All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live. With
Jackson Callum, I'm your show host. We'll be
doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building fantastic
visions out there. All right, I'm here with Derek
Anderson, founder of Skills2Heal. He is a great
friend of one of my best friends. Joel Simmons.
We got to meet just a little bit ago, about a
week or two ago. And we rocked out talking about
basketball, the basketball player, Derek Anderson,
God, and the importance of God in our lives.
Derek, my friend, tell me about your vision.
Skills to heal is self -awareness. Skills to
heal is development. Skills to heal is balance.
Skills to heal is... Something that's set in
place for young people to find their path and
to find their calling. And it allows me and it
allows us, my team, to help work with them to
get them to where they need to be. From 16 to
24 -year -olds. And it's meant to help young
people get to where they need to be in life.
Man, I love that you lean into it. I love the
way you lean into it as you and Joel and I unpack
that reality. I got to see the core of your heart
on this matter. And it's huge, man. I want to
read what you wrote. You wrote in as well. My
vision is to empower the young people to gain
the knowledge of skills for productive living.
appropriate social engagement and transitional
skills through education and practical implementation.
Man, I could have used that to provide an opportunity
for people to successfully meet and overcome
challenges in their lives. And Skills to Heal
has provided mentoring programs for middle and
high school youth and enrichment for the adults
as well. The program will form partnerships with
other community organizations, local school districts,
the juvenile justice and court system to provide
mentoring services. I mean, those 16 to 24 year
old individuals. And that is such a big vision.
What what's what caused you to do it? Where did
the vision come from? I started out in a school
district. I always lived in an area where there
was a lot of poverty and things and a lot of
disadvantages financially with the people that
I deal with on a day to day basis. And it got
to a point to where. Me and two of my uncles,
we just felt like we needed to do something about
it. And it started at my home, actually. And
kids would come by, and they couldn't afford
to get haircuts and things like that. And they
couldn't get food. They needed tutoring. So it
just started right there in my home. And my uncle
was like, you know, you can really, really do
this and work with young people. And at the time,
I was like, yeah, right, man. We're just helping
kids. And eventually it just turned into something
bigger than what I could really see. So that's
what a vision is anyway. So, you know, dude,
I love what your uncle said, too, about that,
because I'm going to I'm going to put a challenging
question out there. OK, you can go any direction
you want with this. But Derek, if I gave you
one hundred thousand dollars today, could you
help more young people? Or would that make it
harder to help more young people? I could help
more young people. 100 percent. Right. Money
is a resource known as visionaries. Right. If
we if we embrace that reality of weight, we need
the resources. You know, God provides resources
we need, but we still need those resources in
order to do the work. And as honorable of a fashion
as possible, it creates stability for those that
we serve. So you mentioned knowing about poverty.
I got to ask, what's your why? In fact, I'm going
to upgrade it. Not only what is your why, but
what's the story behind your why, man? Are you
talking about as far as poverty or? Yeah, like
ultimately, what drives you to do all this? Because
I grew up in a household where there was a lot
of, we're going to dive deep below the surface
here. Please do, man. That's exactly where we
want to go. That's exactly where we want to go.
I grew up in a household where there was a lot
of alcoholism and drugs and stuff. And I was
lucky enough to come out of that. God allowed
me to come out of that. And I really believe
his purpose was for me to come out of that to
help other people that I would cross paths with,
particularly young people. And I seen children.
going through the same thing I went through.
And it was a lot easier to help them when I can
say, oh, you know, my dad's an alcoholic or my
mom is, you know, she's on drugs, she's strung
out, she's part of prostitution or whatever.
And it was like, man, it's like I'm seeing my
life all over again. I got to prevent this or
do something about it. And we're not the type
of people, and I'm including you too, Jackson.
We just can't just walk away from it. No. Just
like, you know. I'm an Ecuador man. I'm in Ecuador
helping as many people as I can down here right
now. No, I can't walk away. And that's what happened.
I saw a lot of underprivileged kids that lived
in poverty. They went through the same thing
that I went through. And instead of them living
out, you know, going down that bad path, I said,
let me just be a light in their lives. It's not
just me. It's a whole village of us. It's a whole
village of us. My uncles and the president of
Skills to Heal. It took a whole... We just started
doing signature things every year to help the
kids. As they say, it takes a tribe to raise
a child. I would just say it's wiser. for a tribe
to raise a child because you've got more perspectives
that that child's able to learn from and that.
So it's super cool that you've been able to turn
this into a movement that other people are getting
involved in as well. I want to double down a
little bit with you on, God is really on my heart
as he should be, but you bring that out of me,
man. And I really appreciate that. So a story
that came to mind, I was in what's called the
mission training center. I was 19 years old.
I was, I was, I was a pretty good kid, but I
had some rough spots. I was lucky to get on that
mission. I was very blessed. And so we lived
this monk lifestyle for a while where we're just
studying, and we're studying prayer, and we're
studying scripture, and we're just getting after
it. And in the heart of thinking through that,
I grew up in a family as well where my dad's
house, alcohol, drugs, pornography, everything
that could have gone on negative in this house,
abuse of all kinds, not just the house, but also
the extended family. It was rough, man. There
was a lot of negativity. And so I'm one day meditating,
praying on the reality of like the mysteries
of God and why certain things played out the
way they did. And it was such a strange feeling
that is so controversial. I don't think I've
ever talked about it before. But my brother.
um one of my brothers one of my brothers hates
this story because he's like jackson they're
gonna all blame me i was whatever it doesn't
matter we all learned from our past but my brother
dove into drugs and uh i never understood that
and he was second in state you know no i'm sorry
he was all state golf as a freshman but he's
he like tapered off and i i kind of judged him
growing up like man you know drugs took over
and and kind of ruined his life or whatever but
as i was spiritually meditating on this derek
i realized that if i had had to live with my
dad full time and i had been sober and i was
i never drank i never got into it i decided never
to touch it i would kill myself i would not have
been able to overcome The depression, the hate,
the horrible things that were said and the experiences
that we had, I would have not been able to do
it. And I could see the strange silver lining
of how just maybe that drug was an outlet for
my brother during a time of his life when nothing
else was there for him or he was stuck. And he's
a he's an amazing family man now. His kids have
an amazing life because he shows up and he does
the right things. But it was really weird. And
I guess I kind of want to open the door for you
on that because you and I have some different
background experience with trials and adversities
and how, I mean, am I wrong about that? Is that
a warped view of how God works in mysterious
ways? Or is it possible that these young people
are stuck in such horrible circumstances where
they do kind of need a crutch or an escape? And
we got to do more as a society, not giving them
drugs, doing more. to help them understand these
skills, doing more to recognize that their parents
aren't going to do it for them, doing more to
recognize that if they're not blessed with those
realities, we've got to do something to step
up and help them escape. We can't blame them
for turning to substance abuse. What are your
thoughts on that? Substance abuse is a huge thing.
And I'll say this, I double down on the Lord
and Savior. I'll say this, and I tell my mentor,
I tell my mentees this all the time. I say, God
sends all type of people in our lives. Some good,
some bad. Some will make you, some will shape
you, some will break you. But in the end, he
sets the stage for where you are right now. Like
you talked about your brother and where he came
from and where he is now. You know, it's a path.
I believe in two paths. You have a path that's
already created for you. Like my daughter. Her
path is a lot easier because she didn't have
to walk my path. She didn't see violence. She
didn't see she didn't see drugs. You know, she
didn't see gunshots. No, I seen all of that.
So it's it's the it's the path that we walk down.
The one that we create. Or the one that we set
for someone else to walk down a more productive
path. so they have a more productive life so
when we approach a young person i'm saying me
and you hey this path we can walk this way because
you can create your own path but it's going to
be a lot more difficult doing it absolutely visionaries
i hope you double down with us on this topic
on on aspect of what what can we do to inspire
and to help the next generations rise up they
do have more tools and more power than i think
we were blessed with in our past yet i think
we haven't we have an awesome opportunity to
lean in and help them with that this is saying
the pen is mightier than the sword um right and
what scares me right now about the next generation
is if that's true and i believe it is ai is like
giving children a nuclear bomb And so there's
a really, really important opportunity for us
to help them use these tools for good. And I
think we should all lean into that. Derek, thank
you for leading the way that you are. What what
advice do you have from your experience for other
visionary leaders out there who feel like, man,
I don't have an office. Like you said, it's in
their home or I don't know how to pull this vision
together and make it happen. What's advice you
wish you had received when you first started
Skills to Hill? the advice that i was i i would
i would say this walk your path i would say that
there's a path that's already set for us and
i will say that never give up it's not about
what you have it's about where you're going and
sometimes We have less, but we can do more. So
it's not about an office or a building. It's
about the impact that you're making on people's
lives. And I just feel like if you keep doing
that and doing it at a high level, God always
going to come through for you. Always. Always.
I'll second that. Amen. You guys see it. I'm
down here in Ecuador. I have no idea when the
Internet will work and when it will not. Yet
it seems to be stable there. Most of my podcasts.
I don't I don't try to do anything fancy. I just
try to go out and serve the next person. And
when I'm on these podcasts, the next person is
you. And Derek Anderson is here to do the same
thing. Thank you, my brother. I really appreciate
it. For those of you who want to be on the show
and come share your visions, you can be at the
beginning stages where you're just incubating
your vision, or you can be at the stages like
Derek, where you've been after this for a few
years and helping people and making impact in
the lives of the next generation. But there's
a button in the top right corner. It says, be
our guest. Click the button. Book your appointment
with our team. Come on. We'll even train you
up on how to make sure to show up for the show.
We want more of you to unlock the visions and
do exactly what Derek said. Walk your path. As
Russell Westbrook says, you do you. So important.
So important for us to embrace that and step
into it. So, Derek, thanks for being here again,
man. Would you be willing to come back on the
show in the future? Absolutely. Man, I want to
dive in deeper. I want to see what you're up
to and where this is going. So we'll make it
happen. Vision Pros, you guys have a great rest
of your day. We'll see you in the next episode
of Vision Pros Live. Thank you for being here
today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to
Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing
your reactions as these episodes continue to
move forward. This is going to get more and more
fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.