Beyond Filters And Flawless: Choosing Purpose Over Perfection | Episode 394

Beyond Filters And Flawless: Choosing Purpose Over Perfection | Episode 394

Perfection promises peace and delivers pressure. We’re hitting the cusp of 400 episodes not by chasing flawless, but by choosing truth, service, and steady output—especially when the timeline rewards filters over substance. Together we unpack how comparison steals momentum, why online cruelty isn’t worth your attention, and how to turn down the noise so you can build the work only you can make.

We share a candid look at what it takes to keep creating with a tiny team: editing late, writing the blurbs, designing covers, and publishing across YouTube, Rumble, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, and more so the message is accessible wherever you listen. Along the way, we outline our broader ministry vision—supporting books, lifting up a nine-year-old author’s debut, exploring TV pilots, films, and RPGs—all centered on helping people feel safe, healthy, and hopeful. Creativity here isn’t a product line; it’s an ecosystem designed to give others a path to start.

Mental health sits at the core. Short winter days, burnout, grief, and the silent weight of expectation visit all of us. We talk openly about seasons of struggle, practical boundaries for social media, and the courage to keep shipping imperfect work. Culture changes when we normalize asking for help and when creators choose progress over polish. If you’re in the United States and need support, you can call or text 988 or use the 988 chat.

Trade an hour of scrolling for an hour of making. Share your draft, publish your pilot, record your first episode. There’s room for all of us, and your voice matters more than any filter. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the hope they need. Then tell us: what will you create next?

Chapter Markers

0:00 Nearing 400 And Global Reach

2:42 Perfection, Faith, And Grace

4:00 Social Media’s Illusion Of Flawless

7:05 Judgment, Burnout, And Being Human

10:50 Ministry Vision And Global Goals

12:10 Books, Young Authors, And New Media

14:25 Hard Topics In Mental Health

17:05 Seasons, Sunlight, And Mood

19:00 Expectation, Chappelle, And Burnout

22:30 Practice Over Perfection In Creation

24:00 Platforms, Consistency, And Access

27:30 Tune Out Noise, Build Your Work

30:10 Do More, Watch Less

32:50 Solo Grind Behind The Scenes

36:00 Hope, Reach, And Analytics

38:30 Culture Over Politics

41:00 There’s Room For All Of Us

44:00 Stop Worrying, Start Thriving

#PurposeOverPerfection #AuthenticityMatters #BeyondFilters #RealBeautyRevolution #EmbraceImperfections #SelfAcceptanceJourney #FlawlessIsAMyth #TrueSelfExpression #InnerBeautyShines #MindfulLivingTips #PositiveVibesOnly #ConfidenceInYourSkin #BreakTheMold2025 #CelebrateUniqueness #JoyOfBeingYou #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices394

Chapters

• 0:00 Nearing 400 And Global Reach
• 2:42 Perfection, Faith, And Grace
• 4:00 Social Media’s Illusion Of Flawless
• 7:05 Judgment, Burnout, And Being Human
• 10:50 Ministry Vision And Global Goals
• 12:10 Books, Young Authors, And New Media
• 14:25 Hard Topics In Mental Health
• 17:05 Seasons, Sunlight, And Mood
• 19:00 Expectation, Chappelle, And Burnout
• 22:30 Practice Over Perfection In Creation
• 24:00 Platforms, Consistency, And Access
• 27:30 Tune Out Noise, Build Your Work
• 30:10 Do More, Watch Less
• 32:50 Solo Grind Behind The Scenes
• 36:00 Hope, Reach, And Analytics
• 38:30 Culture Over Politics
• 41:00 There’s Room For All Of Us
• 44:00 Stop Worrying, Start Thriving

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here of Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the show. We are getting closer and closer to episode 400, which is a huge milestone for our organization, for our show, and for anybody who has a show or who has done anything for 400 times is really a time to reflect on all the positives that have uh have happened along along the way. 90 countries, actually 100 countries now, uh 100 countries or a thousand cities. It's uh again just an honor and privilege to be able to have an audience like your yourselves. We have so many people that have been with us from the beginning, and we can't uh say thank you enough for being with us from the beginning, as well as if this is your first show, this is your first few seconds of the show, you're testing it out, seeing if something, if it's something you might like or someone you know may like, and we just thank you for giving giving us a shot. Uh because we right you never know unless you unless you try. If we wouldn't have started with episode one, uh we wouldn't have made it to episode two, and and then you know the story kind of takes over from there, as far as how well received our show and our ministry, which is really what Voices for Voices is. It's a ministry, it's ministering to people that uh could use a little encouragement, like myself, even as a host. Uh, I I can always use encouragement. I don't I don't know anybody that really can't use encouragement. Uh none of us are perfect. And that's part of what we're gonna touch on with today's show about perfection, being perfect, the uh the allure uh to to be perfect. Uh and so we'll we'll get started with with that. Um anybody that anybody out there have social media or knows somebody that has social media, uh I I think we may, if we're not on social media ourselves or our organizations, we probably know somebody that does use social media to some extent. And that's really where our journey begins here for this show. Because number one, we we know we're we're not perfect, nobody's perfect. You know, Jesus Christ was perfect, we're getting close to his birthday. Uh, and you know, he I believe died for all of our sins, and God did not send him to earth, did not send his only son Jesus to earth, he didn't send him to earth to condemn the earth. Um, he sent him to earth to uh uh in a nutshell tells it's okay, like we're we're okay. I'm here to save you. And the years go by, and sometimes you know, tradition and and things happen, but getting back to social media, you know, with all the different filters and effects and uh you know that we can use for use for for social media for for posting photos, videos, it's that request to have or make it seem like wow, this person really is you know having you know, they're living their best life, you know, one of these analogies like that. And we look at it and go, man, like those those people, they they look as close to perfect, or you know, like they're traveling the world, they're at the beach, they're you know, exotic cars, and um and so there is that tendency for then us, and I'm just speaking for myself, there's that tendency for me to look at those and go, whoa, you know, we better bring it with our uh with our photos, our videos, our promos, everything. And what we may not know or may not realize is that just because it looks like somebody, maybe always looking as close to let's use the word flawless, as close to flawless as possible. What we fail to realize is those individuals, the ones that aren't the bots, so like they're real, you know, people like you and I we're all going through things. We all have gone through things, we've all experienced peaks and valleys. Uh and and that's where that whole perfection thing comes in of is anybody gonna care if they don't have a perfect post or perfect, as close to perfect, as close to flawless posts or videos or shows. You know, people are gonna just turn turn us off. And I'm not talking about the people that are you know putting the negative comments and and that. I'm talking about just regular people, right? They're you know, they they come and they go to different shows, they subscribe and they unsubscribe, and you know, they're they're at a watch party watching our show like happens uh more times than I guess what we had thought, uh, which is an awesome thing. That that you know we're on like some humongous projector screen uh or humongous TV or you know on uh playing on the you know the podcast, the the audio version of it. And I know I've gotten carried away sometimes with is anybody even gonna watch this? Is anybody even gonna care? Is anybody gonna listen to this? And that's what social media and things like social media are doing and have done. They've led to people taking um their their own lives because of that. Uh there's bullies everywhere, but as what we're learning is just ignore them, and sometimes it's hard to do because we look at oh, we're getting attention, oh, somebody's sending us a comment. And some of the you know, some of the comments are good, some are just people just being negative. And what I always try to say is, hey, you know, you know, can you please take that that comment or those comments, you know, out of the out of our show, especially when we're doing you know, TikTok lives and that. It's it's totally unnecessary. Find something else to do, find find another TikTok live that you get along with better with those comments. I'm talking about sick, nasty, perverted comments that have no business anywhere. Uh being under 18 or above 18 doesn't matter, just has no place. So this whole perfection thing, we get we get hung up on, and it kind of ebbs and flows. I'm again, I'm speaking for me, for uh for voices for voices. Uh there's obviously some shows that are better than others, some uh some topics uh hit a little differently depending on the the time that they're released, and so there's a whole host of things that kind of go into uh into that whole group of different traits and characteristics where we're being judged. There's no there's no two ways about it. We're being judged like everybody else. And so when we have our phones or our smart devices, and you know, we're we're looking through our feeds and our friends or the friends of friends or whatever, however, it when you scroll, and we have a tendency, I have a tendency to fall into that trap sometimes of man, like we're gonna have 400 episodes just like that, like it's happening um within the next week. Uh it's just happening, and even with with that, and we've had so many, all of our guests have been so phenomenal because they take their time out of their day and share it with us and share it with the world, which is you, no matter where you're at. North America, South America, Africa, uh, Asia, Oceania, Europe, Greenland, Antarctica, you name it. Uh, we are we're reaching the entire world, literally. So that's part of what makes me confident that we're gonna help in one way or another, at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, is because within two years of our show, we're at we're gonna be sitting at 400 plus episodes, and we're just gonna be continuing. And that's just the show part, okay? So that's that's just one part of our ministry. Another part of our ministry are the books, the novels, the comic books, the book The Search for Drake Colton, written by a nine-year-old, the youngest author in the United States at the current moment. And as we know, as we understand, we believe that uh Ryan Solomon is the youngest author in the world right now. And we're not boasting about it, we're just trying to share what we believe is a fact. Now we could learn some information that says differently, but right now um we haven't we haven't found somebody that is, and then not only that, but then has the support of the family where it was totally Ryan, Ryan, R-Y-A-N, totally Ryan's idea. He wanted to write the book that that was all on him. His parents, his mom, Amanda, and dad, David, they're also creators, and they didn't force their son to write it. Uh, so it's just an incredible thing, and so that's one another part of our ministry. Then you're gonna start seeing you know, production, so uh TV shows, pilots, season long, seasons-long shows, you're gonna find movies, you're gonna find RPG, role-playing games, you're gonna find a lot of things that are gonna be coming in our ministry to help people. We want people to feel safe, we want people to feel healthy, we want people to feel prosperous, like they're given all the tools uh as possible. We're only able to do just a teeny bit of that, but that's where us as voices for voices as an organization and as a ministry, and especially with mythical creatures around the world now being brought under the Voices for Voices umbrella, being protected uh from copyright infringement. Now that's a whole new ball game. So the whole perfection thing, we can second guess and be like, yeah, let's not do this, or let's not let's not put that episode out, or let's not talk about this topic because it's it's it's a topic that is some people don't like certain topics that we share and we talk about who are human, and so I've said it once, I've said it a million times, we wouldn't be doing you, our viewers, our listeners, anybody that's ever come in contact with voices for voices, mythical creatures around the world, we wouldn't be doing a service to anybody if we just turned the other way. So, just like the previous episode where we uh talked about an actor that tragically took took his own life, and the um the son uh Nick Reiner looks to have taken the lives of his mom and his dad. Both of those are connected to mental health, and that's where Voices for Voices really comes in is it's not always the glamour thing of like, oh, I'm gonna jump on the mental health bandwagon because you know that's getting you know that's the hot topic for today, or for the week, or the month, or the year, or whatever. And so that's why episode 400 and and continuing on, along with all the other ministry uh departments, I guess you call them, why it's so important we we continue talking about these horrific circumstances and events that happen because we all have mental health. You know, it isn't, oh well, Justin has mental health and I don't have mental health. Well, we all have mental health and with that comes the potential of mental illness. Some we know about, some we don't. Unless we're seen by a professional, we don't know. And I'm not trying to say that every single person on the planet has a mental illness. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is what I'm saying is I have mental illnesses. And yeah, there's days we just passed the winter solstice, so now our now our literal literal days we're gonna have a little bit more potential for sunlight than we had. Just the other day we had the the shortest day by sunlight, it happens every single year, and that's probably one of the hardest periods of the year for me, is once we turn our clocks back an hour all the way until now as we're filming this this particular episode where we've gained another minute or so, and then tomorrow we'll gain another minute or so of potential of sunlight. And so we bring these things to people's attention to just keep it real, one of these sayings that I was growing up, it's like, yeah, what's going on, oh just keeping it real, just kicking it, whatever the terminology, and I used it. Some of you may have used it, some I s and I still use it. There's nothing wrong with that. But this whole side of trying to be flawless with with did with social media it can drag people down. And so I'm gonna just use kind of the I don't know. The analogy or symbolism. Um I can speak and write in in English, uh, but I don't always use the right words and in the right form. Uh I I look at a show when I was growing up, um, Comedy Central is called, I think it was Comedy Central. I'll double check that. I think it was. And it was like called the the Chappelle show. Dave Chappelle. So, regardless of where anybody stands politically, that was a time, at least it felt like no matter who we are, where our roots are from, that we could all, if we wanted to, again, these are choices that we have. That we all could watch a show and and just laugh hysterically at you know some of the skits. And I forget how many seasons the show went, but Dave Chappelle was at the top of his game. Each episode seemed to just build on the previous episode. And there came a point where the expectation of people was so high because he set the bar, Dave Chabel set the bar so high. He's a fellow he's a fellow Ohioan. So Dave, if you uh if you're ever available, we'd love to have you on the show. Uh just to have a regular conversation, no gotcha questions, just hanging out, chatting, um, let us know. But from where I was as a viewer of the Chappelle show, each show, again, was building on the like the content. It was it was you know, like Mozart, you know, playing. Uh everything just kind of flowed, and the shows got funnier and funnier and funnier. And we actually use more muscles when we in our face when we laugh than when we cry or you give you know sad face. Uh again, I'm not breaking any records by sharing any of that. Uh that's just a just a fact. And so there came a time where you know what we would call like burnout in any workplace, whether it's TV, whether it's uh writing novels, writing music, uh performing live shows all over the world. Sometimes there comes a point where it's like, I don't know how I'm gonna top this last this last episode, this last show, you know, that we did in you know Paris, France, or I'm just throwing throwing a geographic kind of give you an idea. Like I don't know if we can we gotta do something else. We gotta keep building, we gotta keep building on top of that. Excuse me. And all of us are human, right? Yeah, there's bots and robots, and and Elon's got, you know, the AI and you know, the robot dogs, and like it's uh pretty incredible what what he's what he's doing on so many levels, so many of his organizations. And so burnout can happen to anybody. And I'm not saying this happened to the day where um because social media was, I think, just starting, I could have my dates wrong, where we're just starting to be an impact. So if let's say today, David Chappelle, then and I know he he's done uh other shows as well, um, since then on a different schedule on that. But if he decided, and he had never done the shows that he did, he decided, okay, I'm gonna, you know, in 2026, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna have you know do my show like he did years ago. The scrutiny would just be it would feel so thick you could like cut it with a knife. How people would would scrutinize each and every because we could scrutinize no everything we do, no matter what we do, no matter if we think we did it, a good thing, whether we didn't, it's all in the eye of the beholder, how they feel, what they think. So there's this whole perfection thing, just trying to link it with you know Dave Dave Chappelle. And there's so many times for us that if this wasn't a ministry, and the ministry kind of title really came just in the last 150 episodes or so, which might sound like oh, just 150. Well, given that this time last year, we were literally at 150 give or take episodes, yeah. It that would be correct. It's always incredible that once we we we look through the lens of ministry, at least for me, more times than not, there are times where I I try not to judge, but I do. But there's less of that now than what there had been. And I think that just comes with practice. Again, I'm not no way, shape, or form saying I'm perfect, because I'm not. Nobody is. We've already covered that a million times, so I just mean maybe with the timing of episodes and the length and uh the flow can get better with practice. But I still look at social media because that's one of the tools that we use to let people know that hey, there's there's a new episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast out. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can find Voices for Voices there. If you watch it on YouTube, you watch it on Rumble, you listen on Apple, you listen on Spotify, listen on iArt, and there's still another nine or ten uh other uh audio platforms that uh Amazon, Amazon Music, we're on there. So it doesn't matter where you find us, the show's the same. So if you look at episode 390 on Apple and 390 on Rumble or on YouTube or Spotify, whatever your favorite platform is, favorite out, streaming out. It's the same, it's the same show. We we just we're I think from what I've seen, because right when you're when you're let's say you're looking at an X post, there's so only so many characters you can use if you're not verifying. So you're limited. So we're limited in how many platforms we can put links to in an X post versus maybe a LinkedIn or a Facebook. You get the drift, but we try to provide as much as we can because there's sometimes I'll use one, sometimes I'll use Spotify, then I'll I'll use iHeart, and it doesn't matter. It's the same content, it's the same unperfect content no matter where where you find us at. For a myriad of reasons. So we want it's taken me a long time to get here. And so if we throw all that to the side and we just stay with the vision of here's here's who we are, here's who you know voices for voices is, and we're a ministry, and we're gonna talk about easy topics, we're gonna talk about hard topics, we're gonna talk about people succeeding and doing really well, and then we're gonna talk about some of the harder topics. We don't do it because we want to. We do it because we owe our viewers, our listeners. So we're not skewing our coverage, our we're not skewing one way or the other. Uh, because otherwise we would we would be showing a false narrative of oh, everything's great, and all you need to do is reach out to you know 988. And we do it, we do cover these. And so, yeah, if you're somebody you know has or is going through a crisis and you're in the United States, text 988, call 988, go to the 988 um it's 988 hotline or 988 crisis hotline, and you can chat there. But we're gonna just cover a vast array, and that's when you see like voices for voices is the hottest show out there. Well, we are because the individuals they come again, they may not like every single comment, they might not like every single guest, but as far as again, going back to my you know showing my age, going back to just keeping it real. So that's just what we do. So we try to take that noise of what social media can be, and can be that dark, you know, that rabbit hole that we're we're just going down and we're like, look at this person, look at that person, look at that, look at this, look at this. Because that's not healthy. Again, doesn't mean we don't do it, it's just not healthy, and so the less we're doing that and that we're comparing, and the more that we're just focusing on us and what we can impact, then the more the more people like you and others, if you decide you want to put a show together, and the more of you that's gonna be hitting 400 episodes and more. And that's all we want to see. We're we're not saying, oh, look at us, we're just sharing information. If you don't like it, well, can't really help you there. Just sharing information, we're sharing goals, we're sharing vision, we're sharing, we're sharing. And if you could do us a big favor and subscribe, you could share, like, follow, give us a thumbs up. Those are all free things to do, and we'd greatly appreciate if you could do that for us. So don't be discouraged. It's easy to be discouraged, it's so easy, so easy just to take the take the easy road. Stop looking at what others are doing and start having others look at what you're doing. I'll say it again. Stop comparing and looking so much at what others are doing. So stop that as much as possible, and start believing in yourself and your organization. So by you stopping and watching or listening what others are doing, be that change and be that show, and be that individual, and be that organization, and be that TV show, be that movie, uh, be that uh role-playing game. The people are looking at you. Once you start doing that, and I think I just had a revelation myself by saying that. I I really do. I was not not playing, but that was probably some pretty uh pr pretty good info there. So stop caring about others. I'm not saying stop always caring about others. I'm talking about when we're talking about shows, like so we're talking about like a podcast, if we're talking about a TV show, so just lower how much you care and worry about what others are doing, and fill that void, fill that empty space with you, with your show, with your novels, with your role-playing games, with your movies, with your TV shows. That right there is some heavy information brought down into something very manageable. Stop spending so much time watching TV, watching other shows, and work on getting you on that on that show, on that movie. Why are we watching this? Again, I'm not saying we we a hundred percent stop. All I'm getting at is what what would happen if we would say five or ten percent less of what we're watching on TV and put that towards whatever that that project, that thing, those things, excuse me, that you want to do that for one reason or another just haven't done it. Look at me. I I'm I'm nothing special. I mean, we're all special, we're all children of God, and uh uh, but I I'm nothing special. I wasn't born into royalty, but the hard work and just lowering that by a couple percent of being so hung up on what others are up to in the same, you know, in the same profession type of deal. And that's I think probably a big part of why we are gonna be reaching we literally in a year did just about 250 episodes. That's unheard of. We don't have a staff, we don't have a huge staff at all. We we we don't. We have literally like literally you what who you see and who you're listening to right now, the voice you're hearing, that's that's basically the staff. So while we might be like, oh look, he's on he's on TV, he's on a show, you you he's got this huge staff. No, once they hit the you know, uh when we cut for this episode. Guess who has to go and edit, and guess who has to go and uh pick out title description, title names, descriptions, uh cover for each episode. That's that is so unglamorous, but it's gotta be done. It's got to. That's that's the only way it can really get this show out to the masses, and we know we're only getting a tiny portion of the analytics, and the analytics that we see again, just on the reach alone across the world, a hundred countries, a thousand cities. If that's the analytics that we are getting, goodness, what's on the analytics that we're not getting because of privacy laws, because of private servers, because of many different things. So there's hope. There is a lot of hope. Let that hope start with you and let that be a good thing to be contagious. Look what she did. How'd she do that? How how you don't get to episode 400 without three hundred and ninety-nine previous episodes, unless you want to cheat and then just start your episodes at 400. But just like I said at the beginning, you don't get the episode two without episode one, you don't get episode three without episode two, and the consistency, some people are gonna again are gonna hate everybody, what are you doing? This isn't making a difference. Well, I believe it is, and all of you that are watching and listening, no matter what platform you're on, no matter where you're at across the world, we talk about culture and less about politics. So let that sink in a little bit. We talk more about culture and less about politics, more about culture and less about politics. You can kind of line that up with stop worrying about what others are doing, or just ratchet it down a percent or two, and use that percent or two working on your thing, your things. This can be you next year. Easily could be you next year. You could you could probably you could be on episode 500. There's room for all of us. There is room for all of us. So don't let anybody talk you down. Do your thing, do your things. And come with us. We got a lot of people to help. And that includes us. We got a lot of people to help. We gotta help ourselves. So when we share, we get we get just as much out of shows than the viewer, the listener, the guest. Because there's things like I mentioned in this show, I didn't even I didn't even have it on my radar to talk about. But it came up in the show and and in the topics that we're talking about. So stop worrying and start thriving. Have a great day. We love you. You're making a difference, you're helping people, you're helping yourself. Stop worrying and start thriving. We'll see you on the next episode.