Welcome to the second episode of Stories from the River!
Charlie sits down with Heather Greenwood, Associate Director of the Memory Maker Experience department at Broad River Retail. You will learn more about Heather’s personal life, her position within the organization, and the history purpose, and goals of MMx.
Stories from the River Podcast explores the personal journeys of Broad River Retail’s very own Memory Makers. Whether it’s interviews or standalone narratives, Stories from the River will bring you closer to what it’s like to thrive inside the company. This show will share personal experiences from stores, distribution centers, call centers, and corporate campuses, giving listeners a front row seat to what it’s really like to be a Memory Maker furnishing life’s best memories every day.
This show is brought to you by Broad River Retail. Visit www.BroadRiverRetail.com.
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Full Transcription:
Charlie Malouf
Welcome to stories from the river. I’m here with Heather Greenwood, our Associate Director of the Memory Maker experience for episode number two. Heather, welcome.
Heather Greenwood
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Charlie Malouf
I’m so excited about this conversation we’re about to have today. And then looking forward to it. Good. Me too. So Heather, before we get going, I always like to know a little bit about who we’re speaking with. So tell our audience a little bit about you your background and your career prior to coming to the river.
Heather Greenwood
Yeah, I was born and raised. I’m Midwestern, which usually people can tell pretty quickly. I was born and raised outside of Detroit, Michigan. I went to Michigan State University. And that’s when I started this journey. I fell in love with retail. My very first job was for the retailer, Nordstrom and I started on the stock team. So I started I worked early mornings, and I was just kind of watching and looking around. And I realized like this buzz for retail and for commission. So I worked there on the summers on holidays, I went through college, and then when I graduated, I was like, this is for me. So I raised my hand, I traveled all over the US with Nordstrom did a lot of different roles, took my boyfriend and fiance then husband with me. And before coming here we were in Providence, Rhode Island. I managed the store there for several years. And during that time, I welcome my first son. And that’s when I decided I didn’t know if this was it for me. And so I kind of had a little bit of a life change and an awakening, if you will. I quit my job, my husband and I moved to Fort Mill, South Carolina, I had no idea what I was going to do. And then I met what at this time was kind of this little Broad River furniture. And I met Manny Rodriguez, our CEO. And I immediately knew this was it for me. I really, really wanted that job. And so today, fast forward, I live in Fort Mill, South Carolina with my husband, Brian, and we have three small kids. We have two young boys six and four and a baby girl is nine months old.
Charlie Malouf
That’s great. That’s great. So we had manual last week, and he’s also from Rhode Island and you just not often you get the first two guests from Rhode Island in originally from Michigan. My wife was born in Michigan and you say you’re a Spartan? I am. Yes. That’s great. That’s great. You said you really wanted this job. What when we were we were actually Broad River furniture at the time. So when was that? That you joined the company back in October 2016 2016. Okay, and then what was the job at the time it was the manager of learning and development. Okay, got it. And so what, tell us about your career path, with broad river furniture, and then Broad River retail, since you’ve been with us for for gosh, nearly over five years, nearly six years if I’m good enough, right.
Heather Greenwood
Yeah, it’s been a long time. I started as a manager of learning and development. And I tell people all the time, I think you guys took a big gamble when you made that decision. And I did that for about two years, and then became the Senior Manager of learning and development. And then earlier this year past year, April 2021, I became the associate director of Memory Maker experience on April 1, when that department was born.
Charlie Malouf
Wow. Okay, we’re gonna get into that. We’re gonna get into that. Should you put so much effort into helping us create a positive and memorable first day for a new memory makers? But I have to ask, do you remember your first day with the company? I do? Yes. Tell us about it.
Heather Greenwood
Maybe not one of the best day ones on record. But my favorite part of the day one is at the end of the day, my manager and I went to Pineville the flagship and I had not been in one of our stores. I was not really familiar with Ashley homestore. And being in that store that day just lit up all of my emotions and feelings towards retail, seeing the guest and seeing her HFCs work with the guests and just meeting people and hearing their excitement made me know it was the right place for me at the right time. That was also the day I met with my very good friends today Renee Bradley. And just meeting her again reaffirmed for me this is the right place the right time. I’m excited to be here and see where we go.
Charlie Malouf
Well, no, it’s okay that we didn’t have a great experience for you. I wish I could have been better but you get to help us make that better for folks. And that’s really important. Okay. You got a quick get to know Heather Greenwood icebreaker for question for you. You’re the end of your career. you’ve hung up your your cleats your shoes, or your or your Memory Maker experience whiteboards and, and you’re looking back and you’re thinking how you want to be remembered. And so what three words come to mind that you would like to describe you
Heather Greenwood
Yeah, the first one for me hands down is intentional. I think a lot about the things that I do, the actions that I take the words that I use, and I want people to know that there’s a lot of intentionality and what we do at Broad River, and what I do. And that’s really important for me, I care and a lot of that comes down to being intentional. And the second one, I talked about this all the time at home, kind, it’s really important to be kind in the world we live in today. I recently heard somebody talk about the culture of kindness. And that’s just something I think a smile goes a long way a hello. So kindness is really important. And for me, the third one would be authentic. One of the many things I’ve learned in my career here is it’s important to be you and just be you good, bad, ugly all the time. And I’m authentic and what I bring to the table every day, and I think that’s just a really important trait for anyone to have
Charlie Malouf
a love those three words. That’s great. Thank you so much. You’re welcome. Those rolled right off the tongue. You’re ready. Okay. So you talked a little bit about April 1 of last year, this brand new Memory Maker experience department, or MMX for short. So what can you tell us about this newly formed department? What are the purpose and goals of the mm x department?
Heather Greenwood
Yeah, and MMX whenever I meet people, and they asked me what I do, I’m like, I don’t know, it’s gonna be really hard to describe. So the purpose of MMX I think, is really, that every Memory Maker has the same premiere experience at Broad River. So I think a lot about our memory makers, where they work in different locations, different departments, but every single one of them should have the same experience from the minute they accept that job offer to the minute they may move through their lifecycle at Broad River. So it’s thinking about all the areas we touch from learning and development, diversity, equity and inclusion, recognition celebration, I want everyone to feel special. I love my career here. And so I think, for me, and for all of them. And next, how do we make everyone love their career at Broad River? And this is just a little of what MMX does. I really
Charlie Malouf
love that. So you’re taking this thing about intentionality. And then, you know, our vision is to be premiere, and the premiere actually home for operator and you’re just saying, How can I infuse that every touchpoint throughout their career, and I’m sure you know, we’ve read the power of moments as a leadership team together as a purpose activation committee. And we’ll get into that in a little bit. But you’re able to look for all those kind of touch points or peak moments or milestones and infuse that in. I love that. That’s great. Who better to who better else to do that someone who is intentional and looking to be premier across the board from from beginning to end. Love that. Okay, as you know, and we just mentioned furnishing life’s best memories is our organizational purpose. Some people may what they may not realize is that you lead our purpose activation committee the pack for a whole year in 2019 nicely for like 16 months, because we started it before 2019. During our year of purpose, you lead the pack. So what have been what is what has been a couple of your best memories at the river.
Heather Greenwood
There are so many, my favorite, at least two are really, really close. My favorite. I think a lot of people could say this is the 2019 Memory Maker award celebration, or our gala. That was the first time we really got together, all of us. We had done these small awards celebrations in the training room, and they weren’t small. We had a lot of people in there. But when we opened it up, and we had the celebration that evening with all of our memory makers, and we had dinner and we had cocktails, and we had fun, and we took photos, I’ll never forget the energy of that night and just being with everybody, everybody was dressed up. Black Tie, it was a lot of fun. So that night, hands down one of my favorites. Few weeks later, as we know, the pandemic started. So also just hold a special place there before we were separated. And then my other one would be the original purpose. 828 such a special day again, leading the pack and working through the preparation for that. And then seeing it come to life. I still get goosebumps when I think about all the people that were there, Justin and Zack and Jeanine, and it was just such a special day to know that you work for a company that truly cares about purpose.
Charlie Malouf
There’s a lot in those two answers. It’s funny, we had money Manny here last week, and he also one of his favorite memories was the gala. And I know how much work went into preparing for that. And I know you also know how much work went into preparing not just for that one, but you mentioned purpose 828 I guess you really like big, big events that take a lot of planning and work. I
Heather Greenwood
didn’t know that before I worked at Broad River. And now I think of a little bit of that Gala. It’s kind of like planning a wedding again. So I enjoy them. I enjoy the behind the scenes and then just seeing it come to life.
Charlie Malouf
What is purpose 828 For those who may not know sure purpose 828
Heather Greenwood
was a sell Bration of purpose for our company, but not just our company’s purpose, we invited our leaders into Fort mail. And it was looking at how does organizational purpose and personal purpose come together to new unite and create fulfillment? We had tons of speakers, lots of fun and music and energy and just great camaraderie to celebrate what is purpose to you? And how is it different to me? And then how do they work together collaboratively?
Charlie Malouf
That was great. Yeah, those are two of my favorite days. Also, those are great days. Okay. We cannot interview you without talking about the stratospheric growth in the exponential success of our million dollar Memory Maker program. So in 2014, we only had $1 million Memory Maker. And then maybe last week mentioned you, when you came on board, it really took when we jumped from seven to 17, in 2017, really jumped up. And then in 2021, we reached $91 million memory makers, I see you just bursting, smiling, so why sailing past our goal of 60 for the year last year. So certainly you’ve got to take a lot of pride in, in the success that we’ve achieved with this program. Why do you believe we’ve achieved so much success in just the growth of million dollar memory makers,
Heather Greenwood
we have the right people. And these people are memory makers, they believe they believe they can do it. And so I think of the start of that program, that one that seven, and it just took a few people to get the ball rolling. All I offer is encouragement and a high five and some great prizes. But when you see people start to do that, and then people latch on and part of my role in retail one on one is talking to our new memory makers, and they start to see it and they say, Hey, I want to be a million dollar Memory Maker. Great. Go watch someone else do it. We have so many great mentors in the Lindsay’s and the Leah’s and the Jim Marrs once they start seeing that and they see it’s not just about those seven, or it’s not about those 51. But they bring people in, they love them. And that’s how our program has really grown. It’s just people believing in themselves and believing in each other. And then from there, they want to grow, you do it once, then you have to do it twice. You just do it once. So we’ve really seen it grow. But it really is people helping people and these memory makers turning other memory makers and $2 million memory me.
Charlie Malouf
But I think you do a lot more than just high fiving. And by the way, I heard something on a podcast just yesterday. That said Steve Nash led the league, I don’t even know they checked this in the NBA for high fives. Yeah. Yeah. And he was like the most like, beloved teammate of all. And he, they said he used to average like 238 High fives a game. So someday, and he was MVP, many years. So I, I didn’t even know they were tracking that. But so it’s really important to support people along the way. And really encourage them. I know you do a phenomenal job with that you and your entire team. So how did you feel about reaching 91 Last year,
Heather Greenwood
I didn’t think that would happen. It was scary. At the beginning of the year, we go sat and we sit around this table and we think about it and everybody throws their number out there. And I would have never ever said 90 plus. So I the nerves are still in a pandemic, what’s gonna happen, a lot of things are changing. And so there was a lot of nerves for me. But I always remembered the first conversation I had with Manny and I remember where we were sitting in his office, and he pitched me million dollar writers at the time, we’d have 100 Make this a program where we have 100. And I went home that night. And I said to my husband, this guy is crazy. We’re never gonna have $100 million memory makers. And so I think of 91 and how far we’ve come in a short amount of time. And it’s just, it’s overwhelming. And it’s exciting. And it just makes you think what is possible? Where will we be in five years? 10 years? I don’t know the answer to that. But 91 was certainly just very exciting for what is to come from our company.
Charlie Malouf
We cast these visions years before and then we we forget someone reminded me recently he said, You remember when you said this? And it’s like 2016 or 2017 that we’d one day have $90 million writers that was back in the time when we didn’t even brand the program. He’s like, we got manualized I had totally forgot that was the number. Okay, so clearly you light up when you talk about the success of our people. Where did this passion for our people and for other success come from?
Heather Greenwood
You know, there was one moment in my career that I’ll never forget. And I was a new GM. Really great at what I was doing. And I was learning a lot. I was really young and my mentor at the time my regional manager Pat, you’re sitting down having coffee and he looked at me we’re talking about everything you do as a GM and what that role is, and he said how No one cares what you know until they know how much you care. And that has stuck with me. I’ve told you this before in other ways, it’s taught me over my career. And I think that I think for me, it was that moment that it’s more about the person. And it’s what you’re doing to help others and the impact that you’re creating, that’s the most important thing. And now that I’m here, and I see what our million dollar memory makers are doing, or our new memory makers, I just love seeing them do something they didn’t think was possible, buy a home, get married, get a really big paycheck, go on vacation, become a million dollar Memory Maker. That’s what it’s about. That’s why all the behind the scenes things happen, so that we can have those experiences for our people.
Charlie Malouf
And I love that that mentorship came from a great company that you worked with before Nordstrom and you brought that, you know, here at the river, and Manny talked about last week how he had so much great corporate experience that has served him well. And, and I think that’s really important. So now, you’ve got this million dollar Memory Maker program. We have this program at retail, the we got to figure it out for other departments. Right, we have to have others getting these jackpots. And so yeah, that’s, that’s the charge and the challenge for us now you got it. Okay. I know you do. I have no doubt. So I know that it always takes a village right to achieve phenomenal success. And when you think about that, who are some of the unsung heroes or colleagues of your world and tell us what they do that help you?
Heather Greenwood
Yeah. unsung heroes, I can think right off the bat. My team, the MMX team, you know, specifically, I’ve worked with MSI now for three years, Ariel for over a year. The passion, the dedication, just what they do every day makes such an impact on our company. They help me we keep each other balanced, we keep each other energy energized, we come up with a seed of an idea. Then we sit together we white board, we have all these creative juices, and they’re better when we’re together. Some of the best ideas we’ve had have come from us spending hours together and just really talking through things and saying, that’s good, but what about this, and so without the two of them, and now my growing team, I just know there’s so much that we can do and MMX and when we went from l&d to MMX they were just as excited as I was, they were ready for this transformation. And what’s next, and for unsung heroes, I would be remiss if I didn’t say my husband, I work full time, I have three very small kids at home. And he helps me keep it all together. I don’t think I could do this without a great partner in life. And so just thinking about how He supports me and encourages me getting ready for a podcast, things like that, that I never thought we do together. I’m so lucky to have him and just kind of bounce these ideas off of talk about million dollar memory makers at the dinner table, and things like that. So he’s he’s just as invested abroad or retail as I am. But that’s one of the many things I love about him.
Charlie Malouf
I love that. Those are great, great answers. I love how you talked about activating the core value of collaboration. And I’m reminded of the like improv, they say, say yes. And instead of you know, but you can’t do this. Here’s why but didn’t build on each other’s ideas. So as you’re talking about these collaboration sessions with Emmeline and Ariel and your team, I’m thinking of the yes and yes, and stacking all those ideas. You mentioned your team is growing. Yeah. Oh, we investing in the Memory Maker experience department. We
Heather Greenwood
are we are we had two new interns start with us recently. And that was really exciting. I love interns, as you know, and love growing interns. So that’s exciting. We’re growing specifically and learning and development, which is an area that we need growth we do good in retail, but how do we touch the other departments of our company specifically in training in l&d, siltation and content? So that’s one area where specifically growing in and many more to come?
Charlie Malouf
A lot of ideas are first building under the under the current if you will, okay, so I know, I may, I may be biased you might be as well. But we believe that our culture at the river is is really unique and special here. You’re widely known as one of our company’s culture carriers, you know, term that we learned from Adam Grant last year. What is your favorite thing about our culture here at the river? In what what? Why do you think it what do you think makes it so special,
Heather Greenwood
I also am biased. I love the culture. That’s why I’m here. My favorite thing is how we empower our memory makers. It just feels different than other places. We’re empowered to have ideas, to share our voice to have fun. And I think that’s so important. For me in my career, I have truly felt like I can bring a new idea might not be a good idea. But I can bring it and I can share it and I’m supported by our leadership to do that. And that’s what I teach my team, say it aloud. Email Charlie, ask sometimes ask someone about it. So I think that’s really powerful today is that every person feels empowered to make a difference in our company and that their voices heard
Charlie Malouf
Well, you have a lot of great ideas. I mean, usually now now the pitches are Yep, let’s go. I remember the one we just had the other day on the Thrive and purpose here is Yep, sounds great. Course also, we have had some really bad ideas. You fixed them and made them better meet us. Let us go down to uniform path with a gray shirt. Okay, so you’ve been a Memory Maker here the river. Since you’ve been a Memory Maker here at the river? What is something that you’ve learned about yourself? Or about what you’ve been able to accomplish? That has surprised even you?
Heather Greenwood
I’ve learned so much. The biggest thing I put in a box is that I can do it. When I started this role. I’m not traditionally trained and l&d. I’m not your typical l&d Manager. And so coming in and hearing the requests that were made very early on, let’s create an LMS. Okay, I don’t know how to do that. Or let’s write a new sales process, the things that have come my way at first, they’re scary. And I sit back and think, oh, I don’t know if I can do this. What do I do? Who do I call, and then I’ve learned I can do it. And it’s about utilizing my resources. I have great partners at Broad River. And I think about Stacey, and what a great partner he is to me and Manny and how they’ve helped me grow. And so for me, it’s really about instead of being scared, now, I go, okay, I can do it. I’m going to make a timeline, I’m going to make a path, I’m really good at those things. And then I’m going to figure it out. And so for me, broad rivers just taught me I can do it. There’s enough people there to support me and I will learn it. There’ll be bumps along the road, but we’ll get there.
Charlie Malouf
Yeah, no doubt from from a big event to a curriculum like Ashley discovery, or the broad Riverway or sales process, like see for some of the other things that you’ve or a new department, you’ve certainly been able to execute in a lot of different facets, multifaceted, and enormously talented. Okay, so you’ve been with us for over five years. Now. If you could go back to your first day, what would you tell your younger self, about what life is going to be like at Broad River retail?
Heather Greenwood
life abroad, river retail is fast. So we used to say go fast. And so I think about that you have to be ready for anything. That’s one of my favorite parts of working in retail. So I love that now in this corporate environment that I work in, it’s the same way, you have to be ready for anything. It’s exciting. It’s a little bit scary. And I think that’s what makes it really fun. Just to be asked to do things that, hey, we have this visit coming, can you guys help us or this event? Let’s do it next week. And so for me, it’s that energy and that adrenaline where I would just say be ready for it and take it all in strides that happens one day at a time. And that’s been a big thing for me is what’s the priority? What am I going to focus on? And kind of again, charting. What am I going to do day by day to get that outcome?
Charlie Malouf
Yeah, that’d be that’d be. Okay, let’s pivot again to the engagement survey. So we we just completed a comprehensive enterprise wide engagement survey this past fall, what is something that you didn’t expect? That surprised you from the engagement survey?
Heather Greenwood
The biggest thing, I was really surprised and open feedback. And one of the things particularly was around mental health. So we know that this has been a challenging time. But what really surprised me and was a great feeling for me was, our people felt comfortable telling us that and writing in a survey, which is a little bit of an awkward situation, to be able to say, Hey, I’m going through some things, and I could use some more support. Or here’s how I see how we can bring mental health to a topic of conversation at Brad river. And it wasn’t one comment or two, but it was people just expressing life has been tough for them, or for their families, and that they want to share it with us. They felt comfortable sharing it with us, and then saying, Can you help me? I don’t know where to go? Can someone help me? Where do I go? What do you suggest? And so I think that is really led to thrive in purpose is how can we better support our people? They trust us, and they’re comfortable with us. And they want us to help them through this rough patch that they may be going through?
Charlie Malouf
Yeah, that’s so important. And yeah, the rough patch didn’t stop, like when the stimulus checks hit, right? I mean, those are great and all that. It’s been two years of rough patches, and we’ve all got to be a lot more empathetic to what people may be going through. And that alone is a reason to do an engagement survey, just to know people are going through that your people are going through that to be able to be there to support them. So that that’s great. Always not expecting that from your answer. So but let’s do let me flip it the other way. What is something that just reaffirmed from the engagement survey, what you already knew about Prague River?
Heather Greenwood
Remember, makers are happy. You do an engagement survey and there’s a nerve when we were writing that question those questions and when we hit go, a nerve of what are they gonna say? What do they really feel And I feel like I have a good pulse on what goes on in our company. But to see it and hear them say they feel valued as a Memory Maker, they understand what our purpose is. Those things to me are really, really powerful looking at 97% promoters in some of those areas, that makes me know what we’re doing matters. And it hits all across the organization, we’ve gotten a lot bigger, that people still feel that in different locations and different departments that they can say, Yeah, I feel valued here.
Charlie Malouf
That’s really, really important. Okay, so when you look at a company from the outside looking in, you form a point of view, and you think, you know, XY or Z about a certain company. What is one thing about Broad River that you think would surprise others from the outside looking in? We’re really
Heather Greenwood
loud on social media. And so we like to share our parties and our galas and our lunches. I want people to know how hard we work, we have a lot of fun, we do. But we work really hard. This is such a great group of memory makers. And I think about the people I work with every day are the people that may work out in our warehouses. They’re hard workers, they bring their A game every day. Retail is not easy. And so I just think about their hard workers, you could just not give, it can’t give enough credit to the memory makers of our company, we have fun, but we also work really hard. So the fun means even more when we have it.
Charlie Malouf
Yeah, and a couple things on that. Sometimes, you said we’re loud, I don’t even think we share nearly like what we could share. That happens. And we do recognitions and celebrations and we’re moving on. But this this stories from the podcast could almost be called a gratitude tour. You know, because I think once you hear the stories that we know, that are out there, you just can’t help but be filled with gratitude for those who are on the frontlines putting their heart and soul into it every single day. And so I’m really looking forward to this year with the season. Okay, so we’ve brought in a lot of speakers, you know, over the years to speak to us, either in person nationally known speakers, or, or virtually as well, and what but is there one, which speaker has had the biggest impact on you and why?
Heather Greenwood
Hands down for me. I’ve loved them all. But Dr. Nicholas Pierce, the purpose path is a tremendous book. I’ve read it multiple times, since that initial time on the purpose activation committee, his book changed me, I was going through a difficult season and reading that book and learning about being your authentic self. Just something clicked for me and made me see things differently and where I was struggling, and then seeing him live in Fort Mill and tell the story and do q&a with you. It just reaffirmed everything I learned in the book, he just so inspirational. He’s so motivational, and the story is beautiful. It’s a tough book to read, and it takes you on a very personal journey. But in the end, for me, that was the big change for me professionally, that book and then seeing him in person,
Charlie Malouf
he is great. It’s great to be able to break bread with him and have him speak to us. I’m gonna have to send him this clip now. To let them know how impactful it will be. It’ll mean a lot to him to have heard what you just said there and shared the purpose path by Nicholas, Dr. Nicholas Pierce, if you’re interested, and we’ll put links in the show notes. Okay. So, our Thrive our company’s work, you know, we love a good word of the year, our company’s word of the year for 2022 is thrive. What does it mean for you to thrive? And what advice would you offer up to a fellow Memory Maker to help him or her Thrive this year?
Heather Greenwood
It’s right for me thinking about how can I be the best version of myself? And so for me, that’s twofold. How can I be the best version of myself here at Broad River, but also equally as important? How can I be the best person to my three kids and my husband, I haven’t been great at that. And that’s been a struggle for me over the years. And so for me, 2022 is about being present in the moment here, but also doing the same for my kids. They’re little, they relish every moment with mom reading stories at bed time and eating dinner together. And so for me thriving this year would be finding this great marriage of both. And I know I can do both. It’s just about being intentional in the moment and being really present for them. They deserve it. They grow too fast. And so I just want to be there and thrive in both areas of my life. I know when I’m better at home, I’ll be better at work and it’ll just work really well for me, for others and thriving. It’s just a really appreciate the moment we get. Life is fast and it goes by so quickly. You’re working and you’re running errands, you’re doing all these things and it just enjoy the moment. Slow down and appreciate it. Take those moments to spend with your children or your loved ones to just really savor it and just enjoy it. It’s RSA enjoy things right now. And they’re a little gloomy on the outside. But just thinking of those moments, how can you create these magical moments at home and at work?
Charlie Malouf
That’s a great answer. But it may be hard to say that. But I think it’s important to say that until allow ourselves to enjoy those moments right now, I think that is, in spite of where we are, where our feet are planted are the circumstances, we have to continue moving forward and thriving. That’s a That’s a great answer. And I’m confident you will figure that out for yourself this year and for your family. So we have our company’s top four strategic initiatives, you know, any given time, here’s what the top four, we limit it to four, and the big company wide projects or initiatives. So we recently introduced project thrive to the top four, what is project drive?
Heather Greenwood
Project drive is all about our memory makers, how do we take care of them so that they can thrive? No matter what thriving looks like to you? How do we help that? And so that’s all sorts of different areas that happened in human capital, 401k, and benefits, wellness? And just thinking about what are those programs that we can take to help you thrive? We’ll talk about Thrive and purpose, a series dedicated to help people with financial thriving, professional thriving mental health. And so it’s thinking about all those things, how do we help our memory makers thrive in 2022? We want to say it and do it and take action on it. So at the end of this year, we can hear lots of great stories about how they thrive, and hopefully how we’ve supported them in getting there.
Charlie Malouf
One could say we’re being intentional about the word thrive in activating it, correct. Okay, well, one could say a one just said that, in your habits. In your experience, what is the best way to inspire your soul to start a healthy new habit?
Heather Greenwood
I think the biggest thing is learning from others, watching what others are doing, I spend a lot of time observing and listening. And so as I see other people with healthy habits, and you generally set up that at the beginning of a new year, really curious, what do they do with it? Could I do it? Could I not? And then for me to jumpstart it, I have to have have to be accountable for it. So to think I’m in the workout, and probably not. But if I say it, and I say to my husband or a girlfriend, hey, I do want to start working out or going to the gym three days a week or running. For me, it’s finding that accountability buddy, having somebody do it with you, and helping you makes all the difference in the world to take it from an idea to a real life. I’m doing it and I’m starting a habit and encourage you. Yeah, exactly.
Charlie Malouf
So you said you started at Nordstrom in the stockroom. And then you send it to the General Manager of very large box in Providence, Rhode Island. And now you’re the associate director of the Memory Maker experience department department at Broad River retail, when you started with us in an area that you had no prior experience in learning and development. What do you think are have been the secrets to your success?
Heather Greenwood
First of all, positivity. You can’t go anywhere without having a positive attitude. It’s so easy to see negativity are to get sucked into other people’s negativity, but always remaining positive, helps you go through things, lift yourself up. And then again, I always try to be a student of the business. I never want to get to a place where I think I know the answer. I need to be a student I need to learn from other people. I didn’t know anything about learning and development, and learning from those around me and observing. I love to be in other areas of our company outside of my four walls in my office, to listen to people to observe to see what they’re doing. And so being a student and staying humble to that, I think has helped me along the way. I don’t always know the answer. I don’t always know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. I have a great support system around me. That helps me It keeps me humble and continues to challenge me so I can continue to grow.
Charlie Malouf
It’s awesome. Mentorship is so important. Where from whom do you get your mentorship? And what about your inspiration and motivation? Yeah,
Heather Greenwood
I’ve had so many great mentors, as I’ve grown up in retail and in the corporate environment, people that I look up to who’ve done the things that I want to do, I also read a lot. So reading and again, staying a student listening to things you send me a lot of things that you
Charlie Malouf
think I might like your essay you always write back. I know you’re reading it. Yeah.
Heather Greenwood
And so I know if you took the time to send it to me, it’s worth a listen. It’s worth reading. And so those things keep me really fresh and learning new avenues that I might not know exist. So I think it’s just being open to those opportunities and for inspiration and motivation for me. A lot of it is my kids. They’re young. They asked really crazy questions. They challenged me I go to work, why do I go to work? What do I do there? Who are these people I work with. And so a lot of those things for me inspire me, I want to be great for them. I want them to look up to me and see the things I do and the impact that I make. And so every day, I’m trying to think, what am I doing for them, they motivate me, they keep me going. And I look forward to them having big careers and big lives and whatever they want to do.
Charlie Malouf
I’m just imagining one of your small children saying what do you do there? That’s, that’s funny. What is work? Okay, so let’s say you had this, this say, this became your job. Let’s say I decided to retire. And I gave you the keys to the company. You’re now the new president and CEO of Broad River retail. And today’s your first day in this exciting new role. What would be your first order of business?
Heather Greenwood
Ah, a big shoes to fill. My first order of business today would be parental leave. Parental Leave is really important. To me. It’s something I’m passionate about, of course, I’m a mom. But thinking about our families outside of the four walls, our Memory Maker, so whether they’re expanding, or they’re adopting, or they’re going through a fertility treatment, how can we support them on that journey growing your family so exciting, it’s also really scary. So think about what does that look like pre leave during leave? Certainly, I know I did on maternity leave several times. Coming back is really scary to people remember you What did you miss? How much emails in your inbox? And so I think about how can we make that journey just really successful for our people. Paternal leave is a hot topic in the world. And so I think that’s an easy thing. And I’m sure that we’ll be doing it here shortly and making some big changes to those programs to support our memory makers on their journey with our family.
Charlie Malouf
Well, if I still, if I take that idea, I’ll make sure I give proper credit there to where that came from. Okay, so you’ve talked a lot about learning. And read that you read a lot. What are you? What are you currently reading?
Heather Greenwood
You just started a new book? Might have already read this one, but I’m not sure. Chief Joy officer.
Charlie Malouf
I have I have not read it, but I’m aware of it. And it’s been recommended. I’d love to know what you think of it. I
Heather Greenwood
just started it. And I also picked it up as a recommendation. I think it was one of the books that Davin had put on his LinkedIn and catchy title. Let me read a little bit more. So I picked it up. I love thinking about how can you elevate others and help people to live this career of fullness. And so I just started it so far, I think it’s gonna be really, really good.
Charlie Malouf
I think the author is going to be at the purpose summit at the University of Notre Dame in May, which I believe you’re planning to attend with a few of our leaders from Broad River retail myself included, so really looking forward to that. So I’ve got to read it before May Yes. Okay. So, I don’t know if you are into binge watching television shows. But if so What show are you currently binge watching?
Heather Greenwood
I get all my best recommendations from Annie Rodriguez. So my husband always wants to know what Manny’s watching. We have been through Ted lasso and shits Creek and are really happy shows. And now we just got back into one of our favorites season four of Ozark, just dark and a little tough sometimes, but we love it. And so we are currently just finishing up the first half of season four.
Charlie Malouf
So I’m a big Ted Lasser fan. And I’m a big Ozark fan and Batemans great, but Julie Garner is on a new Netflix show called inventing Anna. And so that may be one my wife just started that one. I
Heather Greenwood
just saw something about it yesterday. And I was thinking Oh, are we ready for that? So it’s
Charlie Malouf
based on a true story. And she’s she’s a great actress. She really is. Okay. What is your favorite piece of furniture that you’ve bought from us?
Heather Greenwood
We’ve recently built a home and furnished her home at Ashley home store. And so one of my favorites is the bolanburg counter height table. Just dinner is really important to us. kids go to school, I work and so one thing we do every day is we eat dinner together at our table. Yes, weird conversation because they’re little. But that table means so much to me. It’s just a place for us to come home and a sanctuary to sit around our table dinner have some laughs and so when I bought the table, I didn’t think that that big of a deal. It was kitchen table. But now every night when we’re together around it, it just plays a really big part in our family coming together.
Charlie Malouf
The meaning behind it were life’s best memories and moments are taking place that’s awesome around the dinner table. Okay, so when you start working for the day, which is a normal time, I hope and have some time for yourself or your family. What do you like to do for fun or just to relax?
Heather Greenwood
Yeah, we love to be outside. Hard right now because the weather has been a little tough. We love to be outside taking walks. My kids are in that kind of learning to ride the bike stage. So riding bikes, they’re also starting to explore sports, soccer, basketball. So we love To be outside, I love to do anything that my kids are involved in. So just being with them talking about what happened at school, one of my favorite things to do is read with them. My six year old is an avid reader. He’s the type of kid who you can find in a corner reading a book. And so reading with them, and now for him to read to me is really special. He picks up the book and we sit down and we cuddle and him reading that means a lot to me, I love that he’s a reader at such a young age, that anything that we can do together, we recently went back to the movie theater, which we haven’t been over two years. And we took my middle son for his first trip to the movie theater. And so that was just a really cool on a whim, I thought we should do something different. This weekend, we kind of have been in a rut. So let’s go to the movies. And that was just something fun and different that they really enjoyed. I think of again, what can we do different than what we get used to doing every day?
Charlie Malouf
We did as well. We recently I think we saw sing to Broadway. Yeah, those are choices. Well, it was great. I think I loved it more than the other kids did. And so it was great to get back to do normal things again. Okay, coming down the final stretch of this awesome interview. Thank you, again, so much for being here. To someone who is not a Memory Maker, and is thinking of joining or coming to the river, as we like to say, what advice would you offer to that person?
Heather Greenwood
Come trust your gut. I’m a big person trust my gut, gut instinct. How do I feel about things? It’s the right move. If you’re thinking about it, if you’ve talked to some people, it’s the right move. It’s a great company for you personally and professionally. And that’s what’s ultimately important to me, is that invest in you personally. So I think, come be prepared to learn, be prepared to be a student, be prepared to have fun, it’s a little bit of a different company. That’s what I like about it. The culture is energetic, and it’s fun, and it’s engaging, be ready for all of that, but you probably should just come.
Charlie Malouf
Okay, I love it. Season One of the podcast, this is our first attempt at trying something new and different. What are you looking forward to learning from my fellow memory makers during this first season?
Heather Greenwood
I love hearing people’s history, where they came from, we work with so many people, but do I know where they all came from? Or what happened before Broad River now? And I’d also love to know what makes people go, what does that motivate or what inspires them? What makes a person like a Moe know, what makes Manny Manny and so I think about that, and I’m just excited to hear from people excited to hear from memory makers that maybe I don’t get to spend a lot of time with, but I should and so people that I might learn through the podcast that I want to spend more time with in the future. Yeah, I
Charlie Malouf
am too. So along those lines, you know a lot of people in a lot of different departments in our company. Do you have any guest recommendations like Who should we have on who are some people who we should consider asking to be a guest on the podcast.
Heather Greenwood
One of my favorite stories at radova. Retail is as Valdo Rodriguez, and I’ve known him since day one. He’s somebody I talked to all the time. And every time I talk to him, he talks about his kids and his wife and his story. And it’s so inspiring. He has done so much in his career. And for sure, for me, that would be an incredible story for all of our memory makers to hear.
Charlie Malouf
That’s a great recommendation. I still sends me text messages or emails that he and his family got their new house and he said, he’s been a great success story. And will oz. You got to be on the podcast. Man. We got to have you on here. Whether you’ve been great. Any final words, or as we as we close out today?
Heather Greenwood
No, I’m excited to be here on Season One. We’ve talked about a podcast for a long time. So to see it come to life, and I’m excited to see who else is on the podcast and what we can learn from each other. I think this is just kind of the beginning broad rivers an exciting place. I’m so humbled and grateful to be a part of it and to see where we go in the future.
Charlie Malouf
Awesome. And that is episode two with Heather Greenwood, our Associate Director of the Memory Maker experience. Thank you so much for joining us.
