717: Jackie Meyer is a CPA & World Traveler [podcast]

March 25, 2026·44 min·4 clips

John Garrett asks professionals, 'Who else are you beyond your job title?' to uncover hidden passions.

Jackie brings the Costa Rica and travel energy early. After the familiar who-else-are-you setup, John leaves enough room for Costa Rica, accountant life, and personal balance to all fit without making it feel like a hard turn. And yeah, somehow it works. The conversation gets most interesting when Jackie talks about trying to bring the things she loves into her work, especially innovation. That sounds great, and a little dangerous if work starts swallowing everything else. John catches that part and reflects it back: working and working, calling it success, then realizing the whole setup cannot hold. Jackie does not leave the story sitting there as a personal wake-up call. She turns it toward other accountants who may be chasing the same thin version of success. That is where The Balanced Millionaire comes in. She says the book grew out of wanting to help accountants avoid that pattern, and that it used to be called The Balanced Sheet of Life before she changed it because the old title mainly landed with accountants. The balance wheel comes up naturally. Jackie knows the idea, but she wants it to do more than point out where life feels uneven. So she adds goals. If finances are a ten, other parts of life may still be lagging, because money is not the only scorecard. Her fix is simple enough to use: find the lowest category, whether travel, health, or something else, then set one practical goal for the month or quarter. John clearly likes the plainness of that. The whole conversation keeps returning to one warm point: the other sides of a person matter as much as work, finances, and whatever they have been calling success. No big reinvention needed. Just one part of life, one micro goal, and enough honesty to admit the job title was never the whole story.

As heard by us

A grounded conversation about work, balance, and the parts of life that get crowded out.

Jackie Meyer’s conversation on What's Your And? looks at what changes when work stops being the whole answer. It starts with life in Costa Rica, then moves through accounting, innovation at work, and the strain of treating success as a single track.

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Why you'd press play

An accountant in Costa Rica talks balance, travel, and why success can feel lopsided.

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