How Mentors Empower Women

4 Word  

Work, Love, Pray:  Practical Wisdom for Professional Christian Women and Those Who Want to Understand Them 

Bill Hendricks: 
Welcome, I'm Bill Hendricks, the executive director for Christian Leadership at The Hendricks Center, and it's my pleasure to have you join us here on The Table podcast, where we discuss issues of God and culture. And I'm going to narrow down the specific audience that we're targeting with this particular podcast. You're a Christian, you're a woman, and you're in the workplace. And the question is, what do you do when your coworkers are not Christians and all your Christian friends are not in the workplace? 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
To help us begin to answer that question, we have Diane Paddison with us, who is the founder and executive director for an organization called 4Word. And just to check the boxes here, Diane, you are a Harvard MBA. You have been an executive with three rather prominent names in the corporate world, CBRE, CB Richard Ellis, Prologis, and Trammell Crow. You are married, you have four children and one grandchild, and you are passionate about following Christ, and in the interest of full disclosure, Diane is also an advisory board member with The Hendricks Center. I want to welcome you today, Diane. We've been talking about doing this podcast for a while. I'm so glad we're finally getting to do it. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Thank you, Bill. I'm honored to be here, and I know we're going to have fun. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah, absolutely. So before we get into 4Word, I'm just curious, I think you describe yourself in your book as a farm girl. So how did you get from middle, Heartland of America, to the corporate suite? Walk that journey for us. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah, it's a great question. Growing up on a farm arm and really never leaving the state of Oregon, I went to Oregon State University. And this thread will run throughout, I'm sure, the time that we talk together today, but it was having some trusted advisors, if you will, alongside me in college, that when I told my dad, "I really can't come home this summer and be your right hand man, if you will, on the farm, I need to do what I've been studying to do." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And I did that, and I decided, "You know what, I really don't like this part of the fashion industry, but I love the business side." So I came back to my trusted advisors, John and Dan, and said, "What do I do?" And they said, "You need to apply to Harvard business school." And I just said, "Okay." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And I applied. And that took me from Oregon to Boston. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So you just never know what God has planned, and you just follow those advisors. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Had you thought about the business world for a long time? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, I grew up in a family business. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Okay. Yeah. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So I was used to business. I had never thought that my degree would be specifically business, because I was thinking the fashion merchandising side. So I knew it wasn't going to be the design. It was going to be more the business side. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
But I never thought about Harvard Business School until my friends told me I need to apply. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, it's a dangerous question, of course, I did Harvard undergraduate, not the MBA program, but how was your experience there? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
It was great. I'll tell you, some of my dearest friends are those that I made. And I actually serve on the Harvard Business School Christian Fellowship Alumni Association Board. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Good for you, that's fantastic. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So I'm still involved. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, excellent. So in 4Word, you're bringing together at least two, probably more, of my favorite life theme topics. One is the integration of faith and work, and the other is mentoring, and you're trying to help women, as you put it, navigate faith, family, career, okay. So faith, family, career. Help us understand, what's the dynamic that you're at with those three, particularly as it relates to women? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Well I was just researching some statistics I shared when I had founded 4Word that have even gone much higher than they were about 10 years ago. But women are 66% of the… They do 66% of the caregiving today, and that was done by a organization that's all around caregiving. They are now 54%, in a household, 54% they're the primary breadwinner. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So they've got this career side, they've got the caregiving side. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
It's a double load there. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. And then of course those that care about their faith, which just even rough statistics, women, 70 to 80% of women say faith is important to them. So intersecting those three things was what 4Word was founded to be about, to really help women around all parts of their life, and really their whole life. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And you, I guess from the early, maybe from the beginning, you particularly went in the direction of mentoring, is that right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yes. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Which I love. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
How did you realize that was such a key part? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Well at Trammell Crow and CBRE, I was very focused with our executive team of making sure we brought women into the industry, and also people of color. And one of the ways that we felt like we could really make that happen better was to have, we called it a Rising Star Mentor Program, where they had mentors that were executives in the company. And we found that to be very successful in bringing in, and keeping, and providing progress in their careers. I also helped implement a mentoring program in the national organization called Commercial Real Estate Women. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Okay. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And we did that three years, and that was really successful. So when I started 4Word in 2011, I knew it was going to be really important. I didn't know exactly when we were going to start it, because I needed to get the organization off the ground. But in summer of 2013, we started our mentor program. And we are just grateful today to say that 650 pairs have gone through our 10 week mentor program. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. That's fantastic. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And just the results of what the outcomes are, are life changing. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Tell me a little bit more about those results. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Some of the stories you've seen. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, I'll share some stories, but first I'll share the four key things. We hired a third party research firm to really be able to summarize the key outcomes. And they, from a faith perspective, women increase their use of biblical principles in decision making at work. So that was one. Around relationships, they deepened relationships at work and outside of work. The third around their work, they aligned their priorities with their aspirations. And then the fourth, which ties in with the mission of 4Word, is they grew in their confidence. And our mission statement is to help women reach their God given potential with confidence. But just some amazing stories. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
We had Liz Bohannon, which some of you may have heard of Liz, who founded Sseko Designs in 2011. And she came to our mentor program in 2016, and her mentor Julie helped her totally change her distribution model from boutiques to the multilevel marketing, where it was in home parties, like you and I might remember Tupperware. Well, Julie had access to three CEOs of multilevel marketing companies like Origami Owl and Beauty Control, and it just helped Liz totally skip through a lot of mistakes. And now, you fast forward to 2020, if Liz wouldn't have changed that business model, and she did some other things when COVID hit, Sseko may not be around today, which Sseko has enabled around 150 women to attend college in Uganda, because of that company. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's great. Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So that's really from a professional side, but there's some amazing stories from a faith and from a personal side, too. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, I know anybody who's in business, and I think this is all part of, what in our faith we would call the sanctification process. If you're in business, your faith's going to get tested because you inevitably face some tough choices. You face some tough circumstances. You have no end of things that are going to cause you to question your competence. And all of those begin to work, and not necessarily in positive ways, on your faith. So you're talking about not being alone in that journey. You're talking about having somebody who's particularly been there, and then walking alongside you as you're trying to figure out what to do, right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Right. And I was just reading a study done by Lean In and McKinsey. And they said that women in general care about flexibility and career progression. And when you get to career progression, mentoring is the number one way to help women progress in their career. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Interesting. I can believe that. I can believe that. I know that I do, as you know, a lot of consulting with knowledge workers. And let's face it, the vast majority of people in the work world today are knowledge workers. And it's interesting that I'd say most of the time when I get approached by somebody, the kinds of questions they're asking, they always seem to come back to some form of the statement, "I don't know what to do here." Right? I mean, if it's an information issue, they can go look that up on the internet, right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
But it's like, "I've got to hire somebody and I'm not exactly sure how to go about that, or who to hire." "I've got to make a decision and I'm not quite sure how to make that decision." "I've got to in bring in some change in my organization, and I'm not exactly sure how to do that." So if you've got a trusted advisor, a confidante, mentor, that just gives you a huge advantage. Not because they have all the answers, but because they can say, "Well, it's okay that you don't know what to do here, because frankly nobody's ever faced this exact circumstance before, because you're unique and this circumstance is unique. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
"So this is the first time anybody's faced it. But others have faced similar circumstances. Let's think about what they've done and see if we can learn from them. As I put myself in your shoes, I would think about asking these kinds of questions, and here's some resources you might want to check out. Armed with that, why don't you go think through what you're going to do, but I'll walk with you in this and we'll see what happens, and what we can learn from it." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Exactly. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Is that basically what these… 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Exactly. We say to our mentors, you have three key roles. You're there to listen, provide options, and help the mentee with their blind spots. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. Talk more about those blind spots. There's always part of us that we live inside our skin and we can't see. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Well, you're an expert in this. I'll tell you, I'll give you one example that I even learned this week. So I'm just such a believer in strength finders, and really understanding your strengths, and where you're gifted, and putting yourself in a place where your gifts are used well, and looking at others as a place to use their gifts well. So we were blessed us to be on Fox 4 on Saturday, and my COO said, "Hey, Diane, there's this Fox 4 interview." And I said, "Let's have Heidi do the interview." And she said, "Okay." And I'll tell you what, because Heidi is so great on the camera, and just a great communicator. The response we've gotten from Heidi being on that Fox 4, and I have the ability then, because it wasn't me, to say, "Look at what amazing Heidi did." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
It just showed me, you made the right decision to not use your strengths, which are not as great as Heidi's in that situation. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
I hope you're not telling me, "Oh, Bill, you should have had Heidi here today, not me." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, you may want to have Heidi sometime. She's great. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
No, but what a great thing, that you were able to elevate the strengths of somebody else. That you don't have to feel like you got to do everything. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Yeah. That's a huge part, right, of delegation. I mean, we even saw that in Moses' case, that he had to learn to delegate. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
You mentioned this, I love this phrase, helping women in the workplace reach their God given potential with confidence. Say more about that confidence piece, because that's not the first time I've heard one of the things many women particularly need is something to build their confidence. Tell me more about that. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
That came up all the time in the corporate world for me, and I'll give you a specific story. So when I was with Trammell Crow, our largest client was Bank of America, and it was time for me to change out our account team. It wasn't because they were doing a bad job, but we needed new energy, new ideas. And so we put the account manager and the assistant account manager's job descriptions out for people to apply. And I looked at the applications that came in, and I realized no woman has applied. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, my second largest account was run by a woman. So I went to her, and her name's Lisa, and she's given me permission to share this story. So I said, "Lisa, why are you not applying? You're doing a great job around the American Express." She looked at me sincerely and said, "Diane, do you really think I could do that job?" And I said, "Absolutely." Well, she went on to apply. She became the deputy alliance director. I mean, she's fantastic. But I saw it a lot, and there were a lot of times I needed to really prompt women who would typically hold back, and they did an amazing job. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
So where do you think that comes from? Is that a socialization thing, or have we educated girls to grow up and think that, "Oh, I could never do that." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
That's a great question. I wish I was a psychologist in that whole area. I do think a little bit of it is that. I'll tell you, this was a great story. We just did a podcast on February 9th with Lori Joe Brown, who's an executive with American Express. And she grew up in the Bronx. She did the best she could with the resources she had. She was going to school at the same time. And she said she was just blessed to become an executive assistant at American Express. Well, there was a gentleman American Express that asked her, "Would you be my executive assistant for a year? And I guarantee you, I will have the opportunity to promote you into a position." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And she talked to about this, even to this day, she says, "That man is still my mentor." So I think it may be partly socialization. It may be partly that we have a tendency to help those that look like us. And so the fact that this gentleman took the interest in Lori, and Lori's a woman of color, and, she is just doing an amazing job. She's one of my board members now, which I'm so honored to have her on our board. So I don't know where it all comes from. I know I was so blessed, because when people say, "How do you get the confidence you have?" I woke up every day with my mom saying to me, "You can be president of the United States if you want to be." And then my dad just put me in big roles as a teenager. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Gave you a lot of responsibilities. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Gave me tons of responsibilities. So- 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That was wonderful. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. So if you see my strength finders, self-assured is one of my strength finders, which I wish I could help more women have that. That's one of our goals of 4Word. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. I can see that. Honestly, Diane, I think when we talk about confidence, I believe that there actually is a spiritual dimension to that. Because it's really a sense of your own worth, and what you believe you're capable of. And I think it would be, again, in the same slogan, women reaching their God-given potential, which as you know, my whole specialization is on people's giftedness, their strengths, what they're born to do. And so God-given potential, it absolutely is God given, to his glory, we're made in his image, and each person he's made uniquely to make a contribution to the world. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
But so many people that I've run into, they lack confidence in their strengths, or they don't know what their strengths really are, but even when they do, they devalue them. And I think there's a spiritual dimension in the sense that frankly, I think we have an enemy of our soul who does not want to see that potential realized. So I hear these stories about these women, and celebrate the ones who, thanks to mentoring, thanks to the Holy Spirit working in their hearts, and opening up doors of opportunity. But I think of all the women out there that are… if I could put it this way… they are underperforming and therefore under-fulfilling what their real potential is. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And so what you're doing is helping to unleash the captives, if you will. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
In many ways. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, and I just see there's so many great examples that we have in the Bible. I mean, you look at Lydia, right? She was a cloth merchant. Paul came to her, converted her, she was in a situation which was very risky. She started a church in her house. But she had this confidence and what she was doing was using her giftedness, business-wise, to really grow God's kingdom, and had such an impact. And so you just multiply that. If we could have millions of Lydias, what would that do? 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, the way to get millions of Lydias is that we need hundreds of thousands of mentors, right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And so let's just jump to the other side of that equation. We've talked about a lot of the women that have been mentored. I can imagine you've run into what I've run into when I start to talk with people about mentoring, and they're like, "Oh, I could never do that. I'm not smart enough. I've made so many mistakes. I'm too old," all those kinds of things. What do you do to get past that and say, "Oh no, you're the perfect person." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and we are so blessed. We have about 225 mentors in our pool, and one of the things we did was we set it up as a 10 week program, so that there was a beginning and an end. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Good. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And we laid out clearly the expectations and a framework. They don't have to follow the framework perfectly, if they need a veer off one way or the other, but there's framework there so they feel like they- 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
It's not all on them to make it work. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
They've got a game plan to work with. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
They've got a game plan. And we say, "In this 10 weeks, we need you to meet with a mentee seven times." And so they know it's a seven hour commitment. So all of sudden the whole excuses around I don't have time, that goes away. And then to the second area, which you alluded to is, "I've made mistakes. I couldn't do that. I'm not that great at it." We have women that do it one time, and they get hooked. They realize, "Wow. God really used me in this situation." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
I can do this. We're back to that confidence issue. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Oh, I guess I can do this. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Yeah. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And what do you do to resource your mentors? Keep them fresh and in the game. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. So my manager of the mentor program, her name is Trina Lee. And so we have this framework around, what's your values, your personal vision statement, what are your goals around relational, professional and spiritual, and then what's your action plan around all those. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So that's a real simple description of our framework, but then every week Trina is sending out the latest articles, or the latest- 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Best practice? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. And she just encourages them every week. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Cheerleading. Yeah. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And we have a opening call with just the mentors and just the mentees, to train them and share expectations. And then at the end we have a closing call where the mentors and mentees share, what did I learn or what was the biggest impact? And on those calls, we always say, yeah, we had one that broke down in tears again. So you just see these stories, and I think that just encourages them to just keep doing it. Because they see the impact. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
So here's a double sided question for you personally and professionally. What do you most appreciate about the people who've been mentors in your life, and what has been the highlight for you? The best thing for you about mentoring other women? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Oh, that's a great question. Boy, I've had some amazing mentors, from my mom and dad, to Dan and John that I mentioned at college. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
The two guys. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And they also were the two that told me, "You need to go to work for Trammell Crow." I mean, so they're still in my life today. So I would just say probably all of them have just been willing to share resources, or share ideas that maybe I didn't think about. I mean, I could even look at one of our advisory board members said to me today, "Hey Diane, where's that Fox 4 TV. It should be on your homepage." I'm like, "Jason, great idea. Thank you." It was so obvious. So I just learn all the time from these trusted advisors, and they're just… And then they become just dear trusted friends too, which is so wonderful. I think of Don Williams, CEO of Trammell Crow as my mentor, and Bob Buford at Halftime was my mentor when I started 4Word. And then when I have the chance to help a mentee, and I'll share one example, because this is a gentleman. So Lopez Lomong is a lost boy of Sudan. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Okay. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And I always say I was his warmup act, at a speaking deal at a Christian conference at Oregon State. And when he finished, and told his story, I said, "Oh my goodness Lopez. Can I take you to lunch and learn more about you?" 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
It's an amazing story, those guys. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. I mean, so he was an Olympian, still is running, ran Saturday night in Boston. But we went to lunch and he started, I said, "I've heard your story about running and how you escaped from being killed in South Sudan and got to Kenya, and got adopted by a family in New York. And I hear about your running goals, but tell me what you're really passionate about." And he said, "I just want to give back to those kids in South Sudan." And I said, "Do you want some help with that?" And he said, "Yeah." So by the time we left lunch, I had eight to-dos on my list. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Helping out. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
But I said, "You need to start a foundation." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
"You need to write a book. Your story's amazing. Let me talk to my friend, Kevin Jenkins, who heads up World Vision internationally," that was at the time, "because I think there's something here." And so I called Kevin, who was in London and I said, "Hey, Kevin," told him the story about Lopez. I said, "You have a lot of people, serving in South Sudan. You'd love to bring along donors that are tied to professional athletes, right? That you maybe don't have." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And Lopez would be able to give back to these kids, and these kids, the key goal is these kids would benefit. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So he said, "Let me get back to you." So he got his chief palace officer, Steve Pause, and I in touch with each other. And all I did was connect Lopez and Steve. Well, seven years later, Team South Sudan, Hood to Coast, for World Vision has raised $7 million for the kids in South Sudan. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
There you go. Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So you just don't know what God's going to do with it, but you take what he's given you and your connection and you share it with others, and then you let your mentees. And so, I just tell you, Lopez just treats me like his little buddy, and he's a gold medal Olympian. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. Well, one thought that occurs to me with that story, Diane, is I know that many people, the excuse that they give for not having a mentor is they say, "I don't know how to find one." Okay. And the wonderful thing about Diane and 4Word is they've taken that problem off the table. If you're a woman, you can go to 4, that's the numeral 4, 4wordwomen.org. 4wordwomen.org. And they can basically, they have a form. You can raise your hand and say, "I'm looking for a mentor." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And you have a process of pairing them up with somebody that'll be a good fit, and so they don't have to like gin up the courage to go, "I got to go have a hard conversation with somebody and please would you mentor me?" And all the tension, you've taken all that off the table. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Exactly. Exactly. And we do it in classes. So we do three classes a year. We just kicked off class 29. And I believe our next deadline is May 7th of 2022. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And that will be our summer class, and then Trina receives the mentors available and the mentees' applications, and she prayerfully matches them. And some of the stories that come out at the end, we never knew what was going, when she did the pairing. So you can see God is totally in it. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Pretty amazing. God's at work. And there's not, I mean, yes, there's these mentoring relationships. But what I'm hearing is there's a broader community that a person is now connected to both physically, but also online. Tell us a little bit about that. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. So we do our mentor program, our second thing we do is community groups. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And in 27 locations, we meet, now back to face to face. Some are still Zoom. But what's really amazing through COVID, we changed all of our community groups to Zoom meetings, our attendance went up 66%. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And it's because women didn't have to deal with childcare issues, traffic, what if I go and I don't really like it? It's a lot easier to hit "leave" on Zoom than it is to walk into someplace face to face. And now we've started a global virtual community group. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Oh, that's wonderful. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So we have women on from the UK, from Korea. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's fantastic. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. And so they're a part of a community and there's some of them that say, "I don't even make a hard decision without getting the advice of the women that I've really gotten to build a great relationship with 4Word." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. Well, and then, I'm guessing layered over top of that, if you will, and around that, the advice, but also the prayers of other people, which is so important. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Yeah. Yeah. We start everything in prayer and close it in prayer, even our team. Whatever we're working on this morning, we were working on our COVID protocol for the gala, and we prayed before we started. And we just want to be sure we're always bringing the holy spirit into it, whatever we're doing 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Absolutely. Well, and for a woman to know that there's this mentor, who's praying for me, on a daily, weekly basis, like, "I'm not alone in this thing." 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Now your own background is very much from the corporate world. Is the predominant demographic of women who are part of 4Word corporate, or is it beyond that? Is it other professions and occupations? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. It's really fun. And I was sharing this a little bit with one of the DTS students I met as I was walking up here, is we have a community group for women in the military. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Oh. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
We have a community group for C-suite women, because a lot of C-suite women feel very alone, and they don't know there's other women who are believers who are running companies. So that's just been an amazing, I mean we've already sold out of our C-level forum this summer. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's fantastic. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So it's just amazing what God's doing with it. And we have women that are coming right out of school. Monica Davey will be sharing her story in a couple weeks, that talks about, she graduated, she drove to Texas and she was looking for a job when COVID hit. And then she became a part of our mentor program, and what Sophia did to help Monica… So there's Monica who just got out of college. So we have women of all ages, of all professions, that are involved with 4Word. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's great. Well, I must spend some time on the book that you've written, Work, Love, Pray. I was curious how you came about writing that book. What was it that motivated you to write that book? The story behind the story? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. Back to mentors. So when I felt God calling me to start a ministry for women in the workplace, and I had done all my homework, I knew the statistics supported it. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Oh I'll bet you had the business plan nailed. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
I wanted to help someone, and there were only three that were individual in each city. There was no one that had a vision of global, or even across the United States. But we always wanted to partner. So I thought, "Okay, I think I'm supposed to do this." And so I went to Halftime, and my Halftime course, at dinner, Bob Buford, sat next to me, and he said, "Tell me what you're thinking." And I just shared the story about the statistics, and that there were no other marketplace ministries led by women for women, beyond one city. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And he looked at me, because he knew Don Williams. So he had heard about me. And he said, "Diane, I know you can build organizations, but you got to write a book." And I looked at him and I said, "That will be a total miracle from God, Bob, because I hate to write." And he said, "Would you like me to help you with that?" And I said, "Sure." So he introduced me to the editor of this division of Harper Collins and she said, "I want to do this book." And he introduced me to a ghost writer. That was how it happened. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, that's wonderful. And how did you know what to put in the book? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
When Lynn and I sat down, I just started telling my story. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
There you go. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And we just, he started saying, "Well, gosh, this sounds like it could really address issues of when you hit hard times, or this could address, what do you do in your childbearing years?" And I mean, he was such a talented writer. He knew how to put it into a lifelong story, but also have it be segmented, so it made sense into different topics. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. The chapters of your life, as it were. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
So it's a life message book, is really what it is, right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Just God gives us all a story, right? 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And we can use those stories to help others either learn from where we either made bad to decisions, or hit low times, or where we were fortunate and were blessed and- 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And God showed up. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yep. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Where God showed up. Wow. I'm curious, on the back side of that, is there another book that you're just dying to write? Do you have another message? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
I do get asked that question a lot. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Percolating in there. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So what we actually did, and a couple of the professors here at DTS are in it, Sue Edwards is one of them. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Oh, wonderful. Excellent. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
But in 2017, Broad Street came to us and said, "We've never done a devotional for women in the workplace and we want 4Word to do it." And I said, "You know what? We have a lot of amazing women. I don't want it to be me. I want it to be a big group." So we had 188 women. This devotional is called Be Refreshed, A Year Long Devotional for Women in the Workplace. And so I love doing things in collaboration. So it was really great to have all these women give their stories as a part of it. They're very short stories because I was also very focused that these women are crazy busy, and you got five minutes. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Exactly. At most. It's got to be something they can down a Starbucks with. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Exactly. And then the other thing that I've just been so blessed with is the women that are involved with 4Word. So one of the books that I was actually looking at this morning called Working Women of the Bible was written by Susan DiMickele, and she's one of our C-level women out of Columbus, Ohio. Elizabeth Knox wrote a book called Faith Powered Profession, and she's out of Washington DC. So I always say, when any of our women say they're going to write a book, I always say, "Hey, if it helps you, if you want to use our type style or our little circle, or whatever makes sense for you, we'll just partner. And we'd just love to support what you're doing." And so I just find we have so many talented women who have stories to tell that I feel like telling their stories just really adds a lot, than me writing another book. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, wonderful. And yes, to include them in the fun is a wonderful thing. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And it sounds like that's really one of the values that you're working with here at 4Word, is that sense of inclusion. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Well, I'll tell you, there is no way we could have reached 750,000 women in our first 10 years without a huge team effort. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And just to do a little vision casting here, you're by no means saying that's all we're going to do. I think I saw a goal of vision around 2030. Do you still have that? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yes. Our big, hairy, audacious goal is to reach 10 million women in the workplace, to change the world by 2030. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's fantastic. Well, we'll pray to that end, Diane, and I certainly salute you in that effort of, for so many cultures in the world, women actually are, you mentioned 56, 54, whatever it was percent, breadwinners. Primary breadwinners here in the United States. But as you know, for many cultures around the world, women are really the backbone of the economy, for a variety of reasons. And so to know that somebody's speaking into that part of their lives, that work part of their lives, out of a context of faith and biblical values is fantastic. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, I just feel really blessed to do what I'm doing today. You can tell I have a little bit of energy behind it. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
You mentioned a moment ago childbirth, and it reminds me of a question that I wanted to bring up that really stems from our team at The Hendricks Center. Each year, we'll do a set of readings on a topic that we feel would help us be better at doing the work that we do at The Hendricks Center. Cultural engagement kinds of topics. And so a couple of years ago, we did a series of readings on issues that women face uniquely that are off the radar for men. Men never think about them because they don't have to think about them. A lot of them are biologically, like pregnancy, or breastfeeding, or menopause, or the menstrual cycle, or sadly, stillbirths, or a pregnancy that, for one reason or another, terminates. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Men don't even think about it. That's the space behind your head. You don't think about it until somebody points it out. And yet here you've got all these women doing their work, trying to be caregivers in their family, but they're also dealing with the vicissitudes of life, just as a woman. And I'm assuming, I'm guessing, that as much of the workplace issues as you come up with when women are facing that other side of life, the really personal side of life, because it's another woman that they're dealing with, they say, "I'm having a bad day." "Oh, well tell me about that." Is that the truth? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Oh, for sure. I would say the personal and spiritual outweighs the professional, because they feel so much like they have someone they can trust, and so they really open up quickly about all areas of their life and what they're dealing with. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. And trust, again, we find our way back to confidence. If I trust you, then I'm more confident to be vulnerable. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
And then you're in a position to be useful to me, and all the stuff we talk about in the New Testament, of our bonding in Christ and our fellowship in Christ, I mean, that becomes real at that point. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Exactly. And I think just tying it, too, back to, you mentioned men versus women. I think that that's the one thing that if I could say something that might be helpful to men, especially as we're in this world of the war on talent. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yes. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Having a very flexible mindset, so that woman can deal with the caregiving, or the housekeeping, because they do more of that than the man in typical case. And then also having this grace. I was just really blessed to have one of my team members, Jordan, in her fifth year, she's now going into her ninth year of working for 4Word, but she wrote me a note. And this was before COVID and I still carry it my purse. She said, "Diane, I never thought I would have the opportunity to work in a place where I feel like I'm doing what God has called me to do, and at the same time I'm able to be a good wife and a good mother." 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And that's exactly what I think women need in the workplace. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Absolutely. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
They need places where we're really living out the second greatest commandment, which is, "Love your neighbor as yourself." So that if someone has a unexpected event, that that's dealt with in love, and they're going to be loyal beyond what you can believe when you do that. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Absolutely. Well, if that's what she said, I'd like to meet that person's employer, because whoever is at the leadership of that organization has obviously set up a culture which is setting the work up for the people doing the work to thrive. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Yeah. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. Which is what we need to be doing as Christians. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Any Christian who's in a position of influence, who… An owner, a CEO, a C-level person, you have significant influence over what we call the culture of the organization. How things operate around here. You just have a wonderful opportunity to literally affect the souls of the people doing the work by the way you set up the work, right? 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. For sure. And just looking at results rather than face time. I mean, I can share a great story of my own, personally, from Trammell Crow and CBRE. So Mike Lafitte was my boss for probably the last eight years I was there. And there were two things that, when I thought about coming here today, I thought, "I have some real personal examples." I told Mike, "My family's my priority beyond my work, and we both share the first priority, which is being Jesus followers." And I said, "So my travel, I need a limit to one night a week." Well, it was part of my performance plan. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Yeah. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
So he and I, that was part of my bonus was: did I limit myself to one night a week? 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Wow. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And when the opportunity came up to apply to be the head of global sales, I let it pass by because I knew it wouldn't match with my priorities. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Right. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And another time- 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
That's the whole thing you mentioned about you getting your priorities in alignment with your aspirations. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Right. Right. Another time, this is later, my son was making some bad decisions, and I went to Mike and said, "Hey, we have two options. I can either resign, or you can allow me to take a 10 week sabbatical and really focus on my son. And you don't have to pay me, and I'll be back." And he said, "Well, of course, we're going to do number two." So just being in a work environment like that was just amazing. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, Diane Paddison, I want to thank you for being with us today and telling us about 4Word, and your work, and your whole team's work. This is a wonderful thing you're doing here, and may God bless you in this endeavor. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
Well, thank you. We're all in this together, right? 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
We are in this together. 
 
Diane Paddison: 
And I love the work of DTS and what you're doing at The Hendricks Center, and it's really helped 4Word. 
 
Bill Hendricks: 
Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And if you've enjoyed today's podcast, I would invite you to subscribe here at The Table. Thank you for being with us, and have a good day.