Latest / Voices for Voices® / Connecting Minds and Hearts for Mental Wellness | Episode 189

Transcript

Connecting Minds and Hearts for Mental Wellness | Episode 189 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:03
  Justin Alan Hayes: Welcome to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 0:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: As your host, I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices.
• 0:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us.
• 0:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: If you can give us a big thumbs up, follow, like, share, we would really appreciate that.
• 0:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: And so we'll continue on the path of bringing this show, bringing this podcast, to you Episode after episode after episode after episode.
• 0:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: The work that we do as an organization probably isn't all that different than other organizations, or it may seem that way, and they seem like we're media hungry.
• 1:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: We love seeing our faces and our voices on media.
• 1:25
  Justin Alan Hayes: As a show, really, it's coming to you whether you're watching on video or you're listening on the audio version, the podcast, or maybe you're checking out our tv show podcast transcript.
• 1:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: And we know, we know people are tuning in from all over the world.
• 1:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: Uh, we're now 50, 52 countries out 50, 52 countries and I double-checked us 555 cities across the world.
• 2:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: Obviously, being a Northeast Ohio organization, it just blows us away at the support from following, downloading, liking, sharing, thumbs up, commenting that we've gotten.
• 2:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: It really is, and that's just the audio podcast part, the TV show portion, the video portion, the Rumble and the YouTube, the other platforms even.
• 3:02
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean go to voicesforvoicesorg, go up to what we do, and then you can even check out our podcast through our very own website.
• 3:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: And so when we talk about the show, we don't have the funds to be able.
• 3:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: We don't have the dollars.
• 3:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: We don't whatever terminology you understand.
• 3:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: More, we don't have dollars to pay staff.
• 3:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: We don't.
• 3:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: And you've heard me over and over talk about how majority, like well over 95%, of the funds that are being used to purchase a camera, to purchase software that helps us do things on the back end, that we're able to optimize our description, our title for every episode, our hashtags, our keywords, our thumbnails, that we can get our score closer to 100 instead of performing at 40, 50 out of 100.
• 4:30
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because when we do that and we perform at that low level, that basically just takes our work and just throws it in a trash can because it's not being shown to very many people.
• 4:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: Again, close to the order of 100.
• 4:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean, we know the digital side of things With phones and computers and everything.
• 5:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's all run on algorithms and the algorithms that I've neglected for a really long time because I didn't want to pay for additional software, because we have to pay for everything.
• 5:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: There's nothing that is a handout, that's a freebie, and so I didn't want to pay extra.
• 5:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: I was like I was thinking, well, well, here's what the, I'll just make up the title and, and then the description I'll make up and and I just wrote it have a great strategy around it and it's in much better shape now than it has been and it was, you know, at the, at the very beginning of when we were coming to you, uh, just on the audio, the podcast side of things, that we weren't in the tv studio, we weren't coming to you on YouTube and Rumble and we weren't coming to you on TikTok and filming some content related to true crime.
• 6:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: This has to do with mental health.
• 6:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: I I get asked well, how does every single show relate to mental health?
• 6:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because an individual may, for one reason or another, select a show and because the words mental health aren't uttered in that particular episode, then well, why?
• 6:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: I don't know this organization.
• 6:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: They're talking about mental health, but I just I listened, or I watched this particular episode and they didn't say anything about mental health, or they didn't go really in depth about it.
• 6:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: Well, and I have to say it because the message is not getting out.
• 7:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: I have, at the very instant of filming of this particular episode of our TV show and podcast, I have major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, adhd, add those take it to the bank.
• 7:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: Those are diagnoses.
• 7:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: This isn't me making it up, this isn't me trying or us trying to cash in as an organization on one of the hot topics of mental health and mental illness.
• 7:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm living it every single day.
• 7:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: So don't you dare I don't care who you are say or comment that well, voices for Voices.
• 8:02
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know they got this show, they got all these episodes.
• 8:05
  Justin Alan Hayes: They didn't mention mental health.
• 8:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: By the mere fact of the show existing is mental health, is mental illness.
• 8:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: So that's something I've been waiting I don't know why to get that off my chest because it is very, very condescending, very negative.
• 8:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's a form of verbal abuse.
• 8:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, friend, family colleague, former co-worker, guests, previous guests, future guests, friends, thinking about donating, thinking about sponsoring, this is for everybody, okay.
• 9:02
  Justin Alan Hayes: So no, I'm not going to say in every single episode the specific words of mental health, mental illness, because it takes away from the content that we want to bring to you At the very beginning, when we kicked off this show in a TV studio and really even thought about expanding it outside the studio to YouTube and Rumble, etc.
• 9:37
  Justin Alan Hayes: Outside the studio to YouTube and Rumble, et cetera.
• 9:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know, we had a teleprompter, we always have a teleprompter, we still have it.
• 9:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: I just don't use it anymore because I was finding that number one.
• 9:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: That was one of the metrics where people were turning away from it after 30 seconds a minute and so that was one indication of, hey, but people are turning off before we've been getting to the major part of the content that we're bringing for a particular episode.
• 10:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: Secondly, it takes time and we're finding anywhere from four to six minutes out of a 30-minute episode, and at the very beginning we were having some episodes where an hour and so we've really refined things over that, say, episode over episode.
• 10:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: We continue to just refine things here and there.
• 10:52
  Justin Alan Hayes: I talked a little bit about the back end or a lot about the back end on a previous episode.
• 10:56
  Justin Alan Hayes: Little bit about the back end or a lot about the back end on a previous episode.
• 10:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: And that goes out to all the haters, all the people that are saying that you know that our organization and me specifically, that I'm lazy, that all you do is sit on the computer that voices for voices, that we're not helping people, that you're not trying to get better.
• 11:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: Justin, if those words were spoken to you, I think you might have a little bit of a a little bit of feedback from from that.
• 11:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I, yeah, I have feedback and I have really reduced my amount of swearing and and the like, like, for a lot of reasons.
• 12:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: It just this doesn't help things.
• 12:04
  Justin Alan Hayes: So again, for everybody out there that again may see our organization, they see, you know the digital footprint we have from our social media, from our audio platforms, from our video, from our TV posts, our episodes that go through the TV studio and are brought to quite a lot of people every week, and each of our episodes on the Wednesday comes out.
• 12:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: That's the premiere, but it's also aired three or four times additionally to that.
• 12:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: So when somebody says, oh, you're not helping people, and what are you?
• 13:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: What exactly are you doing?
• 13:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know, why are you on?
• 13:10
  Justin Alan Hayes: Why are you on the computer all the time?
• 13:13
  Justin Alan Hayes: Why aren't you trying to get better?
• 13:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: And what are you doing to get better?
• 13:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: And you're using your mental health, mental illness, as a crutch, as an excuse for behavior and actions, inactions, and I'm the first to come out and say that I wish it wasn't the case, I wish I didn't have the mental, or that I don't have the mental illnesses that I do.
• 13:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: I wish I didn't have to take medication, I wish I didn't have to go to therapy, I wish I didn't have to explain myself so much on our shows, but for some out there and you know who you are I got to keep bringing it up because we're not going to be silenced as an organization.
• 14:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: Organizationing Voices for Voices is exactly what happens on every single show.
• 14:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: We have every single episode episode and I am, I think, as transparent as can be about my life, about struggles, about having hard times, about being afraid and what makes me afraid and what makes me, you know, nervous.
• 15:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: And talking about the finances side of things, it takes to bring a show from filming to coming and fruition to where you're watching or you're listening, and so I'm not just here doing this for no reason, I know, because of feedback of how many countries and cities.
• 15:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: Again, that's just the audio part.
• 15:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: We originally above that on the, the video, and then I say the tv, tv side of things and subscribers, that's all.
• 16:02
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're reaching a lot of people.
• 16:03
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I know there's somebody that we have reached or we are reaching on this particular episode, that you may be going through a lot, of, a lot of things that I'm going through or I have gone through, or maybe just one thing, or maybe you know somebody that is acting in a particular way, that this is for you, because everybody else knows, right, the rest of you.
• 16:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: You already have life figured out.
• 16:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: You can flip that switch on and off.
• 16:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: So this episode, and maybe our organization, maybe this show and podcast, maybe this isn't for you, because this is raw in the trenches, sharing a voice for a voice.
• 17:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm sharing through my voice, my voice inside of me, my voice inside of me of things that a lot of people know, people get offended or I don't know, but I'm super, super transparent.
• 17:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: Just look at our Voices for Voices, tiktok, and you'll see some added content there, in addition to the transparency through our show, and we're reaching a lot of people.
• 18:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: I didn't realize the whole TikTok phenomena and we don't have a million subscribers, we don't have millions of followers, and we would love to have that.
• 18:29
  Justin Alan Hayes: However, and we would love to have that, however, if we're able to help one person and that's you, or you're able to touch somebody's life and say, look, there's somebody who's going through life, and I mean I give another shout out to my brother and helping others, life Warrior United, mr Mark McAdams, dallas, texas.
• 19:03
  Justin Alan Hayes: He says you know, we're getting through, we're, we're getting through some stuff.
• 19:13
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know.
• 19:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: He says, and one of the times I'll swear you know we're.
• 19:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know we're all going through some shit.
• 19:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: We are every single one of us, whether you want to believe it or not, whether you want to address it or not.
• 19:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: Do you have to go to therapy?
• 19:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: No, am I saying you have to?
• 19:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: No, am I saying you have to take medication?
• 19:36
  Justin Alan Hayes: No, I'm sharing our guests' stories and their voices and I'm sharing mine as well.
• 19:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: So these are things that I have, I've had to and I continue to have to battle every single day All the thoughts in my head of you know what?
• 20:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: What's all this for?
• 20:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: They don't pretend to understand what everybody else does for their job.
• 20:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: I just don't pretend to understand all that.
• 20:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I have a real hard time, an emotional hard time, when somebody who doesn't want to listen, doesn't want to hear the mechanics behind the scenes that are going on, to maybe shed a lot of light on some actions and it's hard I mean this is hard for me to even talk about and talk through.
• 21:36
  Justin Alan Hayes: I believe in this organization, voices for Voices.
• 21:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: My mom, my dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, my nephews, my aunt and uncle, a lot of very, very nice individuals who the only reason they may not even know Voices for Voices is because my dad passed last March 1st in 2024.
• 22:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: And and so on.
• 22:34
  Justin Alan Hayes: Some, somebody, anybody, wants to come at the organization, no matter how near or far, and they don't want.
• 22:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: They don't want to hear all, the, all the different obstacles, all the different little things that get stacked upon each other like dominoes and they each have to get done.
• 23:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: And there's only so much time in a day, aren't hard?
• 23:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: Don't take a lot of time for our, for every show we have.
• 23:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: And then when we tweak things, like when we're finding out that we could have a better description, a better, better hashtags, better title, better thumbnail for our shows, then we have to go all the way back through all the shows we had.
• 23:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because I don't want to, not just me, but our organization, we don't want to just have the best title, description, thumbnail, hashtags, keywords for just the latest episode.
• 24:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: No, we want to go all the way back, because that's what we do and we take every episode seriously and we want to treat them all the same in that respect where we want all the scores between 0 to 100 to be as close to 100 from the very first episode to the very latest episode.
• 24:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: So who's gonna do that work?
• 24:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: Mm-hmm, who's gonna do it?
• 24:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: Who are we gonna?
• 24:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: Who are we gonna pay with with little to no donations?
• 25:04
  Justin Alan Hayes: Who's gonna do it?
• 25:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: Well, we don't.
• 25:11
  Justin Alan Hayes: We don't have to.
• 25:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, right, we don't have to.
• 25:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: And I haven't even gotten into the blog.
• 25:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're several episodes behind on the blog, so every episode as a blog post.
• 25:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: That did we upload to our website, voices for voices org.
• 25:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: You'll go to what we do and then you'll see blog and blog posts and you'll be able to check them all out, all the ones we have.
• 25:45
  Justin Alan Hayes: So that's another piece.
• 25:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: What's a blog?
• 25:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: A blog has words in it.
• 25:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: Who's going to write those words?
• 25:52
  Justin Alan Hayes: Or who's going to pay for the software to help give a little bit of AI help?
• 26:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm looking to the sides, I'm looking behind, and none of that's getting done without me.
• 26:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: I started this organization.
• 26:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: I took it from an event once a year to we're going to hit.
• 26:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're going to hit.
• 26:29
  Justin Alan Hayes: Let me work.
• 26:30
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're very close to 200 episodes, but we're going to hit 300 by the end of 2025.
• 26:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: So go ahead, come at me, come at us as an organization.
• 26:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: Tell us how we're not helping people.
• 26:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: Tell us that our work doesn't matter.
• 26:54
  Justin Alan Hayes: Tell us how we're not trying, that we're not trying to get better, that we're using our mental health, mental illness Diagnoses and visits and medication all that as a crutch.
• 27:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: Go ahead y'all.
• 27:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: Don't say y'all, but there's a lot, of a lot of you out there, but there's a lot of you out there.
• 27:31
  Justin Alan Hayes: That's why you've been coming out with us.
• 27:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: So tune off our show, because this isn't for you.
• 27:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're in the business of helping people and so that's what we're doing.
• 27:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're doing the best we can with the amount of money, as small as it is, and trying to again do the best we can.
• 28:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: There's only so much time in a day, so do I work on a website for an hour?
• 28:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: Do I spend an hour working on a blog for one of our past episodes?
• 28:25
  Justin Alan Hayes: Do I not review prior to see if we have better descriptions and titles and thumbnails and hashtags and keywords?
• 28:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: Again, it would be great to have the financial support to be able to have the staff interns to be able to do that, but we can't right now.
• 28:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: So what you see is what you get and, yeah, I think there are some things that are a little bit clunky, and that's just.
• 29:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: That's just where we're at, know, where we're trying to help people at the end of the day.
• 29:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: But if you don't want to help yourself or you don't want to get deep enough to see intricacies in some of the, some of the uh, what can be considered administrative busy work that goes into having the organization, then this isn't for you.
• 29:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: Voices for Voices isn't for you.
• 29:51
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's for people that want to help others, and we're going to help 3 billion over the course of my lifetime and beyond.
• 29:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: So we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast.
• 30:04
  Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us.
• 30:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: Give us a big thumbs up like share, comment, and we love you all.