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Balancing the Future Ep. 31 - Opportunity in Every Obstacle: From GED to CEO with Edmund Green
71 Plays3 hours ago
In this episode of Balancing the Future, host Chris Mitchell sits down with Edmund Green—once a homeless Philadelphia teen, now founder and CEO of Parlinum Consulting. Green recounts how library days, the Air Force, night-school accounting classes and mentors propelled him from inner-city uncertainty to Big Eight partner and entrepreneurial risk-management authority. He shares candid lessons on relentless learning, cultivating relationships, embracing AI-driven change, and redefining work-life balance. Green’s story maps how grit and service can convert obstacles into catalytic career momentum.
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Transcript
Introduction and Background of Guest
00:00:02
Speaker
Music
00:00:09
Speaker
My name is Chris Mitchell. Welcome to another episode of Balancing the Future. And I am here today with Edmund Green. He's the founder and CEO of Parlinum Consulting, and I'm excited to have him here for a lot of reasons.
00:00:21
Speaker
I've known Edmund for quite some time now, and he's an interesting guy. He's a very successful individual. He and I are parallel in a lot of different ways based on our backgrounds and experiences in corporate America. So welcome, Edmund.
00:00:35
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you, Chris. My pleasure. I appreciate it. Awesome. I'm going to keep this first one easy and simple. I know about your background. why Why don't you share about a little bit on your career journey? Because I know you know a couple of days ago, sometimes I meet with folks ahead of time. I'm just letting the audience know. But I was intrigued by Edmund and and all that went on early and in his earlier years. And I just hope that he shares some of that with the audience so you guys can get a take on who he is and and kind of background.
00:01:04
Speaker
I guess just climb up the corporate ladder to success. So what do you want to share?
Challenges and Military Experience
00:01:12
Speaker
Well, so, you know, you know, in terms of my ah origin story, um you know, i I grew up in Philly in the inner city. And, ah you know, like a lot of, you know, inner city youth, ah you know, I had had a very similar experience. um You know, nothing, you know, particularly special about me, you know, growing up in inner city in Philly.
00:01:40
Speaker
um You know, I... um you know, very early on, um, I, uh, you know, I want to talk a little bit about my high school experience and then, you know, what, what ultimately led to my, um, you know, my, my, my career in accounting and that sort of thing. So, you know growing up, I was always kind of like a, you know, like a nerd, a geeky kind of guy. Right.
00:02:05
Speaker
And one of the reasons for that is because, um, you know, wasn't really that good at sports. And so, um you know So oftentimes, and know I'd go out to the playground and I would never get picked for basketball because I couldn't play.
00:02:20
Speaker
i was too small for football, you know didn't have the hand-eye coordination for baseball. And so would go to the library. And so um i ended up um you know going to one of these schools, they call them schools without walls. And this is back in the early 70s. I'm dating myself, right?
00:02:40
Speaker
and And so I was kind of geeky, you know, and really, really pushed myself. And, um you know, at age 15, I actually completed enough credits to finish high school at 15.
00:02:53
Speaker
And so um we moved from, um you know, single family, single um single
Educational Shift and Mentorship
00:03:00
Speaker
mom. We moved from from Philly to New Jersey. And when we did that, since the school was new and experimental,
00:03:08
Speaker
you know, they didn't they didn't accept the credits coming from Pennsylvania. And so, you know, I, you know, ended up going back into 10th grade, even though I completed enough credits for, you know, for high school to finish high school, you know, got bored, um you know, had a really bad experience. My older brother passed away and I actually started getting into a lot of trouble, you know, drugs and stuff like that. I mean, it's just, you're just keeping it real.
00:03:34
Speaker
And, you know, between 15 and 16, And so coming around to age 16, because I was you know kind of getting into a whole lot of trouble, um you know my mom said, look, you know you're going to have to do something. You got to get out of here. So I took the GED, passed the GED, took the Air Force exam, passed the Air Force exam at 16.
00:03:59
Speaker
But they wouldn't take me at 16 because you know the you know you have to be go into the service. And so between age 16 and age 17, was homeless.
00:04:11
Speaker
Wow. Period of time. And so um you know come around to you know when I turned 17 and you know went in for the physical exam for my um you know for my enlistment.
Entrepreneurship and Relationships
00:04:24
Speaker
And i had scored very high in um electronics and medical and that sort of thing. And so I selected electronics. And so when they put me through the process of you know taking the physical and all the rest of it, they found out that I was colorblind. Hmm.
00:04:41
Speaker
So, of course, you know, if you're colorblind, you can't do electronics because all the wires and the, you know, the resistors and all the rest of it, they're all color-coded. So he said, listen, you know you can't you know, you can't go into electronics.
00:04:54
Speaker
You got to pick something else. You scored high in medical. i said, okay, well, put me in medical. They said, well, you know, you're gonna wait another six months before gonna have any openings in medical. And I'm like, I don't have six months. You know, what else do you got?
00:05:07
Speaker
So they said, well, you know, they always need cops, you know? And so if you want, you can sign up and become, you know, become a cop going to law enforcement and the service. i'm like, okay, sign me up because I'm trying to get off the street, right?
00:05:19
Speaker
So I went into the military, became a, um you know, an MP or SP, as we called them back in those days, did my stint in the Air Force and got out of the military, ah went back to Philly.
00:05:35
Speaker
And and then I signed up to go to school at night. And so, again, you know, because I was all into science and that sort of thing, I was pre-med. So I was biology major, pre-med at LaSalle University.
00:05:48
Speaker
And um you know after the first two years or so of college, um my My then ah girlfriend, ah who later became my wife, um I used to say she got pregnant, but then people remind me that she didn't do that by herself. So I impregnated her. you know it's like It's like, no, she didn't just get pregnant. It was an accident.
00:06:12
Speaker
sir So you know once she became pregnant, um you know i I went to my guidance counselor, ah Brother Bender, God rest his soul. And I said to him, i said, listen, you know,
00:06:25
Speaker
My girlfriend is pregnant. I'm majoring in biology for pre-med, but I need to change my major to something where I can get a job after finishing four years of college because I didn't want to be the guy contributing to, you know, the stock of fatherless children out here because that's how I grew up. And I was determined not to be that guy.
00:06:44
Speaker
So he said, Brother Brenda said to me, he said, well, you know, he said, Edmund, you know, um, um you know, you may want to consider accounting, he said, because no matter how bad the economy gets, they always need somebody to keep score,
Impact of Technology on Accounting
00:06:57
Speaker
which is true. he was he was absolutely right about that. On the way up, on the way down, he needs somebody to count the beads.
00:07:03
Speaker
So then he goes on to say that, he said, well, he said, the only problem is, you know, we don't see very many African-Americans going into accounting and finance because for some reason, they just they just find it to be very difficult.
00:07:14
Speaker
So I said, okay, well, let me go take some accounting classes. So i went took the accounting classes And compared to organic chemistry, accounting was a piece of cake. you know It was like, what you mean to tell me all I have to do is make sure that the debt is equal to credits and I'm done?
00:07:32
Speaker
Yep, that's all you got to do. So that's how i i i'm I'm an accidental accountant. okay I'm a scientist masquerading as an accountant.
00:07:43
Speaker
So went to night school. I did four years of college. in three years and 11 months at night while working full-time during the day. My goodness.
00:07:54
Speaker
They told me I was going to be the smartest man in the graveyard because it's supposed to take seven years to finish college at at night. And I'm like, I don't have seven years. I'm already, you know, already spent four years in the military. I'm trying to catch up with my peers.
00:08:07
Speaker
So, uh, did that, um, you know, majored in the accounting. Um, and, um, this is This is going to lead into your your next point about how I got my my first job out of college.
00:08:20
Speaker
One of my night school professors was a guy named Joe Schwartz. At the time, Joe Schwartz was the chief audit executive for Penn Mutual Life Insurance, internal audit.
00:08:31
Speaker
okay And so um he kind of took a liking to me because I never missed class. And I'll never forget, there was one one night um in Philly, we got 21 inches of snow, and I showed up for class. Nobody else showed up for class. So Joe Schwartz, he showed up for class to teach the class.
00:08:50
Speaker
I showed up as a student, 21 inches of snow. And by the way, I didn't have a car. I was on public transportation. So he was really impressed by that. He was like, this guy showed up, you know, two feet of snow, you know, and he's on the bus to get here.
00:09:05
Speaker
So make a long story short, when I graduated, he hired me right out right out of undergrad to come and work for him as an internal auditor at Penn Mutual Life Insurance in Philly. That was my first job out of college.
00:09:18
Speaker
So that's my kind of accounting ah origin story of how I ended up becoming an accountant. So then, you know, finished undergrad, rolled right into the MBA program, finished the MBA, finished And as I was wrapping up the MBA, Joe Schwartz says to me, he says, you said well, this is great. You know, you did did you did your MBA.
00:09:38
Speaker
He said, but you're not done yet. I said, what do you mean? He says, well, you know, you got to pass the exam and you got to go into public accounting.
Enterprise Risk Management Strategies
00:09:46
Speaker
And I said, well, what exam and what's public accounting?
00:09:52
Speaker
So he says to me, um tell you what, you know, let me connect you up with some folks. But anyway, make a long story short. He arranged for me to meet with some folks and meet with some other folks and ended up um you know going into public accounting at Arthur Anderson.
00:10:08
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. Back in back in the big eight days. OK, because of that whole connection. And then, you know, the career just kind of went went from there. You know, when I hear a story like that, because we sometimes think that everything has to be ideal.
00:10:24
Speaker
I think the world today kind of passes everything off as perfection. But what I remember about my own upbringing is that it wasn't perfect, that it was different. You know, the neighborhood wasn't the neighborhood that what the Cosby's were on or in. And I just figured it out along the way. So it's good to hear, you know, when I listen to your story and the gravity of it and all of the challenges. But still, you You came out here. I mean, what was your focus? What was your motivation? What made you be like that? Was it just the the willingness to survive? Or, I mean, what what was motivating you?
00:10:59
Speaker
Well, you know, so my I think i I have to give credit to my mom, you know, because she she did the work that I think all parents, um you know, your primary responsibility as a parent is to prepare your children to survive in the world.
00:11:17
Speaker
OK, and so being a single mom, you know, we all had to you know work and, you know, and you know just to just to survive. But one of the things that growing up like that taught me is how to see adversity and see other see, you know, difficulties and things that are broken as as opportunities.
00:11:38
Speaker
OK, and so. um For example, you know, I think I'm going to share with you ah before, you know, my mom used to send us to the store with a shopping list and no money.
00:11:51
Speaker
And she told us that we better not come back and we better not commit crimes because if we committed crimes, she wasn't coming to take to get us out of jail. So, you know, we would we would get the shopping list and we would go out and we would just figure out ways to legally make money. So we shine shoes, we shovel snow, we carry orders, we, you know, cut grass.
00:12:15
Speaker
We would go junking as we used to call it. You know, junking would be where you go to the rich neighborhoods. And, you know, they say one man's trash is another man's treasure. So we would go to the rich neighborhoods and pick up the pick up their trash and take it to the junk man and and trade it in.
00:12:30
Speaker
Or we would go pick up old newspapers and and turn them in for, you know, for recycling and, you know, and that sort of thing. And so one story I like to tell is, you know, when I was growing up, they had the riots, you know, in in Philly, you know, in the 60s.
00:12:45
Speaker
And um there was a period of time when they had like a thousand police officers encircling Girard College. You know, now most people would look at those thousand police officers encircling Girard College and get upset. It's like, oh, they thousand police officers encircling Girard College. Isn't that horrible?
00:13:03
Speaker
Me and my brothers, we saw a thousand pairs of boots that needed shining. yeah
00:13:11
Speaker
we'd see We made a lot of money that day. We must have shined 900 pairs of boots, man, at 50 cents a pop. Wow. Wow. So, you know, that, that, I think that whole process of just, you know, learning how to see opportunities. And you know this about me, Chris, I'm, I'm into business development, you know, so i I'm going to places where nobody else wants to go. And,
00:13:38
Speaker
I walk in a room and most people see problems. I see opportunity. So everywhere I go, I see a thousand pairs of boots that need shining. Awesome. Awesome. You know, when I think about your background and what I do know is that you at some point in time, was it you're a corporate guy and then you turn into an entrepreneur.
00:13:56
Speaker
Okay. And I know you're very successful in corporate. So how did that help you? How did that prepare you? I know you have your early on experiences just surviving, but how did that prepare you for success as an entrepreneur?
00:14:11
Speaker
Well, you know, one of the, um you know, one of the things about being an entrepreneur um and, you know, I've technically only been in that mode um you know for a year or so since I left KPMG.
00:14:25
Speaker
But even when I was with KPMG, you know you you have to be, and you know this, in order this to survive in public accounting and consulting, you have to have a very entrepreneurial mindset because the nature of consulting is that you know it's constantly changing.
00:14:40
Speaker
There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of ambiguity. you're comfortable with if you're not comfortable with uncertainty, if you're not comfortable with ambiguity, then you can't survive in consulting because it's too, the the environment is too dynamic.
00:15:00
Speaker
Number one. And then number two, you have to constantly be learning and and changing and learning and reinventing yourself, you know? And so over the span of my career, you know, I've had several careers, you know, because I've had to constantly reinvent myself, you know,
00:15:19
Speaker
yeah One of my areas of focus today is enterprise risk management. 20 years ago, you know who who knew what enterprise risk management was? you know That sort of thing. So um I think that my my upbringing and um you know and and seeing the world through a lens of opportunity rather than seeing the world through a lens of problem and obstacle, um my upbringing really kind of prepared me for that.
00:15:48
Speaker
And so um now one of the things that I'm i'm dealing with you know more often than not is just the whole, I call it the nonlinear operating model, you know where you know you wake up and think that, okay, these are the 10 things I wanna get done today.
00:16:02
Speaker
And by nine o'clock, you know the market just kind of takes you in a whole different direction. and And you have to be responsive to the market because in consulting, you just never know what clients are gonna ask for.
00:16:15
Speaker
And every client is different. Every problem is different. Even if you are applying the same solution, that the that client environment is unique.
00:16:26
Speaker
And all the work that we do is is custom and bespoke in that way, you see. And so I think that a lot of my upbringing prepared me for all that uncertainty and ambiguity.
00:16:37
Speaker
So I know you spent some time, obviously, in public accounting and you were very successful. I mean, you're not telling the the full tale your success and your rise up and through the ranks. What's the secret sauce?
00:16:49
Speaker
Because I know we've got some accountants out there that are watching this and they're trying to figure out how to be successful in public. What is that? What is that secret sauce? I've used mentors. I've used coaches. I've used you know, just trying to stay ahead and work a little bit harder than everyone else or a lot harder than everyone else to move up and through the ranks to partner. But what, in your words, what what's that secret sauce look like?
00:17:12
Speaker
Relationship. Okay. You have to invest in relationship. And in the consulting business, you know, like when I was at KPMG and even when I was at Arthur Anderson back in the old days,
00:17:26
Speaker
In that business, you you basically have two two markets. You have an internal market, which are all of the professionals that you need to build relationship with in order for you to be successful in and in your delivery, right?
00:17:40
Speaker
And so you got to build relationships with your teammates. You got to build relationships with folks in other practices. Because again, you know when you go out to talk to a client, you may go out to talk to them about enterprise risk management,
00:17:52
Speaker
but they may end up needing help with supply chain. And if you're not a supply chain expert, you better have a relationship with somebody who knows supply chain. So relationships are more important than anything else. And then on the sales side with the clients, you have to invest in those relationships, but you don't want to wait until you need the relationship to make that investment.
00:18:13
Speaker
So a lot of young people, you know, in my experience, you know, they show up when they need something. The time to show up from a relationship perspective is not when you need something.
00:18:24
Speaker
The time to show up is when you show up and build that relationship. And by building a relationship, what i mean is you're talking to people and focusing first on what they need, not necessarily what you need.
00:18:39
Speaker
And so, um you know, a lot of people talk about networking. The term I like to use is ah is is net weaving. Hmm. So the difference between networking and net weaving is networking is about connecting with someone to see what they can do for you.
00:18:56
Speaker
Net weaving is about building a a tapestry of support for one another. And your initial connection and outlook, um you know, an outreach to someone is should be focused first on spending time understanding their business, spending time understanding who they are.
00:19:16
Speaker
spending time understanding how you might be of service to them. And then you make that investment when you don't need it. And whether that benefit comes directly from that person that you invested in or whether it comes back from the universe, it all comes back one way or the other.
Balancing Career and Family
00:19:36
Speaker
So that's that's that's that's been the you know the key to success, at least from from my perspective, invest in people, And whether it come back from that person or not, the universe will conspire to bring you everything you need.
00:19:48
Speaker
You know, when I think about all of the changes that are going on, and the key word now is transformation and being able to acclimate and be comfortable given all the change that's out there. What's happening with public accounting?
00:20:00
Speaker
What do you see? I know you've been plugged into it for many years. What do you see? And now you have your own firm and you probably decided on a strategy based on what you see today. But what's happened? Because I see a lot of movement. I saw see a lot of title changes, name changes, brand, all this stuff. So what do you think is happening?
00:20:19
Speaker
Well, the one thing that's happening is, um you know, any work that falls into the category of being cognitively repetitive is going to be taken over by artificial intelligence.
00:20:31
Speaker
Number one. Number two, what I like to say is learning is the new knowing. And your success going forward will be defined by your ability to learn and reinvent yourself and learn and reinvent yourself over and over and over again.
00:20:49
Speaker
And the reason for that is because, you know, when I first started ah in you know, in corporate, you know, you used to be able to learn something and live off of it for 25, 30 years. You know, I'm going to go to a school, you know, major in accounting. I'm going to pass the CPA exam.
00:21:05
Speaker
I'm either going to you know work for a um a company as an accountant ah for 30 years and retire, or I'm going to go into public accounting, make partner and retire as a, you know, as a, you know, a accounting partner, audit partner, or whatever.
00:21:20
Speaker
Those days are gone. Those days are gone. Okay. And so um today, what I like to say is the, you know, the shelf life of a learning of a learned thing,
00:21:35
Speaker
is diminished and rapidly shrinking. I was talking to and a medical doctor the other day, and he said that the shelf life of a learning in the medical profession is 76 days.
00:21:47
Speaker
but Meaning you learn something 76 days later, that thing that you learn today is going to be obsolete. So what's happening in and and in accounting is the same sort of thing, right?
00:21:59
Speaker
um And actually, I think it's going to be accelerated by the combination of blockchain and artificial intelligence, because a lot of the work that gets done in the accounting profession has to do with you know reconciling one ledger to another and confirming accounts receivable to the payables and all the rest of it.
00:22:17
Speaker
When you have a blockchain, that the ledgers are self-auditing. What do you need auditors for if the ledgers are self-auditing? So what's happening in in the profession is a lot of the work that traditionally would have been done by a, by a quote, accountant, that work is going to be done by ai and machines and that sort of thing.
Mentorship and Personal Growth
00:22:39
Speaker
And so today, if you are in, um you know, majoring in accounting or interested in that in that um profession, um i think there is a basic base level of knowledge that you need to acquire because accounting really is, you know, it's the language of business.
00:22:56
Speaker
And Brother Bender, he was right about what he said to me when he said, you know, no matter how bad it gets, you always need somebody to keep score. You're always going to need that. but But as an accountant going forward, you're going to need to be able to elevate your thought process out of ledgers and ticking and tying and and debits and credits and that sort of thing and be able to bring a much more strategic perspective to accounting and finance as a tool for understanding how businesses, how to help businesses to become successful.
00:23:31
Speaker
So that's my take on it. You know, and and thank you for sharing that. Because one thing that's on my radar, and you mentioned it earlier, is enterprise-wide risk management. I do remember ERM back in the day, you know, where a lot of firms are living off of 404, okay? and That's where Vane's Oxley.
00:23:50
Speaker
yeah And then they started living off of 70. yeah which morphed into another compliance um thing that needed to happen. And then yeah ERM was in the mix. okay And there were talks of what are you doing from an enterprise level as it relates to risk mitigation?
00:24:06
Speaker
Why is that back? Why does it look the way it looks? Why is there such a need now? Why are companies so focused on Because I can remember when they were not. And that's because there wasn't a lot of movement and change. But in your opinion, why is that why is it different now?
00:24:21
Speaker
Well, I think it's because, you know, think a couple of dynamics are at play here. One is because the the environment has become so dynamic. There's a lot of um uncertainty in the environment.
00:24:36
Speaker
And when that happens, organizations look for, you know, for tools and ways to do a better job of of managing risk, at least in terms of how they understand what risk management is.
00:24:49
Speaker
But the more um my experience, though, is that the more enlightened leaders are ones who understand that enterprise risk management, um if it's done properly and if it's practiced in the right way, could be a very strategic tool to help organizations.
00:25:06
Speaker
What I like to say is see around corners and accelerate in the straightaways because it's a forward looking strategic exercise. You know, it's designed to help you to be able to figure out not just what's happening,
00:25:20
Speaker
But what's going to happen next? And you may not it's not, it's not intended to be a crystal ball, but, you know, any even it's just even if it's just a small, minuscule advantage that you can gain in the marketplace from being able to see a risk or an issue that your competition may not have been able to see ah before you were able to see it,
00:25:46
Speaker
The market is so dynamic and so competitive that any advantage that you can gain could have huge implications. And so the enlightened leaders are embracing enterprise risk management from that perspective.
00:25:59
Speaker
And I think that's one of the one of the one of the reasons why we're starting to see a renaissance and focused on that. So what is your firm telling the the masses? what are What are you sharing to in the market? Because I know you go in a lot of different directions, especially when it comes to risk.
00:26:13
Speaker
What do you see? Because I know cyber is still on everybody's radar. Okay. And there's some governmental play in there that's changing. But what are you telling the market? Because we all have a story when we're out there networking, as you put it, that turns into business at some point in time.
00:26:27
Speaker
What are you sharing? What is your firm sharing? So, you know, we we are talking to our clients about ERM and about the fact that, um you know, if it's practiced properly, if it's if it's treated as a business imperative and not just another audit or compliance exercise, then it can be very, very valuable and accretive to the business, positively accretive to the business.
00:26:54
Speaker
um We talked to them about the importance of of governance and that one of the main purposes and roles of the board is to help the organization to understand the risks that they're facing strategically and help them to navigate through and around those risks.
00:27:12
Speaker
And so we are helping them to understand the importance of bringing the board and senior management into that whole risk discussion with intention. We talked to them about how important culture is and creating a a culture in an organization that is risk aware and um and a culture that not only embraces risk management, but actually rewards people for um you know their ability and their willingness to raise their hand when they see things that could have an impact on the organization's ability to achieve a strategic goals and objectives.
00:27:52
Speaker
But in order to do that, you have to empower people ah and um and you also have to help them to understand why and how their their job, their particular role in the organization, the role that you play in the attainment of the organization's strategic goals and objectives.
00:28:14
Speaker
That's important because sometimes, and especially in larger organizations, people just kind of get lost. They feel like they're just another cog in the wheel. and they don't feel empowered. And they might see something that you know could go wrong, but they're not empowered to say anything. And as a result, um the ordering the you the company will suffer as a result of not having people engaged and not empowering people and not helping people to understand how important their job is to the ah achievement of the organization's strategic goals and objectives. So culture is really, really important
Reflections on Family and Career Priorities
00:28:49
Speaker
in that respect.
00:28:51
Speaker
You know, i've I've chatted with you now for about 30 minutes and we talked about a little bit of everything, and that is your journey up and through the ranks. um And that's your success as a professional and being an entrepreneur. And now we're talking a little bit about risk. But there's something i learned and it took me a while to get here when it as it relates to this. And that is when we say work life balance, work life balance means a lot to me.
00:29:15
Speaker
I mean, I. Yeah, I want to work hard, but I want to make sure that the things that really matter are taken care of. How do you feel when I say work-life balance? What what comes to mind to you as being important? Something you want to share, maybe, you know, that this audience really needs to understand that it's not it because you've been a partner. You've been you're an you're an executive level person. You you know, you've just been at the top. So they they don't understand that sometimes. So share what you want.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, you know, it's, you know, it's changed over time. You know, so when I first started in in public accounting back in the big eight days, if you talked about work-life balance, I mean, they would laugh you out of the room.
00:29:52
Speaker
It's like, what are you talking about? You know, you got to go put your 75, 80 hours of billable time in just like everybody else. You know, and I mean that. I mean, I've worked on projects where I was 75 to 80 hours a week billable.
00:30:05
Speaker
And that was back in the days when you couldn't, you couldn't count billable time. Unless and until you had your hands on the keyboard. Okay. And so, but it was a different, it was a different time.
00:30:17
Speaker
You know, it was before the Me Too, but nobody cared about any of that sort of thing back in those days. Right. So now fast forward, it's a different environment. The younger people that are coming up in many ways, they are setting the tone and setting the pace.
00:30:32
Speaker
And so we're now in and ah in a situation where, I mean, you could have, you know, three, four, five generations of people working on all working in in the office, the same office together.
00:30:43
Speaker
I'm living proof of that. i mean, I'm a thousand years old, but then I have people who are just getting, you know graduating out of you know college on my team and everybody in between. And so as a leader, you just need to make sure that you understand that, but that you are the one who sets the tone and sets the pace.
00:31:01
Speaker
for work-life balance. People look to you to say, okay, you know if if I see Edmond responding to email at two o'clock in the morning, then I think I should be doing the same thing.
00:31:13
Speaker
So it's up to us as leaders to help guide and shape the tone and the and the tenor of the culture and the organization, to treat people like human beings, you know to give them permission to take off you know when their child is sick or or even when they're sick. you know um i remember working for a guy a guy named Ed Ryan. This was when I was in banking.
00:31:40
Speaker
And again, this was back in the days when you know nobody cared about work-life balance. And I'm sitting there, I was a you know financial analyst you know doing you know doing um you know you know comp memos or whatever for you know for the bank.
00:31:53
Speaker
And you know I'm sitting there with a fever of 103 and three and you know Ed comes in, he looks at me he's like, the hell's wrong with you? You know, i looked at him. he says, go home, you know, and that was actually the first time in my career that so I felt like somebody treated me like a human being.
00:32:10
Speaker
The guy just telling me to go home because I was sick. You never got that before. And I always felt like if I was ever in a position where, you know, I was in a leadership role that i would never treat people like that, you know, that I would always encourage them to prioritize their health to prioritize their families.
00:32:31
Speaker
And so if you talk to anybody on any of the teams that I've worked with you know over the years, they will tell you that you know i encourage them to you know to take care of themselves, prioritize their health, prioritize their families.
00:32:47
Speaker
And as a result of that, people will, you know they just they just work that much harder and will do whatever is necessary in order to get the job done for you. So it's a leadership imperative.
00:32:59
Speaker
you know, that that we treat people that way. and And sadly, you know, there are there are still people who feel like, you know, because they grew up and, you know experienced the whole hazing ritual that we used to go through back in those days, they feel compelled to force young people to go through the same sort of thing because they went through that.
00:33:18
Speaker
And I don't subscribe to that. You know, I just don't, you know. So anyway, that's that's that's my take on the whole work-life balance thing. Awesome. Awesome. You know, given all that you've shared, is there anything? And I know you've got interesting background and and I know who I'm talking to and I'm going to present this question anyway, so it can come out any any kind of way.
00:33:39
Speaker
um Is there anything you'd do different? Anything you'd change based on all that you've experienced? Is there anything that you would change? Well, I mean, you you mentioned the whole, you know, work-life balance thing. And, you know, as I look back over the arc of my career, especially, you know, in the early days when I was with Arthur Anderson, you know, I wish I had been more intentional about spending more time with my kids because I missed a lot. You know, i traveled all the time, you know, um and it was just it was just part of life, you know, while you're working for Arthur Anderson, you know.
00:34:15
Speaker
And um I remember, um um you know, one, one weekend and, you know, my son who at the time, he must've been about, you know, seven or eight years old, you know, and I remember him saying to me, you know, daddy, are you, are you going to spend the weekend with the green family or with the book family?
00:34:32
Speaker
Because weekends is when I was spending time learning and, you know, because that's just what we had to do. You know, Arthur Anderson was one of those environments where it was almost like a cult and you were, you were, um you know, it was kind of bred into you that you could learn anything. I mean, if it's like if you gave me ah a manual for how to fly a helicopter on Friday night, by Monday morning, I would know how to fly a helicopter.
00:34:58
Speaker
And you really, you know, I really believe that, you know, but that meant that I would have to spend my weekend learning how to fly a helicopter versus, you know, going to a baseball game with my son. You see?
00:35:08
Speaker
so If I had to change anything, I think I would probably prior you know do you know do what i what I'm telling my you know mentees and so forth to do, which is prioritize your family, you know um prioritize your children, spend time with your kids, because that time goes by so fast.
00:35:28
Speaker
you know And so um that's that's you know that's that's one thing that i would that i would do differently um But other than that, you know, it's it's been an interesting ride. It really has. I wouldn't i wouldn't change a thing. um And I'm very grateful for, you know, all the people that, you know, over the years have poured into me. ah You know, i mentioned Joe Schwartz, you know, God rest his soul. um you know, another mentor of mine I want to mention is a guy named by the of Frank Palomara.
00:36:00
Speaker
I knew him, you know, he and i were, you know, friends and he was a mentor of mine for, almost 40 years. um You know, he passed away recently at at at age 99.
00:36:13
Speaker
ah And so i've had a i've i've I've been a beneficiary of a lot of people um in my life, you know, who have been able to see something in me that I couldn't see in myself.
00:36:27
Speaker
and ah And as a result, you know, were able to help to draw that out of me. Everybody needs that. You know, young people need that. um And so one bit of advice that I would give to young people is, you know, find someone to to be your mentor and don't be afraid to ask them to be your mentor.
00:36:48
Speaker
um You know, I talk about Frank Palomar, but, you know, the way that he ended up becoming my mentor is i saw him at a board meeting and I saw how he, you know, handled himself at the board meeting. And I remember saying to myself, you know what, I i want him to be my mentor, right?
00:37:06
Speaker
So after the meeting, I went, found out who he was, found you know found his you know phone number, called his office, got hold of his admin, told her who I was, and I wanted to schedule a meeting with him.
00:37:20
Speaker
And um I persisted for about four months. I just kept calling. It got to the point where I knew you know I was on a first name basis with his with his executive assistant. So one um one one Tuesday, she calls me. She says, Mr. Green, I'm yeah I talked to Mr. Palomara and um he would like to see you. Are you available on Thursday?
00:37:42
Speaker
i said, sure. You know, so um I went, met with him on on Thursday, um showed up early. That's the other thing for young people, you know, show up early, if definitely yeah on time, if not early.
00:37:57
Speaker
And so when I got there, you know, he says to me, he said, well, the first, you know, the the first thing you did right was you showed up on time and he was a stickler about time. mean, he was one of the, like, if you're one minute late, he would just lose his mind.
00:38:12
Speaker
He's a military guy, right? And you know how we are about that sort of thing. Oh, yes. So, you know, so I'm 10-8, 10-10. So, um you know, when we met, you know, he looked at me and he said, he says, so who are you and what do you want?
00:38:26
Speaker
yeah
00:38:30
Speaker
I told him who I was and I wanted him to be my mentor and why I wanted him to be my mentor. He said, okay. He said, well, tell you what, let's just it's start out. We'll, we'll get together once a month and we'll see where it goes from there.
00:38:44
Speaker
So once a month turned into almost 40 years, I became a part of his family. He became a part of my family. You know, but just just that that act and that process of persisting and, you know, and just knowing that I wanted this man, that there was something about him that I wanted to emulate.
00:39:08
Speaker
And that I wanted to embrace and that I wanted to try to you know replicate in my and my own professional career and in my life. You know, he's a devout Christian, Catholic, you know, person.
00:39:19
Speaker
um When I met him, he was a an executive on loan to the Philadelphia Archdiocese. And at that point, um you know, he was retiring and and was walking away with I mean, ah tons of money. I mean, tens of millions of dollars.
00:39:38
Speaker
Okay. And despite his wealth, one of the things that he used to do in his spare time is he would go to nursing homes and wash old people's feet. He would wash their feet.
00:39:49
Speaker
Wow. And so, um yeah. Yeah. He was he was that guy. thank Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. You have a fantastic story.
00:40:00
Speaker
Okay. I've been around you for... I would say, what is it, six months really? I've been around you for that long. And you've impressed me every time that I've sat down with you. but I've had a conversation with you.
00:40:13
Speaker
And I thank you for being a part of this conversation. You didn't have to share the way you shared. But you are authentic. and You want to help. You want people in to understand the solution.
00:40:25
Speaker
And it's not just the accountants that you're looking out for. You're looking out for everyone. So I do appreciate you. I just want you to know that. Absolutely. Absolutely. and And I see it as my my job as a leader is to is to help um people to be successful. you know and um you know And I would even do that when I was at KPMG, and we when we would interview candidates.
00:40:53
Speaker
And my approach towards the candidates was that that person you know if if that person was being interviewed by KPMG, they had to have something on the ball.
00:41:07
Speaker
They had to, or we wouldn't be talking to them. And so the conversation that I would have with them is, listen, you know, whether we hire you or not, I want to get to know you and I want, I want to help you to be successful, you know?
00:41:21
Speaker
And, and by the way, if we hire you and you find out that after a period of time, that public accounting consulting is not your cup of tea, then come to me and I'll help you to do, you know, to transition into something that's more suitable um to the kind of thing that you want to do in your life and in your career.
00:41:40
Speaker
I'm interested in you as a human being. I'm interested in your success as a human being, whether that's here KPMG or wherever, I want you to be successful, period, full stop.
00:41:52
Speaker
And so I still have relationships with folks where I've done that sort of thing, you know, folks that that have um You know, we've interviewed and we didn't hire, but I continue to keep in touch with them, even though they're working someplace else or people who came into KPMG and after a period of time feel like, you know what, I don't really like this, but they felt comfortable coming to me and I helped them to find another job someplace else where, you know, they could be successful.
00:42:17
Speaker
And I think it's the job of a leader to do that, you know, um invest in people regardless, regardless. of where they are and, and um you know, whether they work for you or work for your company or or not.
00:42:34
Speaker
That's kind of, well, thank you for sharing as much as you have. It's been a pleasure to have you just be on the podcast. So again, thank you. Well, thank you. i appreciate it. That's been ah been a great conversation and you know, a lot of what I've shared with you, um you know, some of this stuff, you know, growing up, you know, I'll be honest. I mean, I used to be ashamed of telling people that I was homeless, but,
00:42:58
Speaker
Now I'm hoping that by sharing my story, that there's somebody out there that might hear that, you know, and realize that, you know what, you might, you might be going through a rough spot right now, but, um, you know, ah you know, what, what a Yogi Bearer say when you're going through hell, just keep going.
00:43:16
Speaker
Whatever you do, don't stop. Yeah. You know, one thing I'm going to look into the camera and I'm going to close this out. You know, I can't thank Edmund enough for being a part of this conversation. i learned so much just today and i I've known him for a while, but don't give up.
00:43:34
Speaker
Persevere. We're in a state of change. There's a lot of transformation going on and it won't get easier. This is going to require that you do it differently and you figure it out pretty quickly. So just keep that in mind.
00:43:47
Speaker
ah Risk will always be there, but I know there's a different lens on it nowadays. So stay focused, keep your eye on prize and keep upskilling. Thank you for joining me again on another episode of Balancing the Future.