We Doubled Our Audience And Chose Honesty Over Silence | Ep 355

We Doubled Our Audience And Chose Honesty Over Silence | Ep 355

We mark our biggest month ever while owning a tough technical glitch, revisiting Nicole Bobek’s story, and sharing clear steps to find her book. We open up about sobriety, masks versus feelings, and why telling hard truths is our core.

• record growth across listeners and viewers
• recap of episode 353 video loss and 354 fixes
• where to find Nicole Bobek’s memoir online
• gratitude for new countries joining the community
• faith, purpose, and serving the human race
• efficiency culture versus humane living
• sobriety since 2017 and daily courage
• masks, emotions, and external validation
• turning setbacks into service and clarity
• invitation to subscribe and share

Please smash that subscribe button, give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, comment

Chapter Markers

0:02 Gratitude And Milestone Announcements

2:30 Owning Hard Stories And Purpose

4:58 Episode 353 Glitch And 354 Recap

8:20 Finding Nicole Bobek’s Book

10:15 Record Analytics And Global Reach

12:20 New Countries Welcomed

14:40 Faith, Unity, And Shared Humanity

17:10 Efficiency, Perfectionism, And Being Human

21:45 Sobriety Journey And Hard Choices

26:05 Showing Emotion Versus Feeling It

30:20 Turning Setbacks Into Service

34:40 The Hero Within And Self-Validation

41:30 Thanks, Subscribe, And Future Vision

#AudienceGrowth #HonestyMatters #ContentCreation #EngagementStrategy #ViralMarketing #TransparencyInMedia #AuthenticContent #SocialMediaSuccess #CommunityBuilding #DoubleTheViews #TruthOverSilence #BrandIntegrity #VideoMarketingTips #InfluencerJourney #BuildingTrustOnline #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices355

Chapters

• 0:02 Gratitude And Milestone Announcements
• 2:30 Owning Hard Stories And Purpose
• 4:58 Episode 353 Glitch And 354 Recap
• 8:20 Finding Nicole Bobek’s Book
• 10:15 Record Analytics And Global Reach
• 12:20 New Countries Welcomed
• 14:40 Faith, Unity, And Shared Humanity
• 17:10 Efficiency, Perfectionism, And Being Human
• 21:45 Sobriety Journey And Hard Choices
• 26:05 Showing Emotion Versus Feeling It
• 30:20 Turning Setbacks Into Service
• 34:40 The Hero Within And Self-Validation
• 41:30 Thanks, Subscribe, And Future Vision

Transcript

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin of Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this uh episode. Over 350, just incredible uh to be where we're at at this time. We thank you for your love and support. Thank you for watching, listening, whether you're here in the United States or across the world. Uh, we want to give a uh uh I guess the two big updates. One is uh because of you, our viewers, our listeners, uh October 2025, so the month that we are uh in right at this time, uh we have uh dwarfed, which uh in in the sense that I'm giving is we have surpassed by a lot, uh just about doubled the viewership, the listenership of our voices for voices TV show and podcast, which which is incredible uh because uh it just it just is. And uh so when we say thank you, we really mean it. And it is really because of you, why we we continue to do what we uh what we do. We have uh everybody's health, well-being in in mind. Uh we do cover hard stories, hard events, hard experiences. And uh that's that's something that uh separates us, one of the big separators, uh, from us and and other shows. Some shows they don't want to talk about it, uh, they didn't want to dance around the topics, but uh that's not something we do. Um, and that's not why uh God has left me here on on earth and gotten me through so many uh so many tumultuous times. And uh and so we're we're here, thanks to you. And and so that was uh you know kind of big announcement number number one. Actually, there's three announcements. So that's big announcement. Number one is the uh you know the October uh 2025 month is uh the the biggest month on on record. And we still have a a day or so left of the month of October. Uh number two is if you haven't uh go ahead and check out episode 354. And we want you to check out all the episodes, but in particular episode 354, because uh in episode 353, we had uh you know a technical glitch that uh that occurred when we were uh trying to uh take the files from when we do the show from Zoom into a format that's easy to upload to our aggregator sites, um, and that just didn't work. And so uh we we're very very sorry that that didn't that didn't work. Um and so in episode 353, we had Olympian uh figure skater Nicole Bobek. She's been through a lot, very transparent. You can catch that audio, uh nothing uh there were no snafu's there from the file. So you know, we we can get the podcast from the the audio side, it's it's just the video side that unfortunately were um just kind of kind of irks me a little bit, if you can't tell. Uh so what we did is we uh did episode uh 354, and what we did there was we we wanted to reiterate some of what we uh discussed with Nicole in episode 353, and we did do uh screen sharing in episode 353 to show you how you can locate and find Nicole's book on Amazon.com. You can find the Kindle version, you can find the paperback version. Uh Nicole mentioned that there's been a demand for the audio version, um, and so that is to come. She didn't have a a date when that that was going to be uh and then that will be available, uh, but keep your eye out for that. And then we also went over to the Barnes and Noble site where you can also find her book, but you can find it in that hardback version. And so we pulled those up on the screen and uh did a share screen in episode 354, which is the episode preceding this episode number 355. Uh so it's a lot of words, uh, but you know, we we want you to check out all of our all of our episodes because there's something to be learned, uh inspired about in all of the episodes that we put together for you. Uh so that brings us to the uh the I guess the the third uh area of uh as far as announcements goes. Um and in and that is not only is uh October 2025 the month, October and the year 2025, uh the uh the largest single month by far, uh, viewers and uh listeners, uh no matter how you watch or no matter how you listen. And these are the public analytics that we see. We know there's so many more of you out there that are watching and listening, and we thank you. And we uh we ask again uh if you can smash that uh subscribe button, if you can give us a big thumbs up, like, follow, share, comment, all those things help us get closer to our goal of helping at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Uh it's uh it's just incredible where where we're at. And so all that kind of leading into new countries uh where you uh and and other viewers and other listeners are now catching voices for voices, TV show and podcasts from. So you hear me talk about you know that we're global, we are based in North America and Northeast Ohio, but we are not just a local organization while again being founded and having our head court world headquarters in Northeast Ohio. Uh, our work, uh, our show spans the globe. And it's it's because of great people like yourself and others that uh that come watch, come listen uh for years. And uh we're at the point with being the uh again the biggest uh analytic download, watching, listening to our shows uh overall. So all of our shows combined. And wanted to just share uh kind of some of these new countries that you are tuning in from. Uh so we give a a big thank you. We we do have uh we we we do have uh other messaging that has given thank you uh to these new uh countries where where you're watching and listening from. Uh we have to continue that. We want to touch every every corner of the world, uh every country, province, territory, wherever you're at. Uh we we want to be uh be a part of uh helping you, uh helping others, inspiring you, inspiring others, uh maybe laugh again when you you you'd uh check out me trying to sing a Justin Bieber or Imagine Dragon song. Uh it's all about helping people uh because that's what makes me feel good, what makes our organization uh a viable organization, and why we think that we have achieved this uh accomplishment here in the month of October 2025. So we thank all countries, all territories, all provinces, state, city, township, county. However, we're we're we're uh together, we're all one human race. Um, but we want to give an extra shout out to the following countries. And so there's quite a few. Uh, so stay with me here. Uh so this is in no particular order. Um, it it's just the the way uh when I uh and I downloaded um the analytics, how uh how they were downloaded. So this doesn't mean if uh you're you're at the bottom any less important than if you're at the top. And so it's no particular order. Uh so we're gonna start. Okay, here we go. So thank you to new countries uh checking in, uh being a part of Voices for Voices. Uh so we have Colombia, South Korea, Brazil, China, Bangladesh, India, Israel, uh, UAE, which is the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Malaysia, France, Russia, a Russian Federation, Ireland, Kurzakstan, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Norway, Nigeria, Tanzania, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Oman, Cyprus, Turkey, and Uruguay. So we want us to give a round of applause. Thank you for uh joining us, uh, and we we are just so grateful to have you uh with us and uh we uh welcome you. You're welcome at any and all of our um any of our shows, any events that we we have in in the future. Uh we we want to you know give you uh give give thanks first off for us. Um you know every everybody has a higher authority. And so for me, I just want to you know give give thanks to you know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, uh, and and to your higher authorities uh who uh who you you you look up to. Uh again, this isn't a match about one thing or another and one religion being better than another. Um, we're just giving our opinions on on that. The key is the information that we're sharing, we're sharing it on behalf of the human race, as a human being, as uh a person that is uh being reminded kind of daily that we we have uh a short amount of time on earth, and uh I've come to the realization also that I want to spend as much time as I can helping or what I view as helping. Uh which again, with this being the the best month overall, in the whole life of Voices for Voices and the Voices for Voices, TV show and podcast, uh it it uh it proves that out that there is quite a huge demand uh for uh for our show, and that's why we do it. Um otherwise we would just be talking to a camera, a screen, and uh and we we would we would we would just be doing that. Uh, but that's not the not the case that we know uh the you beautiful people, each and every one of you, whether you spent one second, millisecond, or you spent uh time watching, listening, combination of uh all our episodes. Uh we want to thank each and every one of you. We understand how busy, how fast-paced life is, and so many things to do. The to-do lists are just growing and growing because we're right, we're you know getting more efficient. And so that means that oh well, instead of doing these three things, I can do five in the same amount of time because I'm more efficient. Um, but what does that mean for us, for our minds, our bodies, our school, our schools, our our souls, our our spirits, and and it really just it just comes down to what what makes us comfortable as an individual. And we all make mistakes. I make mistakes, I make so many, and I think that's the thing that I've come to grips with. It's not always uh the easiest thing to do, but to realize that I'm not perfect, nobody's perfect. Uh once we get past that, at least for me, it makes things just a teeny teeny bit easier because then that takes a burden of some size off of my shoulders, of your shoulders, when we when we have that understanding that you know we can't do this alone, that we're only human. We've talked about you know the industrial revolution and you know that quest for efficiency, efficiency, efficiency, you know, Six Sigma, you know, all these all these programs to again do more uh for less to make more for less, to sell for a higher amount than the cost of what whatever that thing or those things, those widgets, those uh pianos, those guitars, those shirts, uh whatever what whatever those are. Uh and it takes a lot of it takes a lot of courage and I think rather than finding kind of uh tougher time is at least as a lady, uh probably was always there. But courage it's it's really courageous for all of us to do what we do. We all like different music, different hobbies. We like to spend our time where we're unwinding, maybe a little bit differently, maybe a little bit the same, maybe a little bit different, but overall we're unique individuals, and it takes courage day in and day out to especially somebody has a depression, and yeah, while I am I'm managing it, that doesn't mean I'm doing the best managing of it or the greatest job manage of it. That doesn't that's not what it means, it just means uh managing it, trying to, and it takes courage for everybody, each each and every one of you and I, uh people we know, love ones, significant others, coaches, uh, pastors, friends. But uh we we're all we're all going through we're all going through life in some similar ways in some dissimilar ways, which is just means that again, we're we're unique. So we have some things that we have in common, and we have some things that we we we don't, and that's what makes us human, unique witness. And I and I I just repeated that. So uh again, that's on that's on me for that. Uh but being courageous, uh waking up like each and every morning, something as small as that. Uh uh now whether we whether we want to get out of bed and get get started with the day, that's that's a little bit different. Uh you know, so we if you know for each day that we we wake up, it's just like being grateful because we don't know when our last minute, second, hour, month, year, decade. We we don't know how much longer we have on earth. I think that's what's really lit a fire under me in Voices for Voices is really coming to that realization. It's one thing to say it and like, okay, yeah. You know, Justin's saying this. Uh you know, he's he's in his forties, so he's hypothetically, hypothetically has more more time to live. You know, if we look at kind of the average life expectancy, but then we look at some people that they don't wake up in the the next morning, they could be younger or just a little bit older. And it's when those things happen it really starts to project and kind of blow our minds a little bit of whether you're 19, 29, 39, 43, like I am, gonna be 44 in uh actually just a matter of weeks um before D4 with my birth year and in 1981. And I l and I I I look back on kind of ups and the downs of life overall, and for me, I can't speak about others and talking about me. And when I do that, I I I come across a lot of scary times for me, a lot of scary situations that I put myself into. Um for me, obviously not when I was you know a infant and toddler and that, but you know, kind of in those, you know, teenage years on up until 2017, I was putting a lot of my higher authority power towards alcohol and the other substances that were in there from time to time, but predominantly alcohol was the main culprit that uh I was saying I didn't I didn't have so in in in certain vehicles you can have a manual transmission or you can have an automatic transmission. And I didn't really have uh maybe that's not how was th wanted to put that together, but I I I didn't have any kind of middle gears when it came to alcohol. It was either if I'm gonna drink, I'm gonna get hammered, drunk, whatever the word is, or I wasn't gonna drink. I for whatever reason, I just didn't have a downshift of like, oh well, what do you mean? Can you just have one or two drinks? And oh sure I could. And sometimes that's how it started. Oh, I'm just gonna have a couple, watch a ball game, or whatever. And then those turned into you know, three and four and five, and then shots, and then all uh and then the binge drinking, and and and those, and I put myself in some very very scary, some very difficult situations. And again, it's a miracle I'm alive. The and that's just one one scary instance. Uh and actually it wasn't just one instance, it was many, many, many, many, many, many instances. And and so when I think back on that, it was a very, very hard time for me. Um, because I tried to numb everything, my insecurities, any type of problem, is like, alright, well, I'm just gonna go get drunk and go from there. And that was no way to handle things, and so now going on uh eight years of being sober in November, kind of middle of November here in 2025. It is I'm saying I'm learning to live again and I'm turning and I'm learning to live as the real me where I'm not I'm not using alcohol or other illicit substances, drugs on on my life. And I think that's been one of the hardest things is it's still hard today. Like the days, uh you know, the more recent days. But those are early days in 2017 when I was just I had to basically make a kind of a life or death decision. Like well if I want to continue surviving, I may need medication, I don't know. I really don't want to go to therapy because I can handle everything, I can I can come up with solutions, you know, with with my good friend Google, and I don't I don't need any help, I can do it all myself. And so when I did go and make those series of decisions saying, okay, well if I'm gonna continue living for any length of time a day, a year, a month, six months, what what what have you then I'm gonna have to make huge drastic changes, and the biggest of those changes was in relation to the alcohol and uh not being able to drink ever again. I mean, it's not that I'm physically unable to purchase alcohol, that I'm not physically able to open a particular beverage alcohol beverage or mixed drink or what have you. Not that I'm unable to. I'm at the point now I don't I don't want to. I don't I have so much, but I feel, and this is the other part is you know, we have we've seen these commercials with people that you know they're holding these signs up in front of their face, and it could be you know a smiley face, and then you they move move that that sign, uh, you know, that that that face, and it's you know, it's you know a dark face of like you know, sadness, or um or the opposite, where it's the smiley face on the outside, and then on the inside, that you know, as like you're holding the smiley face, or your the smiley face is kind of I guess behind you, and maybe I'm just confusing everybody, but I think you get to get what I'm getting at, and so that's not really lining up every single time, every single situation I'm in. Um, you know, I you've you've heard me and saw me talk about an employer, at least on one occasion, where that that came to be uh well, you don't sound excited, you don't look excited, so therefore you're not excited. And a lot of people will say that now about voices for voices in our shows. That well, you don't look happy, you don't look like you're having a good time, you're always so down, or you're talking about these hard subjects, and uh and and and so you know we need to find something that you know makes you feel good. And I said, this makes me feel good, this makes me happy to be able to come and have this uh this honor to be able to share whether you're watching or listening, no matter how you're doing that, smart device, whatever platform. Yeah, and I I I jump around from you know different platforms. forms you know Spotify sometimes sometimes it's Amaz um Amazon Music uh sometimes it's uh uh oh it is uh YouTube sometimes it's Rumble but this whole thing of the expectation that us as human beings that we're supposed to again what you see on the outside is what you see on the inside or what what it should be and I've brought this up many times before but we look at you know physical health you know if you break an arm or you you have a bruise you can look at it and you can see it heal over time and if you have need surgery or whatever the healing remedy and and the recommendations from the doctors are uh you can kind of see that like oh that looks like that they're in they're in pain or oh they they look like they're having a blast and and so when I was numbing myself with alcohol I was looking like I was having a blast because it was like I'm numbing the pain uh of basically living and now it's not the case I'm not numbing my mind for anything uh especially like living and so I I can assure you we would not have over 353 354 episodes and and keeping that momentum up and just knocking episodes out left and right and having some soul episodes having some guests on uh if I wasn't having fun if I didn't like what we're doing I wouldn't be doing it and and so it's hard to say that it's hard for sometimes people to hear that too that he says he's having fun he says he's excited but look at him he's got that face that like he's just so upset sometimes a lot of times I'm upset at myself if something doesn't go how I planned it for instance episode 353 the file that has always I'll say always but uh as long as I can remember the file from Zoom uh has transferred transferred into whatever form it needed to be in so we could put that out on rumble and youtube and on TV and and all that all those great things and I'm pretty upset about that but I also am trying to be level minded level headed that stuff happens I can't do anything about it so what did I do we put out episode 354 and bam uh we weren't able to see side by side uh Nicole Bobek and myself um but we were able to make good on being able to show you if you're watching in even if it was uh you you did uh listen to episode 353 uh that you were able to uh go oh that's right this is you know this is you know Nicole Bobek's this is her her her book called you know the wild one um you know with her i mean her memoir and her ups and her downs and it was just a raw story of her life and it was just a great conversation and and just felt terrible for not being able to to have that you know that that TV that video version uh for you all uh so that's what that's what we do so I didn't have control over the file for episode 353 uh that that was a technical thing and I ran out of answers to try to fix that but what I could do is what I did and we did episode 354 so we're human I was in the car earlier and uh the one uh Mariah Carey song uh hero and it talks about you know the hero lies inside us as individuals and so it doesn't mean we have to have or that we have superpowers or in any of that it just means that we don't always have to look outside and look for validation from others and it's yeah you you know we could call kind of that walk in the line of between you know confidence and narcissism for me and so it's it's it's a it's a it's a hard line to kind of try to try to do the best we can uh and I know with me I look for a lot of external validation of things uh I'm doing things that the organization's doing planning things that are to come who what where when why how there's so many different things and it just it's hard to you know wrap our minds around that but for whatever reason I I've kind of caught myself in that space where I'm always let's say always I spend a lot of time in the space of a lot of time in the space of judging myself against others like oh look at them they're they're you know they're living their best life or like they're having so much fun again to those faces you know it looks like they're just having a blast and and then I think to myself I'm like and then here I am and so what that Maray Carey song was bringing a little bit more crystal clear is I am having fun I am excited I'm I'm spending this time together that we have by talking about my life my experiences our guests' lives their experiences things that they're sharing things that I'm sharing all for all for the sake of helping again if we can just help at least one person step away from that ledge then to know that we help save one person is it's it's a it's just an incredible feeling to have that and so those are the things the feedback that you give us the good feedback I see is easier to digest than that. But when we do we're able to feel more and more validated and so that's kind of looking out outward and say oh did I say something did I stutter maybe I'm human did I say the same thing twice maybe I'm human uh and just to be okay with it and not to beat myself up so hard about it um to again just realize that I'm not perfect none of us are are perfect on earth uh and spend the time that we have on earth doing what we we like we love we're happy to do regardless of what our face looks like what our mannerisms look like clearly it's e easier when the mannerisms and the looks and um match up with what the feelings are but I know with me as much as I try I I say I can't it's just it's very it's very hard to to do that uh and I wish it was easier I wish it was easier for me to do that my face would reflect how I'm truly feeling again some of those times it can just be frustration with myself of like oh I forgot that I forgot to pick up that at the store which was a something recently that I went to the store somehow slipped my mind and there was some something that I didn't pick up so I had to run to the store and and and and pick that up and so there that was just kind of that was whatever the look on my face was it was more just frustration like oh my gosh Justin I how can you know how how did you miss that and not not pick that that that particular item up things happen and so to everybody that's watching listening again huge thank you thank you truly for sticking with us is very much appreciated regardless of how my face looks if it looks like it's super excited or looks like it's super upset just know that it brings me nothing but happiness and joy to do this to be able to have the opportunity to have you tune in and to have again the month of October in the year 2025 to be the basically the pinnacle year or pinnacle month across the entirety of Voices for Voices as it relates to our show. And this is just with analytics that we can see we know with right we we have security settings privacy settings and so there's numbers and analytics there that we're not picking up so we know there's a lot more people watching and listening. And we also know about private servers what for you know governments and intelligence and uh individuals that yeah maybe maybe that's maybe that's you where you're you're not able to get spectrum or you one of these other providers and so um so you have to have your own server and we know that there's there's a lot of analytics a lot of numbers that we're missing there too so the fact that the numbers that we're seeing are so high for again over all the months of our show for this to be the highest and we're seeing those numbers to me it tells me we're we're right on track of where we want to be doesn't mean that we're going to have a new high every single month as we go maybe we do maybe we don't maybe we do for a couple months maybe maybe we don't um so that's why I want to just share how grateful and humbled we are as an organization and as a human being talking to another human being yourself others and for the the new countries that are joining us individuals uh that maybe uh you may uh reside in maybe visiting uh maybe um the the uh the ring light is getting my my eyes after some time it just makes my eyes water um so no um I am I am happy but I'm not crying um so thank you thank you for being with us uh please yeah if you can smash that subscribe button I don't mean to physically break the subscribe button uh but if you haven't subscribed please subscribe tell your friends and family word of mouth uh communicate the voice or Voices for Voices TV show and podcast uh because again without you we have no reason to do this show it it it becomes something that we don't have a reason to do uh because if you're not watching or listening then we wouldn't have a reason to come in front of the camera or come through your earbuds so thank you uh and just remember like that Mariah Carey song the the hero lies in every single one of us the hero lies in you in you and you and you and everybody watching and listening past present future and I I need to uh I need to I need to do the same and believe that uh there's a there's a hero that lies in in in in me not meaning lying of not telling the truth but uh meaning that it uh that the hero uh is uh is is with us is within us so thank you for joining us uh we are just very very grateful for this opportunity uh and we we look forward to uh coming to you with many many many many many more shows many many many many many many more guests many more topics and and until next time you know let's celebrate the voices of each other whatever whatever those voices look like if it's artwork if it's sign language if it's a spoken word if it's plain music whatever that that may be uh let's let's celebrate all all the voices of all of us and until next time please be a voice for you or somebody in need we'll see you next time goodbye