Building a Purpose-Driven Workplace featuring Patty Croom

Patty Croom [: 00:00:00

The Dream Manager program is an act of kindness because as one person dreams, they share that with others, and then other people start considering what they can dream about. And even if they're not part of the program, it creates those new, those new thoughts.

Kate Volman [: 00:00:17

This is another episode about The Dream Manager. We invited Patty Croom back onto the show. She is the HR Director for Lehan's. They implemented the program about two years ago. So we wanted to invite Patty back onto the show to talk about the impact the program is having in their organization, the dreams that are being achieved, and really just all the goodness that's going on at Lehan's. We are so excited for them and everything that they are doing over there with The Dream Manager. So I hope you enjoy this episode. Patty, thank you so much for coming back.

Kate Volman [: 00:00:53

You're back on the show for the second time.

Patty Croom [: 00:00:56

I am. Thank you, Kate. So good to see you again.

Kate Volman [: 00:01:00

So good to see you. I'm very excited about this conversation. We have chatted with you. We've also talked to Jenelle on your team, who is a certified Dream Manager as well. So we've kind of gotten to know a lot more about Lehan's over the past two years after you implemented The Dream Manager program. And we wanted to have you back on the show to really just talk about your experience with The Dream Manager, and you've been running it for two years now. So let's talk about what. What it's been like over these past couple of years.

Kate Volman [: 00:01:29

We want some updates from you.

Patty Croom [: 00:01:32

So we've had about 48 people go be part of the program. We are a small company, about 88 individuals that are part of our team. So we've seen quite a few go through, and we continue to see just great involvement and people really, really embracing the program. So we recently put together a video that highlights The Dream Manager program, some of the individuals that have gone through the program, and the impact that the program has had on their lives.

Kate Volman [: 00:02:05

It's such a touching video. We're going to include it at the end of this episode so people can get a little bit of a feel for some of the dreamers that have gone through the program and the impact it's had on them. So. So stay tuned for that at the end of this episode. It's really beautiful, and we love hearing the dreams that are achieved from the individuals that go through the program, obviously, and just the impact that has in an organization like, you don't really fully grasp a program like The Dream Manager and how it impacts people in the deepest, most profound ways to help them show up in the world differently in their personal lives and their professional lives. And it's a beautiful thing. And you've had so many people go through the program, and you've seen and helped a lot of people achieve their dreams. So what does that feel like for you to lead a team that.

Kate Volman [: 00:03:02

That's really big part of the culture.

Patty Croom [: 00:03:05

I think for our. Our whole team, seeing that happen, hearing the stories, seeing it impact people, we're just very proud to be able to offer it to our staff. And I think that the testimonials that are in the video and then even some that are not part of it, when people talk about the program, they light up. Jenelle has. Has made a huge impact within the organization to team members individually and is just a joy for us to have on our team. And I love being part of it. I love that we were able to bring it in and offer it to our staff, and we get to see people coming in excited about the program, excited about the things that they're pursuing. So that's been amazing.

Kate Volman [: 00:03:48

You and Jenelle are both certified Dream Managers. You are the HR Director, so you oversee that as well as obviously, you're doing a lot of things as the HR Director. As many of our. As many of the people that we work with, they. It's not the only thing that they do in that role. Talk about some of the things that you and Jenelle, in working together and collaborating, have discovered, implementing this program, some of the things that you've done to just make sure that people have the opportunity to be part of it and then make sure that people are fully engaged and getting the most out of the program.

Patty Croom [: 00:04:23

So Jenelle and I meet weekly. We talk frequently about the program specifically and the initiatives that are going into it. She holds Dream Sessions for the whole team. Everyone's invited. She also creates a weekly question of the Week on Fridays for the team. They're very fun. They're engaging. It's not just the people in The Dream Manager program, it's the whole company.

Patty Croom [: 00:04:50

So she does a good job of creating questions that engage everybody. And she is so good at welcoming people and listening and making them feel comfortable. I think that she's just able to show up so genuinely as herself, and this is kind of the heart of who she is. Right. She's a caring person who wants people to show up better, to fulfill their dreams, to be able to chase the things that light them up, but also to work through things that maybe are difficult, those obstacles that they have and she's able to ask great questions. She's able to sit quietly and listen and just really engage everyone. So she's really the heart and soul of this program for our organization. And, you know, I'm the support person for her when she has questions, when she has struggles, and she has a great network also, with Floyd being able to reach out when she has questions.

Patty Croom [: 00:05:47

Some of the other people we went through The Dream Manager program with, she's still in close contact with. So there's collaboration with the program and bringing initiatives in and being able to bounce those ideas off of others. We also have Suter company right next door to us in the town over. So we actually have a meeting coming up with them to just talk and kind of see where they're at, what they're doing. Is there anything we can pull from them? Is there anything that we do differently? What does it look like for us? Because every company has their own culture, their own kind of way that they maneuver. And so The Dream Manager program may look a little bit different in each one, but we just continue to try to make sure that it meets the needs of our team.

Kate Volman [: 00:06:33

That's awesome. We just love hearing when Dream Managers are working together, just having those conversations, talking about the program, talking about the impact. And even though you have all the tools and resources that you need for the program, it's interesting to see everyone kind of puts their own. They kind of take it and make it their own and in certain ways in. In which they engage with their employees. And so it's fun that that Dream Managers have that opportunity to work together and almost talk about best practices and what are they doing, what are they seeing, what are they experiencing? And. And that's important for us to be able to do is to provide that type of community. A lot of leaders ask us about the roi.

Kate Volman [: 00:07:17

You know, what's the ROI of this program? So how are you looking at measuring the roi? I know you guys do some engagement surveys.

Patty Croom [: 00:07:25

We do engagement surveys. We've done them before. We brought in The Dream Manager program for us. Of course, we want to see employee retention and all of those things. As an HR director, I want to see employee retention high and. And all of that. But I think for us, we see the impact of The Dream Manager program in our engagement surveys. How people are showing up, how they view the company, the culture, how they're connecting with others, we see that, their fulfillment.

Patty Croom [: 00:07:53

But also we see that in other ways. We see that they're talking about The Dream Manager program. We. We see how they. They stay with the company, and they continue to encourage others to join, to dream, to. To continue to grow. So I think that that's, for us, that's where the ROI is seen in our culture. Our engagement survey, we have just seen those responses improving, kind of sitting where we'd like to see them, whether that's how our teams are connecting with their leads, how they're feeling about being able to show up as their true, authentic selves within the company.

Patty Croom [: 00:08:32

I think those are the really important things when you look at a company and how their culture is going. Can people show up as their true, authentic selves? Are they engaged in the programs that we have? We have philanthropy programs. We are, you know, we have The Dream Manager program. How are they able to show up? Are they showing up? And we see continued engagement, and that's increasing over the years, and certainly since we put Dream Manager in place, isn't.

Kate Volman [: 00:09:00

It so cool to know that there are still organizations like yours that care about their people enough to implement The Dream Manager? And then to say something like, we want our people to show up authentically themselves and be able to help them grow, leverage their superpowers so that they are doing great things in their own lives, and then when they come to work, you guys get to do great things together. That is such a beautiful thing to be able to do. And as a leader, as a coach, as a Dream Manager, that's a gift that you're giving each one of your dreamers that come through. And the fact that you're doing things just throughout the organization, even if you only have a specific number of people going through the program, it's cool to see that it still impacts the overall culture of the organization.

Patty Croom [: 00:09:55

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that when you bring in the program, it can feel odd, maybe at first for people, they're like, what is this thing that's happening? What is a Dream Manager? And we've seen staff members who were like, absolutely not. That's definitely not going to be for me, who start going, hey, Jenelle, can I talk to you a minute? Tell me more. And joining the program. So that speaks to Jenelle's abilities to connect with staff. It speaks to the culture of the company that everybody can continue to learn and grow and change their minds and try something new.

Kate Volman [: 00:10:33

Yeah, we love hearing that, too. That happens all the time. There are. There are some skeptics, and then all of a sudden their team members are going through and having their sessions, and all of a sudden they're like, wait a second. They're really loving this, and dreams are being achieved and good things are happening. Maybe. Maybe I do want to try it out.

Patty Croom [: 00:10:52

Right. Because maybe there's something to this after all.

Kate Volman [: 00:10:56

Oh, my God. Is there a particular story or dream that has been achieved or someone in the organization that was surprising to you or that was particularly moving, even just like a dream or two that you thought was really cool that someone was able to achieve this over the past year.

Patty Croom [: 00:11:14

One of our early dreamers wanted to buy and slip a house, and she achieved it. She worked towards it. She talked through it with Jenelle. She was able to go through. And she was one of the first people to complete the program with the company and still talks about it. And I think the great thing is as soon as you start dreaming and her name is Beth, and she would be fine with me sharing this, but as soon as you start dreaming and you complete a dream, that's a win. And you can build off of that, and you can start seeking out more dreams that you want to achieve, and you just start building that momentum. And so it becomes almost impossible to not dream.

Kate Volman [: 00:11:57

I love that. And, you know, the cool thing about dreams is once you start achieving them, the level of confidence that it brings. And this Beth, she is now able to. I mean, think about all the stuff that you learn from buying and flipping a house. Oh, my gosh, I don't even know. All the ins and outs of what you need to learn and negotiation and figuring things out and how do you do it, and all the research you have to do, all the people you need to meet and reach out to, and you're just gaining so many skills, and. And now you get to take those skills and then you move them on to this other dream that you have that maybe you never would have even had had you not done the house flipping. That's the cool thing about dreams is, like, sometimes it's one dream that leads you to another, one that you never would have even had had you not had these other experiences.

Patty Croom [: 00:12:45

Absolutely. And we've had people who just. Just building a budget. They've never done that before. And that's one of the early sessions with The Dream Manager. And oh, my gosh, I thought I couldn't take this vacation, or I thought I couldn't do this thing. But actually, now that I've buckled down my budget and looked at it and changed one thing, I can do this other thing. And so those are the.

Patty Croom [: 00:13:08

They're not always huge dreams. Right. They're not like, I've traveled around the world or done this thing, but they're all amazing in their own right because they move somebody forward and they. They give them permission to dream. And with their energy, they're telling other people, like, hey, I did this thing. I didn't think I could, but I've done this thing. And then it becomes contagious. It's the act of kindness.

Patty Croom [: 00:13:33

Right? The Dream Manager program is an act of kindness because as one person dreams, they share that with others. And then other people start considering what they can dream about. And even if they're not part of the program, it creates those new thoughts.

Kate Volman [: 00:13:48

Why does every company in the world need a Dream Manager?

Patty Croom [: 00:13:56

I think exactly for that reason. You empower people to dream, to grow, and to see your teams engaged and growing and gaining confidence because it impacts your confidence. You make a win, even if it's one of the small steps towards your dream. You continue to build on those dreams and you show up with more confidence. And when you show up with more confidence, you're able to create change even within your organization. You start seeing how you can show up and, hey, I've noticed this thing. I have a question about this. And so you can start impacting change throughout the organization, whether that's within your team, within processes.

Patty Croom [: 00:14:39

However, that goes with a new idea that, hey, what about this program? Maybe we could bring that in. You start to gain confidence, and you see your employees showing up and. And being engaged. And I think that's such a huge piece. They're not just going through the motions.

Kate Volman [: 00:14:55

Well, I know you achieved a very big dream of yours. I'm so excited for you. You published your book. Tell us about your book. I know lots of people have a dream of writing a book, and most people will never write it and. Or publish it. So you did both of those things. So tell us about that dream.

Patty Croom [: 00:15:15

Sure. I decided to write the book and publish it, but that was a long time coming. I had kind of a rough childhood, dealt with some things, and through my healing journey through high school, after I wrote a lot of poetry and so kind of stuffed those away in notebooks, went to a retreat later for adults who had been through pretty traumatic childhoods. And as part of my healing journey after that, started just writing down those moments that really impacted me that maybe sometimes held me down a little bit. And so I started putting them together, and I realized, hey, these are a lot of the same things that I've written poetry about. And so I started merging them together and then was kind of encouraged as I shared with my daughter or with my best friend or a couple of other close friends. These pieces of it, just little pieces, they'd be like, gosh, that's good. I think you should put it together.

Patty Croom [: 00:16:11

I think you should publish it. And I'm like, I don't know. And I ended up joining The Dream Manager program with Jenelle within our company. And this was my dream. And so in September, I turned 50, and on my 50th birthday, I was kind of sitting. It's been ready. It's been there. And Matthew said, I think it's Matthew.

Patty Croom [: 00:16:32

But maybe you repeated it at one point during one of the podcasts about the fact that when you're writing a book, you just have to decide that it's done, like, it's good enough. And I was sitting with my husband that night, and I was like, you know what? It is good enough. And I had done the preliminary stuff with publishing and all of that, and so I just got up and I hit publish. And then I immediately was like, oh, no, what have you done? Just stop and. But I couldn't unpause. Like, I couldn't stop the process. It was like, you have to wait 48 hours. And I was like, oh, well, I did the thing now.

Kate Volman [: 00:17:07

Oh, my gosh.

Patty Croom [: 00:17:09

Yeah. So I published a book, and it's there, and it's out in the world.

Kate Volman [: 00:17:14

It's out in the world for people to see and have and experience. And, yeah, that is a beautiful thing. You know, when I was writing my book and getting it all out, there's just a lot of emotions that you deal with. And I remember a lot of writers, that's what they talked about is. Is just at some point, you just have to decide that it's done. Because if you keep on looking at it, you're gonna wanna change it. And then, you know, you grow as a writer, just like you grow as a person. So the more that you read, the more that you write, you're just gonna go back to your work and then wanna redo all of it.

Kate Volman [: 00:17:48

And I don't know that I've ever met an author who hasn't said, oh, my gosh, I would have changed something about my first book, or I would have written it a little bit differently, or, you know, whatever it is. And so I find it so interesting that just any type of art is. You just have to decide it's done. And you can go back to something or you can go back to ideas, and you can create something new from it. And it can be challenging, you know, because of. We're human. So we have that idea of perfectionism or imposter syndrome or whatever those things are that we feel. So, yeah, hitting publish is one of the scariest things that you could do.

Kate Volman [: 00:18:30

But you did it.

Patty Croom [: 00:18:31

I did it. And one of the things that I had said was that I hope that my story can either empower someone or give them hope. That healing is where you. You can get to healing. You can be better. Life can be better. And since publishing it, I've had people reach out and tell me that, hey, you know, I read your story, and I had all of these things happen to me. But I believe that I can get through this.

Patty Croom [: 00:18:56

I believe that I can come out to a different outcome than what I see right now, even. And so that's been huge. Someone reached out and had never shared their story before and said that they had sat down and read my book. And the very next day, they ended up on TikTok sharing their story, or at least a small piece of it. So I think that, for me, that's the piece. Like, it's empowered somebody. It's given somebody hope. And that's.

Patty Croom [: 00:19:24

That's incredible.

Kate Volman [: 00:19:25

Oh, I love it. You know, it's. It's funny that we're having this conversation, because I just did another video, and I quoted Rick Rubin from his book The Creative Act, and he says it's helpful to work as if the project you're engaged in is bigger than you. And I'm like, oh, it's so good, right? Like, when you know that the project that you're working on is bigger than you, like your book, when you really believe that, it gives you a little bit more courage to push through the challenging times or to push through that idea of, oh, my gosh, it's not yet ready, or whatever the case is, when you know that the outcome is, I'm gonna do this for me. But also knowing that someone who reads it is gonna do exactly what that woman did, right? Like, without your encouragement, like, you might have been the only voice in the way that you wrote it that would really have encouraged her to do that. Like, that is so cool to think about.

Patty Croom [: 00:20:25

Yeah, absolutely. I think that so much of the literature about healing and trauma and all of those things, the information that you're reading or seeing or hearing, it seems similar, right? The research is there. We have all of that information. And I think sometimes you don't connect with a person that's sharing that information in one platform, and then at a later date, somebody else shares that same kind of information. And it resonates differently and that could be based on where you're at in your own journey because we're always evolving, we're always growing. And so now maybe you're ready for that information. But it hits differently. And so, you know, my hope in writing it and deciding to publish it was that it could help someone.

Patty Croom [: 00:21:12

So I feel like that's already something I'm seeing. So hopefully that continues. And now I'm doing some speaking engagements.

Kate Volman [: 00:21:20

Look at you.

Patty Croom [: 00:21:21

Look.

Kate Volman [: 00:21:21

I mean, come on. It opens up all these new doors. So where can people find the book and what is the title?

Patty Croom [: 00:21:27

It is on Amazon and it's called When Will She Be Better. You have to search, you have to filter it by book because otherwise it doesn't come up easily. But that is where it's at. And you can also visit my website and there is a page for the book where you can then click directly into a link to go purchase it.

Kate Volman [: 00:21:45

Awesome. Awesome. All right, well, what you and Jenelle are doing at Lehan's with The Dream Manager is inspiring, is amazing. We mentioned some dreamers that you wanted to highlight and feature and just talk about the program, the impact it's having at Lehan. So we're going to take a listen and. Or a look, depending on where you're watching or listening to this right now. Check out this video on Lehan's and the impact of The Dream Manager program.

Jenelle Robers [: 00:22:18

So The Dream Manager program, I say Dream Manager, but really I've come to realize that that is a listening ear, a good listening ear, someone who asks the right questions, the ones that are important, that maybe you don't get asked a lot in a non judgmental space. Just creating a space for individuals where they feel safe, that they can actually talk about their dreams that they might not have said out loud. What I do as a Dream Manager is I meet with employees and meet with them once a month for an hour. So employees get to sit for an hour and talk about their desires. I don't know what gets better than that.

Patty Croom [: 00:23:00

Being able to see how it's impacted the people that are part of the program. Having Jenelle as our Dream Manager on staff, seeing her connect with staff, it's just been a really, really great and positive program that we've been able to implement.

Jenelle Robers [: 00:23:17

What I love is that Lehan's thought enough of their employees to want to bring this program to the company. Lehan's really is devoted to self development for each and every person from the executive team to the guys out in the warehouse. And I think that that is one of the most commendable things, as a leadership team. Team to do. To just put that focus on the people is pretty special.

Alvin Brady III [: 00:23:46

I've experienced a lot of personal growth. I actually have always had a dream to travel across the world, and me and Jenelle have talked about it quite a bit. So I focused on getting my passport, and I actually got my passport within the last month. So I'm excited to be able to finally plan a trip overseas. A lot of times, people want to keep work and their personal life separate, but sometimes you can work on both things at the same time, and the Dream Program has opened that door up for me personally. I just. I'm very thankful that Lehan's has given us this opportunity to, while we're at work, still focus on personal growth and personal fulfillment in our lives as well. It just kind of brings you back to yourself, and you think about, like, how am I doing? Like, what am I doing to get to my goals? And I just love it.

Sara Castaneda [: 00:24:35

I joined the Dream Program because I had undergone some pretty significant life changes which affected me both personally and professionally, and I was feeling quite lost. Through Jenelle's coaching, she helped me to identify something that was quite major. And one of those things was being able to look at pictures of my late fiance, which I had not been able to do for about a year. And through Genoa's support, I'm able to do that now. So it's brought all of us much closer together because we're able to share funny stories and reminisce about what an awesome man he was. The Dream Manager program will help you to continue to be successful in your professional life, but also help to take care of you as a person and help you to show up in your best self for your family as well.

Jenelle Robers [: 00:25:43

What I've truly come to realize is that when making that big dream that you want to achieve, at the end, that's a big deal. It's a huge deal, and it keeps you tethered to something. I've come to know for certain that it's definitely more about the journey than it is the dream.

Kate Volman [: 00:26:13

Oh, my gosh, Patty. I just get goosebumps watching that. And I've watched it a couple times.

Patty Croom [: 00:26:20

Absolutely. I. I definitely tear up every single time. It's. It's impactful, and I think that that. When you're talking about ROI or anything else, I think that that absolutely hits. Hits at home for me. This is the impact.

Patty Croom [: 00:26:37

This is how it affects lives, and this is how it helps people.

Kate Volman [: 00:26:41

Yeah. And that's Just a couple of the dreamers. When you think about, every one of your dreamers has some kind of story, it's changed their life in some way. Like, that's the cool thing when you think about it, this program touches everyone. Some might be in bigger ways than others, but if you have everyone on your team going through something that is literally the whole reason is to help you become the best version of yourself, there's no way you aren't going to see an impact in the organization. And that is, again, I always go back to. It is such a gift. Coaching is a gift.

Kate Volman [: 00:27:24

The Dream Manager program is a gift. And you are gifting every one of your team members with that opportunity. And so we are so grateful that you are empowering your team to be their best and to grow and that you care so much about them that this has been a priority for you over the past couple years. And so we are looking forward to watching you continue to grow and develop your team. And hey, who knows, maybe they'll be certifying some more Dream Managers soon and bringing on some more people onto the team. So we're here for it. And I'm so grateful that you came back on the show to, to give us an update and let us know how you were doing. And of course, congratulations on your book.

Kate Volman [: 00:28:04

I'm very excited for you.

Patty Croom [: 00:28:05

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for having me on here. Thank you for what you do. Because I think that the more Dream Managers that there are in organizations and the more organizations that have them, the better. The better we all are.

Kate Volman [: 00:28:21

Yes, yes and yes. Agreed. We are on a mission to get Dream Manager into the hands of as many people as possible and you're helping us to do that. So thank you, Patty. And hey, we'll chat soon.

Patty Croom [: 00:28:33

Okay? Sounds good. Thanks, Kate.

Kate Volman [: 00:28:38

I hope you enjoyed this episode. And of course, as always, I hope there was at least one idea, one takeaway that you got from this episode. If you are even slightly curious about The Dream Manager program and what it might be like to either have a Dream Manager for yourself, we do one on one coaching that you can take advantage of having your very own Dream Manager to help you achieve your dreams, or if you're interested in talking to someone about what it would look like to implement the program in your organization, we would of course love to have that conversation with you. So you can go to thedreammanager.com, fill out that form and someone on our team will be in touch with you. Thank you again for listening. We so appreciate you and until next time, Lead with Culture.