IAM782- Chief Purpose Officer Helps Clients Develop Strong Career Brands

Olympia LaRose is a Women in Tech Ambassador, Speaker, and Career Advisor for distinct leaders, managers, and executives. As a former engineering consultant, Olympia has worked with global 500 companies including the United Nations, PIMCO, and Paul Weiss law firm to solve complex technology challenges. Today, she's the Principal and Chief Purpose Officer at Piahrose (pee-ah-rose) a strategic career marketing firm headquartered in Atlanta. Olympia leads the career marketing and coaching development operations, ensuring clients find purpose in work, manage their human capital, and develop a strong career brand to future-proof their employment against tech disruption.

• CEO Hack: I love work
• CEO Nugget: Pursue your purpose
• CEO Defined: Responsibility to humans

Website: https://www.piahrose.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olympialarose/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olympialarose/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/olympialarose

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you’ve come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you’re in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

[00:00:29.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Olympia LaRose. Olympia, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.50] – Olympia LaRose

Hi. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm pretty excited about this opportunity to interview with you.

[00:00:47.29] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. You're doing so many phenomenal things. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Olympia so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Olympia is a woman in tech ambassador, speaker, and career adviser for distinct leaders, managers, and executives. As a former engineering consultant, Olympia has worked with global five hundred companies, including the United Nations, PIMCO, and Paul Weiss law firm to solve complex technology challenges. Today, she's the principal and chief purpose officer at Pia Rose, a strategic career marketing firm headquartered in Atlanta. Olympia leads the career marketing and coaching development operations, ensuring clients find purpose in work, manage their human capital, and develop a strong career brand to future-proof their employment against tech disruptions. Olympia, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:38.90] – Olympia LaRose

I am. Thank you.

[00:01:41.50] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your background and what led you to cofound and lead this organization.

[00:01:52.00] – Olympia LaRose

Sure. So, well, my background is engineering, and, I've worked as an engineering consultant for over ten years, and I love tech. I love all things technology. I love the future of work. I love solving problems. And what I realized, in cofounding Pia Rose is that translated to my background because what we're doing right now is solving the career endemic for mid-level and executive professionals. So what I mean by that is eighty-five percent. Okay? Believe it or not, eighty-five percent of Americans are unhappy and dissatisfied in their job or their career. So, Pia Rose, Pia Rose is the impetus for that to solve that problem and helping people achieve a much more sustainable lifestyle through their careers. So with my background in engineering and my expertise in the future of work, we're really integrating that concept of helping people prepare. And if you said in my bio, future proof of their employment through a strong career brand.

[00:03:10.19] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that, and I appreciate you for doing that. And I didn't realize, you know, the number was that high. I've heard, you know, a lot of people. I've never heard that number when you hear eighty-five percent. That is definitely a startling number. So I appreciate you as any true leader or, you know, business leader definitely does is not just seeing that there's a problem, but actually creating and solving and being at the forefront of an organization that helps make that happen.

[00:03:36.19] – Olympia LaRose

Yes. Thank you, Gresh, it's interesting because when you think about it, eighty-five percent is a large number, but those are the record numbers, statistically. You know? Many others are accounted for. You know? And, again, that number is not just stagnant. It's progressively growing, each day because of, you know, not just the pandemic, but because overall of the workforce and the job displacements that are going on. And now technology is another aspect of that displacement.

[00:04:13.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And technology is always doing, you know, its fair share of disrupting in addition, as you said, to everything that's, you know, happening in the world. So I wanted to hear a little bit more on what you're doing with Pier Rose. Could you take us through that and especially, learn more about the phrase you said before, and I said when I read your bio, the future-proofing their employment. Could you talk a little bit more about that as well?

[00:04:36.10] – Olympia LaRose

Yes. I love it. Future-proofing, employees' employment. What, and this is the vision and the mission of our CEO, who is very much Linda Millwood, who is very much, involved in our day-to-day process in ensuring that we meet not just the bottom line, but that our clients are, successful in their endeavors. So when I say future-proofing our employment, the concept of that is helping employees to prepare for unemployment. Now we know that unemployment can be a very shattering experience, for anyone, especially if you're not prepared. And what what Pia Rose, focuses on is primarily helping people to understand their gift.

So, you know, commonly, that, you know, we have this tendency to say, you know, do your nine to five and go home and do your five to nine. For Pia Rose, we changed the narrative of that, and we say work your five to nine, all the time, which is nine to five. Because what we want people to understand is that you don't have to find purpose outside of work. The purpose is inside of what you do. It's who you are. You just need to identify what your gift, your talent, and your human capital are, and you'll be able to sustain your career that way. So although you may have been laid off or furloughed or even fired, you're not abandoned because your gift, you know, what you were created to do would have, placed you in a position to sustain any of those inconveniences.

[00:06:18.39] – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for you personally or for the organization, but what do you feel kinda of sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:06:27.89] – Olympia LaRose

What sets the heroes apart, is again, as we've mentioned before, purpose. Yeah. Purpose is what sets us apart. And, you know, purpose is a very common term. It's something that you've heard millions of times, and I'd like to say purpose is relative. Because what you may find to be purposeful to you and others may not be purposeful for me, or our organization. But we focus on purpose to the degree to which it affects our entire being. So whether you're doing a job that pays you half a million dollars a year and you're not satisfied. You know? You don't you don't create meaningful work. You know, when you go home, you wonder, okay. I'm gonna get up and go to work tomorrow, but I'm not happy. You know? I'm not sustained. And what really what we really focus on, is that purpose for our clients.

You know, what is it that you do that creates that meaningful life and experience for you, and not just you, but also for your family because that's what work-life integration is about. It's about integrating everything that it connects to us and really, embracing that and saying, you know what? I don't have to work and say, you know, I'm gonna go home and take care of this or go home and take care of that. Everything that I do about work should include everything that I believe from my principles to my practices. So what really, helps us to stand out is that we value purpose. We value people. We value, purpose to the understanding that you were created to solve a problem. You know, what is that problem you were created to solve? And we wanna help you, and help our clients solve that problem and understand that there is fulfillment beyond your work. You know, you just need to connect that, and then you really achieve what you really wanna achieve in life.

[00:08:32.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And as we kinda talked about before, you start to get to why we were sometimes even put here on this earth when you're able to understand these are the soft these are problems, I've kind of been put here to solve. So I absolutely, love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a hack. So this might be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:55.89] – Olympia LaRose

Work. I love work. And if you notice, I said work, in the aspect of even though it's a verb, I speak of it as an adjective because we have I may say, you know, I love to work, but what happens when I'm not working? You know? So work is what really it's like the hack for me. Like, I love, love, love working, and I believe I do because I identify what my purpose is, which is to help other people, achieve career sustainability.

[00:09:30.50] – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely love that. And, so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a nugget. And this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It could be something you would say to a client or, potentially, if you hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:09:45.29] – Olympia LaRose

For me, it would be, pursue pursue your purpose and just answer the call. That is really the method that we provide to all of our clients, and it is also what I provide, for myself and my family is to provide is to really pursue your purpose.

[00:10:01.00] – Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. I know you're the chief purpose officer, but I wanted to ask you from your perspective, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:10:11.29] – Olympia LaRose

Yes. You said a CEO or a CPO?

[00:10:14.00] – Gresham Harkless

CPO or CEO. What it is could be a CPO.

[00:10:17.79] – Olympia LaRose

So what does it mean to be a CPO? It's a responsibility to humans. And I say humans because with the progression of technology and artificial intelligence, which is, what we'd, understand to be the future of work and the displacement that is occurring right now, My role as the CPO is to really get to the core of our clients being and ensure that they meet their meet themselves. So our philosophy at PROs is career marketing that introduces you to you. As the chief purpose officer, Piero I have to ensure that our clients, our team, our vision, and our mission are to introduce people to themselves. So as we've mentioned before, we talked about before, is purpose. Who are you? And, you know, do you know what you're called to do?

Do you know what problem you're born to solve? That is my mission, and that is demeaning to everything that I do is to help people understand that and find out, you know, find out for themselves who are themselves. Like, what do you mean to yourself, and how do you contribute to the world at large despite your day-to-day, despite your nine to five, despite, you know, family and the pandemic, despite all of those things which are natural because it's life, you know, what are you born to do? What problem were you created to solve? You know, why are you alive? And, you know, if you die, what what what will be said of you? You know, that's the marker, for me in the meaning and the responsibility I have as the CPO.

[00:12:12.60] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love that. And I think, one of the the habits of seven, seven habits of highly effective people was kinda beginning with the end in mind. I think that the question which you said, like, resonated so well with me about what will people say after, you know, you may not be here on Earth in the way that we think. And I think when you understand that, you can kinda reverse engineer as you might say as well too to understand exactly how to get to there and what that looks like. And I think when we understand that and you're able to kinda create that perspective, it becomes like a really phenomenal kinda high that you're on.

And I love that you get the opportunity to get to do that for so many people because I think it's, we're all kind of searching for something, and being able to find yourself is one of the most, powerful things that you can definitely do. So I, truly appreciate that definition, Olympia. I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about what you and your team and CEO and everybody are doing.

[00:13:18.89] – Olympia LaRose

Sure. Thank you. Thank you again, Gresh, for this opportunity. I had a great time. Again, I love talking about work, career sustainability, career marketing, future of work tech. I love it. It's really the only thing I can say I enjoy, and talking about. So, again, I wanna thank you and your team for having me. And to your audience, I would say follow the path less traveled, and that would be the path where no one is on. That's a that is a path exclusive to you and your calling. You know? Follow your purpose. You know? Ask questions about what are what are you doing, you know, where you need to be, you know, why are you not happy, and look beyond happiness because, again, the purpose is not about happiness.

You know, the solution is not about happiness. It's all about sustainability and solving problems. That's what solutions are about. So look beyond your happiness, but also look and investigate your passion. You know? Find out what is it that you love. And if you love it so much, how does it connect to something greater? You know? How does it, solve a problem? You know, because your passion is there. You know, it's it's not voided. It's there. Everyone has a passion. We all have passions. We have and some people, have many passions, but you have to identify what is that passion telling you.

It's really a tug and a pull for you to fix something, solve something, or do something greater than what you're doing now if you're not already in pursuit of that, that purpose. And, you know, you can connect with Piero's. We are a career marketing firm and we work with mid-level executive professionals to help them, develop a sustainable career and identify their gift and purpose through work. So you can connect with us at pia rose dot com. That is pIahrose.com. You can follow me on Instagram, and Facebook. I can tell you right now, I am not the most social media-savvy person. But I do have a social media platform that I can engage with you. To engage your services, you can also visit piahrose.com.

[00:15:46.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Olympia. We will have the links and information in the show notes that everybody can follow up with you, and and I definitely appreciate you, you know, leaving us with that because I think, and I often say that a lot of times if you run your own race, you can't lose. I think so many times we get caught running somebody else's race.

[00:16:03.60] – Olympia LaRose

I love it.

[00:16:04.50] – Gresham Harkless

And, when you're able to do that, you identify what your race is, you find yourself, as you said so well, then you really start to put the pedal to the metal to make sure that you're putting the work into make sure that happens. So I appreciate you for reminding us of that. Appreciate you even more for helping so many people do that, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:22.50] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at IAMCEO.CO. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it’s a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear a www.CEOgear.co This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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