¶ Meeting and Collaboration With Brandon Wiley
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ride Home Rance Podcast . This is , as always , your host , mike Bono . I have a great guest for us today . She comes to us from EeriePA . She works with former guests of the show and good friend of the show , brandon Wiley . Shannon Stewart joins the show . Shannon , thank you for joining .
The crowd goes wild . Hello , it's so nice to meet you . Yes , looking forward to chatting with you today .
Absolutely so . First and foremost , I don't believe you're not originally from Eerie , correct ? That's true . Where did you grow up ?
Okay , so I'm not from Eerie . I'm originally from Buffalo , New York . Shout out to the Buffalo Bills , Love them . So I'm originally from there . But I moved to Eerie about 10 years ago to go to grad school and I'm sure we'll get into it . But the long story short is I stayed here ever since .
Okay , how about ?
you .
Where are you from ? West Virginia , originally Born and raised in West Virginia , hence the hat . But I live in Ohio now , about 45 minutes outside of Columbus , in a little town called Philo , ohio . A grand total of like 1200 people in the town . So it's a very small town , yeah , and my kind of town . I can't stay in the big city life anymore , yeah .
Smaller towns , different pace , all that Love that .
Yeah , it's just , you know we're out in the country and nobody really bothers us and it's great . I wouldn't trade this for a big city life ever . That's good You're in the right place , Absolutely so , like I said , you know in the beginning , you know , you know Brandon Wiley got connected with him about 10 years ago .
So how would that come from college or how does that work ? How did you all meet ?
Yeah , so we went to before I moved here I didn't know him . But then once I moved here I went to Gannon University for grad school and we're in the same clinical mental health counseling program and basically from there we forged a friendship that still goes on to this day .
But at the time , you know , we both realized that we had an interest in mental health , of course because we're in that program , but we also just shared some similar experiences growing up in different spaces , culturally , things like that we connected on and things just kind of went up from there .
Yeah , I mean I get that so much that Johnny and I we met in college . We were both athletes at college , so we always at the sports complex together and it just always so happened . You know we had a few classes together but not really . And you know we just stayed connected , stayed friends . And you know , now we , you know , fast forward .
So many years later I don't even want to think about how many years later we now run a podcast together that he helps me manage and everything like that . It's just great when you can reconnect with somebody and you know that you've known and can forge businesses and what not to do .
Yeah , exactly , sharing that common interest is so critical and you just never know who you're going to interact with and who's going to be on the same page as you .
So when you find like that best friend type or brother you know it's kind of how we call each other brother , sister you know , when you find that connection , you know we have common interests , especially professionally it just like clicked and works really really well .
So , like you said , you know , just connecting with that friend from college , you just never know like who you're going to cross paths with and how they're going to impact your life .
And it was weird how we re-cross paths .
I was actually selling cars and working at a dealership and he was just in getting his car serviced and I looked over and I was like I think I know that guy and I just I kind of walked up to him and I was like Fitty right , and he was like hey , bottle like , and he just it connected and then we just kind of stayed in touch , we swapped phone numbers
again and you know , just kind of stayed in touch from there and ended up a couple years later we ended up moving into the same town like a mile away from each other at the time and I didn't even realize that . He was like oh , I'm in Wintersville Ohio now . I was like I'm in Wintersville Ohio right now , like where are you at ?
He told me I was like dude , that's like a mile away from my house .
Oh my gosh . Like what are the ? That's divine intervention there , something .
So you know and he was actually one of the first guests that came on the show before he was even a part of the show for all the new listeners out there that didn't know and you know he asked to come on board and help out with the show and probably wouldn't be where we're at today without him .
So I'm big kudos to him and I give him shout outs on here all the time because I know he hates it .
So yeah , that's awesome . He was my first point of contact here , so I only have good things to say . Super friendly and obviously we didn't even beat before doing this . I just went off his word and I never even met him and I trusted that you guys are doing something right .
We're doing something , that's for sure , yeah , so what do you expect to do now that you and Brandon are working together ? What do you do for the company ? What is your main goal for the company ?
So we started our company called Open Eyes , and it's a nonprofit organization , which I know Brandon has talked about .
We primarily educate , have discussions that we call culturally conscious conversations , and we talk about all things related to culture , diversity , inclusion , acceptance , belonging , just all those things that help you understand yourself and understand others , and so my primary role is to do research and content development for the presentations , workshops , events , engagements
that we do . So I often say it feels like I'm in college because I'm doing research so often and writing papers , but it's kind of a cool college because it's things I'm actually interested in . I mean , I was interested in the stuff back in college too , but this is different .
Yeah , free education first of all , so that helps , but researching things that you are passionate about is so different than when you're knowing undergrad or even grad school , for that matter . So that's most of my work that I do for our company Anything related to programming .
I help spearhead or get a committee together and pass the task off to them so that they can execute the idea that Brandon and I have .
So that's what I do . That's awesome . But yeah , I understand what you mean about the research outside of school . Yeah , it's . I went to school for broadcasting and journalism is what I have my degree in , and sports broadcasting mainly . And I remember in school it was just a constant struggle Like why do I have to look this up to write this paper ?
on this to get a grade on it . Now , my face is forever buried in my phone and it drives my wife crazy , first and foremost because my phone dings constantly , because it's always sports scores and what's going on and this and that , and she had never had somebody like me .
That's this into sports and right To the point where I watch the NFL draft like I'm that person that sits and watches the NFL draft , and the first year we were together she was like so this is what we're doing . Tonight it's like , yeah , this is this is .
This is fun to make , and I actually wrote a couple blogs , wrote for a couple of blog sites too as well , and doing the research on the players was fun to me then . But then , now that you think back on it , it's like this is what I had to do in school . Like now I'm still in school and I've been out of school 10 years , 11 years . So it's yeah .
It's crazy how things that you're interested in don't seem like work afterwards .
Right , exactly , it's just , it's just different . And then you know , like I feel like when I was in school , you know the teacher would give you a task , a description of what you're supposed to do , and then you have to execute . But when you're researching freely , when you're passionate about you , you can go down a rabbit hole .
You don't know where things are going to go and that could lead to another awesome project or idea . So I feel like that aspect is different as far as research goes , compared to being like enrolled in school and researching that way , you know 100% .
My wife is the same way , but she has a strange fascination with serial killers .
I feel like that oh , love the serial killer , I mean you know .
Yeah , to the point where she has like a three inch book on her nightstand and it's all serial killers what their thought process is . She's just like I just want to get in their mind and like she's . We're always watching documentaries on them and stuff like that and at first it's like , you know , that just doesn't really interest me .
You know , ok , you do your thing , I'll just get on my phone and do my sport stuff and comedy stuff , and I'll take us some jokes off of what we're watching now and stuff like that . But now I find myself putting my phone down . Now I'm the one like who's this Like ? And now I'm engaged in it too as well .
Did you have anything like that you know , with your research , like going down those rabbit holes , that stuff you didn't know about , that's in your field ?
Oh yeah , for sure there's a ton . So with the work that we do , we can educate or engage with pretty much anyone , any setting , and I think when we most recently did some work with law enforcement , I happened to learn a lot more about their department because , I mean , I'm in mental health .
Sometimes we interact with each other , but it is different , and my husband's in law enforcement as well . So it'sían 식으로 . Once we got to train them , I kind of did a little deep dive into some of the things that they experience that we don't hear about .
You know , you see a lot in the news about law enforcement and things like that , but I just want to see , like , what's their experience ? Like what's their mental health ? Like , how do they practice mindfulness , if at all ?
And I found a lot of good research on the connection between law enforcement practicing mindfulness-based techniques such as deep breathing , meditation , slowing down in general , going to therapy , working on their physical health , things like that . I was learning .
That wasn't even the goal of my research , but I just was fascinated with it , just seeing what are their experiences that we don't often hear about . We hear about the intense situation , but we don't often hear at least in my opinion about how they're handling those things or how it impacts them or some tools for them .
So that was a recent deep dive that I went down , that I climbed my way out of , but it turned into a really great presentation .
We did it , so a good rabbit hole helps sometimes Every now and again it does , but you mentioned mindfulness and I never even thought about that . That never wasn't anything that I ever thought about doing . And then I got the wonderful Apple Watch and it tells me every morning it comes on , be mindful . And at first I was like I had this mess .
It's mute for the day , mute for the day . But it kept coming up every day , every morning , and it always seemed like it knows when I get to work and I just had that 35 , 40 minute drive on the interstate to my job and just losing my mind because people in Ohio don't know how to drive and it's like let's be mindful , let's reflect .
And starting to do that daily has actually helped , because I've gotten dubbed the angry white comic because I go on these long rants and people are like go from like zero to 100 really quickly and I'm just like I idol at 75 .
Like that's not a big jump from me , but I feel like the idol is coming down now from doing that and doing that meditation and breathing every day . Still about 55 . I mean , the pilot light's not out but you know , no , I hear you on next .
I'm just saying like I teach it , but I don't do it 100% either . I have my little reminder off right now . I'm like I don't have time to breathe . But you really do . You have a minute , you'll just slow down .
Everybody has a minute throughout the day to do something . Yeah , yeah for sure . So , before you started working with Brandon , what was your educational career and background before getting connected with Brandon ? Or did you go right into working with Brandon ?
So before I met up with him and had created the business , I pretty much had a lot of experience in the mental health field . Social work that was a lot of my experience sports as well . I was an athlete my entire life , so I just ended up working at camps and things like that .
But then after that I transitioned more into , like mental health case work type of things . I worked a lot with children who had all types of mental health illnesses , disorders , however you want to label that , and I would go into their homes and help them and their families with whatever the identified concern was , and we'd all come to the table .
Part of my program was that we didn't have therapy unless everybody was at the table , so we would all kind of come together and talk about what went on that week , process some experiences and develop a plan to , you know , reduce any of those symptoms in the household that might be disruptive .
So my work I feel like I've always just been marinating in the mental health field , just at different levels , different degrees , different demographics . That's a lot
¶ Laughter as Medicine in Mental Health
of my work experience .
Yeah . So I gotta ask and this is just more personal for me being a comedian Do you use laughter and stuff like that in getting to a better mindset , or is that something that you ?
have . Yeah , like when people say laughter is the best medicine , it truly is . Like I am a clown , like sometimes I don't even know like , oh my , how am I on to this podcast right now ? Am I a grownup for real ? Do I really own a business ? What the hell ? So love laughter ? I laugh every single day , so currently I .
So , in addition to working with Brandon , my primary job right now is a mental health therapist and I work in the suicide prevention department , which sounds really heavy and dark , but it's truly not . But people don't believe me just because of how it sounds , but somehow , someway , I laugh every single day . My co-workers I'm on a little team we do as well .
We have a really enjoyable time , even though sometimes the work we have to do can be a little heavy . I don't know . I think , truly think the laughter helps us get through it sometimes , because if we didn't , we might cry , I don't know . But yeah , sometimes like that .
Yeah , I don't think I know how to turn it off . You know it's just me and laughter is the best medicine I will . I will fight everyone to the grave on that one , like . That's where I'm at and the only I guess research is since we're talking about it that I have on , that is , my wife is a heart patient .
She's had four heart surgeries since she was 16 . And she actually has what's called wrench syndrome and that her heart is too small . For those of you that don't know what's out there , that's actually a thing I thought she was making it up .
Yeah , I thought she goes .
I have a wrench syndrome and I was like , oh okay , you love Christmas , that's one of your favorite movies . A ranch Okay , that's funny . It's like no , it's literally what it's called . Oh , okay , and you know , but since being with me , like her blood pressure has come up without the medicine and stuff like that , and like she's healthier and stuff like that .
And the doctor asked her . They're like so are you doing anything different ? Did you change your diet ? Like what , what are you doing ? She's like I married a comedian and he just cracks jokes all day and I laugh hysterically at him and his stupidness all day and he's like hang on to him as long as you possibly can . That's the only thing she's changed .
And you know that's what I tell people . I was like I hold heartily and that's why I got into comedy . Right , because it's not for the money , because , trust me , at the beginning there's none and it's just none . And . But when you can make a room full of people laugh , yeah , it's a great feeling .
And I've had so many people come up to me at the shows like , hey , I was just coming to this bar . I didn't even know there was a comedy night or an open mic night and I was just having the worst day and I was going to drink my feelings away and listen into your set and everything like that .
I feel so much better , thank you , and that that's what does it for me . That's where I get the enjoyment out of comedy . And people see it all the time too and they're like oh , so you're a comedian , you work like an hour a day and it's just like no , no , there's a lot of work that goes into it .
But yeah , and you know just having people come up to you after shows is so rewarding and everything like that . Do you have anything like that in your field ? People coming up to you , like you know , thank you for this or that or whatever ?
For sure , especially the in the mental health side of things .
You know I've gotten some of that feedback before , so my work is a little interesting because I don't always see the people I speak with face to face and sometimes it's a lot by phone , because when you're in a mental health crisis you don't always want to come in person to see anybody , just want to like call and , you know , get it off your best .
However , there's been times that I've been recognized not knowing who the other person was , so that was pretty interesting . I've had people who somehow found me . They probably stalked me somehow .
Facebook stalking .
Yeah , right . So they probably stalked me but it was fun , found me but you know I'd be out , you know locally at fairs or something like that . And recently I had a woman come up to me and say , can I have a hug ? And I was like I'm a hugger , so I was just like Sure , like gave her a hug .
But she was like held on and was like I called you one time and you know you really just helped me through the situation . I won't put those story out there , but that was the long story short . That was just like oh my gosh , I got . You know , you're welcome .
I didn't know what to say , but it was just it felt so good to hear that , you know I helped her that moment . Even that she remembered . And then maybe she stalked me , but it's okay Because it resulted in a hug and it was a really , really good moment .
So that was awesome just to hear somebody say you know , like I'm still here and whatever you said helped , and so that was huge . And then when I do work with Brandon and we have these deep conversations with audience members who we just met , we always get positive feedback afterwards . People want to continue having these conversations with us .
They're asking you know how can I get into mental health therapy ? Or you know how can I get my kids involved with the work that you do ? Or you know I heard this about you guys . That was good , and so To have people perceive our business in a positive way is huge , because we're doing things that are atypical to a degree or can be uncomfortable to some .
If you're not comfortable talking about , you know race and inclusion and ages and all the isms and things like that you know . You think you just never know how those conversations are gonna go . So to get positive feedback about that has been awesome and the opportunities have continued to increase . So I'm like , okay , we're doing something right .
I hope Absolutely .
Absolutely . You know , love Brandon had him on the show . He's been actually a sponsor of the show for open eyes . We helped you got helped you guys out with that too as well .
But you mentioned something you know getting recognized and that I never thought I would like that because I was always this Quiet I don't want to say quiet person , because I've always been loud and Just obnoxiously telling jokes all the time , even from a young age . But getting recognized , I never thought it'd be that person that would like to get recognized .
And it happened , and In front of my 14 year old which was which was hysterical we were going to get our haircuts and the lady that was cutting my hair . I sat down and they , she put the cape on me , she looked me , she goes you're the comedian right ? And I was like yeah , thanks .
And you know it was just like , oh my god , you're like and we're leaving my son , just look , he goes . Did you just get recognized for comedy , like ? He just he still didn't see me as the comedian . I'm still dad . Did you just get recognized ? I was like , yeah , people know me , I'm alright , I'm doing alright , like , but it's yeah .
I never thought it would be something that I would enjoy and I do .
Yeah , I know , and it's like it's not you want to be like so popular or anything like that , but it is kind of cool to know that people , like one know who you are , but they know you for doing something good , right , and that's . That's pretty cool . I'm like alright , at least my reputation is decent for now . Hopefully stays that way .
Yeah but yeah , but you know what I mean , yeah , so I agree with you as far as getting recognized . It's like a different experience , but it's kind of cool , it's like okay you know , we're for a good thing . We're doing right here , absolutely .
So I gotta ask you this , being in the mental health , what kind of like career ambitions do you have ? You plan on staying in the DEI realm or do you have other ambitions going down the road ?
Yeah , I think I will stay in this DEI realm of things , especially with opened eyes . I want to continue growing that business , because what we like to do with some of the presentations is Incorporate the DEI side of things with mental health . So I think that's kind of where I see my world going .
I just don't know exactly what that's gonna look like , but somehow
¶ Entrepreneurial Aspirations in Comedy and Podcasting
merging the mental health world and the DEI world , because it definitely intertwined . You know , right now I Am a suicide prevention coordinator , so I'm kind of like the lead on my team , but I don't think I could do this forever , though the work is really rewarding .
I just see myself Maybe doing something more entrepreneurial , maybe private practice , with open eyes being my primary , but like our goal is to make open eyes our primary goal , our primary job , somehow , some way , and it's gonna happen there . You go here first .
See , people Don't have that attitude anymore . Yeah , it's gonna happen , it's gonna happen , yeah . And people say that all the time and I tell them , like , when I make it as a Full-time professional comedian , they're like you said . When , like , is that coming around the corner ? It's like oh , it's gonna happen , there's no if .
Yeah , you can't live it if and or , but no , when it happens . That's , that's the goal when I do this , and you know people Don't see that and you know it's let me down other paths .
Obviously , this podcast is one of them , and that was the wonderful age of COVID Mm-hmm that started this podcast really , and you know I never thought I would be a Podcaster . I never really listen to him , and now I can't stop listening to him and I run one .
You know we have the , the merch store to as well , that I run and Stuff like that too as well . So you have that entrepreneurial Attitude as a comedian , because there's not just I'm gonna go tell jokes and make fun of people in the crowd and do this and that and just have a good time and then go to the next city and do it again and then go .
Then right that there's other avenues , that it takes you down and it's a great path , and I wouldn't . People are like , well , you don't make a lot of money at it right now .
It's like I don't it's not always about the money like yes , I want to be a full-time professional comedian , but I don't need to be the ones that are making Millions and millions of dollars right what I like to , absolutely .
I'm not gonna turn that down like I don't know yeah , in the right mind that would but I live comfortably and support my family while doing it .
That's the goal yeah , Exactly , and you know that's attainable absolutely , and , shannon , I feel like I'm gonna talk like all day , but we are running down , down near the end of the episode and I do got to get this segment in , because Johnny will kill me if I don't , because we Haven't done it in a while and we're finally bringing this segment back and I
love this segment and it is the fast fifty five . Five random questions from the wonderful manager of the podcast , johnny Fitty Fowl , tony , and I got to tell you for the old listeners out there , you know how randomly these questions can get .
For the new listeners out there , this takes you a little bit into the mind of Johnny Fitty Fowl , tony , and he has the most random thoughts and questions and all that .
These are kind of rapid-fired , shannon , but you can't elaborate if you need to , so if you already , because these have nothing to do with what we have , okay , and and he sent these to me today , like this is , he doesn't send these to me until the day I record these shows , just to try to stop me too as well . It's a fun . I love the segment .
I'm so kind of afraid to back off . If you're ready , we'll go ahead .
Okay .
Question number one is orange juice or apple juice better ?
Apple juice .
Okay , no questions . No , I just read the second question . Oh God , would you rather be a crab or a lobster ?
A lobster .
Yeah , see , like I said , you're getting into the mind of Johnny Fiddy Falcote . Question number three would you rather be a famous opera singer or a famous tennis player ?
Ooh , I think I'm gonna go tennis . For no reason I would strap that tennis , though there's that .
Question . I feel like these are the same thing to me , but all right . Well , question number four what's better , a sunrise or a sunset ?
Mm , I think I'm gonna go with a sunset .
Okay , I can get on board with that Absolutely . And question number five the best flavor to chip is .
Salt and vinegar . Is that where we're going ? The best flavor of the chip ? Yes , yes , Salt and vinegar all day , every day . Kettle's hooked if you're fancy .
Well , you survived the Fast 25 . And those were whoo .
Yeah , those are tough .
He always has animals in them and I don't know why , like there's always an animal specific question , and I don't know why but there's Lobster and crab .
one got me , but oh shit .
Like I said , we are running down near the end of the episode . Shannon , I do give every guest this opportunity at the end of the show . I'm going to give you about a minute if there's anything that you wanna get out there , whether it's promotion for open eyes or just a good message in general . Gonna give you about a minute . The floor is yours .
All right , thank you . Okay , so I will plug open . Guys . Please follow us on Facebook , instagram . Just look up open eyes and we will be there . We got all the information for you diversity and inclusion related , so just reach out to us . The view or your agency company , what have you ? Would like to have a discussion with us ? We got you .
If you wanna follow me , I'm a clown on Instagram and TikTok all platforms . I'm downtown Shannon Brown . I know I'm Shannon Stewart today , but I used to be Shannon Brown before I got married . So just look up downtown Shannon Brown and you'll find me and I love you guys . Thanks .
Oh , I'm definitely looking up downtown Shannon Brown . We didn't know , we were pretty sure , but I love it when we can get something out there for open eyes . Again , like I said , I follow you guys on all your social media for open eyes and . Brandon and everything like that . Everyone go and check them out .
But that is going to do it for this week's episode of the Ride Home Rans Podcast . I wanna again thank Shannon for coming on . This was great to talk to you . But I do have to get one sponsorship read in here before we end , and that is for my own personal coffee brew . Bono's Brew ? Go to bono's brewmyshopifycom . I have all different flavors .
I have Expresso's . I even have K-Cups and K-Pods too as well . If you want fresh ground coffee shipped right to your door , go there . It ships within three days . Use the promo code . Use the promo code RIDEHOMERANCE and you will get 5% off of your first purchase . That is going to do it , as always . If you enjoyed the show , be a friend , tell a friend .
If you didn't tell them anyways , they might like it . Just because you didn't . That's gonna do it for me and I will see y'all next week .