Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Puja Rios. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Puja, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
As a first-generation American from a proud, educated, driven Indian family, I was born to work hard. Most children of immigrant families will tell you hard work, education, ambition, and the duality of the beautiful yet heavy weight of our families’ expectations have created us—for good or bad—in the image of those who achieve.
From the time I started my first entrepreneurial business at age thirteen, I was hardwired to get it together. And keep it together. And succeed. I don’t know that I ever thought there was any other option!
Throughout my entire career, and finally as Chief Revenue Officer of a Fortune 500 company and business coach, I’ve taken the lessons I absorbed and combined them with the extraordinary upbringing I had, as well as my innate instincts—and I have created a real formula for success.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Puja Bhola Rios is the Chief Revenue Officer at Frame.io, an Adobe Company. Frame is a cloud-based video collaboration platform. Previous to Frame.io, Puja spent seven years at Xerox and thirteen years at CareerBuilder as their SVP of Enterprise Sales and Customer Success. While at CareerBuilder, Puja founded and ran her company’s Women’s Alliance, CareerBuildHER.
With a knack for numbers and a thoughtful tough love approach to leadership, Puja Rios presents her proven formula for success. Her book, “Get It Together: A Winning Formula for Success From the Boss You Need,” guides readers through what it takes to achieve the results they want in business and life.
Chapter by chapter she breaks down the success principles she’s applied to achieve both business and personal goals, with the perfect mix of encouragement and hard truths. Whether it’s hav-ing clarity about your goals, developing critical thinking skills, or persevering through pain, Puja’s lucid lessons are immediately actionable and profoundly transformative.
Puja also prides herself on her work as a chronic pain advocate and blogger. She is the author of the Huffington Post feature blog, “Me vs. Fibromyalgia,” as well as a contributor to Thrive Global. A dynamic speaker and an energetic leader, Puja is a fierce advocate for inspiring people to “Get It Together.”
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three skills 1. Hard wired to work hard
2. Having a plan
3. Relentless Execution
For folks early in their journey, my advice would be read an article a day in the Wall street journal or Forbes, have a 1-2 year plan build for your goals and master finance and money.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Decide on your ONE thing. I totally believe in spending time in thought (some might meditate), and I believe in thinking positive. But there’s a tendency in our society to almost shame people for feeling defeated at times. People with illnesses are sometimes told if they just think good thoughts, the illness will go away. But the fact is, we’re all in this thing called life—and none of us get out alive. And sometimes, life can be a real S.O.B. There’s no sugarcoating it. And it doesn’t help you, my readers, for me to speak in platitudes.
When it seems like it’s all falling apart, we drill it down. What’s the biggest problem? I really have people focus on that when they feel like they can’t keep fighting. It kind of reminds me of the scene in the original Indiana Jones movie when he’s surrounded in the marketplace by numerous henchmen. He is vastly outnumbered. Then the biggest, baddest assassin takes out a giant sword. And Indie shoots him.
You need to figure out who or what the guy with the sword is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pujarios.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pujarios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/puja.rios
- Linkedin: https://www.instagram.com/pujarios/
- Twitter: @pujarios
