Voices for Voices®

Voices for VoicesⓇ: The 300-Episode Milestone and Major Announcement

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 300

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Voices for VoicesⓇ: The 300-Episode Milestone and Major Announcement

From a single mental health awareness event to a visionary media enterprise, Voices for VoicesⓇ is breaking new ground. In their landmark 300th episode, founder Justin Alan Hayes and advisory board members David Solomon and Leanna Shields unveiled transformative plans poised to reshape multiple entertainment landscapes.

The organization's journey began with a simple but powerful concept: creating space for diverse voices to share mental health stories through various forms of expression. What started as "Voices for VoicesⓇ: A Brand New Day" — featuring speakers from around the world alongside sign language interpreters and special needs orchestras — has evolved into something far more ambitious. Hayes, drawing from his personal mental health journey documented in "The House of You: Prescription for Living," recognized the need to build something that would outlast him and impact billions worldwide.

At the heart of their announcement: Voices for VoicesⓇ Publishing, a revolutionary publishing house committed to clean, diverse Christian fiction that tackles topics traditional publishers avoid. Solomon and Shields revealed plans to "reboot Christian fantasy" and release content spanning categories from children's literature to cozy mysteries. Most compelling is their commitment to authentic representation — upcoming projects include stories featuring Black, Indigenous, and other underrepresented protagonists written by authors with lived experience.

The vision extends beyond books into an entire media ecosystem: TV shows, movies, music production, and even themed experiences. With hints of collaborations with major artists like Justin Bieber, country music stars, and notable authors, the organization is positioning itself as a values-driven alternative in entertainment. Their phased rollout begins this September, with Kickstarter campaigns supporting ambitious projects that "have never been done in publishing history."

Want to witness history in the making? Follow Mythical Creatures Around the World on Facebook for upcoming announcements about ticket opportunities, sticker giveaways, and ways to support this clean content revolution. Join us as we build something extraordinary—a place where powerful stories can change lives while remaining true to values of respect, representation, and hope.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Celebrating Episode 300

1:26 History of Voices for VoicesⓇ

7:05 Publishing House Announcement

11:19 Entertainment Expansion Plans

22:21 Diverse Stories Initiative

36:39 Future Vision and Closing

#300Episodes #MilestoneCelebration #MajorAnnouncement #YouTubeJourney #ContentCreators #VideoMilestone #CommunityLove #BehindTheScenes #SubscriberAppreciation #FuturePlans #CelebratingSuccess #PodcastHighlights #ViewerEngagement #SpecialEventRecap #NextChapterUnveiled #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, it's Jocelyn here, voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us. We are grateful that you're here with us today on episode 300. You're here in the United States or across the world. Thank you so much for being with us and making Voices for Voices a part of your day, a part of your life. And we have really an action news, the driven episode, because we are at episode 300. Before I continue, I just want to introduce the guests that we have with us. We have David Solomon and we also have Leanna Shields. They're going to be sharing a little bit of information as well, but what I thought I would do is talk to you a little bit about the history of Voices for Voices and then we'll get into the, I guess, the real information that in the news that we're bringing with episode 300. If you can give us a big thumbs up, if you can like, share, follow, subscribe all that is free and we would very much appreciate that if you could do that and you could tell a friend, that would help us as well.

Speaker 1:

So, voices for Voices, we started out as an event, a once a year event to be held on World Mental Health Day, and so that's how we started. So we weren't an organization at the very beginning, we were an event called Voices for Voices. And then a brand new day was what we wanted to, what we used, because we felt that anybody coming out of any type of trauma or anything, we want to feel like it's a brand new day, that yesterday may not have been the best, but it's a brand new day and we can feel like we're turning the page a little bit. And so at that event it was during COVID we had 12 speakers Some were in person because of COVID and some were on Zoom or whatever our audio-visual package was at that point. But we had people as far away as New South Wales, australia, long Island, new York, seattle, washington, and everybody shared their voice, their story. And everybody shared their voice, their story and how mental health and trauma, recovery and being an advocate really came into their lives, because we know that we come in all shapes, colors, sizes, and so we wanted to have a reflection of that with our speakers. Speakers, we also had sign language interpreters, we had music, we had special needs, orchestra and reason being. We we wanted and we want voices to be not just spoken word, like I'm speaking now, like if you're watching or if you're listening here in me or any of our guests. That that's one way, but there's other ways. Some are not able to speak, some have hearing difficulties, among other challenges, and we wanted to be a platform and an event where we could celebrate those voices, no matter how they are, what challenges are going on. And so that's how Voices for Voices started.

Speaker 1:

We started as an event once a year and just me in my mind, I wanted to do more. I didn't want to just have a once a year event, and so I was talking one day with one of my therapists and I got to give a big thank you to all my mental health team. You know past and present Some have gone on to retire that were with me from the beginning, but I want to thank them for what they do. I know it's their job, but they really helped me in such a vulnerable time and a vulnerable space. And during one of those conversations with my first, my first therapist, we talked about my mental health story and all the different events and and and. It's exhausting. As anybody knows, we talk about anything. Really it gets exhausting. We're explaining and you're like, does this person really care? And and so he had talked about, like, have you ever thought about putting your mental health journey together in like a pamphlet, flashbook? And I said, well, you know, it's, you know, kind of personal right. We talk about some things that maybe not everybody knows, and and so to just condense the story, I decided to go ahead and do it and that's what you see here in this shot.

Speaker 1:

Here is the House of you Prescription for Living. That's available on Amazon. You can listen to it on Audible, you can put it on your Kindle, you can get the paperback on Amazon or VoicesForVoicesorg. Go to shop or if you go to thehouseofyoucom shop, you can also grab a copy there, autograph all copies that come through our website, just as a special gift to each and every one of you, that's that's supported us.

Speaker 1:

So I put this together and I was like, all right now, what do I do? And I in another conversation with my therapist, just talking through things that we were talking like do you want to do you want it to be an organization or what do you want to do? Cause I was doing a lot of teaching at that time and my first, first pamphlet book the house was used by workforce preparation tips, preparation Tips for a Successful Career is a mouthful, but since I was doing a lot of teaching at the local university to help prepare students for the workforce, to help them put their resumes together, and different tips and tricks, again, this book also is available on Amazon, thehouseofyoucom voicesforvoicesorg, and again, we sign all copies that are purchased that route. And so I had this, I guess, yearning to do more, and I wanted to do more in the mental health space, because that was and is part of everybody's lives and it's something I'm dealing with on a daily basis. And so we started an organization. So we went from a once-a-year event called titled Voices for Vo, brand new day who.

Speaker 1:

Now we're, uh, full-blown 501c3 charity, uh, that now sits as we are here today, wherever you're at, we're at episode number 300. We had a goal of reaching 300 episodes in studio for our four o'clock on Wednesday, episodes that we shoot in a TV studio as well as episodes like this where we shoot on location. We're able to cover current events and things a little bit quicker than you know, filming we film ahead of time and sometimes we're not able to be as current as we can this way, and and so we we projected that we were going to hit uh 300 episodes by the end of the calendar year 2025. And, and here we are, five months early, we're you know, uh, august 1st and uh here in North America, 2025, and here we are, we're dropping episode 300.

Speaker 1:

So, as we evolve from an event to an organization to having this very successful show and podcast, we're not stopping here. We have many more people to help. We have this huge goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, and I can't do it alone, our organization can't do it alone. So we do a lot of partnering, a lot of just yeah, co-opping, and when the time's right and the people are right, and we, you know, we bring people aboard, and so that's where David Solomon and Lena Shields come in, so they're two members of our advisory board. We also have a fourth member, including myself, blake. He's got some filming work that he's doing and so he's not able to be with us today.

Speaker 2:

But he will be coming on in the future. He'll be explaining a little bit of what's going on there.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. So, dave, do you want to take it from there? Yeah, then we'll circle back. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2:

First of all, happy 300. That is just epic, justin.

Speaker 1:

Come on now thank you I know I have work to do I know um.

Speaker 2:

So, liana, you and I have sat on some information for what?

Speaker 3:

six months almost oh yeah, seems like longer yeah, seems like longer um.

Speaker 2:

So voices for voices is going to uh, we're opening up our own publishing company, and so what that means is we are now a publishing house and we intend to publish something that probably no traditional publisher has ever seen, and so we're going to try to change the way traditional publishing is done and set the example. Voices for Voices Publishing is going to publish a majority of different initiatives, but a main one is to reboot Christian fantasy as a whole and as a genre is to reboot Christian fantasy as a whole and as a genre. Leanna, do you want to fill that in with what you and I have been doing on the board?

Speaker 3:

the contest being part of that, but also the cozies being a big part of the initiative. Oh yeah, well, I'm Leanna Shields. Hey, everyone, a little bit of my background before I get started on this. I come from the cozy genre, as David mentioned. Hopefully, four books soon that are a cozy fantasy blend, with the main character being an elf Now. So I do know a little bit about coming from the Christian genre in a different angle than would be particularly normalized, or at least from what I saw in bookstores. So hopefully and don't think you have to write mysteries just to be cozy they can be fantasy. Let's see, there's cozy fantasy, cozy romance. Cozy romance. Cozy spy cozy. There's one person I know that does cozy superhero out there.

Speaker 2:

So and the theme for you is clean, and that's that's what we're going to try to strive for with our publishing house is clean cozies and clean mystery and clean romance and we're really trying to set the example. I came to Liana with the idea because I see a real need for the genre to get rebooted in a way, because mainstream is not looking at Christian, if you will, fantasy, which counts as Leanna's, because there is just that hint of it being set in the Christian. What canon would you say that in the Christian? What canon would you say?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I would say my characters aren't the preachy Christian where it's like every single line is something about oh, I'm going to pray for you or I'm going to do this or do that. It's very much. Yes, it's part of their life, but it is not shoved in the reader's face, right?

Speaker 2:

And so one big thing with the publishing house initiative is we're going to do this in phases phase one, phase two, phase three. We're going to drop what's coming out in late September and there will be a website. There will be places for you to order and you'll want to get your hands on it, because Phase 2 will drop in that winter category and the three phases go together. We're going to be hitting every category. There's going to be a kids' book, a teens' book, a college book, and then also another category which has never been hit, which is for older people, and then cozies, and so we're going to hit all those.

Speaker 2:

We're also in production with a lot of things, and so I wanted to take a moment to let everyone know now that in the coming weeks, we're going to announce that we are going to have a Kickstarter for different projects, and this will set the example. And this will set the example but also do things that have never been done with an independent house doing production and studio and shows movies, comics, video games. This is a big moment for independent creators as a whole. Leanna also is the judge of our contest, which we have been delaying because of a matter of things, but that will be coming to you and the contest will be opening up, and Leanna is one of the head judges, so am I, and then someone else will be as well, leanna and I also co-wrote a story or two stories now, leanna.

Speaker 3:

I know of at least one, but I've been working on so many things in the background. I know of at least one, but I think I've been working on so many things in the background.

Speaker 2:

I know I started to but it didn't. I haven't finished it. So, again, we are going to be announcing those phases through Voices for Voices publishing. We are going to have a reveal. We're not going to talk about when, but soon we will post where you can get tickets to see that reveal and you will not want to miss it. Your family will want to come on out, if they can, or see us virtually and see what we're about to drop, because nothing like it has ever been done. Also, today, a friend of mine, who I'm honored to call just an associate and just an acquaintance, someone who is struggling, is a victim himself, but also just a really good person Justin Bieber. He could not be with us today and he is supposed to be dropping an album, but there are a lot of delays going on behind the scenes, but it looks like we will have the honor of working with him in the future.

Speaker 2:

Um, a lot of you don't know that justin bieber was actually going to work with, uh, mythical creatures around the world long ago. Uh, in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Um, that project got cut because my mom passed away and there was just a lot of fallout from that. Um, but we are going to be working with, uh, with people like him, uh, for voices, for voices, um. We're also going to be working with some other people coming in in the country music area that I can't say yet. Um, that's pretty big and uh, and so we're really excited to push these phases out to do things that no one's really ever done. Um is my goal and I think think it's Justin's and Leanna's and Blake's and um, we do have a board. Um. As far as submissions, we are not accepting submissions to our publishing house right now, um, but that will change. Uh. The contest um will play a role in that. Um, the contest is still gonna run.

Speaker 2:

Liana will be judging at me and a few other guest judges, uh, who are big, best-selling authors, um. So, um, we will be dropping hints. Mythical creatures around the world. Facebook will be the number one source for those hints. Um, you've been seeing a lot of posts on mythical creatures around the world facebook for a reason, um, and I'm looking at what people like and what people don't, and so understand that that will play a role in what you see on TV or in movies, or on bookshelves or in comic stores or on video games or on streaming platforms, and so we're doing so much. So we'll be also dropping the Kickstarter information production and we'll be with you behind the scenes every moment and every step of the way, justin.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, very well said, david and Leanna, and we can't be more pleased to have you both as friends and creators of wanting to again just have that, that clean side of things when it comes to, when it comes to content, that, that that that's missing and there's a there's a big hunger, a big want and a big need for for that, which is a big reason why the first thing was mentioned is the Voices for Voices publishing, and so here's the. I have to redact some things for legal reasons, but so there's the Voices for Voices published and we talked about. There's also, as David and Lena talked about, having a TV series the Netflix CBS.

Speaker 1:

Amazon, amazon, cw yeah, hallmark series, the netflix uh, cbs, amazon, dw yeah, hallmark, and so we also have, you know, the voices for voices production, and so that's where that that comes in into play. Uh, and let's see, and we aren't stopping there, so we are also Voices for Voices Entertainment. So these are all you can think of them as not business units, but they're pieces and parts of the a Voices for Voices record, so that there is a way and means for artists to drop their content in a safe, clean environment. As David mentioned, we're so close to having Justin Bieber on the show, but he is. He's dealing with a lot of things nobody should have to deal with when they're trying to drop their album to the world and helping so many people using his status for good as a survivor as well. We don't see that a lot authentic survivors telling their story. We do see that, david, and we see that now with Justin Bieber. So we want to make sure we have an avenue for that for artists going down the road, and we're not stopping there, and we are also opening up a unit that, as we continue to grow and again, this is really all this information is is hot news, because this is the first time it's been been revealed, and especially, you know this this, this next part, this voices for voice, the parks and real estate. So we have a very well known author that we had on our show earlier this year and one of her goals, one of her big dreams, is to open up an amusement park that's safe, clean, fun, and so we saw a need to make sure that we address that. We want to make sure that, again, we want to make sure we're inclusive, that as ideas and as projects come, that we have an area and we're able to focus on those specific projects. And that's why the advisory board with David and Leanna and Blake and others is so important, because they're gonna be helping when these opportunities come.

Speaker 1:

We have a lot of opportunities and a lot of things that are already in motion that we're not gonna obviously share for competitive and other reasons, but we are just really and not to use it as a cliche but we're really blessed and grateful to be where we're at, to be able to even have these opportunities, to be able to even have those opportunities, and this is what I envision Voices for Voices being, as we continue that we're a place where good, clean content, whether that's through stories and novels, whether that's TV shows, whether that's a movie, whether that's a record, an album, music, whether that's a potential amusement park, real estate. These are things that are very important to not only me but the organization as a whole. Because I'll revert back to what I talked about in the beginning of the show of wanting Voices for Voices to be a 100-year organization hopefully more, and I know I'm not going to be 100 years old, so I see this organization continuing, and so I want to leave the legacy that who's left that is able to kind of pick up, and not even to pick up, but just continue doing what we're doing. As opportunities come, that we're able to address them. And so I'm a big believer in dreaming and having big goals. I talked about wanting to help 300 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So that's a huge goal, and so are some of the goals that we had that we've discussed, that we've dropped today, and others are big goals, but they're already coming to fruition so quick that it's just been incredible at the pace and the speed, and so we thought that one better to share a lot of what we have shared in episode 300, because it's special to me, it's special to Voices for Voices, it's special to our advisory board, to our donors, to our sponsors, to our volunteers, to you, our viewers, our listeners, whether you're here in the United States or across the world.

Speaker 1:

We're all in this together, together, and we are just grateful to have the opportunity to embark on on these journeys. And there's so much that is happening and is going to continue happening and, as David mentioned, things are going to come pretty. They're going to, they're going to come pretty quick. So don't be surprised if you look in one direction and you see something and then you look in another direction and you see something different. But it's voices for voices, undertaking, and it comes with a goal and helping others, helping, you know, through a tough time, through stories, through music, uh, through, you know, the potential amusement park and, uh, production, publishing, all all the things we talked about and and, and that's that's what's really exciting, what we're able to see kind of on the back end, um, as, uh, you know being, you know advisory members of saying like, oh, wow, this is, this is coming together, and then, like I said, then looking in a different direction and going, oh, my gosh, you this other project coming together. It's just awesome.

Speaker 1:

I just want to thank Leanna and David and Blake and everybody for allowing us to really go places, that we had no idea when we had our first event that we were just an event. Now it's much, much, much bigger and it's just incredible. So, david and Lena, I got to thank you for all the time and energy and resources you've put in thus far and, as we go forward, that you know this isn't, you know I may be the face of the organization and that you know this isn't all about me. It's, in the end, it's about helping people on one level or another. And you know we'll talk about the hard topics. We talk about human trafficking. We talk about the hard topics. We talk about human trafficking. We talk about mental health. We talk about trauma. We talk about suicide prevention. We talk about a lot of a lot of things. Other organizations they won't touch, uh, for whatever, whatever reasons, and we don't just I want to.

Speaker 2:

I want to stress on that. One of the big things going forward with one of these phases is you're going to see topics that have never been addressed in Christian fiction. I'm going to reveal one of those now, because I just got confirmation.

Speaker 2:

I can um from uh from someone for right now we'll call her natalie yeah, um and uh. And so there is going to be a story about a black teenager in a white community and he is framed for stealing a car which he didn't. Framed for stealing a car which he didn't. His dad is a pastor and his mom is the pastor's wife. She does everything around the church. The story is going to be one of the main projects Voices for Voices production is going to be doing and we're going to be doing a Kickstarter for it be doing and we're going to be doing a Kickstarter for it, but there's also going to be a novel for it, and so this is going to be a story that impacts a new community and is literally a voice for an issue within the Christian community and within Christian fiction that needs to be addressed and within Christian fiction that needs to be addressed. Leanna, I think you also have this from here that you have Indigenous African-American.

Speaker 3:

What else do we have in our stories? Well, I do have. Let's see my mystery books. I've written have Native American from the Choctaw tribe Yep, Because I actually come from that tribe, but also as part African American. I also have a book set in the 1920s.

Speaker 2:

Excuse me that my main character is black and I have a fun time delving into the history of where I'm from from that perspective and, and these are stories that need um told, and so, voices for voices publishing is a, a christian publishing house, but it's going to be very diverse. We're going to tell stories that no one would ever publish in a traditional publishing house, and we're going to make our readers think and, um, I suspect that those will be adapted into tv shows and movies later on because of the depth that they're going to go into, and we have a whole board for our publishing house, for our production, and so we're just so excited to share that with you. And, again, you are not going to want to miss it. In the middle of September, we're also going to be giving away stickers promoting some of these projects, whether animated or live action, video games or comics, and so, again, we're going to be dropping when you can get tickets to that event, justin.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I very well said. Landon and David, we're just excited. We just had a complete, action-packed episode. We dropped so much new information and we thank you, the general public and obviously, the sponsors, donors, everybody that's touched Voices for Voices. You're a big part of why we're able to do what we're doing and why we're able to do it, and a big reason of wanting to do something in a positive manner that is not demeaning, not taking advantage of of people, and that's a that's a huge part as well, that that we want to help people, but we also want to do it in a safe, clean manner and, again, just so humble.

Speaker 1:

We had episode 300. We have many more to go. I'm not even going to make a guess on where we're going to end the year at. I'm going to make a guess on where we're going to end the year at, but you can be assured that you're going to be seeing and hearing much more about Voices for Voices and our initiative and what we're doing, and I also want to thank our editor, my wonderful wife who is editing everything, want to thank our, uh, our editor, my wonderful wife, oh, yeah, everything without going into detail, she's editing everything, yeah, and so you guys are in for a treat, because you know us, the writers, we write it.

Speaker 2:

She makes it uh flow, I guess, and she's editing everything day and night, day and night, and things are gonna really uh come together in that september uh timeline and then, uh, I have something very special in store for you guys for the christmas holiday and, uh, it's never been done in publishing history. So you know we're excited for it. Keep an eye on Mythical Creatures Around the World. Facebook. Please give some feedback on what you like and what you don't like. We are really looking at what works and what doesn't. One of the things I wanted to drop, now that I have confirmation of we are looking at trading card games for kids in the future.

Speaker 2:

So keep an eye. Mythical creatures around the world Facebook Justin yeah, thank you, david.

Speaker 1:

Thank you Leanna, thank you viewers, listeners, for being with us. We just can't wait for the future and what is to come With that. We'll close out this episode. Zoom's telling us we're going to get cut off, so we better close it out Until until next time. I am your host. Founder, voices for Voices. Justin Allen Hayes. Thank you, lena Shields. Thank you, david Solomon, for joining us. Thank you, blake, everybody's involved, justin Bieber, and we'll see you next time. Take care.

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