On the latest CultureRoad Podcast EP 15: A Mindset of Abundance, we welcome Victoria Shahbaz, Founder of OnDecker. Discover the power of abundance and meaningful work while also understanding the importance of teamwork, overcoming shame, and embracing the value of storytelling. This episode will surely empower you to create a significant impact in your life and community!

Connect with DeEtta Jones:

https://www.instagram.com/deetta_jones_/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/deettajones/

Connect with Victoria Shahbaz:

https://www.instagram.com/vshahbaz/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriashahbaz/

CultureRoad EP 15: A Mindset of Abundance Featuring Victoria Shahbaz - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS8l4kMFt48

Transcript:

(00:33) you for having me I'm excited it's gonna be good the culture Road podcast is really about um having conversations with people who are doing interesting meaningful values-rich work um in their communities in their professions in their personal lives and then sharing those stories and sharing um potential for inciting inspiration ideas new conversations with people who could also potentially contribute in more meaningful ways in their own lives or collaborate with each other because of something that may have stimulated

(01:35) Shabazz well um I will say what I do with ondark and who I am is kind of one I embody it 24 hours a day seven days a week and that was something I was really excited about is growing up they tell you tap into who you are and and live your truth and I always found I was always drawn to giving back and to helping people and to you know lending a hand to people who didn't know and I thought that I knew the answers so um it's kind of It's a combination of who I am all day every day and um so I'm excited to share a little bit more about

(02:39) so there's there's a bunch of us yeah and we're very close I talked to my siblings every single day you know about being on a team right from the jump right exactly and that's my team and that's my forever team and we have each other's back so um just kind of transitioning that over into my professional life and uh just you know like I said embodying who I am and trying to let that resonate with other people in the community where did you um well again we haven't gotten to more about on Decker specifically and

(03:36) you're supposed to be I'm a very very faith-driven individual and uh fear and faith don't coexist so always tapping and leaning into my faith and just understanding that like my heart is guiding me and and that's going to take you to where you're destined to be because we do all Destiny's real um you know I think that there was a couple of life-changing factors that happened in my life I was very fortunate growing up my mom is an incredibly hard-working woman single mom we all went to private school we all were able

(04:38) they believed in me and they saw my value and she wanted to make sure that I didn't struggle me or anyone within my family so I that that actually lives rent-free in my mind yeah day in and day out and that hope is something I hope to inspire and people that I've never met people I've never seen before and that's my true Mission and so it's so wild that you tell that story and you talked about how um you know being one of five children single mom I mine is not exactly the same but I'm one of four single mom also

(05:34) through things early on in life and so it taught me kind of a toughness and also how to how to coexist with people who might see things or do things differently for me or when I feel like my space is invaded what does that look like but it also really resonated with me that you talked about people who at 17 years old where you had nothing to give back were right there for you and it's funny because when I went to college I was in the same situation I was a first generation college student and similar age and I really got myself

(06:30) that I could ever do is to live consistent with their values right and it's a huge gift so I kind of feel like I get it you know like that piece right here that's like this is who I am and this is how I show up in the world and I kind of get it 100 because people are always watching people are always looking and we didn't go through all of that just to go through yeah it's too it's to really leave an imprint into to let our journey be our story authentically yeah and true to it so I love it and we have to tell the story we

(07:24) and help us understand a little bit more about what it is um I was an athlete I played Sports growing up my entire life I was a soccer player and there's something about team activity again right it's it's something that just motivates you that competitive nature really just brings out and I have always always just admired the discipline that goes into sports yeah and it's something while we look at you know now we're in the NBA finals and we're watching these guys on TV and we're just looking at them but

(08:19) soccer there as well after I graduated University it was kind of time to hit the real world and while figuring it out it doesn't always look so beautiful ironically enough on Decker started as a media company and I it started as me traveling to these different cities and again I was fortunate while playing Sports and my older brother played basketball at a high level I was able to meet a lot of these guys that we know these intro roles these you know different basketball players football players and I was able to watch them and

(09:22) really really worked with and uh you know got in trouble in the NFL for drug abuse and and a couple of other things and he called me one day and he said hey can you come and do a video and I want to tell the world I'm not a drug addict I just kind of got down the wrong path yeah people forget just because I'm on TV all the time and the salary that I'm making my age yeah and this is a new world for me and there's so much Beauty in that story so much Beauty and mistakes uh so I I went to Cleveland my

(10:19) kind of have a website uh word gets out um next thing I know HBO is calling me ESPN's calling me Sports illustrator is calling me Yahoo sports is calling me and you know I'm like wow this I don't even know what they want me to talk to me about but the fact that I'm getting a phone call from HBO and an email from ESPN and all these things like I'm obsessed with this feeling that it's invoking in me like this fire I want to follow this fire so we go out to Cleveland I create a website on Wix

(11:19) voice had yeah and how they're also tuned in and how they listened how people waited for this interview to drop and how it aired everywhere and it was a moment and I took that understanding of what I learned of people care what they say let's give them something that they care about yeah let's let's help them be a little bit better let's Inspire let's let it be contagious to be kind and to be nice and to give back and to do all of these things yeah and uh that's kind of when I pivoted over and um and then I started

(12:23) we do this in Reverse where we proactively tell our story in ways that allow for the prominent narrative right to be controlled by the person and also to Folk focus on ways that allow people to see their generosity and their kindness and their true selves 100 beautiful and now you work with people across different kinds of sports yes uh I'm very very fortunate I've got a great great list of clients I've got Miami Heats bare metabayo yep LA Dodger mookie bats work with uh Tyler hero as well and a couple of the other guys so I love it

(13:23) that's very cool is happening right now in Miami it is but you were talking about last night how a reporter asked um tell me the story you tell me yeah the reporter asked him how is he handling the weights and the pressure that comes with being in the NBA playoffs in the finals and his answer just really brought almost tears to my eyes because it's so it's so real right he said pressure and weight I live off of twelve thousand dollars a year him and his mother lived off of twelve thousand dollars a year that's true weight yeah

(14:24) many years being in the world of kind of sports and athletes because of uh previous relationship and I I feel like there are through threads and I feel like there are certain things that you know I've learned as far as kind of patterns that exist that are pretty powerful from your point of view talking with people do you think that there's a a specific through thread or theme that leads to this greatness the thing that differentiate good athletes in high school and even College from people who really Excel

(15:25) something it's kind of not not dwelling and just being able to stay focused and keep your eyes on the prize and stay true to the vision yeah is ultimately what kind of separates people it's you know that doesn't not mean stay true to your emotions I say that honestly but yeah understand what your purpose is and what your goal is so that that's where you're accomplishing and that's where you're heading and sometimes we're not going to get it right right we're not going to win everything yeah exactly

(16:14) discipline I have to tell you discipline is one of those words that I feel very strongly about I feel like it's um incredibly important and it's one of my core values but I also get a lot of pushback that discipline is not resonating well especially with younger people that's the feedback that I get as a person who's on a board of schools and so I often get uh you know feedback that the word discipline doesn't resonate with people and I'm like no that's a differentiator it is literally going to

(17:11) those are the moments that count yeah so yeah that's it's pretty powerful to think about the word discipline Damon Liller says um before you saw me make that three-pointer I missed 10 000 of them before that's it that's the quote you know and it's true yeah when the lights weren't on you guys didn't see what was happening before the lights turned on yeah and staying true to your to your craft and saying true to your vision because again we we have intuition we know we know what we're

(18:01) and for you it sounds like you were able to hone in on that early and then you had specifics experiences it allows you to like click and go yep that's it this feeling I want to reproduce this this is the path that I want to follow and people like bam and other people are able to like have a really clear sense of it but it is interesting to think about for all people regardless of whether or not you're an athlete to think about what is it that you really want it's not just I don't like this and

(18:58) she would always always use this example there's janitors they make half a million dollars millions of dollars there's all of these positions that you would kind of just glance by oh no that's not going to give me what I want be great at what you're supposed to be and it'll give you what you're what you need yeah yeah yeah I love it I don't know where the pushback is I I absolutely totally 100 agree like I think and again I I don't I don't understand where the controversy is but

(19:52) um Josh calling you and saying hey I had this really tough moment can you uh create a documentary about it and and before we went on air you talked about kind of this issue of Shame and I'd love to be able to like talk about that a little bit more because everyone has an experience of messing up like all of us mess up sometimes we mess up in front of thousands or millions of people and we have to figure out how to get out of it but every single one of us with empath can empathize we also a lot of us are in

(20:51) yeah so shame is something that we've been really really honing in on recently because a lot of your stories they they come from a shameful Place sometimes uh whether where you grew up or how what your house looked like or what first car you had or all of these things are kind of out of control yeah you know you're just going through life your Elementary Middle High School College all of these things you're not really in control but that shame stays in your heart because Society kind of triggers you especially

(21:45) that stems from a hard place you know because sometimes it's out of our control yeah can't save the world unfortunately yeah as much as we try yeah but um so I try to I try to understand where that shame comes from and and let it I want to heal with everyone because when when you have shame it lives inside of you yeah and uh but when you start to heal that you can help other people acknowledge it as well yeah and instead of hiding it and not speaking about it and only speaking about the semi bad things or the prettier things now let's

(22:41) yeah you know those are that's when you're missing the shot that those are those days and we got to be real with ourselves and once we can be real and accept it we can help the next person yeah because now we're giving real advice this is this is authentic I can't be any more real I went through this and this is what reality is and I don't know if my reality looks like your reality but I know my reality looks like at least one other person's reality yeah well and I love I love um it's

(23:37) get to a place of healing let alone flourishing if you are living kind of saddled with this shame based identity and then internalized depression if I have shame and in my group shame at a group level is internalized depression so it's the reason that things like um women are often harder on other women right so I as a woman might feel the sense of Shame about certain things and then I and we as women and right we do that to each other in ways that keep us all kind of oppressing each other inside of our own group because we are kind of

(24:44) create a path yeah for people to see that it's possible to get on the other side of it exactly flourish right which is where these athletes are and then sometimes they're flourishing on the court or on the field but there are other parts of their lives that aren't right and so to help kind of heal the whole person and also create more access points for other people who have aspirations to see that these are multi-dimensional people 100 with real lives and real struggles and real difficulties it's really powerful work

(25:39) someone else to be like oh it's not that bad and look at where they're at today yeah look at what they're doing and that's actually the real passion behind my work I want every individual that I work with to inspire someone else to come forward and tell their story because everyone has a story and we don't need everyone's story to be hey I grew up in a trailer X Y and Z I grew up with only a mom or only with a dad or you know no parents or whatever it is that might be one person's reality but someone else's

(26:36) and what I want to do with that going forward yeah it's really powerful to think about people kind of proactively having agency over their narrative and their voices in ways that allow them to be seen as more than um just this you know small image that we have of athletes for example um so I wanted to ask you about um impact so one of the things that you talk about um is having you know using on Deco and using the relationships that you have to have impact and what I'd love to do is get a better sense of like what do you

(27:40) anything like that even so much to the point that I have bags of jerseys and signed items from each of my clients because they say whenever someone reaches out to you don't try to find out if it's a sad story if it's a real story if it's fake give them this because if they reached out this is what they need and let's give it that to them what does it cost us right so that impact of trusting every individual but more so of giving a space where they come and they can learn and they can feel

(28:44) humans we know what's right and wrong and we have that it's harder to do the wrong thing I think it's easier to do the right thing but Society kind of makes us cynical and wants us to to choose the bad route oh they did this why can't I do it well why why do you want to do what they did yeah don't let anyone influence your character yeah be true to who you are and who we are are good people at the core we're all you know again leaning into my faith we're good people we're made in you know the

(29:47) there are athletes and celebrities who are like don't have time for you oh why do you want that Jersey who are you going to sell it to I don't believe you there's there's so talk to my agent yeah so there are I actually do know you know from my own lived experience that that like it exists it's real it's real yeah but that stems from someone doing them wrong in their exactly in their time uh that stems from a situation that they haven't healed from or that they wanted to learn from and they think that this

(30:41) assume yes good intention exactly in a world filled with someone to give them your wallet and expect them to not take a dollar out I'm telling you to give them the dollar because they needed it because they asked you for it you don't know what they need it for but they needed it and as humans we have ego and we have pride and for someone to come forward and ask yeah yeah there's something behind that I totally agree I I I I totally agree and I know I know that it's you know it's complicated I understand the

(31:38) gonna have to live with whatever I do and that's what brings me back to what to my ultimate decision and however I handle a situation and how we go forward as a group when I talk to my team and we have our weekly meetings as a team I tell everyone first of all you guys are all your own CEOs we're all on CEO of our own lives so you're gonna make your own decision but we're all a part of this team and we share this Vision let's make the decision that's right for society right for Community right for Humanity it's

(32:31) us you I know in your work you work a lot with um you collaborate with all sorts of different organizations with you know NBA and MLB and NFL and others like how does that how do those kinds of collaborations work and I don't mean the technicalities but and I'm kind of zooming out and thinking about the fact that there's all sorts of complexity that exists there's all sorts of reasons why people are being asked to work with and support this organization or not support that organization we're totally

(33:29) out more quickly they could have they could have made different choices to be more inclusive in certain times and and I get frustrated or the way they handle certain things related to concussions or CTE and there's times that I'm just so frustrated and then there's other times when I'm like but there's also this this opportunity to have a tremendous amount of positive impact this is a huge organization that touches the lives of so many young children so many parents so many communities you know I feel kind

(34:33) approach a situation might not be how another individual approaches the situation so that's first and foremost it's kind of respecting how everything is ran within someone's organization so going to the MBA NFL MLB or even just other organizations you kind of have to work at their speed now you're going into their place and history is there you know it's you you know how these things work and you do understand that there's a lot of politics involved on different levels and it's just about

(35:32) and I every time I go to a corporation another organization whatever it is first thing I tell everyone is I'm on your team I'm not here to step on your toes to take your job to do anything like that because if we have the same goal of making this world a better place making our community a better place we're on the same team yeah and you can never have too many people working towards that goal yep so that's first and foremost um and then secondly really analyzing who you're going to be working with and

(36:32) rest they've been around for a long time they've been doing this for a long time their heart's there because they have the initiative there they might just not have the direction and again we all have different Visions we all have different approaches of how we handle lives and it kind of goes back to we might have gone through the same thing we took different roads to get there and that's fine we got there that's that's the ultimate goal we want to figure out how we're going to get there

(37:25) they come out with something and you're like respectfully that that was kind of bad that was bad and it you know that's that's great yeah competitive nature now I got to go back to the drawing board and I saw what they were able to accomplish now I want more now I know what to go back now I see your vision I see your path I see the road that you took to get there and now I can work and now I can help and now we can kind of uh collaborate later on again so that that is first of all all of it to me is about kind of having a

(38:20) get frustrated that we're not heard or that we're not prioritized but we didn't actually come with an ask or we didn't come with the clear way of contributing that could help like establish an understanding about what the possibilities are so starting with that and I'm thinking about even kind of in my world with my clients even thinking about how is it that we come with our ask understand what value we're bringing and what it is that we want from this information where they're at exactly and

(39:14) by almost everyone you know yeah you can't really approach someone in our day-to-day that doesn't know what the MBA is or what the NFL is right so that that awareness that they know they they might be reaching out to them as well and I have to understand that these people might have a hundred calls a day vetting different individuals yeah you know so I I also want to point out that while the goal is to work at that level so that you could have that impact sometimes you kind of want to work with the little guys as well exactly you know

(40:13) do the work I totally agree with you I got that and that's the other thing I think that you know this idea of immediate gratification or everything has to be publicized in order for it to be valuable is is naive um it's to really be able to say you know what this this ongoing Commitment if I really am meaning driven it's not about what people see it's really about am we am I doing something that's helping uh for you know kind of create a path for others yeah how people feel when you say you uh work with

(41:11) from them let's collaborate through them Let's help them help us because while the boys and girls club that name is widely known kind of sometimes goes under the radar you know if you go in there on any given Tuesday Wednesday Thursday it's kind of your ordinary After School Care Program so why not add a little bit of flavor to bring that spice back to them while they're also helping us give us that credibility in that name and we're actually learning from them and they're showing us because people people know

(42:07) monkey's organization is for underserved communities that can't afford their medical bills and they're just as beautiful yeah and if I wasn't if that wasn't brought to my attention I kind of would have overlooked that demographic of individuals and now that I learn more and more I started to learn the percentages of underserved communities that can't pay their bills you know um we're working on a collaboration right now with UCLA health and it's something that's so beautiful because what we're

(43:06) didn't live through those experiences so I don't resonate right off the bat my heart is with them and I want to help because that's that's the business that we're in but at the same time you've got to learn from other people that have done this so you know having mentors and people in different spaces and just picking people's brain is so key and love it oh my goodness I I can't I can only imagine the amount of kind of strategic and intellectual work that you do the kind of um kind of almost psychological or you

(44:05) leader who is obviously you know I know you have meaning and I know you have faith that anchor you but how do you actually like make choices about where your energy and attention goes on a day-to-day basis that's uh that's a good one because you have to recharge yourself a lot you gotta sometimes just come home turn that phone off and just go to your core right like this is actually one of the true stories I could tell um I was I was feeling very anxious from a mistake that I made another mistake that I made and I

(45:05) person that I see but again I think that everyone has a calling in life and as cliche as it sounds I really do think that my calling my entire life has been to kind of just help people and be there for people it's not always to just give them something it's to be there it's to be an ear to be a friend to kind of just be in their corner you got this send you a text message in the morning hope you have a beautiful day you know my friends and I uh we we embody this all the time you know my birthday's coming up and for my

(46:08) at the end of the day if it was one or the other I'm good so well in that balance and that you don't forget right and the fact that the the most important thing we have is our time and so to be there for people and being listening ear or to spend time helping people who need help and giving of your time which is the kind of the most finite commodity especially for someone like you who's spending so much time doing so many things at a at a high impact level to be able to also say and this is how I want to spend a little bit

(47:05) you know a Heat games bam has this thing where he upgrades people's seats he's like he's like let's not surprise them before let's do it right on the spot so I love it his team and I uh kg which is also like a mentor to me and uh we go up to the 400 level and we just look around that's who we're selecting today and we're doing it even in the finals okay everybody exactly and uh you know and you see these emotions and it's like thank you for shedding that tear because I needed

(48:10) asking him no yesterday he was like he's like hey are we doing this in the finals yes we're doing this in the finals it doesn't change it says because your platform's getting bigger and the lights are getting brighter your heart is still true that's who you are it says so much about his character yeah that right then and there yeah hey we're good we got yeah are you good is everything set up everything's set up we're good I love it I absolutely love it oh my goodness my I I don't know if I like I'm like smiling

(49:03) players that you're working with and contribute to them in meaningful ways whether it's volunteering or showing up at an event or donating would love to you know be part of that kind of virtuous yeah exactly exactly we're all on the same team um so I'm gonna ask you to share some contact information with us but before we go I'm going to ask you a couple of Rapid Fire questions okay you ready I'm ready okay so here we go let me find my rapid fire questions here um so how does your company ensure that

(50:04) you have that conversation offline with them and you're just like hey what happened they're like oh I didn't have X Y and Z well why didn't you ask me and then if I see they ask and then it wasn't fulfilled keep asking yeah yeah this is an Open Door Policy I am just like you because I need you because you provide something that I can't fulfill on my team and if we all have the same goal so I stress every single weekly call to my team is we are one team one dream and if we're on this

(51:00) just because I'm your boss doesn't mean that you can't enjoy these experiences that you are creating for us as well because without you these moments wouldn't happen as well you know so I always try to let people lean into their power and to give them their creative space to kind of what I saw something in you to bring you on to the team I love it do it I love it lean into your power absolutely love it and for you to always realize that you know you're you know they look to you as a person who has

(52:00) and you're like we can do it but it was really Out Of Reach how did you do that um in 2019 I got approached by um Jordan brand to do an event the event was in two weeks though during our basil ah right right exactly and when I got approached them the answer is yes you don't turn down immediate answers yes yes I will figure it out so I I say yes immediately right here and then I turn to my team and everyone's like you said yes what's wrong with you I said no no we got this we got this and it was

(53:10) even production companies have tables and seats to build this space where are you going to even Host this at but um we actually pulled off the event it was right at the top it was the second event best event of art basil 2019 uh it's still the shoe that we released was a Jordan one it's still a top five shoe in the market until still to today I love it I love the stats thank you for telling us yeah and it's crazy because through that uh I then became a part of the Jordan family and kind of just trickled from there but I

(54:14) says don't worry about what's gonna what could go wrong think about what could go right this boat waited outside of DJ khaled's house he was having dinner outside with Busta Rhymes I Love This his wife and a couple of friends and Khalid saw it was a branded Jordan Soulfly boat and uh Khaled called you know some people from Germany he's like what what is this and he was like get on it Cali got on that boat I bet he showed up to our party oh wait he got on the boat right then oh you sent a boat I

(55:17) with forever I said well I don't know him so and it's worth a try and uh he came and like I said one of the best events of art basil 2019 still the top five shoe on the market my relationship with Jordan brand stronger than ever ah shoot just shot I love that more shots I love it I love it and you know my team they didn't want to see me probably for like two weeks after that yeah rightfully so take your time it's Christmas anyways cool see you right see what it is it's right there in the house and uh but we

(56:19) real Vision something that's really a stretch has to be so audacious that you have to like muster a whole different kind of set of you know emotions and energy to get to it and it also leads you to a whole different level of performance and also like confidence and competition oh yeah belief in yourself you know and you mentioned earlier in our conversation about being strategic I play out every scenario in my head in hundreds of different schemes before I actually move forward with it so I'm prepared I'm prepared if you didn't get

(57:20) on Decker and about the work that you're doing or about some of the foundations that you and your players work with how do we find that yeah um well obviously social media is leading Force you go to either Bam's uh Instagram is you know it's funny both both mookie and Bam have their foundation in their bio good it says so much it's their bio this is bio is a moment to talk about yourself well this Foundation is me I love it and uh so you can directly be able to be redirected from their their Instagram

(58:22) in the team and Coach Bo's doing an incredible job each of the guys are holding their own weight they're all in their own lane yeah they are not competing they're meshing they are bonding yeah they are playing basketball Miami so proud of Miami right now I know Florida is complicated in so many ways but I'm telling you I'm really uh it's a really a fun place to be and filled with really amazing people who are doing amazing and meaningful work most definitely a part of it yeah thank you