This week I’m chatting with Pennie Saum, a continuous process improvement expert currently in the transportation field about her experience with Lean and how her past personal struggles have influenced her today.
In this episode we talk about Pennie’s work with productivity improvement and employee engagement. We also go into detail about her work as an author and speaker working with survivors of trauma and abuse.
What You’ll Learn This Episode:
- A3 thinking
- The importance of personal development
- Engagement and productivity improvement
- Penny’s experience with trauma
- A3 thinking in your personal life and personal development
- Knowing your “why”
- The Be Loud Movement
About the Guest:
Penny Saum is a continuous process improvement expert currently in the transportation field with an emphasis on employee engagement and productivity improvement. Pennie has focused heavily on employee mentoring, employee development and driving continuous improvement through the training of employees.
Throughout her career in Lean, Pennie has developed strategy, people, process and structural solutions that have met business needs by analyzing the organization’s current states and utilizing continuous improvement methodology. She has had successful implementation in employee development, streamlining business processes, enhancing operational efficiency, implementing cost control measures and enhancing the employee experience.
Pennie Saum is also the author of Brave and Unbroken, a speaker, advocate, law changer, and voice seeker who has dedicated her life to helping victims use their voice to move through trauma and grief.
She has a passion for helping child sexual abuse victims become thrivers. Pennie is determined to impact those who are struggling the trauma of child sexual abuse.
Important Links:
Ted Talk Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l7R3Zuv8Is
https://www.braveandunbroken.com/
Full Episode Transcript:
Patrick Adams
Hello, everybody. Our special guest today is Penny som and she is a process improvement expert currently in the transportation field actually with the port of Seattle. But she’s focused on employee engagement and productivity improvement. Penny is also the author of brave and unbroken and the founder of the brave and unbroken project. Welcome to the show. Penny. Thanks, Patrick. How are you? Oh, I’m doing great. I’m glad that we were able to connect here, actually, you and I had a discussion on LinkedIn on social media around a post that I put out there and it was super positive, I was really excited to connect with you. And then I went into your LinkedIn profile and watched some of your videos and just some of the work that you’re doing out there. And I was just amazed with the impact that you’re having, you know, just by using your own personal story, and obviously being transparent to share, you know, some of the things you know about your life. And so I’m excited to kind of dive into a little bit of that today. Sounds great. And before we do get into that, let’s hear a little bit about your background. So obviously, I know a little bit about your background. But there’s plenty of listeners out there that are wondering who is Penny? And you know, what is her background? And how did she get into process improvement? And then obviously, that’ll tie us back into a little bit more discussion around the brave and unbroken project too. So tell us a little bit about your background.
Pennie Saum
Thanks. So I started my career years ago as a file clerk at a company that did telephony products. And I got into a little bit of Adobe Illustrator, you know, design thinking software, where I would lay out and design and then that company was starting to fold. And the manager said, Come with me to pack R. And so I went to pack R and started again as a file clerk and worked my way up to customer service. And I had a mentor there who said, you know, you’re constantly solving problems, I really want you to go to this four month, Six Sigma, black belt training. And I was like, gosh, you know, that just sounds like a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork, problems, you know, I can do things quick and fast right now, I don’t need you know, the problems. But what was really the change in my career is when that manager gave me an opportunity and really challenged my thinking, and put me through to that for that four month program at Packer and then became a dedicated black belt at Packer for another several years before moving to a trucking company and being director of continuous process improvement. And I just found the thinking to just be so applicable to everything that we do. Everything that I did in my life Sure. really pivotal in what was going on in my personal life, and really helping me evolve the braven unbroken,
Patrick Adams
very nice. So tell me, do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on where you’ve applied some of the tools and techniques that you learned through the your your training in six sigma, black belt, anything specifically that you can just fill us in on?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, one particular was warranty recovery at the packer parts location that I was working on, you know, we would do $6 million in warranty recovery. But we realized that a lot of money was being left at the table because there wasn’t enough human time to monitor and really get after the dollars that we could have gotten from vendors with certain systems. So after a 12 month project of really analyzing the systems and the processes in the data, we were able to double that recovery. So we went from a $6 million annual year warranty recovery to $12 million. And so that was a really big project that was really satisfying because these people who worked in the warranty recovery, they worked really, really hard. So it was really satisfying for them to be able to put some new processes in place and some new data analysis to really increase their efforts.
Patrick Adams
That’s amazing. That’s a huge gain for you guys. What were some of the maybe some of the highlights of that project, some of the tangible tasks or or the activities that happened that helped make that a reality?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, several have a lot of it was data analysis and realizing that percentages of the recovery that they could get, when they better they, a lot of the folks were we brought in vendors to do some training on warranty so that they better understood what we had, we were able to do. That was a big piece of the process. And so far we had a high turnover rate for quite a while. And we were able to change that. And with people’s understanding of what the process was sure. And then also some data analysis and having people understand the systems and being able to pull reports and really see where they needed to focus on kind of that 8020 rule, where 80% of your money comes from the big, you know, from this bucket of group versus the 20% that it doesn’t, or the low end, and having folks understand that. So when they could run their own reports and kind of make their own decisions on where to focus it really, really shift the needle.
Patrick Adams
Wow, that’s amazing. Nice work, nice work to the team to say all about the team. Yes. So Penny, just to shift gears a little bit here, I mentioned in the intro with that you and I connected through a post out on social media. So in that particular post, I shared some information about my personal life struggles, and which isn’t easy, it’s not easy to share, you know, some of those private things that happened in someone’s life. But when I was writing the post, I was actually I felt led to put it out there because I really feel like it ties in so closely with, you know, some of the work that we do in the process improvement world and just understanding that, you know, personal development is so important and making sure that you are taking care of yourself. And you know, especially if I’m going out to coach other people, you know, I need to make sure that I’m healthy, you know that my my, my mind is healthy. And that I’m not only that, but I’m also developing myself, and I’m learning and I’m growing. And so one of the statements that I made was that change is essential for your growth and development as a person and I said without change you are assured of staying just the way you are and doing things just the way that you have always done them. So let’s talk about your personal development, the personal development in Penny’s life, what does that look like?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, I think the way to best describe it, especially process improvement people is a three thinking. And what I spend a lot of time doing is reassessing my why really honing in on what’s my current why, what am I trying to do? And then really doing the whole full three assessment, what’s my current condition? What’s my target? What’s my gap? What’s stopping me? What’s my hurdles? What are my challenges? What are my countermeasures, teacher, those plan, making a plan, analyzing my plan, and then in what’s my actions, and then really doing that PDCA style cycle and assessing each of those things, something that Karen Ross and Katie Anderson really hit off big time that really hones in on what I’m talking about in their kind of K two c two program is changing your icons to I cans. And it kind of fits in this whole three thinking cycle is really thinking about what’s stopping me and why do I think I can’t do it? And how do I change those two icons. And so that whole cycle is really taking me to the next level personally in what I need to do, where I’m at, where I need to, where I want to go and what I want to do to help folks and help myself so that we can get to the next level.
Patrick Adams
Yeah, that makes sense. So what tell us a little bit about you, your life journey, and just, you know, again, how that ties into kind of where you’re at today and just helping other people with engagement and productivity improvement. But how does your personal life journey and you know, your personal development? How does that tie into that?
Pennie Saum
Sure. So I’m a child abuse survivor. And my biological father was my abuser, from infancy to about the age of 18, just shortly shy of 18. He was also abusing my brother in the same home. It’s also very abusive to my mom. So as we know what we know about abusers, right? They groom, they’re violent, they’re manipulative. But they also can be very prominent folks in the neighborhood in the communities. He was a military officer and went to church, you know, all of those forward facing things. And so we have a lot to overcome. And I don’t tell this story, because I want people to feel bad for me, or because I want to just have a platform to constantly tell my story. It’s about helping others tell their story. It’s about giving platforms to people to unleash their voices. And when I was, you know, I really thought that I would take this to my grave. You know, when you’re groomed and you’re told, you’re not going to talk about this, you’re not going to tell anybody this bad thing that bad things are going to happen. You really think that this is something that you’re going to have to work through yourself and get to the end on your own and when My brother, who is the brave one, actually, to start, was able to speak up out of fear that enabled me to be able to speak up. But what that did was it really unleashed it, it made it. So it was like, Oh my gosh, like, how many times do I talk to somebody and they go, I’ve never told anybody this, I’ve never spoken of this, my grandfather, my brother, my uncle, my aunt, you know, my teacher, my this my dad, the priest, the pastor, and I just realized that there was so many people out there just like me. And when you’re out there, and you think you’re alone, you do like I did, right? I’m going to take this to my grave. I’m going to figure out how to muddle through life, I found myself allowing my past to define me. You know, my choices, early on, weren’t always the best choices. They struggled through every single day to figure out how to get to the next day. And so when I started really analyzing my why, and, and some of the things that happened, my mom went through a really struggle through lung cancer and passed away. And that was when it was like, Okay, it’s time to really analyze why really dive into this, and unleash my voice so that other people can unleash theirs. And that’s when I really dove into a three thinking process improvement in my own life and in my personal life. And when I realized that I could even be my more authentic self, in the workplace. And even in trying to see what creating a nonprofit in the work that could do would be
Patrick Adams
Thank you so much for being vulnerable. And, and just transparent. I’m sure there are people that are listening that definitely are relating, and can understand how, you know, maybe something that happened when they were younger, you know, how that could be kind of holding them or keeping them stuck, you know, and so I think I appreciate you sharing, and again, just being real, and talking about it. Because you know, who knows who might be listening that that might kind of be in that same boat, right and ready to, to make change in their personal life, but are just kind of needing that sign. Right. So this is your sign, right? So, you know, we always say that, you know, as we kind of transitioned back to lean Now, obviously, we’re kind of popping back and forth. But we say that lean can be applied in any industry, in any business and in the personalizer. in different ways. Obviously, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here is PDCA are three things in our personal lives and our personal development. So you talked a little bit about survival, and specifically about surviving the trauma, you know, of what happened in your childhood. So let’s tie back to three thinking here. And how does a three thinking tie in to that specifically, can we walk through maybe, you know, a little bit more detail around that?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, I think it’s interesting, you say that, I am also curious to see your tie in and see if we align a little bit. But so one of the key ways that it really applied was my direct wire around what I thought was protecting and saving my brother and my mother, and really doing that current condition and where I was going, what my target was in protecting them day in and day out, kind of that learning of being that kind of a sacrifice, even though that wasn’t the reality. I mean, that really wasn’t the reality of what was going on. But it was the reality inside of me because that’s what I was being coached and groomed into. And so I would kind of do that everyday assessment of again, my Why is protecting them. This is what I need to do. Am I doing what I need to do to adjust as I got older, it was like when I could drive it was like taking my brother to lunch every day. Okay, adjust. And so I’m surviving every day through this the why would adjust with change? Sure, no, was it to make sure my brother wasn’t a target or make sure that my mom was safe or whatever it may be. And so it was kind of a very similar thing, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. But what are that? What did I need things to be like? And what did I need to do to get there, just to make it through the day and also assuring that people didn’t know what was going on. Right? So in the home being a certain way and when you walked into the world having you know, making sure that my current condition if I was at home, it was a certain way and walking out the door to go to school I was smiling and act like everything was normal. And being a military kid, you know, years later now we’re, you know, talking 2530 years later, and you stay, you keep those connections when you’re a military child. Sure. And I have a group of junior high friends that I see and talk to quite often. Most of them had, actually , no clue, no clue, just that I kept people at a distance. Right, right. Not an arm, like no one came over and over. But otherwise they wouldn’t have any idea. And so those were the things that I really had to analyze my why and that kind of constant check and adjust cycle if you would write a test, right?
Patrick Adams
Yeah. And I would say you asked me, you know, maybe a little bit about myself too. You know, for me, my Why is to empower and equip people for positive change. And, you know, I’ve I’ve a stat I didn’t have when I was younger, right? That’s something that’s bent that I’ve developed, you know, as an adult. But I know that that’s an area that I feel led into. And whether it’s, you know, work that I’m doing with businesses, or you know, I also started a nonprofit organization to give back to struggling teenagers that are growing up a lot like I grew up. And again, if you don’t know about my story, there is a post out there that gives a little bit of insight into that. But you know, I had a rough upbringing. And so you know, that’s really where I just keep my focus is how do I continue to empower and equip people for positive change? And so that means, you know, back to what we talked about with a three thinking or PDCA, you know, what’s my plan? How do I, every year, how am I growing and becoming better, you know, becoming a better coach becoming a better leader? How can I continue to fill that? Why, right, you know, and so what do I need to know, in order to, you know, be able to empower and equip people for positive change? So, you know, what podcasts? Am I listening? What books Am I reading? What, who am I talking with? Who am I? Who am I meeting with? Who do I need to meet with in order to learn something new that I can continue to apply to my personal life? Or, you know, in how I help coach others, potentially, but definitely putting that plan together being intentional about a plan? And what are the action items that need to happen? And then what’s the follow through, you know, do and then check, let’s check back? What did I learn? What did I say I was gonna do, but I didn’t do right. And obviously, there’s action that comes around that. So I would say for me, personally, that’s been a game changer for me just to be very intentional about the PDCA process, even in my own personal development.
Pennie Saum
yeah, yeah, that’s perfect, yeah. And that and you know, my why now is to nurture relationships through love and connection. And I mean, everything that I do with unleashing voices, the loud project, and everything I do at the port of Seattle, it is all about relationships, connecting with people, and getting out of their way so that they can be successful and powerful in their own right. I think that relationships are the key. Right?
Patrick Adams
Absolutely. I agree. 100%. So you mentioned the be loud movement. Let’s talk a little bit more about that. Why is that relevant and important?
Pennie Saum
Well, COVID really struck me as a time when kids like I was, we’re now potentially home with their abusers. And I get a little emotional when you’re talking about other kids, not so much about myself. But, you know, I know I can only imagine what it would have been like, if I was trapped at home. 24 seven. And, and then we saw talking to child advocacy centers across the country, and reports or down, seeing kids were down, you know, the the people that help those kids, the teachers, the coaches, you know, the good, the good folks who identify that kids need help weren’t seeing them on a regular basis to really understand them. And they were seeing them on zoom, but it wasn’t the same. Sure. So that’s when I started working on the TED Talk. And really deciding that we needed a way for folks to be able to really unleash their voices and came up with the loud movement. Love yourself, Own your story, unleash your voice and dare to be loud. And so we are taking that and doing some, some watch parties, if you would with a TED talk. And working on some workshops, so that not only adults, but some youth can see it, and know that they have a way to be able to speak up way sooner than mine. And, and other people, you know, someone the other day, then they were in their 70s. And it was the first time they’d spoken. You know, I was silent for 7433 days, you know, we want those days to be low. We want those kids to be able to speak up, we eventually will, of course, one child abuse to go away. Sure. But we know right now that that’s not happening. We are, you know, lower than we were one in 10 versus one in six. But the be loud movement is to create a platform for voices to be unleashed. And for kids to be heard and seen and believed early on. Because it is so often that these abusers are in prominent positions, you know, my father was a military officer. That was one of my fears of speaking up really early was no one was going to believe us because everybody you know, thought very highly of him. We have coaches and teachers and priests and pastors and parents and family members that are doing this horrific crimes. And we want to you know, make space for voices to be heard. So that’s the key.
Patrick Adams
I love it. How would somebody you know learn more about the Wii loud movement? Where would they go to find more information about that?
Pennie Saum
They can go to braven unbroken.com. They can also find us on youtube if they search Penny song on YouTube and they’ll find the TED talk and there’s information there as well. Perfect. all over social media and everything else but braven, unbroken calm, we’ll get you started.
Patrick Adams
Okay, and we’ll drop a link to that in the show notes too. So people can click right on that from the show notes. But obviously if someone wanted to reach out to you, you know, we talked about your LinkedIn is there Do they Go to the same website. Is there contact information there to reach out to you?
Pennie Saum
Yes they can go to braven unbroken calm or to Pennysoum.com, and they can find me there as well, as well as LinkedIn and other social media.
Patrick Adams
Perfect. Okay, well, Penny, this has been great. Obviously I love hearing about your story, you know, I’d love to connect some more and maybe maybe we can continue this conversation with another. You know, we talked a lot about the three and PDCA and personal development today. But you know, obviously being a process grooming expert at the port of Seattle, there’s a lot of other things that we could tie into in the future. And I’d love to have you back on eventually for another really great conversation. That’d be fantastic. Thanks so much for having me. All right, take care. Thanks, you too. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the lien solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe. This way you’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined. Please give us a review. Thank you so much.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Hello, everybody. Our special guest today is Penny som and she is a process improvement expert currently in the transportation field actually with the port of Seattle. But she’s focused on employee engagement and productivity improvement. Penny is also the author of brave and unbroken and the founder of the brave and unbroken project. Welcome to the show. Penny. Thanks, Patrick. How are you? Oh, I’m doing great. I’m glad that we were able to connect here, actually, you and I had a discussion on LinkedIn on social media around a post that I put out there and it was super positive, I was really excited to connect with you. And then I went into your LinkedIn profile and watched some of your videos and just some of the work that you’re doing out there. And I was just amazed with the impact that you’re having, you know, just by using your own personal story, and obviously being transparent to share, you know, some of the things you know about your life. And so I’m excited to kind of dive into a little bit of that today. Sounds great. And before we do get into that, let’s hear a little bit about your background. So obviously, I know a little bit about your background. But there’s plenty of listeners out there that are wondering who is Penny? And you know, what is her background? And how did she get into process improvement? And then obviously, that’ll tie us back into a little bit more discussion around the brave and unbroken project too. So tell us a little bit about your background.
Pennie Saum
Thanks. So I started my career years ago as a file clerk at a company that did telephony products. And I got into a little bit of Adobe Illustrator, you know, design thinking software, where I would lay out and design and then that company was starting to fold. And the manager said, Come with me to pack R. And so I went to pack R and started again as a file clerk and worked my way up to customer service. And I had a mentor there who said, you know, you’re constantly solving problems, I really want you to go to this four month, Six Sigma, black belt training. And I was like, gosh, you know, that just sounds like a lot of bureaucracy, paperwork, problems, you know, I can do things quick and fast right now, I don’t need you know, the problems. But what was really the change in my career is when that manager gave me an opportunity and really challenged my thinking, and put me through to that for that four month program at Packer and then became a dedicated black belt at Packer for another several years before moving to a trucking company and being director of continuous process improvement. And I just found the thinking to just be so applicable to everything that we do. Everything that I did in my life Sure. really pivotal in what was going on in my personal life, and really helping me evolve the braven unbroken,
Patrick Adams
very nice. So tell me, do you have a favorite project that you’ve worked on where you’ve applied some of the tools and techniques that you learned through the your your training in six sigma, black belt, anything specifically that you can just fill us in on?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, one particular was warranty recovery at the packer parts location that I was working on, you know, we would do $6 million in warranty recovery. But we realized that a lot of money was being left at the table because there wasn’t enough human time to monitor and really get after the dollars that we could have gotten from vendors with certain systems. So after a 12 month project of really analyzing the systems and the processes in the data, we were able to double that recovery. So we went from a $6 million annual year warranty recovery to $12 million. And so that was a really big project that was really satisfying because these people who worked in the warranty recovery, they worked really, really hard. So it was really satisfying for them to be able to put some new processes in place and some new data analysis to really increase their efforts.
Patrick Adams
That’s amazing. That’s a huge gain for you guys. What were some of the maybe some of the highlights of that project, some of the tangible tasks or or the activities that happened that helped make that a reality?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, several have a lot of it was data analysis and realizing that percentages of the recovery that they could get, when they better they, a lot of the folks were we brought in vendors to do some training on warranty so that they better understood what we had, we were able to do. That was a big piece of the process. And so far we had a high turnover rate for quite a while. And we were able to change that. And with people’s understanding of what the process was sure. And then also some data analysis and having people understand the systems and being able to pull reports and really see where they needed to focus on kind of that 8020 rule, where 80% of your money comes from the big, you know, from this bucket of group versus the 20% that it doesn’t, or the low end, and having folks understand that. So when they could run their own reports and kind of make their own decisions on where to focus it really, really shift the needle.
Patrick Adams
Wow, that’s amazing. Nice work, nice work to the team to say all about the team. Yes. So Penny, just to shift gears a little bit here, I mentioned in the intro with that you and I connected through a post out on social media. So in that particular post, I shared some information about my personal life struggles, and which isn’t easy, it’s not easy to share, you know, some of those private things that happened in someone’s life. But when I was writing the post, I was actually I felt led to put it out there because I really feel like it ties in so closely with, you know, some of the work that we do in the process improvement world and just understanding that, you know, personal development is so important and making sure that you are taking care of yourself. And you know, especially if I’m going out to coach other people, you know, I need to make sure that I’m healthy, you know that my my, my mind is healthy. And that I’m not only that, but I’m also developing myself, and I’m learning and I’m growing. And so one of the statements that I made was that change is essential for your growth and development as a person and I said without change you are assured of staying just the way you are and doing things just the way that you have always done them. So let’s talk about your personal development, the personal development in Penny’s life, what does that look like?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, I think the way to best describe it, especially process improvement people is a three thinking. And what I spend a lot of time doing is reassessing my why really honing in on what’s my current why, what am I trying to do? And then really doing the whole full three assessment, what’s my current condition? What’s my target? What’s my gap? What’s stopping me? What’s my hurdles? What are my challenges? What are my countermeasures, teacher, those plan, making a plan, analyzing my plan, and then in what’s my actions, and then really doing that PDCA style cycle and assessing each of those things, something that Karen Ross and Katie Anderson really hit off big time that really hones in on what I’m talking about in their kind of K two c two program is changing your icons to I cans. And it kind of fits in this whole three thinking cycle is really thinking about what’s stopping me and why do I think I can’t do it? And how do I change those two icons. And so that whole cycle is really taking me to the next level personally in what I need to do, where I’m at, where I need to, where I want to go and what I want to do to help folks and help myself so that we can get to the next level.
Patrick Adams
Yeah, that makes sense. So what tell us a little bit about you, your life journey, and just, you know, again, how that ties into kind of where you’re at today and just helping other people with engagement and productivity improvement. But how does your personal life journey and you know, your personal development? How does that tie into that?
Pennie Saum
Sure. So I’m a child abuse survivor. And my biological father was my abuser, from infancy to about the age of 18, just shortly shy of 18. He was also abusing my brother in the same home. It’s also very abusive to my mom. So as we know what we know about abusers, right? They groom, they’re violent, they’re manipulative. But they also can be very prominent folks in the neighborhood in the communities. He was a military officer and went to church, you know, all of those forward facing things. And so we have a lot to overcome. And I don’t tell this story, because I want people to feel bad for me, or because I want to just have a platform to constantly tell my story. It’s about helping others tell their story. It’s about giving platforms to people to unleash their voices. And when I was, you know, I really thought that I would take this to my grave. You know, when you’re groomed and you’re told, you’re not going to talk about this, you’re not going to tell anybody this bad thing that bad things are going to happen. You really think that this is something that you’re going to have to work through yourself and get to the end on your own and when My brother, who is the brave one, actually, to start, was able to speak up out of fear that enabled me to be able to speak up. But what that did was it really unleashed it, it made it. So it was like, Oh my gosh, like, how many times do I talk to somebody and they go, I’ve never told anybody this, I’ve never spoken of this, my grandfather, my brother, my uncle, my aunt, you know, my teacher, my this my dad, the priest, the pastor, and I just realized that there was so many people out there just like me. And when you’re out there, and you think you’re alone, you do like I did, right? I’m going to take this to my grave. I’m going to figure out how to muddle through life, I found myself allowing my past to define me. You know, my choices, early on, weren’t always the best choices. They struggled through every single day to figure out how to get to the next day. And so when I started really analyzing my why, and, and some of the things that happened, my mom went through a really struggle through lung cancer and passed away. And that was when it was like, Okay, it’s time to really analyze why really dive into this, and unleash my voice so that other people can unleash theirs. And that’s when I really dove into a three thinking process improvement in my own life and in my personal life. And when I realized that I could even be my more authentic self, in the workplace. And even in trying to see what creating a nonprofit in the work that could do would be
Patrick Adams
Thank you so much for being vulnerable. And, and just transparent. I’m sure there are people that are listening that definitely are relating, and can understand how, you know, maybe something that happened when they were younger, you know, how that could be kind of holding them or keeping them stuck, you know, and so I think I appreciate you sharing, and again, just being real, and talking about it. Because you know, who knows who might be listening that that might kind of be in that same boat, right and ready to, to make change in their personal life, but are just kind of needing that sign. Right. So this is your sign, right? So, you know, we always say that, you know, as we kind of transitioned back to lean Now, obviously, we’re kind of popping back and forth. But we say that lean can be applied in any industry, in any business and in the personalizer. in different ways. Obviously, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here is PDCA are three things in our personal lives and our personal development. So you talked a little bit about survival, and specifically about surviving the trauma, you know, of what happened in your childhood. So let’s tie back to three thinking here. And how does a three thinking tie in to that specifically, can we walk through maybe, you know, a little bit more detail around that?
Pennie Saum
Yeah, I think it’s interesting, you say that, I am also curious to see your tie in and see if we align a little bit. But so one of the key ways that it really applied was my direct wire around what I thought was protecting and saving my brother and my mother, and really doing that current condition and where I was going, what my target was in protecting them day in and day out, kind of that learning of being that kind of a sacrifice, even though that wasn’t the reality. I mean, that really wasn’t the reality of what was going on. But it was the reality inside of me because that’s what I was being coached and groomed into. And so I would kind of do that everyday assessment of again, my Why is protecting them. This is what I need to do. Am I doing what I need to do to adjust as I got older, it was like when I could drive it was like taking my brother to lunch every day. Okay, adjust. And so I’m surviving every day through this the why would adjust with change? Sure, no, was it to make sure my brother wasn’t a target or make sure that my mom was safe or whatever it may be. And so it was kind of a very similar thing, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. But what are that? What did I need things to be like? And what did I need to do to get there, just to make it through the day and also assuring that people didn’t know what was going on. Right? So in the home being a certain way and when you walked into the world having you know, making sure that my current condition if I was at home, it was a certain way and walking out the door to go to school I was smiling and act like everything was normal. And being a military kid, you know, years later now we’re, you know, talking 2530 years later, and you stay, you keep those connections when you’re a military child. Sure. And I have a group of junior high friends that I see and talk to quite often. Most of them had, actually , no clue, no clue, just that I kept people at a distance. Right, right. Not an arm, like no one came over and over. But otherwise they wouldn’t have any idea. And so those were the things that I really had to analyze my why and that kind of constant check and adjust cycle if you would write a test, right?
Patrick Adams
Yeah. And I would say you asked me, you know, maybe a little bit about myself too. You know, for me, my Why is to empower and equip people for positive change. And, you know, I’ve I’ve a stat I didn’t have when I was younger, right? That’s something that’s bent that I’ve developed, you know, as an adult. But I know that that’s an area that I feel led into. And whether it’s, you know, work that I’m doing with businesses, or you know, I also started a nonprofit organization to give back to struggling teenagers that are growing up a lot like I grew up. And again, if you don’t know about my story, there is a post out there that gives a little bit of insight into that. But you know, I had a rough upbringing. And so you know, that’s really where I just keep my focus is how do I continue to empower and equip people for positive change? And so that means, you know, back to what we talked about with a three thinking or PDCA, you know, what’s my plan? How do I, every year, how am I growing and becoming better, you know, becoming a better coach becoming a better leader? How can I continue to fill that? Why, right, you know, and so what do I need to know, in order to, you know, be able to empower and equip people for positive change? So, you know, what podcasts? Am I listening? What books Am I reading? What, who am I talking with? Who am I? Who am I meeting with? Who do I need to meet with in order to learn something new that I can continue to apply to my personal life? Or, you know, in how I help coach others, potentially, but definitely putting that plan together being intentional about a plan? And what are the action items that need to happen? And then what’s the follow through, you know, do and then check, let’s check back? What did I learn? What did I say I was gonna do, but I didn’t do right. And obviously, there’s action that comes around that. So I would say for me, personally, that’s been a game changer for me just to be very intentional about the PDCA process, even in my own personal development.
Pennie Saum
yeah, yeah, that’s perfect, yeah. And that and you know, my why now is to nurture relationships through love and connection. And I mean, everything that I do with unleashing voices, the loud project, and everything I do at the port of Seattle, it is all about relationships, connecting with people, and getting out of their way so that they can be successful and powerful in their own right. I think that relationships are the key. Right?
Patrick Adams
Absolutely. I agree. 100%. So you mentioned the be loud movement. Let’s talk a little bit more about that. Why is that relevant and important?
Pennie Saum
Well, COVID really struck me as a time when kids like I was, we’re now potentially home with their abusers. And I get a little emotional when you’re talking about other kids, not so much about myself. But, you know, I know I can only imagine what it would have been like, if I was trapped at home. 24 seven. And, and then we saw talking to child advocacy centers across the country, and reports or down, seeing kids were down, you know, the the people that help those kids, the teachers, the coaches, you know, the good, the good folks who identify that kids need help weren’t seeing them on a regular basis to really understand them. And they were seeing them on zoom, but it wasn’t the same. Sure. So that’s when I started working on the TED Talk. And really deciding that we needed a way for folks to be able to really unleash their voices and came up with the loud movement. Love yourself, Own your story, unleash your voice and dare to be loud. And so we are taking that and doing some, some watch parties, if you would with a TED talk. And working on some workshops, so that not only adults, but some youth can see it, and know that they have a way to be able to speak up way sooner than mine. And, and other people, you know, someone the other day, then they were in their 70s. And it was the first time they’d spoken. You know, I was silent for 7433 days, you know, we want those days to be low. We want those kids to be able to speak up, we eventually will, of course, one child abuse to go away. Sure. But we know right now that that’s not happening. We are, you know, lower than we were one in 10 versus one in six. But the be loud movement is to create a platform for voices to be unleashed. And for kids to be heard and seen and believed early on. Because it is so often that these abusers are in prominent positions, you know, my father was a military officer. That was one of my fears of speaking up really early was no one was going to believe us because everybody you know, thought very highly of him. We have coaches and teachers and priests and pastors and parents and family members that are doing this horrific crimes. And we want to you know, make space for voices to be heard. So that’s the key.
Patrick Adams
I love it. How would somebody you know learn more about the Wii loud movement? Where would they go to find more information about that?
Pennie Saum
They can go to braven unbroken.com. They can also find us on youtube if they search Penny song on YouTube and they’ll find the TED talk and there’s information there as well. Perfect. all over social media and everything else but braven, unbroken calm, we’ll get you started.
Patrick Adams
Okay, and we’ll drop a link to that in the show notes too. So people can click right on that from the show notes. But obviously if someone wanted to reach out to you, you know, we talked about your LinkedIn is there Do they Go to the same website. Is there contact information there to reach out to you?
Pennie Saum
Yes they can go to braven unbroken calm or to Pennysoum.com, and they can find me there as well, as well as LinkedIn and other social media.
Patrick Adams
Perfect. Okay, well, Penny, this has been great. Obviously I love hearing about your story, you know, I’d love to connect some more and maybe maybe we can continue this conversation with another. You know, we talked a lot about the three and PDCA and personal development today. But you know, obviously being a process grooming expert at the port of Seattle, there’s a lot of other things that we could tie into in the future. And I’d love to have you back on eventually for another really great conversation. That’d be fantastic. Thanks so much for having me. All right, take care. Thanks, you too. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the lien solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe. This way you’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined. Please give us a review. Thank you so much.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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