5 Questions with Pat Roque – Rock on Success
As she turned 50, Pat Roque’s successful career came to an abrupt stop and she found herself with no paycheck, severance, or knowing what steps to take to move forward. But Pat’s best friend gave her a birthday present that proved to be the catalyst for her newfound happiness: a box of 50 rocks. And not just any rocks—these were gold-painted rocks with words that personified Pat—caring, kind, supportive—and they helped propel her into action.
1. What is your favorite aspect of your job, your business or your industry?
Whether on the big stage or leading cohort training, I empower women and diverse professionals to maximize their potential, go from invisible to invaluable, and recession-proof their careers—on their terms. As a working mom who faced challenges in my 10 years of corporate roles, it’s fulfilling to help ambitious people fall back in love with their careers to get the rewards and recognition they deserve. At the suggestion of a friend in HR, we now teach their companies to love them back as we drive employee engagement (even among their hybrid/dispersed teams).
2. What specific traits or qualities do you believe are most necessary for achieving success as a business owner?
- Clarity: career/life goals to prioritize what you want and deserve, ensuring others know what and how to buy from you.
- Confidence: to self-promote and articulate your value in measurable ways. Underpromise and over deliver, always.
- Communicate with your team: help them shine, train them well and provide a clear framework/process to do their best work.
- Finally, celebrate the strengths of your team, including the little and big wins while respecting boundaries and everyone’s wellbeing.
3. What does the next year have in store for you?
Keynote talks and hosting leadership retreats. Plus, watching the momentum that’s built in our executive roundtables, where we invite business leaders, CHROs into a safe space to grow their circle of influence and brainstorm best practices for navigating the challenges of the ever-changing workforce. This includes helping new managers grow from buddy to boss, why “soft skills” are now required “power skills”, driving belonging and employee engagement in DEI efforts, leveraging employee resource groups, and hybrid team success tools.
4. Favorite movie?
Rocky. I root for the underdog and help people see that magic inside of them (the joy of giving it their all to overcome obstacles and stay resilient, even when the going gets tough). Plus I’m Italian, my dad’s name was Rocky, and a box of rocks saved my life and helped me bounce back from rock bottom to create the Rock On Success System.
5. Can you tell us something about yourself that might surprise us?
I’ve been a Valley Bank customer for 30+ years and have been leading remote teams the entire time! I wrote my master’s thesis on best practices for telework/remote teams in Spring 2001, way before it was popular. That was months before 9/11 devastated our community and the attacks on the World Trade Center disrupted where and how we’d work. Pandemic recovery shares so many lessons from those earlier misfortunes, and we can now make the best of what we’ve learned the hard way to create a more flexible and connected workforce.
If you want to learn more about Pat check out her website www.rockonsuccess.com or connect with her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/patroque.
