Episode 447 – Ken Healy

Welcome to Episode 447 of What’s Your “And”? Happy Holidays, everybody. This is John Garrett, and 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 in another way, it’s encouraging people to find their “and”, those things above and beyond your technical skills, the things that actually differentiate you when you’re at work.

If you like what the show is about, be sure to check out the book. It’s on Amazon, Indigo, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, a few other websites. All the links are at whatsyourand.com. The book goes more in depth with the research behind why these outside-of-work passions are so crucial to your culture. I can’t say how much it means that everyone’s reading it and writing such great reviews on Amazon and more importantly, changing the places where they work because of it. If you want to hear this voice read the book to you, that’s right, me reading it, you can check out the book on Audible or wherever you get your audio books.

Please don’t forget to hit subscribe to the podcast, so you don’t miss any of the future episodes. I love sharing such interesting stories each and every week, and this week is no different with my guest, Ken Healy. He’s a partner with Diversified Financial Solutions in Connecticut, and now he’s with me here today. Ken, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

Ken: Oh, of course. Thank you for having me.

John: This is going to be so much fun. I’m looking forward to it. I have my rapid-fire questions to get to know Ken on another level here. We’ll start with maybe an easy one. Favorite color.

Ken: Favorite color, blue.

John: Blue. Mine too. All right, we can keep going. How about a least favorite color?

Ken: Least favorite color, I’ll say brown.

John: Brown. Man, brown is just getting hammered. Brown is just the least favorite color just nonstop. I’m even going to just stop asking that because I know the answer all the time now. You’re right. It’s not great. How about a favorite day of the week?

Ken: Friday.

John: Friday. There you go. How about favorite toppings on a pizza? You’re close to New York. You’ve got to have a pizza favorite.

Ken: I like clam pizza, New Haven clam pizza.

John: Oh, okay. Clam pizza, there you go. That’s very good. How about chocolate or vanilla?

Ken: Chocolate.

John: Chocolate. There you go. I don’t know why I’m doing food right now. I must be hungry. That’s what’s going on. How about puzzles, Sudoku, crossword or jigsaw?

Ken: Sudoku. It’s the only one I could finish.

John: There you go. There you go. That’s awesome. Which is the perfect reason why that should be. That’s so good. How about cats or dogs?

Ken: We have a cat. I don’t know if I have a preference for either, but I know my wife will be upset if I don’t say a cat.

John: You will be homeless, Homeless Ken, if you don’t say cat. There we go. That’s fair enough. How about Star Wars or Star Trek?

Ken: Neither. I haven’t gotten into either of those.

John: There you go. That’s totally, totally honest. How about your computer — I know you for sure — PC or a Mac?

Ken: PC at work, Mac at home.

John: Oh, little ambidextrous there. I see what you’re doing. Okay.

Ken: Yeah.

John: All right. How about favorite Disney character?

Ken: I’ll say Mickey.

John: Mickey. Solid. Classic. There you go. How about books, audio version, e-book or real book?

Ken: I like the audio books. It’s easy for a car. I do like a real book in my hands, but most of the time, it’s audio book because that’s when I have time to listen and catch up on books.

John: Right? Yeah. No, I hear you on that one, for sure. How about a favorite number?

Ken: Favorite number, 17.

John: Yeah? Is there a reason?

Ken: I got married in 2017, so 17 is my favorite number.

John: There you go. It’s also an easy reminder. Oh, yeah, that. There you go. That’s awesome. Very good. How about your first concert?

Ken: First concert was 311 when I was at college.

John: Nice. There you go. Absolutely, man. How about, oh, this is a fun one as the accountant, balance sheet or income statement?

Ken: Income statement.

John: Income statement. There it is. Yeah. Are you more of a talk or text?

Ken: Most of the time, text.

John: Most of time, text.

Ken: More efficient, yeah.

John: Yeah, more efficient. Right. We don’t have to do the small talk, just get through it. There you go. Two more. How about your favorite ice cream flavor? I’m a huge ice cream junkie.

Ken: I like cookie dough chocolate chip.

John: Yeah, yeah. I was worried you were going to say clam ice cream. I was going, all right, that’s too far.

Ken: No, not with ice cream.

John: I don’t even know if that exists. Sounds weird to me. The last one, the favorite thing you have and the favorite thing you own.

Ken: The favorite thing I have, the favorite thing I own actually is probably the Bible. My wife got me a Bible when we started dating, and that has significance to me.

John: That’s awesome. Yeah, super meaningful and powerful. That’s great. That’s really, really good. Really, really good. Let’s talk. We’ve got two “ands” really, doing a lot of community service, which is awesome, and then also having some rental properties, doing some demo and remodel work on that as well. You want to start with community service? How did you get started in that? Was it something that you were doing from younger or you got into later in life?

Ken: Yeah, I think from younger. We have a pretty tight-knit town and a close community. I grew up in Naugatuck, Connecticut. I think I’m fifth generation Naugatuck. There’s a lot of opportunity. My father is one of ten, and the family’s been around for a long time in Naugatuck. It’s an interesting point, a lot of the people that are volunteering, and they’re really involved. There are two groups. There are some a little bit older and some a little bit younger. I’m kind of in between, so I’ve had some opportunities to be on some different community service organizations and have some leadership opportunities. It’s been nice. It’s been very rewarding. I find it to be very impactful in the town I’m in. I enjoy doing it. I’m getting off of a few of them and stepping down and letting other people step up, but there was a time I was quite involved with it and really enjoyed it.

John: Was there one that you were involved with that you feel made a bigger difference?

Ken: Yeah, I really feel my time with United Way in Naugatuck and Beacon Falls, I had a lot of opportunities, over the years, to do different roles and responsibilities. I think the impact that they have on the community has been really rewarding, and it’s been nice to spend a little bit different than other organizations I’ve been involved with. In our local United Way, there’s just over 27 programs and 17 partner agencies.

John: Holy cow.

Ken: It’s one place that if you give your money, they then go and vet the programs and see what their impact is in their community, and they allocate the money as they deem appropriately. I started to have an allocations committee. A group of people get together, and they review all the applications from these organizations and their programs. What I found to be unique is then the representatives in their programs will come in, and they’ll talk about it. They’ll answer questions. We have a chance to see what they’re doing in the community. If there’s less people participating, we ask why. Or if there’s more, we ask about what programs they have.

There’s a lot of back and forth and give and take. It’s nice to see and challenge them and get challenged and see what they see the need is. I’m always blown away. It usually falls during tax season on time, but I found that going and being with them and really seeing what the needs are in the community and how they’re impacted, you get to see a lot of programs that you know existed, but you didn’t really have the names or faces. Or sometimes they’ll bring representatives, Big Brothers, Big Sisters. They’ll bring someone that’s little, and they’ll bring their big. They’ll talk about their experiences. It was just really eye-opening for me.

John: Yeah.

Ken: That was my introduction to United Way of Beacon Falls. One year, I was able to chair the Allocations Committee because I’ve been on there a few years, and then I served as their campaign chair. For one year, I was helping raise the money. We had different events. I would oversee it. Most recently, I was president. I was working on a succession plan and having a future chairman lined up, or chairwoman or teams of chairpeople. It was interesting, over the last couple of years, they started a Mobile Food Bank in partnership with the Connecticut Food Bank.

John: Holy cow, man.

Ken: Once a month, there’s a place where people could come, no questions asked, anywhere in the community, no income questions. They just asked where you’re from, for demographics. People line up a couple hours ahead of time to go through. People go through and get all fresh food. People from the high school and schools volunteer to bring it out to their cars. It’s really grown and increased. Now there are wraparound services. There will be nurses from schools. There will be barbers, and people giving haircuts for back-to-school for kids.

John: Oh, wow.

Ken: It’s amazing to see. We do have a local food bank, but it’s only open a couple of days a week. This one’s at night. To see the people and to see who’s in need, and their thank-you stories. With COVID, a lot of people that, in the past, haven’t needed help, have been able to receive it. The United Way have received a lot of calls from people saying, “I’ve never been in this position. How do I even get help?”

Last year, the United Way, they started a COVID relief fund. They raised over $59,000, and a lot of people were able to collect unemployment. Their job had to be forced to be closed because of COVID, and it took a while for unemployment checks to roll out and different things. So there is money to help people recover their mortgage or their rent for a month or two, until this got going. It’s just amazing how, in a local community, all these things go on, behind the scenes. You understand that they do, but to get some names and faces and see it really in action. I really enjoyed my time with it and being part of it.

John: No, no, for sure. By being in that position, instead of volunteering for one of those charities, you’re impacting all of them that are then making such a huge difference in the community, and you see it immediately. Like you said, you’re volunteering there and then you hear the thank-you stories. You hear the impact. You hear the little from Big Brothers, Big Sisters, telling the story. That’s so moving, man. That’s really cool.

Ken: Yeah, and the programs are all across the board. We have a therapeutic riding center, and there are horses. People with disabilities or cancer survivor or people that are grieving could go and be on the horses. You go and see the horses, and you hear those stories. There’s another one that has after-school programs for kids, and to hear their needs and what they’re doing and what they’re doing positively. It’s really incredible in a small town to have all these things going on. It’s nice to get to meet those people and see that and experience that.

John: Yeah, that’s great, man. You’re going to be Mayor soon. This is awesome. Okay, maybe not, but that’s so great man. It’s cool to hear that it’s just making a difference. You can see it right away, its immediate impact, in a big way. That’s powerful, man. That’s really cool. Flipping it a little bit is the home remodeling. How did you get started with that? Was it just something that you watched some YouTube videos and were like, I can do this? How did that get going?

Ken: Watching some YouTube videos HGTV. Luckily, the firm I’m with, I’ve been with since I was 16. The owner of the firm, now I’m also an owner, but at the time, I was working for someone. He owned a bunch of rental properties, in addition to having their accounting practice. He’s fluctuated between 50 to 80 units, not buildings, but actual units, and a lot of them come to the office to pay their rent. If they need something fixed, they come, and we have people that could fix it.

Shortly after I passed my CPA, we and a couple others bought a building. It had 22 apartments in it, and I was to manage it. That really got my feet wet. I think in 15 months, we fixed and renovated about 15 of them, as people moved out for different reasons. The fortunate thing was it was all fixed up. We had some great people in there. Every time an apartment became vacant, people that lived there, say, hey, I’ve got someone that needs apartment. I’ve got a brother, I’ve got a sister, I’ve got a coworker, so they’re going to fill pretty quickly.

Someone else in the area that owned a bunch of properties liked it, made us an offer, and we decided to sell it and buy another one to fix up since they’ve been fixed up. I had just gotten it to the point where it’s getting easy to manage. They’re all fixed up and looking good, but it was a great opportunity. It was a lot of nights and weekends and a lot of work, but I really got to see it. They were just one-bedroom apartments, nothing crazy, but it’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and carpet and having some nicer floors installed, the difference that makes and the people you get in there. Being there every week and taking care of the property and talking to people, what a difference it can make.

John: Yeah, and when it looks nice, people want to take care of it more.

Ken: Yeah, it’s funny. It was a little rundown when we bought it. I think those are the properties we like to find. There’s a lot of rumors that there’s some questionable activity, and there are issues. One of the first things we did, there’s a lot of tall bushes, the lights outside weren’t working, so we replaced that. We cut down the bushes. We increased the visibility. There are people dumping construction debris every weekend into the dumpster and filling it up, so we put a lock on that. Next thing you know, they’re going somewhere else to do all that kind of stuff because they’re looking for the easiest place to get in and out of. They were able to use this property for a long time and then it changed.

There’s a tow truck company that was down the street, and they will monitor it and watch it. If cars are unregistered or unlicensed, they’ll actually tow them, or if cars are parked improperly. Ironically, in Connecticut too, you can’t renew your registration, if you have back taxes or child support or other things. The tow truck company, they don’t charge you. They pitch it as they’re cleaning up the neighborhood. They’re able to see if these licenses or the license plates are registered or if there are issues. If they tow them, the money has to correct your issue, and then you have to pay them to get your car back. After that started, a lot of people started parking on the streets because they’re less likely to have an issue on the street, but they know if they parked in our parking lot and their cars or the tags are expired, that they would have issues with the tow truck company.

John: Yeah, yeah.

Ken: A lot of little things but then once you get some good people in there, it’s incredible. There were good people in there before. Don’t get me wrong.

John: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Ken: It’s just word of mouth. As soon as, people are asking us, do we have an apartment available? Let me know. We want to have somebody come in here that we know.

John: That’s cool, man. Yeah, and you’re doing some of that work. Pulling up carpet is, that’s some work, man.

Ken: Yeah, we’re pulling up carpet. I realized a lot of them, they definitely need to be replaced, so it was nice. It’s a lot easier for people to maintain, going forward. If there’s no carpet, they can always put down a rug or do what they want. It looks good. It looks a little bit nicer. A fresh coat of paint, it really makes a difference. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, all these special colors. Just white sometimes is just enough to brighten it up, and you really attract some good tenants. It was fun. We’ve done other properties, and we still have some now. It’s been fun.

It takes some work because with workers and different things, you have to keep on top of them and keep them on a schedule. Especially if you’re fixing up an apartment, the flooring has to get done, the painting. If you’re doing new cabinets in the kitchen, then you’re doing granite countertops, which we tend to do because they tend to last forever. There’s a sequence in things, and if one gets behind, everything else does. What I realized is that me doing things was probably the worst thing because it took me longer than if I just paid, but I thought I was trying to prove my worth and prove that I’m able to manage these things. I’ll save them money. If it took three or four weekends for me to get something painted, it would have been worth just paying someone to get it painted and get somebody in there that much sooner.

John: Yeah. Typically, for me, I do it once. I’m like, yeah, you know what? That’s worth paying for, next time. I don’t need to do that again, type of a thing, because just like you said, it just takes three times as long, and it’s not as good. It’s like, whatever. Well, that’s cool, man. You’re rolling sleeves, getting into it. That’s awesome. Do you feel like any of that gives you a skill that you bring to work that makes your accounting career better?

Ken: Yeah, I think it’s helpful in dealing with business owners. At that time, I wasn’t a partner yet in the company, equity partner. When you have property, and you have a mortgage, and you have to deal with tenants that are late, or you have to make decisions on whether or not a property’s worth buying, and a lot of business owners own property. They rent it themselves, or they have other tenants. When you’re navigating that, it does give you a little bit more confidence that you’ve done it and you know these things. You start to know what’s normal in this area, and what they could expect for rent, what the renovations truly will cost and what the taxes are going to be.

I did find it helpful. Just with every business owner, you’re paying rent, or you’re thinking about buying your own building. What are you looking at? What are you going to pay? Is it affordable? Does it make sense? How much are you going to pay yourself in rent? Even tenants, you deal with different issues. You deal with evictions and potential evictions and people that are late. How are you going to deal with that?

I try to be at the properties every weekend. I like to hear what’s going on. I like to hear what they’re saying and what the problems are, what the perceived problems are and how to address it and to talk to people and help them from getting themselves in bad situations if they get a little bit behind. Sometimes they get too far behind and then that’s not good for anyone. You could have those discussions. You can start paying every week or every two weeks. If you miss that and a month goes by, then it’s going to be really hard for these people to catch up.

A lot of them come to our office. It’s a two-way street. They know where we are. We’re not hiding. We’re not avoiding phone calls. I know when I’m there. I’m there every weekend, and they see me. They’re talking to me. I know what’s going on. I say, if there’s something wrong, let me know. I want to fix it. I don’t want there to be issues. I think they realize that, you do have to pay rent, and you do have a nice apartment. On the flip side, when there are issues, we’re going to address it and address it quickly, and I think they have respect for that.

John: Yeah. That’s cool to hear that you’re in person. In this day and age of sending text messages or nothing in person, it’s like, no, no. I’m here, and you know where I’m at. If you need something, I’m actually helpful and trying to make it better. Because some landlords, they don’t care. I lived in New York City for a long time, and I had some of those. It’s brutal. Then on the community service side, I would imagine that just having a better sense of community as a whole has to be some sort of a skill or a mindset that helps you with your work.

Ken: Yeah, and especially in our area, we’re able to — a lot of business owners are involved. They volunteer to help financially. They go to different events. You start to make these connections. When you have clients, and they have needs, and they’re looking for a bank loan, or they’re looking for refinance, they’re looking to buy a property, you know that you have a lot of great connections. There’s a lot of great people in the community that you can make those connections. It’s satisfying. You get referrals, and there are referrals back. It’s nice to be part of that. We have some older accountants and CPAs but not a lot of young ones, so it’s nice to get referrals from other ones that aren’t taking business on or different things and to see their businesses grow.

Because I will say to a lot of them, please, especially the bank, if they need help, send them to me. I’m glad to meet with them and consult with them. I want to see them succeed. I don’t want people to go in, they see a restaurant, and a year later, it’s a different name. A year later, it’s a different name. I don’t want people to fail. I want them to know what they’re going into and go into with open eyes. You work hard, but let’s make sure that this model makes sense before we get into it. We don’t want to find out a year later, and you’ve accumulated debt and everything else, that’s bad for you. It’s bad for the community. I think people could tell if you’re genuine, if your heart is in it for the right reason, and I think that helps make our community stronger.

John: Yeah, for sure, man. I love how you said a cool byproduct of this is referrals and work and connections that make other business happen. You’re not involved with the United Way before that. You’re making the community better, but then along the way, oh, wow, look, it makes me better at my job. It makes the firm better. You’re able to make a bigger difference, which is cool. Rarely do people think of these outside-of-work passions as making work better, but it clearly does. That’s cool, man.

Ken: Yeah, and it’s nice too, because with the rental properties, we have different issues. A lot of clients, we can hire to either repair them, fix things, inspect new properties we’re doing to insure our properties. My grandfather was an insurance agent in town, and my uncle and cousin took it over. I also have a good friend that’s an insurance agent at a different company. At the time, we had three or four buildings insured with one, insured with another. It’s nice to be able to spread it out a little bit. I can’t give everyone 100%, but it’s nice. I don’t have to pick and choose between my cousin who I’m really close to and my other good friend who works at a different agency. It’s nice to be able to have them help us and to be able to use our clients for a ton of different services that all these properties require.

John: Yeah. That’s great man. That’s super cool. Super cool. It sounds like it’s cool that at your firm, talking about these “ands” is normal. People know. They share. Obviously, when you were 16, you saw the owner of the firm have tenants come in to pay rent, so it’s what we do. How much do you think it is on the organization to create that space for people to be able to share these other sides to who they are? Or how much is it on the individual to just get it going in a small circle?

Ken: I think it’s a combination because our staff is great if a tenant comes in. We have two offices, and for the other office, they’re great at addressing and putting in those requests. If it’s a small minor repair, something like that, they’re able to handle it, which is really above and beyond the call of duty. Even with the charity work, a few of us are very involved with different organizations in town. When there are events, we all try to attend, and we try to support each other. We try to embrace those roles. We try to split up the organizations were part of so that we could spread our talents and our skills amongst the different communities. It’s nice.

I think it’s important for the companies to support that, and the people in their endeavor. Luckily, the company I’m part of and I own is supportive of that. I think it betters us overall. I know there are definitely times in tax seasons when there are complaints about, hey, I got to get something fixed. You said the person was going to come or the plow guy’s late or something. We’re calling. We’re trying to get things going.

Some times are better than others, but on the whole, I think it’s not too much of an inconvenience. People are really gracious on how to handle things. Sometimes the tenants don’t even want to talk to me. They want to talk to Kristen because she handles things so well. If it comes to me, I might not call them back till later in the day. It’s nice to hear those things. So it’s nice to see a company that supports it.

John: Yeah, for sure. Plus, it gives you something to talk about, besides just the spreadsheet or the tax return or the work. It’s cool to have a connection that lets you know each other on just a little bit of a deeper level, type of thing.

Ken: Yeah, we get some messages and some things and people laugh about, or some calls, and some issues we’ve had to resolve. Sometimes we are able to laugh about it. I know other people that manage rental properties, and they kind of do it all themselves. It can be stressful. It can be stressful when someone’s not paying rent. It can be stressful when you get some calls that are challenging. You try to just quickly resolve it and move forward.

John: Sure. Yeah, and there’s always something new. It’s probably similar with work where somebody comes in with some tax issue. It’s like, well, I’ve never seen this one before. Here we go. It’s a good muscle to exercise outside of the office, to just be nimble. There’s no handbook for this one, but I’m pretty sure we can figure it out.

Ken: Right.

John: That’s cool, man. Very cool. Do you have any words of encouragement for anyone listening that maybe has a passion outside of work and maybe even a charitable volunteer type thing that has nothing to do with their job, they think no one’s going to care?

Ken: Yeah. I would say my advice to them is pursue your passions. They’re important to have. We need to balance our work. I think that’s part of the reason why I enjoy doing this so much after tax season. All those hours, then the weather gets better, I could go out to the properties and fix them up and throw some mulch down and do some outside work. I think it’s good for our mental health. It’s good to balance. I know, especially accountants, there are seasons and times that we just work incredible hours. That’s just the nature of the business, but I think that will help give you balance. It’ll help you persevere through those challenging times. I think surrounding yourself with people that have the same interests is incredibly important to all these organizations, to all the rental properties. I’ve met great people that I would have never met unless I had pursued these passions.

I think, especially if it’s productive, especially if it’s helping others or impacting others, what I like about the rental properties is just instant gratification. If something’s wrong, if somebody moves out, and you’re able to fix it and clean it up. You can see fairly quickly within a month, how much better it looks. You get a great tenant in there, and they’re appreciative. If you’re doing something, especially if it’s productive or positive, they do take up time. You have to sacrifice in other areas sometimes for these, but you don’t want to look back and have regrets. You want to be able to know whether you pursued them with your whole heart and passion.

I think everyone needs to find that thing that when you talk to, their eyes light up. That’s the thing that they, when you talk to, you know that that’s just something they enjoy, and it gets you out of bed on the morning. On a weekend or at night, after work, you could swing by those things. Everybody has passions. You have your careers. That pays the bills. That fulfills us in other ways, but you have to find what really is your passion, what does excite you. It’s important to have those. You want something that you’re excited about in the morning to get out of bed and do.

I’m fortunate my wife and I, we bought our own house last year. We’re living in one of these multi-families and saving up. We’re doing a lot of repairs, and I didn’t realize how much more time it takes to do these types of things at your own house because it’s a different level of how you want things fixed up. You don’t just find the easiest solution, so you can get somebody in there, get something fixed, but it’s nice. It’s gratifying. We have these connections with these people, and they’re able to help us and fix things. We know what solutions work and what doesn’t. It’s nice when it comes back. It’s nice to be able to put the care into the house and enjoy with my wife and all that.

I think a lot of times, we find the benefits of having these passions and how they do help you at home and all these different things. You’re in a better state of mind. You’re in a better mental health. There are also skills and different things you take on, and you feel good about doing this, especially if you have someone. My wife, she supports me on this. I try to support her in her passions. It’s nice. We complement each other and do a lot because of that.

John: That’s awesome, man. That’s so good. Yeah, and it’s just fun to talk about, for you, and then people care. It’s just fun to share. That’s so cool to hear, man. Well, I feel like before we wrap this up, it’s only fair that I turn the tables and make this the first episode of the Ken Healy podcast, since I so rudely peppered you with questions at the beginning. I’m all yours. What have you got?

Ken: All right, the first one. I got my Master’s degree at Notre Dame. We’re filming this a little before the Holidays, so I want you to predict the future. What bowl game are we going to be in, in a couple of weeks?

John: Oh, wow. Yeah, so this is before. Definitely, a New Year’s Six bowl, but I could see us getting in the playoffs. I could see us sneaking in. There’s a lot of teams that have lost. We’re starting to finally play as a team. The beginning of the season was like awkward adolescence where we’re trying to figure out how things work, and got it together. Yeah, I think we could sneak into the playoffs. Otherwise, it’ll be like a Fiesta Bowl or an Orange Bowl type of thing. Although the Rose Bowl would be pretty sweet because we haven’t been there in forever. Supposed to be there last year but then because of COVID and all that, got bumped to Dallas. Yeah, I think one of those New Year’s Six.

Ken: Perfect. You mentioned before that you liked some things on the East Coast. You’ve been near Connecticut. What are your favorite cities in and around Connecticut?

John: I remember Ridgefield, Connecticut. There’s a theater there where I did some comedy shows. I think it’s the Playhouse. I think they call it the Ridgefield Playhouse. Yeah, so I’ve done some shows there, really cool, very quintessential New England type of city. It’s called the Playhouse for crying out loud. What more do you need? That’s a cool city. My mom actually went to high school in Danbury, Connecticut.

Ken: Oh, okay.

John: That’s going to be on there. Yeah, those will probably be the two in Connecticut that come to mind, as far as when I visited, I was like, wow, this is kind of a cool city, type of thing, or with my mom having a connection there.

Ken: Our other office is Southbury which is right outside Danbury.

John: Oh, okay.

Ken: Very close.

John: I guess having moved around so much, growing up and everything, helps me relate because I don’t know how many people have been to Connecticut, to be honest. It’s kind of cool. Thank you so much, Ken, for being a part of What’s Your “And”? and taking time to do this.

Ken: Thank you for everything you do. I think it’s making quite a change in the profession. I think it’s really important and needed.

John: Well, thanks, man. Go Irish, right?

Ken: Yeah, absolutely.

John: Everybody listening, if you want to see some pictures of Ken outside of work or maybe connect with him on social media, be sure to go to whatsyourand.com. Everything’s there. While you’re on the page, please click that big button, do the anonymous research survey about corporate culture, and don’t forget to check out the book.

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