Driven 4word
Driven 4word
Diane Paddison - Part 1
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Welcome to Driven 4word, an all-new podcast from 4word. We invite you to come along on this amazing ride each month as we share the life stories of influential leaders powered by God’s will. This month, we begin with the story of our founder, Diane Paddison.
Show notes: https://4wordwomen.org/podcast/
Learn more about 4word: https://4wordwomen.org
This is Driven 4word: Influential leaders powered by God's will, hosted by me, Jordan Johnstone. On this podcast, you will get a front row seat to aspirational life stories of leaders from a wide variety of workplaces each month, I'll interview a leader and get them to share their story from the beginning. Did they come from, how did they start down the road of their career and leadership journey? And now looking back, where do they see God and his will along the way. Driven 4word is a podcast by 4word. We are a global nonprofit organization started in 2011 to give professional Christian women a place to not feel alone. At the time of this recording, we are beginning our next decade in which we have set an organization wide goal to empower 10 million Christian women in the workplace to change the world by 2030. And what better way to empower than to share examples of real leaders making real change in the world. What if you could be an influential leader, imagine what your life would look like if it was powered by God's will. The good news is that you can be an influential leader and your life can be powered by the will of God. How do we know that? Because we've got some incredible stories of people just like you who've done it. So let's get the show on the road. Our first leader is someone near and dear to forward. In fact, she's the one who started it. It all Diane Patterson is a Harvard MBA , former global executive of two Fortune 500 companies and one Fortune, 1000 company, and serves as an independent director for two corporate and four not-for-profit boards. Anyone who meets Diane immediately picks up on her passion, her heart and her sincerity traits that have helped her since she was working on her family farm in Oregon. Join me as I sit down with Diane and let's learn about what has driven her forward in life. First question: what do you remember most about your childhood? Like when you think back on being a child, what's one of the first things that comes to mind?
Speaker 2Growing up on a farm in Harrisburg, Oregon . I remember two key things about my upbringing that I didn't really realize was a lot different than a lot of people until I left the farm in Oregon. And that was hard work. And I worked with my family every day . So my grandpa, my grandma, my mom, my dad, my siblings, even my cousins and my lifelong friends were a part of the farm labor force. So those are two things that I'll never forget: the hard work and that it was a big family business that we all worked together. It was very interesting. And then I'll just tell you one other little tidbit. I went to a four room school house . And when I tell my kids and they see that they are just kind of like, man, you are ancient <laugh> it's like they just saw Little House on the Prairie.
Speaker 1<affirmative> But I mean, that's, that's pretty cool though. You were in a pretty small town, right?
Speaker 2Yeah, so the town was actually 1200 people, but there were little country schools for the grade school that consolidated into the high school. So my graduating class of eighth grade were 13. My graduating class at high school was 48 . So that kind of gives you a sense of the size. And then, you know, the other thing that I thought about when I thought about the question of, you know, what did it look like, where you grew up, what was it like? And , um, I love the mountains. And again, I didn't realize that the whole world didn't look like the house. I grew up in looking out at the cascade mountains. Um, every morning when I woke up in the morning until I actually left Oregon, cuz I really hadn't been out of the state until, you know, late in my high school years. And I have a real love for looking at those mountains as you know, Jordan, because you have been to my house in Portland, Oregon. So we now look at the mountains from our house in Portland.
Speaker 1They are gorgeous. I love that area. So I would love to know how early in your life were religion and faith introduced to you and who introduced you?
Speaker 2You know, it's kind of like you grow up and you learn how to eat. You know, I grew up and all I remember is every Sunday we went to church I'm mean we went to Sunday school and I was involved with vacation Bible school. I was involved with youth group. My dad taught youth group for high school. And so it was just a part of our life. It was never even questioned unless you were sick that we weren't gonna go to church on Sunday. I , and that was just a part of even all of my relatives lives. Um, so faith was brought to me as I grew up from my parents from the beginning.
Speaker 1What did you want to be when you grew up?
Speaker 2So the funny thing is because I grew up in that little town and that farm environment , um, I really only knew a few things. I really knew farming. I was involved with 4H , and so I sewed all my clothes through high school. I also just knew about animals. So I knew about being a veterinarian , and I thought because I really enjoyed sewing and fashion and I did well in it (I won this national sewing contest) that I thought I would want to be in fashion merchandising.
Speaker 1So when you graduated and you went off to college, was that your first major you were going after?
Speaker 2I went to Oregon State and my major was fashion merchandising with a minor in business.
Speaker 1Is that the degree you ended up graduating with?
Speaker 2So I had always worked for my dad. I was sort of his right hand man every summer on the farm. And so I never really had a chance to work in fashion merchandising, but between my junior and senior year, I said, dad, I've got to go see if what I've been studying for three years is what I want to do. So I actually lived with my best friend's parents and worked in fashion merchandising that summer and realized I did not like it at all. <laugh> it was a little tough . I thought, I really love the business side, but I really don't like the fashion side. And I was very discouraged because I had paid my way through school and you know, scholarships and all this. And I went back to school and two of my dear friends who are still dear friends to day John Derek , who was a year younger than me and Dan Boyden, who's a year older than me. And I said, guys, I have just wasted three years of college and three years of college tuition money. What should I do? And they said apply to Harvard Business School and I had no clue what they were talking about. <laugh> to get your MBA and I just believe believed them . So I went home and typed up my little application on my typewriter and asked my parents to throw it in the mail for me. And I found out a few months later that I had been admitted to Harvard Business School to get my MBA. And that was what really changed my trajectory to the business world.
Speaker 1How many other women were in school with you?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it was really funny when I went back to , um, they had a 50th , um, for women who'd gone to Harvard business school and they had a group of us stand up who were in the first 20 years. And I couldn't believe that I was in the first 20 years of Harvard having women. Wow. So yeah, isn't that crazy? I graduated in 1985 and I was in the first 20 years. Wow. They had , uh , the first women that went there were right after mid sixties and I believe my class had about 25% women, which was pretty good for only being within the first 20 years, but still Harvard had a long way to go
Speaker 1<laugh> so you, you get your MBA and you're , you're about ready to start your business career when you went into it. I mean, what did you imagine your career would look like and did it actually end up starting off the way that you thought that it would? Yeah.
Speaker 2You know, it was , um, what was really wonderful is IBM was such a great company and a lot of companies that I went to , um , for my interviews out of Oregon state said, well, if you're gonna leave in two years and go to Harvard business school, you know, we're really not interested, but IBM said we are so interested, please move to New Jersey. We'd like to have you at the headquarters of one of our divisions and we'll will give you like five different experiences in two years. So that when you go to Harvard business school, you have a great background to , um, sort of have as your knowledge before you go. So after I graduated from Harvard business school, I really followed my priorities and I was married to a gentleman from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And so I moved to Tulsa out of Harvard business school. And as you can imagine, most of my classmates thought I had a big L in the middle of my forehead because they would ask me, where are you moving? You know, a lot of 'em were going to New York or LA or London, where are you moving and who are you going to work for? And I said, well, I'm moving to Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I actually don't know what I'm gonna do. <laugh> wow . But fortunately I found a job with , um , urged and young and moved into their consulting practice when I got to Tulsa.
Speaker 1Awesome. So what role did you imagine your future family would play in your life? I mean, when you were at Harvard business school and you know, just in college in general, and you're thinking about the future, you know, where do , did you see family in your life? And then would you say that reality met your expectations?
Speaker 2Yeah, well, I would say there was, there was a big bump along the road, which I'll share a little bit later, but , um, you know, when I look at my life today and the, the marriage I have with Chris, our blend did family with four grown adult children. And now two amazing granddaughters. I mean, it totally has surpassed my expectations of what my family would be like, but I do know it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of times there are bumps in the road .
Speaker 1What is one word that you would use to describe your career journey?
Speaker 2Fulfilling?
Speaker 1That's a good one. <laugh> so what was the point in your career where you look back and you go, yes, that, that's where I made it.
Speaker 2You know, from a worldly perspective, I thought that when I became , uh , the COO of Tramel Crow company, which is a fortune 500, and then I became , uh , in a , on the global executive team of Tramel Crow and C B R E once they purchased us, which is a fortune 500. And then also Prologis with the , I thought that that was , um , the pinnacle that I, that I really thought I had made it, but now I'm in the most fulfilling from a total spiritual, relational , um, and professional perspective after founding forward. Um , because I received texts and I'll just read one. I just got day before yesterday. Um, this text said, good morning, Diane, thank you for everything you do to bring God into the world of work. And for all that you do you to support the women of forward forward is a blessing to all of us. And that's what fulfills me is when I know that the work that I've been called to do now is actually changing people's lives in a major
Speaker 1Way. Next time on driven forward, Diane shared is about when she felt the most out of water. If she's ever doubted where God led her in life and how she hopes people will remember her. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe and leave us a review to let us know what you think. If you wanna learn more about Diane and forward, you can visit women.org/podcast . That's the number four w O R D w O M E n.org/podcast . Thanks for listening.