FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #100 How A Rescue Dog Helped Rebuild A Life After Trauma
A high-speed crash, a quiet hospital room, and a rescue dog who refused to look away—this is the story of Honey on Duty and the human she steadies. We mark our 100th episode with Stefan, who opens up about survivor’s guilt, anxiety, and the path that led a returned shelter dog to become a psychological service partner trained for real-world tasks.
We dig into what task-trained support actually looks like: deep pressure therapy during needlework, tactile redirection to interrupt picking and panic, and structured routines that reset spirals. Stefan breaks down common myths with clear ADA facts—no national registry, no required vest, and no online “instant certifications.” We walk through the differences between service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support animals, and why well-trained etiquette in public spaces matters for everyone’s safety. Honey’s discipline shows up in airports, under cafe tables, and across packed conference floors, where focus and calm become their own kind of education.
Beyond logistics, the conversation turns to purpose. Stefan describes how Honey’s steady presence helped him rebuild after the wreck, and how those small, skilled moments extend to strangers in grief or stress. That impact fuels Vindec EU, a storytelling platform born from mental health advocacy, cannabis education, and a belief that healing is a necessity. We talk about owner training, responsible preparation for flights and events, and the honest work of knowing a dog’s strengths and limits. Off duty, Honey is a “fur missile” with a light-switch focus, proof that joy and discipline can fit in the same frame.
If you’re considering a service dog, you’ll find practical guidance and candid questions to ask yourself before you start. And if you simply needed a reason to feel hopeful today, Honey offers one in the shape of a warm shoulder and a quiet sit. Subscribe, share this story with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more neighbors find their way to our table.
Stefan Walter and Honey
Honey on Duty
Follow on IG: @honeyonduty
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm super excited to do this podcast today. It's something different than we normally do. We are in person today, so we've got two guests. We've got Stefan and we've got Honey here with Honey on Duty. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, Dori, for having us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I have um something exciting to share with you. This is actually our 100th episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast.
Speaker 2:Honey! We're episode 100.
Speaker 1:Extra excited today.
Speaker 2:That's a victory. Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It's a big milestone, and I couldn't think of a better guess. So I would love it if we could start off by sharing with us a little bit about. Let's start with Honey. Let's let's share a little bit about Honey. Tell me all about her.
Speaker 2:Where do you want me to start?
Speaker 1:Um, well, I'd love to learn first um what you what Honey does. Okay. And then we'll dive in a little bit of her journey and how she got there as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Honey is a psychological service dog. So she does things like deep pressure therapy, tactile redirection, behavior assessment. So to give you some examples, um when I do needlework at the hospitals, I I have a huge phobia of needles. And honey will lay on me or lay next to me and I'll focus on a breathing technique. And it'll make the process like so easy. It's it's been it's never been that easy in my life. You know, when I was a kid, I used to be had to be holed, you know, down and everything. Um tactile redirection is um if you look at my hands, because of anxiety, depression, all that, I pick at myself a lot, especially when I'm nervous or I'm just you know going through the day. Honey is being trained and continuously being trained to identify these factors and interrupt them. So exactly what you're doing with your hand pulling her ear, if I start to notice it or she'll start to notice shit, she'll come around to me and I'll just start doing this instead. And it's a great way to stop, you know, not that it's self-harm, but you know, you know, it opens a wound and then it stings for a couple of days, and you know, it just helps with that. And then the behavior assessment is really just me kind of like dealing with honey in the sense that I'm getting really frustrated right now, and when I work with honey, we'll go for a walk or we'll do something like that, and it'll correct that behavior by putting positive thoughts back into the environment. Because as an overthinker, and especially um as I've gotten older with depression and anxiety, um, you know, things have gone a lot different. You know, um, honey actually was started by a really significant car accident, followed by um an early stint of um adolescent suicide in the sense that I almost did it, but um instead I stole my parents' credit card and went to Florida. Ah went to Universal Studios.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was actually on my mom's birthday, believe it or not, and they were very happy I did that instead of much better choice. They were still mad, and I didn't use my computer for a week. Ah, much better choice. Back when you could call the airport, see, I was like 14 or 15 at the time. I was in middle school, and you could call the airport and they could get you on the plane the same day. It's not like today, you couldn't do what I did because I had their credit card and that was it, and it was for emergencies only, so I consider that an emergency. But um, after the car accident, me and my wife um Lacey dealt with a lot of um survivor's guilt because we were in a 70 mile an hour car accident with a semi-truck who clipped another vehicle who spun that vehicle out, and I hit the vehicle head on at about 75-80 miles an hour, and we landed upside down in a ditch. And um, you know, the craziest thing was I actually thought we were going to pass the vehicle because I had like positioned myself back, held the steering wheel, and then I just remember the airbag going up and it just going pitch black. And when you're spinning like that, yeah, you don't feel rotation. All it felt like you were pile driving the ground. I was because I've been in multiple accidents before, and um, with that being said, there's usually three impacts there's the first impact of hitting the car, there's the car's inertia, what happens to the car, and then there's the final rest, right? Ours was like we broke the matrix and we were just bouncing against this like pivoreal like cortex, like it like just like back and forth, and I just couldn't figure it out. When I came to, I was looking around, I couldn't see anything, and I looked down and I was like, that's the windshield. I'm on, I'm sitting like this on top of the windshield. Wow, um, yeah, and thankfully my son, my wife, and Lacey's mother-in-law all survived the car accident with not even a scratch or injury.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 2:But it didn't unlock a lot of things that I hadn't dealt with as a child. And so to get to honey, um I went to my doctor and I was dealing with a horrible time with depression, very, very dark stage. Like there were days where I like some days I wouldn't get out of bed, or some days I just wouldn't do anything, you know, just very helpless. Because I think, in a sense, too, um, now, see, when I was younger and I almost committed suicide, I didn't have anything to live for. But now I have an 11-year-old Logan, you know, I have my family, I have my businesses, I have everything that I'm trying to do. So but you know, taken out like that and not having a real decision on it, I feel like kind of woke me up and was like, you know, where where are you with this? You know what I mean? You know, you gotta make good on this. Because you walked away, and the other guy that I hit, you know, had $250,000 worth of medical bills.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 2:And spent days in the hospital. I went home that night, you know, or that morning, because it took a long time. Um, so we started doing a lot of meds and it was really bad. And I just told the doctors, I was like, listen, I use cannabis, um, I'm going to just do that. I don't want any meds anymore. And they're like, we don't suggest that. We suggest continuing to work with medicine, but uh maybe we should just suggest something else. And I we came to the conclusion somehow about a service dog, and the doctor was like, Um, Dr. Mary Umancy is how you say it. She retired from our office at Mary Washington Hospital and is doing something else um in the hospital. But um she said, if you can find the dog and get it trained, I'll write the letter. Okay. So the very next day we went to the animal shelter. And this is kind of the cool magical part of Honey's story. Okay. So when we went to the animal shelter, I was actually looking at a different dog, and I told them exactly what we were doing. My doctor said that if we could get a dog and train it, you know, she would write the letter for me to have it as a service animal, and they told me that the dog that I wanted was not that great for what I needed. But they said, in specific words, if you're open to breeds, okay, we have the perfect dog for you. I, my wife, did not see any other dogs that day. We were just in the lobby. They brought Honey to the front, and that's Honey's real name, by the way. Okay. See, this is Honey's folder, and in this folder has all of our paperwork, documents, and everything. But I want you to take a look at this while I'm telling you the story.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is the day that I adopted her, and then back here is a letter written by her previous owner. And honey was returned twice. So I'm actually her third owner.
Speaker 1:Me and Honey She was waiting for you.
Speaker 2:We were. Me and Honey spent an hour or about 30 minutes in the observation tank, and I looked in her eyes and she looked in mine, and I told her, told the universe that I chose her and that she would choose me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you want to tell a story? Um, and we've been together ever since. I did an adoption with intent. We went to um Fairy Farm Hospital where Dr. Brianna Horricks, who did honey surgery, who is also here in this room on my mental health panel. Right. Um, honey got a clean bill of health. We went back two days later, I signed the dotted line, and we've been together ever since. Because Honey is a service animal, she also travels with me. Last year I was on tour. Me and Honey were in 15 states and 30 airplanes in 12 airplanes.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And we actually got laid over a couple times and they gave us a free hotel room, remember, and they and they took us to the raw hotel. That was fun too. But yeah, so um, first three months of having honey, I was working with a company in Vermont, and I had to fly out. So I told them that I I now acquired a dog because Amanda, honey's trainer, which um she's a badass, she's active, Air Force does all canine from drug dogs to seizure dogs to service dogs to dogs that can go up a 20-foot ladder directly into a building and bite somebody. Um we work with Honey, it was very easy. Um, and when Honey flies, she sits right in front of me.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So she get like we go to the airport together, we go through the gate together, we go through security together, we sit at the gate together, we go to the bathroom together, and we rate the bathrooms at airports for pet relief.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice. Okay.
Speaker 2:Some of them get good ratings, and some of them don't.
Speaker 1:And so then you put that out there for other pet owners so they can know what to expect when they go to the different. We're gonna help with that.
Speaker 2:So, um, so after that, um, she started flying, and then last year during the tour, um, she did perfect. Her longest flight time is six and a half hours, which will be again in January when we go to California for LA. And then in December, we'll be back in Vegas, and this will be Honey's third time in Vegas.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Um, and she's she's done it all, and um, it's really cool because when we're at the conferences, there's times where I've had her out of leash, and we'll walk through hundreds of people just right together. Like, I mean, I could put honey here with a cheeseburger, walk out the room, and 20 minutes later, honey would still be here, and the cheeseburger would still be there.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:I know that because I saw that Lucy species out, and she was laying directly in front of it like this for about I'd say like 10 minutes and didn't do anything.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Okay, so let's take a step back a little bit. Okay, so uh you found each other, and um your your doctor told you if you can get honey trained and um and and I guess would it be am I using the right terminology, certified as a service dog, then you they would approve you not needing the medications. Is that kind of okay?
Speaker 2:So I want to make a clarification. So with ADA law and take a look at this, this is uh this is the first letter. Oh, this is the second letter, this is my first letter because remember I switched doctors. Right. Um but that and the fact that honey has tasks to make her a service animal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk to me a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:This best by ADA law means absolutely nothing. I don't have to have Honey dressed in any apparel that says service dog.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:There is no state certification for service dog, there is no government certification. If you see something that's online that says in 24 hours we'll get your dog approved, they just took your money and gave you an ID card.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:What makes a service dog is a letter from a nurse practitioner, doctor, psychologist, physician, whatever, in a medical standing, and her task. What honey does. So unlike an emotional support animal that would just make me feel good that I hug and I feel relief. Honey is watching my behaviors, looking if I'm picking up my hands. You know, when I'm in getting blood work, she's working with me to make my situation easier for the doctors and my experience. You know, things like that make a service animal.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Like opening the door, being able to pick something off the ground, being able to hold something, being able to open the fridge, um, use for bracing, you know. Sometimes I'll use honey and then I'll, you know, I'll get up like that. There are all different reasons, but they're physical tasks that the dog assists you with.
Speaker 4:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Emotional support animal is just, I feel so good now.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:So, what were the specific tasks that you needed honey to be able to perform, like when you were working with that trainer? Was there um a specific list of tasks that you needed?
Speaker 2:No, because all service dogs are individualized for the owner. Gotcha. You might have a service dog that's a seizure alert that's working on smelling the breath of somebody, and through smelling the person's breath, they can detect if somebody's gonna have a seizure or not. Okay. You know what I mean? Right, right. You might have, honey, get back over here. This is your interview. You might have somebody that's diabetic and and the dog can work with him identifying that he might have, you know, an insulin problem. You know, you might have a dog that's leading somebody around that's barely, you know, it's is legally blind but has some vision. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:So are they trained together with the person that they are trained to help?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Because the the thing with dog training, I think a lot of people get confused, is they send their dogs off to training and then they get the dog back, and the dog's perfect. But what happens is they don't keep up with the training. So what does the dog go do? It goes right back. Because dogs require two things they need leadership and they need discipline, they lack both. And if you are not the guy, like my friend, who's one of my best friends who's a dog trainer, he says, if you treat a dog like a human, it'll treat you like a dog. If you treat a dog like a dog, it'll treat you like a human. You know what I mean? And that's and that's that authority that you build. And you don't do it by beating your dog, you do it by correct reinforcement. A lot of it is timing, you know. Um, sit, you know, with treats in the beginning, you know, get it right on that cue. So when it happens in real life, it's spot on. You know, throughout the day, I don't bait honey with treats or anything. She's good for me with her um e-collar or without her e-collar because she trusts me, she listens to me. I have that confidence built in her that I will make the decision for us and then I'll let you respond. Yeah, you know, and I learned these things through working with the trainer, you know.
Speaker 1:So you get trained as well, right along with that.
Speaker 2:Well, 100%. Because with dog training, you're not training the animal to work with you, you're training yourself to work with the animal. The animal is not the intelligent one in the situation you are. You know what I mean? The dog doesn't know the difference, yeah, but it does know up to 250 words.
Speaker 1:Interesting. And so, Honey, though, not only is she now able to support you, but talk to me about what you're doing with Honey now to help support others.
Speaker 2:Okay, so with my platform Vindec EU, which was actually formed through my cannabis program, Madman Plant, and on Smoke Busters, we did so much um mental health stories. I was like, we gotta do a mental health platform. So we created Vindec EU, and I came up with that because one, I'm Romanian, so Vindec EU means I heal in Romanian, and two, like I said, healing in my statement is not a luxury, it's a necessity. And if somebody that has been broken myself, has you know um never thought I would find my purpose or you know, my way, and yes, there's still struggles just like everybody goes through, but I'm still here, you know, I'm still doing something that's valuable. And my biggest thing is when you get to a level, you should be able to give that back. So, like if you become like rich, you should be able to give back to the community because now you're good. If you become mentally fit and capable, you should give back to the community because that's a that's a need that people lack, you know what I mean? So, my idea with the course and the platform and honey is how can we take this to a next level? And um, I once heard this pastor Rick speak on YouTube, which you guys can look up, look up commencement speech, and he said, I've sat in on hundreds and thousands of the bedsides of people who took their last breath. And the dead, the dying don't play around, they're very specific. And what it comes down to and what they want the most is relationships, is people. It's not what they had or what they did, it's the how people made them feel loved and how they made other people feel loved, right? So the idea was since Honey, we have taken her to, we were okay, so we were in Las Vegas at a huge mansion party. This guy comes up to Honey and says, Can I pick your dog? And we were like, Absolutely. He starts crying in the middle, right by the pool, like bursting out and crying and just like apologizing profusely, right? And we're like, you know, hey, what's going on? He's like, Listen, my dog died last week, and your dog is making me feel like my dog's here right now. And he's like, Can I just sit with your dog for like five minutes? And we were like, hell yeah. And he sat with honey, and uh, we've been in hospitals. This this wonderful lady named Letitia, which we see from time to time at Mary Washington um hospital when I go in for my blood work. Um, she was having, I think it was a kidney thing, but her appointment was missed. She was having a bad day, and then her bride wasn't able to get to her in time, so she had to wait. And we came in there with Honey, and she's like, Do you mind if I just pet your dog? And we were like, Absolutely, and she's like, you know, I was having a really bad day today, and I was gonna put a negative post on Facebook, but Honey has helped me, and now she follows Honey's pages, always talks to her, and it just changes things. So I was like, if if if my mission is to change things and Honey's mission is to change things, and people love dogs, what a one, a great icebreaker, but two, you know, that this truly brings one the stigma breaking of yes, the difference between a working animal and service to help and heal others versus just an animal, somebody you know, and then two, the fact that I have an opportunity, you know. I'm most of this is volunteer. Like when we signed up, if you scroll through that, which I hope you do, it's just honey's a total itinerary. So, first is the resume, so all the information, and I keep this, and I recommend if you do get a service dog, to have something like this because not everybody's accurate. So, in the very back, I went ahead and I put the ADA law. I broke it down by definition, what they say, and if they still don't believe me, they can go to the government page, which I printed off verbatim. And I could also technically have a miniature horse as a service, just so you know in Virginia that you can have I did not know about yes, miniature horses. So you better be careful.
Speaker 1:Amazing. And so for people uh listening or watching, what are some things that That you want them to know about service dogs? Maybe about um, you know, sometimes people don't know about approaching, you know, you mentioned the gentleman asked you, can I pet um honey? What are some things you want people to know?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, one one thing I want people to know is unless your dog is task trained and you have a letter, not trying to be disrespectful, but it's not recognized under the ADA, right? I want people to be responsible. I always think of honey as a responsibility. At the end of the day, regardless how good she's trained, it's a liability. And because I'm the one with the dog, I'm the most liable one. Because if anything goes wrong, who do they blame? They're going to blame the owner, right? And that's why it's almost like, in my opinion, kind of like open carrying. If you see somebody has a gun and you're the bad guy, who do you think you'd go after first? The guy. I want my service dog, just like the concealed carry person, to be so well trained like she is, that when we go to restaurants, the waitress will pop back and be like, oh my god, there's a dog underneath the table because she's so quiet. Or I have a meeting with um somebody and they forget that she was in their room the entire time, even though they saw her walk into the room with me. It's etiquette. As a person who has the privilege and the benefit of having a service animal, you need to uphold what the ADA says because we're the example. You know, there's so many people just buying best online, and we were at a restaurant, and it was a great dame. It wasn't on a leash, it wasn't under the table, it was wandering around the the deck, and we came out for two seconds because we didn't see it at first, and it attacked Honey in the face over at Gore Melts. And the owner of Gore Meltz kicked him and the dog out and told us that me and Honey were welcome anytime, and that will never happen again. And the dog was getting several complaints from owners about being in their space, just being off leash, and there are rules that you should follow because it makes it harder for those who actually work with a legit animal sometimes because we get questioned. Like I was in Giant the other day, and I didn't have her vest on, which ADA, which if you read, you don't need the vest. And the the manager came up because a lady complained that honey brushed against her leg and he wanted to make sure it was a service animal. And it was just like regardless of that happened, we're in a public space, I'm liable to brush up up against anybody. She did not growl, she did not bark, she did not even interact with that person. The fact that that person went out of their way to try to disadvantage me, so now I have to sit here and explain all this, which not a lot of people know the ADA. So I'd recommend just going to the website and getting educated. What is a service dog? And does a service dog really require what you think it needs for yourself? Because until it was recommended and just a thought between me and my doctor, I never even really knew about the power of animals. I never had an animal before. So honey is my first adult dog as well. But I think that's the biggest thing is responsibility. You need to be responsible, you need to have your dog well-mannered, trained, obedient, you know, willing to be able to walk into any environment and also know your dog's weaknesses. You know, I can sit here and say, Honey's a great dog, but as an owner, I also know where I'm constantly working on honey to make sure that she performs the best. Because just like with flying on the with the dogs on the airplane, you are preparing them for their best experience. So think of it like a child. You want your kid when they go to school to have the lunchbox, the clean sneakers, the clean t-shirt, you know, the nice haircut, you know, all the things that you know help build the characteristic of, you know, their self-value, their self-respect. You know, I'm sending somebody positive out into the world and I'm confident about that.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? So I think that would be the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is responsibility and whose responsibility it is. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And if someone um listening is thinking about um going through the process of getting a service dog, I guess maybe the question is more of is is anyone eligible to have a service animal? Talk to me about that.
Speaker 2:There are self-trained, there are you can buy one trained, you could pay to have one trained, or you can do it yourself. You know what I mean? Or find a wonderful organization that is dedicated to helping people find animals that um can work with them. Um, so there is no thing. And then also in the ADA, there's no breed restriction on service animals. So if you want a great dane, you can have a great dane. If you want a little pug, it's a pug. But does it have a letter by the doctor and does it actually perform tasks, physical tasks that help you with your day-to-day? Whether it's deep pressure therapy, which is just the weight of the dog laying on you, licking your face when you're in an emotional state, or in my case, doing you know, blood work a lot, um, to the fact of picking at hands, you know, making sure that you know I'm not constantly destroying my body because my anxiety's high. You know, those are things. So, you know, if you think a service dog would be good for you, I look into it. But do it the right way. Because here's the thing: if you do it the wrong way, and like if you look through here, um honey not only is just a service animal, but honey is also AKAC for um her good citizen and her good citizen advanced. We're also about to finish her um Good Citizen Urban, which is the highest level of AKAD, so she's recognized by AKAD for being in public. Not only that, but this is the transportation form that Honey has to fill out. This allows her to fly on airplanes. Each airplane you fly on is gonna have a different um service number for her. And then here's her Alliance Therapy Group packet, and um she that she did that certifies her as a um certified therapy dog. Um, and then back here we have all the hard um papers. But I would take your time, you know. When Honey came to me, she was very well managered, looking for this dog. You know, that really helps because if a dog needs a lot of training, doesn't carry the discipline, and doesn't, you know, lacks leadership through you, it's going to be a nightmare. The only reason me and Honey were so successful is because from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, even in bed, we are with each other 24-7. There is no degree of separation. If I go to the bathroom, she's in the bathroom. I don't even have to call her. Like if I got up and walked out of the room and there was nobody here, she would just follow.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:So sorry, I just blabbered.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's okay. You answered my question. I want to know what honey on duty is like off duty. Tell me about her personality.
Speaker 2:You want me to throw you into the bus?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Hey, you want me to throw you on the honey off duty. Honey off duty is a wild fur missile with her crazy, non-behave, non-conscious best friend Finn, who um is my my wife's dog, she's a pity mix, but she's like neurotic. Like she does not have a conscious bone in her body. Like, she is just spaced. And when honey's at home, she goes on the deck, she barks at other dogs, okay. She runs through the house. Um, let's see here. She um her Chihuahua best friend Moo, who we have four dogs.
Speaker 1:Oh, a Chihuahua best friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Um, honey doesn't like to eat until Moo's like three feet from her bowl, and Honey will growl and eat at the same time. And Moo does it for support, you know, to help Honey eat because all the time and he's hungry. Um other than that, I mean, she's just a great loving dog. But when we have people come over, they're like, where's honey? And I'm like, no way. And then my friend was like, it's like she has a light switch. It's like you turn it, like she can turn it on and off. Like, we can go outside right now, play for 20 minutes, come right inside. I could be in the meeting, and she would sleep for an hour. Like, like if I am gone all day, like when we're ready, it's we walk about five miles a day in those conference centers. She's worth me 24-7. If I have a day where I'm like, you know what, we're gonna chill out in bed, we'll chill out in bed the whole day. You know, she will match my energy to a T.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Honey off duty sounds like a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:A wild, wild, crazy fun.
Speaker 1:What is something that you wish the listeners knew about um what you're doing with honey?
Speaker 2:Um, I guess what I would like them to know is, you know, what we're trying to do. And right now, you know, we're on the basis of starting out. I think we're gonna put honey as a non-profit, but based on how the structure works of how we work with different people, you know, um, there might be um, you know, a for-profit thing because the biggest thing I want to do with honey is I want to travel. You know, the biggest thing when I was last year on tour with my podcast, and we were a whole bunch of convention centers and everything, was the ability to really impact the masses. And when you have so many people that are just going through their own mental health, you know, things like this are still new to people, you know, um, and and they're real. And I have experienced the healing and the benefit factor of owning an animal. You know, before honey, I was a very broken person, and they say that animals come into your life when you least expect them. Or no, no. Um, animals come into your life when you most need them the most.
Speaker 1:When you need them the most.
Speaker 2:Um, and I believe that's true because you know, I just buried my grandfather who's 103, and then um right before um my son Lillian was born almost 10 years ago, my um my grandmother passed away, I was very close to. And you know, through life, you know, especially being an entrepreneur, you know, trying to create your own brand, your own vision, it's a very lonely road. And you know, you watch a lot of people come and go. But one thing that always stays with me is like how honey makes me feel. So if honey makes me feel this way, and I am into mental health, I have a program that I'm you know developed, I'm doing these panels, you know, this is this is a huge movement in the making, you know. But right now, it's just me making noise. Yeah, you know, the the real thing I would like people to know is, you know, share our story, you know, help us really reach the people that are that need it the most. Because I'm not in it for the money. I'm in it because um, well, okay, there's two selfish reasons why most of this exists, right? So going back to my grandmother, when my grandmother passed away, which I talk a lot about in my podcast, um, I had a very in-depth conversation with her um about dying, and she told me that she was completely at peace, that God had repaid her in every single way, and that she did not care whether she woke up or not. It did not make a difference to her. And when I was in the car accident, and when I almost killed myself when I was younger, I didn't feel like that. You know, when I was in a car accident, I felt a lot of anger and rage and emotion because it was like, how fucking dare you do this to not just me, but my entire family, and take me out before I've even really established myself. I'm still in the building stages with a lot of you know, being a small business and really, you know, scaling and growing, and it and it's it would be it's like, how dare you do that to me? You know what I mean? So I guess in a way, when I realized that I didn't feel like her, I'm trying to do all these things now so I can feel something because sometimes I just feel like I feel nothing. And when I work with people, you know, it used to be materialistic items, but then you just buy a lot of stuff and you realize that that's not it either.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But when you affect people and you have those moments and you can change somebody's life in just 10 minutes of talking to them or have a connection like that, yeah, that's where the true magic is because not everybody can do that. Not everybody is designed to connect on that. Like I talk to my dad about this deep stuff all the time, and he's like, you know, I love this, I appreciate it, but this is too deep for me. He's like, I'm a simple person. Like, I don't think about this stuff, and I'm like, you should. He's like, it's sad, and I'm like, I know it's sad, but even with my therapist, it's it's like building that relationship with death, knowing that our own one, our own immortality has something to do with the benefit of what we can do while we're here. And it's kind of like the sign on the mirror, which I'm phrasing from another motivational speaker, is you know, please leave this bathroom cleaner than you found it for the next person. And and by changing ourselves, by taking ourselves seriously, by creating a brand, by being a parent, by being just a human, we can really start to live that and elevate ourselves. And it takes away the depression, the deep thoughts of sadness, because now you're aligning yourself with true purpose and you're giving yourself purpose and you're causing value to others. It's no longer about like a money thing or a funneling thing or like a marketing thing, it's a true connection, you know. And to have people on stage or on my podcast who, you know, we've had suicide survivors who have talked about every single minute until they pull the trigger, and then right after, I've had people break down bawling tons of times, and to do that for me, it's like those are the emotions that I'm trying to feel. So if I can get connected to them when I feel those numbness, I can feel gratitude because Robin Williams once said the only true way to really value life is to realize how many valuable people there are in the world and how thankful we should be for them, you know, and that's a big part of ego going away and purpose coming out. You know, it's a different driver. So that's what I use is this selfish momentum because right now I'm still not there and I want to be there.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I know that at the end of the day, even if I ended up at rock bottom, while I've had honey and this mission, I will still have been to able to affect m hopefully millions of people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if the listeners want to connect with you, if they want to learn more from you, if they want to attend one of your events, how can they connect?
Speaker 2:Well, depending on when you put this out, November 19th at 6 30 p.m., we will be in this room with three panelists, which we're still looking for, so if you guys want to be a panelist, let me know. Um and it's going to be another great time. It's a monthly event called Vindec EU Healing the Hustle. Um you can look us up, Vindec E U V I N D E C Space E U, um on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Um, our other platforms are Madman Plant, where which we write a daily blog uh mostly about mental health, cannabis, advocacy, um, industries, um, different things that's followed by also Smokebusters Media. And then we have Good Luck Stuff Productions, which is my video production company, which is my full-time, which honestly has created the pathway for all this creativity. Um, and that's where we get to serve the wonderful businesses, small and large, of Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, Stafford, all the way up to New York, down to Florida, to California, where we've been before. Um, and those are the main platforms because everything to us is a way to create something different by using things we already have. It's like an ecosystem, I guess.
Speaker 1:Amazing, amazing. Well, Stefan, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, sharing honey with us, and thank you both for all that you do for our community. I know that it is such important work that you're doing, so we appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and I appreciate you, and thank you for giving me the opportunity. This is our first time where I've actually got to publicly um share honey story, and that's the thing too, is you know, it's just me, my wife, my 11-year-old, and honey, and we really are looking for the community support so honey can go to work and she can travel and bring the help. So please, please follow Honey on Duty, which is the most important platform to follow. And I wear this every time we travel, um, and and really help support her because Honey is a two-time rescue. Um, she is just she came into my life like she has always been here. And just from what I've experienced to what other people experience, we have just a deep, deep passion to really um work with people that need the most.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:You hear that, honey?
Speaker:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG Neighbors Podcast.com.