Episode 573- Brian Franklin

Welcome to Episode 573 of What’s Your “And”? 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. And to put it another way, it’s encouraging people to find their “and,” those things above and beyond your technical skills, the things that actually differentiate you at work. It’s answering the question, who else are you beyond your job title?

And if you like what the show is about, be sure to check out the award-winning book on Amazon, Indigo, Barnes & 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 corporate culture. And I can’t say how much it means that everyone’s reading it and writing such nice reviews on Amazon and, more importantly, changing the cultures where they work because of it.

And if you want me to read it to you, that’s right, this voice reading the book, look for What’s Your “And”? on Audible or wherever you get your audiobooks. And 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 weekend. And this week is no different with my guest, Brian Franklin. He’s a shareholder and audit practice leader at Weinstein Spira in Houston, Texas. And now, he’s with me here today. Brian, thanks so much for taking time to be with me on What’s Your “And”?

Brian: Absolutely appreciate it, John.

John: Yeah, this is gonna be so much fun. We met several years ago at AGN Conference in Austin, Texas, I believe.

Brian: Yeah. That was in Austin. Yeah.

John: Yeah, yeah. And so, I’m just excited to have you be a part of this. So, thank you so much, man.

Brian: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

John: Yeah. And so, I have some get to know Brian questions right out of the box here. Things I probably should have asked you while we were hanging out looking at armadillos. What was it? Is that what we were in? Looking at armadillo?

Brian: Yeah. Amazing. You know, everyone has to try that once.

John: Right? Exactly. Exactly. So, here we go. How about a favorite color?

Brian: Blue.

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

Brian: Magenta.

John: Magenta. Okay. All right. Now, it’s a hard one to spell too.

Brian: That’s why.

John: That’s why. Yeah. I love it. That’s an easy one. How about a favorite sports team?

Brian: Well, gosh, the locals are up and down currently. Of course, the Astros are compelling and controversial, but you still gotta watch ’em.

John: Oh, yeah. That’s the reason you have to watch ’em. Absolutely. How about a favorite actor or actress?

Brian: Favorite actor or actress? You know, Tom Hanks is always like the every man guy, right, so—

John: Yeah. So many good movies. I mean, they’re all good. Yeah. It’s crazy. This is an important one. Toilet paper rolled over or under?

Brian: Definitely over. Yeah. Under’s annoying ’cause you get lost sometimes. Can’t find it.

John: Right? That’s so true. It’s like emergency, emergency. Like it’s a safety issue. Oh, this is going summer, winter, spring, or fall?

Brian: For us, it’s probably fall. Fall’s when the fun stuff happens. It’s when all the big sports events are going on. It’s when the weather’s best for us. And it’s when I can actually do things.

John: That’s true. Yeah. Yeah. Work related. Amen. Exactly. How about puzzles, Sudoku, crossword, or a jigsaw puzzle?

Brian: Probably crossword plays to my vocabulary strengths.

John: Right? Just as long as Magenta isn’t one of them.

Brian: That’s right.

John: Then we gotta work on the crosswords. Here we go. How about Star Wars or Star Trek?

Brian: You know, I like ’em both. Trek’s more intellectual. Wars has more action and has probably a deeper backstory. So, probably Wars actually.

John: Okay. How about your computer, PC or a Mac?

Brian: Well, Mac’s for fun. PCs for work. Right?

John: Oh, wow. Ambidextrous over here. I like it. Okay. A little bit of both. How about a favorite place you’ve been on vacation?

Brian: Oh man, I’ve been to a lot of places.

John: I’ll take more than one if you want. You can do more than one.

Brian: You know, Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful place.

John: Oh, wow.

Brian: The Athens is a beautiful place. We go to British Columbia. We go to Vancouver every summer for the last 25 years, so kind of hard not to mention that one. Been Istanbul. Exotic, but really interesting. And then Tokyo. Tokyo’s a big favorite too.

John: Awesome, man. Very cool. Yeah, do that in the summers, right, when Houston’s burning like crazy, then it’s way too hot. Get the hell out of here.

Brian: It’s advisable to leave Houston in August. Yes. At least for some of it.

John: Exactly, exactly. Oh, I’m a huge ice cream fan. In a cup or in a cone?

Brian: Well, you know, I’d prefer the cone if you can get it.

John: Yeah. Exactly. Sometimes I talk ’em into do the cone on top of the cup so I get a little bit of both, then I don’t lose any running down my hands or whatever.

Brian: There you go.

John: How about a favorite animal? Any animal at all.

Brian: How about a tiger?

John: Yeah. Okay.

Brian: They command a lot of respect, you know.

John: They really do. Yeah. ‘Cause it’s like “I don’t know what that guy’s saying, but you can eat me. That’s for sure.”

Brian: I was at the San Diego Zoo.

It was just reopened for a big remodel, and they have this brand new tiger enclosure. And so, everyone’s looking at this tiger, and this tiger comes out, and he looks at me. Me particularly. And the view on this tiger’s eyes was how can I get up and eat that thing? I mean, I could get in his eyes. He was sizing me up as prey. It was really uncomfortable.

John: Right? Just why is everyone pouring barbecue sauce on me? What’s going on? Like why is— No, like that’s amazing. Yeah. That is like I don’t care how thick the glass is or how many layers of glass, like nope. Like I’m out. They’re intimidating. That’s for sure. Since you have the accounting background, a balance sheet or income statement?

Brian: Balance sheet, yeah, definitely.

John: Oh, that was a slam dunk. There you go. We got four more. Do you prefer more hot or cold?

Brian: Well, I guess I have to say hot just because of where I live, right? Otherwise, it’d be intolerable.

John: Right? They’d be like “You know, you can move.” Right? How about a favorite number?

Brian: Well, 8’s always the lucky number, right? The Chinese have something to say about that. So I used that a couple times. We were on the Great Wall on our 8th anniversary as it happened having dinner, believe it or not, my wife and I. So, just kind of worked out. So, that was kind of an epic event.

John: That’s pretty amazing. That’s very cool. Very cool. How about when it comes to books? Audio version, e-Book, or the real book?

Brian: I have to say the real book. Takes some pressure off your eyes with the blue light and all that kind of stuff. It’s just easier to get through. It’s not as portable of course. But to me, it just carries that extra feel factor, if you will.

John: Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s how we grew up, you know, like reading and stuff. So yeah, there’s some nostalgia to it as well. Yeah. And it’s a work of art, like having written a book like I didn’t realize, but the font, and the pages, and like everything about it, where the page number is on the piece of paper, like all of that. It’s crazy.

Brian: Yeah, no, it is. Especially if you’re reading some older books that are early editions. They truly are, you know, looking at art as well.

John: Yeah, right. Last one, the favorite thing you have or the favorite thing you own?

Brian: Oh, wow. Well, we can talk about this later. But you know, we do have the cannons. We can talk about that.

John: I was gonna say cannons have to be somewhere in the top 5. Like, I mean, that’s for sure. But I mean, I remember when we met and it was like, yeah, he owns cannons, and it was plural. It was like “Wait, what?” That’s incredible. And like what kind of cannons are they?

Brian: These are black powder cannons, and they’re scale size. So you know, they’re not the full size guys, although I haven’t helped operate some full-size ones, civil war type stuff. These are house cannons. They’re suitable to be carried by one person, and they make a lot of noise, and they can actually fire a projectile. So you wouldn’t wanna be in front of one of ’em, but you can’t hit a damn thing with them.

John: Right. That’s so cool, man. That’s so cool. I love it. I love it. So, let’s talk competitive show dogs and how did you get started with that?

Brian: Well, my sister-in-law somehow got circuited into this and worked on my wife and I for a few years trying to coax us into coming to one of these events. And we finally did, and it was the noisiest thing I’ve ever heard ’cause these happened to be Jack Russells. And Jack Russells are cute and adorable, but noisy. Very noisy little dogs. And so, there were 200 of these things. But of course, you do get suckered in ’cause they are very adorable. And we ended up going home with one from this very event. That was about 10 years ago. We lost our oldest one, but now we have two still. One’s 11 and one’s 2. And yeah, they’re a lot of fun. There’s a whole subculture around them. You meet a lot of people, and you see a lot of things just because of these dogs that are also our house pets.

John: Yeah. So is it like the Westminster kind of dog show kind of thing or is it sort of like that?

Brian: There’s part of that. I call it the beauty contest part, but Jack Russells are different in the sense that they’re not the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. And there’s an equivalent for Canada, equivalent for Great Britain, equivalent for Australia. They’re all outside of AKC. So, our club is not part of AKC, but the reason goes back to esoteric breeding standards, and we wanna maintain that the dog can actually hunt ’cause they’re actually hunting dogs and that sort of thing. So our events, we call them trials. So you think about a dog trial, it just kind of puts an interesting picture in my mind.

John: Not guilty. Like it’s like—

Brian: Yes. He did destroy the paper.

John: Yes. Exactly. Right?

Brian: So the beauty contest is part of a dog trial, but there’s also multiple other events there that happen simultaneously. There’s racing involved. So if you think about races, there’s 6 dogs side by side running down a track, a 300-foot track. They’re tracing a lure. And there’s a hurdles version of that as well. And then there’s all these various tunneling events that simulate going underground. And then there’s all these field work tracking events where they gotta go find things out in the woods. And so, this all simulates actual hunting events. And so, we do that as well in addition to the show ring, which is all that AKC does. And so, there’s clubs all over the United States that do this.

There happen to be two in Texas. We’re the southern club. There’s also a northern club. And we just finished our trial, if you will, over the weekend. There’s about 200 dogs or so that were there. And then right now, there’s one going on in Virginia. So they rotate around the United States. And there’s a whole caravan of people that go to these things that they actually just make the circuit. And there’s a national point system, a little bit like NASCAR, but these are dogs.

John: Yeah, yeah.

Brian: And then we do have a nationals that we do every year up in Maryland. So yeah, it’s an interesting organization. People from all kinds of walks of life, and they’re very generous people. Some are professional breeders, some are just owners like ourselves that have house pets, but we all have this love for this dog in common. And sometimes you know the dogs before you know the people. In other words, you know, “Oh, that’s Maisie’s owner, right?”

John: Right. That’s me at the dog park every time. I’m like “I don’t know your name, but I know your dog’s name.” And yeah, I’d rather keep it that way actually, let’s be honest. Dogs have such cool names too. I mean, my dog is Rocket and like you can’t name a— I mean, it’s named after Rocket Ismail, the Notre Dame football player, but that’s his nickname. That’s not like his real name, but it’s just cool. Like when you have dog names, it’s like, man, you can like name it whatever you want.

Brian: To some degree, yeah. Like with ours, there is some conditions ’cause with the competitive dogs, they have to have their kennel name first, who they’re from and that sort of thing, and then they’re good. And then some names are appropriate, some are not. But our older dog, her name is High Range, which is her kennel name. High Range Savage Beast is her name.

John: Nice! Yes!

Brian: Pretty strong name.

John: Yes!

Brian: But we call her Savvy, Beastie, you know, all kinds of other iterations, but High Range Savage Beast is a well-known name. She’s a two-time national champion actually.

John: That’s incredible. Wow. Very cool.

Brian: Our younger dog, he’s 2. His name is Allstar, which is his kennel, Allstar. My Allstar Macho Man.

John: Oh, nice. That’s what I’m talking about. Like if you had a like a child, like a human child, “What your daughter’s name?” “Savage Beast.” It’s like “Wait, what?” But with dogs, it’s like totally anything goes man. And that’s incredible. What cool names, man. I love it. That’s awesome. And a two-time National championship.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And our younger dog, I named him after the Village People, but what I didn’t know was that the breeder is actually a huge Randy Savage fan who’s a wrestler and that was his call sign, was Macho man. And he actually had Macho Man T-shirts. So now, we have the Macho Man T-shirts when we go to compete.

John: That’s great. That’s so good. And so, what makes a dog like, I mean, a champion dog? Like do you practice with the dog or is it just the dog’s just good?

Brian: Well, yes, you can practice. Certainly on the athletic events, you do. We have what’s called play days, which are practices where you come and you run the track or you do the tunnel events. But even for the show ring, believe it or not, there is some practice involved because you can’t make a bad dog good, but you can make a good dog bad. And so, you have to show the dog in the proper format, really accentuate their lines and get ’em to stretch properly and to walk properly. And so, I know it looks like they’re just walking around, but there actually is more subtlety to it. And like I said, you can’t make a bad dog win, but you can screw up a good dog.

John: Yeah, that’s for sure. I mean, of course, Best in Show was such a great mockumentary, I guess back, in the day, but it really did. It was like “Man, there’s a lot more to this than just show up and walk your dog around.” I mean, there’s definitely a science to it and an art to it as well.

Brian: And it’s comedy. But unfortunately, there is some truth. Some of the people that go there—

John: Right. Totally. The two left shoes and all that. Like that was amazing. Like that was like— I mean, it was super funny, but that’s really cool, man. Really cool. And do you feel like any of the competitive show dog exhibiting translates to work at all?

Brian: Well, I mean, like I said, you do meet a lot of people that— Professionally, we’ve met and actually had some referrals in that sense.

John: Oh, wow.

Brian: Yeah, sure. ‘Cause, you know, again, it’s people from all walks of life. This is not an inexpensive little hobby ’cause all the gear that goes with it. I mean, a lot of people own big RVs because that’s how they get around to these various events because it makes sense to haul your dogs and all that. Just flying with them isn’t always great with all the gear that has to go with them. And some people show up with 8 or 10 dogs too if they’re breeders. So, that’s another thing. But yeah, we’ve met a lot of people in that regard. Even the people I work with, of course, it becomes known and they wanna know more about it. And of course, everyone has a dog, right? And so, you can relate to them on different level. People that you meet and just in real life, clients, that sort of thing. So it’s a way to differentiate yourself. It’s a way to humanize yourself. And now, we’re not always just talking about the dollars and cents. Right?

John: How much does that matter that people, I guess, have interests outside of work that work with you at the firm or even client? Like how much do you care about that or is it more of just like head down, get work done?

Brian: No, no, no. You have to. I mean, it’s a people business both for your clients and with your own coworkers, right, because you wanna work with people that you like whether that’s a vendor, or it’s a client, or it’s a coworker. You’re much more likely to have your own happiness and your own retention, if you will, if you’re in an environment that you actually enjoy. And so, that is important. And you get to know people on a personal level. Not like super intimate, but much more deep than just “Hey, let’s transactionally deal with this.” Right? But no, it’s a little bit more about what’s going on and so that you have more empathy with each other and you understand the more holistic part of that person. And it does differentiate in the marketplace for sure with banks, and clients, and that sort of thing.

John: Yeah. I mean, especially when it comes to professional services in general, I mean accounting. I mean, there’s a firm that you could probably throw a football and hit that will do the same work plus or minus. And so, it’s like “What does differentiate us?” And it’s so interesting how we typically lean on our technical skills. Well, that’s what makes us different. It’s like “No, no, you’re digging the hole deeper now.” Like that’s what makes you more the same. Like use the same software even. It’s like “Good lord.” You know? And what does make you different is that that human side of you.

Brian: Exactly. And they expect that you’re good at what you do. It’s just “Hey, do I feel good about working with you?” That’s the next thing, right?

John: Yeah. That’s such a key point right there. Yeah. I mean, how many accountants are like “Well, I’m gonna try to do okay, but I’ll probably mess this up”? Like no one’s saying that. It’s like “No, no, we’re gonna nail it. We’re really good.” And it’s like “Well, that’s what the last person just said and the person before that.” And it’s like, yeah, I love that do I feel comfortable working with this person or having this person represent me or whatever? That’s really key.

And I remember at the AGN Conference that we did. It was so cool how— I believe it was 5 people did like a quick presentation. It was maybe like 3 minutes or something of pictures of their outside of work, their “ands” basically and some stories about it. And I mean, I’ll never forget. Like that was amazing. And I was like “Man, if every firm did that at an all-staff event or every month or whatever, like how cool of a place to work would that be?” And I just remember that AGN group being like “Man, this is a really cool group of people that are willing to do this.”

Brian: Yeah. It just makes you more approachable, more well-rounded. Just more interesting individuals, all right?

John: Yeah. And I remember there was another cannon guy there as well in which I guess come to find out you bought him the cannon, so you got him into that, which is cool ’cause it’s like “Man, I’m not gonna forget Brian. That’s for sure.”

Brian: Yeah. That happened to be his birthday and it was on— They have a vacation home on an island, which is pretty cool. Because of that, it’s a long backstory, but it was a pirate theme. And so, everyone’s doing pirate stuff. And I said, “Well, this place needs a cannon if we’re doing pirate things.” Then they said, “Can you actually buy a cannon?” So I didn’t know at the time. So, sure enough, you can buy a cannon on the internet, believe it or not. It’s perfectly legal. So I bought him a cannon, although he was in Vancouver. So there, it is not exactly legal to have a firing cannon. So I bought him a non-firing yard art cannon, but it was full size. The thing’s 6 feet long. It weighs 2 tons.

John: Oh, my Lord!

Brian: Yeah.

John: Wow! Okay.

Brian: I had it shipped to Texas, so that alone was a story, but yeah. Prominently displayed on the island now. So, every sailboat that goes by has to do a double take with this cannon still.

John: Right. That’s awesome.

Brian: But then you go from there, right? So then, well, I want one that actually works ’cause I live in Texas, right?

John: Yeah. Right. Naturally.

Brian: And so, yeah. So the first one I bought was actually in England. They can’t sell you a working cannon there either, but they could ship it to me without the touch hole, which is the part that actually makes it fire. And I had a friend of mine drill that out, so now it does work.

John: Okay.

Brian: Another friend of ours was into antiques. They found an old one that it was still around, and it actually works. And then finally, I had one commissioned that I like that it took about 6 months, but they made it for us. It’s the big one. It’s a 25-mm guy, and it makes a hell of a lot of noise when it fires off. But again, you can’t do the damn thing.

John: Yeah, yeah, right. That’s so cool though, man. But I mean, you create a connection with others over the cannons or the whatever. It’s a differentiator. It’s pretty awesome to be honest. And I need to start saving up on that for sure just because I think everyone listening right now is like “Wait, what? I need to do this.” All of a sudden, there’s gonna be a run on ’em, and it’s gonna be like everyone’s gonna be getting them, but that’s so cool. I mean, I know too— I mean, just to touch on briefly on other sides of you, I mean, the winery owner, like how do you get in on starting a winery? I mean, did you do something at home and were like “Hey, we’re good at this or were you—”

Brian: Well, I worked for a big firm originally and they had me working on the West Coast a lot ’cause we did a lot of IPOs and sort of naturally got an interest in it that way. And then if you take an interest and a hobby to its logical conclusion, if you talk about wine, if you talk about its ultimate conclusion, well, you just buy a damn winery, don’t you?

John: Right.

Brian: And this winery already existed, but they weren’t quite open to the public yet. And so, I had already gotten some professional degrees in wine at that point, and they had invited me to come back and work as an intern for the harvest season. So I did that. And at the end of that, then we started talking about business. And I actually bought in as a partner. So, that was 2007. So we’ve been doing it ever since. We’re in Sonoma Valley. So yeah, it’s a whole different proposition, but that’s another cool differentiator ’cause I share the wine with clients and with prospects. And of course, now I’m known as the wine guy too, right, in addition to the CPA.

John: Yeah. And I mean, that’s an interesting point that you’re not known as the CPA guy. That’s benchmark. That’s like, yeah, they’re all CPAs. It’s the other things that are the— Your “ands” is what you’re known for, which is cool. How much is it on the organization to create space for people to share their “ands” and how much is it on the individual to maybe just start small with their circle of peers?

Brian: Well, we definitely actively encourage people to have interest outside of work. We do want them to be more well-rounded. And one way we do it, our firm lets our folks do both audit and tax for instance. And so, we want them to do a rotation in both sides of the house to learn both sides of the house. And that’s a little unusual especially for larger firms, but we do think it makes them more well-rounded just on the technical level. They’re cross-trained, they’re more holistic, they can see both sides, and they can speak to clients in different levels ’cause they’re not just in one discipline or the other. So, start there.

But then we also encourage interest in lots of other nonprofits or other interests outside of work, people that you know because, again, it just makes you a more interesting individual. It also kind of grounds you and also makes you more valuable really ultimately to not be quite so siloed into things. And so, we do actively encourage that kind of thing. We encourage people’s organizations. We fund some of those. And we provide ’em opportunities to join organizations where possible.

John: I love it, man. That’s so great ’cause it does make you more interesting. I mean, if you’re all work all the time, what are we gonna talk about when we go to lunch or what are you gonna talk about with a client? I mean, yeah, sure, you’re good at your work and you’re technically sound, but so is everyone else. And the sad thing is is the part that’s completely replaceable is the technical skills part, but the human side to you is not. At some point, you’re gonna retire and good luck finding a partner who owns some cannons, and is way into wine and dogs, and really technically sound. Like we got one and he just retired. That’s the only one I know.

Brian: Yeah, that’s what makes the relationship stickier, right? Is those other things. It’s not transactional.

John: Exactly. No, I love it, man. I love it. Well, this has been so much fun, Brian, but I feel like it’s only fair that because I so rudely peppered you with questions at the beginning that we turn the tables and make this the Brian Franklin Podcast, and I’ll be your guest. So, thanks for having me on. So whatever questions you have, I’m all yours.

Brian: All right. Well, I guess I’ve got two. One, besides me, what is one of the most interesting things you’ve heard of that a CPA or other professional is up to? And then secondly, what in your own experience have you found to be some of the best “ands” that help you out?

John: Oh, wow. Okay. I mean, honestly, everyone on the podcast is interesting to me because it lights up their soul. Like you can tell like when they talk about it, and their eyes get bigger, and they’re more animated, and you can just hear it in their voice. Man, this is on a soul level. Like this is deep like what really lights them up. But you know, on occasion, you catch somewhere, it’s like “Wait, you race cars or you race motorcycles?” Some like life-threatening type of things where you’re like, whoa, that is— “All right, that’s pretty awesome.” But then on the flip side, it’s super creative, artistic. Stained glass or something like this. And it’s “Wow.”

Michael Puck was on. He’s a dog photographer, and the pictures that they take are amazing. And he’s actually created globaldogart.com as well to help people to bring pictures of dogs into business settings and home because it reduces stress and does all kind of cool things. So yeah, right, exactly, just like you have in your office right there. I don’t know. Like everything’s cool now. It’s like the opposite of seventh grade where you made fun of anyone that was out of the norm. Now, it’s like “Whoa, you play golf? Cool.” I mean that’s like “Nope. I mean, you know, I’m not impressed.” What’s the thing that really lights you up? And for some people, it is golf. Absolutely. But you know, what’s the thing that’s not the “norm?” Like that’s the thing that I love. And then for me personally, what “ands” helped me, well, definitely when I was working, I mean, the comedy side of things was— ’cause it was a differentiator.

I mean, when people are like “Hey, so what’d you do over the weekend” and everyone’s like “Nothing, nothing,” I’m like “Well, I drove to Springfield, Illinois and did a comedy club there at the Funny Bone.” “Wait, you did what?” I didn’t know I was supposed to be honest type of thing. But also too, like as an auditor, you’re coming in— I did a lot of internal audit work or even M&A work, and you’re coming into a company that’s being acquired. And it’s like “Man, if you’re able to just bring a little bit of humor or bring a little humanness to it, that really alleviates tension amongst people involved.

And you know, so many times I would get “Man, you’re, you’re my favorite auditor ever.” I’m like “I don’t know if you’re supposed to say that. Like is that a compliment or like is that maybe I’m not good at it or like what?” But it’s just those little things of like meeting people where they’re at and just being a better communicator through comedy and all that. So, you know, that and then college football. I mean, a lot of people can relate to that. I mean, most people that you’re working with went to college, so they at least have a sports something usually. And so, whether it’s a rival, then I know I have to talk slower if you went to USC. I get it. Or if it’s you also went to Notre Dame, we’re best friends no matter who the coach was when you were there or what year you graduated. I was trying to remember both questions as I’m a terrible guess as you can tell.

Brian: But yeah, you’re right about the humanizing, especially if you’re an auditor, ’cause it’s inherently intimidating for the subject, for your client.

John: Yeah.

Brian: They’ve got a full-time job already and now you’re coming in on top of that. And so, it helps with the empathy, helps them understand, yeah, I’ve got a job to do too, but I’m not here to attack you, I’m just trying to help you. And it’s true. We are trying to help them.

John: Yeah. I mean, I remember like my first audit, like internal audit. Like I picked a random sample of like 10 files or whatever. 9 of them were great. The 10th one, it was like 99% right. It just didn’t have like a blue check mark on one something. I don’t know. It didn’t even matter. And they were like “Oh, you got a write her.” And this lady’s been doing her job longer than I’ve been alive, so like what the hell? Like I’m gonna come in at some like— I don’t even know why I’m doing this, what I’m doing. It’s literally what they did last year, you know, all that.

So we figured out a workaround of just test a little bit more and then it was fine ’cause I was like “I’m not writing her up. This is crap.” Like I’ll test more. And then we we’re comfortable. Cool, let’s go. Because it’s like what are we here for? And busting people is not— I don’t get excited about that. So, that’s why I leaned more towards like the forward thinking side of using accounting to how do we make businesses run better? How do we make people more efficient? How do we just make things better at the end of the day? And then I feel better as a person about that too.

Brian: Yeah. Absolutely. We’re all working together to make this economy run and make sure people have great jobs and great outcomes.

John: Exactly. Well, thank you so much, Brian, for being a part of What’s Your “And”? It was super awesome to have you be a part of this. Thank you.

Brian: Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, John.

John: Yeah, absolutely. And everybody listening, if you wanna see some pictures of Brian in action or connect with him on social media, be sure to go to whatsyourand.com Everything’s there. And while you’re on the page, please click that big button. Do the anonymous research survey about corporate culture. And don’t forget to read the book. So, thanks again for subscribing on Apple Podcast 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.