Passing the Ball: What the World Cup Teaches Us About Teamwork

When the biggest sporting event on Earth comes to our backyard, it cracks open new perspectives on how we connect and lead. In this special episode of the Building Leadership Community Podcast, Coach Dora Mendez gathers her family to explore the beautiful, complicated diversity of the World Cup. Featuring a heartfelt interview between her children , practical advice on collaboration and self-care from fight and intimacy director Rocio Mendez , and wisdom on team synergy from author Zenaida Mendez, this episode proves that true leadership is always a shared effort.

Who This Is For For professionals, community builders, and small business owners who want to lead with inclusivity, celebrate diverse strengths, and remember that it doesn't have to be lonely at the top.

Key Themes

• Embracing the magnificent diversity of global cultures as a framework for inclusive leadership.
• Understanding how different lived experiences and physical instincts heighten a collaborative team.
• Recognizing that personal self-care is a non-negotiable requirement for showing up for others.
• Fostering intergenerational respect and listening to the voices of children.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 - The World Cup Comes to New York & New Jersey
• 03:55 - Naomi and Mateo's Soccer Interview
• 06:39 - Transform Your Leadership Coaching Course
• 09:56 - Rocio Mendez on Physicality, Collaboration, and Self-Care
• 18:08 - Black Swan Musical and Oregon Shakespeare Festival Updates
• 20:53 - Zenaida Mendez on Team Synergy and the Diaspora
• 24:20 - National Dominican Women's Caucus & Diversity

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Transcript

0:03

I'll be honest with you, I have chills. On July 19th, 2026, the FIFA World Cup final will be played right here near my home at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, new Jersey, just miles away from where my family and so many of us live, work and lead. For the first time in history, the championship match of the most watched sporting events on Earth is being held in our very own New York new Jersey metropolitan area. 48 nations, over a million expected visitors. Matches featuring Brazil versus Morocco. France versus Senegal. Ecuador versus Germany. Panama versus England. A lineup that reads like a love letter to the beautiful, complicated, magnificent diversity of our world. And I have a nine year old at home who won't let me forget a single detail. Welcome to the Building Leadership Community podcast. I'm your host, coach Dora Mendez. My son has been counting down to this tournament the way most kids countdown to their birthday. He knows the players, the teams, the match up. He talks about his favorite squads at the dinner table, in the car. And if I let him, probably in his sleep watching the world Cup come to our back yard through his eyes has cracked something completely open in mind. So when my 12 year old daughter, already a natural connector and leader in her own right, offered to sit down and interview her little brother about all of it for our Building Leadership Community podcast, I said yes immediately. That conversation turned into one of my favorite episodes we've ever recorded. Two kids, one ball. A whole lot of wisdom. You can watch that exact interview right here on the Coach Door Mendez YouTube channel. And if you are watching us on video right now, take a quick second to like this video, hit the subscribe button and ring that ring notification bell so you never miss our weekly leadership strategy breakdown. And if you're listening on your favorite audio, podcast platform, whether that's Apple, Spotify or anywhere else, go ahead and hit the follow button right now. But most. Importantly, if this story of two. Siblings bridging worlds through a shared passion brought a smile to your face. Share this episode with someone who might need a little bit of inspiration today. Let's pass the ball to someone else who needs that lift, because watching those kids reminded me the way children. Always do of what really matters. And if we dive into today's masterclass, I. Can't stop thinking about exactly what this world stage moment. Has to teach us all about leadership, teamwork, and inclusive leaders. Roll credits. Hello and welcome to Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Dora Mendez. I am the founder and CEO of Coach Dora LLC. Our guests will be entrepreneurs, small business owners, and community leaders that drive social impact. It can be lonely at the top, but it doesn't have to be. Hello and welcome to this special segment of Building Leadership Community Podcast. I'm your host, Naomi, and today we'll be talking about the World Cup with my special guest and brother, Mateo. Hi. I'm so excited to talk about the World Cup today. Soccer has been my favorite sport for two whole years. How are you doing, Naomi? I'm doing so good today. I'm doing good today, Mateo. Are you ready for your first questions? Yes. Who are your favorite players playing in the World Cup? And what country do they play for? My favorite players in the World Cup who play, who are playing in the World Cup are Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays your Portugal, Killian and Poppy, who plays for France, Vinicius Junior, who plays for Brazil. And last but not least, Lamin Jamal, who plays for Spain. Wow. Who is your favorite UN soccer player? Who was playing in the World Cup and how do they inspire you? My favorite player that is in the World Cup who inspires me is La Minamo. All. The youngest is player on the Spanish on the Spanish team. He started at 16 and now he's 18. I'm also inspired by Emiliano Martinez because he inspires me to be the best goalkeeper. In my opinion, he is the best goalkeeper in the world. Wow. Okay. Why do you think Emiliano Martinez is the best goalkeeper? I think he's the best goalkeeper because first of all, he got our reward for being the best goalkeeper in the world. And plus he saved so many goals and they were so hard to score. Which soccer player story inspires you the most? Be a leader and play soccer? I think Cristiano Ronaldo has the most goals in soccer history, so I choose him. Wow. That was so. That was my last question. Thank you Mom and Dad for featuring us and our special interview. Well it's time you learned from the World Cup. 321 super two. Hey, it's too soon. USA. Welcome back, amazing leaders. Wasn't that incredible? I'm so overwhelmed by my children. Before I share a little bit more about building leadership community, we have some. Powerful resources to share with you today to transform your leadership by learning how to coach. Coaching is something that most people think is really exclusive. It's something that's just for executives, but really, we believe that it's something that should be accessible to everyone. So we designed a course. If you've been feeling pressure of expensive leadership programs, courses that can run close to $1,000 per credit, you're not alone. I hear from so many professionals who want to grow, lead with confidence and make an impact. But the price tag and time commitment make it feel out of reach. We believe that coaching should be accessible. That's exactly why I created. Transform your leadership and exclusive Growth Mindset Coaching course designed to give you true leadership breakthroughs. Without the hefty price tag for only $97, you'll get to receive access to a program that delivers real transformation and as little as five hours a self-paced video course. You'll get traditional leadership program information, a workbook, and a handy I pom sheet. And at the end, you'll get a certificate of completion so you can show off your professional development and your accomplishments. So this normally takes weeks. And we intentionally build a practical, efficient and deeply impactful course inside the experience. So you'll get these tools and framework in our coaching program that will help you lead with clarity, communicate with confidence, and step into your next level of influence without sacrificing your time or your budget. If you're ready to become the leader people trust and follow. This is your moment. The link is in the description. You can get it on our website and our courses tab. CoachDoraMendez.com. Leadership transformation is right there for you. I'm so happy to be able to share. Those resources with you. You can find them on our website. www.CoachDoraMendez.com/Courses. And yeah. So stay connected with us. And I want to bring on this episode has been a little different and we've aligned it with, FIFA World Cup, theme. So we thought we reached out to the rest of the family to get their reflections on leadership. Thank you for being here, my sister. Thank you for joining us on a very special episode of the Building Leadership Community Podcast. I wanted to let you know that your niece and your nephew took over the show. So this is very, very special episode of the Building Leadership Community podcast. I'm your host, coach Dora Mendez, and this is my sister, who happens to be an amazing leader in the world of the arts, Rocio Mendez of fight and and intimacy director and the fun aunt of Naomi and Mateo. And I'm, and and I'm just so, happy to, include you in this amazing conversation that we have about how the World Cup brings together diverse cultures. It is the feeling that we are having here now that the World Cup is, for the first time, the biggest event in the whole world is focusing and in the Americas. And I would love to get your reflections on leadership, collaboration, teamwork, whatever you'd like to share with us. You know, we love to we always love to hear, what you have to say. Thank you. First of all, thank you for having me back. And I'm so proud of Mateo and Naomi being like, this is what we're going to do. Look, they're already smart and getting their juices flowing, which is really exciting. Probably inspiration from their mom and their dad, which is amazing. And I think this is really cool. I mean, the World Cup is here. I used to follow it way more in the past than I do now, but one thing that I loved about it, it was just showing up at places and how many people got together to like, represent or look forward to different countries, playing and rooting for whatever team that they're rooting for. But I think what's really fun and interesting about the World Cup is that these teams, even though they represent specific countries, they come from all over the place, you know, they recruited, they're, you know, maybe they are from there. But, and you sort of have to do a wide search for these athletes because, yeah, someone could have gone to like college, university or whatever to play the sport. But you never know. There's maybe that kid who never got those same opportunities who could play even better than that person who was trading all their life just because their instincts were better and stuff like that. So looking for all those kinds of people everywhere around the world, globally to bring them together, to get the best team that you possibly can to represent whatever team, that they're going for. And I think that's, kind of one of the beauties of diversity is that like, you never know who's going to bring that touch to a team to really make it spark, to make them come together and like, suddenly, like, heighten themselves because all these players are coming together with different experience, lived experience, different training and, playing this phenomenal game. That's a really hard game to play, frankly. And then being able this is the World Cup, right? It's like global. So it's also like everyone in the world coming in together to watch these teams and see who kicks who's butt. Yeah. And so I love to because like your role is so for context for our listeners and our viewers who didn't get a chance to see our episode, they definitely should check it out. At your job is so physical as a fight and intimacy director for the theater. And so I would love to get some, like, insight about the physicality. I mean, the mental and the physical preparation. It takes to, to lead in a, in a, you know, in a collaborative atmosphere. You, you it's something that you have that you do, and you're very disciplined at it. Like taking care of your, your mind, body and spirit. Do you have any insights and reflections to share with our audience and viewers, about what it takes to really, lead, a collaborative effort that is very physical that that can be, draining to your energy. Yeah. I think I think there's several ways to go about it. And of course, self-care is number one, right? Like, if I can't be show up as a full self, how can I even show up for other people? Right? So of course, self-care is 100% important to me. So yes, it does include working out, eating right, sleeping as much as I can, all but like I think typical human things we all need, going to therapy, just, staying on like, oh, continuing to learn, continuing education. I always try to, whether it's a class or a seminar workshop or a book, like always. Also trying to keep up to date with my industry and what's going on. And that's like sort of the self reflection part, what I need to do to just try to be, my best self as, as much as I can when I show up to work. And then I think the collaboration part or when I walk into a room, it's really remembering that I do have diverse backgrounds that I'm working with physically. So there's people who have worked with where into the room who are like martial artists, and they're people who have no hand-eye coordination whatsoever. And it's really my job to, to see where the strengths and weaknesses are and, like, focus on those strengths to make them look as good as they can for the role that they're doing. Right. It's really my job to be like, you know what? Let's shift and move it this way. So this person could look really good at what they're doing. And that whatever character they're playing, they are that character. So that's where it gets a little bit creative. And that's also where it gets collaborative, because I have to ask those people like, okay, does it feel better going to the right or to the left? Right. You know, like, what is it that feels good in your body? What feels natural? What are you doing naturally in your body so that this could look natural? Because the way my body moves is not the same way anybody else's body move on the planet. It's just my individual thing. So I have to trust the instinct of the actors. I have to trust the instincts of the director. And then I also have to trust my instincts of like, what looks good and what makes these people look, as close and as strong and confident as their character is supposed to. And it's really it all depends. It's hit or miss, you know, because I literally work with so many people in all the different projects, you know what I mean? I run across What I love to hear, you know, I, you know, Russia. I love to hear what you're working on. And I know this episode is about the World Cup and the reflections and the lessons we learn from it. But I always love to hear, like, is there a new show? You know, because I, I believe that we're going to have a bigger audience, listeners and viewers because we have a World Cup episode. I really do believe that. And I think that. Is there anything you'd like for new people to our podcast to know about, about you and what's coming up for you in, 2026? Well, the biggest thing right now is at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a new, musical. It's a dance thriller musical, and it is the, musical adaptation of the film Black Swan. And it is, Wow! really fantastic. It is a fabulous, fantastic show. And it really is like a thriller which I've never seen on stage personally. And it was a very, very cool experience. And that was another example of a collaborative experience where, you know, I really wanted to because there's a lot of intimacy in it, and I wanted to make sure that the actors felt super confident and were super specific in what they were doing. So there were no accidents, you know what I mean? So that is a great show that's playing now. And it's there, I believe, until July 15th. It just got extended twice. So that's how popular the show is. So we run, get your ticket. And then, of course, as you know, but and some of your listeners and hopefully future listeners will now know that I am the resident intimacy director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. So I'm here all year round. And we're about to open three shows next weekend, which is taming of the shrew. Henry for part one, which has a bunch of fights. It's so fun. And Emma. So those are the shows going on here now at OSF. There's there's more shows here. We typically do 9 to 11 shows first season and all of those run until October. Yeah. So that's what's current in my life now. So you're, you're no stranger to welcoming, guests and tourists because people travel from all over to visit, your Shakespeare festival, which we did a couple of years ago with the children, and we loved it. It was beautiful. And, I want to thank you again for joining us on this very special episode, of the building leadership community Podcast, sharing your reflections on the lessons we can learn about diversity and collaboration and balancing people's strength and, the self-care and discipline that it takes when you're when you're doing a job that's very physical. Like those athletes, like those elite athletes. Right. So thank you. So much, Rachel. Love you. I love you, too, sister. Have a good one. Welcome back to the Building Leadership Community Podcast. We have an amazing, amazing guests, which, as you know, the children took over the episode today. And this is the leader I most admire who's kicked off every season, the first episode of every season. And the leader that I most admire happens to be, my children's abuela, grandmother Snyder Mendez, author and activist. Mom, can you, tell our audience, our listeners and our viewers the name of your book, Love and Heartbreak of the Diaspora In Espanol. Por favor? Amor Y Desamor De La Diaspora. Yes. So it's amazing. And we're so proud. And we asked you. Thank you for answering the call because we were it was, Naomi and Mateo's idea to do a show about the World Cup and what it means to leadership. And so I would love for you to share your reflections as a leader, as an author, as someone who has traveled all of the Americas. You know, we recently just returned from Bogota and the International Book Festival with your with your book. So can you share your thoughts on what the World Cup means to leadership, sportsmanship and teamwork? Wow. That, telling you that is the best example of teamwork. And this boy, well, the World Cup is the leader because when you I mean they are global. This is not is a play in one country. The entire world is watching. Therefore the teams synergy is very important. It's even more important individual performance. Because without the synergy there is no team. Therefore it is critical. It is critical. I have witnessed a lot of, well, several great team in my lifetime, but when I compare that team to the National Dominican Women’s Caucus, its one of the best team that I ever have worked with because everybody has their own talents. Everybody, not each. Each one is each one talents. And then they put it together and they support each other. Well, that's the same thing that happened in the World Cup. It's like everyone know that position. Well, the end of the day, everybody is watching for each other and that is the key is not whether to win or lose is to make sure that your fellow worker, your fellow sport person. Is really doing their job, but also they need support. They are there for them. Its not their ego, and you can see how they hug each other . They kiss each other and they equal a shoulder. It is so beautiful. It is beautiful. Does the same thing that happened with my team at the National Domenican Women’s Caucus. Those young women are superb support, I mean, and they are used to sign yes and no. Well, so just so for context, for our listeners and our viewers, you are the founder and president of the National Dominican Women's Caucus, which is a group that educates women, from the LA, lot to, you know, Latin x Latin, a diaspora, about their political rights. Yes. And their electoral rights. And so, it's amazing what I love about the National Dominican Women's Caucus is it's intergenerational. You know, you have you talk about young people because you really believe in investing in the next generation of leaders. And so that really is just a wonderful example and something that your grandchildren have, really, learn from you. They learn that from you. They learn about, you know, that are they are treated with such respect, you know, it's it's these are the times where children should be and seen and not heard. They are heard, they are listened to. They are valued. They are respected. And, when they it was all of their idea to come to, to make this show. And so it just really just warms my heart. Oh, they are so wonderful. So wonderful. Especially when you have a diverse group like my group is diverse. I mean, we have people from Colombia, from Ecuador, from El Salvador, all from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, you name it, it's only two countries. And our guest, also our keynote speaker from diverse background. And that is important because we are one, no matter what you know, and especially also in the United State, we are one. You know, when it come to that, especially people of color, you know, we are in the same bag. It doesn't matter whether you are millionaire or you live in the poorest neighborhood in New York. We are in the same bag, so we have to support each other. So thank you for sharing your reflections. And, I guess I should I should share with our listeners and viewers you're referring to the National Dominican Women's Caucus Summit, which takes place in, September and 2026. Fordham University is going to be an amazing thing. September 19th, September 19th! And I do like doing wonderful. So we will leave that information in the show notes. And, I just want to thank you for being such a great example to to your grandchildren, to me to be a wonderful leader and sharing your reflections about teamwork and support and the importance of diversity and how the diversity is a strength, and supports and, you know, recognizing that the, the difference is our strengths. Exactly. So thank you for that perspective, mom. Thank you. Bye, everybody. Love you. You've been listening to Building Leadership Community. Watch on YouTube @CoachDoraM. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube @CoachDoraM. Visit me on the web at CoachDoraMendez.com. Hosted by me, Dora Mendez. Produced by Dora Mendez and Dylan Rogers. Graphics, editing, and sound mixing by Dylan Rogers.