Voices for Voices®

The Healing Journey: From Self-Doubt to Global Impact | Ep 287

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 287

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The Healing Journey: From Self-Doubt to Global Impact | Ep 287

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Have you ever felt the ground shift beneath you, leaving you questioning your purpose and what you have to offer the world? That profound sense of loss and confusion serves as the starting point for this deeply personal episode where I share my journey from darkness to discovery.

Wrestling with purpose isn't uncommon, but finding your way through it can feel impossibly lonely. I reflect on those moments when my passions for baseball and basketball suddenly disappeared, leaving me adrift and searching for meaning. The experience felt like having a tablecloth yanked from under a perfectly set table—everything crashed down, and I was left to pick up the pieces.

What emerges from this story is how time transforms our perspective. The very challenges that once plunged me into darkness ultimately shaped Voices for Voices into the global movement it is today, reaching 79 countries and producing over 285 episodes. This evolution didn't happen overnight—it took more than 30 years of questioning, growing, and shifting from self-focus to service.

The most powerful revelation comes in understanding that your personal brand and legacy manifest through consistent action. Unlike working for someone else's vision, building your own requires heart-centered commitment that nobody else can provide. This perspective has guided our expansion into new territories, including our commitment to amplify Native American and indigenous voices who have historically been marginalized.

Whether you're currently navigating your own darkness or have found your purpose, this episode offers a reminder that your journey matters. The path isn't meant to be perfect—it's meant to be authentically yours. Join our community of voices from around the world and discover how sharing your story might be the light someone else needs to find their way forward.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome and Show Milestones

3:32 Confronting Personal Dark Times

8:58 Processing Change and Finding Direction

16:12 Building Your Legacy Takes Time

22:16 Supporting Native American Voices

33:53 The Power of Listening and Allyship

#HealingJourney #SelfDoubt #PersonalGrowth #MentalHealthAwareness #Empowerment #GlobalImpact #MindfulnessMatters #TransformYourLife #ResilienceBuilding #InspirationJourney #OvercomingObstacles #InnerStrength #PositiveChange #SelfDiscoveryPath #MotivationForAll #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram

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Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hi everyone, welcome to another 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 tuning in, whether you're watching, listening, whether you're here in the United States or anywhere else across the world. Here in the United States or anywhere else across the world, we thank you for spending, no matter how small or how large amount of time you spend with us. We greatly appreciate that and we are overall. From a show perspective. We surpassed 285 total episodes, including in-studio episodes and out-of-studio episodes. We had a goal of 300 total episodes by the end of 2025. And we have just exploded in a good way.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

The last month and a half two months probably is a good thought process of when that really kicked into high gear. I can't tell you what caused that, but that's where we're at, and I think, anytime that any of us are an advocate or we're passionate about something or some things we want to share, we want to talk about it, we want to help others and somewhere in all that is Voices for Voices, and while we are a 501c3 charity, we operate just like a business does and it goes back to each and every one of you. This is your first episode. Welcome if you've been with us for the whole ride. Thank you so much for being such a great supporter, follower, voices for voices. Gonna ask you for one thing if you can give us a thumbs up, a like, share, follow, comment on your favorite platform that you can consume podcasts, that would be very helpful. Again, it's free to do. We do it all the time. I think, subconsciously, we do it more than what we think. We do it all the time, uh, I think subconsciously, we do it, uh, more than we, what we think we do, uh, and so we would. We would just appreciate that if, uh, if you're able to to do that and share and all that fun stuff. Uh, we, we'd like to think that we are a again, we're a voice for ourselves and or a voice for others, and what we're going to talk about in this episode is being a voice for others for one reason or another, for one event or another, or one event or another.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Each of us, at different times, probably have felt alone, secluded, people don't get you, don't get me. They don't get you, don't get me. They don't understand, they don't want to take time to understand or to really find out and learn what's going on, and then we might that we might need, we might need help and and that's really where this episode Takes a good foothold, because I can speak from experience I don't know, growing up Is the default, but for me, growing up very supportive family, very supportive parents and extended family, and trying to find myself like, oh, there's Justin, justin's in the mirror, but in all seriousness, I got to thinking what am I here on earth for? Why are the things that I love so much to do, like playing baseball and basketball, and why are these opportunities just dissipating, just gone with the wind? And so it put me in a very dark place, put me in a place again questioning you know, what's this life for?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

You know, if we've done something good, when we feel good, when we do it, and then that stops, for whatever reason. It just stops. We tend to do I don't want to use huge words or big words, but we do introspection, which basically is we look inside ourselves, our mind, our bodies, and we start thinking, well, do I really love doing this thing or things? Don't I and we can love doing this thing or things? Don't I and we can love doing something? We could love playing a sport or whatever your thing is, but that doesn't mean that everybody else feels that same way if that makes sense about us. And so maybe a year or even a week ago, it feels like everybody was on our side Excuse me. And then all of a sudden, that's all just like that floor mat or that carpet just taken right out under our feet without any prior warning that that's going to happen, any prior warning that that's going to happen. Or if you have a table set with plates and utensils and cups and all that and I'm like, wow, that looks great, take some pictures. And then somebody comes out of nowhere and just pulls that tablecloth right off, plates go crashing, cups go crashing, breaking, and it's intense.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And those are, I guess, some of the analogies I would use and I'm using for me when I felt and there's still days where I feel this way, but much less than when I'm referring to here and again this is no fault of anybody. What I'm referring to here and again, this is no fault of anybody in my family or anything. It's just something that I was going through, and I think a lot of us. We go through things and, especially early on, we don't know what to do when we're faced with a dilemma or faced with a. We're faced with a different thing happening to the thing we love or the thing we love doing, and so change is not something that I was very adaptive of. Now, let's say, now I'm, like you know, 40s, I'm a little bit better at change. Change doesn't make things easier.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Being able to process and channel that energy which would be up front, is an energy that is very I don't say mean-spirited, but you know we're not happy and so we're like you know again, what the heck, what am I doing here? What do I have to offer the heck? What am I doing here? What do I have to offer the world? And so it's sometimes we're having to be reactive to a situation and others. We can be proactive and I know this sounds a little bit. It's intense, right? You know we're talking about times in our lives where things aren't perfect, and we shouldn't think that we need to be perfect, because we can't be perfect. We're imperfect, we're human beings.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Nonetheless, I could raise my hand. I was like I judge with the best of, not only judging others but judging myself. I was like I judge with the best of them, not only judging others, but judging myself. Oh my gosh, did I say the right thing? Did I wear the right outfit? Did I show up at the right time at the right place?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And on and on, and on and on, we go on, we go, and, as I sit here in my 40s, starting to process this and those instances, those experiences, doesn't make it any easier. What it does, though, is I've had to learn, we have to learn the hard way. Sometimes, I'm most like well, there's not really a good option here, and so we're back in that dark place of well, I don't see a good option here, and I'm here to say that. You know, getting close to halfway through this episode, it may take some time, it may take a long time, may take a short time, but there's going to be a period of time that's going to go on and go by, and then we start thinking about whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm in my 40s. Where did my, where did my perseverance, where did my drive for doing what I love to do at that time, and I mean I think we can think of it like this I mean, and again using my experience life just starts happening so quick, meaning.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Different topics come up, different questions come up. We have to answer them on the fly. Sometimes we don't have all the information. We're in a relationship. Out of a relationship, there are just so many things that as we're growing up, we don't have to be terribly concerned about paying the bills and supporting a family, but then I don't want to say it's a snap of the finger, but it feels that way. It's like oh my gosh, I'm an adult, I gotta do adult things. What happened to all the fun? And so we still have fun, but we gotta spend time, sometimes a lot of time, just doing things that might not be super interesting, like paying the mortgage, paying the car insurance, paying loans, student loans, many loans. We just have to continue, and that's hard. So when we reach that point where everything kind of comes together and crashes and we go to pick up the pieces, we have to do what we love. We have to do what we love. We have to do what we want. We have to think about our legacy, and it takes time.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

My voice is for voices took 30, some plus years to come about, and it probably was manifesting in my mind, maybe under another term, another thing, and now it's term. Another thing, and now it's become this worldwide movement of helping others, bringing others' voices to the forefront, and people share and talk and vent. And people share and talk, invent, tackle hard subjects, hard areas, dangerous areas at times, and so I'm in a I'm in a spot where I truly am grateful for where I'm at, or even those experiences excuse me years and years ago, because that's what made me who I am and, at the end of the day, that's what people are going to think about, and so I want to be known as a helper, not somebody like the Justin in the first half of my years where it was just all about me. There's gonna be days where it is about me. We have to do self-care, we have to maintain, but then other days are gonna be a little bit more, more peaceful because we're if we haven't gotten there, we're starting to get to where we want to be and what we want to do. We've talked about this a long time.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

A lot of businesses, people that started them, founded them. They start small, in a garage, in a basement, work themselves up. It takes time. It takes a lot of time. It takes more time when you got your thing than when you're doing somebody else's thing than when you're doing somebody else's thing, because when you're doing somebody else's thing, you can go and do what you need to do and then you can leave. But when it's your thing, it's got to be right here, it's got to be in the heart, it's where it has to be. It's Got to be in the heart. It's where it has to be, it's where it has to start, it's where it has to remain. Nobody's going to believe, nobody's going to be as passionate, nobody's going to persevere, nobody's going to try to be patient, which is so hard to do. Nobody's going to do those things for us. We have to be that cheerleader too. Unabashedly.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Talk about our organization, talk about what we do. If you don't have an organization, a company, that's fine. Talk about yourself. What do If you don't have an organization, a company? That's fine. Talk about yourself. What do you do? Well, what are some examples? It's the same thing. It's branding, marketing. We all have a personal brand. Some of us have a brand of an organization too, and each and every minute, each and every second of every day shows others what that brand is, what that brand stands for. So we are an organization of action. We do help others. We help a lot of people. We're global Can't believe it. We're 79 countries where Voices for Voices has been to. It's incredible.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So we don't take any of our time with you. We don't take it lightly. We have conversations that we have guests on. We talk about things. It's because it's important, it's important to share, it's important to talk, it's important to gather together to gather information, and so, as we start to wind down this particular episode, I want to talk about Native Americans. I want to talk about Native Americans.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I don't know a lot about Native Americans, but what I do have an understanding, what I think I have an understanding about Native Americans. What I think I have an understanding about Native Americans is, as we sit here in July of 2025, there's Native Americans that are being treated poorly, not treated nicely, and and that's something that we want to change Native Americans here in America I'll say they're here first. I'm not sure how many tribes are are left, but over over the years, they've been treated very poorly and, whether they're Native Americans or not, we don't think anybody should be treated poorly and, whether they're Native Americans or not, we don't think anybody should be treated poorly. So we're going to start highlighting what it means to be a Native American Indigenous. So I can learn and then you can learn too, and that's part of the population here in our United States and North America.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

It's an area that it seems to be a lot of people turned their back on, that they don't show their respect, kind of like we talk about our elders. For me, my parents, there's a certain level of respect you give people Somebody's a little bit older than us. We don't have to agree with everything that they think or say, but there's probably a good chance they've been through something or some things that are more than what we have given. You know, depending on how many years separate, say, somebody in their 60s versus me in my low 40s. So, whether I agree with that person or not, they are going to have had experiences that I haven't had, and so I think it's important to just see that, to respect that, to treat kindly, to treat kindly. And so when we talk about Native Americans, that's where my head's at, with our organization and me to show these individuals, to show these tribes, to show these Native Americans, these indigenous individuals, to show them respect, to give them like others, like all others, to give that opportunity to use the Voices for Voices platform to talk about you know history, current state, what's happening Because I sure as heck don't know everything, not even close to be sure that us as an organization, and me personally, we do as much research as we can, which is what we do with all the topics we talk about here on our show or on our videos or our shorts or TikTok.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We use much research as can be done and then we share information. So it's the same thing with Native Americans. We're going to gather information, we're going to talk to Native Americans and we're going to give them a voice as well. It's so many, so many others over the course of years and decades who haven't caused a lot of Native Americans to be frightened, to be scared, and it's good reason to always start to hear some of the actions and just awful. When we start to hear some of the actions and just awful, awful conditions, awful treatment, inhumane is the word that keeps coming to my mind. So, native Americans, indigenous individuals, you can turn to Voices for Voices as well. This is for everybody. This isn't just, not just for me, it's not just for one group. This is for everybody. This isn't just not just for me, it's not just for one group. This is for everybody, it's for you, it's for me, for the entire world.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So, again, I'm going to do my best to do as much research as I can and talk to as many people as I can, that we bring them on the show, let them tell their stories, their experiences, and hopefully that leads to more Native Americans feeling comfortable. More comfortable might not be 100%, might not be 100% comfortable, but it may make a person a little bit more comfortable knowing that they have an ally with Voices for Voices, make A person a little bit more comfortable Knowing that they have an ally With voices for voices. And so I'm excited to learn more. I'm excited to research. I'm excited to Talk. I'm excited Not excited to talk. I'm excited not just to talk, but to listen.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We all have to work on our listening skills. I'm one of them. It's easy for us to get into the me, me, me, me, me. I got to say what I'm doing, I'm doing this, I'm going to name drop this person and that person, and those are enticing enticements, but it's only when we truly learn. When we truly learn, I have learned a lot of it's through listening, letting other people talk, letting other people share.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So if you're a Native American letting other people talk, letting other people share. So if you're a Native American, part of a tribe, part of an indigenous group I'm sorry what you have had to endure. I'm sorry that more of more of your family, more people in your community, aren't with us on earth any longer. Me personally, I haven't. I haven't had anything to do with any of these negative actions. The reason why I'm apologizing is because, as a human being, there's a lot of things people shouldn't have to go through, and so, for the as much as I can, I apologize where we haven't talked about and given you a bigger voice until now, over 285 episodes in, but I can assure you that's changing. It has changed. I'm very excited to learn, learn about you, learn about your tribe, learn about your group, learn about your family, about your tribe, learn about your group, learn about your family, and I'm going to do that, try my best to do that through listening.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So we welcome all Native Americans, all Indigenous individuals, no matter where you're at in the world today or where you were yesterday or where you're going to be tomorrow. Thank you for your patience and you can call Voices for Voices an ally for you. Thank you for tuning in, thank you for watching, listening, thank you for being a voice for you or somebody in need and celebrating voices of all shapes and sizes. In celebrating voices of all shapes and sizes, until next time. I'm your host, Founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes, and we'd like to end our show by saying please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us.

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