Owning Your Destiny — Victoria Neave on Betting on Yourself, Breaking Barriers, and Leading with Purpose

Endorsed Joe Biden before he was president. She spent eight years fighting for working families in Texas. And as a first gen American attorney and trailblazer, Victoria Niobe has never backed down. In this episode, we talk about the future of the Democratic party, why so many Latinos voted for Trump, and what it really means to bet on yourself. This episode's honest, powerful, and long overdue. Welcome to another episode of Undisputed Podcast. I am Ty Bledsoe, the CEO of Undisputed LLC and the host. Today's guest oh, you're gonna like this guest. This guest is a world changer, a trailblazer, an influencer, a mentor, a state elected official. Yes. Yes. We got we got politicians on here too. Right? And so one thing I'm I'm real big on here at Undisputed, there's three kind of leaders that I love working with, and I write about this in my book. I love working with community builders, rainmakers, and world changers. Well, today, we have a world changer. Right? Enjoy this. Victoria Nieves. Let me just read a little bit of state representative Victoria Niave's, bio. I'm just gonna give it to you a little bit like this. Right? Victoria is an attorney. It's a partner at the Niave law firm, a member of the Texas state legislature represents district one zero seven. Since two thousand and seventeen, she's represented district one zero seven, which includes parts of the cities of Dallas, Mesquite, and Garland. She served as chair of a house county affairs committee and serves on the business and industry committee. She's the sixth Latina in Texas history to serve as a committee chair. She's the second Latina in Texas history to serve as a chair of a Texas American legislative caucus. She's a rising influencer and advocate for women, working class families, communities of color across United States, and global. Victoria, welcome to the Undisputed podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm excited and just so honored that you've invited me. Well, it's an absolute pleasure. We go way, way back twenty nineteen. And I remember having a meeting with you. At that time, I was assistant vice president of external and legislative affairs at AT and T, and you were one of my many stakeholders in the Texas state legislature. And we're meeting, I believe, at your at your, maybe your campaigning Campaign headquarters. Campaign headquarters. You asked me from my perspective, and we talked about the pros and cons of certain candidates. And at that time, vice president Biden had lost Iowa, Iowa caucus. He had lost the New Hampshire primary. And it looked like the vice president's campaign was torpedoed, wasn't gonna go nowhere. It was did not look good. And I recommended you go with vice president Biden as your endorsed presidential candidate. And I told her, I said, look, I know it looks bad, but he will be the nominee. And if he's the nominee, he's gonna win the president of the United States. Come to find out, you end up endorsing the vice president. The vice president wins the South Carolina primary, dominates pretty much the the rest of the primary field, close to being the nominee. And in, months later, I'm sitting at home, and I'm watching the Democratic National Convention. And you are in the first, like, thirty seconds, and I'm just sitting there like, hot dog at Jimmy Cricket. Victoria is in the national, the global headlines. You endorsed the vice president. The vice president is elected president of the United States. How can people learn from that? Because that took a lot of courage by you. And I take it that you probably have some smoke, right, with that endorsement. Thank you. And I if I wanna take folks back to that time if you think about what our country was like under a Trump presidency and all of the attacks that he was spewing on so many different marginalized groups. And really the world that we were living in, one may think, well, maybe, like, why does her endorsement matter in the big scheme of things? But for me, it was I wanted to make sure that I made the right decision for the constituents that I represent and, and elect somebody who I thought, even though he was the underdog and really seemed like he had no chance of winning, that somebody who I thought would bring people together. And that was my perspective of what Joe Biden was like, that he is one who would be healing for our country if he were to prevail, against Trump. And so his team asked for my support, opened a lot of doors once he won. I got a chance to, be doctor Jill Biden's, guest at the Houston debate and, just really had opportunity to go to the White House numerous times throughout his presidency, and along with other organizations that I was a part of and as an elected official to be able to share my thoughts on policy. But he has an amazing team. All of the candidates that were in the race were extraordinary. I have the utmost respect for the other candidates that you mentioned, and elected officials. And and for me, I think it was just trying to make the right choice in a time where our I felt like our country was going in completely wrong direction, that it should be, and I wanted the best for for my constituents. In this last election, there was a shift, and you saw the data shows quite a bit of Latinos voted for president Trump. But can you just speak to the opportunity that our public elected officials, but also our business communities have to be able to market to and will be able to serve the broader Latino community because it is the community is getting bigger, and they have a lot of economic and political prowess. So today is my last day in office, so I feel like the I can speak freely about issues that need to be addressed within our own party about the election and why, we lost some Latino voters to the Republican Party. But, our Latino population, for example, in Texas, we are the largest population share. We outnumber white individuals, but we are not equally represented in all different levels of government, corporate America, education, just so many different, you know, industries. Our economic, contributions to our state and our nation are are larger than some country's GDP. So if a company is not taking that into consideration in their growth, I mean, that's that's on them. That's a failure on that for on that company's part. But, really also, I think elected officials and candidates often ignore the Latino community when they're knocking on doors, sending mailers. So I was grateful that president Biden and and other, for example, invested in the Latino community, the Latino vote. Vice president Kamala Harris, who I was hoping would be our next president, also, did the same. But I think the the the fact that our party has really dropped the ball on talking to Latinos about key issues that impact families. When we're knocking on doors, it was often the first time that a Latino family had a candidate at their door. We heard that over and over. Nobody's ever knocked on my door. Wednesday election, and the Latino vote, it substantially increased. And there's a direct correlation between knocking on a door and voter turnout. But it's often the if the Republican Party is sending mailers or working on earning the votes of Latino households and the Democratic party is not, then it's no wonder that they are shifting to a party that is paying attention to them. As you mentioned, I chaired a caucus. The Mexican American Legislative Caucus, we're fifty years old, is the largest and oldest Latino caucus in the country. And the work that we did there was really to shine a spotlight on opening economic opportunity doors at the same time as fighting, you know, discriminatory legislation that we can get into. I would be here all day talking about. But just really, I think there is a substantial need for for the Democratic party to really listen to what we as elected officials, Latino elected officials, have been raising the flag for years to try to get them to focus on the issues that that Latinos care about. Today is Victoria's last day representing district one zero seven in the Texas state legislature. So, thank you for your service. Thank you. You know, we partnered for years years together. And that campaign campaign together, reelection campaign. Grateful for that. Thank you. We got some real big challenges here in the United States. Right? It's the economy, stupid. A lot of it ties to the economy. Yes. Right? Yep. What can leaders in both parties do to really authentically build trust with the Latino community and not just to win the vote, but to really cultivate the next generation of public servants, entrepreneurs, and really build those public private partnerships, which that's what the Democratic Party historically would do. I'm a get some smoke from this, but, hey, truth is the truth. Right? Yeah. Give us some counsel here, Victoria. The it's the basic kitchen table issues. A family is trying to keep a roof over their head, trying to figure out if they can purchase a home. Housing prices have skyrocketed here in the North Texas metroplex and all across the country. The younger generation nowadays, for example, can't save up enough for a down payment to buy a house like their parents or grandparents did. They wanna save for retirement. A lot of Latino owners are business owners. In fact, one of the fastest growing, demographics of businesses is Latina owned businesses in in Texas. So how do you help a business owner? How do you put money on the table? How can you help them get the best quality education? So when we have policies, for example, that are trying to take money out of our public schools that are really inhibiting growth, for example, by also demonizing Latinos, trying to get rid of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, that was a big law that we fought vigorously against in the past to try to preserve that opportunity for students of color to be able to access our institutions, our higher ed institutions. So, like, why why are folks trying to take away programs like that from education? It's a clear, in in my view, an an an attack in trying to hold a community back versus, we should be opening doors for all of us because we all contribute to our economy regardless of our skin color, regardless of the country that our parents are from or that we're from. And so that's what they should be focusing, the economic housing, retirement, economic issues of how are you going to help a family. That's what the families wanna know. What are you gonna do for me? How is your party gonna help versus this party? Who influenced your perspective about leadership? My mentors growing up. Since I was from a young age and my parents. I joined a civil rights organization as a teenager, and my mentors there and in college were one of them just passed away, Richard Zambrano. He's ninety. He just turned ninety. He was in his seventies or so when he was my mentor, and he was with the Department of Justice. So he would let me tag along with him and his best friend who was with the EEOC to small towns across Texas as a teen and college student to see how they were mediating issues between the Latino community and government officials, whether it was a police department, a school district, and, like, mentors like that that not just opened my eyes to the injustice, but that change could occur just by organizing and having the knowledge just really showed me what can be done and the type of leadership that we need. I also had a lot of, you know, women mentors like Regina Montoya, somebody who I admire, immensely, who's an attorney from Harvard that's here in Dallas, that she's, just a national leader. And just seeing women in positions of leadership is really something that had always inspired me. Could you speak to the audience about ways in which you said you leveraged your platform to really inspire Latinas and women in leadership as a mentor, as an advocate? Can you talk to others about that? Yeah. I think the value of opening doors for the next generation is so important, continuing that pipeline. I had student interns, in our legislative office and our campaign team. Our campaign office would be filled with high school and college students who many of whom, after my eight years in office looking back, some of these I call them kids, but they are now have graduated from law school, have graduated from college. A kid that I met when he was in eighth grade now is a pilot knowing that that whatever little seed that we planted at that time, knowing teaching them that they can do it too, I know is gonna have an an impact in their families. What were your first generation as in your family, And how have you leveraged that to be able to inspire those in your family and your extended family? Sure. So my dad came as an immigrant from Mexico, initially without papers. Now he's, you know, American citizen. He's proud to be an American citizen. My he came with a sixth grade education, which is not uncommon for some families that have come from Mexico. But he started as a dishwasher and then opened his business and was an entrepreneur and really pushed me to focus on my education. I'm the first in my family to graduate from college, first in my family to go to law school. My mom, after I graduated, went back to school and got her degree, which I'm really proud of her as as an adult, like, having her going back to make to have that personal accomplishment herself. It just I think just there's for so many of our fellow Texans, people across this country that are first generation in some way by their parent, like, we have to be able to go from I sort of think about from the moment my dad crossed crossed the river, to come to Texas, to the impact that I've been able to make as his daughter for so many women with the laws that I've passed, with for so many generations here. I think that speaks to what America is really about and is it's it is the land of opportunity. And I think, I'm a classic example of that, and we wanna make sure that we continue America on that pathway. What was the critical breakthrough opportunity that was either early in your career, mid career, that allowed you to really walk in your purpose? I think it was running for state representative. I had never run for office before. People told me that we couldn't win, that it was a I was going up against a well liked Republican incumbent who was senior, who had a big campaign war chest and in a district that I didn't think that he was voting the right way, taking money away from our schools when so many of the kids in in Mesquite, Garland, and Dallas really needed It needed to make sure like, their teachers, we need to make sure that they were taken care of instead of working two jobs to make ends meet. So jumping into that race where we had no Latina state representatives in all of North Texas, which to me was shocking because we're such a diverse region, you know, metropolitan region. And I will say now there will be five Latinas starting tomorrow being sworn in that represent different parts of the Dallas County, which I'm very, very proud of because I know that they have run. They have told me several of them have told me that they ran because they thought that I won. It's just continuing opening those doors for the next generation so little girls can see she did it. I can do it too. I think that that in being able to pass the laws, being in the arena, having the battle, speaking out against injustice in in the Texas capital, I think that's really the moment that I I know I've left an impact bay with the laws that I've passed. What tips can you offer our audience members who are aspirational and super talented to identify the right mentor and manage that relationship to really succeed? Yeah. I think it's if you see somebody that you admire that is in maybe a career path that you are interested in, or is that a leadership level that you admire, like, do not hesitate to contact that person, ask them out for coffee, call them on the phone, ask them for an opportunity, like, for whatever advice or questions that you may have. It has been those students, for example, that have reached out to me, or sometimes we have to pull and invite students in and recognize their talent when we see it and let them know that this is a career path that they may choose as well. But, I just think for for mentors, it's just helping continue to develop the pipeline. Mentorship's really important, especially in spaces where we may not be the the majority or other people don't look like us. It was not uncommon for me to be the only woman in a room at the Texas Capitol on key decision making processes or sometimes the only person of color in that room in shaping Texas policies. We have to push down those barriers and, but we have to teach the next generation that that they can do it too and that we need them to. Victoria, you've authored or coauthored several bills, and several of those bills have been not only passed by the Texas state legislature, but they've been signed into law. During your tenure, what are the key piece of legislation that you are the most proud of, and what are some items that you might have maybe left on the table that you wish you would have worked on? Sure. So I've passed over two dozen bills into law, which is a lot for somebody that's been there eight years. I really rolled up my sleeves to try to find common ground where I could bring together stakeholders to solve policy issues and impact our state and was successful at doing that. My landmark piece of legislation that I'm the most proud of is the Lavinia Masters Act, which is named after a Dallas woman who was thirteen at the time when somebody crawled through her window and raped her. She then went to a hospital so that at a hospital, you can have something called a SANE exam, which is where a nurse does it's a personal exam where they collect evidence, that goes into a box. It's about this big called a rape kit. Her rape kit sat on a shelf untested for more than twenty years, twenty years before it finally got tested. And by that time, the police realized that her perpetrator had committed other rapes. And so that's not acceptable in a Texas legislature. And I know that other legislatures across the state, across the country, many of them are similar in that women are underrepresented. So I just for me, it was really important to bring together subject matter experts to try to solve some of these issues, and I was grateful that she allowed me to name this law after her. The bill that I passed not just requires strict timelines and testing. They now have to be submitted for testing in ninety days. So rape survivors are not waiting years to find out what happened with their case or their rape kit. We also obtained fifty million dollars from the Texas budget, which is unprecedented, unheard of, and really made Texas a leader on rape kit reform. And from that law, we now have had the rape kit backlog. There were thousands and thousands of rape kits just sitting on shelves untested to the point where in one city in Austin, Texas, some were growing mold on them. Like, that's how long they had been sitting. That's not acceptable in any country and any state. And so the fifty billion dollars that we obtained has helped put a large dent in the rape kit backlog. We've substantially reduced the backlog by more than eighty percent at the last numbers that I've learned, and I've had women reach out to me to to let me know that their kit finally got tested. And so, I know that that's the type of real world impact that I know that for women across Texas, not just women, this applies to men and children as well, that they are now one step closer to justice because of the Lavinia Masters Act. So that is, that is, I believe, the the single most consequential piece of legislation that I passed in my eight years in the Texas House. Wow. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership and for, you know, bringing, the right people together. Right? Congratulations. With that legislative, right, record, is there any bills that you wanted to work on or that you might still have some thoughts about that we need here in Texas or maybe even beyond? I think a lot of it is also being on the defense because as legislators, we're not just trying to pass good policy. We're also trying to kill bad policy. And some of our biggest battles last year, especially is leading a caucus of a large number of legislators is fighting back against the attacks. And there, unfortunately, is sometimes people see it as policy differences. Some legislators really have an animosity, I think, for certain groups and pushing back against that and using our platform to speak out, to highlight economic impacts of that policy, the real world impacts of that policy. My main focus was on issues that impacted women because women legislators have been underrepresented and the laws impacting women were also need substantial reform as well. Last year, you ran for the Texas State Senate, and you challenged an incumbent state senator. And as we say, you shot your shot. Right? You bet on yourself. You did not pursue running reelection for your your current seat right in the Texas state house. The results of that election came up a little short. For our audience members, whoever they are, regardless of their background, what can you speak to them about betting on themselves and walking in that aspirational goal and then just living with the consequence of that? Yeah. People would ask me, why are you giving up a, quote, unquote, safe seat? You're in a leadership position in the house to, run for something against another democrat. And for me, because of my leadership role, I saw how hard we worked, what it takes to represent a diverse district and the need for people to be bold and and stand up and speak out when you see injustice. We even have to call out issues within our own problem and people within our own party that are part of the problem or voting the wrong way. The senate district was redrawn, and the incumbent senator was not representing the interest of our district. And so I decided that the we needed change. Like, our district needed to have somebody who was not going to shy away from speaking out, from doing the right thing. And, and so that's the decision that I made. We had polling that showed that we had a chance, and I knew that it was a risk. But for me, the the house seat that I the house district one zero seven did not belong to me. It belonged to the people. The senate district that I ran for did not belong to him. It belonged to the people, and the people needed to decide. We saw extreme low voter turnout in twenty twenty four, and I think that, there are a lot of you can look back and say, well, if we would have done this or that, maybe, or if the dynamic and political climate would have been different, maybe. But for me, it was about doing the right thing, taking a risk, and taking that leap of faith to do what you know is right. It it didn't turn out the way that we thought or hoped, but it's okay. Like, we know that the right thing will occur eventually down the road. For us, it's about, you know, making change and not being afraid to speak out and be bold and take those risks even if it means, potentially losing a raise. But in the end, I I feel like I have one. I have one, not only do we have I have the successor that will be in one zero seven is an amazing person. State representative elect Linda Garcia, she'll be sworn in tomorrow. But, also, I've had an opportunity to reevaluate, one, substantially grow my law firm as an attorney and shift my focus so that I can use my skills and strengths to help people in the law in the courtroom. So I'm taking the battle back to the courtroom from the Texas House. Data shows that there's a good percentage of people who are making two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in annual salary in the United States are living paycheck to paycheck. What policy solutions, if you could propose, right, at the national level and all state level that really would help people? I think the one thing that could make a substantial difference is raising the minimum wage. It's been seven eighty five for years. I don't know I don't recall how long. You just can't live off of that. And there are people that are getting paid minimum wage that are trying to scrape and save to make ends meet. Just really increasing that to match the the cost, the housing cost, economic cost across our country, I think, would make a substantial difference. And it's it's something that doesn't have to that can be phased in. There's been different policy proposals on how to do it, maybe starting with the big businesses first before you start with small businesses. There's a lot of different, ways that a law can be crafted to benefit people, but that being able to put food on the table for your family is something that is not just good policy, but it's good, in my view, something that is morally right. What advice would Victoria today give Victoria twenty years ago when it comes to life, career, and the future? I would tell myself my from twenty years ago that, like, have faith and trust the process because I was so I I was working hard, trying to be, at the top of my game so that I could go to law school and not knowing what the future held for me. But if I would've just had faith that everything was gonna be okay, I think I would've been a lot less stressed, back then. But just really for the next generation. Like, you choose your destiny. And if you if you doubt yourself or doubt your destiny, then, you could be taking yourself a different direction. But I really am a big believer in positive thinking, and looking back now and realizing all of the way that you think influences your outcome. What excites you about the future? I'm really interested in AI and, what is occurring in the AI market, exploring it in the legal field and what it can do, revolutionizing the way we talk to clients, the way that, we communicate, the way that we produce work product, and legal cases. It's just really to me, it reminds me of when the Internet first broke out or first started, like the dial up modems. I still remember that back in the day. Some of the young younger generation may not know that, but I think the what AI could potentially do in so many different fields, not just the legal field, but health care and education, it's just very, very exciting. What is next for you? Perhaps is it Texas State Senate? Perhaps is it US congressional seat? Perhaps something more? What can the world watch out for with you? For me, I'm very focused on using I I want to use the knowledge that I have as soon as I close this chapter as a state representative, and really teach my goal, is really to teach Latinas the what steps they would need to do if they were to run for office. I we are one of the largest population groups. We are being educated in much higher numbers than our male counterparts. We're decision making table. So I'd really like to to, like, translate my knowledge or, in a way, I'm still working on how we're gonna be doing that, but so that we have leave something for the next generation on what to do and share all of this inside knowledge and tips that I have for being in the back rooms where we often have not been, so that they know what to expect, they know what to do, and they know what campaigns are like, what is the win number, what is campaign finance, things like that in a way that speaks to our community. And anybody could take advantage of it, but that's really, I think, the next way that I wanna leave a legacy is really helping open those doors for the next generation and share what I've learned. What other thoughts might you have to inspire talent for them to bet on themselves? Be confident. Be bold. Carpe diem. Like, take seize the date. Take the chances that, if you're unsure of what the future holds for you is you, like, you choose that direction. You determine your own destiny. And while there there are so many other circumstances that may be around us, we have an ability to change the direction of our own lives, and, it's up to us. And so, but you you do have to have faith and believe in yourself and just know that whatever it is that grounds you or that belief, like, you you that faith is so, so essential, and just just know that that you can do it. Other people are there willing to help you to in the direction that you wanna go. You just have to be willing, like you said, to bet on yourself and know that, people need you, the skills and talents that you have. And what are you gonna do with that? Are you going to achieve mastery level? Are you going to settle for a status quo? It all starts with yourself. Like, don't be one of the other things I've learned from Robin Sharma's books is don't be a victim. Be a leader. Like, you can you can be the victim or the leader. You're gonna blame somebody else for the direction of your life, or you gonna are you going to take ownership and choose like, make those decisions that are going to take you in the direction that you wanna go? How do you wanna be remembered? I want to be remembered as somebody who had a lot of love, did good for others, that cared about making this place a better place to live for all of us regardless of your skin color for women. That is somebody who's positive. I'm a very, like, positive person and try to find the silver lining and everything, when I can. And so that's how I wanna be remembered. Thank you for serving. Thank you for what you sacrificed, and also thank you for just investing in the future. Thank you so much. I'm so honored and appreciate the invite. Happy to be here. Subscribe. Give us a like. Drop a comment. And, yes, until next time, take care of yourselves and take care of each other. Right? It's the undisputed podcast. Awesome. Thank you.