Ep. 11: Olivia Ho: The Give & Grow - Crafting Meaningful Experiences for Young Women Through Sport

[00:00:00] What words of advice you have for listeners in terms of following their dreams and passions and using their gifting to make the world a better place. But one thing I always want to share, and I always tell, you know, in my workshops

[00:00:11] and everyone is this idea of lifting as you climb. And so, you know, if you're getting opportunity, if you're getting into places and rooms, you know, who are you also lifting as you get there? Who are you empowering? Who are you being an advocate for?

[00:00:36] Welcome to Champion This with Priyana Savatory Doic and Chelsea Poppins, where we share the incredible stories of athletes and entertainers who are using their platforms to create positive change in the world in the communities they live in.

[00:00:48] And today we have Olivia Ho, from The Giving Grow, which is a women-led organization focused on growth with a vision to positively impact the next generation of young girls in women through sport, in-house wellness workshops and female mentorship. She's an ex-health care worker from Toronto, Canada.

[00:01:06] She recently turned entrepreneur in 2020, a makes the pandemic and she's been involved in youths for, if it was the last 14 years. She currently has partnerships all over America with various NBA teams, Nike, Adidas, and Footlacker just to name a few. But welcome to The Show.

[00:01:21] Hello, thanks so much for having me, Chelsea, free, excited to top it up today and chat about the Give a Grow, a little bit about my story and how it came to be.

[00:01:32] Yeah, well we actually met in NBA all star weekend for an event called Run It Back by Lexi Mickens. So yeah, let's get the plug. But it was so great to hear you and I'm excited to hear more about your story after just getting to know you then.

[00:01:50] We usually start this off just by digging a little bit into your background and how you got involved in sport, how you found this passion and how given Grow came to be. So take it away.

[00:02:00] So yeah, I'm Olivia from Toronto, Canada and growing up, yeah, I played a lot of sport or played basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball, track. I was a really active kid and being like half Filipino, my mom's Filipino and my dad's Vietnamese.

[00:02:17] Basketball is really important to the best, the Filipino community. And so every Saturday would go to the local community center, play on a local basketball team. I think there was only like four or five girls teens at the time, but played a lot of

[00:02:32] basketball every weekend kind of growing up and it kind of was engraved into our family culture and who I was. And so I knew that basketball always meant something to me specifically.

[00:02:43] And it allowed me to kind of, yeah, carve my own path in basketball that I never knew existed. And so played all throughout high school, got injured in my last year of high school.

[00:02:55] It didn't really have, I guess, like the resources and support to be able to go through physio and continue playing. And I think also too, just even coming as much as basketball's really important, coming from an immigrant family, it wasn't something that was pursued.

[00:03:10] And so as much as I loved the game, I was pretty good back in the day after that injury, I kind of just knew that basketball was important to me, but didn't think it was a realistic option.

[00:03:21] Once university I studied at canyclology because I knew, you know, again, sport. It's for therapy. I felt like therapy was just the way I wanted to go and in my mind, I was like, okay, I'm going to be athletic therapists for other actors.

[00:03:34] Let me, you know, go into canyclology, go to physio school and do all these things. And so throughout university it was able to still work with youth and sport and continue to tap into that side.

[00:03:44] So even though I didn't play personally, I was able to coach through sports and dance after school programs and really wanted to kind of ingrain that idea of learning life skills through sport. And kind of empowering the next generation through all these, you know, random jobs that

[00:04:02] I had throughout university and after that. So I knew that basketball was always important. I just, I thought was the way I thought that I could keep it close to me was kind of coaching young girls.

[00:04:14] And yeah, I ended up doing this post-grad program, really random, which was Cardiac andography, which is ultra-sands of the heart. And so I ended up working downtown Toronto, yeah, doing ultrasound to the heart for about

[00:04:25] seven years, like seven years full time between like a kids hospital and that'll hospital. And I was also coaching still at the exact same time. So downtown Toronto, there's a facility called MLSE Launchpad.

[00:04:41] It's actually owned by the same owners of like the Raptors that made beliefs in all of our professional sports teams. And so that was the affiliation kind of with the Raptors. And so I ran all of the girls for programming every Monday night for the coaches.

[00:04:56] Yeah, how many girls did they just like six to 18 each of our programs? Yeah, we're like six to 10 11 to 14 14 14 to 18. There was anywhere from like 50 to 60 kids in each other different programs as it was the older age groups. It kind of like you can see the drop off.

[00:05:12] But yeah, I did that for about five years. Yeah, so I was in it. I ended up kind of working both between the hospital and at the work facility, which is really convenient. It was like a seven minute walk from like my hospital shift that would be done

[00:05:26] out like four. I would start my shift at 430 and walk over to the so our facility, you know, get a little like a physical activity and work with the kids for a few hours. And then I'd be home by like 637. So it was a pretty good flow.

[00:05:40] You know, I did that for about five years. And I thought that you know, I could, you know, I was working at the hospital using my degree and making a sustainable income. And then also fueling my passion through, you know, working with the kids in sport

[00:05:53] and continuing to like share my love for the game and basketball. And then COVID happened so it's 2020 and so the gyms were closed. So obviously I couldn't be working at the launch pad anymore. How to physically be at the hospital still, you know, Monday Friday.

[00:06:10] We all know kind of what that looks like. And so we were kind of, yeah. So it was, it was a moment where I was kind of like, is this what I want to be doing with my time?

[00:06:20] And so you know, mitts, the pandemic, when everyone was thinking banana bread and doing puzzles and doing all those things. Like I did all those things, but I also had some old basketballs in my closet and a

[00:06:33] friend of mine had made these planters for a YouTube show that she was on. And so I was like, well, I can make these and so I cut up some basketballs. That's cool.

[00:06:42] Just so you know on my side, I would never, I do not have to create a artistic brain to be like, I should make some planters. That's really, really cool. And so unique. I love that. Yeah.

[00:06:56] And it was one of the funny things where like plans were getting really trendy though. Like everyone loved plants. And so it's like perfect storm of like exactly as a perfect storm of like, hey, like everyone's in Zoom calls. They're, their walls are pretty blank.

[00:07:07] You know, how do we like spruce it up a little bit? And so after making these planters, I just posted on my own Instagram for kind of some family and friends.

[00:07:15] And a lot of people sort of reaching out to me being like, let me make you on it. I also have a list of like 20, 30 people or like, okay, I gotta get to work. You know, after this weekend or whatever it looked like.

[00:07:25] And so, you know, when when starting to get a grow, I thought to myself, how do I incorporate the girls in the youth? Because, you know, specifically the facility was closed. How do I continue doing gauge that specific kind of age group and community that I had

[00:07:40] built throughout the last five years. And so when I was thinking about the given girls, thinking about the girls at, you know, I had coach for the last five years and that I knew through the sports facility.

[00:07:51] And so I thought, okay, maybe we could do a little workshop where they could customize their own little basketball planters with paints. And then, you know, while we had them in the space, let's continue to have those conversations about, you know, life skills we can learn through sports.

[00:08:04] Things that we can learn through plants and the idea of personal growth. And so by doing that, I guess that's kind of how the name of the given girl came. Obviously, if you're basketball fan, you know, the given go.

[00:08:14] But it's kind of true meaning is this idea of giving back to the community and helping to grow the next generation of girls and women. And so through this, I was all the money I was making from just like selling the basketball

[00:08:27] planters was just fueling these workshops that I would host for some like local girls in the community. And then, and then, and then, if you have the attention of the Toronto Raptors. And so, you know, working at the facility, I did have some ties with the team, but,

[00:08:41] um, someone reached out to me and asked me to have, or to make some custom planters for the team when they were out in Tampa Bay. So, there was that COVID year where they weren't allowed to plan Toronto.

[00:08:53] And so the team was out in Tampa and they thought, you know, this could be a cool housewarming gift for the players, you know, while they're in their hotels or Airbnb's or things like that. So, I love that. Yeah. And so we got a local calligrapher.

[00:09:05] We customized a bunch of basketball planters with their name. So at the time it was Louie, C.F. Um, Ben, we, it was just after the championship year. And so we, yeah, so they literally sent the team's planters on their private jet out to Tampa

[00:09:21] that has a potential... To have a picture of this? I would love to see all the planters just like, yeah, perfectly position. And then that jet. Yeah, I've got very exact. I was like, oh, do you need me to come with you? All right.

[00:09:31] I'll take care of the plans. I'll make sure like... I'll do the chat. I'll water them mid flight whenever you need to do. Yeah. So they got a hold of kind of like me in that capacity where they ordered the planters, but then

[00:09:44] also wanted to do a little video segment on the stuff that I was doing at LaunchPAD as coach and also just like the community workshops. And so they filmed like a little video. And I knew it was going to come out eventually.

[00:09:56] I didn't know exactly when I just remember being at the hospital and then my phone, there were just like thousands of notifications on my phone. I'm like, well here it is. Like what happened? So they posted it on their Instagram Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and at the time.

[00:10:11] And so they posted the little recap of the stuff we were doing with the youth, the planters, the gifting to the planters to the team. And then yeah, that was the turning point. Everything from that day forward changed my whole trajectory of my entire life.

[00:10:28] So yeah, it really was the rafters. Like after they had posted this thing I had thousands of new followers. I had so many requests for planters. People were trying to order stuff off my website. My website was crashing.

[00:10:40] Like it was one of those moments where I was like, is this real? That's what you know. It's real. Your website's crashing again. Yeah exactly. Exactly. The Mayan. Exactly. And so at that moment I was kind of like, you know, I was at the hospital.

[00:10:55] There was a funny time in the hospital where I don't know if you remember this. Where there were so many videos coming out being like, we're having fun at the hospital. It feels like a very like forced thing.

[00:11:05] So at the hospital that exact day I remember my boss being like, hey, do you want to be in this video? We're going to do a karaoke thing with our ultrasound machine. You know, like no, like I'm good. Like you know, and then that. Thanks for that. Thanks.

[00:11:19] I'm getting that day. Was it when the rappers of the year dropped and it was the same video that they had asked me to record this video for. And I was like, no, like we're good in the rap. Is we there to help them to find out?

[00:11:31] We can't afford you. Like, you know, but it was a funny moment where I was just like, okay, like this could actually be, you know, it's like the contrast that it's alive and so I tried to juggle both for a while.

[00:11:44] I worked at the hospital for another like six months. And then I finally was like getting so busy and getting so many cool gigs that I was like, I need to quit and it just happened.

[00:11:54] So dramatically one day I just went into work and I was like, I think I'm going to quit today and then my boss was like, why would this come from? I'm like, no, this has been brewing, you know, but you're just a matter of like, how do

[00:12:04] I now make space for what's to come? And I need to be available. I need to like kind of bet on myself to and yeah, Chelsea asked earlier, like, oh, do you still have your license to be able to like, do your work and the hospital.

[00:12:17] And I was like, no, I got rid of it. I was like, let me just, yeah, I just leave a clean, cut, you clean, right? You know, of course, like, a go back and always have that as kind of my safe unit.

[00:12:28] But I thought, you know, if I'm going to bet on myself, I'm going to go forward, I'm just going to go all in. And so yeah, you know what I love about your story. I love you.

[00:12:37] So many things, but like you have put in so much work to get to the place that you are today. Yeah, there was this one moment where like things went viral and it was wild.

[00:12:45] And like, you know, your follower account just skyrocketed and your product is sold out. But your entire story, what I'm hearing is like, you've been about this since the beginning. It's been in the essence of your DNA.

[00:12:58] You've like truly are authentic in the way that you're giving back to the community. And in the work that you're putting in. And so this is fruit of that, right? And I'm just like so excited to continue to see it grow.

[00:13:09] But yeah, it also is just really encouraging to understand that there's like a process to success. And driving that impact as well or whole podcasts is around bringing on athletes and people across entertainment industry who are doing the good work and to see you really doing that.

[00:13:28] But then it didn't just happen overnight. I think it's great and definitely inspires me and encourages me. I love that. Yeah, and I think it's just like, it's just a matter of like alignment. Like I knew that basketball was always important to me.

[00:13:39] I wanted to keep it at the center of what I did. I just didn't know what that was and like, you know, the pandemic, it took something as as important as a pandemic to kind of really steer and also make me think like, you know,

[00:13:49] how do I want to send my life? At any moment, you know, our lives could be completely altered by this one thing. You know, am I happy? Am I in a position where you know, I could be proud of what I'm doing with my life?

[00:14:01] And, you know, the hospital is great. I love helping people in a different way. But I think now with this platform and being able to create community through the given girl, like I could help people in a very different way that is more meaningful.

[00:14:15] I think to me personally than, you know, and very grateful to be able to do that. So yeah, I appreciate you saying that. Really, it gives me chills. Like, they hear about that. I'm like, you know, yeah, like, I've been in this, you know, let's go.

[00:14:27] Imagine like 10 year old Olivia looking at you today. She'd be so proud. So yeah, it's been a fun. It's been a fun journey from the beginning to now. The way you say it sounds like it just absolutely flows.

[00:14:40] You're like, I went from one thing to the next and then advanced to here and here and here but was there ever a moment, especially in the pandemic where everybody's lives are turned over, was ever a moment? Like what am I doing?

[00:14:51] Am I called and qualified for this? Was there any doubt that you had to work through or any question marks in the back your mind? I think the funniest thing is that like, I never went into this thinking that like,

[00:15:03] I'm going to start a business and I'm going to sell these things. It was kind of just like, I'm going to continue to do what I've always done which is, you know, host these workshops, like, you know,

[00:15:12] chop it up with with local community youth and wherever I got brought me, you know, being intentional about connecting with people that are already doing those things and so allowing them to also have a platform within my platform.

[00:15:27] And so not always trying to like make it about, you know, the given grow and me and personally every time I go into a different space, I want to try and find people that are, you know, curating these events or these workshops or community initiatives.

[00:15:40] And so I think the coolest thing is that like, the more I meet people like that, it's just again like a reminder that I am just kind of a line where I'm supposed to be.

[00:15:51] And so yeah, I think to enter your question when you say like, is there a moment? It's almost like, is there like an imposter syndrome moment or something like that? There've been, there've been specific moments where I'm in specific rooms and working with

[00:16:03] specific people and you know, teams and things like that. But I think for me at the end of the day like we're all human and I think that like if we can connect

[00:16:12] on a human level regardless of who you are or who you work for or what your credentials are, I think we can vibe as on a personal level. Like I never feel like I'm not supposed to be, yeah. And that makes sense. Anything's possible.

[00:16:25] I remember seeing one of your stories about how you had manifested or workshop, well, about we'll talk about the your trip that you just got off of, but you had manifested this workshop that you wanted to have was it in LinkedIn or what where was it?

[00:16:38] Shump by Shopify and you actually did it this past year and it sounds like you took you just been actively manifesting all of this and speaking into existence. And I love that that's really special and not everybody, not everybody can do that.

[00:16:52] Yeah, I think for me like it's been a funny process in a way where like you know, be careful with you wish for you ask for these things and I remember as the beginning of the year

[00:17:04] being like, you know, I want to start working with more like West Coast teams. I want to be able to travel. I want to do all these things and then I'll happen like all at once.

[00:17:11] And it was like, all right, now that 17 players you got to go from here to here. It's like what you asked. You know, well, since I'm looking at, I mean like since we met you at all so we can either run a back event with Lexi.

[00:17:23] You've been on the road and that was in February and we're in the end of April right now. Like you literally just got back from those 17 flights, why old? For tell us a little bit about that road trip and like I feel like that also speaks to how

[00:17:38] given grow has evolved. So how have you seen it evolve today and yeah, talk to us about being on the road for 17 straight locations. Yeah, and so I actually, I'm in the beginning of the year.

[00:17:50] Tell myself, okay, I'm going to move to Mexico City for a few months from like January to June. I had some opportunities here to help build out some basketball programming with and the Mexico and some local kind of change makers within the Mexico City kind of basketball environment.

[00:18:08] And so you know, I came here initially as a way to be okay. How can I start to grow the game of basketball in a place where, you know, it's not that prominent

[00:18:18] instead of kind of going from Canada to the US where, you know, it's it already exists, you know, where we're amidst that kind of big push for women's sport, you know, in Mexico, it's not that prominent.

[00:18:30] And so met a couple people along the way that were able to convince me to go to Mexico for a little bit. And I was like twist my arm like when you suddenly leave the Toronto winter for a little bit. And so that was the initial plan.

[00:18:44] And then it was like, the moment I got here is when all the opportunities came, which is really interesting because it was like almost like the moment where I was able to let go of maybe my

[00:18:55] apartment in Toronto, let go of, you know, the just the idea of being in Toronto, it almost like was making space for like what was to come. And so the moment I got to Mexico City, all these opportunities started flooding in and it was like,

[00:19:09] Sacramento Kings want me to go to Sacramento to do a workshop with some of their youth for some programming that they had going on and then it was like, all right, the goal in state

[00:19:19] warriors wanted to do something to Brooklyn, that's wanted to do something for material players. And it was funny because at the time none of the events had happened yet so they didn't even

[00:19:27] see that the other teams were we're doing those things. It just happened to I don't even know how I think it was through LinkedIn and just stumbling upon my profile and things like that

[00:19:37] that's people's heritage reach out and so one hour with the Mexico it's okay how do I plan this so that I could just like be on the road and not have to kind of go back and for have to go back

[00:19:46] to Toronto whatever that looks like. So yeah, I ended up kind of curating this like six week long like giving grow world tour I guess you can call it and it sounds so good at the time you're like

[00:19:57] I'll just be so efficient with my time exactly how I got to go back anywhere I can go from plain to here to hotel and so I was able to really like create a cool set schedule even around

[00:20:09] like all star weekend and make a stop at all star and do some stuff out there and to rate this kind of whole world tour where I was kind of going a little bit east of west coast

[00:20:19] but you know I was making your work and at the time obviously again I didn't know what I was getting myself into but I didn't want to say no it's ended up with you. I was like you know what like

[00:20:28] they're coming to me they're presenting themselves let me see how I can make it work and I'm also a type person that like a lot of people are like I don't know how much how you have

[00:20:38] all this energy like I do I have like an unlimited amount of money. You're like first in the suicide and all this phrase in the hospital I'm sure yeah I can already tell she wakes up at six

[00:20:51] a.m. the morning just ready to go. And so when people ask me that like aren't you tired aren't you know of course I'm tired of course you know all the things but I think people people don't

[00:21:02] realize it's like when you're immersing yourself in your work and your thing and every time I have a workshop or an event or whatever I'm doing I'm getting like recharge above my capacity where

[00:21:13] I'm like get I'm gaining so much from the people that I'm meeting the women the girls like youth groups and every time I'm out on event as much as I'm like being depleted I'm also being like recharge

[00:21:23] in a way that is like this is my baby this is my impact this is what I have to share and then being able to share that with other people and then hearing the ways that maybe my story resonates

[00:21:36] with them or how it inspires them like that is actually like gives me the fuel to be like all right go on off light I don't know where to be you're going back and forth you know and so

[00:21:46] and then so that's that's I guess that's kind of where that that person energy comes from and just comes from that natural passion of being able to like literally chase my dreams and and do

[00:21:58] what I'm what I meant to be doing and you know I think I could get tired from working nine to five of a hospital too but it's like it's a different kind of tired when you're when you're building

[00:22:08] for yourself and and your brand for sure and it's wild so this I think just like how we're made as humans when we give that you also receive like and that's how you give them where you grow

[00:22:24] that's why you love it okay so we love that but it really is like yeah it's a crazy cool thing in terms of just how that works and so yeah I love I love that but also you're the more you get

[00:22:37] the way you grow yeah but also your story is such a like a key story to anybody that's looking to go after their dreams or the things they feel called to do like you just took a leap

[00:22:47] without really knowing where you would land and kind of cutting off that former season of your life that chapter everything all the comforts and everything that you knew in order to do what you're

[00:22:58] doing now and it just felt right and it's it's very cool to hear your story and how you just you just did it and you did it scared you did it uncomfortable you did it in all of that and and you just

[00:23:10] flourished as soon as you got there I think I think that's a really crazy while the amazing story for anybody out there that's listening to this and wants to take the leap towards what they want

[00:23:20] to do and what they feel called to do for sure yeah I think that's actually what's been resonating with a lot of people being like okay like let me do it she's just you know a regular person who

[00:23:31] is just a health care worker just so you know exactly yeah and I think the one thing that actually resonated people is that like that I did kind of stumble into this or it's like because I knew

[00:23:42] that this was always like basketball and it was always a big part of me and you know as the moment I had the kind of like opportunity to follow that path I just took it and I think

[00:23:53] that's just a good reminder for people too like the more you just continue to to dive in and do the things that you love spend time with people you want to spend time with and really just like

[00:24:03] match that energy level of you know what you want to be around and what you want to become like naturally these things will volunteer lap where they would the opportunities will present themselves

[00:24:14] because all of a sudden you're out of point where you know you've done the work like where you said earlier like this was an accident like I've been you know spending half of my life

[00:24:23] you know working with marginalized youth and girls in sport and it just happened to be just like that perfect kind of timing that perfect storm to be like you know this is now your opportunity

[00:24:33] to use everything that you've been doing and the you know the last 10, 15 years and a quiet in a way where you know this could be your life and I think that that story on its own

[00:24:44] has really resonated with people and it's really like I get messages once in a while being like you know like I just wanted to say like you encourage me to like quit my job and now I'm like diving

[00:24:54] into my eyes I don't so that I'm like yeah that's not my message please don't quit your job but like blame you never get a job. Everyone disclaimer but in a way where it's like I think in

[00:25:05] my circle there's been like two or three like even like close friends and I have just like we're thinking what I'm quitting and just because like you know because they saw they see my journey

[00:25:13] they see you know the possibilities and I think really all it takes is just like someone who like you resonate with doing the thing and you're like okay maybe I could do that too because I think

[00:25:26] sometimes when we hear stories or we hear conversations we hear them from like the people at the top you know we hear from the CEO of this or whatever and see their job. It's like great yeah yeah

[00:25:39] I didn't had it's like how am I relating to you know this like 15 year old like white man who did not have my journey right so which is why I try to make it really intentional that like when I speak

[00:25:49] to groups and when I speak to like community groups from wherever there's like I really want it to be girls and women because I want them to look at me and say you know I had this journey that could be me

[00:26:01] and also just be kind of about representation that like I didn't have growing up as well. Yeah totally I would love to hear too Olivia even just speaking about some of the people that you

[00:26:12] get to work with or women in the girls like what has been some of the impact that you've seen through these workshops you touched a little bit on a couple of stories here and there but would love to if

[00:26:20] there any like individual stories that come to mind of that impact or yeah really just take it as you wish for that question. So I think the cool thing about the workshops that I do is that

[00:26:31] all cater to like sometimes they'll do workshops for like 68 year olds and then I'll do them for like 15 to 17 years old and then I'll have like even like you know my peers in our 30s you know and so

[00:26:42] I think the really cool thing about specifically girls and women is that no matter what age or at we're all able to kind of have these conversations and really resonate with each other's

[00:26:54] like point of view and and journeys and so you know every age group that I work with I think like more than anything like I learn so much from them as much as maybe I'm teaching them

[00:27:06] and so learning their perspective learning you know how they operate in a new world as you know Gen Z's or Gen Alpha or whatever that looks like and so I always try to make an intention to

[00:27:18] if I can like curate environments where they're like intergenerational groups of women in one space and so you know you have people that are established in these big brands or whatever but then you have

[00:27:30] the teenagers you then you have you know the mentors who might be in their 20s or mentees and so it almost becomes an environment where like everyone is interacting no one really knows

[00:27:40] how old anyone is but amidst the conversation amidst the activities and amidst all of that like you know we do realize that it's like we have so much to offer each other regardless of what

[00:27:51] our age is and it doesn't always have to be this like teacher student role it could just be this like intergenerational learning and so I think a really good example of that specifically is that

[00:28:02] there was this young girl named Selam who is about like was 12 years old when I first met her at launchpad and was able to culture throughout the years I knew her you know for the last like five

[00:28:13] six years and she's now like 17 18 has always been like kind of like really keen on learning from me and learning what the giving grow and just really like wanting to be a leader and so

[00:28:26] saw her from being like a youth participant at our facility to then like working at the facility running programming herself and then in addition to that getting her to come and help me with the

[00:28:39] giving grow stuff so when I have pop ups when I have different events and I need an extra hand I'll tell her like come like I'll pay you for this event like come um and I think it's really cool

[00:28:49] to be able to see her like I guess her progress in the last five six years where it's just like you know as I'm growing so she and you know there's a lot of a few other girls that are still

[00:29:00] kind of in my in my atmosphere still but I try to be intentional about like okay if I do want to hire someone maybe I will give her the opportunity maybe I'll give her opportunity to lead and so

[00:29:09] I think it's really about just again figuratively and literally the idea of growth and how we can help each other grow in different ways. Maybe we don't realize it right away but

[00:29:21] if you're in a position to kind of yeah give someone some advice that will help them along the way why not do that. I love those full circle moments where the people I train the young girls too

[00:29:35] but now that now they're 18 and time is flat. I was like remember when you were in six grade just sassing me but right those full circle moments are so key and I think that leads us into our next

[00:29:46] question is what is what role do you think giving back to these young women, young girls and I mean not just young women but um helping to establish women and leadership positions in the sports industry

[00:29:59] and I mean in corporate and wherever career they want to land in the future. How do you think that we need to do that? How important is that to you? Yeah so I think um you know I think

[00:30:09] automatically everyone thinks okay how do we get women and these like leadership positions? We need them in positions of powers. Like we need them in the door first you know I think we're

[00:30:18] barely scratching the surface of being able to have a woman's perspective in a room and so you know as much as of course it'd be great to have a leader that is a woman in power. Sometimes people

[00:30:30] at the top actually don't see what's going on at the bottom and so sometimes you know you could have these roles and they could be pretty performative they could be very you know let's

[00:30:39] let's check off a quota set have a woman a woman of color in this role but when it comes down to actual um voices and perspectives like you actually need more people in the room of you know

[00:30:52] like let's say it's like your general staff of people to be able to give that perspective along the way as things are changing and I think um yeah as much as it's important to have someone at

[00:31:02] the top health things to make decisions you really need the people at the bottom that are advocating for you know their own specific communities and their own specific you know religion whatever it is

[00:31:14] and I think that the more diverse you have a room of people I always encourage just with the youth they work at launch pad because they are a lot of like marginalized communities that come

[00:31:25] in two launch pad and you know they look very different and I and I always ask them I'm like okay when you walk into a room of people that don't look like you what is your immediate response and

[00:31:35] a lot of the responses always stay quiet we stay quiet because no one looks like us no one can relate to us and and I always try to flip the script and say you know what like that is actually

[00:31:46] your biggest superpower the biggest superpower you have walking into a room of people that don't look like you is that you are the only person that could give your perspective based on you know your race your religion your gender or whatever it is and you're actually doing

[00:32:02] the room in the world or your job or whatever it is by not saying what's on your mind or not saying your perspective or whatever that eventually you know that's how you get like certain

[00:32:13] campaigns or ad campaigns or social media campaigns that come out and you're like what is they're not a woman in this room or what's their thought ever because the answer is probably no

[00:32:22] like of course you can't say that because if there was a woman in the room they would have flag that or yeah you know it does that woman actually have a voice right like maybe they did say something

[00:32:33] but then it didn't translate so again it's more about like how do we get more women into all rooms or more women to be the decision makers at all levels of sport and I think we're kind of just

[00:32:46] at that beginning phase and we're going to start to see a lot more of it but we're just we're just scratching the surface so I think the first thing is just getting in the door.

[00:32:55] I love what you shared we had a Olivia art sorry we had Chelsea Hill on the podcast last week Chelsea Hill's incredible she is a wheelchair professional dancer the influencer she has her own

[00:33:10] organization working with women and roles as well through dance and she said something that really landed and resonated with me as well I think that builds on what you were saying she said no one can do

[00:33:20] something the way that you can do something so shine your light show up with your voice that touch all right like yeah maybe someone else has started a dance crew in the past or you know they've been a marketing manager out of company but they've never done it

[00:33:37] like you would do your way in your way so like and we need those different voices those different perspectives and we need people to show up confidently and like fully them in those rooms so I

[00:33:47] love yeah I love what you shared and the work that you're doing to build on that. And those are those are the questions that you ask young young girls in your workshops.

[00:33:56] Yeah so a lot of our workshops are I sent you to around just two topics one is like lessons we can learn from the game of basketball and so in these booklets there's a lot of metaphors about

[00:34:09] one kind of thing of like the very first page they're called our playbooks and the very first page says like you are the playmaker you have the ability to write your own game plan and so really just

[00:34:19] from the jump you know bridging in from my story and how I was able to kind of change my my future my game plan I guess like that just just understanding that you know we have the power to

[00:34:31] steer our lives in different ways and you know using sport as that kind of metaphor for this change and so every page has this different conversation prompt about you know some lesson that

[00:34:45] we can learn from basketball that we can apply to our everyday life and so it might say something like racket the assists like if you don't give you don't grow and so it's this idea of community building

[00:34:55] who are people around you who are you of power and who are you helping who's helping you and so it's really about just kind of this idea of you know yeah I'm wrapping up the assists but also not

[00:35:06] forgetting yourself and so being able to shoot your own shot and you know making room for yourself and your own goals and things like that so a lot of our conversations are kind of scared around

[00:35:18] the idea of basketball and then we have these other booklets that are called like our blue booklets that are about plants so plants and how we can learn lesson from plants new being staying true to your roots watering things that grow like only watering things that

[00:35:34] grow or stuff what oh it's something it's like stuff watering dead plants or something where it's kind of like you know certain relationships or things in your life that you're putting a lot

[00:35:43] of effort into when there's no reciprocate of like energy or you're not being kind of watered in the same way you know learning to like go go soon things so depending on the age group and depending

[00:35:54] on like the size of the group will kind of cure these conversations based on you know what the theme or the topic is of the workshop event and so in addition to that conversation piece

[00:36:07] that then we bridge into the more creative basketball planter they get to customize their own thing and plant their own plant and so it's kind of this whole creative but also a lot of

[00:36:19] conversations and engaging the people that are in the room and having some of the tough tough conversations with each other and trying to be a little bit more vulnerable. Are each of the workshops that you do across North America and with the NBA organizations

[00:36:32] are they all the same type of questions or are they same programming or do they kind of fluctuate based on the need and the topic and the people bringing you in for that workshop.

[00:36:44] Yeah so I think we just start off by like understanding like what the reason why someone wanted to bring us into a group so for example when we did our event with the Golden State Warriors

[00:36:53] they had this large event called Bay Area United where they got all the women who worked for professional sports teams in the Bay Area to come into this event and so there was like over 100

[00:37:04] women who worked in sport whether it was like the Oakland A's or the Kings or the Warriors or whoever it was they came into the space and did some like on-court stuff and then they

[00:37:15] transitioned into our workshop so for that specific group like knowing that all the women are women who are the changemakers to that work in sport you know maybe steering a little bit of

[00:37:26] the conversation more about yeah how they can continue to make space and impact and within their own organizations and their own roles and at the same time too talking about you know those things

[00:37:37] that we can learn from basketball and sports and so you'll have that end and then and one of the other workshops we did was with the Brooklyn Nets with this group called Yes Girl

[00:37:49] Yes We Create and they were a group of young girls ages like seven to maybe like 1415 and that one you know as much as we can cure it conversation a lot of that one was just

[00:38:01] centered around you know having fun being creative sharing my story whether it resonates with them or not still letting them you know learn and see the different options that they have in sport if they if they love planning basketball they love playing sport you know what are

[00:38:17] some other options besides becoming a professional player you know and so tapping into kind of those professional sides too and really just focusing I think mainly for the younger groups on like the creativity and having fun and so yeah really just depends on who the group is what

[00:38:33] your overall goal is what they overlooking seeing of the event but I think with me like being able to I've worked at sports camps you know my entire life I've been able to curate a lot of these like events

[00:38:45] kind of on the fly um maybe a group of like 50 walking into the space and they'll be okay like organize something do something you have half an hour to figure it out and so

[00:38:54] have been in a lot of those like really tight situations where I can I can create programming in like five seconds literally I'm gonna go this age group this whatever I'll pull it all together

[00:39:05] I'll tie in a lot of my camp background we'll do some games we'll do some icebreaker is depending on the age group and yeah and like you said I think okay it's because I've done all these things

[00:39:16] and I have you know maybe the resume to say you know I've done X and other things and I've been able to kind of pull from that library of just like all the past and stuff that I've done

[00:39:25] and so yeah with the given grow I think in the last the last like two and a half almost the years yeah I've been able to host like 82 workshops well 16 hundred participants in like 11 different

[00:39:40] cities across North America so yeah it's been it's been fun yeah we love that so Olivia talked to me about a little bit of you know some of the hurdles that you've encountered because we've heard

[00:39:54] you know your story but would love to I think it's a point of encouragement as well for people that it's not always just as perfectly smooth row to get to following your dreams but yeah

[00:40:03] what have been some of those hurdles and how have you overcome them and maybe some of the things you've learned in the process yeah I think you know for the most part everyone sees the highlight real

[00:40:14] they see all the glamorous things they see you know all the amazing things and opportunities they've been able to get and they don't really see you know what goes on behind the scenes and

[00:40:23] I actually made a post about this recently I think in the last three months there was a moment where like things just weren't happening in the way that I wanted them to and it was just kind of one thing after

[00:40:32] another and obviously being on the road being able to match trying to manage that you know with a team that's in Toronto and just being all over the place it was um there's a few things that

[00:40:42] happened that I was just like no what like entrepreneurs like we we catch a lot of elves and silence like as much as you see all the wins you see all the highlights like there's a lot of you

[00:40:52] know elves behind the scenes at like every day we're kind of just having to figure out on our own and because I never really had a business background I don't know much about owning a business

[00:41:03] selling a product and things like that which is yeah now what I'm trying to kind of learn now I would say I think some of the struggles is just that the moment that you have to ask for help I

[00:41:15] think the moment you ask for help becomes a very vulnerable moment whether that's from you know family friends you know whether it's from an investor or whoever it is you need but I think you know I'm

[00:41:26] learning right now it's like in order to you know I it's funny because like I pretty much still like work as a one woman team I have you know a couple contracted roles here and there but

[00:41:39] I think the irony is that like you know I'm preaching community and helping each other and all these workshops that are but like I'm not asking for the help that I need and then maybe I'm not willing to

[00:41:48] accept you know maybe the the health that's accessible to me and I think that just comes from a really place of a couple things you know like it could be impossible to you know like maybe I'm not

[00:42:00] I don't think I'm ready to take that next step or you know maybe I could continue to do this and be okay but in order for you know my business and myself and my own personal kind of brand like to

[00:42:12] to be able to scale and grow I need to be able to open to letting people in and asking for help and looking for investments looking for capital and being okay with you know

[00:42:24] accepting that from other people before thinking I can just do it all my own and I think I'm learning that right now and I'm taking this time kind of after all my travels to really

[00:42:33] kind of hone in on what is I need being intentional about asking for what I need and yeah the response has been great you know I've been able to get some help that I need and

[00:42:47] create some some new opportunities for myself and so I think it's just a matter of yeah like understanding that it's not all gonna be glamorous and I think there's this false narrative that it's like turn your hobby turn your passion into your full-time thing

[00:43:05] and there's a it's a really big kind of narrative that's happening right now but I think at the end of the day just do what you enjoy doing and if that happens to monetize it but happens to be

[00:43:15] your life like it's not it's not always accessible to people right like to aimlessly or blindly say you know follow your passion and your thing but you haven't done the work or you've never been

[00:43:26] in these spaces you've never you know it almost is just like I'm setting people up for failure and so the one thing that I do try to say is that if you have a hobby and you enjoy doing it like

[00:43:37] something some hobbies could just be hobbies if you don't need to monetize you don't need to show people you don't need to take photos of it like you can just generally do things that make you happy

[00:43:46] and that could be at the same at the same I guess like cost of like working a job that you don't like okay maybe I don't work my job alright I don't love my job during the day it pays my

[00:43:59] bills it gives me a good insurance you know it's checking the boxes but at the end of the day I could go home and you know do some pottery and and that fulfills me in a different way even

[00:44:08] though I'm not selling the pottery you know you're creating this balance of like doing the things you love with maybe something as you don't absolutely love and so I think yeah I don't I don't

[00:44:20] want to glamorize on entrepreneurship at all you know I get to do really cool things and I get to be in really cool places and meet people but at the same time it comes with a lot a lot

[00:44:32] of hard work medication you need to be willing to be the person to you know pick up sweep up all the soil at the end of the night you need to be the person that's gonna take out of the garbage

[00:44:43] you gotta be the person that is also gonna be talking to you know CEO of NBA Mexico you need to be able to do all of those things if you really want to I think the entrepreneur and really

[00:44:55] follow your passion and if you're not willing to do all those things I would say like yeah you know don't make it your business exactly right and I think again like as much as like you

[00:45:07] know I can maybe inspire people to do that I have and still have a really big safety net of you know I could always go back to the hospital I do have a family I do have support you know and

[00:45:18] that's not the reality for a lot of people so it's not as easy to to bet on yourself and I I'm very grateful that I'm in a very like luxurious position where you know I do have the resources

[00:45:29] to be able to chase my dreams but also have the same resources to be able to fall back and go back to my old life or whatever that looks like but yeah I'm an advocate of strategic leave

[00:45:42] a strategic risk taking exactly but also I understand I'm kind of an entrepreneur I have my full-time job with a agency and it's like my baseline or it's like I do I love it I love what I do it's there

[00:45:58] but it gives me access to do all that like you said do all those other things that fill these other buckets of me sports and creativity and that's all these other and so what you what you

[00:46:08] said is like not everybody needs to take belief and jump to the next thing that they're creative about because some people might end up hating that they might hate end up hating the

[00:46:18] thing that brought so much life and exactly and it was never meant to be a money maker for them it was meant to bring joy to them or the people around them exactly so going back to your

[00:46:31] your travels to Mexico and how you ended up there and you said you got there and all these incredible partnerships kind of just flourished and everything just felt aligned and like you was bringing

[00:46:41] you life and your called and meant to go into this and so you've had some incredible sponsors like Google Pixel and Foot Locker along with some others but how important is it to find partnerships

[00:46:53] and sponsorships that align with your core beliefs your values and the things that you're trying to do in communities and how are you able to find more brands that are keen to partner with you

[00:47:03] in that way? Yeah so I think this has been like a learning process you know throughout the last couple years you know I've had to make the hardest in me to say no to some brands that I maybe felt

[00:47:14] were at the performative or maybe too corporate and so I try to make sure that you know I work with sponsors or have partners that check a few boxes and are really aligned with like our value so

[00:47:29] one of them being you know empowering women of some capacity the next one is racial our under privileged groups or racialized communities and then next one would be just the idea like

[00:47:43] as much as I could do maybe like a corporate workshop let's some staff or whatever that looks like I really want to be able to tap into like a local community group that they could provide for as well so

[00:47:53] yes maybe you know I do this corporate workshop with like 50 of your staff members but after this I also want to make the commitment to host the smaller workshop of 15 or 20 local youth where you could provide the resources and the money and the access to making

[00:48:11] different spaces and really try to hold brands like accountable in that way so I think it's kind of too full sometimes partners and brands will reach out to me to host workshops for their communities sometimes it's like we want a sponsor one that you're already

[00:48:28] doing with you know a community of your own or it's up to me to kind of find a local youth group that I could be that bridge between them and so there's a couple different ways that I work with

[00:48:39] different brands and I think the cool thing is when I first started out in Toronto and Toronto is a really small community it's a small basketball community but it's a really like what's the word it's like a really empowering community and so anytime you know someone is doing

[00:48:57] something especially as a woman especially as a woman sport there was this period around COVID like 2020 even up until now where you know if anyone had any resources if anyone had any clothes

[00:49:09] or whatever it was we were sharing them with each other because we were all in a moment of like you know we want to create these things we may not have a seat at this table but we're going to create

[00:49:18] our own table and so there was just really cool moment of like community building while building my business and that's actually what gave me the leap to be able to quit my job and see you know there

[00:49:32] are resources there are people there are other women who are doing these things and some of these women specifically are were people who maybe I worked like well bartending maybe I worked in

[00:49:43] or I met well in university and so women that I had known for my past and had worked in places like kind of a basketball or Nike or things like that and it wasn't until you know I had this

[00:49:56] like physical product or thing that they could help me with that they were like you know what like we know you Olivia as a person on paper you might have just started but we know that like we could

[00:50:07] trust you so let me get you in to do this you know Nike, Captain campaign or let me get you to come and do a kind of basketball thing with our with our with our team or things like that so it

[00:50:18] was a matter of just like you know people that I had known throughout my life in these spaces already and just naturally obviously they could work against for and be around basketball I was intertwined

[00:50:29] with these people but yeah it was an opportunity where you know they now worked for these brands or bigger brands that I was like okay like I have something to offer you know it's a reciprocal

[00:50:38] relationship like why wouldn't we put each other on and so it really just started off as that and it just kept spiring and so like all these new partnerships and these things and I

[00:50:47] think I mentioned earlier like I think the funniest thing is that like yeah like I'm working with you know all these big teams and all these names and things like that but it's just like at the end of

[00:50:55] the day if the people who work for the teams are just like just like you and me are like you know so Olivia we only have two more questions um we could continue talking for hours because you're

[00:51:08] sorry so interesting and exciting but wanted to hear a little bit about some exciting projects that you have on the horizon what can we be able to look out for this next coming year?

[00:51:17] Yeah so we currently have our NBA license and WNBA license in Canada and so with the launch of our most recent kind of campaign with the WNBA goods which is an honor of the WNBA game that's

[00:51:34] going to happen actually next weekend in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada we released our like new WNBA pillows and there was a ton a ton of online traction for the product to be available on the US and so

[00:51:51] we've been working with the NBA US like licensing team to figure out you know how do we amend the contract and work on things like that so the goal is yeah eventually selling products in the

[00:52:04] US and expanding that license and also in Mexico as well but the right now we have the ability to work with all the individual teams whether we want to do workshops with them whether we want

[00:52:16] to sell our products in their retail stores and so the plan is to kind of take you know all the things that we've done with the Raptors which is you know we sell our products at their home games

[00:52:29] we have partnerships with them where we'll execute workshops for youth will work with their their like ERG groups and and work with a lot of them social and community impact teams to execute workshops for different communities through the Raptors organization and if I could kind

[00:52:49] of copy and paste that to every single I mean NBA WNBA team that would obviously be the goal and so I think you know I'm kind of at this like next customer like you know I've curated these relationships

[00:53:02] with a few more in VAT teams I've curated some events in the US and so the plan and the next like couple years is to yeah expand in the US as much as I can expand in Mexico try to tackle North America

[00:53:17] and and burst outside of the Toronto bubble and so using you know all the partnerships that I've had and the relationships that I have with these brands and Canada and then tapping into their

[00:53:28] kind of global teams and looking at how we can be um I've kind of service to each other and that's kind of the plan for the next year or so. Oh that's exciting you're like casual you said it so

[00:53:42] non-chalance or fair just come to North America and then the world yeah let's go Pinkie and the break well before we happen to lightning round which is the fun part really really fun part of

[00:53:58] the show we always ask our guests what words have been vise you have for listeners in terms of following their dreams and passions and using their gifting to make the world a better place. Yeah I think um

[00:54:08] the one thing I always want to share and I always tell you know in my workshops and everyone is this idea of lifting as you climb and so you know if you're getting opportunity if you're

[00:54:20] getting into places and rooms you know who are you also lifting as you get there who are you empowering who are you being advocate for and I think that the more we all move with this bigger purpose to serve you know our communities and our people or whatever

[00:54:38] that looks like um it only becomes this like ripple effect that you know everyone eventually is looking out for each other and so that's kind of my what advice is just yeah lifted as you climb

[00:54:49] I try to be really intentional you know as I get into rooms or if I see opportunities at fit someone else that's maybe not me I try to give them the aliu and really try to see how I could help

[00:55:02] um yeah grow I guess the next the next person and so yeah that's a great word I love that it's yeah very on brand for you too and you really do embody that mission of giving and growing along

[00:55:15] the way um cool so that takes us to our last segment of the podcast which is what we term our lightning round essentially during the lightning round tells me likes to make some sound effects we don't have sound effects yet so I'm like you are the machine

[00:55:34] so basically the gist is you have 30 seconds to answer each question and let's kick it off so what is what has been your favorite place that you visited onto or at least last couple months um I was in San Pancho Mexico helping out buckets and borders

[00:55:53] paints and basketball courts and renovated local basketball court and little surf town in Mexico and so was able to do a workshop with some of their community women and so it was a little bit

[00:56:03] of like the older women like the moms and the aunties and things like that so it was really cool to tap into that community and you know usually those are the caregivers so it's like an opportunity

[00:56:12] to get back to them in some sort of way all right second question what is your favorite house plan or whether to use it in your house or to bring to the workshops um I always like to

[00:56:25] use snake plants because of the fire you can actually can't kill them they're very hard to kill and so I've had someone try to return a plant to me that they killed and they were like I

[00:56:33] found your instructions and the plant died so it's like okay I'm going going forward only going to choose plants that are easy or easy to kill and hard to kill exactly so I would say

[00:56:44] I would say yeah the snake plants the snake plants are uh can thrive in any condition you know I like to call them like the mom bus snake plant because they're kind of un-sharkedable

[00:56:55] and so and hard and hard to kill so that's what I mean I'm not great with plants I'll be honest I just killed my husband is the one who kind of takes care of like the cute trees and stuff

[00:57:07] and I have one player that I'm like okay this is mine and he's strongly my tiger plants okay yeah you gotta get a snake plant you gotta start first strong I don't know

[00:57:19] percent okay so I love the R you a trash talk around the court I used to be when I was younger I used to because I was always the the smallest one on the court I was always the the most underestimated

[00:57:31] so I would talk a lot of shit on the court not not so much anymore yeah you definitely do time I'm the opposite now I'm the opposite now yeah oh so I'm like good job yeah I'm the motivational speaker I can't I can't back up my play anymore

[00:57:47] I can the day though you have a reputation and name to uphold yes exactly yes as I I'm sorry side note I got asked to be on like amazing race Canada once like last year's

[00:57:59] something and but I was like I'm like I can't go on I'm like I can't people can't see this like competitors I didn't mean where I'm like you know my my grandly giving girl want to

[00:58:10] empower girls and then I'm on the show like cussing at my partner being like woo faster like yes yes that's what we want please get on that show I'm here for she colors yeah

[00:58:24] it would be such a mix up they'd be like this is Olivia with given grow and it'd be such a positive commercial of you and then it flips to this angry little incredible as baby like

[00:58:36] I'm just competitive yeah I'm just competitive yeah I'm just competitive yeah all right our last question what piece of advice would you give your 16 year old self looking back on where you're at today um 16 year old self I would say yeah you're exactly where you need to be

[00:58:53] you're gonna find your love and and passion through basketball and you know maybe yet like as small as you are your heart will speak volumes and so continue to follow that and it'll bring you in rooms and help you knock down doors for

[00:59:09] yeah the next generation of girls just like you to keep going hmm that's amazing a bit so good well Olivia thank you so much again this has been an incredible conversation I feel super super encouraged and fired up I know our listeners will feel the same

[00:59:26] and listeners there are ways to say in touch with Olivia we will link all of her socials in the show notes links to her website where you can purchase the given grow plants and products as well

[00:59:39] and yeah and Olivia will definitely keep you in the loop so give her a follow as well until you can be abreast as to all the cool things she has going down I'm gonna thank you so much again

[00:59:47] it was an honor and a pleasure thank you both appreciate you