, you’re sharing on social media so people know about the one-wheel, on top of the horses because the horses, of course —

John: — definitely you share — well, yeah, just like Dr. Seuss did on accident.

Byron: I think that was Mr. Ed.

John: Oh, it was Mr. Ed. Never mind.

Byron: Yeah, oh, absolutely. So, when I travel with it, it’s typically for business. I take it to the office. It’s always a good adventure to let people you work with try to jump on it and — oh, I actually — there is a video somewhere. I think Enrico, our founder, has video of — I did attempt to bowl with it one time. Yes, and that was a company event, so everybody’s very acquainted with the one-wheel.

John: Yeah, because it seems like a lot of people, they just hesitate to share these things because they think people are going to judge them or whatever it is. I know that that’s never really crossed your mind, I remember from talking to you before, which is probably why we get along so well. Do you have any words of advice to people listening that feel that way?

Byron: It’s really interesting because my oldest daughter, she’s going into her senior year at San Diego State. So, she’s doing internships, and she’ll be starting her professional career here in a year. This is a topic that I have frequently with her about. She’s doing civil engineering, so she’s going into the engineering world. It’s really easy to assume that this is a very buttoned-up library that you never work in.

I talk to her about, listen, you need to have personality. People need to know you for who you are, so don’t hesitate to talk about the things that interest you, no matter how silly you think they are, because this is how people get to know you. I’ve shared with her a lot of stories from your podcast and about people who have really become well-known for their activities that are non-business related. It makes us who we are. It makes us memorable. It allows for people to relate in ways that are so much more exciting than algorithms and using CAD systems to do all things.

John: Right, right. Yeah, because everyone else is doing that too, and so there’s this race to be exactly the same as everyone else. That doesn’t get you anywhere. Actually, there was a study done at Duke University that found that — this is in the book — people who have multiple dimensions to them are actually better professionals because less prone to anxiety and depression. You have horses to care for, and you have the one-wheel to go on, and so everything isn’t 100% work, which is going to make you better. It just makes you better, and who else has passions and hobbies outside of work or clients and coworkers? That’s how business happens.

Byron: Absolutely. It’s interesting. So, my future wife, she’s an accountant. In fact, she has her own accounting and bookkeeping shop, and horses have been a part of her life, her entire life. I joke that she works to pay for her habit with the horses. All of her clients are so familiar with her horses. They’re aware of her horses. They know that she takes time in the afternoon to go ride her horses, and they all respect it. They think it’s awesome and interesting. They asked about her horses. They want to see pictures of her horses.

John: Awesome.

Byron: It is awesome. She’s embraced it. Her clients embrace it. It becomes something that everybody relates to. There’s so many people out there who just like, it’s all business, and there’s just no connection.

John: That’s huge, man, really cool, and it was such a great example. What a great takeaway for everyone, of, it’s all business and no connection. Yeah, that’s scary when you think about it because —

Byron: It’s boring.

John: It’s boring, plus, another service provider could come in and take that client in a heartbeat because you have absolutely zero connection. Well, I’m better than them. Well, who says? Who defines better? Yeah, that’s cool to hear, cool to hear. Before I wrap this up though, it’s only fair that I turn the tables and let you be the host of the show now, the Byron Patrick Show.

Byron: Oh, my gosh.

John: You can question me since I peppered you at the beginning so rudely.

Byron: That is amazing. All right, this will be fun. I’ve been looking forward to this. How about this, what color is your toothbrush?

John: Oh, wow. Okay. It’s mechanical, so it’s going to be that light cream color that all of them are, but the the brush head itself is blue and white. If I had to pick a color, it will blue. When I go to the dentist, and they give you the toothbrushes that now you don’t know what you use it for, to scrub, I don’t know, something stupid, like you don’t —

Byron: The trim on your car.

John: That’s what it is there, details.

Byron: Yeah, very cool, very cool. All right, 35 or 95 degrees.

John: Oh, boy. I’m going to — wow, that’s tricky. I’m going to probably go 35 simply because you can put on more layers.

Byron: Yeah.

John: 95, depending on what the humidity level, is uber uncomfortable.

Byron: Sure.

John: Where 35, it’s like you can layer up. You didn’t say five because then I’d be like, oh, I don’t know.

Byron: That was a negative 35.

John: Yowza, but like here in Denver though, 95 is hot, but it’s that dry — because it’s high desert, so it’s not as brutal as when I lived on the East Coast. Man, it was gross. Yeah, I would say 35. That was the longest answer possible.

Byron: It is. All right, one more. What is the favorite playlist you have on your phone, when you created your own playlist?

John: It’s funny because I don’t like listen — especially on the phone, a lot, but I will go to like Spotify and pull up typically a Blink-182 playlist or a Foo Fighters playlist or, on occasion, a Five for Fighting playlist, something like that, and then all of the songs that come in that list. Yeah, I’m too lazy to create my own mixed tape like I did in eighth grade.

Byron: It’s so easy now, man, and there’s no commercials. You don’t have to worry about press the record and pause.

John: You just tell me the song, right? Hit the record and then pause and then you miss the first ten seconds of the song because you didn’t get there in time.

Byron: Or the DJ talked over it.

John: Oh, worst, yeah, stuff like that, I guess, would probably be where I’m at. So, there we go. Well, that was super fun, Byron, thanks so much for taking time to catch up. I appreciate it.

Byron: Always fun.

John: So, everybody, if you want to see some pictures of Byron in action or connect with him 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.

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.