Today we discuss tapping into our inner brilliance in order to be a changemaker and make a difference in the world.

 

My first guest, Piera Van de Wiel, is a singer-songwriter and actor passionate about social impact and storytelling, and the founder of the renowned philanthropic group, “Stronger With Music,” an influential collective that promotes the importance of music and mental health and music and social impact. She joins me today to share how music can be used as a vehicle to increase awareness of Global Causes, and how she’s using her own music to raise social awareness of domestic violence which is extremely prevalent at this time of COVID-19 as cases increase exponentially around the world.

My second guest, J.T. Madicus, is a novelist, filmmaker, and medical activist who advocates for modern solutions to the problems facing our world, particularly in the fields of healthcare, education, and sustainability, through his books, films, and businesses. He joins me today to discuss hard-hitting themes and the realities of the American Medical Industry, including the suffering of medical students, the astronomical suicide rate of doctors and medical students, the potential catastrophic shortage of doctors, the truth behind diseases, insurance, and the medical community, and how medical education needs to change.

My third guest, Laureen Asseo, is the 29-year-old CEO/Founder of the United States’ largest organic meal delivery company, Fresh n’ Lean, fueled by a passion for delivering good nutrition to as many people as possible. She joins me today to share a glimpse behind the curtain of her company with its current stance on the front lines of a pandemic where she and her employees have been thrown into the thick of working around the clock to keep up with a surging demand, taking extreme factory safety measures, and working with the government to ensure peace of mind for her customers during this chaotic and uncertain time.

 

We Discuss:

  • Learning how to step into our lives in a bigger way and make a difference in the world
  • Making positive changes in our personal lives and for our family, community, and nation
  • The importance of music and mental health and using music as a vehicle for social impact
  • How domestic violence and abuse has increased exponentially during COVID-19 quarantine
  • Working together to achieve sustainable development goals and create better communities
  • Revolutionizing education for medical professionals and individuals advocating for themselves
  • The realities of the American Medical Industry, including the suffering of medical students
  • The astronomical depression and suicide rates of doctors and medical students
  • The potential catastrophic shortage of doctors and what can be done to solve this problem
  • The truth behind diseases, health insurance companies, and the medical community
  • The struggles of entrepreneurship and running a successful business amidst a pandemic
  • Sticking together as a society in order to pull through hard times and come out stronger

 

“Our individual actions can help build communities and societies, and we can all do it, whether it’s through art, music, film, inventions, or innovations. We can do this together.”  –  Piera Van De Wiel

 

About Piera:
Image of singer, actor, and producer, Piera Van de Wiel - on Voices of Courage with Ken D. Foster

Piera Van de Wiel is a British singer-songwriter and actor passionate about social impact and storytelling.

She is the founder of the renowned philanthropic group, Stronger With Music, an influential collective that promotes the importance of music and mental health and music and social impact.

Piera has worked and performed with NGOs globally, including the Barefoot College International, Applaud Our Kids Foundation at 54 Below, the Aspire Artemis Foundation, and has sung at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for International Women’s Day sponsored by the Mission of Djibouti, and at other UN-sponsored events around the world, including the Regional STEAM & Innovation Symposia in St Lucia with UN Women and Microsoft.

She has also performed at the Jazz at Lincoln Center where Spike Lee and Alec Baldwin were presenting. With her music, Piera hopes to benefit others; from her single release in 2019, “Come Back Home,” which was written to aid humanitarian efforts in the Abacos Bahamas that was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. This song has been recognized, and received a Silver Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Listener Impact at the Global Music Awards for independent artists.

Her new single release, “Used,” has been supported by the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women in order to raise funds for women and girls that have suffered or are suffering from domestic violence.

As an Actor, Piera has worked on short films that include period drama, “Strip Clara,” 1950s film, “Tainted Choices,” which are both on the film festival circuit, Fox Films, “Amsterdam in Anatolia,” and performed at the prestigious Rose Theatre in London, London Salvation Army Hall, South Hill Arts, Atlantic Stage 2 with the Atlantic Acting Company in New York, and her leading role in Off Broadway production of The Three Musketeers as Milady De Winter with the Classical Theater of Harlem. This production was nominated for Off Broadway theatre awards including 9 Audelco awards including Best Drama.

 

About J.T.:
Image of novelist, filmmaker, and medical activist, J.T. Madicus - on Voices of Courage with Ken D. Foster

J. T. Madicus was first driven to medicine through a passion for learning and a strong belief that the medical sciences can be fun.

Despite the best efforts of his professors to stamp the joy out of medical education, he persevered in this belief. He started creating entertaining YouTube lectures under the name Future Doc House.

J. T. ‘s videos made complex medical subjects like microbiology fun to learn about and easy to understand. They took off.

Thousands of medical students from around the world started turning to J. T. Madicus to help them better understand their lessons and recapture the joy and curiosity that drove them to study medicine in the first place.

He doubled down on his mission and decided to harness modern technology to improve the student experience. J. T. teamed up with a group of European and international entrepreneurs to create QUPI, the world’s largest medical question bank. This lead to a series of lecture tours across the United Kingdom, and span off into the QUPI Legacy Foundation which advocates for policy-level change, as explained in J. T’s first book, Is There a Doctor Aboard? An Urgent Call for Change in Medical Education and Government Policy.

What made J. T. ‘s YouTube videos so popular was a flair for storytelling and a charismatic delivery. J. T. channeled this into a novel, Final Diagnosis: No Second Chances, that embeds real-life medical lessons within a gripping plot with a flavor of action and espionage. The novel received rave reviews, and is now being transformed into the No Second Chances TV Series!

The first episode of No Second Chances will be released in mid-2020 and you can learn more about it on his website. J. T. plans to keep the series going and is already exploring ideas for new creative projects.

When he is not busy writing books and producing his TV shows, J. T. channels his creative energies into activist projects like AquaDawn, and spends time with his wife and their two young children. He divides his time between his native California and Europe.

 

“You are a special and unique individual, and you need to find your gifts, your goal, your purpose in life, and strive for it and go for it. This will give you happiness, meaning, and joy in your life. Do not look backward, only look forward.”  –  J.T. Madicus

 

About Laureen:
Image of Founder and CEO of Fresh n' Lean, Laureen Asseo - on Voices of Courage with Ken D. Foster

Laureen Asseo, the 29-year-old CEO/Founder of the United States’ largest organic meal delivery company Fresh n’ Lean, never imagined she would be on the front lines of a pandemic when she founded her empire out of her one-bedroom apartment as a teen.

Her father had been facing serious health problems after years of overindulging in processed American foods, and she was desperate to help him reverse the damage.

Laureen’s plan: make eating well a no-brainer for people who lack the time or desire to prepare tasty meals.

Over the years, Fresh n’ Lean has grown rapidly and currently operates out of a 55,000 square foot facility with hundreds of employees. Laureen achieved all this without a single cent of outside capital.

Now, she is thrown into the thick of working around the clock to keep up with surging demand (seeing a quick 15% growth), taking extreme factory safety measures, and working with the government to ensure peace of mind for her customers.

Laureen has an obsession with delivering good nutrition to as many people as possible. She loves to help people with their health, weight loss, and convenience goals, because she has seen firsthand how transformative it can be simply to consistently eat well.

Today, Fresh n’ Lean is the #1 meal delivery service for fresh, ready to eat, gluten-free, organic meals.

 

“At the end of the day, as a human race and as a society, it’s very important that we stick together. We’re going through a lot right now, and we can pull through. We’re very, very strong, but we’re stronger together.”  –  Laureen Asseo

 

Check out the video below to watch our interview:

 

Resources Mentioned:

 

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