Persistence Over Presents | Episode 395

Persistence Over Presents | Episode 395

Ever notice how the work that matters rarely happens overnight? We open with gratitude for our global community and a clear look at the holidays—less about shopping, more about purpose and faith—and use that lens to unpack the real engine behind meaningful change: persistence. Not the loud kind, but the steady habit of showing up, deciding for yourself, and doing the work you actually love, even when timelines slip and critics chirp.

Justin shares why grit beats luck almost every time, weaving in memories from corded rotary phones to today’s always-on world. That tech arc becomes a mirror for creative and entrepreneurial growth: progress arrives one solved problem at a time. We dive into choosing your path over other people’s plans, taking feedback without surrendering authorship, and learning the unglamorous business side of big dreams—budgets, pricing, operations, and the day-to-day grind that keeps a vision alive.

The story behind our new release, “Brody James and the Christmas Rescue,” shows what that looks like in practice. We pushed to ship late in the season, knowing print delivery would land after Christmas, and still saw momentum—readers on Kindle, a church ordering 78 print copies, and a team that learned by doing. The takeaway is simple and demanding: persist with what you love, say no to distractions, and ship the work. If you’re starting an organization, launching a book, or building a gym, this conversation gives you a blueprint for staying the course with faith, clarity, and action.

If this resonates, tap follow, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a quick review. Your support helps us keep bringing honest conversations to people around the world. What will you keep showing up for tomorrow?

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Global Community

3:00 Holidays, Faith, And Meaning

7:40 Why Persistence Beats Overnight Success

12:20 From Rotary Phones To Smartphones

16:30 Turning Setbacks Into Momentum

19:30 Choosing Your Path Over Others’ Plans

22:30 Teaching The Business Behind Dreams

26:30 Launching A Christmas Book Fast

30:00 Belief, Feedback, And Next Steps

31:30 Gratitude And Community Support

#Persistence #MindsetMatters #GrowthMindset #OvercomingObstacles #Resilience #SuccessJourney #LifeLessons #InspirationDaily #GoalSetting #SelfImprovementTips #NeverGiveUp #DeterminationWins #EmbraceChallenges #PersonalGrowth #justiceforsurvivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices395

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Global Community
• 3:00 Holidays, Faith, And Meaning
• 7:40 Why Persistence Beats Overnight Success
• 12:20 From Rotary Phones To Smartphones
• 16:30 Turning Setbacks Into Momentum
• 19:30 Choosing Your Path Over Others’ Plans
• 22:30 Teaching The Business Behind Dreams
• 26:30 Launching A Christmas Book Fast
• 30:00 Belief, Feedback, And Next Steps
• 31:30 Gratitude And Community Support

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or if this is their first show, welcome. We are happy, thankful, grateful, and humbled that you're here with us. We do reach on each episode over a hundred countries and a thousand cities across the world, including Antarctica, Greenland, North Korea, Russian Federation, Brazil, you name it, we are distributed there. And it is very uh very humbling to again think that this you know the the microphone and and and that that's embedded in uh these uh these earphones that they they reach as many people, as many territories and uh countries and provinces and and the like in the camera as well. So thank you for being with us. We have had a uh a great week so far. Uh we are closing in on the uh holiday that some of us uh celebrate, and and that is uh Christmas. And that is around uh if you take that what Christmas means, it means more Christ. So more Jesus Christ. It's not all about the the presents and uh in the gifts uh that I'm not exactly sure where and when that actually came about where uh where that's where where we're where we're at. Um and I remember seeing just yesterday actually, a uh there was a still shot, and one is of the original Chris Kringle, the original if we want to call it Santa. And this person was helping individuals in their own village, and then we look at the commercial Christmas, which is what's been built up with presents and all the Christmas trees and uh ornaments, and there's a picture of Santa in the now red suit, white beard, and they're holding the Coca-Cola, and those couldn't be more in contrast with each other of what uh Christmas is and what what the meaning is behind behind it. Uh anyway, so Christmas is common, Hanukkah is is here, Fuanza, no matter what you celebrate or what you don't celebrate, uh we we love each and every one of you the very same. Uh no matter if you're a supporter of Voices for Voices, and and that you follow us, that you subscribe our our shows, that you listen fervently. Um, again, if this is your first show, if you can share, if you like this, uh we we tackle topics that many shows don't cover. And so we get we get pushback from time to time of you know the different different topics, different areas that we uh that we cover. And it's called life, and and that's that's our justification for that things are happening. We we like to be as transparent as possible, and and that's that's really how how the show came about after the organization Voices for Voices came about. And I want to focus a little bit on on persistence, and we'll go on from there. Persistence doesn't mean that you take abuse from anybody, uh, it doesn't mean that others can boss you around. Um doesn't mean that uh people understand fully what it's like to be you and I. It means that in my estimation of what I feel and think persistence is, is we take something that we like to do, that we really like to do, and we stay at it. Learning a new song, writing a new song that takes time most of most most of the time. Doesn't always come to you know person just as quickly as that. Some of us are blessed to be able to, not me, but some of us are able to sit down and write a song in one sitting, right? The music and the lyrics. Uh but persistence just means we take something that we like that we we're good at, we think we're good at, and that's all that matters. You know, at the end of the day, you know, who who we are, what we stand for, that's that's where persistence comes in. Because there's very few. I'll say maybe winning the lottery that changes lives overnight. And that from being a a monetary standpoint, uh a money standpoint. It's very few. That's that's probably the only one I can think of. Is uh you know a life changer that maybe we play a lottery every week. Maybe we never played it before. We play it the first time, maybe we win. Maybe we don't. But if we take that money, and if the lottery isn't our thing, we put that money towards something that is our thing that we like to do, could be writing, could be acting, uh, could be singing, could be playing an instrument, a band, uh could be playing a sport. Could be anything and being persistent in the face of adversity that says stop adversity and hurdles and obstacles those are those are little or big and those are meant to deter us. Because anything that's worth it isn't free. And it isn't always easy like the lottery. So we get you know the lottery. If that scenario works out, then fantastic. And you got it all figured out or you got that aspect figured out. Really other than that, you know, we're all grinding day to day. Making a difference whether it's for you or for me. So being persistent and sticking to it, which is hard to do, right? We got this fast-paced culture, you know, we got this phone, some of us, you know, we got this digital device that can do a whole lot of a whole host of things for us at our fingertips that when I was growing up, we didn't have that. We didn't have I remember having the old dial dial phone where it's like uh almost like a full circle, and you gotta have your finger, and like, okay, if you want the four, then you gotta put your finger in the four hole, and then you gotta turn it and then let it go, and then do the next number. And those are always corded phones, and so when we would be first off, we would have we'd have one a house, one in our house. So one. You imagine that having one phone? I mean, households that have more than one person, uh children are getting their phones even quicker and quicker nowadays. So let's say you have a four-person household, you may quite possibly have four four. You might have quite possibly have four phones in the house. We had one growing up, and it was corded for as much time as I can remember. And even when we went over to the wireless, it was still just one phone. We would have one in I think it was the kitchen. That is you know, pretty it's a it's a common area. And uh my dad, he he worked many, I think it was 40, 45 years at the electric company, and he would get calls all hours of the day because electricity goes out, there's a car accident, somebody knocks over a pole, the the electricity goes out. Well, the way they get it fixed is they need somebody to come fix it. Person comes fix it needs the right tools and the right materials. The way they get it is through individuals going to a storeroom and picking whatever size wire and transformer and um all those things, and they get loaded onto the the bucket truck, and then that's the truck that goes out that would most of us see where we might see somebody raised up in a bucket and and and fixing it. And so we would have uh a second phone and in our parents' room. So many times I can remember where in the middle of the night we would get a call, I wouldn't we wouldn't, I wouldn't know. I'd wake up and go, where's dad? Uh and a lot of times he would continue on his regular shift, depending on what time he got called out. So it was just a convenience thing. But the phone itself, it was the same, the same deal. Uh we just had two of them, but they were tied, they were to to the to the same phone number. Whereas if we have a four-person household, we probably got four different phone numbers as well as so many different applications at our fingertips. And uh so I talk about persistence because being being persistent in what you like, what um what you like to do drove the you know the telecommunication companies to continue on developing telephone cable technology. Some of it's still there. Uh but I remember being at I was at a birthday party for somebody in my family uh not not too long ago, and there was literally the the old-fashioned phone that I remember having in in our house and at my grandma and grandpa's house. And so just as companies, individuals, you and I, we we do what we can. Sometimes it's enough, sometimes it takes a lot of extra work and it comes down to it comes down to persistence. What are we gonna what are we gonna take away so we can spend more time or better quality time doing what we what we like as far as being persistent. And so we're at a point where we're very close to 400 episodes, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, it's been persistence is one of the key drivers of how we got to where we're where we're at right now. If we weren't persistent, and we take the easy road, like mentioned in a prior show, probably in a few prior shows, because it's so important, it's so easy just to walk away and be like, yeah, sorry. Whether we're saying sorry to ourselves or to somebody else, is like uh you know, it wishes this would have worked out much better. Uh I really enjoy this, and then maybe we have a down period, and then maybe we're able to pick that thing up at another time, and we're able to do it, and we're able to pick up at maybe a little bit of a higher level. And so, what I'm saying is be persistent, but make sure it's something you like you you like to do, not what your roommate likes to do, not what a family member likes to do or they want to do. Um, it's a hard thing to do because I think everybody means well for each of us. And it's good to get feedback, it's good to get different perspectives, it's very good. At the end of the day, we have to make the call, make that decision. And so with voices for voices and helping people. Because we are I I don't know, man. Maybe maybe you you too, maybe you're part of an organization, or maybe you want to start something and you want to help people, go for it. I'm a living example of going for what we believe in. I want to be wearing you know this voices for voices coat, this voices for voices beanie, which is available in our voicesforvoices.org shop. You can get get yourself one. And if you want a golden beanie, you can do that too. You can find that in our voices for voices shop. You just have to scroll all the way down, and then on the right, you'll see the cuffed beanie product. You're gonna click that, and then you're gonna have like 15, 20 different colors, and there's one golden beanie color. That's the one that you're gonna want to select. But I I wouldn't I wouldn't be in, I wouldn't be all in the voices for voices if it wasn't for the persistence and the belief of working through and around obstacles meant to trip trip me up, trip us up. Right, there's you know, the devil is a is a real thing. Demon demonic is real. People want to throw us off our tracks all the time. Some of it could be jealousy, some of it can be envy, some of it could be I don't even know. But it's only at those times where we're we're really say battle tested of is it worth it or is it not?

Speaker: 20:25

And that's a that's a big question to think about.

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 20:33

Because we want each each one of us to do what we love to do, what we want to do. Obviously, we're talking about legal things. L-E-G-A-L. We're not talking about illegal things, things that you know are against the law, against ethics, and all that. So you got an idea, you want to build a uh with teaching a lot of the projects uh for the well, all the projects we get turned in for the one assignment. Have a lot of athletes in that in a lot of my courses. So they work out a lot, and so some of their projects they turn in for their business idea is that they would like to build their own gym and have their own gym. It's it's like more power to you. You still gotta understand the business aspect of it, not just the equipment that's needed, and that's what we cover in our course to be able to put budgets together. What's it cost? Is an existing building do we have to build new? Is all the equipment brand new? What's the cost that we have to charge for new members and existing members? We're gonna have promotions. So all those all those things are very pertinent, no matter what type of business or non-business, just managing the household finances. Persistence is one of the ways that we continue on, and persistence is one of the things we wake up to. It shows us how and why we're gonna continue on doing what we're doing. That's what it is. Otherwise, we would think of something else to do. We'd say, Yeah, it's not worth it. I don't feel like doing it. That's okay. There's a lot of things like that that we feel too hard, too much time, too much money, too, you know, too many road roadblocks um obstacles. Um just too hard. And it's okay. There are there's things that I've tried that just been too hard, too time, too money intensive. And then I land here, voices for voices, having the ideas to to do what we're doing and to do even more. We just came out with a Christmas book. It's really really really close to Christmas for those uh that are celebrating Christmas. Let me see if I can pull this up. Let's see if we can pull this. Here we go. Let me see if I can pull this up with uh all right, so we're gonna do a share screen. So we literally just dropped this like this morning. Uh we're gonna it'll probably be another day before this episode comes out. Um but it shows you how how quick, right? We're really really close to to Christmas. And so the title of this book is Brody James and the Christmas Rescue. Brought to you by Voices for Voices Publishing, author and art by David Solomon. So this is the cover, this is the front cover, and Amanda Solomon is an amazing editor. So that's the front cover, and then this is the back cover here. Ten year old Brady James moves to Foggy Brookings, Oregon just before Christmas, leaving behind his home in Medford after his parents become pastors. But Brookings hides an ancient secret. A plot begun in the fourth century is awakening and an evil gingerbread man has kidnapped Santa for a dark purpose tied to sin and forgotten promises. With help from Tara, a runaway myrrh princess, and me, a harp harpy boy who lives on Arch Rock and trusts God for daily provisions, Brody must face legends long buried. This is for ages ten and up, and a story is of faith and sacrificial love is set in the mythical creatures around the world story world by David Solomon. And so this book we literally, like I said, we just dropped it. So it's it's available. You can get it on Amazon, you can get it in paperback, you can get it in Kindle. Uh looks like uh because of delivery schedules, uh it uh the the earliest uh you can get it is after after Christmas. Um but we wanted to show just the amazing you know, the amazing artwork. I can okay, here we go. I mean, it's it's just splendid, just splendid again. This is Brody James, Brody James and the Christmas Rescue by Voices for Horses Publishing, Story and Art by David Solomon, editing, and by Amanda Solomon. And so we're grateful to have this even available, even even though uh if you get the print version, looks like it'll be coming after Christmas, but you can get that electronic version just like that. So persistence. We could have just said, eh, we're gonna maybe miss the deadline for for Christmas on the print version. So maybe we should just not do it. Yeah, we just had a church by 78 copies. 78 print copies, seventy-eight print copies. So those are copies that wouldn't have been sold if we didn't stay persistent and go after this. So that's just another example of being persistent. So persistence is the theme of this show. You can do it, believe in yourself, be confident in yourself. There will be people that tell you not to do it, but tell you to do it a different way, and that's okay. It's okay. It's okay for to to get feedback and understanding from other individuals. It's quite okay. However, at the end of the day, all those individuals around aren't gonna be the ones in the meetings, aren't going to be the ones talking, working through a book like this. And there's gonna be an Easter follow-up among other novels and other areas of entertainment. So I want to thank you for being with us. We love you all. If you can do us a big favor, hit that subscribe button, please subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, share, share, share, share, share, share.

Speaker: 31:21

Give us thumbs up. Give us thumbs up, like, follow, share, subscribe, comment.

Justin Alan Hayes, Voices for Voices: 31:28

Only positive comments, not not evil negative comments, which sometimes we receive in our TikTok lives. We love you all, whether you're on our side or you're our anemone. We believe that Voices for Voices and Mythical Creatures around the World. We believe in culture over politics, we believe in unity over divisiveness, and we believe in you. Have a great day. We love you. We'll see you on the next episode. Tell five friends. Tell five friends about the Voices for Voices, TV show and podcast.