In this episode, we get to speak with Jesse Cruz, he lives in upstate New York with his wife and children. The Cruz family currently serves at Cross Creek Church. He has proudly served our country as an Iraq War Veteran of the U.S. Army. Jesse is the Program Coordinator of the Wayne County Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. In addition to his career, he has been engaged in speaking at correctional facilities and coaching sports. He has a B.A. in Community Youth Development at Nazareth College. Currently, Jesse is pursuing his Master’s in Theology at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling and hiking with family and friends. Jesse is available for speaking engagements and book signings.
Our Guest
Jesse Cruz
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jesse-cruz-133714164
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jesse.cruz.5
Hacks to Take Away
- I knew that my writing could help something, someone else to go through challenges that they’re going through.
- And the purpose of the book is that you’re given, which is a small part of the tombstone, which is a huge part of your life. It’s because we don’t know when our time is going to end. We have limited time here.
- I’m in tune with these eight areas of my life, and I’m intentionally finding ways to develop them, and to grow them, then my life is much more meaningful.
- The writing was therapy for me. That’s what helped me gather my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions, to try to make sense of my life and what I experienced in it. I just try to turn my pain into power.
- If you have paint and you don’t do anything with it, then it becomes destructive. But if you take paint, do something constructive with it, it becomes powerful and it brings it to the purpose and that’s what I want it to do.
- My goal is just to help people a little less not to say I’m going to give you the cure. I’m going to wave this magic wand and it’s all going to go away. But I want to help you cope with hope. You don’t want to give up encouragement. I want you to heal and you can only heal when you have hope that you can come on successfully to the other side.
- My hope is that people will be inspired enough to share their hurts that they want to, or when their time comes and they go through some trauma. They will be bold and brave enough to go share it with the person down the street.
Junaid Ahmed has been a user experience designer for over 15 years. As a UX professional, he uses the user-centered design philosophy to come up with solutions. Trust the system, it works!
“People say that we only live once, but I believe in living every day!”
Junaid has been interviewing people from all walks of life on his podcast Hacks and Hobbies.
