From Victim to Victor: Rich Vysion on Music, Resilience, and Transformation

Brad Minus: [00:00:00] And welcome back to another episode of life changing challengers. I am really excited. I have an epic Episode for you guys tonight. I am with rich vision. He is an author and recording artist I've listened to some of his songs and they're amazing His book is called from victim to victor and he is Come out with this ability to move himself through this victimhood mentality and come out on top.

So without further ado, Rich, how are you doing today? Good. Thank you. And yourself? I'm doing great. I appreciate it. So Rich, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, like, where you grew up, what was the compliment of your family, you know, brothers and sisters, and what was it like to be rich as a kid?

Rich Vysion: First off, privilege, to be on your podcast. For me, being a kid has its ups and downs because my family, had very strong personalities. I have four [00:01:00] sisters and one brother.

So it was a lot of, different personalities. A lot of fighting. It was very tough, to deal with that. Growing up I'm grateful that I was able to still manage to, hold my head up straight while pursuing my, goals going to school and Finding my way, but it has its challenges.

A lot of people have family dynamic. That's not perfect. It's just, my family was not like the perfect family, but I am so grateful that I had a family to be able to pour into me, 

Brad Minus: have a family right?

Rich Vysion: Yeah, I know some people who don't have family and it's hard for them, losing, loved ones and things like that. So I think for me, although it was, you know, It did have his tough moments. I really grateful for those tough moments because it really built a lot of resilience in me, just in general.

Awesome. So did you grow up in New York too? Yes. I was born in new York [00:02:00] city. I was born in the Bronx and now I live in, Brooklyn, Bridgewood area now, but I've lived in Brooklyn my whole life. 

Brad Minus: Well, yeah, you must've seen some huge changes going on as far as Brooklyn goes.

Right. Nice. So did you go to school in Brooklyn too? 

Rich Vysion: Yes. 

Brad Minus: Like high school? 

Rich Vysion: I went to, yes. I went to a, a, elementary school out in, Brooklyn. My high school was a military based school, so I ended up being in a cadet program so it was a lot of, exercises and tests and things like that. It did teach me, discipline and that mindset of like the meditate myself, it's like, everything has to be in order. You know, the tire has to be, perfect, spotless.

And so I grew up on like, you know, there's always going to be someone watching you and things like that. And there's always going to be someone who's, checking to see if you're doing what you have to do, what's required of [00:03:00] you.

That really stuck with me because I noticed that I took my personal development and physical health a lot more seriously because I was in that school the only thing I was able to do was work because that's what the training was. 

You gotta do this, you have to, give me twenty pushups, give me thirty, and it's kind of like, it teaches you to stick with it, regardless, and, you have to keep on 

Brad Minus: I imagine that discipline still maintains its effect in the classroom too, right?

How do you feel like you did 

Did you excel? 

Rich Vysion: Well, yes. I did have pretty good grades. I didn't, flex or got any, classes. So I'm grateful that I was able to, you know, maintain, you know, pretty, you know, good GPA.

In high school, I've always been the type of student that had, a head on the shoulders. Like I always, I always studied. I always make sure I was, I would, my head was in the books. School was important to me and, still is. Even though I'm not in school, just that mindset of always learning, [00:04:00] wanting to learn something new 

yeah. And I'm a book nerd. I have so much books on my bookshelf. I just love to read. I love to be able to, learn something that I'd never done before. I'd be able to apply it to my life, to allow me to grow. 

Brad Minus: Well, I think it's great. And just from the few songs, the few numbers that I've listened to, they're very.

Intelligent, you know what I mean? So I, I mean, I know that you, you're hip hop, R& B and rap, right? 

Rich Vysion: Well, it is, hip hop, infused with, cinematic, style, instrumentation, but it's basically a lot of this hip hop, boom bap style beats, that I'm rapping over.

And so that's my main genre the rap, 

genre. 

Brad Minus: And that's what I was saying was that, compared to a lot of, the major labels, yours is very intelligent. Everything that you talk about in the lyrics it's not what you're going to hear.

I, on the radio, they're not going to hear this on [00:05:00] Spotify. If you're looking up rap this is very intelligent. It tells a story, it gives a mindset and it's really intelligent. I want to give you kudos right off the bat. We're going to go back into your story here.

So did you, so you graduated and did you, did you go to university afterwards?

Rich Vysion: Well, I did go to university, but, I noticed I really didn't know what I wanted. I went to a CUNY school, after I graduated from college the thing is a lot of people don't know is I never wanted to be a rapper. I wanted to be a writer, a journalist in particular.

I think for me, that was early because of Being in, a middle school that, really, cultivated sense of, self expression through journaling that type of, environment helped stimulate me in wanting to be more, expressive through words [00:06:00] and my writings I ended up delving into writing a lot more, because of what I was taught in school, just being able to express myself through writing different prompts like, how did your day go?

And just being able to write about it. There's something for me, mentally where I just felt liberated to this, Being able to express myself in a way that I felt like I didn't before. When I went to, CUNY school, I went to City Tech and I took journalism after that, I didn't get, good, marks, so I ended up, flunking out on that college, and then after that, I went on a hiatus, to find myself. I didn't really know what to do. In regards to, what to do professionally, because my whole thing was to be a writer, a journalist.

Yeah. And then what happened was after I got back from, taking a break away from schooling. I ended up going to the orientation, for this school. I think I was listening [00:07:00] to a radio, ad and something came up about a music school and I'm like, Oh, this is interesting.

It ended up being a tool of audio research, which I ended up like begging my mom, like, can I, can I go? So I went to the orientation, so we were back and forth, me and my mom, which is like the biggest, turning point in my whole, career, because I ended up, switching paths of, wanting to be this journalist, and then wanting to be, this, rapper, I didn't know at the time I'd be a rapper, but I just fell in love with poetry, 

I just wanted to try it out. It was more like an engineering school. Let me just, try and see how I like it. We were back and forth, back and forth, it was fun. It was at the point where we were both getting heated. It was getting loud.

I just want to do something that I love. And then she was like, well, you know, stability. I know like. It's different where she, where she, her mindset because of the fact that, she was born in [00:08:00] a time where stability was important. And me as a new generation, I'm thinking I'm going to do something that's fun or create my passion.

That's for me, that's passion. And I just didn't want to live a life where I was chasing, A career that I didn't feel fulfilled at the main thing about myself was I wanted to do something more conducive with, what I've been gifted at which is music long story short, I ended up, convincing her to take me to this orientation in the city, and, we went It wasn't until I was in the school where I started putting out my first two records that something shifted in her, psyche. I was so determined. After I went to that school, my whole life changed. Not in the thing that the school did in particular, but just me being able to, find a home of okay, I can, you know, I love this, be able to use the [00:09:00] studio, learn about engineering.

Like this was something that I felt comfortable with doing. And it wasn't until then that I'm like, wait a minute. I found my passion. And after that school was done. I'm like, okay, what do I want to do? So I didn't do more schooling after the audio school that I went to.

I just said, I'm gonna stick to my music, and I'm not gonna, do this college thing. It was not for me, and I made a vow that I would chase my music dreams, and, you know, five, ten years later, I'm still pursuing my music, cause that's what's been always keeping me grounded, And it's helped me realize that, you know, that I have a message to share with people of hope and resilience and that they're worthy of being here.

That's something I continuously remind myself when I am in my darkest moments that, I have music to help me process these things and hopes that it will help other people process what they're going through as [00:10:00] well. 

Brad Minus: Exactly. And that's the whole reason for this podcast really is about people like you that have overcome adversity and they can listen to people like you converse about it, talk about it.

And you give nuggets of wisdom, things that you did, like you, pursued your music when you knew it, that was the thing that you needed to do. That was what was driving you. And I was thinking about when you said that you were going for journalism and you being more of a creative.

I knew that before you even told me, I knew I've said that wasn't going to stick because that's because journalism is formulated writing. There's a formula you have to follow in journalism. I'm like, yeah, I know he's going to go more creative than that. So when you said you decided to leave CUNY, I kind of knew that was happening.

And because only because I've did it myself. I, I'm, I've kind of got a parallel to you in that after sophomore year, I realized I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I left and worked for a year. I took some classes [00:11:00] at the community college just to stay on top of it. And then I went back and I had a drive to finish at that point.

It was kind of like, go into the world, figure out that I didn't want to do that. All right, let me go back to school, take on something else, and then I'll finish with gusto and go from there. Then I ended up going and get my master's five years later.

So I got that. I also, I wasn't in a military school, but I was in the military for nine and a half years. I understood exactly what you were going through, but yeah, four years, eight hours, six hours a day. Your military school for high school, was that like live-in, was that Boardy?

Did you, were you boarded there? 

It was required in the school. 

Okay. 

Rich Vysion: As that program. 

Brad Minus: So you went back at home, you had to go in uniform. You had to do everything. 

Rich Vysion: For the school year. It was a program they built in.

Because you're part of the school, they made it mandatory to be in the cadet program. 

Brad Minus: Cool. It obviously did something for you, I can imagine that sitting down writing your book, but also writing your lyrics takes discipline to be sitting there and having an idea.

It might be [00:12:00] fun, hard work, which is you never work a day in your life if you love what you do. I still know, that takes a lot of discipline. The other question I had for you was that you going into music, you found out that that was your passion.

Did you have any kind of musical training before you went to, Institute of recording. 

Rich Vysion: So I just went and as a newbie, didn't really know anything about audio engineering, I don't know what made me just be bold and jump in the water without a lifejack, but I just kind of 

Brad Minus: See, my big message to everybody is if you're going to change your life, you need to do things that are hard. That's why it's called life changing challengers because people have challenged themselves to change their life.

Stepping into something that you have no idea about. Even if you enjoy your life, but you want to step up. Get that better job, start a new career, do something.

Is that maybe on the outside of it is taking on something that you know, that you probably never would've thought of, but kind of looks cool? Right. So [00:13:00] I'm an endurance coach. I coach people to do marathons and ultramarathons and Ironman triathlons the idea that I've taken people that have no training at all.

And now they're doing these big, giant races all over the world. I've seen some dramatic changes in people, from confidence to weight loss to fitness to, getting over semi terminal illnesses through endurance sports. You found your way through music, and I think that's just as important and just as incredible.

You got through and then you decided that you're doing your music, right? You're decided that that's it. Straight line. I'm focusing on music. About year was that when you got out of ILR? 

Rich Vysion: I don't know. It was, I think it was 2009, probably 2017. It was a big gap. But I definitely was in my early twenties, so it must have been over 10 years. 

Brad Minus: So were you able to jump into music and make money from music right away [00:14:00] or did you find yourself having to attempt first while you were making music?

How did that work? 

Rich Vysion: I haven't really made more than, 100 and that's just being, completely real because I'm still also building, my fan base. And I think that's the thing about music being an artist.

It's taking, humble beginnings and it's really about sticking to it, long enough to see the results. As long as I've been doing music, I started when I was, to be honest, a lot of people don't know, I really started doing this when I was 17, writing and things like that, but seriously, five to 10, but it's always been on and off because it was an eight year gap where I lost myself not knowing exactly how to, establish myself as a, household name, artists that is able to build, a sustainable career, but, I think for me, it's still been difficult because I haven't been doing a lot of [00:15:00] paid gigs. A lot of the gigs I do are for free just to get exposure. I have landed a big gig in, which I'm excited about, which is in, the last thing, which is in the next, month.

So I have, that's a paid gig and it does rely on people buying at the door and buying tickets in advance, but that's the thing I'm learning now that what it takes to actually, sell tickets online a lot of this stuff I'm doing, I'm learning in real time.

I had to do the same thing, for my listening party, although, it wasn't a paid event. I just did it for free to share my music and have a good time and, share my, stories about my music, for me, it was the experience of learning how to like you know, you know, my music, like kind of like my showmanship in my music industry and in regards to like my music.

I have not, gone to the bigger stages yet. I know that. [00:16:00] I will get there eventually and it does take time. It's been a journey. If it wasn't for my love for the music, I would have gave up a long time ago because I know a lot of people give up when they don't, see, inkling of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Cause they want it now, and I have to swallow my pride, even though I'm impatient, I want the money now, however, it takes time, a lot of people have been doing this 5, 10 years, and yeah, people might say overnight success, sometimes overnight success is 10 years. And still, longer to get to where they are, finally able to reap, some of the, benefits, of sticking in, in, you know, so long and being resilient and their approaches to, yeah, chasing a goal and a chasing a, a career, it's not easy.

And I think that's what I want to, instill in people who are watching is like, Whatever goal you have in your [00:17:00] life, it doesn't come easy, but if it's worth it to you, then you can achieve anything that you desire. It just takes hope, it takes resilience, it takes just being able to have the mindset of, that never quit, mentality of like, hey, you know, that grit, it's gonna come, just because it doesn't come right now doesn't mean that it's never gonna, come true.

That goal is never going to be, fulfilled or, come to fruition. And that for me speaks volumes to where I've been a couple of years ago when I wanted to quit my music, cause I wasn't seeing the rewards. I wasn't seeing the money. I wasn't seeing the results. I was doing a lot of free gigs.

I told my coach, I want to not, go out to perform as much cause I'm spending so much money on travel and. I'm not the headliner. So I'm not going to be paid for doing a local gig. So like, for me, like it was a lot of times where I doubted myself 

cause I didn't think like my music [00:18:00] was, hitting, resonating or even to the point where people would want to book me and pay me for a live show. And now next month, I have my own first time in the set, and it's going to be a paid.

Show I'm excited to be able to sell tickets and have people support because I've been waiting for that for so long and it's like now I'm like I finally got someone to help me what be able to reach out and get that gig and it does take time. 

Brad Minus: There's plenty of examples where people say, Oh, he's an overnight success where they didn't tell you that he's been working out is he's been actually doing it for 14 years.

I can't think of an artist in your genre, but the one that comes to mind to me is Matt Rife, who is a comedian. He did small clubs and then got it and was doing Tik TOK and Instagram to get his name out there.

And it took him 14 years, until he finally got his first gig. He's big right now. Rich is going to be at the Delancey. And that's 168 Delancey Street, New York, New York, [00:19:00] 10002.

And it's 545 PM, doors open at 5 PM. That's on January 4th, a Saturday. No reason. You can't go out, check out Rich at the Delancey for all of you in the New York area. Or if you happen to be visiting after New Year's.

So, the Delancey, and I'll make sure that this is in the show notes, 545 is when the set starts, but the doors open at 5, so make sure you get there at 5, get a drink, and then Rich will be on stage at 545.

Check that out, and we'll make sure that hits our socials. He's got a great little flyer on his website. At, rich vision. com and we'll go through that here in a minute, listen, if I was to record this and put this out there, and this is for everybody else out there, I usually, publish, twice a week, usually on Tuesdays and Fridays.

And because of the number of interviews that I do, I do four interviews a week, you, this, this episode probably wouldn't go. Actually get [00:20:00] published until second week of February, but for you and because you, you're hitting awesome show and it's your first time getting your headline I am going to publish this on Christmas day and make sure the thumbnail and some of the artwork is going to be partly, from your flyer, if that's all right.

Rich Vysion: Thank you. 

Brad Minus: Alright, so I'm going to make sure this goes live on Christmas Day. People will have, 14 days before your show, they can take a look at it. They'll get some things in socials, so that maybe we can get more people out to the show.

For all of you listening out there, let me just tell you, go on to his website, richvision. com. And that's V Y S O N and listen to some of the tracks, 

S I O N, my bad. Listen to it and listen to the lyrics.

They are really amazing. And the cinematic music that he's got in the background, the beats. 

Rich Vysion: You 

Brad Minus: So if you can get to a SoundCloud page, check out some of the other ones, because there's some great stuff out there. [00:21:00] All right, there's my little commercial break about Rich and his headlining show on January 4th at the Delancey. Let's get back into the story. What have you been doing to make money? 

Rich Vysion: Yeah. I mean, I work eight to five, job. I'm a family business. So that's, been really helping me to sustain and put towards the music. And right now that's been really my only, thing I have. Quite a few copies of my book, which will definitely be speaking about shortly.

And also I have, merch, misfit, shirts that I sell. At my gigs as well. So I've just been hustling, 

Brad Minus: exactly. Hustling. So yeah, that's exactly what you got to do. And that's what everybody says. Hey, you hustle, hustle, and then finally something picks up and hopefully that's going to be this gig for you.

You went through this phase, this eight year phase, can you tell us a little bit about what was going on at that point? 

Rich Vysion: To be honest, a year after [00:22:00] my, hiatus. It was really a hiatus. I wasn't, doing much music.

I was doing stuff more in the background, but I wasn't really putting myself out there. A lot of people don't know that I had a victim's mentality. I had no sense of self worth, and I think that's the main reason, why I gave up, on myself during those eight years after I dropped my attorney.

EP, which was, released, I believe it was 2015. So about literally eight years ago, when I dropped my first project. And also because of some of the negative criticisms I got from that EP, I really started to spiral, into depression during the time that I had, put out that record, in a space where, I had people, in my school who were intentionally, making, derogatory comments about my music that really hurt me. [00:23:00] And during that time, I thought, my music was good, like, I didn't think anything else, and people were telling me otherwise, and, to people in particular, they would just do, I think one or both of them cyberbullying, it was awful, and, you know, I say this because, it started off where I didn't really understand it, I was like, you know, Yeah, your music's trash, all your warm ups are nothing as a rapper, this rap is better than you, why wouldn't you just give it up?

This person will throw your CD out the window, awful, and I had to sit with all of this stuff bubbling and things on the internet and all of this stuff. It was just like all these comments. And I'm like, where's this coming from?

This felt so much negativity coming towards me for my music. I was at a point where I was looking at myself. I don't want to do this anymore. For the couture, I'm just doing it just to do it and it felt like I can't get a break. I'm putting out music and it's getting [00:24:00] trashed on, there were people who were supportive during the time.

And the thing about that is I decided to deflect that because a lot of the negative voices took my presence in my life, unfortunately. So I had to dig deep within myself and say, okay, what's true? What is not true? And what was true for me was that I wasn't enough. That was the statement that I chose to believe.

It was the correct statement, that was true for me. My mind wanted to believe that. And it was something that, you know, now I know, cause I've done so much inner work and it's like, for me, looking back, I'm like, I believe so much stuff that people I put my stuff worth in other people's hands and I lived a life where I was always, the victim of every single thing it took a lot of self reflection and people speaking life into me going into music classes and music communities [00:25:00] and personal development communities to realize like, People actually saying, yo, your music is dope.

I need to hear more of this. This helped me. Even during the time, I was going through all this, what really saved my mentality and my mindset was. I met someone I didn't know him from a hole in the wall.

He was from Canada and he visited my church. He was probably a preteen. And, he, I ended up exchanging, at the time, I also was, mentioning that I did music and things like that. And we were just having a conversation.

So I ended up, swapping, social medias with him, and, long story short, I ended up having to, getting a message from him on Facebook the night that I met him, yeah, I met him there once, and then, I came back home, so they told me, look at my Facebook, so when I got home, I went to my account, and I went on my Facebook messenger, And Brian was like, yo, your YouTube saved my [00:26:00] life.

And I'm like, what? Cause at the time I didn't know that anything I was doing was really resonating with people. I didn't even know what he was going through. The thing about that was I had to really. Okay, everything else that people were saying, yeah, I used to believe it, but this is evidence that I'm here for a reason.

And I think that's the reason why I kept going also was because he gave me the evidence. Like my music is helping someone get to the other side and be here. And I'm like, man, if I ended up losing myself to all that negative banter, I would be so lost in depression and still, dealing with, whatever.

suicide ideation, because I didn't know how to, cope with people telling me, that my music [00:27:00] wasn't good enough, then he says that, and my whole life changed I ended up taking my music so much more seriously. I ended up kind of like working like on my music where urgency like, okay, I've got to get this out here.

I wasn't really putting out anything. I just sat on music, left it on the shelf, felt empty. I was filling, the eight to five type of, I'm working, but I wasn't fulfilled. I wasn't happy. I was empty. Cause I wasn't. Fulfilling my purpose. And I think all along all those years, I took that moment to realize, wait a minute.

This is the evidence. And I started to pull a lot of the stuff that people were saying about me. Hey, I'm going to write about this. I'm angry. And I started using it as fuel for my music. I would put it on my, laptop. This person said this and I will screenshot it and save it.

Not because I'm cynical, but I use that as fuel. Like, okay, you said X, Y, Z. Look where I'm at now. You know, [00:28:00] and that's how I use it. I just use it as a stepping stone to this, to continue forward. Cause I feel like life was, you know, a game of chess in the sense of like, you know, I, I always think about what's my next, you know, two, three moves I started putting my music out and I started to reap that.

The benefits of like the power of being able to share my story and how other people reflect that is helping them. 

Brad Minus: That's exactly right. I just saw a short on YouTube or maybe it was Facebook this woman went to AGT, you know, America's Got Talent and she wrote a song. That was basically all the negative comments she ever got on Twitter putting out music she took all those comments wrote a song and got to the next level in AGT because she wrote the song about all the negative comments. I thought it was hilarious. But it was so, so good. She took all that negativity, turned it into positivity and then got the [00:29:00] next step in her career right there.

I thought it was cool. Wow. And so, yeah, you used it. You didn't use it. You didn't, you know, I don't, I don't know. You might have, because I don't listen to every single track. But you use that as motivation, negative to positive motivation, and to turn it into creativity.

The opposite of war isn't peace. It's creation. When you talk about war, which is people trolling, trying to take you to battle, it's not peace. Peace is not the opposite of war. It's creation. That's what you do. That's amazing.

You're able to claw yourself out of that because. Your community said, yo, rich, don't listen to those guys because you have saved our lives. You need to keep going. Was this eight year period, encompassing, 2020? Was this encompassing through the pandemic or was this before it?

Rich Vysion: Yeah, this was before the pandemic and then the epidemic exasperated the whole thing because I ended up filing back [00:30:00] down again. So it was kind of that moment where, I was struggling there at that time as well. 

Brad Minus: I can imagine. Cause you're probably, you know, we're just starting to crawl back.

And now there's no, you know, we're able to perform and then all of a sudden they're not gonna let you perform. Right. 

Rich Vysion: Yep. 

Brad Minus: That was hard. I can only imagine. My day job is I'm an IT, project manager people come to me and say, Hey, have this big project we need to get done.

We want you to manage it, hire a team and complete the project. Then you're done, right? Then you go and look for another project and that's kind of how it is. I had just got put onto this new project and because of the pandemic, they canceled the contract and said, we're just going to wait until after this whole thing is over 

and they're just going to start the process over again. By then I was already into another project. So, I didn't get a chance to do that, but because everybody was canceling, I did the same thing. I was by myself the whole time. I could see how really lonely.

I was lucky because I just turned it into, you know, I just went crazy on my bike and running and [00:31:00] swimming I live in Tampa. So I had great weather. That was just me, right?

But I can see where, you know, it started in March. It's still cold in New York in March. When did you decide to pull all of your stuff together to write your book? 

Rich Vysion: Yes. The book is called from victim to big door, transforming trauma. It's a triumph. I, this was, three years in the making.

I wrote it in, 2022, during the pandemic. The book was inspired by a lot of the things I spoke about, self worth, issues that I was going through, suicidal ideation. I also touch about mental abuse that I was going through with a mentor of mine, that I had a falling out with also during the pandemic, which was honestly one of those moments where I didn't kind of play suicide during that time that I was going through mental abuse with her.

And it was one of those moments where I was just taking back cause I was wrestling with so much that I wasn't really speaking about I just decided that, stuffing everything in versus, sharing it [00:32:00] was at that time, the best way to cope, even though it wasn't because I was honestly slowly dying inside.

Another inspiration was, a person who I ended up, getting a chance to speak to virtually, Steve Ryan, who was also another author. He published his book about love His, moments of, depression and his personal experiences through poetry.

And I was like, take him back. Cause I'm like, in my eyes, it's all together. He has his own business. He's working for himself. And I read his poetry. I'm like, wow, he's going through this. And that also inspired me to write my own book too.

Cause I'm like, wow. Look how he took some pain that he went through. He turned it into a purpose. And then that helped me realize, my story is important as well. I'm thankful for my mentor. She saw potential in me, to write a book. Even though she wanted me to do an autobiography, I am grateful that she was there [00:33:00] to inspire the book, it was through that where I was able to touch upon mental abuse In a way that can help other people process what they're going through other people realize there's liberation, once you get the healing. I wanted to speak about healing after the fact that I've been through so much and learned to forgive and I, it's not just all dark, you know, stories was also enlightenment and empowerment that, Hey, I could provide a new narrative for myself.

And hopes that it will inspire other people to rewrite their own narrative as well. 

Brad Minus: I think that is so strong, the ability that coming out of depression, out of trauma, out of adversity, you have the ability to rewrite the narrative and that's something that, a lot of people don't realize that's a huge positive.

Once you're able to come out of it and you're able to see the sun coming over the horizon rewrite the narrative, change your life, go after something you never thought possible that you've been passionate about, and that's the way to move forward and put that stuff behind you. Not that you shouldn't continue [00:34:00] to work it out. You used words, you used writing. Did you ever do any kind of therapy? 

Rich Vysion: Yes. That was a big, part of my story too.

And just in general, not even in the book, but more like, I mean, I do touch a little bit about it in the poetry book, but I did have to go to therapy during the pandemic because after my bad, suicidal scare my sister was like, you need to go to therapy. This is serious.

At the time I didn't really, I wasn't cognizant of therapy of, what it was, or just how to process stepping into that because I was living with the mindset of man can't get help, man gotta stick it up and take it on the chin, 

Brad Minus: you and I grew up in a time when that's what we were taught, right? You're taught to be an alpha male. Asking for help is a lot stronger than bottling it in and then suffering the consequences later.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rich has been kind enough to really open up with us and, very [00:35:00] excited to be talking to him again. I'm going to put all of this in the show notes, I have a link to his, stuff up there.

It's for him. His socials, I'm going to put a direct link to his SoundCloud account because you got to see some of the stuff. Let me just go a few of these titles, right? Your gangster rap type of thing. This is very intelligent, cinematic rap. He's got, the end of stigma.

Gaslighting 101, mental abuse, the last straw. I forgive you for me, and I made peace with my past. Think about the titles. Those titles draw you in, and the lyrics are gonna draw you in too. Make sure you listen to some of this stuff on SoundCloud.

Then we will, rich vision.com and from victim to Victor. Victor's on Amazon too, right? 

Rich Vysion: Yes. It's also on Amazon. They can get a hard copy on Amazon or the ebook. I have both, available 

Brad Minus: so I'm gonna put a direct link to the book.

In the show notes. You've got all these different ways, and then we're going to put a copy of the [00:36:00] flyer, in the show notes as well. We'll remove that after January 4th, or we'll just kind of take away the bottom part. Just so we can, cause that picture is pretty, pretty sweet.

Don't forget January 4th for all my New Yorkers, my people around New York, all my people that are going to, spend New Year's in New York, stick around, go to the Lancy on January 4th, 545 PM is the set, so get there at 5 PM when the doors open, get yourself a drink, and then wait for Rich's set, you'll be able to listen to some of these tracks live.

Rich, thank you so much for everything that you said, people have to know that, none of this lasts forever. 

Rich Vysion: No, 

Brad Minus: We have a lot of people that are going through this victimhood mentality.

And as Americans, we need to pull ourselves out of it. We've got examples of people that survive and thrive out of this victimhood mentality and depression. So I appreciate everything that you've done. I appreciate your music and your writing and you got to [00:37:00] keep going.

Do not stop because your mission and your type of music is unique. It's thoughtful. It's heart rendering. It's important. So I really, really appreciate everything that you do. For those of you that are watching on YouTube, go ahead and hit that, like subscribe and the notification bell.

Whenever we drop a new episode, if you're on Apple or Spotify, if you can leave us A review, I don't even care if it's a good review, you can have a bad review if you want. All it does is help the podcast evolve and get better. We appreciate it. For Rich, thank you so much.

No, thank you, it was a pleasure. And myself, we thank you for listening and we will see you in the next one.