Finding Your Gift with Olivia West

In this episode of See Yourself IN, host Casey Harrison interviews Olivia West, the in-game host for the Indiana Fever and Indiana Pacers, and a dynamic public speaker. Olivia shares her journey from growing up in La Porte, Indiana, to her time at Purdue University, her career in the life sciences industry, and her current work inspiring others. She emphasizes the importance of self-belief, finding and using your gifts to serve others, and running the race of life to win. Olivia also recounts her unique start in public speaking, standing on hay bales in a horse arena, and discusses her passion for empowering others and impacting lives.

5 Key Takeaways:

1. Believe in Yourself: Self-belief is the foundation for success. If you don't believe in yourself, it's difficult for others to believe in you.

2. Find Your Gift and Serve: Identify your unique skills and talents and use them to serve others. Greatness comes from service.

3. Run to Win: Approach life with a winning mindset. Don't just participate; strive to excel and make a meaningful impact.

4. Embrace Opportunities: Be open to exploring different paths and industries. Even unexpected experiences can provide valuable skills and insights.

5. Leverage Your Experiences: Every experience, even those from childhood, can contribute to your success. Olivia's experience with 4H and FFA, and public speaking on hay bales, helped her become a public speaker.

For more resources on the jobs, companies, and opportunities in Indiana, visit

https://www.cicpindiana.com/syi/  

Transcript

[00:00:00] Casey Harrison: Welcome to today's episode of See Yourself In where you will learn about cool jobs, people and companies in Indiana. Today you'll hear about skills that will help you find success. And most importantly, we hope we inspire you to dream big. I'm Casey Harrison, your host. See Yourself In is presented by the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership to help you discover all of the opportunities within Indiana's advanced industries.

We'll discuss career paths, job training programs, and all of the ways that you can develop and apply those skills to explore these opportunities. Today's episode features a woman whose face probably doesn't need an introduction. Olivia West is the in game host for the Indiana Fever and Indiana Pacers, but her accomplishments don't stop when the game ends.

Liv graduated from Purdue University before she began her career in the life sciences industry. Throughout her journey, she's continued to create new opportunities for herself right here in Indiana. We'll get to know Olivia in today's episode.

[00:01:05] Olivia West: Olivia, welcome. And thank you for joining us. Hey, thanks for having me. See yourself in Casey. We're not strangers, that's for sure. But it's always great to be able to have a platform to share stories and to just share any wisdom or insights from my own journey. Oh 

[00:01:18] Casey Harrison: my gosh, I cannot wait to get into your story.

I feel like we say it every time how fast this time goes, but I think this episode is gonna fly. So if you're listening, grab a pen and paper, we're gonna get right to it. There was a spoiler alert in your intro, but you graduated from Purdue University, so we know that you're in Indiana. You've been in Indiana.

Were you born in Indiana? I 

[00:01:37] Olivia West: was, yeah. So I was born in a small town in northern Indiana called La Porte, Indiana. It was actually a pretty significant size high school, though. I graduated with like 450 people. I was near the top of that class, not at the tip top, but doing my thing nevertheless. And I had a wonderful experience at La Porte High School.

Small towns. are great because they really, they just nurture you in a way that sometimes big cities have trouble to. And so I've got a great community at home always cheering for me, rooting for me, no matter if I'm doing the Pacers or no matter if I'm just at home leading the student section like I did when I was in high school.

Community is so important. 

[00:02:11] Casey Harrison: I want to maybe go back a little further. So when you were in high school, were you thinking about what life would look like after graduation? 

[00:02:18] Olivia West: When I was in high school, I always knew that I was going to be successful, but it was almost a naive knowing that I was going to be successful.

I knew that if I worked hard, if I showed up, if I asked really great, insightful questions, that that would then lead me to some type of success. Now, did I know that it was going to end up like this? Absolutely not. But there were seeds that were planted early on foreshadowed that something like this was about to happen.

I think for me, my key to success is truly to be engaged, to be engaged and to be interested. Asking good questions is really the key to unlocking so many things. A door is not going to be unlocked unless you knock, unless you really propose and try to get in there. And so, I think with me it was always just having a really firm belief in myself that I already had the skills and the interest and it was just finding whatever that thing was that I wanted to couple up with and take off.

Did you know college would be your pathway? Yes, mostly because I needed to buy myself some time. I also needed to get some further exposure. Sometimes when you grow up in a small place, you can tend to maybe think small, but all big things start small. And so I had such a good foundation, a firm foundation.

in the city, a firm foundation in my education, in my community. So I had everything that I needed, but I did need more time, I needed more resources, and then just more, more exposure to see what was possible. So you went to Purdue? I did. Why Purdue? Why Purdue? Boiler up, hammer down, it's the best, it's the best college in the whole city, state, and town.

Hey, I mean, listen, so Purdue was actually something that a lot of my family members, many of them went to Purdue to get their education. Some of them teachers, some of them engineers, some of them doctors, some of them scientists. And it was funny because as I looked at them, I didn't see myself in any of them.

So I said, I'm going to go to Purdue, but my Purdue journey is going to look different. And it's going to look more like me. It's going to look more like my skills and interests. And so, when I got to Purdue, I maybe had a naive understanding of what a college, what a university would equip me with. But, what I found was a shipyard.

With a bunch of different materials that I could take a little bit of this, take a little bit of that, and build my own boat. And it was an amazing experience, but even Purdue itself did not give me everything that I needed to be successful. I needed to take initiative. Initiative, energy, engagement has always been my secret sauce.

Did 

[00:04:30] Casey Harrison: you know going into Purdue or quickly, like how quickly when you got there, what you were going to study and what you wanted to major in? 

[00:04:36] Olivia West: When I actually got to Purdue, I entered into a program called Exploratory Studies, so I could do just that. So I could explore what it is I wanted to study.

Honestly, when I had to do that program, it was like a year long program, and then you did have to declare a major. And even at that point, I don't think I was super confident in what I wanted to do or what I wanted to study. But I said, okay. I'm gonna study agricultural economics because I have some interest, I have some background in ag econ.

Uh, I, I focus in sales and marketing, which I knew would be extremely transferable, right, very transferable skills. And so I said, I'm gonna do this and then I'm just gonna know and believe that this is gonna lead me to whatever's next. 

[00:05:11] Casey Harrison: So if you're listening and you're like, I have no idea what I want to do.

I really don't know what I want to study. I think what you're saying is there are opportunities to explore that. And maybe through the exploration you start to, like, almost get more focused on what the outcome is going to look like. 

[00:05:25] Olivia West: Yeah, and a lot of times we don't need more time, we need more focus. Yes, sometimes we do need more exposure and such, but a lot of times we just need to be more focused.

What are the gifts and skills that you have? Only you can answer that question. Only you really know. What am I interested in? What do I like to do? But also, what are other people affirming me for? Olivia, you're really good at this. Oh Casey, you're really good at that. That's probably your thing and you should take that thing and you should serve others with it.

[00:05:52] Casey Harrison: I want to move into what you're doing today, but before we get into Olivia West Speaks, I want to maybe talk about you graduated and you spent time in the life sciences industry. Absolutely. Talk to us a little bit about what it was about that industry and what you were doing that 

[00:06:05] Olivia West: interested you so much.

Madam CJ Walker has this awesome quote that I always anchor myself in and, and it's And it says, I got my start by giving myself a start. And in order to learn what success looks like, I had to go somewhere to accompany to an organization that was very successful and their success was determinant upon their ability to serve others.

At any company, they are rewarded when they serve, when they sell, when they solve problems. I knew that in order to successfully run my own company, I need to learn how one worked. And so I did pursue the life sciences industry purely because it's an industry that consistently helps people. It's always pushing the boundaries to how do we tackle these life altering diseases and problems.

And I knew that that was a solution that I wanted to be a part of. But truly, I knew that I wanted to run my own business. I knew that I wanted to be in the business game. And it's really hard to play that game and win if you're sitting on the sidelines. So I pursued a life sciences industry and job because it's stable.

It's exciting. It's dynamic. All things that I want in building my business to be. 

[00:07:04] Casey Harrison: And there are incredible opportunities in Indiana for life science career paths. I mean, you don't have to be a doctor to work in life sciences. You don't have to even be interested in medicine to work in the marketing department or the finance department.

So I think that's also an industry where there's just a ton of opportunity. 

[00:07:21] Olivia West: Absolutely. And the opportunity to really stand out, right? Imagine you having a super creative background, but saying, You know what? I want to work in life sciences because I want to make the lives of people better. So I'm going to take all of my creative capacity and gifts and talents and couple it up with this industry that is fast growing, fast moving.

Extremely profitable for individuals and the economy, right? You want to be on the side of the winners, and I'm telling you, these advanced industries are winning. They're winning. They're the ones consistently getting the funding, getting the accolades and receiving big wins in the marketplace. And that's the place that you want to be.

[00:07:56] Casey Harrison: Big wins in the marketplace and usually back to what you're passionate about, big wins for other people, for our neighbors, for people who we grew up with, right? And so it's really fun to do work that is equally as impactful as it is 

[00:08:08] Olivia West: rewarding. That's really where you win, is when you're having a good time, you're delivering, you're helping others.

My constant adage that I use is, how can I use my gift in service to others? That is where you'll find success. Yes, that's a really important way to live. 

[00:08:23] Casey Harrison: I want to pivot because I want to talk about Olivia West Speaks and what you're doing today. Olivia is speaking in Indiana, across Indiana, outside of Indiana, you name it.

You're on stages really helping to inspire others. Where did your love for public speaking begin? 

[00:08:36] Olivia West: Casey, this is a good one. My love for public speaking. This is the one that you gotta slow down because it's so special. It's also so Indiana. So, I grew up showing horses and pigs, right? I was a 10 year 4 H member.

I was in FFA the whole thing, okay? So, for any, you know, maybe farmers, 4 H members, I understand. Like, I understand the early mornings, the late nights in the barn. I understand all the grind that you have to do before you can shine. M. M. M. Through that process, you know, horses eat hay, and hay, when you stack it up, it kind of looks like a stage.

Well, at least it did to me. And so my most vivid memory of my childhood is standing on the stage, which was made of hay bales, just teaching and talking to this big arena where I would ride my horses. We had an indoor arena, and the horses would just be sticking their, their heads out of their stalls, and I would just be up there talking.

I don't even know what I was talking about. I mean, when you're young, you know, when you're in your teens, like, what was I talking about for hours on hours? And it was, it was quite funny sometimes even, even the police would come visit because of all of the ruckus. But it was, it was seriously such an amazing way to get in my 10, 000 hours.

Experts say that it takes 10, 000 hours to be an expert. And that was where my 10, 000 hours came from. It was fantastic. Standing on those hay bales, talking, teaching, preaching, whatever, entertaining, engaging and doing that first and foremost. And then I was also really involved in just leadership, leadership of clubs, of organizations.

So it was no problem for me to get on stage in front of 250 people, tell them what they needed to know, inspire them to what they're going to be and just inform them, equip them with what they need to be successful. So it's been something I've been training for, for a long, long time. I was also the student section leader.

There's this picture of me from high school. And it must have been raining that day because my hair was wild. And, I wore glasses and I had my glasses on and it's like a picture from the side and like I am just screaming like my mouth is just wide open like scream and someone wrote on a dry erase board scream like live if possible.

I mean, that is just point blank how I trained for this, how I prepared for this. So it was my gift, the thing that I like to do, the thing that I was very proficient at and a way that I can serve others. I'm 

[00:10:48] Casey Harrison: just sitting here thinking I still can't get past Hay Barrels as a stage, and now knowing that you've interviewed Shannon Sharp and Simone Biles and Oprah and, and you still spend time with students and with small groups in the community, so I just.

That's really special. 

[00:11:04] Olivia West: It's an absolute privilege. And I know that people say this all the time, but like, I get to do this. I get to do this. Even being here today, this invitation to be on here. I'm like, who's going to listen to this podcast? Oh, students, professionals around the city. I'm in. I'm in because everyone has a story to share.

We all have so, so much to share and to give. And that's why I'm here. Imagine how selfish it would be if I have this, this gift that's valuable and I just keep it for myself. I'm just going to stay over here and do my thing. No, I'm here to serve others to help make other people see the gift that they have and use it and mobilize it in service to others.

[00:11:39] Casey Harrison: I want to take it a step further because it's, it's no longer just a gift. You're turning it into a business. And so what are some of the ways maybe that Your life sciences and the roles before today that you held helped you refine some of the soft skills that make you effective as an entrepreneur.

[00:11:55] Olivia West: Everything that I've done at that business is now helping me in my business. The ability to identify problems and then position myself in the solution. Sometimes I'm not always a solution, but sometimes I can help bring about one. Critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are so important. It doesn't matter if you go to college to study, we need to start to develop better ways of asking questions and of bringing about solutions, you know.

If you're gonna propose a problem, you need to be a part of the solution. Oh, yes. And so I think for me, it's recognizing these things. It's thinking for myself. That is something that no one is going to teach you to think for yourself, but you need to be bold and say, this is, this is my thought on it. And this is my suggestion.

And I want to be a part of the solution. So I think for me, it's identifying opportunities as well. Big business is amazing at solving big problems with big opportunities, right? Big companies go after big problems because they're big profitable. And so I think for me as an entrepreneur, I want to solve the biggest problems because there comes the biggest reward.

Mic 

[00:12:59] Casey Harrison: drop moments. I hope everybody listening is taking some notes at this point. It's really evident to hear. I mean, every time that you start speaking, your passion radiates. Where does this come from? My 

[00:13:09] Olivia West: passion comes from a place of knowing who I am, being confident in that and wanting to share it with others.

I'm not here for me. I'm not here to shine. I'm here to shine the light on others so that they truly start to believe in what they have. Because the world needs us. The world needs us to use what we have. There's something that you have. There's something that I have. And together we're far more powerful than we are apart.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And I want to go far. I desire to sustain. I desire to continue to inspire and empower over decades. And in order to do that, I need to share. I need to find the right partners, the right customers. The right clients, the right problems to allow me to sustain.

Every big thing starts small. Every short thing can get tall. And so I think for me, it's having that legacy mindset because it's not about me. It's not about you. It's about the community. It's about the empowerment and about the lives that we impact. It is about the lives that we impact. And it's about the experiences that we get to have along the way.

Meeting Oprah. You know, this is funny. This is what I told her. I don't think that she thought it was as miraculous as I did. But. We actually have the same initials, Oprah Gail Winfrey. My middle name's Grace, Olivia Grace West. And I was like, Oh, we have the same initials. And she's like, Great. You know, she was like, Okay, whatever.

But to me, I remember being a little girl and seeing so much of myself in her. I was like, Well, if she could do it, I could do it. And that's before I even knew she was rich. I just so admired her gift. I so admired her skill. I admired the story she was able to tell, the action, the energy, the passion.

That's what I gravitated toward. And I think that if I can be that in this community, if I can be that here in this state, in this city, then that's what I want to be. I want to be available to serve. I want to be accessible to solve problems. And I, I want to continue to do that on a greater scale so I can solve greater problems and be effective.

[00:15:04] Casey Harrison: Before we tell our listeners how to actually connect with you so that they can access your energy, we end every episode asking whoever's in the guest seat to share three things that you've really learned or refined on your career journey that you think would benefit those listening. 

[00:15:18] Olivia West: Number 

[00:15:18] Casey Harrison: one, 

[00:15:19] Olivia West: believe in yourself.

If you do not truly believe in yourself with every fiber of your being, why would anyone else believe in you? When I got my chance to become the Indiana Fever in game host, I already had to believe that I had all the skill sets necessary to do so. I had to believe that because then I had to go convince them that I was that already.

And so truly, truly, if you're listening to this, start to believe in yourself, believe in your dreams, believe in the prayers, whatever it is for you, you truly have to believe that that is going to happen, that that is going to be true. What you tell yourself every day is what your life becomes. So that's number one, truly believe in yourself.

Number two, get really serious about finding your gift so that you can use that in service to others. Martin Luther King Jr. said, you know, not everyone can be famous, but everyone can be great because greatness is determined on service. And so truly find your gift. What is that thing that you're good at?

What is that thing that you have been uniquely positioned and curated to do? Use that to serve others. And number three, number three is truly run this race to win. Don't just play the game, win the game. Don't be okay with sitting on the sideline and watching other people do it. Why not you? Run this thing to win.

It's going to take a while. It is not a hundred meter dash. It's a marathon. And so pace yourself, take care of yourself, and continue to pursue this thing because you want to win. You want to win because you want to be effective. You want to win because you want to serve. And our ability to do that with bright eyes, and an open heart and servant hands.

That is where success comes from. Those are my three things. Believe in yourself, number two, find your gift and use it in service to others, and number three, run to win. Olivia West, where can people find you? You can find me, I mean, if you're in Indianapolis or surrounding areas, of course, at Indiana Pacers or Fever Games.

So go Pacers, go Fever all the time. But additionally, check me out on Instagram, live underscore West underscore. I'm also on LinkedIn all the time, sharing my story, sharing my journey, and then seriously, in real life, I think a lot of people dedicate a lot of time to being cool on the internet, but in real life, in the boardroom, in the classroom, on the streets, how are you serving others?

How are you being approachable? How are you being effective? And so yes, reach out, tap in. My email is also info at OliviaWestSpeaks. com. If you're hosting an event, you need a speaker, you need a keynote, I would be honored to come to come and share my journey, my story, and to see how we can bring you and your organization more success.

Thank you for joining us 

[00:17:48] Casey Harrison: today. We're so glad that you were able to join us to learn about Indiana's advanced industries and how you can start or enhance your career journey. Until next time, we hope that you'll be able to see yourself in the unlimited opportunities in Indiana.