Breaking the Stigma Behind Men’s Mental Health

Suffering through, you know, tragic event, after tragic event, after tragic event, it starts to tear you down. Yes. Right? Even law enforcement. Right? You know, Brent Cooley, who is on our team at M6 Global. He's our director of operations, was the officer who engaged the Santa Fe shooter and talked him down and negotiated with him to bring him out and surrender. People say, oh, that wasn't that traumatic. Well, to you, it wasn't that traumatic. And he's never said that it was that particular event alone that has caused trauma. Now I know this background, and there are some things in that event that really caused him some serious issues But, he says it best, and he says that that being in law enforcement, is like a slow drip. You just eventually lose this all sense of compassion for people, and you become hardened, and you become callused. And I started noticing that in myself you know, even thoughts of violence, where I had to go talk to someone. And I'm happy that I did because it was the best thing that I ever did Yeah. And I and I tell people this all the time is, listen, I don't care how strong you are, what you've been through, mental health is not a weakness. Mm-mm. You know, it it is you have to have a sound body and a sound mind in order to be a good or any service to not only yourself, but to others. And so I was talking to to Adam, Doctor. Signs, and I said, Well, he asked me one day about this. And he's like, what are you, you know, what are you gonna do with this? And I was like, I want if I have to be the spokesperson Right. For men's mental health, then so be it. Mhmm. I wanna let other men know that it's okay. You know? Yeah. And because I think that, you know, there's this perception that, you know, Mike's a tough guy or even though I'm not a tough guy. That that I don't have feelings and emotions But the fact of the matter is that I do, and it's okay. And so I always wondered how it affected individuals like yourself. You know, it's gotta be traumatic. You know, young kid gets killed, mass shooting, you know, group of teenage, you know, girls, high school girls live in their best life, get into a tragic car accident, and they they perish. That has to be just as traumatic for you reporting that. Because guess what? When you go home and you lay your head on that pillow, those thoughts don't just stop. Right? So am I accurate in that? Mhmm. So how can we and how can you and your services help school districts and corporations and all of these other clients? How How do you how can these individuals get a hold of you? How can they how can they reach out to you and say, hey, you know what, Anastasia? I think maybe you can come in and and consult with us. How how do they get ahold of you? First of all, I think what you're doing is honorable and incredible. Right? I mean, it's brave. Talking about mental health in a public space is brave. Trying to normalize talking about mental health and showing feelings is brave. And one of the you know, the the communications strategy that I stress to people, it is honorable and beautiful to show people that you have feelings. Mhmm. Because people connect with that. I agree with that. Right? Yeah. And so how many press conferences have you been to or have seen, right, that it's a robot speaking and something absolutely horrific just happened. Mhmm. And there have been press conferences where people stand up and you could see them struggle, and it's okay. They're human, even though they're elected officials, and, you know, we hold them to a different standard, I wanna see that. Yeah. In terms of getting a hold of me. Yes. Spelling out anastasia. I mean, we could do that, but that would be so painful eleven months. It's common Russian spelling. It is common Russian spelling. Thank you for helping me. Let's see if they can figure out. It's common Russian spelling. Figure it out, folks. Yeah. It's pretty so it's vik story media dot com and vik vik is, with a k. V I k. V I k. Story media dot com. Okay. Or, I mean, Anastasia Bolton. I mean, how many Anastasia Boltons would you find on LinkedIn? Not many. I I, you know It's not like it's a Michael Smith. It's not. So I think I've made it easy. Jennifer Jones. Right. So it's the red hair, anastasia, I don't know, like Russian characteristics. Russian characteristics, I don't know what else to do to help people find me. I mean, Anastasia at fixed story media dot com, but then again, I have spell my my my first name. And Yeah. We'll make sure that in, in the, podcast that, our our team puts a link in there for you. Thank you. And so and if you can't get ahold of her and you don't know how to spell the, Anastasia Bolton, Yeah. Then, oh, Mike's telling us there's actually four anastasia both who's on LinkedIn. So Who are they? I need to look them up. We need to figure that out. We do. We need to fix that. We can do that. Yes. We can. So but if you can't get ahold of anastasia Yeah. Both in, there's four of them on LinkedIn. If you can't decipher which one she is, get a hold of us at m six global defense at info at m six global defense, and we'll be happy put you in contact with her. So thanks again for the conversation. I appreciated any follow ups. No. This was intense. It was intense. I like it. It was intense, Julie. Well, thanks. Hopefully, there's many more. Yes. Look forward to it. See you. Thanks.