The Work of Warriors

Kim Rapach (00:03.074)
Hello everybody. I am so excited to get started today. I have an introduction for you today and an event to tell you about and an exciting opportunity. So this is an extra episode, if you will. I am so excited to get the chance to speak today with award-winning writer and director, David Frischitt.

With nearly 40 years of experience in the corporate event production and creative agency world, David Frichette has honed, okay, I gotta start.

Kim Rapach (00:55.19)
Hello everyone. Today is just a little extra special. I have the opportunity to introduce to you award winning writer and director David Frichette.

Kim Rapach (01:14.698)
With nearly 40 years of experience in the corporate events, production and creative agency world, David has honed his ability to communicate to large groups of people through live events, video content, experiences and storytelling. He is the creator of the True West Foundation, which is a culmination of the question, what if, and the host of the True West Podcast.

and the host of the True West podcast.

Kim Rapach (01:57.474)
For years, David has been hosting unique charitable events to help raise awareness and raise funds for local and national charities. In December of this year, the True West Foundation will present Hope for the Holidays at the Fisher Center on campus of Belmont University in Nashville. So if you...

So if you are in Nashville, stay tuned. We have a lot of exciting things to tell you about in regards to this upcoming event. And I think there might be even a little giveaway. So stay tuned. And you're also gonna wanna check out David's profile on Instagram and LinkedIn and take a look at the True West Foundation website. There are a lot of...

There are a lot of opportunities to get involved in important causes that are likely very meaningful to you as well as to the communities.

Kim Rapach (02:55.542)
Be sure to also check out his website, the true West foundation for more Inver... Be sure to check out his website, the true West foundation to find out how you can get involved in more opportunities that serve your community and the world at large. Nope.

Kim Rapach (03:23.984)
Be sure to check out his website, True West. Be sure to check out the website, True West Foundation. And there you will find all sorts of opportunities where you too can get involved.

Be sure to check out the website, True West Foundation. There you will find many opportunities where you too can get involved and make a difference.

Kim Rapach (04:38.23)
Hello everyone. Today is just a little extra special. I love every conversation I get to have on this podcast, but today is just a little different. I get to introduce to you award winning writer and director, David Fichette. With nearly 40 years of experience in the corporate event, production and creative agency world, David has honed his ability to communicate to large groups of people through live events, video content,

experiences and storytelling. David is the creator of the True West Foundation. I will let him tell you about it, but it is essentially the culmination of the question, what if? For years, David has been hosting unique charitable events to help raise awareness and raise funds and create friends for local and national charities. And the reason today is so special is because he

Kim Rapach (05:36.466)
in December in just a few weeks and it will be held at the Fisher Center on the campus of Belmont University and so if you are in Nashville you're definitely going to want to stay tuned and check out all the Instagram pages and website for more information. But for now I am honored to introduce to you David Fichette.

Kim Rapach (06:08.83)
Ahem.

Kim Rapach (08:54.742)
Thank you.

Kim Rapach (10:44.702)
I just wanted to hop on here real quick. I am so excited. I'm about to hop on. Well, I have the computer up and running, and I'm about to hop on a conversation with award-winning writer and director David Fichette. And he has some exciting news coming up for, particularly for you in Nashville. And so you're gonna wanna check out this episode. I am gonna turn it around as fast as I can, hopefully by the end of this evening. And...

Kim Rapach (11:17.354)
I just wanted to hop on here real quick. I'm getting ready to hop on a podcast interview with award-winning writer and director, David Fichette. He is getting ready to host an amazing event in Nashville on December 16th. And so if you're in Nashville, you are gonna wanna check out this episode of the Work of Warriors podcast. I am going to edit it and post it as quickly as possible.

hopefully by the end of today, by this evening. Leaving tomorrow for a wellness retreat hosted by Kim Fields in Georgia tomorrow. And there's just so much going on.

Kim Rapach (11:57.982)
Oh, wait. Are you here?

Kim Rapach (13:47.15)
Thanks.

Kim Rapach (13:59.135)
Hi David!

david (14:00.785)
Hello. Welcome to the room for you. Thank you, thank you very much. So, this, so you have eight episodes out so far, I see. So it's relatively new for you.

Kim Rapach (14:02.75)
Welcome to the work of warriors.

Kim Rapach (14:12.842)
Yeah, very new, brand spanking new, I'm an infant.

david (14:18.405)
Good. Yes. I'm 20 episodes into my podcast. So I finished season one last week on Thanksgiving.

Kim Rapach (14:22.93)
Okay, okay.

Kim Rapach (14:28.604)
Okay.

Kim Rapach (14:33.978)
Oh, wow. So I've only gone every two weeks. I'm gonna start weekly in the new year because what I'm finding is with every two weeks, I'm already booked through March. And so I wanna keep having conversations. And so we're gonna bump all those up and go weekly. And I'm just a little like a little skittish of the time and you know what it takes to put them back to, you know, edit them and put them back out, but it's so fun. Are you loving it?

david (14:38.919)
Mm-hmm.

david (14:51.474)
Nice.

david (15:00.981)
Yeah, yeah, some of these things eight, 10, 12 hours to edit. So I'm like, ah, so I haven't, we haven't, I'm on all the platforms, but I'm not doing anything video wise yet. I'm not doing anything on YouTube this week as I'm finding some of these conversations are, you know, an hour long and I'm cutting them down to 45 minutes and, you know, I'm slicing out all the ums and the ahs and the, right? All that kind of stuff. And I'm thinking, man, if that was on video, we'd just be good.

Kim Rapach (15:30.199)
Sure.

david (15:30.769)
figure out how to make all that work. So I'm looking at you and you look a little pixelated on my side. Do I look okay to you?

Kim Rapach (15:32.834)
Sure.

Kim Rapach (15:39.666)
You look okay to me and do you use Riverside?

david (15:44.741)
don't. I don't. I have used it for other podcasts that I've been a guest on.

Kim Rapach (15:46.291)
So it records.

Okay. Yeah, so I usually get a message that says it's recording here. Actual recording is higher quality. And so when we go back, it will look even better. So it should, you know, I haven't had any issues yet. It's usually fine. How are you?

david (15:56.722)
this. Got it.

david (16:08.625)
Awesome. I'm great. I have a lot.

Kim Rapach (16:09.838)
You have a lot coming up. Good, good. Well, welcome. I've already done your introduction, so we can jump right in. I guess I would start by asking you, well, let me think. Where do I want to start? I took a couple notes. I would love it if you would tell our

listeners a little bit about your experience in the entertainment industry as a writer and a director. What does that look like for you?

david (16:41.789)
Sure, so I am, sorry. Let's, we'll do that again. I thought I had this, everything on. I do have it on. I have it under that disturb. Why did that happen? I'm so sorry. It is nothing.

Kim Rapach (16:53.938)
It must be somebody very important because I've done that too. And my son comes through and I'm like, shoot, you're on the specialist.

david (17:02.041)
It's not so any important. No, I'm kidding All right, let me ask that again. So There you go, let me just cut right in

Kim Rapach (17:08.854)
So would you just, yeah, sure. Would you just start with telling our listeners about your experience in the entertainment industry? I understand that you are an award winning writer and director and I would love to hear more about that.

david (17:21.693)
Sure, so I, just last week on Thanksgiving, it was the 39th anniversary of me starting this company, which is called Go West Creative. And so I've spent four decades, basically in the corporate creative world. We also do some television, some commercial work, some web design, but the majority of our work is working with large.

corporations and helping them with their storytelling and helping them creatively communicate their story in a way that sticks and lands with their stakeholders or audience, whoever that might be. So because of that, I have learned over the 39 years how to do a lot of different things. You know, I came up through theater. That was kind of my background. So I've always been an entertainer. I also had a

a band that I played in, which was the genesis of me starting this company, starting a mobile DJ company with some band gear that I had. And so I've always been in that entertainment thing, really drawn to it. Music is kind of the, you know, it's the soundtrack of my life. It's, it's, it's the thing that helps me when I create, you know. So, so yes, we've, we've done some incredible stuff, you know, so writing content for executives, helping them shape their messages.

writing, opening and creating opening experiences, whether that's video and live entertainment and whatever that might be, original music to set the tone for shows, whether those are corporate shows or consumer based shows. And, you know, so we, I've had the good fortune to be all around the world and do a lot of incredibly different things. And, you know, people often ask me what my favorite project was that I, you know, have.

produced in my career. And I can talk about some of the large projects I've done, but I always say, my favorite thing that I ever did is in 2004, I lost a niece at 10 years old and she was the exact same age as my twin daughters and they were like little triplets who were together all the time. And producing her memorial service, three hour memorial service, to me, I still think is like the greatest use of my gifts and talent.

david (19:40.465)
that I've ever been able to do. And it's funny, 20 years later, and we're gonna talk about my Christmas show, we're actually gonna have a moment of paying tribute to her in this Christmas show, which is gonna be really exciting. And after I'm done here today, I'll be on set. We're filming some content around that and kind of recreating her last Christmas with a cast.

out in East Nashville today. So I'm pretty excited about that.

Kim Rapach (20:13.378)
Wow, that just touches my heart. Thank you for sharing that. I think that's so important. You said I could talk about the larger productions I've had, but the one that means the most. And I just think that's just what being human is all about. And I know that you've taken your experiences and done some really great things. And I wanna talk about that. But first I wanna ask you,

david (20:18.021)
Let's go.

Kim Rapach (20:40.426)
Why is mental wellness important to you? The work of warriors is all about fighting for ourselves first, taking care of ourselves so that we can bring our gifts into the world in healthy ways and enjoy our success along the way. And I'm wondering, what does mental wellness mean to you? Why is it important to you? What is your experience? Whatever you're comfortable sharing.

david (21:04.605)
Sure, of course. As I wrote to you in my email, I'm pretty much an open book about these things. And I think mental wellness has become far more of a focus and priority for me in the past few years, as I feel like I spent so many years just stuffing all this stuff down. Right?

And so when my first wife and I divorced and we were separated in 2014, I started going to, people told me I was a codependent, right? And that I should go to Al-Anon meetings, right? And I started going to some Al-Anon meetings and that didn't feel right to me. And then I heard about codependence anonymous. And so I started going to Koda right after I moved to Nashville nine years ago. And...

that started me on a path of understanding the 12-step program and understanding the decisions that I thought that I was making sacrificially for other people was actually hurting myself and really for a lot of times manipulating other people. So it was interesting, but I said in the last few years it's really been really important.

You know, 2021 was a really dark year for me, a really hard year for me. I, you know, I'm remarried and I have a young son and that new relationship, that new child has caused a lot of disconnection with my adult daughters. All right, so I have three beautiful grown adult daughters and the whole reason I moved to Nashville was to be close to them because they all went to Belmont. And so,

We've been estranged for years now, for anywhere between three and six years, depending on which one of the daughters. And so 2021 was a really, really dark year for me. And that is when I knew that I couldn't keep going on pretending that I was okay, because I thought I was hiding it and masking it at work, and I wasn't. And I think I became unsufferable at work, and people...

david (23:26.013)
thought that I was never happy with anything that they did. The boss was never happy. And then it wasn't about that. It was just, you know, I, this is all I could do to get up in the morning and muster half a smile. And so I finally, in November, 2021, I went to OnSight for a week. And, you know, I'm sure you're familiar with OnSight. It's a, you know, wonderful facility right outside of Nashville. And, you know, you know, they take your phone, they take your laptop. You can't have...

Any connection with the outside world which was I knew going in was gonna be okay But I think the hardest part for me was and they tell you you're gonna get roommates. I'm like, uh, I Don't do the roommate thing, but it actually ended up being One of the most incredible weeks of my life and it shifted my perspective so deeply and made me Realize, you know the things that I would

I was holding onto that were just, were dragging me down on the millstone around my neck. I was every day trying to fix this relationship with my daughter and figure out what I could with my daughters. And I just couldn't move the needle at all, right? And so through that, and you know, and non-science isn't necessarily a faith-based thing, but because I'm a faith-based person, you know, what it showed me is in that, that I needed to be able to be strong enough and have the courage.

to hand over that relationship to God and hand over the care of my children to God until they were ready to be back in relationship with me. And just the action of saying that and going through that lifted the despair from my life. There's still sadness and there's still missing my kids every day, especially at the holidays, but the despair is gone. And so I...

I'm a huge champion of the work that they do on site, but just a champion in general of, we're all going through some crap. And how is it we have real conversations with people and we ask people how you're doing, be prepared to hear an actual answer as opposed to, oh, you're not gonna just say fine and move on. It wasn't just a salutation. So for me, that's what...

david (25:53.738)
I'm focusing a lot about and that's what the genesis of this whole holiday event that we're doing is about.

Kim Rapach (26:01.642)
Wow, I had no idea. Thank you so much for trusting me and even our listeners just to share.

your vulnerability and your real story. And, you know, one of the things that I was so impressed with when I was reading the email, if I can read it to you and kind of going out of order here, but you said, so many of us feel obligated to plaster on a happy face or suit up with a false sense of strength when holiday events and parties are in full swing. And when I read that, I felt it deeply for the holidays, but also

david (26:10.726)
Of course.

Kim Rapach (26:40.996)
for many of us every single day of, you know, I'm fine when we're anything but fine. And that was why I created this podcast so we could have these honest conversations about the real struggle of being human.

and so that we can normalize the humanity of it instead of feeling like there's something wrong with us or that we're broken or that we're, you know, we need to work harder or achieve more. And in fact, I just think we need to connect more. And that's what you're doing. That's what you're creating in a couple different ways. So I'm wondering if you...

david (27:14.131)
Exactly.

That's okay. Yeah. When you say the fine thing, you know, I just, yeah, go back to that old thing when people, the old acronym for fine, right? Freaked out, insecure, needy, and emotional. I'm fine. All these things, right? Oh, I'm really fine.

Kim Rapach (27:28.958)
Erotic. Yeah, emotional. Yeah, fine. So fine. Yes. Incredibly fine. I love that. So I know you have a foundation. True West Foundation. Do you want to tell our listeners a bit about that first?

david (27:43.405)
Mm-hmm.

david (27:47.681)
Yeah, so as I start thinking about, you know, what the next phase of my life is, I'll be transitioning out of Go West here in the next six months or so. And, uh, you know, I still want to do the creative work. I still want to do the, um, you know, executive producing and, and writing and all the things I do, I just don't want to run the company anymore. It's been, it's been a long time and I just, I'm just ready not to do that. So we've had a wonderful transition. Uh,

planned in place for the last three years and have a great woman here that is president, COO. They'll be taking over for me as soon as I step down. So all excited about that. So as I start thinking about the next step for me, there's a marketing campaign that we came up with a couple of years ago here, and it's about finding your true West, right? And the concept of true West and the podcasts that I host is called the True West Podcast. My foundation is the True West.

foundation. This concept around True West is that if our true north is the purpose that we're on this planet, the thing we're going to be remembered for, the reason we get up each morning, our true west is our sense of exploration and adventure and curiosity and creativity that helps us, you know, achieve our goals, achieve our path, achieve our true north, right? And so just leaning into that because we've all had times in our life

that we've hit a wall, we've had an absolute no, you know, things are not going as planned. And we can either give up at that moment, or we can go, how do we carve our own path? How do we go around? How do we go over? How do we dig under? How do we figure out, you know, what our sense, use our sense of creativity to figure out a way to get through it and move on to the next step? And so I just love that thought process because owning a creative agency for

Four decades, I always tell people my favorite part about it isn't the creative work that I do. I love that My favorite part is when there's a business challenge I'm like, all right, let's figure this out. Right? It does It's not just what it looks like on paper and black and white. Let's figure out where the gray areas are Let's figure out the what-ifs let's push on every now and go Why is that a no and let's figure out a way around so the true West Foundation, you know What I'm doing is I'm taking

david (30:12.781)
kind of this concept I started when I started, when I moved here to Nashville, I started hosting these events here at Go West called Cocktails with Creatives. And this was a free event for anybody in the creative community to come and connect. And, you know, but to get in, say, hey, this week we're featuring Second Harvest Food Bank. So to get in, bring a couple of cans of food or some non-perishable food items.

and we'll give you a drink ticket when you get here and you can use that drink ticket at the bar. But if you want to continue to drink throughout the course of the evening and there's live entertainment and all this stuff, if you want to continue to drink, there are four to eight other charities set up around the room and they have all the drink tickets. Go talk to them, right? And if you talk to them, give them your time, your talent, your treasure, whatever you want to do, they're gonna give you a drink ticket so you can keep drinking. So it's just a way to engage more people in the charitable process.

So, and I did that because I felt like I've never had enough philanthropic dollars of my own to make a big enough difference with any one charity. And so I thought, okay, I use my resources, my cash, whatever I might have, and then my talents and create these experiences and events and bring 100 people, 200 people together to raise awareness, raise funds, raise friends for other organizations.

So that's really what the True West Foundation is really all about, is it's going to be a vehicle for other charities to raise money. It won't be about us doing anything necessarily ourselves, but it'll be about helping other charities in supporting them and helping them do good. So the first big swing is this Christmas show on December 16th at Belmont at the Fisher Center on the campus of Belmont University, which, you know, that's 1,727 seats to sell. So.

You know, that's a big swing, but it is about the same sort of thing. You know, we're True West Foundation, along with some really wonderful sponsored partners, is funding the entire production. You know, all the costs for the show. So that 100% of the ticket sales can go to the four charities that we're supporting, which is Scott Hamilton's, CARES' Cancer Research Foundation. It's the Alzheimer.org.

david (32:33.225)
It is the OnSite Foundation, which is the foundation, the charitable side of OnSite that scholarships people to go through the program. And then an incredible charity, a nonprofit that we work with here in Nashville called the Nashville Peacemakers, which helps getting urban kids, urban inner city kids off the streets. But they also have a group called Moms Over Murder. And these are all moms that have lost a...

a child to either gang violence, gun violence, police brutality on the streets of Nashville. And I spend every Christmas Eve with those moms.

Kim Rapach (33:13.502)
Wow, wow, that's all. I mean, I don't even know where to start. That's so incredible. Thank you for your work. And I think having that vehicle, like you said, to help charitable organizations, that's some of the hardest piece, right? Is when you've got this entity and this entity and bringing them together and having a...

david (33:20.637)
Thank you.

Kim Rapach (33:39.378)
a central foundation and vehicle for that is a really wonderful concept. That's amazing. What is it that you are hoping to create, to offer through Hope for the Holidays, your upcoming event?

david (34:00.793)
interesting for me, the event is about the audience, more so than the show, right? I mean, the show's gonna be incredible. And I've been working my butt off on the show, but it's about the audience. It's about the people coming to an event where they can just come however they're feeling, whatever that is. Which makes it really difficult to market this event, because then people think, oh, is it the Lonely Hearts Club, and I don't wanna go to that event. And it's not about that. It's not gonna be this big, somber.

pity party type of thing. But wherever you're at, whatever you're going through, just come and be. And hopefully you feel, I want the audience to feel seen and heard and valued, right? And we're gonna have resources on site. We'll have some resources available for people there. We'll have several different charities that'll be there. There's a wonderful company called EncourageX that'll be there doing some, it's like an encouragement software platform for people to reach out to others.

And then we're also gonna have prayer teams there, right? If that's something that people wanna have a moment where they can connect with somebody, there'll be some prayer teams and some pastors there, that even during the show, if there's a moment where they're like, that hit too close to home, I'm gonna go out to lobby for a minute, there's gonna be people out there that they can talk to. So we just wanna make sure that we give them resources. But a challenge that some of my friends had given me too, is like, well, your event is on December 16th and Christmas is on December 25th, that's nine days away, right? Maybe people...

feel filled with hope, but then that wanes over time. So we've created a Facebook group as well that people can join, go to our website, they can join the Facebook group. And hey, if you need connection and you need community, hey, Tuesday we're gonna grab coffee in the afternoon, Thursday night we're gonna go to the movies, Saturday we're gonna go hike Lake Ratner, right? And have opportunities for people to connect because really when you ask what is that hope that we do, we wanna...

You want to share faith, you want to give the audience love, and we hope to spark hope, right? That's the thing, we want to spark hope in people that they feel like they're not alone, that they're seen and they're valued.

Kim Rapach (36:10.826)
Yeah, well, and I think the gift, one of the biggest gifts that you're giving is that ability to show up as is, because like you said, we are all under the pressure of putting on a face, entering back into, you know, families of origin, stories of origin, a lot of times where...

you know, we're becoming more and more anxious as the holidays get closer. And we often don't even realize that it's happening or why it's happening. And I think all of us, especially this time of year need a place to just exhale and just be, and just like you said, feel seen.

david (36:45.189)
Right. Yeah.

Kim Rapach (36:48.77)
There's no pressure. If you want resources, they're there. If you want encouragement, you want connection without the pressure. Holidays are full of so much pressure from finances to people to traffic, right? And so I love that idea of just being able to come and exhale and just be and to receive. It's beautiful.

david (37:08.185)
Yeah, exactly. And so we had a meeting last night and some of the team came up with a wonderful idea. So trying to have something interactive and experiential for the guests, the audience to participate in when they come pre-show and during intermission. And so we're going to have a couple of large Christmas trees without ornaments on there and we'll have ornaments where people can write what they hope for on that. And those will be placed onto the tree pre-show during intermission.

Kim Rapach (37:34.935)
Thank you.

david (37:36.093)
But during the second act, we'll take them all off. And as they leave, everybody will be given one. It won't be theirs. They'll get somebody else's hope to take with them and put on their tree. And so it's just try to connect everybody that's there that night as part of a larger community.

Kim Rapach (37:53.61)
I don't think I could love that anymore. That is a brilliant idea. I love that. I love it. Do you wanna talk about who's going to be there, what that evening might look like, event-wise?

david (37:57.812)
You're very kind. Yeah. Thank you.

david (38:07.702)
Yeah. So it's funny, the whole thing started last year when I went to Christmas show for my friends, Louis York, and the Schindela is out at the Franklin theater last year. And the Franklin theater is a great spot. And they live out that way. And, you know, it's packed out. And I was like, you guys are so amazing. And you have, you have like, you know, 40 to 50 golden platinum albums between the two of them. You know, Louis, Louis York is two guys, it's Claude Kelly.

from New York and Chuck Harmony from St. Louis. So Louis York, that's how they got. But as producers and writers, Grenade Bruno Mars, Party in the USA, Miley Cyrus, My Life Would Suck Without You, Kelly Clarkson, Circus, Britney Spears, they worked with Whitney, they worked with Neo, Christina Aguilera, I mean, Rihanna, they've worked with everybody and they have massive catalog. So I saw them and I was like,

we need to get you guys to the Ryman or we need to get you to the Skirmish next year and let me come alongside you, let me produce the show. And so we started that in January. And then in late April, I was asked to step in at the last minute and help direct and produce a show at the Fisher Center for all the teachers in Nashville and including the teachers from Covenant School. And going into the Fisher Center and what an incredibly beautiful.

Kim Rapach (39:25.942)
Hmm.

david (39:30.301)
theater that is. It is the most beautiful thing that exists in Nashville. And that night just that night was where I was like okay this is what Christmas needs to be about. It needs to be about hope. It needs to be about reaching people that need hope. And so I went to Claude and I went to Chuck and I said how would you feel about the show this year being an evening of Lewis York and friends? And we talk about hope and we talk about the things we need.

and the thing that people are struggling with. And they were, they loved the idea and they were 100% on board. And so that's where Hope for the Holidays was born out of that. And so, you know, I immediately booked the Fisher Center and we started working on the show. And so as the friends that we see, the Shindellas are an incredible female R&B trio, which we haven't seen anything of this caliber since Destiny's Child. So it's really wonderful.

They've been all up and down the R&B charts. I'm really excited for them. And that's a group that Claude and Chuck formed. They put the group together. So they tour and perform a lot together. But other friends include Charles Esten from the TV show Nashville and Outer Banks and so many other things. He's such an incredible talent. Ari Afsar, who is a lead in Hamilton, is coming down from New York.

Kim Rapach (40:34.399)
Mm.

david (40:53.029)
We have Jay Allen, country artist, who just broke his first song on country radio. And it's a song called, There's No Present Like the Time, which, you know, perfect for the holidays. He's such a great writer. We have 20 country artists out of the UK that just moved here. Megan Lindsay, who had lots of hits with her duet, Steel Magnolia, was a...

runner up on season eight of The Voice and his incredible talent. Steve Connell, spoken word artist from Los Angeles, flying in, is gonna do two really amazing pieces that he wrote. Kathie Lee Gifford will be there. Scott Hammet, Scott Hamilton will be there. Miles Adcock, Miles Adcock, who owns Onsight, will be there and he'll speak and kind of give us some hope there. And the entire thing is to be hosted by my buddy, Kelly Sutton.

who we just love from, you know, she does the mornings on Circle TV, and then she hosts at the Grand Old Opry. You know, she also, you know, Nashville's New Year's Eve party is always hosted by Kelly, so she's well loved. So we have an incredible, incredible lineup, and it's going to be a really fun show, and it's going to, we're going to deal with, we're going to deal with some heavy topics, but we're going to, we're going to head them head on, and we're going to keep pointing people towards hope, and hope through faith, hope through community, and hope through connection.

Kim Rapach (41:55.36)
Okay.

Kim Rapach (42:20.578)
I love that so much. It sounds incredible. And it's you want to say the date? Let's say that again.

david (42:23.685)
Well, I hope you'll be there. Yes. I said, I hope you'll be there.

Kim Rapach (42:29.554)
Well, I have to now. I just learned about it. But I told my husband about it. He's like, so are we going? And I'm like, well, I think we are. So yes. Yeah, I would love it.

david (42:31.385)
You do, right? So you can do it. Oh yeah.

david (42:39.75)
Yeah, yeah, so Yes, it was December 16th at the Saturday night December 16th at the Fisher Center on the campus of Belmont University the website to buy tickets is hope the number for holidays Nash calm hope for holidays Nash calm and there's interesting, you know, because we I've had people reaching out to me all over the country and then we have

Lots of people flying in for the event, but people that can't make it into Nashville have asked how they can give and be a part of this and help partake in this. And so there are a lot of people that wanna come to this event that maybe can't afford this event. And so we have set up a fund through the Nashville Peacemakers that if you go to that website, you can donate, you can select hope for the holidays from a dropdown menu, and you can donate whatever amount of money you wanna donate, and those will go to.

purchase tickets for other people that can't afford to be there that need to have some hope this holiday season.

Kim Rapach (43:39.462)
I love that. Thank you. And, you know, the, the idea of a warrior who is someone who fights for themselves, you know, this is so much in alignment with that. And from both angles, right, I'm going to show up, because I'm going to agree that, that I matter and how I feel matters. And it is important to be able to show up as I am, no matter where I'm at.

david (43:42.656)
So

david (43:52.056)
Hmm.

Kim Rapach (44:07.902)
and also from the other end of being able to provide that space. And so from the work of Warrior's perspective, while it's not a replacement for mental health, it is more about the conversation and the connection. What would you say to somebody who maybe is listening to this who is struggling? Do you have a word of encouragement?

david (44:29.637)
Yeah, it is, it is, it's conversation, it's connection. It is talk to somebody about it, right? Cause we've been so stigmatized over the years, right? That mental health, that mental illness, right? You know, you're not strong enough, right? You're weak and there's something wrong with you. You're broken and that's not true, right? You know, we all have things that we deal with. And they're all gonna manifest one way or another, right? The way I spent years pushing it down, it came out in other ways. I wasn't fooling anybody, but.

But to have the conversation and to take the power away from the stigma, I think that's, that's the first step, right? Who is it you can talk to? And it might be a stranger, right? You know, and there's, there's tons of resources that are out there. People that'll just talk to you about it. But we build up these scenarios in our own mind about what people are going to think about us. If we talk about it and you know, am I going to lose work? Am I going to, you know, my friends are going to think I'm a freak or whatever it is. And we have to get past that.

Because more often than not, when I speak my truth about this, people crack open and then share their truth about what they're going through. And that's where real healing can come, is once we speak it, take its power away, and enter into connection and community.

Kim Rapach (45:47.71)
Yeah. And I'm so glad and grateful that you spoke about the difference, you know, the idea of mental illness, right. And as a mental wellness coach, I used to be a therapist. I worked in that field of mental illness and mental wellness is so important to me because like physical health, we all have mental health and you wouldn't break your leg and sit on a couch.

and drink a bottle of wine and scroll on your phone and pretend it wasn't there. But that's what we've been taught to do with our emotions or our painful experiences or our trauma. And so the idea of wellness is it's possible for everyone. It's possible. And I talk about the four pillars of optimal mental health are wellness, connection.

david (46:30.341)
Right.

Kim Rapach (46:40.766)
meaning and healing and that connection piece. I don't, relationships are everything. And so I just love that you said that. And I think it's just reminds us that you're not alone. I've had my experience, 2020 was a very dark year for me. 2021 was a very dark year for you. And just, we're not alone. I just need to keep connecting and normalizing the conversation of being human.

david (47:03.009)
Yeah.

david (47:07.729)
You know, have you watched this show? I believe it's an apple called shrinking.

Kim Rapach (47:15.104)
Was it with?

david (47:17.081)
It's with Harrison Ford, Seth. Yeah, so it's about the therapists. And what I love about it is just three therapists that work together in an office, and they all have so much messed up stuff in their own life, right? And so often we look at doctors as, you know, like they're good, they're healthy, and they're strong, and they don't have anything, you know? And it's so nice just how they crack that open, just go, you know, everybody's struggling with something.

Kim Rapach (47:18.898)
Oh no. Oh yes I have. Yes I did.

Mm-hmm.

Kim Rapach (47:32.894)
Yeah.

david (47:45.169)
And so let's just have the conversations.

Kim Rapach (47:45.738)
Yes, yes. Yeah, and that is to be human, not because you're bad or wrong or broken. You're living in a human world with human experiences and the whole point of healing is so that we can bring more positive experiences and connections to each other because when we're not well, like you said, we hurt ourselves and each other. We don't realize we're doing it.

But then when we're well, we get to, you know, it just changes everything. If we're well, it impacts everybody we interact with, it impacts our communities, you see things like what you're doing, and it truly, truly impacts the world. And so I'm so grateful for the work that you're doing, for, you know, just this conversation, for the event that's coming up. We will include

everything in the show notes and you know would love to just help put that word out there for you and just you know hoping for a very successful event for you and for everyone that you're doing it for the audience it's very special.

david (48:46.245)
I appreciate it.

david (48:50.274)
Me too me too Yeah, thank you, I look forward to meeting you in person there

Kim Rapach (48:57.45)
Yes, I look forward to it. Thank you, David.

david (48:59.309)
Okay. Thank you so much, Kim.

Kim Rapach (49:04.789)
Okay.