Belicia Cespedes loves tennis. She also happens to be the youngest person to ever pass the CPA Exam (at age 17). Professionalism would tell her that the latter is most important for her career but she has found a great deal of success creating coworker connections through tennis, even teaching some of her PwC co-workers how to play. And her competitive side comes out during the table tennis tournaments (very similar, I mean it’s got “tennis” in the name!) the audit team had during Busy Season. What’s most impressive is all of this is from an intern – the first intern that has been a guest on the show!
In this episode we talk about how playing tennis translates directly to her role as a forensics auditor. Each person is ultimately responsible for their own performance but you can always turn to the rest of the team for support. We also talk about how much professionalism weighs on interns and new hires as they feel the pressure to impress at work, not realizing that sharing your hobbies or passions actually helps more than hurts your career.
Belicia is currently working as a Risk Assurance Intern with the Forensics Team at PwC.
She is attending CSUN and pursuing her MSA.
Joe Fleenor is crazy about triathlons. He only started participating in them seven years ago but all of his coworkers and clients know this is one of his passions. Running was boring, so he needed three sports rolled up into one so it could help keep his attention.
In this episode, we talk about how if he didn’t bring his personal life to the workspace, he’d be miserable. He’s seen too many people get disgruntled by letting professionalism consume them, so be proactive. Simply sharing his passion has lead to deeper relationships because getting to know each other better means a deeper level of trust.
Joe Fleenor is the Director of Events & Client Relations for The Rainmaker Companies. Prior to this, he planned tournaments for the United States Tennis Association. He’s also very active in planning triathlons, including the River Bluff Triathlon in a few weeks.
He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a degree in Education and Sports Management.
Looking at Mary Yetto, it might not be obvious that she loves to be outdoors. She’s an avid hunter and also a veteran kickball player, both of which have helped her create stronger connections both in the office and with clients. Being an ethical hunter and using patience are skills that directly translated over to her auditing career.
In this episode, we talk about how much pressure if on the managers to create a corporate culture that encourages sharing of hobbies and passions to increase employee engagement. Every new staff person needs to know that their manager is there for them and is supportive of everyone having an interest outside of work. Mary also believes that the biggest barrier to not sharing is yourself.
Mary Yetto works as an Assurance Manager for BDO. Prior to that, she worked at KPMG, then Hartman, Leito, and Bolt (who later merged with BDO).
She is a graduate of Texas Tech University, with her Master of Science in Accounting.