HI! I'M SABAH.

I’m a strategic advisor, facilitator, and storyteller who creates group experiences offering insight, empathy, and connection to build stronger leaders, teams, and communities.

As an immigrant who’s lived in and between four countries with vastly different cultures while speaking three different languages, I have grappled with the question of connection and belonging for years.

I have worked as an automotive design engineer, strategy consultant, marketing executive, brand & communications strategist, social advocate, and community volunteer across public and private sectors, industries, and organizations big and small.

My studies include an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, a bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a bilingual French-English diploma from J.S. Woodsworth Secondary School in Canada.

Over the past three decades, these varied life, work, and academic experiences have revealed a common yet troubling pattern: in the name of priorities and efficiencies, people routinely neglect to build empathy, understanding, and connection.

I do my work because I believe that deeper, intentional engagement with oneself and one another creates better relationships, group dynamics, and outcomes.

Sabah Blue Joda Portrait_edited_edited.jpg

CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE MY WORK

PURPOSE

If you don’t know where you’re going it’s tough to get there. This may seem obvious yet leaders and teams often overlook explicit alignment on purpose believing it's self-evident. Without this understanding however, conflict and disappointment become more likely down the line.

VALUES

Values have a bad rep. If at all they exist, most take the form of universal platitudes, then get dismissed as useless. Values that work have specificity and reflect choices we would make despite their costs. They clarify purpose, build cohesion, and rationalize tough decisions. Meaningful, actionable values benefit both people and organizations.

PERSPECTIVE

I was born in Canada and raised by Indian immigrants whose language, food, dress, and faith differed from the norm. Later, I came to the US as an immigrant, and at M.I.T. and Ford, as one of a handful of women engineers. These experiences tuned me into the notion of belonging and the need to welcome people in.

DIGNITY

For almost two decades, I carried a 2x3” plastic card titled ‘Alien Registration Card’ — also known as a green card —in my wallet. I’d read it and think alien is a terrible label for humans, and these people need better marketers. It made me aware of ways, big and small, that we assert and rob humans of their dignity.

PROXIMITY

Time spent up close with people very different from me has incalculably enriched my life. Lodging with locals —sometimes strangers— during travels, holidays celebrated with friends of different faiths, or, more recently, work abroad in refugee camps, have served as a steady reminder that one’s truth is just that: one of many truths.

WORDS

Words matter. They connect us to each other and allow us to get stuff done. Yet communication is nuanced, tough to master, and rarely taught, so few of us — regardless of role or experience — learn this ‘soft skill’ well. We assume that if we can talk or write, we’re set. In reality, communication that’s ‘good enough’ often isn’t.

SOCIAL IMPACT

I left the corporate world to serve populations I cared for and began a consultancy for people-friendly organizations. Then, with eight Stanford colleagues, I co-founded a racial justice initiative that creates learning opportunities for business leaders around the world, organizes philanthropic action, and spun off a housing equity start-up.

COLLABORATION

A collaborative culture makes really hard work way easier. I learned this at M.I.T. It still took some grit and tears to earn my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering— I came close to quitting a few times —but I stuck it through because of my peers: we held each other up through the ride. And that made all the difference.

BEAUTY

From language, music, and art, I learned two lasting lessons. One: beauty goes beyond pleasing aesthetics or vibes. It’s a tool for meaning-making, motivation, and connection. Two: beauty isn’t the exclusive property of a select few. It exists everywhere, manifesting once we discover how to see.

PEACE

Salaam means 'peace' in Arabic and is the greeting used in my community. While growing up, I felt ambivalence for the word; it was just another marker of my difference. Now, I appreciate its suggestion that to every new meeting, we can show up bringing this positive intention.

CONNECTION

I grew up with a profound sense of connection at home in Canada, with family in India, and classmates in college. As an adult, away from friends and family and at work where deeper connections were less likely, I felt a nagging isolation which led me to wonder: how might people improve their daily living through better interpersonal exchanges?

STORIES

Turns out, story sharing is a fun, relatively easy way to improve connection. I learned the power of stories early on in English class — my favorite subject in school — and later as a strategy consultant and marketer. People revere data as the best way to persuade and create trust, but stories sway hearts and minds way more than numbers. Give it a go. You’ll see.