Voices for Voices®

We Hit 400 Episodes, Beat Our Goal, And Lay Out What Comes Next | Ep 400

Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes Season 4 Episode 400

We Hit 400 Episodes, Beat Our Goal, And Lay Out What Comes Next | Ep 400

Four hundred episodes later, the mission feels bigger than ever. We’re celebrating a milestone we once thought was years away, reflecting on eight years of recovery, and sharing how a no-budget project earned listeners in 100 countries and 1,000 cities. The throughline is simple: real stories deliver real help. When people hear lived experience—messy, honest, and practical—they find the courage to keep going.

We dig into what’s working across platforms, from steady growth on Spotify to the promise of more consistent updates on X and fast-moving TikTok Lives for time-sensitive topics. Our publishing arm steps into a larger role too, with Voices for Voices Publishing expanding titles like the Atalan comic and the Mythical Creatures Around the World catalog. We explain why we keep our shows free, how book sales fuel the mission, and why scaling responsibly matters when the goal is broad access to mental health and recovery support.

We also take a firm stand on creative integrity. Plagiarism and copyright infringement erode trust, mislead consumers, and drain value from the creators who do the work. You’ll hear how we’re holding bad actors accountable, from bookshelves to theme park concepts, and why public transparency and proper attribution are essential to a healthy creative ecosystem. Looking ahead to 2026, we outline how we’ll retool formats, strengthen community engagement, and stay focused on a singular aim: help three billion people find tools, hope, and a voice.

If you’ve found strength in this journey, share the show with someone who needs it. Subscribe on your favorite app, leave a review to help others find us, and text 25 friends to join the community. Your support turns momentum into impact.

Chapter Markers

0:03 Milestone: 400th Episode Announced

2:30 Social Platforms And How To Follow

4:45 Free Access And Growing On Spotify

5:36 Publishing Arm And Why Stories Matter

7:26 Lived Experience Over Textbook Knowledge

8:45 Global Reach And Recovery Perspective

10:55 Personal Commitment And Eight Years Sober

12:20 Crushing Goals On A No-Budget Model

14:00 Faith, Inclusion, And Daily Prayer

15:20 2026 Retooling And What Can Be Shared

16:50 Mission: Be A Voice And Help Billions

18:17 TikTok Live Feedback And New Titles

19:40 Addressing Plagiarism And IP Protection

22:00 Public Accountability And Deadlines

24:15 Draculand Example And Enforcement

26:10 Holiday Sales Win And Momentum

28:00 Simple CTA: Share With 25 Friends

29:50 Donations, 501c3, And Lovevoices.org

32:00 Gratitude And The Work Behind Each Show

34:31 Signing Off And Looking To 401

#400Episodes #MilestoneCelebration #GoalAchieved #NextSteps #PodcastJourney #BehindTheScenes #ContentCreation #InnovateAndInspire #FanAppreciation #FuturePlans #CommunityGrowth #EpisodeRecap #CreativeProcess #ListenerFeedback #ThankYouFans #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices400

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Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices:

Hey everyone, it's Justin here with Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this show. Uh, this marks a very special milestone and occasion. I guess the first thing would be that I'm under the weather just a tiny bit. So uh I apologize for the froggy uh voice. Uh but the real milestone is this is the 400th total episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We have now officially beat our goal of 300 total episodes um by the end of the calendar 2025 by doing what we're doing right now is having our 400th uh total uh episode of the Voices for Voices podcast TV show. Uh and it's all because of you. It's because of our fans, it's because of our incredible um individuals who follow us, who hit that subscribe button, who give us those thumbs up, uh follow, subscribe, share, like, follow us on all of our social medias, like Instagram, TikTok, uh, Facebook, X, Threads, uh, LinkedIn. Uh we're everywhere. Uh so if you haven't uh if you're into social media game, uh please uh do follow Voices for Voices. Um on X is the only one that I believe that our uh our handle is uh instead of like the shirt I'm wearing says FOR, the handle on X is the number 4 So I believe everything everything else social media wise is Voices for Voices, at like you see it on my shirt. And if you're not watching, listening, uh if you're listening, it's voices and then F-O-R spelled out, and then voices, uh, with X being the um the different one, uh voices with the number four, and then voices. So that's our X account. Uh we we we try sharing as much as we can. I'd have to say that X is probably our uh we could do much better um on X as far as uh keeping everybody uh up to date because there's so much going on with the organization, so much going on with the different projects that we have that are upcoming. Uh there's there's just a lot going on, and and so we we we hit the high traffic uh for us uh social media platforms, and now X in 2026 will probably be uh included with the uh you know high profile um just like the other other uh social media uh handles and and and all that, the way that goes. So uh you can do that. We do have TikTok live from time to time when we have maybe a little bit of time-sensitive information that we that we do cover on our our shows, as you know, on our uh, you know, where you can find these on you know YouTube, on Rumble, uh Apple, uh Amazon, iHeart, uh you name it, uh, from uh from an audio standpoint. Uh and you can excuse me, you can use any and all of those platforms from time to time. I know that's what I do. It really just depends on where I'm at, what I'm doing, and when I see that uh you know a new show is out um for those that I follow, that we follow. Um so it it does it doesn't matter, you know. Spotify, that's uh that's actually starting to ramp up pretty big for us. Uh that's Spotify, um, free version. Uh we don't ask for anybody to have to pay for any platform. All of our shows are free. Even our TikTok lives are free. Uh we we do have uh we do have media that we do sell. So we do have we have books for sale, um that we uh we talk about from from time to time, especially the new uh the new the new books that do come out. Uh because voices for voices publishing is a portion of voices for voices now. Uh as we're you know heading into 2026, it's it's gonna be a uh it's gonna continue to be a good a good solid part of our organization. And the biggest goal we have is to help people uh to share stories, share events, share things that we've been through, not just me, but our guests, uh, things that they've been through, I've been through. Um I know I learn best when I either watch or I listen to somebody who has gone through something uh similar than just the you know the book smarts, uh, which is good. And we we love everybody the same, no matter what. Uh for me when I hear and see somebody who's been through or going and or going through something very similar. Uh I I I tend to I guess perk up a little bit more, but that's just me. I know from anybody who has watched a sport or listened to a sport or follows a sporting team, no matter where you're at. We're in a hundred countries, a thousand cities. So um that's a big thank you to you, each and every one of you. Um, it's just so amazing. Uh, but you know, getting back to the sports uh that talk about how that lines up with for me when I hear somebody or watch somebody share information that's gone through some, uh, some some trauma, some recovery is still going through recovery, because we know recovery is not uh, you know, oh, I'm completely recovered. Physical health, a little bit more solid on the uh, okay, I'm I'm as recovered as I'm going to be. Uh, when we talk about mentally, uh, that's a little bit different. Actually, it's a lot different. So with sports, right, you have people who have played sports, and and then they may come back and they may coach or manage uh a team. And from what I have observed in my 44 years on the planet, um, ever since I watch sports, listen to sports on radio, uh, players seem to be a little bit more receptive when there is a coach, manager that has played the game, uh, played the sport. Uh, and so I equate that for me to well, okay, somebody's gone through this. Yeah, you know, they may have, it doesn't matter how many episodes they have, uh, they could have one episode, and that one episode could make all the difference in the world to me. And that's what we're hoping for. And what we are finding out is that that's actually occurring with our shows, that there's bits and pieces of each and every show that resonate, because we wouldn't be reaching a hundred countries and a thousand cities, we would be reaching the United States of America, we wouldn't be reaching all over the world, Antarctica, uh, uh, New Zealand, Australia, uh all over Europe. So we talk uh okay, it's we'll just talk about like this. So we have North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Oceania, Asia, uh, then, you know, you said Antarctica, then you got Greenland, and um it's uh it's it's incredible uh where we're where we're at and where we're poised to turn the page. So this isn't our last episode of 2025, believe it or not. So that's it's big to me. Um I've put uh and continue to put every ounce of my being that I can into this organization to help people however we can, with little little to none of you know donations, of using my own money year after year, month after month. Um, I've literally put every ounce of my whole being into voices for voices. So I'm not these fly, I'm not a flyby at night uh leader or uh head or whatever you want to think of for voices for voices. Um, I'm living recovery every single day. Uh I just passed my eighth year of recovery and sobriety from November of 2017 to where we're at and uh getting ready to turn the page going into 2026 January. Uh and so it means a lot. Um analytics, a lot of them don't mean very much to me, but when we literally crush a goal like we did, and R of blown past the goal we had of 300 episodes total by the end of 2025 calendar year by at least a hundred episodes. Uh to me that's huge because that shows not just me, uh I guess part of it is it's it's showing myself that confidence, perseverance, the things that I talk about, I'm doing. And I think that's a big thing to have people, whatever you watch, whatever you listen to, people that are literally just knocking it out of the park. And um I don't know why I use the word literally, uh, some of these words I use over and over again, and I don't I don't know why. Uh I just do uh call it a phase or or what have you. Uh but by knocking these out of the park, it shows everybody across the world what we can do on a literal no-budget organization who's reaching all points across the United States and the entire planet Earth. No matter you know, we have uh agreements, disagreements, what have you, we we say and and we believe that uh whether you're a believer in God or your God or or not, uh it's you know, every night we we pray for uh us and the whole world. So you're included in that whole world, whether you're a believer or not. And I I think that the more help, the more uh spiritual uh guidance, power is is uh the the best. I if I was a non-believer and somebody said they were praying and included me, I would say, well heck yeah, I I I can use uh every ounce and and every ounce of those prayers, even if I'm even if I'm not a believer. Uh so just know that about our organization. Know that we are even with our so small staff, um there's gonna be changes uh you know coming uh that are gonna be more official as we kick off 2026 and in January. Uh so you'll be seeing uh and hearing you know shows and TikTok lives that uh we'll be talking a little bit about that. We've talked about it a little bit throughout probably the second half of this year, more uh as something started to take shape. Um so that's one thing that you know we'll be looking at, you know, retooling uh based off of what uh what's what's what's on on tap that what that's gonna be going on for 2026. And some of the stuff we can be more forthright, meaning we can tell you like right exactly when it when something's going on, and and some others uh we have to roll out kind of internally, test some things out uh before it gets shared. But all organizations do that uh to an extent. Uh, so that's no we're no different in that respect. Uh what you can expect though is us hitting the pavement, continuing to share the voices for voices, message, to be a voice for you and or somebody in need. Uh that's that's really what we're what we're about. We're about helping people. We have the big goal still of helping three billion people, at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Uh, that's a goal that remains the same. And I know that there's probably some questions of or question of okay, well, you said you were gonna get 300 episodes by the end of 2025. What does the future look like as far as how many, how many episodes for 2026? Well, we're not at a uh at a point that to share that information. What I can assure you though is you're gonna continue to see more and more voices for voices, uh media, products, services, uh, shows, uh, whether that is our uh flagship, voices for voices, TV show and podcast, uh, inclusion of uh the TikTok lives and other other means to uh to get the get the word out and just just connect. Uh we had uh a TikTok live just the other day, and uh just for example, uh we got a good comment, good feedback on one of the books, the Adalan A-T-A-L-A-N comic book, uh, that David Solomon, hottest author and artist on the planet, uh did a story for, and Cooper Saunders did the artwork for. Uh, but the this individual, and I have no idea who the person is. Um, I hope it's a person and not a bot. Uh it the person said that they really enjoyed it and they look forward to picking up uh additional media, uh, additional, yeah, additional media, uh, voices for voices, voices for voices publishing, mythical creatures around the world. We just talked about that acquisition uh that happened recently towards the end of 2025 as well. Uh that's something that's big. Uh it is it's it's it's big in in a lot of different ways. And we are uh individuals, organizations that have gotten away with taking advantage of certain things, uh might find that that won't be happening quite as much. Uh we're no savior, we're not perfect, so we're not gonna be able to do every little every big little thing. There's gonna be things we're gonna have to focus on, and uh and so we're we're gonna focus where we need to focus. Um, but there's uh strategic reasoning. Um, you know, when somebody plagiarizes, uh picks, you know, a post and copy and paste it and uses that in their their books and their livelihood, and they don't give credit where the credit from the individual and the uh the organization, the site is not It's not there, there could potentially be problems with that because that's called copyright infringement. It's a legal thing. Um and so we let the legal things uh go to the legal individuals that uh are experts in in those fields. And uh it's just really a shame. Um, and you know, I think a lot of this is a reset, is we are setting the standard or resetting the standard uh from a uh competitor who some of these individuals who have been plagiarizing and getting away with it for years, making millions of dollars. I mean, let's just be frank about it. Like they're making millions, these aren't people making like $20 a month off of a off of their books. Um, these people are making mucho money, uh, mucho dinero, have you know assets and um and and different things that show that what they've been selling has been selling, and that stops and has started to stop. Uh recently we've had uh to address uh those, so those individuals, so we've had to address that and we'll continue addressing that as we need to. Uh one other area that we addressed is uh I believe it's called Draculand in Romania. Uh and mythical creatures around the world had a lot of influence, but mythical creatures around the world was not consulted. Uh, we had to find out find this out through uh through the grapevine, basically, that this was happening and that this was being put together. A billion-dollar project that's heavily influenced by mythical creatures around the world. And so we've had to come out and address that, uh, because that is a little bit of copyright infringement right there. Uh, so whether it's in a book, whether it's an amusement park name, whether it's a part of a un part of an amusement park, name let's say there's five different areas in the amusement park, and let's say mythical creatures or voices for voices is one of those areas. Whether it's one area or whether the whole entirety has uh influenced by any of our organizations, any of our brands, any of subsidiaries, uh, we are going to have to um hold people accountable for these things. No, this isn't open source, this isn't open source information. Uh so we we've asked everybody who has been part of I'll say the plagiarism game uh off of mythical creatures to uh since we have acquired voices for since voices for voices has acquired uh mythical creatures around the world, anything that's been plagiarized for mythical creatures around the world right now that is on a bookshelf, whether it's in person at a brick and mortar location, or whether it's in a uh uh like a cyber bookshelf, you know, that's on you know Amazon or Ingram or you know, you name it, uh right now that's copyright infringement because right now if if this is one of you that is doing this, um you can't do that because we're we're protected, voices for voices protected under the United States Patent and Trade Office. And a few years back, I had no idea all the different ways that voices for voices was going to be uh used for good. Um, and so this is one of the the ways. So we have given uh we've had other shows and we've had TikTok live that talk about this. Uh we were given to the end of March for parties who have individuals who have plagiarized mythical creatures around the world, and they've made an income, and they have books, and they have other uh maybe it's a maybe it's a game, maybe it's a DVD. Uh anything that's been plagiarized has not been cited. We are asking all those individuals to come out publicly to share that with the world and especially the consumers, because consumers have the right to know what they're buying, and they have a right to know that if you've been plagiarizing that they have a choice of who they want to purchase from in the future, and again, these people are making a good living off of these books. So again, these aren't people just making $20 here and there. Uh, you know, these people have a lot of assets, um, and they sold millions. So the two we brought up, Morgan Busey, Davin Anderson, uh, we know there's others out there, uh, but that starts starts with starts with those two, or you two, if you're watching and listening. Um, we're we we don't like this part of the the the job and and and that, but um uh nevertheless, uh we didn't do that. You did it. So uh come out of the public statement publicly, not just one sentence, like an actual uh you know, news conference. You know, we're we're out there all the time, we're sharing all the time, and so we have no problem sharing what we're working on and what things that we have uh that uh if there's some type of controversy around it, we have no problem talking about it. So uh so publicly, you know, have a press conference um and get those books off the shelves ASAP as soon, actually A-S-A-H-P, as soon as humanly possible, because you will not continue to make a living off of plagiarized content that is protected under the United States Patent Trade Office as voices for voices acquired mythical creatures around the world. So I hope that resonates. And then three, never do it again. So those are two areas, right? So we got that plagiarism there, we got a copyright infringement there, we got a copyright infringement on uh, you know, the the amusement park uh standpoint as well. Uh but we're we're heading straight forward. Uh we've uh in just over, I think, three days, we we have sold over a hundred uh copies of our Christmas book. Uh that it came out just uh we we would have liked it to come out a little bit early, uh earlier than it did, but even when it came out to have sold over 100 copies from Voices for Voices publishing, and the sales are continuing, so they're not stopping. This is just a point in time that we're given a little bit of a heads up. Uh, all our other books, all of our other things uh that we we have for sale are also going very well, and it's uh there's some things here in 2026 that's gonna just shock the world. Um we're just uh so grateful. And I'll say it's not us, it's you. You're the one that makes this stuff happen, you know, buying the books, tuning into our shows, whether you're watching, whether you're listening, uh, whether you tune into a TikTok live, and uh no matter no matter how you tune in, if we can ask one thing, can you help us this is another free thing to do? Can you text 25 or your clo of your closest friends, relatives, loved ones, and say you need to uh subscribe to Voices for Voices, TV show and podcast. You need to look into the books that are out under Voices for Voices publishing. If you can do that, that'd be wonderful. That would be so uh so great if you you could do that. We're all about doing free things, uh but lastly, we just want to say, you know, if you are able to on the monetary side, if you are able to spare uh a dollar or two, there's no uh we are a 501c3 nonprofit charity organization. So if you're here in the United States, any donation, small or large, it can be written off uh on uh on your taxes. And here with the end of the year, uh what what better way to close out the year with uh a solid donation to voices for voices? And you can do that by going to the site lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, you can donate, and I'll just spell it out, l-o-v-e, v-o-i, c e- s dot or r-g. That will get you right to the spot where you can't donate. If it's on your heart, if it's something that uh is moving you, if it's uh if it's something you want to do, we don't we don't pressure anybody, and that's why we we did 97, 98 percent of our show, because there's so many other great things and uh topics to cover being our 400th show. Um the the last thing we want to do is spend the whole show about you know making a uh maybe uh uh uh one one of these whatever marathon uh like oh well you get this thing and that thing. Uh we don't we don't do that. We just we we come out with results, we come out with actions, and we want to thank you literally from the bottom of our hearts because without you tuning in the way you do, the way you watch, the way you listen, the way you subscribe, the way you like, the way you share, the way uh every way you you get into contact and and and monitor our social media feeds, uh, we wouldn't be able to do this without you. You're you're the reason why I wake up in the morning and will spend hours upon hours working on administrative types of uh areas that are outside the purview of uh being on camera or you know being uh you know the podcast, like the audio. Uh that's that's only maybe 15-20 percent, if that of the the time that uh I spend a day, most of it is around getting shows, getting them ready and prepped to be able to post, uh, and getting all the links, getting the descriptions, the titles, the hashtags, uh the tags, again, all that information for every single episode. Uh, we probably could have done another hundred episodes if if I didn't have to do that uh that part, but it's because of you. You're watching, you're listening, you're sharing, we love you, and we can't wait to see you on episode number 401. So take care, have a great day, great morning, great evening. But we love you, and stay with voices for voices. We love you. Thank you so much. Be a voice for you or somebody in need.