Voices for Voices®

Ghost Mentors and Brake Checks: Life Lessons from the Road (Ep. 311)

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 311

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Ghost Mentors and Brake Checks: Life Lessons from the Road (Ep. 311)

Breaking through the 300-episode milestone five months ahead of schedule, Voices for VoicesⓇ continues its mission of amplifying untold stories and mental health journeys. Our growth reflects a fundamental truth: authentic conversations about trauma, recovery, and personal development resonate deeply with people across all walks of life.

Founded from my own mental health struggles documented in "The House of YouⓇ," this podcast serves as proof that sharing your voice can become both personal healing and a beacon for others. Each episode, whether featuring discussions on fantasy literature, rock stars battling self-doubt, or everyday heroes deserving recognition, ultimately connects back to our core mission of supporting mental wellness and recovery. The podcast's reach now extends to listeners in nearly 80 countries, proving that human experiences with mental health transcend geographical boundaries.

One of our proudest accomplishments involves supporting the Take it Down Act (now federal law), which protects individuals from deepfake exploitation by holding both tech platforms and perpetrators accountable. This legislation represents exactly what Voices for Voices stands for – addressing universal concerns that impact public safety regardless of political affiliation. Throughout our journey, we've encountered both steadfast supporters and what I call "ghost mentors" – those who appear enthusiastic only to disappear without warning. Yet the genuine connections formed through authentic storytelling create a community that extends beyond individual relationships.

Access our complete library of over 300 episodes directly at voicesforvoices.org/podcast without downloading any apps, or catch new episodes premiering on Hudson Community Television every Wednesday at 4pm Eastern. Whatever challenges you're facing, remember you're not alone – your story matters, your life has value, and your dreams deserve pursuit despite whatever obstacles stand in your way. Have you found your voice yet? Join our community and discover how sharing your story might be the first step toward healing.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Introduction and Podcast Milestone

5:16 Featured Episode Topics

8:24 Host's Mental Health Journey

11:24 Dealing with Naysayers and Ghost Supporters

19:04 The Take it Down Law Success Story

27:33 Global Impact and Future Goals

#justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices311 #GhostMentors #LifeLessons #RoadTripWisdom #BrakeChecks #DrivingPhilosophy #RoadSafetyTips #Mentorship #TravelingThoughts #AdventureWisdom #JourneyOfGrowth #LifeInMotion #MindfulDriving #LessonsFromTheJourney #ReflectiveRoadTrips #PersonalGrowth

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Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host. Founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode, whether you've been with us from the beginning and have seen or listened to our now over 300 episodes, both here in the TV studio and remotely, and we just can't thank you enough for tuning in. I wanted to let you know that, for those of you who don't want to download an app like Spotify or iHeart, you can find all of our episodes at voicesforvoices. org/ podcast, for so in that URL is spelled out F-O-R. So that's voicesforvoices. org/ podcast

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Wherever you are, if you're on the road, you're at home, you're on vacation, you're able to see, actually listen to those shows, and the most up-to-date drop of our show is right there at the top, so you don't need to scroll down to locate the newest one. But we do recommend. We have a lot of great episodes. I'm just going to read through a few of them just to give you a flavor, if this is your first time, or even if this isn is your first time, or even if this isn't your first time watching or listening to the show just to give you an idea. So I'm just going to read through. So we are obviously over 300 episodes, which were five months early from the goal that that I had to reach, combined in studio here and out of studio episodes, by the end of calendar year 2025. So that's a great accomplishment and we're just grateful for that opportunity to and we're just grateful for that opportunity to have your interest to watch or listen. So a couple of the episodes 285, what Makes a Fantasy Epic Worth Reading? 286, beyond the Spotlight why Even Rock Stars Struggle the Healing Journey From Self-Doubt to Global Impact. That's episode 287. And then the last one I'll reference here is 288, everyday Heroes who Deserve More Than a Parade.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so we cover a variety of topics, with the main pillar being mental health and trauma and recovery and just talking through experiences, everything we really do ties back to our health, our physical health, our mental health, and that's what we aim to provide information when we, when we see and hear about issues and topics that are what we, what we think in good faith, are public safety concerns, public health concerns, we, we do cover those as well. Not every show does that, but that's something that we feel, especially with our organization named Voices for Voices, wish to tell their story, uh, share their experiences and the hope of helping uh at least one person about the their story and their their experiences. So we're uh again grateful to have you with us, uh, and we have crossed that milestone of episode 300. And a few future episodes will be detailing a little bit of what we announced in episode 300. But we recommend that you go back to episode 300, watch, listen to that particular show, because it's monumental for us as an organization.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

We've been made aware that a lot of podcasts, a lot of them, don't make it to, you know, episode 250 or 300, and so we're just again grateful to have the opportunity to even be at this point in this beautiful studio, to be able to come to you on TV streaming, on YouTube, rumble, all the audio platforms, and then, like I mentioned, you don't need an app. You can go to voicesicesForVoicesorg forward slash podcast and you can find every single episode that we have done, including the most recent episodes that we have dropped. We drop episodes at various times. We drop episodes at various times. One of the mainstays is our great opportunity here to have our shows aired on Hudson Community Television, and so those first air on Wednesdays at 4 pm Eastern time, and when we make our social media announcements, we're sure to share that link, because you don't just have to live in this Northeast Ohio Western Reserve Hudson Community Television area that you're able to go to their website. You're able to go to their Facebook page and find those episodes at that time. So if you want the latest and greatest on video TV every Wednesday, 4 pm, hudson Community Television, whether you live here in the area, as I mentioned, or if you don't, you're still able to see that, and so we're again grateful for this opportunity to even be here, because it's without the cliche. It really is a blessing to have the opportunity to do this. Not a lot of people have the opportunity and we don't take it for granted. And we don't take your time for granted. We don't want to waste anybody's time. Granted, we don't want to waste anybody's time.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So, as we kind of get started here, for those of you who are unfamiliar with me, the background you can check out my mental health story journey in this pamphlet book, the House of you, to coming out of, say, the valley of just being at the lowest mentally and really physically too. It's very weak in both of those areas. You can get and find this resource and have an inspiration of you're not alone. It's not just a saying to get more clicks and get people to view the content. To view the content. It's truly as somebody who has been in that position of, well, nobody thinking to myself, well, nobody's going through the same things I'm going through and woe is me, and we all have our ups and our downs. But in this resource and then throughout our shows, we sprinkle in more information and more parts of my mental health journey.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So that's really where Voices for Voices came from is when I realized that I had the ability to share my voice, whether it's the spoken word or, in this case, writing. It was an opportunity that, after a lot of thought, went into that and made a decision that that was the best thing that I could do, that it helped me sharing and writing. So that whole process of getting information kind of out of my head a little bit and into a book form was really important and it also validates what we're doing here in Voices for Voices, that a lot of organizations I don't say a lot, I don't want to assume, but some organizations, the individuals at the top running them might have a tie to that organization, but they may not have founded it, started it and I get it. There's just all kinds of organizations. But I feel that with me, having lived and still living the mental health journey, the mental health journey, there's not one day that I can point to and say, well, I'm magically healed and sharing that information with you. The goal is to let you know again that you're not alone, that you have life worth living, and one of the big areas for us as well is dreaming and feel like, if there's something that you've always wanted to do, go after that. Try the different steps you need to take to get there. Try the different steps you need to take to get there. Don't let somebody the naysayers come in and tell you that you can't. And I know this firsthand and recently where people will come from all different angles and they'll give their opinions and we're entitled to our opinions and sharing, and so it becomes a well, I think you should do this or I think you should do that and you shouldn't do this and you shouldn't do that. And at the end of the day, I don't know, and a lot of those individuals I would say they kind of ghost us and ghost people, or they just disappear. They're like wait a minute, you said you supported and that you want to be a part of this and whatever capacity that may be, and then people disappear.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I kind of I think of it as, as I was driving to the studio today. You know many days where, right, you're either driving or you're a passenger in a vehicle and somebody's right behind you and it's like, oh my gosh, like I'm going to speed limit, and somebody's just like right behind me. And so you know, we check our rear view mirror, our side view mirrors, and we just see a particular vehicle that is just, you know, very close to us. And so then it's like, well, do we speed up or do we just keep going the same? Uh, you know the, the, the speed limit. And so the very moment, or one of the very moments where, uh, we were driving, we look up or look to the side, the side view and rear view mirrors, and all of a sudden that car's gone, they turned off on a street, and I think of it like like that where there's a lot of people that they want to get close to an individual, an organization for whatever, whatever reason that that is, and a lot of people have, you know, the best interest when they do step forward and share information and share recommendations. And, you know, try to get some of that guidance and that mentorship.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And there's a lot of great mentors, but there are those that I call like the ghosts where they're here one minute, they're gone. Another that I call like the ghosts where they're here one minute, they're gone. Another, like driving that car being a passenger person's right behind you, you know they literally can't get much closer without hitting their bumper. And so for a period of time it's just again you're focusing on how fast we're going, or how do we slow down? Do we speed up? Again, you're focusing on how fast we're going, do we slow down? Do we speed up? Growing up. There's the brake check where you're driving and then not that you slam on the brakes, but you hit the brake pedal and then the brake lights in the back of the car vehicle will illuminate and and then that in theory, would back that car, that vehicle, up a little bit. And so that's where I think of the ghost. You know, like, okay, they're here and then all of a sudden they're gone and it's a big. I guess it's a. It's a big problem because it takes not talking about the car situation, but in life where there's people that are healthy for us, they're on our side, they support us, they cheer us on, and that doesn't mean that they have to provide support by donating or anything.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Just a mirror of a mere fact of hey, I was at such-and-such event and this topic came up and I mentioned your show or your organization. Or I went and watched one of your episodes on Hudson Community Television. Or I listened on the VoicesForVoicesorg forward slash podcast, went and listened to a few episodes and then maybe I went to my social media and saw a social media post about particular episodes and maybe I went and I liked that particular post. Or maybe I went to YouTube and I subscribed, or maybe you're able to donate and so maybe you went to Venmo Voices for Voices, or maybe you went to VoicesforVoicesorg and you decide like, wow, this is something that's interesting. There's topics all over the board and it's on design to be like that. It's on design to be like that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

We don't want to just be on one particular pillar 100% of the time, because we know that mental health, while that is the biggest pillar for us, that we don't have to say the words mental health when we're talking about a situation where we were traumatized, where one of the examples I've said recently is you know, we're all alive here on earth for a reason. And I look back and one of the events that happened when I was growing up and younger and able to drive and that I totaled my car. I fell asleep when I was driving and somehow I survived that the car didn't, but I survived that, that and and so I start to think of how many of those types of situations that I've been in near death or or very, uh, dangerous situations that I I've been in and been through and and here I am today, uh, that you're, you're viewing, you're viewing, you're listening, you're just having interest in the organization, and we thank you again and want to just show our gratitude that it's because of you, that your viewers, our listeners, that we're able to do this, that your viewers, our listeners, that we're able to do this. And that's really, if nobody was watching or listening, if we weren't, what I feel like making a difference, like, for instance I like to reference this a lot because it's very important.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

It covers a broad swath of the United States and the Take it Down Act. That's now the Take it Down Law Elliston Berry, her mother, miss Anna, her dad, mr Mark McAdams, and where you know this situation where these deep fakes come out, take Instagram photos and turn them into nude photos and post them and not have a way to have those number one taken down. Just the average individual that doesn't have a ton of money to influence you, to influence a platform to have them take those down, like somebody with, say, a little bit more money but I believe Taylor Swift has a lot of money and so if those actions happen to her, those photos will be taken down almost immediately. And so with the Take it Down Act, that's now the Take it Down Law, through Senator Ted Cruz in Texas and President Trump signed that into law. Just might have been a month or so ago, time just flies and so that turned into and now is a federal law that not only holds big tech accountable, where they do have to take those down within, I believe, 48 hours and the individual and or individuals and or organizations that did those particular actions. They can be held accountable criminally and it's a felony, it's not a misdemeanor to have that occur, and so that's one of the episodes that we have. You can check that out yourself. You can see actually, the very pen the President, donald J Trump, signed the Take it Down Act into the Take it Down Law.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And again, whether we agree, wherever we are politically, it doesn't matter. Whether we agree whatever. Wherever we are politically doesn't matter. It's. It's a fact that in in that instance, and what we're trying to do is is to appeal to everybody and in one way or or another, and so if, if there was a, a democrat president, a republican independent, republican independent, it doesn't matter, it's about helping stop some activity that is is, is is not right and, and so that that's huge.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And and just to even have the ability to talk with Elliston and her mom and her dad kind of off camera, it's just an incredible way of a lot of individuals from all walks of life coming together and supporting a cause, and we would call that a public safety, public health concern that this could happen to anyone. Anybody could become a victim of this. Because we know how important our phones are and our social media profiles and our posts, so a lot of us have pictures with family, with friends, on vacation, at home, at a concert, wherever, and those photos could be taken out of context by somebody, and that's what we really try to want to share that no matter where you're at on any of the spectrums that we can all, I think, agree that it's bad to take a perfectly innocent picture and turn that into something that's not, and so that has been one of the big things we hang our hat on as an organization Because it has implications nationally in the United States. And while Elliston and her family live in Texas, I live in Ohio, I live in Northeast Ohio and that could happen to me, and so that's how we're. You know, we talk about these issues that we're like, oh well, that's, you know she's in Texas and and and then we start this whole like debate kind of, and where we're like, well, that doesn't really affect me and that, well, it can, because it's a universal thing of our phones that it can happen to anybody. It can happen to anybody, as we know the days of well, that only happens somewhere else, it doesn't happen where I live or you live. Those days, unfortunately, are gone. A lot of great things can happen where we're from and where we live and a lot of not so great things can happen where we live. That it's not something that we can put in a particular area and just say, oh, it's only there that particular actions occur.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

When we're talking about platforms like Facebook, like Instagram, like TikTok and we as an organization and personally use a lot of those in some form of combination we also realize that we could become victim of that. So, as an organization where we share information maybe you agree, maybe you don't agree, maybe as we're aiming is to just share information and stories and different milestones and events and the hope to help and if you haven't heard me say it, I'll say it my big goal is to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So I can't, our organization can't just focus solely on one specific area, but we can focus on how that one area and others impact all of our lives on a daily basis. And so, whether it's Ellison talking about her experience with the Take it Down Act now the Take it Down Law whether it's a Ramona Robinson, a past news anchor here in Northeast Ohio who shattered the ceiling, one of the, if not the first, black female news anchors to again anchor primetime news in the area. So, regardless of who you are, where you're at, if you're here in the United States, here in Northeast Ohio, we are grateful for you to be here watching and listening.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Again, we have over 300 episodes.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Check out some of those other ones and you'll probably be surprised with the content and the guests and the topics that we talk about and share about.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Or if you are somewhere outside of Northeast Ohio, in the United States, or if you are in one of the almost 80 countries that have at least watched one episode or listened to one episode, our show and our podcast is meant for everybody.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

While there's topics that are hard to talk about, that may be more suitable for older audiences, we strive to talk and share about experiences that are real, that they're real things that have happened to somebody.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

They're real things that have happened to somebody, and we want to help others potentially to not have to go through something that happened one of our guests in a negative way or just for informational purposes of maybe you just enjoy passing the time at the gym or on the road or at home on the beach, wherever you can find Voices for Voices TV show and podcast anywhere, and I covered that earlier here in this show. But this show specifically, there's a lot of just sharing of information, some updates, some you know the answers of. You know you can watch or you can listen to our show on our website. You don't have to have an app to do that. We want to share that because that's come up a lot and we just wanted to share that with you. So thank you again for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices podcast. Have a great day.

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