Having Paula Rogers on for the Changing the Game podcast felt like an adventure in many ways as she was the very first guest with whom I had no prior contact before the recording of the episode.

This means that as we learn about her story from when first graduated from the university of Dublin up into the point where she became the WA state director of CEDA, you and I both are going to be hearing it for the first time.

As you can imagine this is quite a privilege, so as we learn about all the ways in which Paula is changing the game, I hope you are just as delighted in the conversation as I was.

The Gift Of Adversity

Anyone that has gone through college will know that feeling of being pushed out the door into the ever revolving storm that is the world with all the strife and turmoil that it contains.

For Paula, it was no different, except for the fact that Ireland was going through a huge recession at the time she graduated which put a shadow of doubt over her transition from student to professional.

Yet as it tends to be, it was the adversities she faced that forged her path as the fear of never actually getting a job brought her to the bustling London where she got to kick-start her career.

The very first thing Paula and I got to talk about we already have a great nugget of wisdom:

‘Don’t judge your future for where you are today’.

When you set out to change the game in any scale, you will always be met with the challenges of your beginning circumstances. For Paula that was economic recession, for you, it can be the global pandemic we are going through right now.

But it’s essential that you take these obstacles head on as they will provide you with the strength you’ll need to truly change things for the better.

Life is Unpredictable

Still on the subject of the beginning of her career, Paula talked about how she got into social studies with the goal of becoming a social worker in the future, which is quite a ways away from her current enterprises a director of economic development.

That is a very common theme amongst my guests as so often they come out of college with a certificate in hands and no idea of what they are going to do.

Paula was no different in this regard having “no idea” about what she wanted to do when going into college and only a faint clue as to the path she wanted to pursue afterwards which had nothing to do with her current career

Thinking back on when the choice was upon her, Paula said that she would have chosen to go for marketing for a college degree, but that she was glad for the experiences provided in the “university of life.”

All of that is to say the simple truth that life in unpredictable and when you first put your feet on the road there is really no telling where you are going to end up. The Paula from college thought that she was going to be a social worker in 2021.

And yet she looks at the great career she has today knowing that despite being unexpected, the path she took was far from wrong.

Being an Immigrant in Western Australia

Just like me, Paula also came to the region of Perth in Western Australia and found it hard not to fall in love with this beautiful place, yet she faced many challenges that were absent from my experience as an immigrant.

She recalled that her first experience living in Australia was back in the early nineties when she worked at Jeans West that was pioneering customer care at the time, but as soon as she could get a “proper job”, she started working at The West Australian.

There she made the connections that would lend her a job as a managing director at the publication when she moved back in with her family in 2002, later giving her the opportunity to publish her own books.

Paula’s first and second experiences in Perth were vastly different as she recalls: “There was no internet, petrol stations were only open at certain days on the weekend and I felt really isolated then.”

Her second time living in Perth on the other hand was much more positive as she could count on the grounding force of having her family with her and getting to watch her son “blossom and grow” made her years here better.

When we find ourselves in face of a challenge it is a very natural reaction to believe you have to face it alone, but too often you find that to be a lie as your loved ones will give you not just the means but a reason as well.

The Woman In The Big Chair

Being the state director of CEDA is no small feat. I believe that goes without saying as it is a position that comes with a lot of responsibility and demands no small of competence.

Add to that the challenges that women everywhere have to face nowadays and you can begin to grasp how big of an accomplishment it is for Paula to be where she is today, which was exactly what my next question to her was about.

About the challenges of being a woman on an executive position, she had the following to say:

“Ceda had five state directors, two of which were man and three women and by the end of my term there was only one man.”

So often in this show we hear about women having to fight with tooth and nail for a space within companies and organizations and here we can actually see this struggle starting to bear fruit.

Conclusion

If we were to draw a single point from everything Paula and I got to discuss it would have to be about overcoming the challenges that present themselves along our life path.

After all if Paula Rogers reached the incredible heights she is on today that would be because of her ability to take the adversities of life in stride and prosper through, the anxiety of recession and the isolation of coming to new lands.

All of these things became possible through her courage, which is the overcoming rather than the absence of fear. Which finally brings us to our creative exercise for today.

I want you to think about what is the biggest challenge that stands between you and changing the game and what you can do to overcome it.