Shit We Don't Talk About
Shit We Don’t Talk About is the podcast that takes on topics we should be talking about more often and openly. Guests and topics will be incredibly diverse, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful but all things we need to talk about candidly to keep us all informed and connected. Some topics may be triggering so please listen with care.
Shit We Don't Talk About
Ep. 90 - Breaking The Glass Ceiling - Cecilia Lihv
"Nobody listened to our ideas, so we decided to take over the market." That fearless approach is how Cecilia Lihv went from cleaning houses as an immigrant to owning a European men's professional football club.
In this captivating conversation, Cecilia shares her extraordinary journey from the toxicity of Wall Street to becoming one of only five women in Europe who own professional men's soccer teams. When faced with resistance in a nonprofit soccer organization run by ego-driven board members who ignored her innovative proposals, Cecilia didn't just walk away—she built something better. Her youth club in Connecticut grew to nearly 1,000 children before COVID-19 forced a pivotal decision.
Rather than waiting out the pandemic, Cecilia sold everything, moved her children to Costa Rica, and established a professional soccer development center that thrived while American facilities remained closed. That bold move led to purchasing her first professional team and eventually taking ownership of a historic Romanian club dating back to 1921.
As Cecilia navigates the male-dominated European football world, she brings a refreshing perspective that combines business acumen with genuine care for player development. Her insights on gender inequality in sports are particularly powerful, questioning why the successful US women's national team receives a fraction of the resources given to the men's team.
Beyond sports, Cecilia speaks passionately about the immigrant experience, having arrived in America at 18 with two suitcases and worked as a nanny and cleaning lady before building her career. Her story is a masterclass in creating new paths when traditional ones are blocked and refusing to accept limitations placed by others.
Listen now and discover why sometimes the most effective way to break a glass ceiling isn't by shattering it—but by building something entirely new alongside it.
More about Cecilia:
Cecilia Lihv is a pioneering female entrepreneur making bold moves in the male-dominated world of professional football. She is the president and owner of a historic men’s football club in Europe, SoccerViza, where she’s leading a powerful revival both on and off the pitch. With over 25 years of experience building businesses across industries—from retail to real estate—she brings a fearless, results-driven mindset to everything she does.
Beyond the boardroom, she's a proud single mom raising three children, proving every day that strength, strategy, and heart go hand in hand. Her story is one of resilience, passion, and redefining the rules in sports and business.
Find Mia On Social Media here.
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Hey, welcome to the latest episode of Shit. We Don't Talk About the podcast that takes on topics that need more open and honest discussion, which means some of these topics are triggering. So please take care when listening and I'll always give you a trigger warning. For instance, here's one Every episode contains swear words. You've been warned.
Mia Voss:Make sure to check out the show notes, which include an accessibility transcript of the podcast and all of the links for our guests at shitwedonttalkaboutpodcastcom. My guest in this episode is Acelia Liv, and she takes us on her journey from being a single mom in Connecticut to owning a men's European soccer club. I think you'll really appreciate hearing about the learning curve she experienced and the bold moves it takes to thrive in the male-dominated world of professional football. Plus, I don't know a thing about sports, so I learned a few new things as well. Tune in, it gets good. Here we go, hi, cecilia.
Cecilia Lihv:Hello Mia, I am so excited to have you here today. Well, thank you so much for having me.
Mia Voss:I'm excited to be here, so we're on two different sides of the world. It's 9.15 in the morning here in Denver, and what time is it there? For you, it's almost 6.20 in the afternoon, which I love. Thank you for making the time as well, too, because I know we've had a whole day. So, real quick, we're going to go through identifiers. I'm Mia Voss. I'm a blonde, white female, 60 years old. You'll probably see me having a hot flash because I'm waiting for my hormone therapy to kick in again and I'm wearing a blue dress, no glasses, today. How about you, cecilia? Tell us about what you look like and let's dive into your background.
Cecilia Lihv:So my name is Cecilia Leve. I am also blonde, 51 years old, and I am wearing black glasses today and I'm wearing a blue top sitting here in Romania. I don't even know what the time difference is, but it's a beautiful evening.
Mia Voss:Actually I think we decided it's nine hours. So we are representing all over the world today and we're going to dive in. Even though I have her description in the introduction, cecilia has such a rich background and I think what we really appreciate about us Gen X women we are so unafraid to say, hey, I tried this and I tried this and her world, which I love, cecilia has been, I mean, pretty much everything's male dominated, let's just face it Everything's patriarchal, colonial. But there are certain industries and you have been in two of them, I am in one of them that are so dick, heavy and male dominated. Mine is construction and you've been in finance and obviously in sports over in Europe.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, it's 25 years as an entrepreneur and five years on Wall Street. It was definitely the most male-dominated industry to start my career in. I think I was number three of the women hired in the sales office. But after five years I realized that this industry was not for me. I had a child and my daughter, who's now 24, it was just not feasible to take the train from Connecticut to New York every day. Back home, see her for 45 minutes and I felt like I wanted to give myself more than to work for somebody else. And that's kind of how I started my entrepreneurship.
Mia Voss:You had to create your own environment.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, it just didn't. I didn't want to clock in and clock out on somebody else's watch and if I'm a very creative thinker, I want to give my all if I'm in a place, and I didn't feel like I could. It was a lot of testosterone. I was in an environment where I'm sorry, like they did cocaine and they had horse for certain events, and I'm not just into that. So I'd rather just get the hell out and do something else for myself.
Mia Voss:So it's like that scene from Wolf of Wall Street. Everybody thinks it's a joke, so I'd rather just get the hell out and do something else for myself.
Cecilia Lihv:So it's like that scene from Wolf of Wall Street. Everybody thinks it's a joke. Which?
Mia Voss:is so romanticized with women but it literally was.
Cecilia Lihv:It's not a joke. It's not a joke, it's actually the reality. Yeah, and it's just not the type of scene that I wanted to be involved with. I learned a lot and I worked for somebody who really became a mentor for me in terms of business. He taught me a lot and he was really a person that I think, at the time, I was really angry with because he made me do things that I didn't enjoy, but at the end of the day, I felt that he gave me a lot of power to stand on my own two feet, if that makes sense.
Mia Voss:It does, and I think it is wonderful, somewhat rare, because a lot of times, when you're getting into the business scene and you have somebody who's going to advocate for you or, you know, be a mentor, there can be an imbalance of power. Yeah, and it sounds like you were able to get somebody with a safe space and you know, especially at that timeframe, then too, I mean, all bets were off and you know. Again, going back to us being Gen X women, you know that was the environment, that was the norm. You didn't really question it as much too, and I love you know there are topic being. You know, one of the topics being breaking the glass ceiling.
Mia Voss:Um, when it is helpful, when you do find somebody who's going to advocate for you but challenge you as well too, and I'm so happy to hear that you you did have someone, and I love those stories there's. You know there's a ton of stories of bad experiences or bad actors, and so it's good to hear that you had that, but I also love that it turns out it sounds like you created your own environment, because sometimes it's impossible to break the glass ceiling with the normal system right now of it being male dominated or rare, yeah.
Cecilia Lihv:But like he gave me tips and topics of um what I think maybe he wanted for himself a lot of times and he saw potential in me. I was young, I had worked with him prior to going into wall street and I know that he wanted the best for me and he really like I felt like he dropped me in the ocean and he said Cecilia, you need to swim, you need to learn, you need to be open-minded. You just need to figure it out in a little bit more aggressive way. But it taught me that I didn't want to be in that industry. So I learned a lot along the way. That I know what I don't like.
Mia Voss:There's a lot to be said for what I do like the comparison, learning and again being in New York and I was in New York in the late 80s and early 90s in commercial insurance and in a couple of different industries, and you know, of course, that was where Donald Trump obviously has always been a huge deal and so you know now and we're going to get into that at the end of this because I do want to talk about the immigrant experience, especially with women being in these places of leadership and what you went through, but anyway, that gives you an idea of what you were up against as well too. So then, tell us what your next transition was, because this piece of where you're at now, with about as male dominated as you can get, but also from a European perspective, I think that's a different experience too.
Cecilia Lihv:So I've always loved challenges in life. I've always loved challenges in life. I don't take no for an answer. I love to be in an environment where I really don't know anything about. I am a person that likes to do research and break shit down, whether it's companies, whether it's spreadsheets, whether it's relationships or whatever it might be. So the reason why I am in football today is because I worked as a financial consultant for a hedge fund in Connecticut and I really wanted to get out of finance. I mean, I love finance, but I wanted to get out of the environment of hedge funds and financial institutions and I never volunteered as a parent.
Cecilia Lihv:I was one of those parents who can I go and buy cupcakes for my kids at school or can I give you the check? Because I never had time. I've always been focused on my career. So I'm kind of the in and out, be there for the times of a show or a parent meeting or whatever. So I was at a time when I was like all right, I'm going to give this a shot. I'm going to join a nonprofit organization in the town where I was living in Connecticut and it was a soccer organization.
Cecilia Lihv:I had two kids in the program and I said, all right, I'm going to try it and see if I like it. I sent an email. It was late at night and they responded right away the day after and they're like we would love for you to join. And I was like, oh, I didn't expect this. Do I really want to do it? And I ended up doing it. I was invited into one of the board meetings and I came home to I was married at the time. I came home and I said I don't think I'll ever go back because that's the most ego-driven meetings I've ever been in, even though there were some women in there.
Mia Voss:I was just about to ask you was this something? That this was not a PTA volunteer kind of thing? This was more probably where dads usually showed up. It sounds like Correct.
Cecilia Lihv:Correct. But it was more like now when I'm looking back and I had this thought. It was more like people wanted their egos to be seen. So they're unhappy in their nine to five corporate jobs. So they take on a volunteer job where they are shining and they are feeling it and they're getting responses and attention and I was like, oh, this is not what I expected. Um, they. But on the other hand, I am also not a quitter, so I didn't want to just go into one meeting and science, you know, send my resignation and say sorry. So I did commit to the board and I sat as their secretary because they had never taken me minutes, minutes, and I was like which?
Cecilia Lihv:you are low grade, appalled by, I'm sure like I was like, wait, I just I just pay an arm and a leg for my kids to be part of it, but you don't know how to structure the organization. This is where I started to kind of break down things that were wrong, up with some suggestions and nobody really listened. They didn't like change. And my current business partner he was the director of coaching in the nonprofit organization and he was this young guy came out with all of ideas. He played professional for 10 years in Europe and he was bringing a lot to the table. So I kind of like, all right, let's go on this train, like let's move this forward, and nobody was like and nobody was like paying attention or wanted to have some type of interest. So I approached him and we started working on a project together and it ended up working out really great and this is why I'm in Romania today.
Cecilia Lihv:But he had an organization called Soccer Visa and he started the company to give undiscovered talent from majority North America, to give a pathway to them to go and play professional outside of the US, wow them to go and play professional outside of the U? S. And he asked if I wanted to join him because he had such large interest in building a youth club and really growing soccer in the area where we were that potentially could have been grown in other states as well, and we wanted to work with a nonprofit club to give parents who maybe cannot afford a lot for soccer, but just kind of give players a different type of pathway from when they were very young. It didn't work out. They didn't like it. We presented something that turned into a complete shit show.
Mia Voss:For them, right, and it sounds like to hearken back to your finance world too. Again, it's their kind of world, right? And so if you're coming in and presenting these new ideas and sort of riding the ship, and I'm sure people who are listening that have been involved what you said, too, about volunteering and those people that show up, they're not very satisfied in this, but they're coming up in this volunteer world and they're just a fucking pain in the ass, right.
Cecilia Lihv:I mean, it was just discussions. That was not necessary. So you're spending an hour and a half two hours listening to people that have no fucking idea what they're talking about.
Mia Voss:Just they want to hear their voice. It's one of those. This could have been an email.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, exactly, but at the same time. So I came in with this not corporate persona, but a more entrepreneurial persona where I'm just like I had run my own business prior. I have to find this like I've done a lot of different things. And, um, anyway, I told my business partner his name is Joe. I said how about we just start our own youth club in Connecticut? Why don't we take over the market? Why don't we just do it ourselves? And he said yeah, you want to do it with me, let's go.
Mia Voss:And I can see you went the traditional route and, again, like this is the breaking the glass ceiling as well, too, is we're going to try and go through. Okay, this is what the norm says of you know, we're going to present it, we think it's a great idea, we're so excited about it, and for them it's going to cut in on their, their time or their ego, or something like that, where they can't see the forest for the trees. This program and you saw me shaking my head, and two things. One, I don't have kids too, I don't know shit about sports, and even I'm excited about what you were just saying this program was of creating these opportunities and pathways that weren't available prior.
Cecilia Lihv:No, because it comes down to education. Right, who pays the bills for kids? It's us parents. So, whatever that amount is, you also have a responsibility to educate parents of what it looks like. What is your kid getting here? Okay, if you're 10 years old, in Europe it's not called soccer, it's called football. So in football, when you're 10 years old, there's a pathway, and in America, there is no pathway. So we sat down we said we're going to do this. We're going to create our own youth club, we're going to take over the market and we're going to tell them to shut up and we're going to just implement a system that is beneficial for kids at a young age that can grow into being in a completely different level. And we did. We became, from 2017 till COVID, the biggest youth club in Connecticut, with almost a thousand kids, and it was absolutely amazing. It was a beast.
Mia Voss:And what?
Cecilia Lihv:was it called?
Mia Voss:Soccer Visa FC Gotcha. I want people, I want people. And is that V I Z A Yep? Okay, correct, we'll put the links into that too. And that is just incredible. And I think this is a testament again, too, to the importance of equity in these spaces. Look at how Cecilia came in with her partner, joe, and the two of like you brought your energy, one as a mom and two in business, and that doesn't get a lot of play, right, if it's not? You know, if we don't look like a certain way in business, the idea isn't going to be heard. So I think that's really beautiful that you all were able to create something in what is a super competitive world.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, I mean, it's a saturated market. When it comes to kids, soccer is looked upon as a hobby, right? So in other places of the world it's the biggest sport, but it is a hobby, right. So in other places of the world it's the biggest sport, but it is a hobby. It is not looked upon as something serious. But we tried to really create a serious environment. Um, covet hit. We were like what the is going on? I remember march 13th. Um, the news were on and I'm like first of all, I got to sell off my stocks because this shit is going to hit the ceiling and I'm going to crash and I won't have any money. Was also then going through a divorce and I was like, shit, I need to get my-.
Mia Voss:The stakes were high.
Cecilia Lihv:The stakes were high and nobody knew what COVID was all about. I just read stories about oh, you have to wear masks. Now you have to close down your office.
Mia Voss:That date. It's so interesting. That was the same thing for us here in Colorado of March 9th to the 13th. I feel like those were people's sort of D-Day, like oh, this shit is serious. And then to be involved in something that involves a lot of people, crowds, kids carpooling, right. Oh forget it. I can't even imagine.
Cecilia Lihv:No, it was like you know. We had employees working for us full time. We had 42 coaches on staff. We built this big youth club, very customer service oriented, right. What do we do now? Parents had paid for things for the full year. What do we do? We have to give refunds. We have to create some type of do we exit the whole youth? Or what do we do now? Exit the whole youth, or what do we do now? Um, it was, uh, I would say about three, four months in limbo. Uh, for not just us, for a lot of companies, for a lot of people, and uh, having kids back sitting at home at the kitchen table. How do you work? I became a psychologist. I became a private chef, I became everything, just to take care of my kids. Educator, oh, you know, all of a sudden I'm doing high school math. I had no idea what the hell I was doing.
Mia Voss:They were better at it than we were, I suspect.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, so after COVID or during COVID, we had actually been brewing on something for a couple of years and we didn't really do it because, you know, sometimes you get stuck in your work and being an entrepreneur and being your own business owner, you just kind of focus on what's there. But we wanted to create our own professional club and a center for players working with adults and not children. So we decided this is crazy. I was at the time what? 40, 2020, it's five years ago.
Mia Voss:So I was 46, right, 46 years old, newly separated, newly into divorce, and let's just add, perimenopause was probably hitting in too Like just to always add in that element for any of us pretty much, from much.
Cecilia Lihv:That's a whole other topic, that's a whole other show.
Cecilia Lihv:It's a whole other show. I have stories to tell about that too. Okay, good, but I decided to pack up my life and my children not my oldest, but my at the time, not my oldest, but my at the time 11 year old and 16 year old Um, I sold everything and we moved our whole operation to Costa Rica. Um, it was the probably the best decision I've ever done in my life, and a lot of people are like are you fucking serious? What the hell are you doing? Right?
Mia Voss:And and now, by the way, everybody is super, super jealous.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, I mean it was the best decision. I still have a um uh storage unit in Connecticut. That's all I own. I don't I don't hold onto things. I'm sure that's some type of trauma from when I was a kid or something, I don't know. Um, but it was just a a time in my life and in our company where we're like we don't know what's going to happen. So you got to make a change and we moved to Costa Rica. We opened up a development center that exploded because nobody wanted to be in the U S for COVID. Everything was open in Costa Rica. You have the beaches, you have everything that is organically natural no shots, no vaccines, like everybody's very spiritually natural and believing that this is just going to pass, which it actually did.
Cecilia Lihv:And one day some guy came to us, like eight months into being in Costa Rica. He said, hey, do you want to buy our professional team? And we're like it's a little bit early in the plan that we have for our company, but should we do it? We looked at each other and we're like, yeah, yeah, sure, let's do it. And we're like, yeah, yeah, sure, let's do it. We started a whole new team, built a stadium, built a complex for players, built our own restaurant. Our clients that come through Soccer Visa come down to train there, traveling with players all over. It was really a dream come true. Was it easy? Hell, no.
Mia Voss:And I'm going to jump in and ask you this too, because I love this journey that you went through again. The COVID piece is just probably for everybody still like, even though it's now five years later, so it still makes us twitchy as well too. How did you feel, was your partner really helpful in that as well too, for you to be able to navigate again this world? You're creating something in a different country that it's again still sports related, and then also changing that up into different clientele, and then now you're talking about buying, buying a team and getting into that. How was that for you as far as bias or or what you faced in that piece as well, to as a woman again in this business negotiation type of world and creating this whole new business?
Cecilia Lihv:type of world and creating this whole new business. You know, I mean, my business partner has always been very supportive and so, like he's the face on the pitch, I'm kind of the brain in the back end and it's always been the way we've worked. And I'm blonde, don't speak Spanish, I'm in a Central American country, I'm the president of a professional team and an owner Definitely not easy and looked upon like who the hell is this chick? Like let's scam her of money. She is American, which I'm not, so we went through that whole phase in the beginning and then learning to navigate what's real, what's not real, who to trust, who not to trust. But to be in Central America in a male-dominated sport definitely not easy.
Mia Voss:But also that's such a great point and something I wouldn't know about because mine is here in the United States again in construction but I just wanted to point that out. It's a big distinction as well. Yeah, that out, that's, that's, it's really, it's a. It's a big distinction as well.
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, but for me, I looked at it as all right. If it's not something that they're used to seeing or being able to handle from their culture standpoint, I'm going to just embrace it. I'm going to become um I. I was in in Costa Rica, all of Costa Rica, first division, like all of football. I was the only female Um. So I looked at it as, hey, I'm setting history here. This is cool. Like I can add more to it with my knowledge of business. I can add more from a female perspective how to do things. And for me it was never an issue. I never looked at it as, oh shit, this is scary. I mean, it was always more like, wow, this is an amazing challenge for me. I actually enjoy it.
Mia Voss:That might be. I think that's a Gen X thing too. I keep going back to that. I think that's what we were trained as, more of the curiosity than anything, and I think it serves us well. It doesn't you know, sometimes, in different ways, we may put up with more than a younger generation your daughter's age, or even younger millennials. They have a different way of dealing with things, but I do think that's always served us well as far as the curiosity of like. All right, well, let's try this.
Mia Voss:Right yeah for sure, which I, which I love and I want to also talk about. So, then, where we wanted to mention about your immigrant experience as well, too, and how you're now not in the United States at all. You ended up going from Costa Rica now to Romania also took this big piece with you in this business.
Cecilia Lihv:Huge jump for us, because in this industry, whether you're a player or a sporting director or president organization, when opportunities come along you have to grab it. And we now took over a another professional team in Romania. A much bigger deal, history from 1921, a big political impact. And being in Romania, being a woman, is looked upon as most definitely very different as well being around men here, ego driven, they measure dick every single day. Everything's a sword fight pretty much, and it's you know, being in this industry.
Cecilia Lihv:You have to be in Europe. I'm sorry, like it's something for a lifestyle, I'd move back to Costa Rica tomorrow, but for business, this is where we need to be and I feel like sometimes we just have to take on those dog years to be able to reach a level. And we're here now. We've been in Romania for 15-16 months and learning every day to figure out things and navigate. My son lives here as well and he's learning another language, which amazing. But being in Europe, I am one out of five females owning my own professional men's soccer team, which is I don't know why.
Mia Voss:Yes, right, good point. You don't know why. Why is this not normalized? And I think what I love is that you are normalizing this. It's really tough to be in that position and not also feel as women, like we just want to sort with women. You know patriarchy is problematic, but a lot of times, what's what makes it more problematic are the women that go along with it, because they don't know any better, and so I love what I do and I don't see it as oh, I'm a woman.
Cecilia Lihv:There are times when I'm sitting in a meeting or when I'm walking out on the pitch and I'm seeing players, the language they speak I would never speak.
Mia Voss:You understand that's seen a lot from us because we're fighty.
Cecilia Lihv:Of course, but it's just the way. Now I'm also dealing with players who are 18 to 25, to 25 young men who are princesses. They think they are better than what they are sometimes, which is the truth. But you know, I believe that you have to work for what you're supposed to get in life, and I am working towards something that I enjoy. I love football, I love the competitiveness. I I will I will cringe up if players don't do what they're supposed to do, because I feel like it's. You have the whole world in front of you and you have an opportunity, so go for it. Um right, I don't see it as an I wouldn't say quote unquote issue as being a woman. I think it's, it's a challenge and it's.
Mia Voss:Yes, and I think the important piece about the offshoot of what you do it's not your purpose, but it's an offshoot of it is normalizing that they do need to have different representation, and then what you also present is representation for someone else. That's the biggest piece I think that people don't get and they just call it woke when we talk about diversity is that when you see somebody else who looks like you in that room, or your same gender or something along those lines, that's different than what you don't fit into, and I think that's that's really important as well too, and I we didn't touch on this, but you know we're also just talking about just men in sports, let alone what women in football. You know here in the States, you know a lot of the controversy that's surrounded women trying to get ahead, and the soccer world too. That's a whole.
Mia Voss:That's a whole other piece that I know you're, you're privy to and observe as well, right?
Cecilia Lihv:Yeah, I just don't understand. I get it in men's football in Europe. Okay, the money comes from men's football, so I understand that TV rights, commercials, ads, uh, brands, marketing and the sales it comes from men's football because of the popularity and how big it is. But then I look at the female part here in Europe, which is a growing aspect. But if you go back to the US and looking at it, it doesn't make sense why the national team of females, who have more publicity, more bringing in more sales, more tickets, more sponsorships, has a I mean not even a quarter of what the men make. And then you look at the men's national team and this makes me so upset and I can talk for days because I watched the game. Highlights of the game the US national team world qualifier now, for they played last night against Switzerland. They didn't have a one shot on goal, they lost 4-0. But they're putting so much money into the US men's national team. But then the girls, the ladies that actually have an audience, they're kind of forgotten about.
Mia Voss:And you know it's bad when even I know about it. I'm aware of that huge chasm in between and I had become aware a lot more too with basketball when you started. These stories started coming out in the last couple of years, especially with the Final Four and with college basketball and so forth. This huge difference in the treatment in the hotel rooms, in the availability of cars and buses and how they got to the place, the training rooms that they had. There's this big delta as well too, in that we're just ranting, we don't have a solution, but we're bringing airtime to this as well to be aware of it. It's really really tough to see that difference, but I appreciate that, your awareness that you're bringing to it, because I think when you're bringing the equity to the teams that you work with as well, that's going to give the men and the young men that you're working with the understanding there needs to be more of an across the board that it's just not them on the pitch, they're not the only teams that are out there.
Cecilia Lihv:No, and it's just at the end of the day. This industry is a big business, huge business, and I think that people forget that there are men and women playing the sport. So don't pay attention to just one thing, and especially in a nation that's so big as the US, because in Europe where, okay, the girls it's a growing, growing, growing channel of the industry, so they're paying attention to it differently and it's becoming more of a very clear subject to discuss.
Mia Voss:Agree as well too, and I was just looking up we've had some controversy here in Denver. Now we have the Denver National Women's Soccer League has been as awarded Denver the league 16th franchise, so we have a new franchise of women's soccer here in Denver, and I got to tell you the the hurt feelings that I saw of delicate men that were just butthurt about this new team. It was incredible, and you know, as as is, the best way to handle these people is just to laugh at them, which I really enjoy as well too. It's just more like shut up, right, because they are just kicking ass here in Colorado. It's pretty exciting.
Cecilia Lihv:No, I think it's amazing, it's, it's. You need to just go big or go home and show that there's a demand for it. You can't just go back in the day and look at his history of oh, there's a demand for men's this, or there's a demand for men's that. You have to look at the equality of okay, here's women, here's men, here's boys, here are girls.
Mia Voss:Right, because I think the biggest piece, that's the downside to it, is because it is all you just mentioned that too, the demand for it here, the demand for it there, which is meaning follow the money right Of course, and that's what you're mentioning before as well too.
Mia Voss:So that's late stage capitalism at its finest as well, which really does kind of undo a lot of the good, but I think we're working towards that. I want to ask you one more thing, and then we're going to wrap up, because we did talk about you know more of your perspective and you're sort of balancing all these worlds of being from you grew up in.
Mia Voss:You said Sweden and Sweden then moved to the United States. So have you know, you know the immigrant experience. You know, of course, what's going on here in the States. As of today it's quite dire. And then now to be back in another country. So you're kind of balancing of this. They're looking to you where you are, from the American experience, right Of like hey, what's your take on what's going on over in the States?
Cecilia Lihv:My first thought of when I'm opening up my news and seeing what's going on. I'm so sad for the immigrants because I was an immigrant. I came there to be a cleaning lady. I cleaned for people.
Cecilia Lihv:I you nanny, you did a nanny, I nannyied, I took care of the kids dog sitting just to make a living and start somewhere, which led me to have a great career. I had my own business for a very long time, and this is what every immigrant does when they come to America. They're being given a chance that they work really hard, for Nothing is given. The red carpet is not rolled out. You have to kind of roll it out yourself and walk on it proudly day after day, and I think it's something that we forget. Now I I don't agree with what's going on, obviously because I am an immigrant. I have kids, a child living in the US, so I do see how nervous she gets about certain things. Let's just be humans for one second.
Cecilia Lihv:America also was created by immigrants back in the day, day, day, day, back back back. So why are we not humanizing the situation and looking at it? It's one thing if you want to get rid of all the I don't know gangbangers and all the criminals and kick them out, but if you have I'll just speak for myself. I have hired cleaning ladies from Colombia, from Mexico, from Guatemala. I have had people work for me that came as immigrants got their papers or waiting for their papers. They're not bad people.
Mia Voss:They're looking for the dream, like you were as well, too.
Cecilia Lihv:Exactly.
Mia Voss:And we said something before we hit record, which is really interesting too that we've all broken laws and that and I think that's the biggest part, and I'm going to say it's the Republicans, and certainly MAGA, making sure that we just see people as humans and not commoditize them. If I'm saying that, right of oh gosh, if we get rid of all of them, we're not going to have people in the fields or in construction and it greatly affects my industry as well too of people that are being threatened, but I think it's also just seeing people as as human beings, and I love too.
Mia Voss:What a lot of people have forgotten is that we are also sitting on a shit ton of stolen land, like all of it that we originally built America on from indigenous people. So the irony is not lost on me that people are sort of forgetting that they feel like they're the um, the, the people that lived there.
Cecilia Lihv:Nobody speaks about that, though Nobody speaks about the reality and nobody really can grasp like, yeah, we have all done illegal shit. I'm sorry we have, and even Mr President himself has done a lot of illegal shit More than most of us have.
Mia Voss:Exactly we're talking about, you know. Oh, I forgot to pay a ticket or I did a U-turn, or you know what is it? You know the watch movies that we shouldn't online, or something. Yeah, like we've downloaded movies that are illegal Music, like I used to steal music from Napster so many times online, or something. Yeah.
Cecilia Lihv:Like we've. We've downloaded movies that are illegal music, Like I used to steal music from Napster so many times like I could have gone to jail for that shit, but we all have done things that benefited us for the time being, so we can grow as human beings and we can become better and give our kids something or give back to the community. So you know, looking at all this news where these police officers are walking into fucking fifth grade graduations, grabbing parents, while the kids are up on stage singing and they don't know if they're going to see them anymore.
Mia Voss:It is real. And that's again where that whole thing of like people are. Well, like they're trying to say, well, they did something, it's not that. Again, these are all civil things. They're actually going to people that are going like showing up for their not court dates but for their their dates and saying, oh, I'm going to continue my paperwork and snagging them from there before they even get to go to the court.
Mia Voss:And I mean, let's face it, I think, from what I understand, it is much more difficult to actually get through the process than when you came to this country. So they're trying to do the right thing and and everything is being demonized. So and I appreciate what you said, too, of just making it, about being human beings and so, I think, continuing to speak up and right before we hit record again, we hadn't spoken before. We just got connected on Instagram and so we sort of had to check in and be like all right, how are you guys feeling over there? What the fuck is going on over there? I'm like, yes, that's how we're feeling over here too.
Cecilia Lihv:No, and I feel for you guys. I really do feel for you guys. Yeah, um, as Americans born and raised there, as um immigrants that maybe came over years ago. I mean, I was 18 and, you know, came into Newark airport with two suitcases and was like wow, look at this this is it.
Mia Voss:This is what it's like in the movies.
Cecilia Lihv:Holy shit, I came from little small Sweden, yeah, you don't have um a lot of at the time at least, a lot of immigrants. So I'm like okay, but I like this.
Mia Voss:And now, even if you are born and raised in America but you have parents from Central and South America, you are being targeted for no reason Right, and I'm sure you probably heard about this, and then we're going to finish up the fuck around and find out phase that many people are also finding out. They're like oh, I didn't think it was going to be us, we thought it was going to be that. It's the otherism and that is the argument. And I've really cut a lot of people out of my life because I just the bottom line. If you voted for Donald Trump, you voted for yourself. You do not care about anything else except for yourself, selfish they voted for selfish.
Mia Voss:You voted for selfish, and unfortunately, we're all having the day and the time that they voted for, but we're going to continue to speak out. So well, listen, I'm going to have all of your links in the show notes as well, too, and if you want to tell everybody where we can get in touch with you or where we should go to immediately to find out more about what you do, so obviously my company Soccer Visa.
Cecilia Lihv:We have a big following on Instagram and Facebook, youtube. We have some new channels coming out as well that we're working on. We love to speak up as well and it's something we've been brewing on and we're trying to get things going. Obviously, my own Instagram. I try to do as much as I can to kind of get things out there as a single mom, entrepreneur, a female in a male dominated industry and kind of a grinder, you know.
Mia Voss:Doing all the things. Something's always cooking with you, I can tell, and I love that. Yeah, all right, everybody, thank you for tuning in. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks for tuning in. You can check out the show notes and guest links at shit. We don't talk about podcastcom. If you like this episode, please subscribe and give it a like or leave a review, especially if it's a good one. See you next time, bye, bye.