The Power of One: Breakthrough | S2E2

This episode of The Power of One is a deeply moving conversation about breakthrough, faith, and the ripple effect of a single decision. Victoria shares her journey as an international student coming to the United States at seventeen, the sacrifices her parents made, and the unexpected kindness of strangers who became family. Through her story, we see how small moments, one conversation, one act of love, and one brave choice can completely alter the direction of a life. Cathy reflects on what it truly means to be born into opportunity versus fighting for it, challenging common narratives around immigration and reminding us that behind every journey is love, purpose, and courage.

Listeners will walk away with a powerful reminder that breakthroughs are rarely loud or instant. They are often layered, relational, and rooted in love. This episode explores themes of immigration stories, faith driven leadership, the power of one conversation, personal breakthrough, and legacy building. It invites you to reflect on your own breakthrough moments and consider how your story, your presence, and your willingness to show up might be the very thing that opens doors for someone else.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs encouragement today and take a moment to reflect on the one breakthrough that changed your life. And if you are ready to turn your story into visibility, impact, and legacy, connect with Victoria at mtr.bio/limstudios.

Step into growth and purpose! Discover my books and resources designed to help you lead, learn, and live with impact.

✨ Click here: https://t-sml.mtrbio.com/public/smartlink/toolsforsuccess

//About

Cathy Tooley is the Founder & CEO of Tools for Success and a seasoned educator with over 40 years in K–12 classrooms and school leadership. From high school teacher to principal, Cathy has dedicated her life to supporting educators. In 2014, she launched Tools for Success to provide real, in-person instructional coaching—not just “PD in a box.” She’s the author of The Education System Is Broken, a national speaker, and a fierce advocate for teachers. Through this podcast, she’s spotlighting the ripple effect of great teaching.
🔗 Website | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Transcript

Opening: Breakthroughs On Breakthroughs

Victoria Odekomaya 0:00

Ever since I've been in the United States, or even before that, I see the small, and I call them small, but it's a series of breakthroughs upon breakthroughs. And that story was the turning point in my life as a student, as an international student here. Because not only did my parents save a ton of money in, you know, feeding and all of you know allowances and things like that, they groomed me to become the woman that I am.

Cathy Tooley 0:25

I hope every American that's listening to this podcast today hears. They don't want anything from you. They want what you were born into. That simply because they were born in a different location, they are being treated in a way that God never intended for his children to be treated. And I would say to my students, do you understand that they're willing to die, to risk prosecution, to just get a bite of what you eat every day? Are you missing that part of the story? They aren't coming over here as the story that we're being told, folks in the media, that they want to devour and take. And sure there are people that have come here and have done terrible things. There are people that live here that have done terrible things. But that's not the story. You're the story. You're the story. You are an outward representation of the breakthrough that is called the United States of America. Hi,

Meet Victoria And Her Work

Cathy Tooley 1:40

everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of The Power of One. I'm joined today with a very dear friend of mine, Victoria, and I'll let her do all the introductions here in just a second. But thank you for joining us, and we're gonna jump right into it. Victoria? Hi. Tell us all about yourself. Tell the lovely people watching all about yourself.

Victoria Odekomaya 1:59

Thank you for having me on your podcast. Thank you for coming. Thank you. My name is Victoria Udeko Maya, and I am the founder of Lim Studios. We have a content space in Castle in Indiana. And also our firm is a creative marketing agency. We help small business owners and entrepreneurs build their brand, generate leads, and build a legacy.

Cathy Tooley 2:20

Love it. Thank you. And um, let's be very clear, we are sitting in your space. Um Victoria um produces our podcast. So all of the all of this that you're watching out on social media, don't look at the camera and expect that I'm doing any of that. I sit here, I talk, and Victoria puts all that together. So um this series was called The Power of One, and I'm gonna say this every single guest today. I let go of a little bit of control with this in that I didn't make each guest tell me exactly what they're gonna talk about because I I thought this topic was one that was really the Lord driven. And so I thought I'll let the Lord drive it. So the power of one what for you?

Victoria Odekomaya 3:02

Of one breakthrough. Okay. So this started several years ago. It's basically the the story of how I came to the United States and how I don't think I know that story. Oh well, you're gonna hear it today. Um my God, I feel like it's a series of breakthroughs, but it started with the first one. My parents were looking for me to come to the United States to come study. I was 17 at a time, and we met a friend, a family friend, who basically just kind of encouraged my parents, kind of like we said in a previous podcast, that one conversation. Yeah, you should listen to that too if you have. And so we um they had a conversation and she was like, Yeah, let's do it. Like, whatever it needs to take, like, you know,

The Hawaii Arrival And Finding Community

Victoria Odekomaya 3:45

anyway. So that was the first one. And so for me. You were 17. Yeah, when I was 17, um, I had my application turned in, I got accepted, I came to the United States, and um I was at a, it was, it was in a computer lab on this very day, fateful day, and a man, well, I have to say that I was in Hawaii. Now, Hawaii is like two days' journey from Nigeria, and time difference is at least, I think it was like 13 hours or so. So very far away for any 14, I mean 17-year-old, right? Um, so I was in a computer lab on this day, and there was a gentleman that came into the lab, and I have to also say that there was not a lot of Nigerians in Hawaii. But we did have a few military people that, you know, with military, you get moved around. And so this guy happened to be a Nigerian, he's in the Navy, he came into the computer lab coming to look for somebody else. But the guy in front of the computer lab couldn't find the person and said, you know, I know somebody else that could, you know, we could talk to. So he came to get me and I just, you know, we interacted. I said, Oh, I'll pass on the information. This also, this other person was also a student. Well, you know, they took a liking to meet their couple, and so we kind of started, you know, sometimes I would go spend the you know weekend in their house. They would, you know, anyway, this is me in school, having no family around. I met this Nigerian couple, and they, you know, just took a liking and they would like, you know, do whatever, you know, to support me. Sure. It was time for them to go back to Nigeria. They met my parents. So I introduced my parents to them. They were going to visit to bring their own kids back home to America. And so they met my parents, and my parents, I mean, they just, it was instant love. And my parents did everything that they could to, you know, in I mean, be a good host to them. They came back thinking, well, Victoria is, you know, she's a student, she's, you know, barely getting by, you know, and at the time, well, I was paying international student fee, which is not an in-state tuition. It's not an out-of-state tuition, it's an international student school, you know, tuition. Um, so you can imagine the expense it is for my parents. And then we have to also pay for living and things like that. I mean, we knew that was it, but you know, it was just what we had to pay. They came back and they said, you know, we would love for you to move into our home. At this time, I was already in my second year. We'd love for you to come into our home and we would love for you to just be a part of our family. And at that time, they were doing everything that they could to help me become a citizen, even, you know. But I say this as a turning point in my life because although I could go back and say even when I got my visa was my breakthrough moment, because even there's a story behind that. I don't know if I have enough time

Adopted By A Navy Family

Victoria Odekomaya 6:40

to talk about that. But I say that because ever since I've been in the United States, or even before that, I see the small, and I call them small, but it's a series of breakthroughs upon breakthroughs. And that story was the turning point in my life as a student, as an international student here, because not only did my parents save a ton of money in you know, feeding and all of you know allowances and things like that, they groomed me to become the woman that I am. Because at that time I was, yeah, this couple, I didn't have that oversight, like that adult oversight. I was barely, you know, an adult at the time. Yeah, you know, and my parents believed in me. They've done everything that they could to pour into me. So it was time for me to now live my life, you know, in a foreign land. But I still needed that guidance. Who doesn't at 18, if not 19?

Cathy Tooley 7:28

You know, so regardless of what an 18-year-old thinks, they do still need that guidance. Right.

Victoria Odekomaya 7:33

You know, so for me, and I and I'm so thankful for that moment that this couple came in to ask the question, looking for somebody else, and the guy thought to come ask me, and that relationship formed. And now, I mean, I am so grateful. But if I could kind of go back a little bit about how I even got my visa to come to the United States, that's a story of its own and a breakthrough too. So, what had happened was that they tell us that you have to be in the very front of the line because there's like thousands of people waiting to get a visa to come to the United States. Really? Yeah. And I remember my dad and I driving very early, like I think it was like 4 a.m.

Cathy Tooley 8:11

I I have to pause you. I I was a teacher, you know, for 20 years. I taught in a very um not culturally exposed community. Is that a nice political correct way of saying that? That they all looked alike, they all seemed alike, and I can remember, and I taught Spanish. And I could remember them saying to me, and I and I what you just said just hit me. Um, you know, I don't understand why they, you know, if they if you're gonna come to America, gosh, I could just hear this in even our nation today, they ought to speak English, they ought to be like us, they ought to, you know, um, or just go back to where they come from. And I want you to go to what you just said. They were standing in lines, trying to get visas to come here. I hope every American that's listening to this podcast today hears. They don't want anything

The Cost And Sacrifice Of Study Abroad

Cathy Tooley 9:15

from you. They want what you were born into. That simply because they were born in a different location, they are being treated in a way that God never intended for his children to be treated. And they are willing to drown in boats, stand in lines. And we as Americans, wow, have become so polarized that you're taking something from us. And I want everyone to hear the dichotomy that I'm writing you a check for this podcast. It's not the other way around. I didn't take anything from you. But because you're here, this podcast is here. And I don't the Lord just called me to stop it. I don't want it lost. In the divisiveness of our nature, that what brought you here was love. Your parents loved you, and they wanted more for you than what nothing this is, nothing disrespectful to Nigeria, that has nothing to do with Nigeria. It is that your parents saw an opportunity and wanted something different for their daughter, whom they loved, and were therefore willing to go stand in a line to get a visa and send her hundreds of miles away from where they knew she was safe to a place where they knew she would have more opportunities so she could be sitting here today as a producer of my podcast that is not lost, and I don't want that moment grazed over. And I know that you have a story with a visa, I'm not, I'm and I apologize if I interrupted that, but the breakthrough to me is the fact that you're sitting here. And I I want everyone that's listening to this podcast to understand Victoria, if you cut her, she bleeds like I do. I promise anatomically, as a woman, she's built like I am. That while the color of our skin looks different, what beats the vessel that creates a heart and all of the scientific stuff that makes our bodies do what they do is the same. The only difference between you and I is that I was blessed enough to be born in the United States of America, and you weren't. But because parents loved you, because God loved you and he knew he had a purpose for you, that all the visas and the families and the love, the love that continue through put you here today. And I I don't know if that's the intention that the Lord has planned for this

Visa Lines And A Father’s Dawn Drive

Cathy Tooley 12:30

episode, but in a world uh called my home, called the United States of America, that is your home, that is so divisive, I think that's the story. Yeah, the breakthrough is love.

Victoria Odekomaya 12:46

Right.

Cathy Tooley 12:47

Yeah. So finish your story about the next one.

Victoria Odekomaya 12:49

I don't even feel like I feel like I believe that's the lesson here because you said so much in that that I think we forget that the breakthrough is love, like you said. That's it. That's it.

Cathy Tooley 13:02

It it started with two people who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl whom I'm they I'm sure doted and were ridiculous with her and spoiled her and did all the things. But and people would, and I know that there are people that are gonna watch this video and think, well, uh yeah, but they um, you know, she could have gone to school anywhere in Nigeria. You're and you're right, you could have, right? But that wasn't God's purpose for your life. Yeah. And what if I used to, so I so I used to say to my students this this full circle moment that I just felt, which is I would look at them and you know, I would hear things like, I'm so tired of walking in a filling station, they can't speak English, and by golly, if they're in America, they ought to speak English and they ought to walk like us and talk like us, and who said so? Wow. Who said so? Um, and I would say to my students, do you understand that they're willing to die, to risk prosecution, to just get a bite of what you eat every day? Do you are you missing that part of the story? They aren't coming over here as the story that we're being told, folks, in the media, that they want to devour and take. And sure there are people that have come here and have done terrible things. But there are people that live here that have done terrible things. But that's not the story. You're the story. You're the story. You are an outward representation of the breakthrough that is called the United States of America.

Victoria Odekomaya 14:30

And I think that in this theme of the power of one, I see many breakthroughs, not just in my life, but the ripple effect. I keep going back to it.

Cathy Tooley 14:42

That people you need to go back and watch the first season. It was so good. Okay.

Victoria Odekomaya 14:46

But the ripple effect of that one conversation you have with whomever, wherever they're from.

Cathy Tooley 14:52

Right, because your parents didn't just wake up one day and decide to ship you off to America. Right. They had to have some kind of breakthrough to let their baby girl at because I don't care what anyone watching this podcast, a 17-year-old's a baby.

Victoria Odekomaya 15:03

I mean, I've never been on a plane at that time. Right. I'd never been, you know. You weren't flying 20 minutes. I was

Challenging Myths About Immigrants

Victoria Odekomaya 15:10

flying several hours far from everything you knew in security and safety.

Cathy Tooley 15:14

Yeah. So to a risk that you didn't know that put you here today. Right. That I I God is good. All the time. All the time. All the time. All the time. I wow. Okay, that I I don't know that there is much else for us to say. Yeah.

Victoria Odekomaya 15:38

I don't think so either. I feel like I know we had a podcast where we're talking about the conversation, the power of one conversation. Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 15:46

But Victoria's on another episode, you'll have to catch it, the power of one conversation.

Victoria Odekomaya 15:50

Right. But what it's like the breakthrough led to another breakthrough, not just for me, but for everybody else that I've encountered in my life.

Cathy Tooley 16:00

And how many other people are you going to meet that look like you, that sound like you, because I can never be you. I can't speak to those people like you can. And I don't mean you people that we look different. Right. Um, we look different. I I can't speak to them because I don't have the credibility. I don't have the, I don't sound like you. I don't, I listen to you speak and think, I I want an accent. I say that all the time. That's a running joke in my go to go to Kentucky and I just listen to them speak and think, I want an accent. And they say I have one, I don't have one. But I listen to you speak and think, I will never sound like you. I will never look like you. And it's okay. That's right. Because we all have assignments for different things in life. I'm gonna provide people different breakthroughs because my come from. Right. And you're gonna provide completely different breakthroughs because of yours.

Victoria Odekomaya 16:49

Yeah. So I mean, I think that this second season is definitely a very powerful one. The theme I'm like a power of one because I see the Lord said that.

Cathy Tooley 17:01

That is not mine.

Victoria Odekomaya 17:02

So the ripple effect of that one breakthrough leading to other breakthroughs. When you were talking about, you know, people complaining about what they see at the you know, gas station and all the things like that. But here's the thing: even that one interaction is a breakthrough. They might not see it now. That's it. But that conversation or whatever had happened would lead to something else and lead to something. Think of the breakthrough you made to that family. You made a difference in their life, I guarantee it. Yeah, I mean, they made a difference in my life too, you know, it's vice versa. And so many other people and how we're sitting here that would have never happened had you not stood in that line to get that visa to be sitting here today.

Cathy Tooley 17:43

I I so I I just feel compelled to say a couple of things as we wrap this up. I wonder for those of you watching this podcast today, what was your breakthrough moment? And most importantly, because I think it's one thing to recognize it, but I think it's a completely different thing to go back to that person.

Victoria Odekomaya 18:05

Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 18:06

You said those that couple has become an integral part of your life. Absolutely. They're woven into the story that is Victoria.

Victoria Odekomaya 18:13

There's no way I could tell my story without telling of their involvement for several years in my life. And I'm so grateful for that.

Cathy Tooley 18:21

And I wonder, we're all looking for, I say this all the time, I've said this on podcasts before, that we all think it has to be some great, big, grandiose. I don't have as cool of a story. I didn't stand, I didn't I never stood in a line to get a visa. I just was born lucky enough to be born here. My children never stood on the line to get a visa. But I promise you that there's been a breakthrough.

Victoria Odekomaya 18:43

Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 18:44

Somewhere, someplace, sometime. So thank you. Thank you for being so vulnerable and honest. Because I'll tell you, I think that you and I show the power of one. Yes. And that is the one of Jesus Christ. Yes. You and I have

Love As The Breakthrough

Cathy Tooley 19:00

completely different um come from. Our lives in many ways will never be the same. But Jesus is the commonality that exists.

Victoria Odekomaya 19:12

Common thread.

Cathy Tooley 19:12

It's a common thread. And so I want to thank you for being willing to come on, share a very vulnerable story.

Victoria Odekomaya 19:18

Thank you.

Cathy Tooley 19:18

Um, and to be so honest with us. Yeah. I forever I will be grateful.

Victoria Odekomaya 19:22

Thank you so much for having me.

Cathy Tooley 19:23

Forever, I will be grateful. So thank you to everyone for tuning in. Um, we're gonna continue an entire series of the power of one with lots of guests. So um join us and and and please take away from these podcasts, lift the conversation into your life. Take the conversation into where you're being called. And thanks for joining us.