Designed for Greatness with Candice Noss

GMT20241007-152955_Recording_640x360
===

Candice Noss: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the design for greatness podcast conversations with canvas to help you elevate your mind, body, and spirit and own your divine greatness. Today you have episode number 21, touching hearts, empowering greatness and changing the world with humanitarian, Justin Powell. Friends. Wow. Do I ever have an incredible human to share with you today?

Seriously, I cannot wait for you to get to know Justin. I first met him five years ago when I signed up with YouthLink to be a mentor for a team going originally to Nepal, but then there was all these COVID restrictions and we ended up going to Peru. Since that time, I've had the opportunity to watch Justin and observe him in many different situations.

He truly is the real deal. An extraordinary man. I'm going to read you his bio, so you have an idea of his extensive humanitarian work. And then we're just going to dive in. So Justin has been involved with YouthLink, which is a nonprofit humanitarian organization in Salt Lake city, Utah, [00:01:00] since 2008, when he joined the Thailand team as a mentor.

Since then he's been on a total of 19 YouthLink trips. including leading teams to Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Rwanda, Peru, Kenya, Fiji, Cuba, and Madagascar. He's lived abroad for several years, including in Australia, South Korea, Egypt, and Vietnam. Justin was selected by the Board of Directors to become the Executive Director of YouthLink in 2016.

And before becoming the Executive Director, he was the Real Life Director and International Service Director at YouthLink. And also a high school teacher for language arts, social studies, economics, and business management. So in 2023, Justin was named the Citizen Diplomat of the Year by the U. S. State Department.

This is a big deal. This was due to his personal and professional dedication to building a more peaceful, prosperous world through international exchange and by engaging himself and others in citizen related work in foreign [00:02:00] policy. Justin's a member of the Rotary Club in Mill Creek. He's been a president, um, a foundation chair, a service chair, a rotary chair.

He has an international business degree from Westminster College, an English degree from the U of U, and a master's of teaching degree from Westminster College. Justin has become a role model and a friend for me. Working with him closely while leading youth link teams myself to Fiji, Kenya, and Nepal has given me a great, um, Insight into Justin's character, Justin, welcome to the design for greatness podcast.

I am so glad to have you here. Yeah. Thank you for having me on your podcast. Yeah. So just, let's just dive right in when let's tell, tell us your story. How did you even find this humanitarian path? Like what led you to this calling to help others? around the globe. Yeah, well, from a really young age, I was always interested in doing service.

It was just something that I think appealed to me and my natural [00:03:00] personality. So I remember doing service from a pretty young age and just kind of enjoying it and doing that. I was part of key club and high school and stuff like that. Just like to do service. I would do random acts of kindness in the neighborhood.

Like me and my friends would bake cookies and like leave them secretly on people's door and then hide in the bushes. It's weird, funny. I mean these are the things kids do, right? I love it. Or used to. And then just over, and so I always loved that. And then when I was Graduating high school, I was really interested in traveling abroad, and no one in my family had ever done that before.

I was the first one to ever have a passport, and so I just started doing it. And loved that aspect. So those are just became two big parts of my personality and what really drove me and, and I loved it. And, you know, fast forward over time when I got married to my wife, Brittany, she had been a part of YouthLink since it was founded in [00:04:00] 1999 when she was a junior in high school.

And when we got married, I, I had known her since high school, so I knew she was doing this thing called you think, but I had never really joined into it. It was started right as I was graduating high school. So it's just a tiny little thing back then. But, um, by the time we got married in 2008, it was.

There were like four teams going per year, so it was, it was getting there and I joined as a, and, oh, and I always joke, half joking, half serious that when we got married, that was part of the agreement when we were taking our vows that I had to do YouthLink. So I started as a mentor with YouthLink and went to Thailand for that first time and just married those two ideas together, um, of doing service.

And. Doing things in other countries. And that kind of caught me big time. And I started getting more and more involved in youth link. I was then a mentor for some years. I became a team leader just [00:05:00] like you and just couldn't get enough. And here I am later. So when you started, they only had four teams going out a year.

How many teams are going out a year with youth link now? Now, when you add our traditional service year, humanitarian groups together with our community based study abroad groups with Utah state, it's around 20 per year. Wow. And it fluctuates here and there a little bit. Um, but about 20. That is incredible.

That's incredible. We used to just have. Four locations. And now we have about a dozen, so it's grown in how many places we're touching each year as well. Right. That's incredible. So what, what do you feel like is your why? I mean, you are dedicating your life to this humanitarian work. Well, before we started, you're like, yeah, it's pretty much my identity.

YouthLink. What's your why? [00:06:00] It's a good question. You know, as someone who tries to be pretty self aware and kind of understand how I tick and what really drives me, um, I think one of my natural personality traits is I always assume people are great and I assume best intention in people. And I think that's lent, lended me to be able to, as I've done service, kind of see people for who they are and also acknowledge that they're in a circumstance that's not working for them for some reason.

But I've been able to reserve. I mean, I'm not perfect at it, but. To reserve some, some level of judgment of why they're in that position. I've never assumed they were in that position because they made a bad choice or because they're somehow deficient. I've always just looked at it as circumstantial and that they're just the same as, as me, but they're just in a [00:07:00] different life situation.

And I think by doing service, I reinforced that idea of, Oh, I can like connect with this person. Maybe we can, um, improve their day or their situation. But I also felt, I always felt so connected to them as well in terms of developing relationships and connections. And I know as you do that, you just, it's almost invisibly reinforced, because it's just enriching your life.

And of course, you're going to seek after the things in your life that bring like a better feeling to your life and a better richness to it. So I suppose my why would be Because I love connecting with people and I love to understand where they're coming from and that it also enriches my life and helps me reframe my own, my own belief system and my own sense of purpose.

It's, there's so much to [00:08:00] learn from every culture, every people. And I know with me. I love people and I love how you put it. I don't assume any, I only assume the best of people. And I, I believe here in America, I mean, in general, we're so incredibly blessed. We're so, we have such abundance of everything and you, I have this sense of because I've been given so much, I want to then give to other people.

And I love how you, how you think it's not about, um, it's not about just giving handouts. It's actually giving a hand up and, and helping everyone. learn to be sustainable and, and helping them become abundant and not just sharing abundance, but sharing knowledge of how to then become independent and abundant yourself.

Will you speak to that a little? [00:09:00] Yeah. I love the words that you're using. I love that just the very, the concept of abundance mentality rather than a scarcity mentality. Um, that's something that's drawn me to this kind of work and into the nonprofit industry is, you know, on the one hand, you could look at this kind of work as, Oh, you're always fighting for the same donors, or you're fighting for the same brands, or there's never enough, there's never enough.

And sure, in some ways that's a little bit true, but in other ways, it's just not. I, I actually believe that when you're putting out into the world, good things, and you're trying to accomplish good stuff, the pie actually just grows bigger and resources. You find them and you, you tap into the best sides of people and you start tapping into people's willingness to have an abundance mentality where there is enough.

If we just reprioritize how we think about our resources or our time, and then there's enough, it's, But it's really this mind shift of, [00:10:00] um, thinking, is there, do I need to like be holding on to what I have and that there's, and I just need to protect myself and that makes me feel safe. And I, I honor that that's how some people's natural personalities are.

I have three kids. One of them is that way. And, but I also love that this concept of, I actually believe that there's, there's enough out there. And just like you said, in the United States, there's so much And really when you tap into it and you're doing good, the universe provides and you tap into the good side of people and they, people rise to the occasion and we always, we always have enough in the end.

I love it. I love it. I, as a mom of six, I want nothing more than my kids to go. On a humanitarian trip, because what happens is your heart gets broken in a beautiful way and you get your hands dirty and you work your tail [00:11:00] off. And at the end of, at the end of the day, you're a different person because of these interactions, um, with incredible people that, that are so different, but are so the same.

And there truly is. nothing like the work that, that you're able to do in, in these different third world countries and within our own state. Um, part of YouthLink is this in country service, and it's a big deal what we're able to do here. And the whole motto of YouthLink is creating lifelong humanitarians.

And it's not just about these incredible trips, which are amazing across the globe, but it's also about the service that we can perform right here. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. So, yeah, Uflink's mission is to create lifetime humanitarians. And what is such a great [00:12:00] distinction of how that mission works within the work that we do abroad and locally is our main focus is on At YouthLink isn't to solve issues of poverty in Kenya or in Cambodia or wherever it is that we're going.

Um, those are really worthy causes and missions, but they're not actually YouthLink's mission. Our mission is really about empowering. Of course, the youth is our first and foremost stop is like empowering youth to know how they can start developing the habits and the skills necessary to get involved in their own community to create change and build the community they want to live in.

I mean, I live in Murray in just outside of Salt Lake, I can go get involved in Murray and make Murray a better place. Like what a novel concept, but sometimes people don't quite realize that they. They're invited to go and do that if they but choose to use their time to do that. And that's what YouthLink's trying to do with youth, is [00:13:00] help them realize that they really can, um, get involved locally.

Um, and then how that kind of matches with the international part is we help them start working with marginalized or people in need populations. And that starts making me like, oh, like, These issues that I see in the world are not just in developing countries. They're, we have our own issues and wow, I'm going to start working with the homeless, homeless population or the refugee population and they can start deconstructing those ideas of like, oh, they're, they're fantastic human beings that now I'm understanding are much more complex and nuanced humans.

And by the time then they go internationally, they're like, oh. These folks internationally are complex and nuanced human beings as well, and I'm now ready to more fully connect with them because I'm, it's been, I've been primed a little bit, [00:14:00] and then kind of circling back to our mission versus, you know, our mission being about the youth, I can't over, overstate enough how critically important partnering with people are, how partnering with people is so important.

Um, In true partnership, like you go in there, like not trying to impose yourself on others, but you're really trying to go in and really listen and be a true partner. And so when YouthLink goes to any of our international locations and we truly partner with another nonprofit there, And listen to them and we center them then, and they start trusting us and we're trusting them back and we have that great relationship, then they let us help them with their mission, which often is to address issues of poverty.

And so if they're letting us support their mission, it's there by reinforcing our mission of creating lifetime humanitarians. And so. [00:15:00] We cannot accomplish what we do at YouthLink, um, pedagogically without partnership because we just can't. I mean, why would anyone keep doing service if there's no partnership?

Not some kind of other goal that our partners are accomplishing, whether it's sustainable Cambodia is alleviating poverty in rural Cambodia, or if it's the road home trying to address homelessness issues in Salt Lake, we can't like spark their interest to be a humanitarian if those organizations don't allow us to partner with them.

So, but I also love that that's just like part of why life can be successful and enriching is when you really. connect and center and honor what other amazing thing other people are doing and then work together. I love it. Like together we rise, um, a rising tide lifts all ships. I mean, it's, it's so powerful to, to partner and to [00:16:00] together we rise truly.

And your victory becomes my victory and my victory is your victory. And together it's just this beautiful orchestration of Of pure desires to do good in this world. And exactly, exactly. And all those phrases are exactly true that we hear all the time. Right. And then it's so fantastic to be a part of seeing like, and this is what it can look like.

And you can actually do it. And it's reality, grandma made literally, um, I would love it. If you could share maybe some of your favorite stories, um, of some of your trips, maybe some really. moments that really touched your heart or something to kind of give our listeners just an idea of what it looks like to actually go on one of these trips and have an experience.

Yes. Um, I have many, many fond stories and memories and Uh, one of my favorites, um, I keep mentioning [00:17:00] Cambodia, it's one of my favorite places. And it's where I'm going this year. Yeah, I know. I'm so excited for that. See, I wasn't just telling you it's amazing. I really do love it. Um, but some years ago when YouthLink was first starting to go to Cambodia, I was just a volunteer at that point.

I didn't work at YouthLink yet. I was a team leader. And the, the employee at the time, the international service director and the executive director, Judy, the founder said, Hey, um, we're going to be opening Cambodia. And one of the things that the community wants is to do like a livestock merry go round exchange.

And you need to figure out what that means. And then you need to go and do it with them. And you need to raise all this money for the livestock. Cause essentially what it was is. People sign up to be a part of this Livestock Exchange or Merry Go Round program. Um, we take them through a training and they have to sign a contract [00:18:00] to, once they receive this animal, to pay off the animal, like the price of the animal.

They actually just give the newborn, the first newborn, to another family in need. So they kind of pay forward. That they got a cow by giving a newborn calf to the next family, kind of a concept. So it's a pay it forward thing. So we learned what that was and how to administer it. We looked at like Heifer International to see what how they did it so we could kind of model something similar.

But in the meantime, this wasn't just me, right? This was me then trying to empower students, high school students, to be a part of this process. And so I remember I had three students on my committee, me and and my wife, Brittany. She was the team leader. And I was like a mentor. Although, you know, when you're a married couple, it's one in the same, really.

But so we figured this out together. My students have prepared, like figured out how to structure this. We had fundraised all this money for all the people that wanted pigs and cows. We, and then my students have done lessons [00:19:00] about the requirements and expectations of if you get pigs, this is what you have to provide for the pigs so that we feel in good conscience that we can gift you this pig and it's going to be well taken care of, cows, et cetera.

So we go to Cambodia, we get there, there are 32 women in this group that want chickens, cows, or pigs, a variety of different livestock that they wanted. Um, we kick it off, we tell them about the structure of the program, our translators are translating this, great, it's going well, okay, can we stop for the day, we come back the next day, you know, things are going well, right, this is fantastic.

It finally gets to the day where this boy, this high school student from Bountiful named Albert was giving his, um, lesson on the requirements of pig care in order to qualify for pigs. And he was using the translator and giving his things, and he got to this point where he said to the group of women, Okay, when you have, if you're going to get a pig, you have to have a pen for the pig, [00:20:00] you, so that they can't get out and they're safe.

You also have to have a mosquito net to put over the pig pen in the evenings to protect the pigs from mosquito borne illness, because they are also susceptible. So the translator translates this, and in the very back of this area, Um, these ladies start laughing, they're like giggling and cracking up, and they just start losing it completely, like they are slap happy or something, and they're crying with tears of laughter, like their scarves are coming unwound off their head, they're just getting disheveled, they have just lost it completely, and we're just kind of sitting there like, we have no idea what's going on.

And other people and other women in the group are like chuckling along too. They finally get their composure. We ask the translator, like, what's so funny? Like, what funny thing was said? Or what weird joke did somebody crack? Or whatever made people lose their minds. The translator asks, because he couldn't quite tell either.

He asks, what's so [00:21:00] funny? The lady is like, through their tears of laughter, like, telling him. And he turns to us and he said, Oh, they're laughing because you said you had to put a mosquito net over their pigs. But they don't even have mosquito nets to put over their kids. So we're like, oh, this actually isn't that funny.

I mean, they're laughing about it, but it wasn't funny. So what do you do when you're like a 17 year old junior in high school that's just had their whole thing derailed by this like, oh, moment. What do you do as their mentor when you're like trying to like navigate this? And then what do you do when you're looking at this bigger issue?

That you've just uncovered in a community. Well, you recover the best you can. And then you meet afterwards and you figure out how on earth. Now we're going to go find money to buy mosquito nets for this whole community. That's what we did. So we're like contacting people at home, like, Oh my gosh, everyone, this is what we need and people delivered.

Like I said before, the, [00:22:00] the, the universe provides, and we were able to wire over some money. And buy mosquito nets for everyone. So now everyone had mosquito nets, not just the pigs, but I love that. It was such a formative experience for me, just in terms of. You never know what you're going to uncover as you connect and you have these trust relationships with communities that they didn't mention before or they didn't dare to tell you before.

Um, but when it comes out, then what do you do to respond to that? And you can rise to the occasion or you can disappear. Okay, that's awkward. Bye. Or you can, you can mourn with them. You can laugh with darkly laugh with them, whatever it is that they're coping strategies are, but Yeah, that was a really powerful.

I love that. I love that experience. I, I had a similar, I've had similar experiences in almost every single trip that I've taken it. [00:23:00] I mean, in Kenya, we found that all of these kids needed new uniforms for their school. Like almost every single child, we had no idea. They, one of like their back pocket had pulled down and the poor boys.

showing like all the time without, we ended up pull and providing uniforms fo school. Um, because of, u This need that we saw that we were able to fulfill and just similar experiences all over. Yeah, I know. And I think one of the really beautiful things, a common question I get, maybe you get this too, since you've been in YouthLink for so long, is why are you so many resources to take a bunch of youth over?

Like, shouldn't you just donate that money? It's like, well, yes and no, like, wouldn't it be lovely if people would just donate tons of money blindly to other places and hope that they were using it [00:24:00] correctly? And it just unfortunately doesn't work that way. People aren't so generous when they haven't had a personal relationship form with somebody.

So when we, we go abroad and we create those relationships, of course, then when there's an issue arise, we're going to donate. Because we now love and we've connected and also we've seen firsthand some of the issues that maybe we could be supporting that you sometimes there's that information doesn't disseminate properly right until you're there working and an example of that is I just had An alum, a student alum, she's only this year a senior in high school, get home from her trip to Vietnam this last summer with YouthLink, and she contacted me about a month ago and said, Oh my gosh, Justin, there's such bad flooding going on in northern Vietnam.

It's like in the community that we were just serving in, and like things are not going well, like things are washing [00:25:00] away. You know, I'm, you know, we're having these same issues right now in North Carolina, a similar situation. She's like, what can we do? Can I do a fundraiser? And I said, of course she can.

And so she's like, great. She then just contacted all the alums that had ever gone to Vietnam and fundraised so much money in a really short amount of time, and she just did it. A 17 year old girl just said now that I know these people and I know how acutely they're affected like I'm gonna do something about it So she was motivated to do something about it And then the people that had been there because they knew these people of course We're going to donate and bim bam.

Boom There you have it and that just and that kind of thing happens within the youth link world all the time. Um, it's very common. I'm such a big proponent of like owning your divine greatness. Like, like owning that you have gifts and talents and strengths that you can use to serve others. And then using that, does that, that greatness to [00:26:00] go and serve the world in powerful ways.

And a lot of times we don't know that we have this greatness within us that can help. And what this does is it allows. Everyone, I mean, high school to, you know, old mentors to see older people. Yeah, it allows all of us to see that we do actually have talents and gifts and strengths and abilities and resources that can incredibly bless another, another soul.

And it seems as if what I have been taught over the past five years is that My minuscule sacrifice becomes amplified and magnified as I, as I put it out there in the world. And it is this beautiful miracle that I've seen happen again and again. And, and owning that greatness and doing those great things.

I feel like that is, that is why we're here. Um, yeah. Yeah. Have you [00:27:00] had any, any huge turning points? Like, have you, have you had any, any points in your life when you've been like, This is what I need to be doing. I need to shift. This is where I need to go. Have you had any of those big turning points that have led you to where you're at now?

Hmm.

Well, like I said, I was always warm to this kind of idea. But maybe something unique to my story would be, um, you know, I was, I'm from Utah, I'm LDS, and we know within that culture, there's like a really strong, um, expectation, like there's gender related expectations within our, our religious culture of women kind of have their, their thing, if they need to raise kids and that kind of thing.

I'm, I know I'm using a [00:28:00] paintbrush here, just kind of like the binary and the men are expected to provide and like be really, really successful to provide. For me, I always felt that pressure in such a really acute way. And for a long, for a good number of years in my like late teens and early twenties, I felt that pressure big time, like, Oh, I need to go get a business degree.

I need to go make sure I have a job that I can make six figures and all of these things and make sure that I can. Do, like, fit that, what I was interpreting as a definition of correct, a correct life. And, sure, that could be a correct life for somebody, but what I came to realize is that was not doing anything for my spiritual growth.

It wasn't doing anything for my, who I feel I really am. Um, and thank goodness, I, my wife is very much programmed with, you know, in a very complimentary way. And I loved teaching, and I loved being a teacher. Youth development and a lot of those things, [00:29:00] but they're not things you can actually make a living at.

Not very well. Teachers are paid so low. Nonprofits are paid so low. Um, not the worst, but you know, not the best. You know, it's, it's tricky. You know, we're in that realm, but she was always like, look, like, why don't we just change the rubric and not say that the rubric has to be you're making X or you have this house where you're living this special suburban lifestyle.

But how about we recenter. Um, how we see how we interpret our successful life with a different rubric and maybe our rubric is more. What kind of impact are we having in our community? How are we actually, um, helping other people grow and achieve their potential or help them tap into their passions? I mean, she's a teacher as well.

She was a teacher. Now she's a principal. Um, but in the world of education, but I just, for me, having it being in that partnership with my wife, it's been, [00:30:00] that was a really huge thing that I don't know that any partnership or any relationship would have lent given helped me feel like I could give permission to myself to say, I'm not going to pursue having to work in finance to make sure that I make all this money because that's like the rubric of success that was kind of told and taught to me.

It was. You can chain it, you can actually use a different rubric for how you decide what's a successful life for you. And, and so for me it was, I really think it's that relationship that really allowed me to feel like I could pursue stuff like this. Yeah. And her too. But then at the end of the day, we're doing just fine.

Like we're financially stable and of course we're living a good life, but it's just, again, it's always these little attitudinal changes that if you just actually try to do what feels right to your soul and [00:31:00] what's best for your, just what feels right, like especially in the more of a spiritual sense, I think that leads you to.

Pathways that are going to be solid and bear good fruit, and you're going to be taken care of in this world. And it doesn't mean that our jobs don't come without a lot of painful, bureaucratic, administrative y things. Everything does. But the over it's overall worth it, right? Like, you can it's a you have to it's a mixture of stuff.

But, I so I suppose, um, giving myself permission to pursue a different type of life that not everybody take chooses, um, I mean, was a big deal for me to kind of move away from the original rubric of what success is. That's a huge turning point. I can see that. It's a, it's a huge thing. And I love the redefinition of success as the impact that you, that you have.

And [00:32:00] it's not to say that other people, their paths are their paths and maybe that's their best path, right? Like, I love that we cannot, we can have a 6 billion different paths. And that's great. Well, and I think what you spoke to as like your intuition and listening to your spirit and tuning in spiritually, that is, that is powerful and that is really important.

And it can be our guide. I talk about living with a mind firmly aligned a body purposely loved and a spirit powerfully accessed and it does take the human trifecta your mind body and spirit. It does take all of that being in alignment to truly find your calling and to follow it with effectiveness and purpose.

Um, yeah, so this was all a mental shift. And it kind of leads into a mind firmly aligned our, our mind, it colors, everything, the stories that we tell the rubric we follow, like you were saying, how, how [00:33:00] do you manage your brain when discouragement comes or imposter syndrome kicks in, or, you know, You know, I'm just this little guy from Murray comes in versus like, no, I actually changed the world.

How, how do you manage your mind? Oh my gosh. That is such a big question and a good question. Um, my little, my first cliched answer would be it takes practice. It really does like these types of things that you're referring to. Take time, and they take some courage. Um, I think often we're our own worst enemy with our own attitudes and, and imposter syndrome, that kind of thing.

But, for me, what really just, and you know, I'm not perfect at it, I believe we're all on a path of, of development, and I really believe in growth mindset, and always doing better each time, every time you try, but Um, it really just came down [00:34:00] to just trusting that instinct to do good. And then when you see the fruits of it, just over time, if you keep seeing that same fruit, that's what really helped me to be like, Oh, like this is the right choice and I can do this.

And then there's this other shift that came to me over time to like, within the youth link context, when I became the executive director over eight years ago, I was like, Low 30s. Like, I was young. What did I really even know? Like, the board trusted me, and that's something. Like, that was a That was a confidence boost.

But at the same time, I was raised by a stay at home mom and a schoolteacher dad. Like, I did not come from school. Privilege or money or anything like that, and then to have to go into this world of asking really rich people for money. I mean, that's Who am I to even have the permission to ask you for [00:35:00] that?

But what was beautiful was, um, I came to realize over time that it wasn't about me. It was about who we're serving and who we're really helping. And so I'm not asking for me, I'm asking for this other thing. And I know that's maybe a, it's a subtle thing again, but it's, that's helped me with my imposter syndrome to be like, it's not about me, it's sure I can be charming and I can use some of my skills to try to get in the door, of course.

But the end of the day, doing good things, it's not about me. It's about how you're uplifting others. And that's helped me with imposter syndrome. Cause who am I like, I'm a person. I would try to be a good person. But it's not about me. That's so powerful. And I think, I know that might sound a little weird with imposter syndrome to say, well it's not about you.

When imposter [00:36:00] syndrome often kind of feels like it is, but maybe that's the answer. No, but it's a great way to attack those thoughts that do nothing but want to make you keep yourself stuck in the cave. Actually get out of your own, own way. It's not about you. It's about those people that you're serving.

It's about hearts. You're able to change touch. Yeah. Okay. Um, so our bodies are the vehicle which houses our mind and spirit, which allows us to do our work in this world. And. I know from all of my trips, it's hard on your body to do this work, this humanitarian work. I mean, the travel alone is hard, but then you're, you're making concrete, you're building buildings, you're, you know, sanding and painting and constructing all sorts of things.

You're hiking. I mean, in Nepal, it was up and down and up and down all over. So what do you do to, to purposefully love your body? How, how do you live in that way so that you can continue this [00:37:00] humanitarian work? Oh my goodness. Oh gosh, that's a good question. Well, personally, I try to put good things into my body.

I don't always. I love me a good cheeseburger from McDonald's as well. But I try to stay active. I, um, I, I really do try because, like you said, when we go abroad and do these kind of projects, you have to take good care of yourself. Uh, to make sure that you have the energy and the chutzpah to actually be able to, to do this work.

Um, and then sometimes our bodies betray us and sometimes they're not, and it's not any choices that we've made that our body is, is tricky. Like when I was 20, I'm 42 now, but when I was, I'm just going to give you my medical history. I think this will be fascinating to people and I really have no shame about this.

Yeah, but when I was 29 I learned [00:38:00] just from this random health thing that happened when I was working at Westminster. Um getting my master's I found that there was something weird with my bones and they're like, oh there's something weird with your bones Like this little test they did just in a wellness And so I, they said, you should go get a, have a doctor look at this.

And I went to the doctor and I learned long story short that I was a 29 year old man that had like 85 year old bones. And that was really terrifying. And like, what's, why are my bones so crappy? Like, this is insane. I'm 29 and I was very active. Like I was in good shape. Like. What, what's going on? They did all these tests, they couldn't really find that anything was wrong, except that I would pee out all of my calcium.

I mean, that's about all they could do. Or figure out. So, bim bam boom, you know, there's some things they could do to help me start retaining that and etc. So then, for the next, ever since then, 13 years, [00:39:00] I just kind of live with this. Idea in the back of my mind that okay, I could like break at any moment or not.

I don't know. Is it improving? I don't know. Thankfully over time it's improved some and for sure not gotten worse, which is lucky But I bring this up because last year I was actually on a trip with YouthLink And I was walking across a bridge in Thailand and there were, we were on a little hike with these kids in the community and just the weight of my body and all these excited kids made this bridge break.

And so we fell down and as I'm falling, of course, you can imagine in the back of my mind, I'm like, Oh my gosh, like I'm going to break. And it's not even that far of a fall. I mean, but for me, like it is. And I land, the kids bounce up and they just run off because it's that big of a fall. For me, I know something happened, like, I know I broke, something broke, or something, so.

Thankfully, we had a [00:40:00] medical, uh, uh, emergency room nurse there. They stabilized me. They get me, I can walk, thankfully. Everything, I'm, I'm not paralyzed or anything. I go back to our hotel. I can walk back to the vehicles and go back to the hotel. I think maybe I'm just elderly. Like, I'm 40. In my 40s, like, I hurt my back picking up a piece of paper.

Like, when you get to our age, sometimes you just do things to your back. Like, oh, right. Okay, it's just a Tuesday. So I thought maybe it was just that, but anyway, long story short, I ended up going to the hospital and I had fractured a vertebrae. And you know what was so beautiful about this is, it was finally the thing happened that I was afraid would happen, and I got hurt.

And I was also fine. And I decided to stick it out, and I stayed with the group. They put me in a brace. And I just took lots of a leave. And I stayed with the group the rest of the time. And what I loved is [00:41:00] that I learned that although my body was betraying me with some kind of chronic illness, that I could still show up and still do really good work.

And although I was on like a YouthLink service year trip, where you do a lot of physical things, I still had something to offer. Like, I was there, I could still work with the business. committee and I could still be there being a mentor to the students and I could also show them that you can do it while you're injured.

Or you can do it while you're in pain. And also, and the best thing of all, is our insurance gave, was able to cover me having a first class seat home. So I could lay down. Oh, nice! Yes! So it was like a, it was, you know, it was a hard thing, but it was also this really beautiful moment of Like you can power through good things and then the outpouring of love that I received from home was absolutely overwhelming.

Like people reaching out to be like [00:42:00] just wanting to make sure I was okay or like fly me home if they need, if I needed to. Like the love was so powerful and so although this horrible thing happened, it was also this really beautiful thing that I wouldn't change. Like I really I learned a lot from it, and I, of course, can't change it, so I might as well just appreciate it, but it was a net positive, I think.

Absolutely, and I think our bodies teach us so many lessons. We learn so many lessons through our bodies, and our bodies are the way that we communicate. You know, we receive spiritual communication through our bodies, we communicate with the external world through our bodies. Like, it is just so, so important, and I love it.

I love that. Thank you for that example. Um, so the last question that I have for you then is spiritually, like, how do you tune in spiritually? How do you stay present? How do you check in with your heart? How, how do you reconcile what needs to be done with, with what's most important? [00:43:00] Yeah. So something that I've loved doing service.

locally and internationally, has really resonated with me since I was a, as a missionary. So I was a missionary a long time, a long, long time ago, but I was, I was called to with the LDS church to serve in Australia, but Vietnamese speaking. So that's a very unique, um, assignment to, to receive. And so I learned.

The best I could Vietnamese in the MTC and then went there and then worked with the Vietnamese community within Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne, Australia I should say. And I think in that those moments when I was really, um, I really started learning although I didn't put language to it yet. The difference between structures of religion versus tapping into the spirituality and honoring of people and where they're at in their [00:44:00] life, and to work with like a population of people that came from like a Buddhist or atheist background.

And then, you know, being a missionary for a, for a Christian religion. For some people you could see like there's this, there could be a frustrating disconnect there because you're expecting religiosity to equate to spirituality. And I don't actually think those things are necessarily the same. To me, they're very much not the same.

To me, they're very different also, yes. They're very different, yeah. But I think they're convoluted, especially when you're 19. You know, you kind of look at religion and spirituality as the same concept. And we, as we grow older, kind of be able, we're able to distinguish between the two. But I was in this very unique position of distinguishing between those two things of being different.

And I know, I know. Like, always being confused that my mission president would be like, Oh, if you're not baptizing, then these people are hard hearted. And I'm just sitting there like, this is not computing with me at all. Like these people are fantastically loving [00:45:00] spiritual giants of people. And just because they're not like, Believing the way I believe doesn't mean that they're not fantastically delicious human beings, they're just incredible.

And I always love this scripture, something along the lines of great are the sight of soul, or great are the, great are the souls of, what is it? Great are the souls. Yeah, the worth, that's the word. Greater the worth of souls in the eyes of God. Like, we're all the same, and I know that's cliche, but if you really believe it, and you're actually living it on a day to day basis, you're gonna see people.

And something that service, and especially you, think has done for me, has allowed me to continue to understand the worth of souls is so great. And it really, for me, doesn't have to do anything with what religion they're a part of. To me, that's completely irrelevant to their value and their worth. And as someone in a high demand religion that's very interested in people [00:46:00] joining, I had to really, like, come to terms with that concept.

And I don't mean that in any disrespectful way, but it's, it's, it's allowed me to really see people differently that and make peace that they're fantastic and I can learn from them. And maybe, maybe they would want to learn something from me. I don't know, but why not? And service has allowed me to do that.

And it's just been this beautiful journey of. Finding beautiful things wherever you go, from whoever you meet, and not war, and that's the spiritual part of it. And that's such a gorgeous place to be in your life. Rather than always letting this like, Oh, but, but, we don't believe the same, so I'm gonna put a block between us.

And that just didn't, it never served me well. And, but really centering humans. over anything is for my spiritual growth [00:47:00] been really, really good. And that also is my barometer of when I'm interacting with people is how about we put structures and labels and. and checks on if you are worthy of me respecting you to the side.

That even helps within our political world in the United States. Like, I just can call that for what it is, and it's just like structures that are so dumb and just not helpful. And how about I really just look at the person and, and their, and their qualities and not worry about all those extraneous, um, definitions that we feel we have to put on people.

Absolutely. So I just got back from Nepal this past year and they are namaste. They say namaste upon greeting, upon leaving multiple times through the conversation. And namaste means the light in me honors the light in you. And I love that practice. They were some of the most spiritual people I've ever met and they, [00:48:00] they don't practice at all how I practice religion, but their spirituality is incredible and they, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God and they, I mean, it is absolutely beautiful and something that's my number one favorite phrase from scripture is that one.

It really is. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Well, so how do people get involved with youth link? Let's talk about that for a second, because I know so many people want to do humanitarian work. They want to help this world, help them understand. Yeah. So we have a couple of different, we'll call them products or opportunities that people, it depends on who they are, what they might match them best.

So if you're, If you have high school or college students in your life, then they should go register with our service year program. Um, and that is a whole program where they do 80 hours of local service throughout a school year. And then they go [00:49:00] on a two week humanitarian trip in the summer. And it's, it's not just a trip abroad.

It's a whole lifestyle change of really learning how to, um, be a humanitarian all the time. Both locally and internationally, both are very front and center with YouthLink. They're both very valid ways to do service. Um, a new thing that we offer is our friends and family trip. And so some families want to travel and do a humanitarian, uh, trip together.

And so we, just last year, we started our first friends and family trip in over a decade to Rwanda. And this year there's one that families can register to do to Fiji in next June. Um, and so if people are looking to do something with their family internationally, that could be something that they do. And then if you're, uh, an adult that doesn't necessarily have the kids or they're not the right age or it's not their jam, you can sign up to go as a mentor, um, on a service year team and [00:50:00] start interacting with the youth and also doing really great projects.

Both here and preparing to do them internationally. So there's, those are our main things. Um, adults can join as mentors. High school and college students can join us into the service here or whole family groups can go together with our friends and family. Trip to Fiji. And you can just find us at YouthLink's website, youthlinkwithac.

org. Yeah, YouthLink with a C. Just a little side note, L I N C, the reason it's a C, is it used to be Youth Linking the Local and International Needs Communities. So L I N C, that's where that came from. Link, uh, Local and International Needs Communities. We don't use that tagline anymore, but just so for your own, okay.

Yeah. I always wondered why it would be with a C. That makes sense. Yeah, that's why. Oh, well, it has just been an honor to [00:51:00] be with you today. Is there anything else on your heart that you'd like to throw out there before we close? Well, my mantra I've had for some years now, and you're going to laugh because this has been adopted into YouthLink now, is the world is beautiful and people are good.

And I firmly believe that this world is fantastic, and the people on it are so, so good. Everywhere I go, there's good people. And we're not going to hear that on the media because that clickbait, clickbait fear sells and divisiveness sells and that's how they get ad spend. But the reality, I think, of life is there are way more good people out there in the world doing good to build people up than it seems like there is if you're just looking through the media.

And I'm not naive to think this world doesn't have some pretty big problems. Of course it does. But also there's a lot of people working on those problems and that gives me a lot of peace and happiness to know that we're [00:52:00] all doing our best and lots of people are doing their best. Absolutely. Well, the world is beautiful and people are good.

I love that so much. And it's just been such a pleasure to be with you today, Justin. And I hope that anyone out there that wants to do a humanitarian trip will really look into YouthLink. It's a beautiful organization. Thank you so much. for having me on your podcast.

Thank you for joining me today. Wow. What a gift to be enlightened and inspired by Justin Powell. He is such an example of a man who owns his divine greatness and is using that greatness to serve the world in really big ways. Here at home and abroad. What phenomenal mantras he gave us to live by. The world is beautiful when people are good, and the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.

One of my favorite things that Justin said was about the turning point in his life where he redefined [00:53:00] success. And instead of viewing success as making a lot of money and accumulating wealth, instead seeing success more as the impact one has on other humans for good. I love it so much. This is what I feel I am called to do to empower others, to magnify their mind, body, and spirit so that they can create and live an elevated, meaningful life where we fulfill our missions by owning our greatness and using that greatness to serve this world.

If you're interested in learning more about this, then becoming the boss of your brain is the very first step. I'm offering a free mini course called five days of focus to help you begin this process. See the show notes to get it. If you've always felt that tug in your heart to serve others, and have dreamed about finding a way to make a difference in the lives of those around the world, I invite you to join up with YouthLink.

Humanitarian work was always a dream of mine ever since I was just this little young girl and I saw a commercial about the starving children in Africa. [00:54:00] I cried. I've always felt the urge to help others. And my worldwide humanitarian desires just seemed like a pipe dream until I found YouthLink through one of my amazing clients, Shelley.

Now YouthLink and humanitarian work is a part of who I am. This year I will be leading a private team to Cambodia. It will be my fifth year working with YouthLink and I feel absolutely blessed beyond measure for the opportunities and experiences that this humanitarian service grants me. Visit www.

youthlink with a c. for more information. And as always remember to own your divine greatness.