Voices for Voices®

Connecting Minds and Hearts for Mental Wellness | Episode 189

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 189

Share episode

Connecting Minds and Hearts for Mental Wellness | Episode 189

MERCHANDISE SHOP: voices-for-voices.org/3QnokLU
SUPPORT THE VOICES FOR VOICES® TV SHOW AND PODCAST
https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/supporter

Ever wondered how a small organization from Northeast Ohio managed to extend its reach to 52 countries and 555 cities, spreading the crucial message of mental health awareness? Discover the journey of Voices for Voices®, led by Founder and Executive Director Justin Alan Hayes, as he shares the trials and triumphs behind their global outreach. This episode highlights how Justin's personal experiences with major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, and ADD have shaped the essence of their TV show and podcast. By transitioning from scripted content to a more spontaneous delivery, Justin and his team have fostered deeper audience engagement, proving that authenticity resonates far beyond any scripted words.

Join us as we tackle the challenges and misconceptions surrounding mental health advocacy. Despite limited resources and occasional criticism, our commitment to providing an honest platform for mental health discussions remains unwavering. Justin reflects on the emotional toll and effort required to create content that truly resonates with people worldwide, emphasizing the importance of transparency and the power of personal stories. With heartfelt gratitude for the unwavering support from family and colleagues, we continue to empower mental health advocacy, knowing that even helping just one person makes all the difference. Tune in to explore how we're shaping the conversation on mental health and supporting individuals around the globe.

This episode centers around the intricate dynamics of mental health advocacy and the personal experiences that shape this essential work. Justin shares insights on navigating mental health challenges, the financial constraints of advocacy, and the importance of transparency in fostering understanding.

• Discussing the significance of mental health advocacy
• Addressing criticism surrounding the organization’s work
• Exploring the financial challenges faced by non-profits
• Emphasizing transparency in sharing personal experiences
• Striving for quality and engagement in content creation
• Encouraging a collective approach to mental well-being

Give us a big thumbs up, like, share, comment, and we love you all.

Chapter Markers

0:03 Voices for Voices® TV Show & Podcast

12:59 Empowering Mental Health Advocacy Organization

Join us by subscribing!
-
-Support Voices for Voices®: https://venmo.com/u/voicesforvoices or at https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/supporter
- Learn more about Voices for Voices®: linktr.ee/Voicesforvoices

#mentalwellness #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #wellbeing #selfcare #mindfulness #mentalhealth #healthymindhealthybody #connectingminds #connectinghearts #socialimpact #socialchange #community #empowerment #inspiration 

Support the show

Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. As your host, I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices. Thank you for joining us. If you can give us a big thumbs up, follow, like, share, we would really appreciate that. And so we'll continue on the path of bringing this show, bringing this podcast, to you Episode after episode after episode after episode.

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. We love seeing our faces and our voices on media. 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. And we know, we know people are tuning in from all over the world. Uh, we're now 50, 52 countries out 50, 52 countries and I double-checked us 555 cities across the world. 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. 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. 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. And so when we talk about the show, we don't have the funds to be able. We don't have the dollars. We don't whatever terminology you understand. More, we don't have dollars to pay staff. We don't. 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. 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. Again, close to the order of 100. I mean, we know the digital side of things With phones and computers and everything. 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. There's nothing that is a handout, that's a freebie, and so I didn't want to pay extra.

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. This has to do with mental health. I I get asked well, how does every single show relate to mental health? 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? I don't know this organization. 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. Well, and I have to say it because the message is not getting out. 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. Those are diagnoses. 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. I'm living it every single day.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So don't you dare I don't care who you are say or comment that well, voices for Voices. You know they got this show, they got all these episodes. They didn't mention mental health. By the mere fact of the show existing is mental health, is mental illness. 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. It's a form of verbal abuse. So, friend, family colleague, former co-worker, guests, previous guests, future guests, friends, thinking about donating, thinking about sponsoring, this is for everybody, okay. 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.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Outside the studio to YouTube and Rumble, et cetera. You know, we had a teleprompter, we always have a teleprompter, we still have it. I just don't use it anymore because I was finding that number one. 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. 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. We continue to just refine things here and there.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I talked a little bit about the back end or a lot about the back end on a previous episode. Little bit about the back end or a lot about the back end on a previous episode. 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. 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. 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. It just this doesn't help things. 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. That's the premiere, but it's also aired three or four times additionally to that.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So when somebody says, oh, you're not helping people, and what are you? What exactly are you doing? You know, why are you on? Why are you on the computer all the time? Why aren't you trying to get better? And what are you doing to get better? 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. 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.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Organizationing Voices for Voices is exactly what happens on every single show. 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. 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. Again, that's just the audio part. We originally above that on the, the video, and then I say the tv, tv side of things and subscribers, that's all.

Justin Alan Hayes:

We're reaching a lot of people. 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. You already have life figured out. You can flip that switch on and off. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. He says you know, we're getting through, we're, we're getting through some stuff. You know. He says, and one of the times I'll swear you know we're. You know we're all going through some shit. We are every single one of us, whether you want to believe it or not, whether you want to address it or not.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Do you have to go to therapy? No, am I saying you have to? No, am I saying you have to take medication? No, I'm sharing our guests' stories and their voices and I'm sharing mine as well. 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? What's all this for? They don't pretend to understand what everybody else does for their job. I just don't pretend to understand all that. 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.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I believe in this organization, voices for Voices. 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. And and so on. Some, somebody, anybody, wants to come at the organization, no matter how near or far, and they don't want. 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. And there's only so much time in a day, aren't hard? Don't take a lot of time for our, for every show we have. 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. 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. 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.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So who's gonna do that work? Mm-hmm, who's gonna do it? Who are we gonna? Who are we gonna pay with with little to no donations? Who's gonna do it? Well, we don't. We don't have to. Yeah, right, we don't have to. And I haven't even gotten into the blog. We're several episodes behind on the blog, so every episode as a blog post. That did we upload to our website, voices for voices org. 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.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So that's another piece. What's a blog? A blog has words in it. Who's going to write those words? Or who's going to pay for the software to help give a little bit of AI help? I'm looking to the sides, I'm looking behind, and none of that's getting done without me.

Justin Alan Hayes:

I started this organization. I took it from an event once a year to we're going to hit. We're going to hit. Let me work. We're very close to 200 episodes, but we're going to hit 300 by the end of 2025.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So go ahead, come at me, come at us as an organization. Tell us how we're not helping people. Tell us that our work doesn't matter. 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. Go ahead y'all. 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. That's why you've been coming out with us. So tune off our show, because this isn't for you.

Justin Alan Hayes:

We're in the business of helping people and so that's what we're doing. 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. There's only so much time in a day, so do I work on a website for an hour? Do I spend an hour working on a blog for one of our past episodes? Do I not review prior to see if we have better descriptions and titles and thumbnails and hashtags and keywords? 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.

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. That's just where we're at, know, where we're trying to help people at the end of the day. 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. Voices for Voices isn't for you. 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. So we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Thank you for joining us. Give us a big thumbs up like share, comment, and we love you all.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Justin Alan Hayes

Host