Voices for Voices®

What Happens When Passion Meets Sacrifice? (Ep 275)

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 275

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What Happens When Passion Meets Sacrifice? (Ep 275)

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Every day, across endless screens and social feeds, we're bombarded with success metrics, engagement rates, and the constant pressure to prove our impact. But what happens when the numbers don't reflect the difference you're truly making? How do you persist when validation seems distant?

Having surpassed 270 episodes at Voices for VoicesⓇ, I've learned that meaningful change often happens invisibly. Mental health struggles, trauma recovery, and personal transformation rarely announce themselves in analytics reports. They're quiet revolutions happening in living rooms, car rides, and late-night listening sessions where someone finally hears: "You're not alone."

This journey has taught me that four elements sustain purposeful work: passion that burns bright enough to illuminate difficult paths; perseverance that stands tall when results disappoint; inner peace that whispers "this matters" when external validation falls silent; and sacrifice—the willingness to do the unglamorous administrative work that few see but everyone benefits from.

The road to 250+ episodes wasn't mapped with constant encouragement. There were moments of questioning, wondering if our efforts to help billions were merely ambitious fantasies. Yet each time someone shared how an episode touched them, how a discussion made them feel understood in their mental health challenges for the first time, it confirmed what inner peace had already known—that vulnerability creates connection, and connection creates healing.

As we continue toward our goal of 300 episodes by the end of 2025, I invite you to reflect on your own journey. What difference are you making that might not show up in metrics? Where might your voice be needed, even if the audience seems silent? Join our community of imperfect, authentic voices making a difference one conversation at a time. Subscribe, share, and become part of our mission to help 3 billion people find understanding, resources, and hope.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Support Request

3:00 Making a Difference Without Seeing Results

7:15 Passion, Perseverance, and Inner Peace

14:50 The Power of Sacrifice

22:00 Celebrating Milestones and Future Goals

27:50 Embracing Imperfection and Sharing Struggles

#PassionAndSacrifice #ChaseYourDreams #MotivationMonday #InspiredLiving #LifeChoices #SacrificeForSuccess #PursueYourPassion #OvercomingObstacles #PersonalGrowthJourney #MindsetMatters #DedicationAndDrive #SuccessMindset #FindingBalanceInLife #BuildingResilience #PurposeDrivenLife #TikTok #Instagram #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion

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Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder of Voices for V<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-emoji: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Ⓡ</span> Alan Hayes. Thank you for joining us on this episode, as well as our over 270 other episodes in the Voices for Voices catalog vault, and we can't do this without you. We are making a big difference in the United States and across the world. We're helping a lot of people and it's thanks to you, thanks to your help, thanks to your support. If you can give us a big thumbs up, subscribe, like, share, comment all those good things. Those are free, and we would greatly appreciate that. We do have a very big goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, and we can't do that alone. We need your help and pass this show on to friends, family, colleagues, and, again, the best way you can do that is give us a thumbs up like, share, follow, subscribe all those things that are free. Voices for Voices is also a 501c3 charity, so we do accept donations, no matter how small or how big, and you can do that by going over to Venmo and typing in Voices, the number four, and then Voices, and then you'll see the. You should see the purple hands and that way you'll know that it's us. And you can also head over to voices4voicesorg with the URL Voices4, with this 4 being the letters F-O-R-4. So Venmo is Voices4, voices and URL where you can make a donation. Keep up to date with happenings. Voices4voices a donation. Keep up to date with happenings. Voices for Voices. If you missed the show and not able to get to one of your favorite platforms, you can still find all those episodes on our website as well as, if you're able to and again, totally up to you, if you're able to donate monetarily. That is voices F-O-R. Voicesorg.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Been on quite a momentous point in time for us as an organization for helping people, for garnering support from the ground level and having that groundswell that grassroots really taken hold, not only here in the United States, our home country, but across the world. We're seeing numbers, we're seeing countries, cities popping up on every single new episode that we drop, as well as all the episodes that preceded, and it's just really incredible to know that we're reaching people, we're making a difference, we're helping, we're inspiring, we are helping be a light and giving the encouragement to be a light for somebody else, because you are, you're a light, we're all a light and we can all help somebody. And sometimes it's hard because we don't see the fruits of the labor, number-hungry world when we don't see numbers, analytics that we think are adequate. Each of us are different, so we all have different opinions on what that is and what those are, what those numbers, what those analytics are. They are, and let me be one of the first to tell you that I I've been in that. I've been in that boat, I've been in that camp of are we really making a difference? Why are we doing this? Are we? Are we inspiring people? Are we helping? Are we being a light?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And one of the biggest things that I have had to learn is we can't always see the numbers. We can't always see all the individuals, or a lot of individuals that we're helping or that are tuning in for one of our awesome guests that we have had and continue to have to have, who tune in for a particular topic or particular area. And it's hard, it's not easy. Perseverance is hard. It's not easy being patient. I could probably be farther from a patient person, as can be, you know, now, now, now we want results and I've had to change my approach. I've had to learn and still learn every single day and still learn every single day. But we don't always hear from or see particular numbers, particular areas of individuals or an individual that we've helped through something small or maybe something a little bit bigger, and so perseverance, for me, goes hand in hand with passion. So if you have passion for anything, it's a lot easier to persevere through difficult times, and when I say a lot easier, I mean it's easier to think about passion as it relates to perseverance versus just straight perseverance, of as it relates to perseverance versus just straight perseverance. We just have to persevere, we just have to persevere. We have to persevere Not one way. We have the passion to it, but we have to persevere because I have this passion of helping, of wanting to talk about hard topics, of wanting to talk about her topic, of wanting to give people an outlet, to be a guest on our show, to talk about her topic, to help somebody that you may know or that maybe you don't know, but you know that there's a particular group of individuals that would be receptive to hearing your voice and seeing you and having you as a guest. All of our shows are beamed across the world. Of our shows are beamed across the world, and that was one of the big things that I was at the beginning.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

It was hard to really think about. You know, we had these big thoughts, these big ideas, and then, when we don't see things again, these analytics show up and we start comparing ourselves to others and other shows and other people. Then we start to maybe question should I persevere? What's it worth? But when we add passion, it becomes just a little bit easier. It doesn't make everything super easy, it just makes things a little bit easier.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And for us to go, why should we persevere? Well, because I have mental illnesses that other individuals may have or may know. And I'm doing this, starting from the ground up, that foundation, and it's a struggle and it's hard. It's hard for me, it's hard for everybody involved with Voices, for Voices it is. It's something that's hard to do. Like we're talking to ourselves, saying, oh, I need to give my own self a pep talk and I do, because we all need a pep talk from time to time and so we might get a little bit a while without hearing a story, hearing an experience from somebody who's directly touched by a topic, an experience saying, wow, I thought I was the only one that was going through this or had gone through this, or wow, there's so many people that have and are gone through cancer or some type of a very serious disease and challenge or disability, and that's what keeps it going.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But there's another thing, called peace. While we do, we want peace across the world, across the board, but first we have to have that inner peace that what we're doing matters. And so, while analytics and different things may not show us what we want them to show us, we have that peace inside saying this is going to touch somebody's life. We may or may not know that, we may or may not hear that, but what we do know is we're having inner peace. When we talk about topics that are hard or easy, when we talk to guests across the board, when we have that inner peace, we stack that with passion, we're able to persevere much easier, we're able to project confidence, even if we have which I always have butterflies inside, but they're the good kind of butterflies.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

You know, our body doesn't process like butterfly stress of wow, this is awesome, I can't wait to do this, I can't believe we get an opportunity to do this, whether it's that kind of stress or whether to do this. I can't believe we get an opportunity to do this, whether it's that kind of stress or whether it's the oh my gosh, how am I going to handle this situation that's coming up? Or this topic? What if I don't give the best answer? The body doesn't know, the body just processes stress with stress, and so that's important to know and we've talked about on previous shows, but it's so important bringing that up tonight on this particular show. And then there's something called the sacrifice, and this is when we make a decision to do one thing instead of another, and so not everything's glamorous, not everything is about getting in front of the camera.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

There's a lot of administrative, boring, non-fun work that comes with putting these shows together. It's non-fun and it takes a long time. Some of it actually most of it is not hard. It just takes time to do it, and so that takes us away from other things we could be doing, and we have to be willing. We have to be willing to sacrifice in the short term which is short term, so it could be a year, two or three over the long term of building something, building something that is going to help and has helped In reaching numbers, like recently, we reached hitting in-studio, out-of-studio episode numbers.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We just hit episode 250. And we were reminded in one of our social media posts, one of the comments and feedback, that when we talk about podcasts and shows, there's data out there and if we think of all the shows, all the podcasts out there, and if we think of all the shows, all the podcasts out there, there's relatively a small amount that ever make it to their 250th episode. Because maybe we think, oh, this is easy, or we want to talk about this topic or that topic. Well, as somebody who's been there, if you're not passionate, you don't have the inner peace, you're not willing to persevere, you're not willing to sacrifice, you're not going to continue. It's plain and simple. Doesn't mean the sacrifice is easy. Doesn't mean it's fun. Just trust me, there are a lot of things that I've had to sacrifice events and different things to get us to where we're at, but not only that, to where we're going.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Last year I don't even know if we were at episode 150 by the end of 2024. We've just been working at such a fervent pace that I should know that answer, but I don't Throughout the goal for us to have a total of 300, total in studio and out of studio episodes by the end of 2025. It was another lofty goal, wow. I don't know if we're going to be able to reach that, because we haven't even reached 250. But we kept working and we kept working and we kept working. And we didn't just talk, we didn't just share these lofty ideas and goals. We started the ideas and goals when I started. We continued that passion, that inner peace, that perseverance, that time sacrificing.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And here we are. We're not only hit episode 250, we're talking. We're in the first week, week and a half of July and we're over 270 episodes and I think we're going to overturn 73 times. We're over 270 episodes just to keep it. Keep that number, nice round number. And we know numbers matter. And so for us, the more episodes we're able to do, the more that equals. The more information we're able to share, the more topics we're able to talk about and share, the more our guests can share in additional ways. They may share two, three, four, five, six different topics because we're making such an impact. And so if we didn't record another episode besides our in-studio episodes between here and the end of 2025, we would hit that 300 total in-studio, out-of-studio episodes and to be just again, just over halfway through 2025 is just a crazy thing to think about. I've also heard hearing a crazy idea, or the people that have crazy ideas, or the people that change the world, that help, and so at the end of the day, at the end of my days, that's where I want to be I'm going to get a lot better balance. I'm going to take a lot less sacrifice. As we get closer to 300 and as we continue on, then 250 and then 300 have been surpassed and we also have a, and we also have a.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We all have bright futures ahead of us. We all do. If you don't think you do, just look at what you're doing right now. Maybe you're reading a book. Maybe you have no interest in reading, and now you're like, wow, I'm spending some free time reading. Or you're excelling at athletics or studies, whatever that is. You're excelling at being a babysitter, whether that's babysitting other children or siblings, brothers and sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins. Just think those are opportunities that have a positive impact on another person, or even more than just another person. Maybe it's two, three, four, ten, and then maybe you're in class. Doesn't matter what kind of class. They have a presentation to give.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

You're assigned a group and one of the biggest fears that we have as humans is giving a presentation, and so what would give us even more fear and more stress and anxiety would be leading our group of four or five or however many people are in our group. That's one thing I did when I was going through days of lots of early, my early days of presentation, giving presentations. We all had to contribute something to the project. We all had to contribute something to the project, but I decided I don't even know why. Looking back, I probably thought, oh, I'm going to be the leader and puff my chest out.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But for whatever reason, I decided to be a leader because I wanted to stand out and also thought that when I went for an interview, that I would be able to say well, I know you're interviewing five or ten or however many other candidates, and one of the big areas for this role is to give presentations and stand in front of people you don't know, even if you do know them, but all eyes are going to be on you or me and for me to say, well, you know what? That's quite okay, because here were the times when I did that. I already did that. So am I going to be nervous? Yeah, I'm still going to be nervous, but I had that experience because there was a voice in my head somewhere at some point that told me Justin, you should do it, go for it, why not?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Kind of a little bit like being your own boss, in a way. If I'm leading it and I'm doing well and I care about the class, then I'm going to be confident that I'm going to be able to rally the people around me. I'm going to be able to split up the work, have deadlines for each of the people on the team, and then we're going to be able to compile all the work at the end. And then we're going to be able to have some practice sessions where we're you know they call it like mock presenting, so we're just presenting and there might not be anybody watching, but we're just getting used to the dynamics of okay, you're going to speak, you know this, you know first, and then you're going to come back and speak forth, and, and so there's just a lot of dynamics.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But again, just like I mentioned, the administrative part of a show is not fun, and so that's what's not fun either is to decide, well, who's going to present first and second, and what are they going to present on, and what if somebody in the group doesn't do their work? And am I able to step in, complete that work, but then also let coach instructor know what's going on, and that's part of communication. I'm not great at communication, but I'm better than where I was when I began in my early days 20-25 years ago, and so when I sit here or stand in front of you or you hear me and other other guests converse on our show, nobody's perfect. I'm not perfect, the guest's not perfect. None of us are. Nobody on. Nobody on earth is perfect. So, yeah, there's going to be likes and ums and maybe a repeat of a story. That's how it is. If you don't like it, change the channel, find another show Better yet, put your own show together, and I say that with all due respect.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

However, that's how I thought if I was watching or listening and I was like I could maybe do something a little bit different or something better, and so I had to tell myself that that I could do it. I had to have the peace, and the peace in mind, peace in body, I had to have the persevering of getting knocked down and then getting right back up. Getting knocked down and getting right back up, and that passion. You either have the passion for a particular topic or you don't. Some topics, some areas, we're more passionate than others. I just tend to pick the area with mental health and trauma. Public health concerns areas that I'm very passionate about helping people, because there's a whole lot of people on earth over 7 billion.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We're all going through something. We all have gone through something. We all know somebody who's gone through something, and if we can just take a little bit of that stress away, a little bit of that uncomfortableness away, we're able to take some of that uneasiness away. I'll do it Because I'm not the only one in the world that's gone through mental health challenges. I'm not the only person that's been diagnosed with major depression or generalized anxiety and down the road we go. I just like to talk about it and share, because I know 2017, where I was at. I thought I was the only one and I was the only one, and I was the only one and I found out I wasn't the only one, and so it's my job, my goal, to tell you and others.

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