97. ‘I Love You, Bro Project’ and Supporting Men Through Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Programs (with Founder and CEO, Joe Tuia'ana)

The story of Joe Tuia’ana’s nonprofit begins after he had the opportunity to help a man in a suicide crisis and literally love him off the ledge. After that experience, he learned that there weren’t any resources for men’s mental health and suicide prevention where he lived, so he decided to start creating them. Now he runs his nonprofit the ‘I Love You, Bro Project,’ where they sponsor support groups and hold workshops for men to help them find connection and purpose as they navigate mental health challenges.

Joe’s heart and sincerity in the work he does really comes through in this episode and it left me feeling motivated to make sure I’m connecting and lifting up the good men in my life. Listen to hear more of Joe’s story and about the good, and necessary, work he is doing.

Links mentioned in the episode:

I Love You, Bro Website

I Love You, Bro Instagram

I Love You, Bro Facebook

Follow the podcast on social media:

Do Something More Instagram

Do Something More Facebook

Do Something More YouTube

Transcript

Melissa: The story of Joe Tuiana's nonprofit begins after he had the opportunity to help a man in a suicide crisis and literally love him off the ledge.

After that experience,

he learned that there weren't any resources for men's mental health and suicide prevention where he lived. So he decided to start creating them.

Now he runs his nonprofit, the I Love you Bro Project,

where they sponsor support groups and hold workshops for men to help them find connection and purpose as they navigate mental health challenges.

Joe's heart and sincerity in the work he does really comes through in this episode and it left me feeling motivated to make sure I'm connecting and lifting up the good men in my life.

Listen to hear more of Joe's story and about the good and necessary work he is doing.

Welcome to the Do Something More podcast. The show all about service where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more.

If you're passionate about nonprofits or looking for simple ways to volunteer and give back to the causes that matter to you,

this is the podcast for you.

I'm your host, Melissa Draper.

Stick around and I'll show you all the many ways anyone can truly make a difference in our world today.

Melissa: Welcome to this episode of the podcast. We are featuring the nonprofit I love you Bro Project.

And I'm really inspired by the work that they're doing.

And I have with me today the founder of that nonprofit, Joe Tuiana.

He's the founder and CEO of I love you Bro.

And it's a Utah nonprofit organization that's doing groundbreaking work addressing men's mental health,

suicide prevention and ongoing personal development through evidence based programming for men.

And I was really impressed to learn that. In 2022, because of his special suicide prevention experience, Joe was recruited by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to help them create the Live on Utah Suicide Prevention Playbook,

which was a training course taught entirely on Instagram.

Over 150,000 people have taken that training and are more aware and educated because of it.

Above all else, Joe's greatest accomplishment in life is being a full time single girl dad to his three daughters and they live in Lehigh, Utah. So, Joe, welcome to the podcast.

Joe: Hey, thanks. I'm so happy to be here with you, Melissa.

Melissa: Well, let's just. I know you have kind of a tender story of how this whole thing got started and I would love to just go into that. And what inspired you first to start your nonprofit, the I Love youe Bro Project.

Joe: Sure.

So it was. I always describe it as a.

As a terrible,

beautiful experience for me because it involved all of those things. Terrible, beautiful, and everything kind of in the middle. And so it started when my kids and I had been.

This is back in 2022.

So my kids and I had just had Covid. Mine turned into pneumonia.

And at that time, also, I was two weeks sober.

I had been heavily drinking on my own. Kind of miserable.

A functioning alcoholic, I could say.

And we were on our way to a basketball game. So it was my daughter's basketball game, and she had missed the last one, so she was very excited to go to this one.

And to get to the basketball game. We always have to cross this overpass in Lehigh,

literally bridges Lehigh Junior High School with Lehigh Heights. So we had taken that drive many hundreds of times, you know, for activities, for school, for friends who live over there on that side.

Anyway, it's this particular morning. It was a Saturday morning,

and,

you know, it is actually a Saturday early afternoon.

And this particular time, we noticed this man park his car on the overpass.

And he got out and kind of was. It was just peculiar, the whole.

It's one lane each way on an overpass, you know, so when you're parking your car on an overpass, it almost stops traffic. You know, you're.

You're right.

It's just peculiar. And so we were like, what is this guy doing?

And me, I was coughing and pneumonia still and craving,

honestly, craving alcohol and, you know, more like craving a way to kind of get out of my. This pneumonia, stress, and all these other things.

And I was just thinking, let's just leave this guy alone, mind our own business.

And my kids who are with me, so I have my oldest daughter in the front seat of my two daughters in the back seat. They were,

you know, honestly, the more interested than I was, I want to say a little bit more concerned than I was the time.

And so I just kept driving. And so I'm driving, you know, when he crossed the overpass,

there's a stop sign a little ways down down the. The hill there. And my kids were looking out the back window,

and I was just glancing in the rearview mirror. I was like, ah, what is this guy doing? You know? And we noticed he had walked, and then he jumped onto this protective fencing that overpasses have, you know, that deter things like this.

And he jumped. He ninja jumped over this fencing. It was incredible.

And my kids scream.

And I'm like,

I have this moment where,

you know, we have those come to Jesus moments, you know, every once in a while in life, that kind you kind of decide is it this thing or is it.

Yeah, this thing.

And I. And I had that moment where I was like, okay,

fine. Okay, yes, I can do this.

So I whipped around, did a U turn,

parked behind his car,

and I told my oldest daughter, you know, call the police.

Told, my daughter's sitting in the back. Just chill,

stay here. You know, kind of like I got this kind of thing. And then I opened the door and closed it. And, you know,

being a single dad, I've been raising my. My three girls. It's, you know, my kids on their perspective. They're of course, worried. But I'm sure now talking about it, they were probably like, okay, well, and dad's got this thing.

Dad will handle it. And I'll tell you, Melissa, when I closed the door, I immediately thought,

I'm. I'm gonna throw up.

I'm actually gonna throw up right now.

My blood pressure started rising. I literally started sweating, like water out of my face,

pouring out of me.

And then I thought, I'm going to pass out. And I said a quick, just powerful quick prayer.

Just saying, please,

please, God, just let this guy know that he's loved. And it's not like I had this Samson biblical moment, power and strength, but I had.

I felt like I was given an extra measure of confidence going into that situation. The weight of the moment was very.

I could feel the gravity of it, you know, immensely.

So then I. I started thinking, well, man,

just being. And I'm six three, 315. I'm a big Polynesian brown guy.

Just being me and looking like me.

I could make this situation worse. You know, if I approach certain guys, you know, it's.

Can be intimidating. And so I'm thinking,

what can I do to. To make myself more.

And to make myself more inviting, more, you know, welcoming, more warm.

And I thought, well, what if I just opened my arms to him, like I wanted to just give him a hug? And so I did. And so between, you know,

me at that time and him sitting or standing on this other side of this ledge of the Silver Pass,

it's like, it's maybe 10 yards, 12 yards. And so I started slowly walking towards him with my arms open,

like I wanted to give him a hug.

And I just repeated the words, I love you, bro.

And almost screaming it, actually, because it was so loud on an overpass. I don't know if you've ever walked over one or anything. It's super loud. And so, you know, Saturday traffic underneath.

So I almost felt like I was screaming it towards him so that he could hear me. He wasn't. He had not looked my way yet until I got, you know, maybe about five, six feet away from him.

And he was just so sad. He was just, you know, I'll never forget it. It's.

He was so sad, and I could feel how sad it is.

I think I was meant to remember how sad it was.

And so I started getting emotional, desperate, probably. He was already emotional.

It's difficult to describe the feeling because it was so, again, beautiful and terrible.

The stress, the weight of it, plus the pain I was feeling from him.

And so I started mirroring his emotion, just naturally just started crying my eyes out. And then he finally heard me,

and then started frantically looking between me and the great beyond, let's say.

And he finally heard the words that I said, I think. And then he had a. I feel like he had a moment of hesitation,

and I felt like I needed to jump up there, mind you,

like arthritic pneumonia.

Just disc checked, none of the boxes to be this person at all. And in many ways, I still don't.

But I jumped up there like I was freaking 18 years old again.

And I grabbed him and I lifted him over this fencing, you know, like it was nothing. And we slid down to the safety of the sidewalk where I was standing,

and I just held him in my arms like he was one of my kids,

and just kept telling him, I love you, bro. Literally, all I could say to him the whole time he mentioned to me later,

he goes, did you say thank you? And I was like, I wouldn't be surprised.

Just thank you, you know,

coming to me. And so we sat there and, you know, my kids did great.

The first responders came and they handled the situation beautifully, you know,

and it was maybe 45 seconds later,

the second person actually showed up, and it was this dude.

And I want to say, society showed up, meaning this is how society feels about these things, mental health, suicide, things of that nature. And this. The first thing this dude says to this man is,

why would you want to do this?

A very shameful tone.

And this. This third person came and it was this woman,

mind you. These are all people not being.

Not trying to be mean or, you know,

in time.

This third person,

she came and she said, do you have kids? And he said, yes, I have a little son, mind you. We're both just still crying. He's grasping onto me sitting there.

And she says, well, what would your son think about this?

And it was just one heartbreaking,

stigmatized comment after another.

And so he literally was on the Ledge and then was because of shame and because of self worth. And then now is being like shamed and again and again by society, by people who are trying to say the right thing and do the right thing, just not doing it very well.

Melissa: So, yeah, from there,

instead of you sitting on the outside of that, you were right in that with him, you were feeling all those emotions with him.

Sitting with him, I think, is what was unique.

Joe: It was certainly like, you know,

people have questions on, you know, what do you say in a moment like that?

And my answer is always going to be just nothing.

A lot of the times Shirai happened to say, I love you, bro, and that happened to connect with him. And I think I love you, bro connects with a lot of people, maybe in that situation.

But just being there and just sitting with him and then letting him hold me, and me holding him and just crying with him,

that really was the powerful connection between he and I at that time. Even in that stressful,

terrible,

questioning life sequence,

that really was the connector, the ultimate connector between he and I.

Melissa: Connection is what he needed.

Yeah,

that was beautiful.

So obviously that's an intense experience and a lot of emotions,

but that is what propelled you.

So what, what were the next steps from there? What. What made you say,

hey, I want to do something more with this experience,

or hey, something has sparked me. I've realized something like what propelled you from there?

Joe: That's a good question.

So we actually had. He found me on Facebook.

This was a sacred experience to me. It still is.

My mom had called the news about it. I only shared it with her and my siblings. It was very special to me.

And she called them.

All these people wanted to come over. I denied them. Finally, it was KUTV2.

Jim Spak. I'm so good friends with the reporter who. He convinced me, hey, man, we're going to put resources at the forefront. You know, we're going to. I didn't want to be that guy.

I don't want to be on the news. I don't want to do that. And he said, really, this could help a lot of people. So I did the story with him.

He. The man saw his own story and it was being. It went viral. It was crazy.

He reached out to me through Facebook. I invited him over and I was so thankful and just that he would reach back out to me. And he came over, we had dinner and he.

I just. For. For a couple hours, he just vented. He just talked about what got him there, what things that were going on in his life and his Family and things like that.

And so I literally got on my phone and googled men's mental health suicide prevention resources for Aaron. I wanted to help him however I could.

And I found on the search, you know, there were some generalized campaigns from the American foundation for Suicide Prevention from,

from all of these good organizations, but nothing specifically for men.

And on the same search,

I found that men were 80% of all suicides.

80.

And I don't think like me, I think I represent the normal,

literally average Joe.

I had no idea that it was, that was what it was. I mean, my best friend died by suicide seven years ago and it affected me heavily, but I never thought that it was that bad.

And so I had nothing to tell Aaron. Like, Aaron's my new little brother who I loved off the leg.

I had nothing to tell him. Like, man,

I don't know. I don't. There's nothing for you specifically here. And so I was thinking, man, I.

What can I do on my own just as a normal dude to, to help Aaron?

So I started thinking about some, maybe a support group he could go to that could help him find some connection and new friends, things like that, be with like minded people.

And so I found some inconsistent, you know, groups here and there in Utah. And I found some good but, you know, retreat based organizations for men.

And there were thousands of dollars, you know, nothing specifically for a guy who's just really struggling, who needs to find some connection.

And so I was thinking, what can I do? I think I'm a pretty good communicator with people, with men especially,

I think I could probably get some guys together and maybe I could do that, you know, once a month or whatever.

And I, so I happen to have a friend, a good buddy of mine who's been in my fantasy football group or league for years.

And I knew, I knew he had a counseling clinic, so I knew he. And it was in Provo. So I said, hey bro, would it be any chance that I could maybe use your facility there one night in a month or a week?

And he goes, yeah man, go ahead.

So I started,

started having a support group at his place.

And you know, of course I had Aaron come and I started inviting more. I started putting out there. Hey, I'm doing the support group thing for any guys want to come out struggling and, you know, come.

And again, I'm just a dude. I have no history or experience with mental health or even, you know, at that point, suicide prevention. I was just a guy. But I thought I could make a, make a Difference.

And so I. From there,

you know, we started getting more and more guys, and I'm like, wow, this is after a lot of beta testing, after a lot of failing and trying new things and failing and trying new things and failing.

And I started learning a lot about how the operations of man,

wow, this is going to take a lot of work on my part. Am I willing to do all this? And I was like, dude, I'm all in. So. Or in for what he needs.

From there, we had. I was asking Aaron, you know, what else did you need? And Aaron said, you know, I didn't have any way to. To help myself, didn't have any knowledge,

wisdom, even experience to. Or best practices to help myself, you know. And so I was like, well, I think. I think I could get some guys who I know, like my friend who's a clinician, I knew I know some people,

and maybe they can come teach us normal dudes how to handle some of these feelings.

So I started doing workshops from then, just having groups of guys come and we have a guy professional come in, teach us about this and that with mental health.

And, you know, eventually it grew to a point with both of them, the support groups and workshops where I started getting the attention of a lot of, you know, like the AFSP and NAMI and a lot of these mega organizations that are specifically on mental health and suicide prevention.

And they are like, wow, what are you doing? We want to help. And so pairing with, partnering with them and other community resources that we have, I was like, well, okay, well, let's start this nonprofit.

Let's make it official.

And let's start this organization for men specifically. For men specifically for their mental health and suicide prevention.

But also,

what good would it be if I just loved Aaron off the ledge and just said, have a nice life.

We need to have programming for Aaron that can develop him his ongoing personal,

ongoing happiness and whatnot. And so I did. I started the nonprofit. And I was thinking, man, what am I going to name this thing? And how fitting it was just that I just called it I love Hebrew.

And so everything kind of just takes it back to the overpass with Aaron. And what I felt in both the good and the bad, what I felt. And that's what I put in and still put into now.

And what we're built on, the I love you bro project for all of men now in Utah.

Melissa: Yeah, that statistic that you shared, you visited our. Our A Hundred Women who care meeting.

And that really stuck with me when you shared that that 80% of suicides are men.

But before you saw what you were doing,

there really weren't resource specific for men. I've seen myself maybe like addiction recovery or things like that, but for that specific resource of suicide prevention, of mental health.

And so I think for you to see that need and then the way that you could go about fulfilling it because really at the root of it is connection.

And also those tools is really, really inspiring.

Is that the basis? I'm guessing that's the root of what you do now are those workshops and your support groups are kind of your bread and butter of your nonprofit.

Joe: Yeah, we so foundationally, our support groups,

they are, they're, they're all weekly and you know, we have them, you know, we're growing exponentially.

We have six now and by the end of this year we'll probably have nine.

With the help of that we've got from 100 women and hopefully some other funding opportunities. But those, our support groups,

not only have they facilitated connection, bringing guys in,

giving them a safe place to share, giving them some judgment, free vibes.

What I've also found was that they also, or I should say, are programs, they provide purpose.

And so again, we're, we're a data driven organization. So everything that I wanted to do initially that were good ideas,

they're all facts based on facts as well data. So evidence directs all of our programming.

And so what I mean by that is I know that number one, currently right now,

our guys who come to our support groups,

it's 80% of them what they want to get out of a support group or I should say what has impacted them from our support groups the most.

It clear, number one, 80% are opportunities to help other men.

And so we have, what we're finding is that men will initially come to our support group, for example. They'll come because they have a struggle, a challenge that they're facing.

It could be a divorce, it could be an addiction of some sort, it could be depression. Of course, some of those things.

Loneliness is a huge one as well. They came for one reason,

to find connection for themselves. But now they're leaving the support groups with, wow. Not only do I know I'm not alone in my challenges, in my suffering, so to speak,

but other girls are there counting on me to show up for them, Just counting on me to be their friend and,

and to connect with, with me. And man, I thought I was just this lowly,

worthless person.

And now, wow. Not only am I finding that connection, but I'm finding other guys who drive Me to, to keep going, drive me to keep being the, you know, the struggling person that I am, the broken person,

the beautifully broken person,

man that I am.

Other guys are counting on me to be that person for them so that they don't feel alone. And so with our support groups that we do now,

those are the two things men need. What I found doing this for the last couple years, men need connection and they need purpose. You know, with women, it's totally different.

That's, you know, it's a totally different vibe.

Vibe with working with women and, but with men,

you know, we can throw out the words, oh yeah,

love, and they need some affection, things like that. But really what I found and what the data even proves is we need connection and purpose. Those two things. Something that drives us once we connect.

Something that drives us.

So our programming is all based on our mental health workshops we have once a month for men.

It's called our let's Grow Bro program. So it's, it's based on the data that we get from our support groups. We create the workshops. So earlier this year, we had the overwhelming challenge that men are facing right now.

Number one is self worth. It's a clear number one, 75%. And the disparity is the next closest is loneliness, and that's at 40%.

So 73%. So if I'm thinking about one of my support groups of 10 dudes in there,

over seven of them are,

are talking badly about themselves. They think badly about themselves and they don't know their,

their, their value.

They think it's very low or nothing. So I created a workshop when I see those numbers that brought in a clinician to specifically talk about how to deal with suicidal ideology and tied it in with self worth, how abundantly valuable our self worth is.

And so all of our program, our workshops, I should say again, directed by the data that we get from our support groups.

And so like our next one coming up is specifically on humor and how to laugh, on how laughter is medicine. And we're bringing in one of my, one of my buddies who's a comedian from comedy, sports improv.

He's going to come do some improv stuff and mix it with mental health and how we can laugh and how we can,

how we can, we can have joy in some of this stuff, you know. And so our mental health workshops are once a month for men, and our support groups are once a week for men.

And they're same time, 7:39pm, same location. They're steady and consistent. And now we have our I love you sis program, which is for women and it's in support of men's mental health.

And so we have monthly workshops for women which I'd love to have you come out sometime specifically, again, data based on the concerns that the data shows us that men have.

And so our last mental health assist workshop for women was on.

It was specifically on communication and listening.

And I'm actually, I get the benefit of teaching the next one on how to create.

How women can create emotional space for the men in their lives to talk to them and open up more.

And so these programs, again,

super powerful, super impactful and we know they're working.

You know,

our feedback. I do a feedback survey every other, every other month and I have these questions, hey, how is this, this, this and this? How's this helped you? This, this and this?

What can we do better? And what we're finding is just, you know, or 90. It's 98% of the browser, you know, would recommend someone else, another guy who. Another loved one friend to come out.

And so what we're doing is working and it's never been done before. So.

And that's the AFSP actually is the one who told us. It's groundbreaking. There's no other organization in the country doing evidence based men's mental health specific,

specific programming.

Melissa: Yeah, There were two thoughts I had there. First, I love that I love you, sis. I did. Because I think a lot of us women do want to support and love and we need those tools as well to know how to best support the men in our lives that we care about.

And then I love how you touched on purpose as a podcast, all about service.

I will say absolutely.

It's amazing how much purpose someone can find in helping someone else and being able to reach out and feel like you're making a difference for somebody else, even in. In the smallest of ways,

adds so much purpose for really anyone, I think. So that's not surprising to me that that is evidence based that you found that in the work that you've done.

Joe: Well, our retention is, you know, retention meaning like guys who've come,

guys who have come one time to a support group,

they come the second time for that specific reason.

And again, that's the number one reason right now. And again,

there are other reasons why guys come. We have multiple options that can choose from finding us. Being able to share feelings, being able to be around people who love and care about me.

We have one that's to receive a hug from a bro.

And I just threw it in there one time, and because I'm a huggy guy, and, you know, and sometimes the guys are like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, get over here.

These guys intruding on their private space as I'm giving these hugs. And. And I was like, I wonder maybe I didn't do this. I'm gonna put a question on our.

You know, because every time these guys come. I'm sorry I didn't explain this earlier.

Every time they come to a group, they. They scan a qr, coding the answer. This. These questions, they're about their emotions, how their outlook on life is, things like that.

And I put a question in there,

you know, or an option to choose on what I want to get from this group. I put. At the very end, I put receive a hug from a bro. I was.

I just. I want to see some data on maybe I shouldn't be giving these guys hugs. I gave it about a month,

and so and I went and checked our numbers of the data, and it was almost 50% of the guys came.

Part of the reason why they came was to get a hug.

And.

Melissa: Wow.

Joe: Not just get a hug, but get a hug from a bro in a place where it was conducive to brotherhood, you know, in a loving,

judgment, free way where I could. So I'm like, dude, now. Now I got data backing up every single freaking hug. You guys are not gonna. You. You're not gonna shy away from me, or you can all you want.

You're not gonna escape this place without me giving you a hug. So if I got to be that guy, then I got to be that guy.

Melissa: Yeah.

As a mom of teenage boys, I can totally relate to forcing the hugs on them when they say they might not want them, but, you know, they absolutely need them.

So,

yeah.

Melissa: Yep.

Melissa: That. That's almost a daily or weekly occurrence over here in our house.

Joe: Yeah. And I think it's particular. Like, we're. We're used to moms giving us hugs, but not so much dads in a lot of ways.

So, yeah,

the idea behind the I love you bro project is not only finding that love and connection and purpose for yourself,

but being able to take. My hope, my grand hope is that these guys are taking everything they learn from the groups from the workshops, the women from the workshops, all of this good stuff, and then they're implementing these practices at home, and then they're able to hug and talk and communicate with their wives and their kids way more transparently about their emotions so that their kids can learn how to Talk about it with their kids and their

friends. And.

And so when. When I see guys shy away from me for hugs, it's like this guy was programmed to never. He never saw an example of.

So I gotta teach him.

Melissa: Yeah, the. Well, the good you're doing is definitely spiraling out as you just emphasize there to their families. And then they take that out into the community.

Helping one person with their emotional mental health has those effects. It really does help a whole community and a whole family. So beautiful work.

Well, as you said, what you're doing is groundbreaking. But we do have listeners from all over and I always love to end our episodes with general advice.

So if there is anyone that's listening, that's wanting in their own community knowing how to get involved with suicide prevention or wanting to support some of these measures, or just even wanting to reach out and help a friend, what, what general advice would you give?

Joe: I would always say because we have two. You're going to have two different types of listeners. Especially with something like my, you know, the I Love youe Girl project. You have a listener who's listening to help, you know, others.

Any of the listener who's really listening to help themselves, you know, that they really need something.

And so to. To the person who wants to help, it's. It will. I will always lean into.

Creating the right space is way more important than saying the right thing and meaning. When I say creating the right space, it's. You have to have an aura, a vibe feeling about you that is open and communicative for your loved ones and friends.

For example, when I started the I love you bro project,

I. Or before I started, I didn't have anyone asking me any advice on mental.

You know, now I have all these people. I get so many direct messages on how they can communicate better and what they should do with this, this, that and the other.

And they will always be, you know, your example.

Creating will always create the space around you. And so if you have a space that is. I don't talk about mental health, we don't cry, we don't hug each other,

then that is the people. That's the space you've created. And the result of that space you will see in your relationships.

And so I would always, please lean into everyone listening. Creating the right space means be vulnerable with your loved ones. Show them that you you're not a freaking robot, that you do have emotion and that it's actually okay to have them and it's okay to talk about them.

With I love you bro. We're huge promoters of men, specifically men having emotions,

showing emotions and sharing emotions. Those are three things that our space.

If we do those things,

then we will have the results in our families, in our relationships will be. That will be. People will actually reach out to us because they see that, oh wow, he can be vulnerable.

He struggled as well.

Man, I can relate to that. Well, then maybe I can maybe out instead of keeping this to myself, maybe I can talk to that person or my mom or my dad.

Reading the right space is imperative. And for the listener who is just struggling like the rest of us,

it's one thing to say you are not alone. We hear it all the time from everyone and sometimes it just. Especially with men, it doesn't resonate. We know we're not alone.

But I want to say to anyone struggling,

not only are you not alone, but your value,

your worth is eternally unchanging and the highest it can possibly be.

There's nothing you can do to lower it. There's nothing you can say to lower it. There's also the beauty of it is that there's nothing you can do to raise it.

You cannot even improve your own self worth.

It's just there and it's just the best it can be.

And so if you are struggling, just start with that. Just know you are worth every second, every heartbeat.

We need you here.

You are a miracle.

So just start with that from there.

If you feel like you can talk to somebody who might be able to help you, I invite you to. So maybe send a text or reach out. And if not, then you reach out to me and you go, you can go find us.

I love you girl project on Instagram,

our website iloveyoubro project.org reach out to me then and I'll talk to you.

But you are freaking worth it. All of you.

Melissa: Well, thank you so much, Joe. And I'll leave links to all of those. But it's easy to see the sincerity and the heart for what you're doing.

And I just wish you the best as you continue to navigate and provide those resources and really kind of be a pioneer in doing that. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.

Joe: I appreciate you. Thank you.

Melissa: Love you, bros.

That was my interview with Joe Tuiana,

the founder of I love you bro project.

And along with that beautiful sincerity about the work that he does,

something that stuck out to me, he mentioned several times in that episode was he just kept saying, I'm just a dude.

I'm just a dude. I have no history or experience when he started all this.

I'm just a guy, but I thought I could make a difference.

And he's a great example of just stepping into those spaces where he saw he was needed,

even though he wasn't quite sure what all the steps would be and showing up and figuring out how he could help and get things done. To help and assist.

Started just with his friend, his bro that he loved there in the beginning but has now grown to all of the men that attend their support groups and their workshops.

So again, I will leave links to their website and their social media so you can learn more about I love you bro project and the good work that they're doing.

And I also want to give the friendly reminder that if you learned something from this episode or something in Joe's.

Melissa: Story touched you, please share it with.

Melissa: Someone you know, with a friend, neighbor, a family member.

Share this episode with them.

Or you can also go and give the podcast a review or follow the podcast wherever you get your podcasts or also on our social media channels. And I leave all of those in the show notes.

And as always, I hope this week that you can find a way to do something more to help listen, inspire or make a difference.