Voices of Service

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on K four HD Radio and Talk or TV. I am ANGELA Sharp Your host. Our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello and welcome to a Sharp Outlook. It's great for you tuning in today. Do you know one of the most valuable voices that you carry with you all the time. It's your voice, and your voice can be used for wonderful things like encouraging people, lifting people up, singing beautiful songs, talking beautiful poems. We should raise our voices when we see things that are not well, or if we have someone in our family that's not doing well. Use your voice. Raise your voice so that you can meet them at the point of need.

1:32 And when I say raise, it's just I want you to talk to them or sing to them, but not yelling. That's not what I'm intending here. Today we have someone from the Voices of Service. It is a veteran based singing quartet comprising of Ron Henry, Crystal Rems, Jason Hannah, and Caleb Green. There are four military veterans whose voices carry a mission of hope, healing, and unity by highlighting the experiences and resilience of service members, veterans and their families. Known for their powerful performances, especially their rise to national fame on America's Got Talent. I remember watching that the group blend's soul, gospel, pop and patriotic music to advocate for those dealing with invisible and invisible wounds, representing the excellence and strength within the military community. Since twenty twelve, their harmonious Blend has been more than music, It's been a movement. Their journey took a powerful turn on September turn on season fourteen of America's Got Talent, where they captivated millions in place fifth. In twenty twenty, their talent earned them a spot on America's got talent champions, but their impact extends far beyond that stage. Voices of Service

3:05 fuses various genres of music to deliver songs of resilience and purpose. Through their performances, they uplift communities, inspire recovery, and create connections that transcend barriers. Rooted in service and delivered with passion, their voices echo a message the world needs, one of strength, unity, and unwavering hope, something we really need at this point in time. My guest is doctor Jason Hannah. He is a member of the singing quartet Voices of Service and an intricate part of Camo. CAMO it stands for a center for American military music opportunities.

3:52 They have utilized their performance to increase awareness of the therapeutic impact and performing as well well as listening can live can have on service men and women who are coping with the challenges of post traumatic. Stress. Doctor Hannah has been singing with fellow military veterans Ron Henry, Crystal Rhines, and Caleb Green and Voices of Service since twenty twelve. Voices of Service continues to perform and use their music to inspire, uplive communities and promote healing. CAMO, which I mentioned before, which is the Center for American Military Music Opportunities, is a nonprofit organization that elevates and empowers service members, veterans, and military connective families through music on stage. Their musical performances include Voices of Service, American Military Spouses, Choir, Donnie Isaac's and CAMO Kids have been in the spotlight on NBC's American Talent and an event around the world. Off stage, CAMO provides music as therapy and music healing services that focus on unique challenges of being a service member, veteran, or a family member. CAMO is on the front lines of building a community of

5:24 military music, creating opportunities for and mentoring musically gifted military members to join the music and entertainment industries. Doctor Jason Hannah is a vocalist and mentor in the military singing quartet Voices of Service, best known for their top five finish on American Scott Talent. A former Sergeant first Class in the US Army, Doctor Hannah is also a life coach, speaker, and advocate for mental health and music therapy. He uses his platform with Voices of Service to raise awareness for service members and veterans and their families dealing with visible and invisible wounds. I'd like to invite doctor Hannah to join me. Hey, good morning.

6:17 Good morning, Miss Andrews. I'm great, and I want you to know I was watching America's Got Talent and saw you guys tear it down. All right. We appreciate that. We absolutely appreciate that. One of the jokes I always give to people as I say, yeah, you watched it, but did you vote? And how many times did you vote? Yes, vot? I voted, I voted. I appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Angela, appreciate it. Yes. Well, you just have a full plate of things that you are working on, and I just want to say I'm just so thankful to have you here. Also, you served as a Sergeant first Class in the Army. I was still an active member during Voices of Service twenty nineteen America's Got Talent appearance where you place fifth.

7:02 You hold a Bachelor of Science in healthcare science and a master's of Science in psychology, a license practical nurse and EMT, and formerly worked as a sexual assault Response coordinator for the Army. You are a head coach at Positive Perspectives, LLC Coaching and Leadership Development company and a certified Maxiwell Leadership Coach, trainer and speaker with expertise in relations, relationship coaching, career transitions and leadership development. And you previously serve as the Associate Minister and Minister of Music for a Victory a faith church man.

7:44 You have lots of jobs. You have been so busy and committed and dedicated to helping others. How does music help those that have visible and invisible wounds? So, ANGELA a great question, and and also I want to say thank you for having me on the show today. I really appreciate it. Before before we get started, But in terms of music, I think music has a unique way of a unique way of reaching people where words can't. So you have folks that are dealing with invisible and visible wounds, and those wounds can be physical or it could be something that that's resulting from the from injury, trauma, or just the weight of some other mental health struggles that they have going on. So I think for me, music reminds people that they're not alone, that there's a shared story, and sometimes that that shared story is sung and not said. It's just an interesting thing that music has a way of bridging, bridging barriers or well destroying barriers and bridging gaps between folks. And if they can't talk it out, sometimes they can hear a familiar melody and they can sing it out and then that will that will help them to break down those barriers, to get them to the part where they can actually talk about what their struggles were and what some of the things were that they were facing. So music disarmed defenses, brings connection, and it gives people hope.

9:03 Again. Wow, it's really you know. I when I first was thinking about this, it brought to mind my brother who went into the military and he was even promoted. He had his you know, got his little stripes and bars and things like that, and then all of a sudden he was discharged and came, you know, he called, and I said, sure, come on, come and stay with me. And he was not my brother. There was just so many things he was going through. He just walked all all night. He never slept, he wouldn't go to sleep.

9:45 And I eventually called a doctor and they said he needed to be taken to the mental hospital, and they took me in there and they would give him medication to help him sleep, because he really needed to sleep. He eventually came out and we got him into an apartment, but that behavior started back again, and one of his friends came by to visit him, and he didn't answer the door. They opened the door and there was the smell and he had passed away. And the dead had a massive heart attack because of the internal stress he was having from whatever he experienced. And very young man, and I wish I had had the knowledge. I didn't know what to do because it was frightening to my children.

10:49 He wasn't the same person. Sorry, but I have a passion to always reach out and to help veterans wherever I can. I used to do homeless visit the homeless shelters. I worked on the streets feeding the homeless. I found a lot of veterans among the homeless, and I would talk with them encourage them as much as I could. I even became a minister and I had a church for the homeless because they didn't feel comfortable going to the other go into churches. They did not feel welcome. Wow, and there was you know, I just I couldn't help him, but I had to help somebody who was going through like him, so that I could make this right as much as I could. I just needed to share that because it was just bubbling in my spirit. Yes, ma'am thinking about him. You Voices of Service still performs. Where do you perform? And how do listeners reach the group?

12:00 Were a performance? How did he read your group? So you know we're we're still performing actively and so Voices of Service we've been blessed to sing on some pretty incredible stages from of course A G T. We've also been several NFL games, w n B, A NBA games, and even the White House, So it's you know, we we we do a lot, and but I just wanted to say this. One thing. What means the most to us, though, is it's not the the the high profile performances. Those are great, don't get me wrong, those are great. But what's what means the most is when people are able to come up to us after a performance or a concert or whatever and they're able to say, you know, we were we listened to your music on wherever they listen to it on and they're like, you know, I listened to it when I'm having a moment and your your words really you know, your words and your songs really have an impact on us and it helps me get through a tough time. So I think those are the things that really resonate the most with me. Is A is A is a as a healer, you know, as a healer, a person that just has a natural tendency to want to heal people. But to answer your question, to go back to your question, you can contact contact us through our website, be of service dot com. It's the like as in Voice, be of Service dot com, Camel's website, as well as social media. So all of those places are are places that you can contact us and reach us for bookings and find out what we're going to

13:30 be doing, and subscribe to our newsletter and stuff so we can send out information about what we're going to be doing and where we're going to be doing it at. Right now, you combine your group, you combine experience as Maxwell Leadership certified coach with deep psychological insights. How does this experience help and you're dealing with your clients? So so the Maxwell well, to me, it the best way I can describe it is it gives me the best of both worlds. So with Maxwell, you have the timeless leadership principles. That's stuff that you know, it's true for across whatever spectrum of leadership that you're going to be in. And psychology gives me the opportunity or gives me the skill set to understand how people they think, how they grow, and how they process things and how they change. So those things I can integrate both of those to help clients not only set goals, but to break through mental barriers or things that hold them back.

14:34 The thing that I say is moving them from stuck to unstoppable. That's kind of like my catch line I have too. Yeah, so that's the thing. Yeah, using those two skills, leadership principles and you know, psychological training to help people move from stuff to unstoppable. As a decorated US Army senior non commissioned officer, corporate trainer, licensed practical nerves and minister, how do these skills meet the needs of hurting people? Okay, wow, great question. So so those roles they okay, so they taught me one thing. Really, to be honest with you, all of those roles taught me one thing. People need care. They need clarity. They need care and clarity. Honestly, So the army, the army side of the house taught me discipline, taught me to follow through to you know, check up on the details. And nursing is all about taking care of your you know, being an advocate for your patient.

15:34 It's about compassion. So those are things that I again, those are things that come naturally for me. And ministry is about giving people hope, right, caring for folks, serving folks, serving folks and. Giving them hope. And the corporate training gave me it basically sharpened my ability to communicate to people across all different spectrums of life, whether they are CEOs or whether they're interns. So I was able to communicate with all folks across all the spectrums of leadership. So when when somebody is hurting as a result of all those things, and somebody's hurting and they happen to exist in those spheares, that mix of experiences, it it helps me to meet them where they are well.

16:17 Very short, I know people to have some of those skills, and they don't understand that that's the whole purpose of the knowledge and experience that they have. The experiences that we have, the knowledge that we have, they have a purpose and there you put those together to actually achieve something other than a paycheck. Absolutely, you know, reaching out. We have a lot of hurting people, especially the younger generation right now seems to really be hurting and hurting others in fact. And they grew up and during a time where there was there's been a lot of violence. I grew up, went to school. You know, the most we did was like have like the bomb drill. We'd get under the desk and but you know, nothing was going to happen, right, you know, they go to school trying to figure out how they're even going to survive every day because we're allowing people to just be active shooters in school and things. When we can stop that.

17:18 I mean, that's what your skills are supposed to teach you that, Okay, this doesn't make sense. Yes, it's called change it when you do the same thing over and over, but it's called. It's to be right. Indeed, you know you're not learning what's wrong. Then you're not understanding the picture when you just get doing it over and you allow someone's child to be gone, you know from their life that I just I don't understand that kind of thought process. But that's why we have this show is to help you to get to the point where you have different thought processes. You you analyze better, you better, you use your voice for something better than you know, screaming on you know, social media and and and the rudeness and the violence that we perpetuate there.

18:13 So absolutely, yes, ma'am so. Empowering, empowering the people, not dictating, and this is something we try to do. Dictating creates a space for reflection and you ask powerful questions and equip clients with practical, actionable strategies. How is how is that help? So? You know, the thing about empowering is is it's it's not telling people what to do. You know, you can always tell somebody what to do, but that doesn't help them learn how to how to process and how to think. So for me, it's about asking questions that help them to see answers that and I use this phrase carefully. It's not so much that it's within them that it's easily extracted, but it's that they may have been thinking about. But there's this thing that we do as humans, the psychological thing is where we want to be safe. So success is actually a very risky and an unsafe thing for our brain as a process. So a lot of times we don't want to think about those things. A lot of times we have to sit down, we have to sit with those things and think about them.

19:20 And when coaches come in as we say, hey, have you thought about this, and they're like, ah, but no, we need to think about this. We need to move this thing from this fight flight of freeze thing that you got going on in the back of your your amigdala and move it to the front of your frontal cortex where you can actually get you to think about it, because when you're thinking about it, you're actually making better decisions because you're actually thinking about how to move things from this part of this thing is happening to me too. I'm going to take control in this situation as much as control as I can. So that's the empowerment piece. Asking the powerful questions, get in them to think about things that they normally wouldn't think about, and helping them to make those decisions that move them forward.

20:03 What do you particularly focus on to assist those not sure of their purpose or their goals when you're you know, doing your coaching and career, you know, transition training, and leadership development. You know, how do you really assist them in that? I think for me it's it's about starting with clarity. I know that's my through line and I struggled with that for a long time as a coach, because every coach needs a coach, so you know, of course I'm I'm talking to my fellow coaches, and the thing is always have your through line, know why you do what you do, right. So the thing is for me, it's about starting with clarity. Start with clarity, because if you know what you're, what you're supposed to be doing, if you have an ideal or where you're supposed to start, that's that whole purpose piece, right, I mean, that's where people get stuck mostly, is that that clarity piece. So if we can get them to understand, let's start with what you know, right, start with what you what you where you want to go. Let's start building the scaffolding from that standpoint, so uncovering what truly matters for people, and then help them align their choices that they're going to make those decisions that I was talking about previously, Help them align their choices with those decisions. So once they get that clarity, they get that confidence, and once they get the confidence, that consistency is the thing that normally follows right after all of that.

21:24 Yeah, and the thing is even for myself, I've always wanted to help people. When I was a child, I said I was going to be a doctor, but they didn't. They didn't quite turn out that way. I ended up becoming an accountant and a software engineer. You still help you out, That's what I realized. I go in and I help companies right side their ship. I help companies get out of, you know, tax issues. I help companies get new software systems in to make things more efficient. So I am helping. I help companies do the right thing so they don't go to jail. So I'm always helping companies, and then I'm always reaching out to help people.

22:07 So in some ways I am helping and I don't have to deal with some of the things that I realized. I wasn't going to be able to look at yes as being a position. It's like, ooh, I'm so glad I didn't take that path. I would not be able to handle that. So still doing it. So those skills that you're talking about, you still are able to use them. As your goals and purpose, they just might transition into a lot of different paths. I mean, I have so many re imagining my life. I don't know where I'm going to end up. By the time I'm one hundred and twenty five. I am living to be one hundred and twenty five.

22:47 I heard that talk about that me too. We're going to do that together. You know, I said, You know, because some of the others, you know, you read scriptures, they were in the seven hundreds and ninehundred years. You know, we done lost a couple of years here. I want to retreat, recoup some of my years, and throw twenty five on the end of one hundred. My grandmother was one hundred and four when she passed, So I know that I can reach, you know, one hundred and twenty five. That's what I'm shooting for. So I want to stay healthy so I can do what I do help others as much as I possibly can. So, doctor Hannam, you say, every person possesses seeds of growth, Yes, within themselves, yes, you know, and so you help the clients to uncover those inherent strengths and build the resilience needed to thrive. How in the world. Is that done when most don't know they have seeds?

23:53 Yes? So very simple and it's so okay. Here's the thing about simple simplicity is it's simple, but it doesn't mean it's easy to do. But it is simple. For me as a coach, I look for the small winds. I mean when I say small winds, I'm talking like, you made your bed today, because for someone that's in depression, that beid may have not been made for a long time. You know, the sheets may not have been changed. It could have been a lot of different things. So the small winds are the things that I really really hone in on because when people can start seeing the small wins, they can grab a foothold in life. They can or even a toe hold in life. Right.

24:33 So, and I always say that growth is hidden and the things that people are already doing or the intent to do it now we got to move them from intent to actually action. But the growth is actually hidden those spaces. So if we can name those things, those little small winds and help them water those seeds. Hey, you made your bed today, that's big. What was the thing that you know encourage you to do that today? What was the thought that that was going through your mind that helped you to do that, and then we to encourage them to keep having that thought or what was that thought. It's a placeholder, a mental monument, is like call them. So those seeds, you keep wading those seeds with the consistency and with reflection again, thinking about your thinking, reflecting on those things, remembering why you did what you did, why did you do the thing, the good thing that you did, and then let's let's keep that going, keep those winning streaks going. So yeah, for me, it's just a matter of helping clients see or people not necessarily clients, but people see what what they already have going on for them and what it takes from the you know, what's working for them to help them thrive, and then just keep nurturing that seed.

25:40 Yeah, it seems like there's so many people that have gone through trauma. And like I said, I come from a military family, and I mean from great grandfathers to grandfathers, to uncles, to cousins to nephews to my granddaughter's usband right now is in the military. I mean, just wow, it's just you know, everyone has known we need to contribute and be a part of what helps us to be a nation that is free. And so you know, my family has participated and been apart, but some have come back, Like I said, my brother and then my uncle's becoming alcoholics. I mean the trauma when they get stuck in that space of trauma and trying to you know, maybe deaden it with with like the alcohol and things like that. They're stuck. How do you get someone that's stuck?

26:37 How do you get them you know, unstuck. Wow, that's a great another great question, how do you get them there? So so to me, from stuck to unstoppable is all about momentum. We we do have an issue and it's just it's the human condition inertia and is one of those things that is just it. We all have a form of it in one way or another, you know, procrastination why because we're fearing something, or we don't want to move forward because you know there's some something attached to that memory, or maybe we don't know what's behind behind this thing. But so in essence, being stuck is about hesitation, doubt, it's the fear those things that uh and all those things are going to keep us from moving forward. But to helping people to move from that. It means giving them again again the through line clarity, right, confidence and understanding, or at least helping them to uncover their purpose. I mean, I don't I don't claim to be the purpose the person that would say, hey, I'm going to help you discover your purpose. It's not that.

27:45 But I will help you with clarity, and I will help you with confidence. And I believe that purpose is found in those in those things. Finding those things, so helping people to bridge those gaps and by breaking goals into simple, small, simple steps and then showing them you know that it's progress over perfection. That's what builds the momentum. That's what builds that unstoppable momentum. It's progress, not perfection. That's the main thing. Yeah. Yeah, so from stocked unstoppable. Yeah, there's a road map to move past hesitation. Yes, I think all of us self doubt absolutely building the confidence and purpose. But is there a specific strategy to do that?

28:30 Yeah, there's there's several. Uh, there's several frameworks that I that I use that will help with that with that, with that road One of those is Mission to Reimagine. I use that a lot of times with the UH, with the veteran population, because it helps them to kind of reframe what they were doing, what they were doing before, and what they're doing now. There's also what I call mental monuments. I alluded to that earlier. Mental monuments is all about helping clients identify things that they already used in the past, concrete moments, things that they can they notice from the past that where they've been successful, and I help them say, hey, there's this concrete moment that you had. You use this already, that were a moment when you were resilient, where you were faithful, where you were effective. Right, So let's go ahead and look back and look back at those monuments, those times in spaces, and we're gonna we're gonna do a few things. We're gonna notice what happened. We're going to really notice it. We're gonna examine it. Then we're gonna name it. We're actually gonna name the monument, you know, kind of like in the Bible, where there were there were monuments that were building, they named it. They said this place is this place, and we're gonna name it this thing so that way we remember, I mean, and what you have to do with that is you have to remember and then tell somebody else about it, so that way you can extend it. A lot of times it didn't happen that way, but we're going to try to do better. We're gonna name it, and we're gonna remember what it was named, and we're gonna remember to tell somebody else about it, so that way we can help be held accountable. So then we're going to anchor that thing, right, So that's the next thing. What does this thing tell you about you? What is this story that you're telling yourself? What does it say about you?

30:02 What are the skills or the things that you get you have to do to continue to keep these winning streaks going. And then the last thing you're going to do is apply it. You know, how could you how could you this the same version that you that built this monument? How could that same version of you show up consistently all the time with that same clarity? How does that thing happen? So those those are the things that notice the name, the anchor, and the and the the applying the mental monument. So that's a really big one. That's a powerful framework and it helps a lot of people out. Especially probably those that have been in the environment of such discipline as military, and their days were organized and they know their successes and things like that, and everything's on the plan. They're not like doing the wrong thing there.

30:54 You know, everything has a structure and a plan. And being able to at least bring back those that part of the behaviors of the military. You know, I know there was something that might traumatized them, but that wasn't every day. So the good portion was probably just getting those disciplines, doing that work, accomplishing that task or that you know, command that was that was done and being successful does it But going back to that, are they able to stay in that happy place where they're like, yeah, man, I remember doing that and they you know, brighten up or does it bring bring the trauma to the front.

31:46 See that's interesting because now we're doving into therapy versus coaching. Right, So with the therapy and the. Coaching, would you do that right? Right? Interesting? Interestingly enough so because I and I am very clear on this, I am not a licensed therapist, right. I do have a psychology degree, but it's more on the you know, academia so that you know the research side. But but that doesn't mean I don't have training in that area, especially resilience training. So one of the things that you have to understand is a is A is a mental health gatekeeper. Is to understand where you're not in your depth. Say, for instance, a person has trauma that comes up during coaching, that might be a good time to pause and to maybe refer to someone another practitioner that can help them with those with the trauma because the trauma part, if we we can, we can work with a person that has some that's working with the therapist as well, because trauma is about unpacking what happened, why it happened, and moving forward from that from that space, and then for the coaching aspect, we pick it up and we say, hey, let's let's see what we can do as far as moving forward despite the trauma or even because of the trauma, we can and still move you forward with a specific goal or specific tasks. So we work in tandem with the with therapists on that end.

33:06 So to your question about the happy place, sometimes the happy place doesn't doesn't remain, and sometimes it does trigger something else and you just have to be skilled to be able to hear what they're saying and understand what that's not my depth. I need to make sure that you get the help you need and we can kind of pause, put a pause on what we're doing. Let's get you to help. You need to deal with that trauma so we can move forward with the with the other parts of your life that we can address. Yeah, I was just thinking, Like I said, I was working with the homeless on the streets and maybould tell me some things that happened in their lives and things like that. I couldn't do anything but say, you know, you survived it. You know, I didn't know what to say, so that's the only thing I could say, is you survived it. Now think about what you have experienced and others are experiencing some of those things. You can actually be a voice to help them get through it because you did get through it.

34:03 You know that. I was trying to encourage them. I don't know whether they followed it, but they got a happy and excited face while I was talking to them. But they probably do need to They need to reach out to someone that has that, you know, experience and that knowledge because it's also an area that's pretty tender and can cause severe reactions, like you said, triggers since cause them triggers that could get serious. So I don't think novices like myself should be trying to practice in areas that we don't have the license, nor the experience, nor the capability.

34:48 We need to refer our friends and our family members to professionals who can, like you said, work them through that trauma area and bring them to a point where or they they can handle it, they can deal with it and not live in it and move on. I mean, I still have friends that we're from viet went to Vietnam, and they're okay, and then all of a sudden something occur and set off a trigger, and it's a response that I have to like kind of step back. Oh okay, just be quiet right here, Angela. Don't try to be You're not the boss here, right Absolutely, you need to just be quiet and let them work through this moment here, but then just probably understanding them. Understanding those trigger triggers are really really critical.

35:46 Right right, And and and to your point, I'm sorry, I wanted to say something really quickly because I wanted to say I know you said, Hey, I'm not a professional, and but a lot of encouragement, care, compassion goes a long way to help for people because if you're trying to if you can get them to just you know, to have hope for the moment, that's helpful because that moment can bridge them to the next moment to getting to getting them to the to help the help that they need. But yeah, I do not despise, you know, Boble says, don't despise their small beginnings, those little small tools that we have in our the chest of smiling and encouraging and helping, you know, just talking to them or sitting quiet. Those things are very helpful too. So don't please how no, say, don't diminish your your you're you're working that area because it's it's helpful.

36:32 Well, I'm glad you're saying that, because one of the things when I was working with the homeless people, especially the veterans, they really what's saddened them the most. You know, you sign up and you put your life on the line for us back home and then yes they've come home, Yes they're having some issues. They're sitting there on the side of the sidewalk or there's just leaning on against the building or whatever, and they say, people walk past me like they're a tree, like they're not even a human being. They won't even look them in the eye. They won't even smile. They could say hello, They're not going to jump out and bite. I know because I've worked with them for like ten years. Every Friday down you know, downtown, you know, in this parking lot. We would have food, we would have clothes, We had musicians, Like you said, music. They were happy when they heard that music and clapping and everything. And they just when they talked to me, they said, I'm still human, And I said, I know, and I'm so glad. And I would even look for opportunities for you know, restaurants or whatever that would even give them a little little work or something to give them that pride. But hey, they might.

37:47 They went over there for you to be able to have freedoms, and I think we owe it to them to at least give them a hello and a smile. Can we do that? Can we start saying hello and smiling and some of the people who are suffering because they were trying to provide you with the freedoms and all the things you enjoy and take advantage of on a daily basis. Just say hello. Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the things I heard that. You know, you mentioned something that you mentioned that and it reminded me of I can't remember where I heard it from, but I was thinking about homeless population, specifically in veterans, homeless veterans, and one of the things they said they could deal with almost anything, but one of the things that they was the most heartbreaking to them was the sense that they were invisible, Like like what you just said, It's like, you know, it's like he won't even say hi to me. It's like, I'm a person, Please just hello, you know, you know, because I guess most people think that, you know, if I say hi, then I mean I'm gonna you know, now I got to give them money, and now I got to give something.

38:52 Like a lot of times you'd be surprised. It's like, no, they just want to say hi. Yeah, and you know what, so put some change in your darned pocket so if they do need some money. That's what we were supposed to do. Yeah, love our neighbor as ourselves. We're supposed to feed the hungry, We're supposed to clothe the naked. So all of you are saying that you're following the book, well, you must have missed a few verses. And I'm speaking for those that are hurting because you're ignoring them. And if you know you're going to go down the street and you might run into them, take a few dollars, take some change, do something so they at least go buy a coffee.

39:36 It would make their day. You have no idea how much that would help with the healing process. I'm sorry I got on. No, you're good, but you know what. Challenge accepted? Yeah, challenge accepted. Yeah. My wife always asked me, hey, you know we you know, because homeless everywhere. As a matter of fact, any one of us could be homeless. We're like one pay check away from a lot of times capacity. For the grace of God, you know, it's only the grace of God that keeps you from maybe being in that position. And like I said, working with them, it's just given me a different outlook on life. And yeah, I'm always trying to help somebody. I mean able to help.

40:23 People say why don't you just slow down and stop? I can't because somebody needs help. And if I'm able to help, I'm going to do so, because that's what my hands and my feet and my mouth is for is to help others. I may not be suffering, but I'm going to speak up for those who are suffering. And you know, veterans who have put their lives on the line should not be needing to fight government to get their benefits. In fact, my father went to war, my uncles went to war, and they did didn't get their benefits when they returned. And I think something still needs to be done about that. Wow, because there's still generations of them existing, and so let's make that right.

41:16 How about that? Just how about that? Do the right thing? Absolutely, it goes a long way. So you've told us about reflection and things like that, a reflective practice designed to help clients recognize and celebrate their progress, their growth and resilience. So you said that you give them a mission, reimagined the framework. So tell me how that works with veterans. So with the mission reimagine, there's a lot of folks. Matter of fact, I talked to a young man who he went through his the way he described it, and I get it because a lot of us go through a version of this as retirees or folks that get out of the army or the military, whatever branch you're in.

42:05 And he said, he went through his Alpha and Bravo plan and now he was in his Charlie Plan. So he's doing a job that he did not intend to be doing when he got out, because he had all of these plans and had you know, he didn't have he didn't have a degree, but he was had all these plans going to business and do all these other things, but all of that fell through. So long story short, he was kind of like in a sense where he was aimless, didn't exactly know fel kind of lost. I guess that's the word the best word to use, was lost. And he wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to do with that Charlie plan, because I mean, he was earning money, but he's working hisself, like he's working fifteen sixteen hour days, comes home, sleeps for a couple hours, and then goes back to work at four o'clock in the morning and he's working until seven, eight o'clock at night.

42:52 So yeah, it's a lot. But one of the things I was able to help him with was to kind of tie his the mission that he's on now because he's in a service profession, and he was able to understand that, well, he wants to be a person that serves because that's why his business model was to be able to do service things. But he's also serving in this role that he's in currently. So he's working, you know, his dual, Hattie's still working in the business, trying to get the business off the ground. But in the meantime, I was like, well, let's let's let's figure out what this thing that you're doing now, how it's caused, you know, how it's helping you to be able to serve, but in a different way, you know, kind of like the mission reimagine. Let's let's reimagine it. So giving you a little bit of again clarity, clarity of the mission that you're on currently, because it is a mission. You are serving people, You're just not serving people in the way that you thought you might be. So once we get that, get that clarity out of the way, this is what you're doing, you're actually serving right, so now you can work.

43:51 You can walk into that situation with confidence and knowing that, Okay, I'm doing this for a period of time. It's a season, not forever, but it's a season but while I'm in the season, I'm not just biding time. I'm not just you know, just marking time. I'm actually doing something. I'm making connections. I'm working with people. I'm having you know, building relationships with folks that he's serving and and helping him to remember that is what you were kind of doing in the military when you were when you had the mission, it was readily defined. Now we're going to redefine the mission. You have to define the mission this time. Someone's not going to do it for you. You have to do it. And I'm going to help you figure out what that what that mission is. So now we have that clarity of what the mission is, we moved through that identity piece.

44:32 Who are you now? Who you were? Sergeants so and so, or specialists so and so. We're major so and so, lieutenant colonel so and so. But who are you now? Who is that person? You still have those experiences, but who are you now? And now once we get that identity piece, we can work on Okay, what am I supposed to be doing? What on Earth am I meant for? Right? That purpose piece? And so then we move it to the stages of practical planning. So what's the next chapter look like, what's the next few months look like, what's the next few weeks look like. Maybe we could do a five year, ten year, but let's work on weeks months and then we work on the year plan and then we work through that. So those practical steps. But really it's about structure, you know, because a lot of times folks that are in the military, they just we folks that were in the military need that structure.

45:16 They need that. Yeah, they need that structure, And you got to just bring it back to the to the basics. What were we doing before? Now that you're in charge of it, now you know it's not your commander. You are the commander now, you know. You know, if you're praying, if you're a praying person, if you're a believer, then you know God has given you the instructions. But we got we're gonna tease it out. We're going to figure out God, what do you say, help me to hear you more clearly? So yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I also think about the military families. You know, there are family members that are involved in the healing of some of the veterans themselves. Absolutely, their families are part of that healing too, because they're been part of the trauma and part of the restructure in their lives and things. So your organization also counsels the family members too, because it has an impact on them for sure.

46:18 Yeah, my carrious trauma. Yeah all yeah, because they go through the same things. Even I'm looking at my I'm thinking of my relationship at home with my you know, I have seven kids, seven kids, me and my wife, and they're all adults now, which is which is great. It has its own challenges as then being adults, but that's another story for another time. But I think about the almost thirty years that I served and everything that I went through, my wife went. My wife, she's she went through it in her own way because when I had challenges that were, you know, just ridiculous, she had to work with me to figure that out. When I'm struggling with different things or whatever, she had to work with me. So she was some you know, vicariously trauma by that. And my kids also got a little bit in that they didn't feel it the same way, but it was still the same thing. So to your point, yeah, families go through some of the same things, so you have to be able to you know, incorporate the families and the discussion as well, and as as the And for me, it's about what the you know, the client.

47:17 The client could be a family member, but sometimes it's the client is the military person of the veteran and sometimes they just they want to get clarity for themselves. But you know, we also try to work the families in as well as much as we can. However, sometimes it's the family members that come for for services because they know, oh, you're a family you work with family members too, Yeah, because we want to help you guys figure that out too, you know, and help your help your spouse who's struggling with different things, help them, you know, figure out what the next what the next best steps are, and and for you as well, you know. So tell us to our listeners, what can we do to encourage to help to to lift our voices or whatever to make things better for our veterans and especially those that have been, you know, out of the active military for a long period of time. What would you recommend to our listeners.

48:19 Oh, let's see, if if you are a if you are a retiree and you are let's say you you are retiring you've you've maybe you have a modicum of success or or you you've figured some things out. One of the first things I would say, reach back, I mean seriously, reach back and help some of your brothers and sisters out because there is a So we've gone through transition assistance programs and that's the program that the military uses. So when folks are getting out of the military for whatever, you know, whether they're retiring or their their their services over for whatever reason, that taps is great.

49:04 The problem is it's a fire hose. So you get all of this information and then you get out, and then you find out that you miss so much because you were focusing on trying to you know, clear you had for the army at CIF, you got to clear CIF all this other stuff that you got to do, so you weren't really paying attention. You were just trying to get out and figure it, you know, and get on with your life. And they're giving you, hey, we got all this information. It's going to help you transition. Well, la la la la la. Great. But the problem is that once you get out those services, at at some point those services will THEND. It might be a while, but they will end, and a lot of times folks are trying to figure out how they're going to make ends meet, pay their bills. Then there's then there are those folks that are further out, that have been out for three or four years, that have figured out some things. They had some time and now they know, Hey, there's these things that are that I wish I had known. Those are the things. Those are the things. I want to encourage people. The things that you wish you had known that you know now, talk to your people, go reach back to those folks, to those folks. Don't if you put it on social media, that's great. I'm always an advocate for saying use the social media. Hey, soldiers, did you know about this? You know, there's a lot of folks I'm going to shout out that are doing great work. LaToya Green is one of them, retired Starry first Class Flea Toya Green. She does a great job of advocating the soldiers and she's retired. There's other folks that are working with folks that are getting their military benefits, their disability benefits. There are folks that are doing it for free. They just want to help them out. Reach back, yes, exactly, help reach out and help those people out. Take the information that you have,

50:36 the knowledge that you have, and help those people out. Because really that's what we're here for is to work in community. So if we're not doing the community thing, then what are we really doing. That's that's my Yeah, that's that's my biggest thing. I get. I can get passionate about that. I get really passionate about that. So I'm going to stop at this point. Yeah, I just want to say I've enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much for being here on Sharp Outlook, and for those that listening today, you heard what he said. You know, reach back if you've been in the military, reach back if you've been a family member, and help your other brothers and sisters that might be experiencing some of the same things and we who have not, that doesn't mean we can't be involved and lift our voices that make sure they're getting their benefits, donating to organizations that are helping the veterans, and just finding out what's going on. Go out there in social media, whatever, and get informed and find out what is happening in that area with our veterans. Thank you so much, doctor Hannah for being here and thank you for tuning into a Sharp outlook. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern time eight am Pacific time, and as always, stay informed.

51:57 I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp album. We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on ky for HD radio and talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.