TW: Racism, bigotry, strong language, suicide
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Thanks for listening to Wellness, Community, Magic, a podcast with a pro-donut, anti-racist, Glenda-the-good-witch agenda. In this episode, Ashley Brooke James and Elizabeth Moore join Scooter Vaughan to discuss CBD, inclusion, and his experience playing pro hockey as a Black man.
We wish we could show you the image Scooter sent us of his split-open elbow, but you don't want to see it, we promise.
If you're a hockey fan and/or you still have no idea how CBD works, this episode is for you.
Tune in next week for a discussion about financial literacy and the impact of your finances on your wellness.
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Full Transcript:
[00:00:00] We would like to open this episode with a trigger warning because it contains discussion of racism, bigotry, and strong language. This episode also touches on issues of mental health and suicide. If you are experiencing suicidal ideation or feel you need to speak with someone, you can call the national suicide prevention line at (800) 273-8255.
[00:00:22] The lifeline provides 24/7 free and confidential support.
[00:00:29] I only played with another black hockey player three out of my, started playing when I was 5, 25 year hockey career, three seasons I played with another black hockey player. So I was always by myself except for those three seasons. And I went back and looked at those three seasons. They were by far my three best seasons, point production wise. I played the best, like statistically, any way you want to dice it up, those were my best three seasons of hockey.
[00:00:54] The one season I got, I got a scholarship to University of Michigan. The next season, I got an NHL contract deal. And my last [00:01:00] season I won Man of the Year. And those are all when I was playing with another, not minority specifically, another black person.
[00:01:07] That was the voice of Scooter Vaughan, former pro hockey player co-owner of Kids for Camps and Managing Partner of Iso Spec Health. Iso Spec Health is a company specializing in CBD based recovery products. Scooter experience the benefits of CBD firsthand after suffering injuries from hockey. Today, we're discussing how CBD works, the impact of mental wellness on performance and combating racism in sports.
[00:01:32] Hi everyone. We're your hosts. Ashley Brooke James and Elizabeth Moore, co-founders of TRILUNA, and this is the Wellness Community Magic podcast. A podcast with a pro donut, anti-racist, Glenda- the- good- witch agenda. We're here to take on diet culture by making self-care realistic, sustainable, and inclusive.
[00:01:52] So settle in, get cozy and join us on our journey to build community and redefined wellness. Let's get started.
[00:02:02] [00:02:00] Well, let's jump right in here. Yeah. First things first let's talk donuts. Um, Liz just brought it to my attention that you basically have a half baked donut. Cookie. Cookie. So let's talk about that. Cookie donut. Oh man! Can I first say before we start, I've watched a lot of stuff on you guys. I love you guys. I am the person that when you guys look at each other and be like you guys that are exercising all the time, doing anything, like I am like that psychotic exercise person, but I am like the I only eat unless I exercise. Cals in, cals out as it's like not the diet, but I'm like, I'm kind of on the opposite spectrum of psychoticness and exercise, but I like love to do it. That keeps me, but just so you know, I'm very honest. So if you ask like a question, like, I don't really like donuts is why I did it.
[00:02:52] Like, I just never really liked donuts, so. If you don't want to get an answer, you don't want to hear, I just want to let you know. No, I think that's important. [00:03:00] Yeah. I think it's very important. We actually, I think it kind of works out because we wanted to have a podcast like this. We have people in our community, um, people that were connected to that, you know, live by those same mottos.
[00:03:13] So I think it's important that we talk through. We really believe that like what works for you is what's best for you. And so if for you extreme exercise, I mean, you're, you're a professional athlete, so like extreme exercise is part of your background. And if that's what gives you space and peace and makes you feel good in your body, then that's what we think that you need.
[00:03:34] We just don't believe that fitness is the same thing as wellness. So that's like the big dividing line for us. Correct. Awesome, so I just wanted to open with that before everything, because it was, you had a video where it's like intro and you guys looked at each other, it's like, yeah, you guys are just exercising.
[00:03:48] You look at each other and laughed. And I showed my business partner. And he's like, well, what are you showing me this for? This is exactly like, this is you. I was like, yeah, but they're not like me. [00:04:00] Yeah, I, but opposites is good. Yeah. Opposites are great in the fact that, I mean, I don't know. Did you say that you didn't like donuts?
[00:04:09] That might be an issue? I didn't. You know, I don't dislike donuts. I just don't go looking for them. Okay. But if they're around, I'd like would have like, maybe like a Glaze or a sugar donut. Yeah, those are good. But this question is. Okay, I give it to you me. If you were a donut, if you were a donut, what kind of donut would you be?
[00:04:33] Like strawberry filled. Okay. All right. I just like strawberries and I always just liked strawberries. I love it. It's the perfect answer.
[00:04:43] Wonderful. It's wonderful. So we're going to talk about so many things in a short amount of time. We're going to talk about things that just so happenly are in what we preach as far as like herbalism, get talking about CBD. We're going to talk about [00:05:00] community, diversity and inclusion and what your experience has been as a black hockey player.
[00:05:07] But let's first things first, let's talk about CBD. Let's talk about how you found CBD and what role, what role it plays. It plays a huge role for me. Um, I don't know if you guys got my email over. I sent you over an email with just a picture in it. Yeah. Yeah. We, we saw the picture. Thank you for the warning.
[00:05:27] My rookie year of, uh, playing pro. Uh, I just graduated school. I had a fantastic year. I essentially, in camp, I, uh, shattered my elbow on my ulna at my elbow. So like right here, I shattered it. Um, they said, just let it heal, do its thing. Put it in a cast or a splint for six to eight weeks. Do your rehab. You'll be fine.
[00:05:50] I did that six to eight weeks in a cast. I did my rehab and I came back and I played my first 20 games professional and my arm didn't feel right. It's something. Then if I'm a pretty strong, [00:06:00] big guy, I could like barely lift like the, a lot lower amount of weight. It felt wrong. So when I went back to the doctor. They explained to me, they're just like, you're when you're, when you break a bone its supposed to heal. You're, the fibers of the bone, are supposed to heal like this.
[00:06:13] Yours healed like this and was like, I had a huge bump in my arm. It didn't heal right. So he says yeah we need to go rebreak, it put a plate, a couple pens in there, uh, for it to heal properly or it's just never going to heal. So I was like, okay, cool. That's no problem. They had the surgery on a Thursday.
[00:06:30] I went in for post op on a Friday and they gave me an arm blocker so I wasn't supposed to even feel my arm. My arm was just throbbing in my head. So long story short, I had compartment syndrome is what it's called. It's when your muscles swells up very, very bad after like a tragedy after like after event. Usually it happens in people's thighs, but it swells up so bad that they have to give you a fasciotomy, which slice you open to let your muscles breathe.
[00:06:54] And so they did that to my arm. It was open for about three weeks actually. And, um, [00:07:00] yeah, I missed my first 18 months of professional because of the injury. And then it was tough, but like the toughest part was like, you know, you have essentially a open wound for two weeks and all this stuff. So like they gave me that was on pill form of morphine.
[00:07:16] I was on Lyrica for my nerve damage. I was on so much stuff. Just like the thoughts I had, all that crap, just like wasn't me. And I don't like, I don't like being like that off pills. Like that's like not my thing. And so I, I didn't like it at all. I needed a solution. I've been an avid THC user for a majority of my life.
[00:07:36] So I knew some stuff with CBD and stuff with the extraction process to put it into gummies and to do it like into food so I kind of did at home extraction process with the oven and put it into, I made my own balm made like the same, a little bit different, obviously these days, but very similar to the one that I sent over that'll be in your Birchbox or your giveaway box.
[00:07:57] So I made a balm with the CBD and the [00:08:00] THC to just get these gross thoughts out of my brain so I could not want to kill myself, so I could get rid of this nerve damage. And so it definitely, it. That's my first experience with it really helping, because if I would've just stayed on that Lyrica and stayed on a pill form of morphine, like it just, it wasn't, I didn't feel like myself and like, I didn't have any motivation to do, like it was changing like my genetic DNA and like, I just didn't like it.
[00:08:23] So that's how I really got into the holistic part of CBD, THC, and not so much as using it to get high, but using it for the medicinal purposes. And so that's, like that CBD balm really changed my life. And so that's kind of why I started Iso Spec. That's amazing. So how did you go from making it in your kitchen to having a whole company and career around it?
[00:08:48] Uh, I mean, we made it in our kitchen for a long time until we got the office. I think like most startups you'd do some stuff necessary in your garage, kitchen, dorm room, what have you. So, um, it [00:09:00] went, um, I invested. How I got started with it is my business partner, Greg . Um, He was a former athlete. He played lacrosse and just a good friend of mine.
[00:09:08] He played hockey as well. He was living down in Florida and he wanted to open a farm. He saw that California was droughting and the water in Florida being so tropic had a little bit better irrigation to do some agriculture work. So I made, I was a silent partner at the time. During my playing years, I invested in his farm that he had and then once I kind of retired, I kind of just moved into his couch.
[00:09:29] And I believe it was 2018, the farm bill passed. The Wednesday before Christmas, that new year's day, we woke up at 6:00 AM, planted a couple thousand hemp plants at our property, and then it kind of unfolded from there. We kind of saw that.
[00:09:45] I love THC, avid T user, but THC is not for everyone. If you don't want to get high or like you don't function when you're high, like you, that's not going to be very beneficial for you. But CBD without the psychosis effects with the endocannabinoid system, like there's, CBD is for everyone. You have [00:10:00] a system for it.
[00:10:00] It binds with every receptor from your brain to your body. So I think we saw that like CBD could help every person in the world. And so we kind of dove into like, okay, how can it help people immediately directly towards us? And I was like, Oh, I used to do the salves. Like you just heat it up. It's basically just a and D ointment.
[00:10:16] It's like a and d ointment. And then it's just beeswax, cocoa butter, Shea butter. And you have whatever essential oils, terpenes, you want to do with it. And you have your salve. And if the CBD, if we, if we, we really tried to have a high integrity with the quality of CBD we use; how much we put in there because that's, what's going to make you feel better, ultimately.
[00:10:34] And so we've, that's one thing with us. We have a higher dosage of active milligrams of CBD in our product because me being an athlete and going through the surgery, I needed a high dosage to really get me off the Lyrica and the morphine and what have you. So that's how it kind of started just a need for it, for myself.
[00:10:50] And then seeing that I think it could be profitable and could help people. And I enjoy helping people more than anything. So that's kind of the background. I have is [00:11:00] very similar story. I mean, I wasn't a professional athlete, so, but I have severe migraines and I mean, I went through everything. I didn't want to be on these medicines.
[00:11:11] They were making me feel like I was crazy. I just can't, you know, smoke weed all day. So you gotta figure out what works for you. And this last batch of migraines that I had, I had a CBD at my disposal, and I could tell such a difference from anything that anybody had ever recommended. The essential oils, the, anything I mean, it was such a, I'm going to stand behind it.
[00:11:38] I want to like help you, you know, push this in any way. And Liz coming from an herbalism background, I mean, she's taught me so much about just the holistic and the healings of plants and plant medicine. Yeah. I, um, I use CBD specifically for anxiety. I have like pretty bad anxiety and [00:12:00] CBD and actually.
[00:12:01] Look, this is just what helps me. I'm not prescribing this to anyone. This is what helps me is a combination of CBD and blue vervain, which is a plant that supposedly helps with circular thinking. So that like, Oh my gosh, I did this and now it's this. And then this is going to happen. Just like the, the repetitive pattern that anxiety can take in your brain that really takes over.
[00:12:22] It is CBD and blue vervain for me, a lot of water, some tea and a sleep, and I'm usually better. So it has had a really powerful effect for both of us. Yeah. Not funny or anything, but like I have used to be on Wellbutrin and anxiety definitely took over for me too. And like I have strictly on the drops as of like two years ago.
[00:12:41] So, uh, similar experiences to both of you with. Just being on it for different reasons, but yeah, definitely. Uh, the anxiety I was on Wellbutrin and I'm completely off of it just taking the drops morning and night. So it's definitely a miracle medicinal plant. Yeah. So, yeah, it's kind of amazing that it's helped [00:13:00] Ashley with anxiety, you with pain management, me with anxiety, you with anxiety.
[00:13:05] How is that possible? How did it, what did I say? Oh, Ashley with migraines. Yeah. How, how can it do so many, so many things. In short answer, um, CBD is, is a, like a circular ball that fits it's like a master key to all the receptors in your body. So like, like for instance, like why you get high off pot is like for better pot's a square and it goes into square receptors in your brain.
[00:13:32] You get high. Since CBD is a circle. It still fits in a square, but it's a little loose. It helps out repairs. Then it goes maybe to like your shoulder or wherever you're feeling pain. And it binds with that just enough, not perfectly, but just enough to bind with those receptors and it can bind with all of them.
[00:13:46] So it helps out just cause it's, it's the master key to your body. I've never heard it described like that, but that makes so much sense now. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing that.
[00:13:56] I want to talk. I want to change gears [00:14:00] and talk charity work and community. You're the owner and president of Kids for Camp, which covers tuition costs for sports, arts camps, from 7 to 17 years old. I am everything about children's welfare. I come from an education background. I worked in schools. I had a babysitter and business. And so this is very interesting. Can you talk to us about what this organization means to you?
[00:14:29] Yeah, that's my bread and butter. That's my, uh, I try to at least spend one working day a week to doing everything for Kids for Camps.
[00:14:37] I started back in 2017, maybe, when I was playing pro hockey. My last year of pro I was, uh, me and, uh, Former teammate, Jared Nightingale where's he started a great lakes, hockey camps, and he's like, I think I want to do hockey schools. Like, do you want to help out? I was like, yeah, I'd love to man. This is awesome.
[00:14:51] Like, you know, like kids like playing hockey, like what could go wrong? And so a first year it was a lot of success. We did it in four different [00:15:00] states. It was a week long. It wasn't too pricey. Hockey is not the cheapest sport, but we, we, it was under $500 for the camp. And there was a number of kids that just, you know, wanted to go to the camp, but couldn't afford it.
[00:15:09] And we needed to find a way like so we can get the kids to the camp. So we obviously let them do the camp that year, but I thought like, you know, we still have to pay for jerseys. We still have overhead costs. And like, I was not surprised, I just didn't realize that, you know, the, the help some people need to, just to go to camp.
[00:15:26] And so that's when I developed Kids for Camps and I didn't want to make it just for like Great Lakes Hockey. Um, I had a lot of success, a lot of fun during my pro career doing stuff off the beaten path. Like I taught myself guitar. I did stuff like that. So I wanted it to be any camp we'd send you to. We've sent kids to forensic science camp at Yale, NASA space camp, YMCA a bunch, obviously lots of hockey and sports camps.
[00:15:50] But I think I'm really proud of the ones that aren't the hockey ones that people who are non-athletes find our charity and still want to go to camps and learn new stuff. So that's how that [00:16:00] started. And then we've been doubling up on kids. We send every year, obviously it was a little bit difficult this year with COVID.
[00:16:06] Um, so we started, we switched gears to at-home learning and we switched to giving away computers to families who, you know, couldn't otherwise afford one or didn't have one because the kids weren't in the classroom. Yeah. I, I've been working this year with an organization called Play Like a Girl, which is designed to get young women into sports and to get them engaged in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math, and then arts also.
[00:16:28] And their whole thing is that those two things seem unrelated but in reality they're trying to prepare women to be team players, to you know, think collaboratively and to think independently at the same time. And so when you're, when you started this camp, what's the philosophy behind getting these kids into these groups?
[00:16:48] What is the primary driver for you? Um. A direct correlation between empathy in the brain to empathy in play. When you play with someone like you're way closer. If you play with someone, then like a colleague or someone, [00:17:00] if you, if you sweat, if you exercise, if you play with someone, you're it's, it's shown to grab empathy in your brain to be more empathetic.
[00:17:08] Um, and it's just, it's a help with social situations. And obviously I've, sports was a big part of me and part of my DNA growing up, like looking back on it, it's like, Oh yeah, that's completely right. Like you look at some of the friends they're like, Oh, I, that you maybe haven't seen in a long time, but like, Oh, I remember we used to play hockey together.
[00:17:24] It's like, we haven't missed a beat because we had those intense moments of, you know, sharing sweat, blood, and tears. So that's kind of where I'm at for just having the kids grow. You learn so much, but playing in a team team setting, like you're learning how to share. For lik an only child. your learning how to share your learning how to listen, give directions, they cooperate.
[00:17:42] So I think that's the main reason. It's just learning those skills that will set you up for life. Yeah, that's amazing. Um, I did, I played high, I played basketball in middle school and high school. And I was terrible. Like, I was very bad at it and it was the only sport we had. There were 15 people in my graduating class in high school.
[00:17:59] So like [00:18:00] very, very small high school. Where did you go to high school? So it's called Montessori Academy. So a lot of times when I say that, people think that it's like, they ask if I'm a nun because it sounds like monastery. But it's actually just a form of learning, um, developed by Maria Montessori. You learn with your hands. It was like, It's a private school here in Nashville. In Nashville, okay.
[00:18:19] I'm actually, uh, I'm uh, from here, which is kind of rare. But we only had one sport because that's all we could afford. That's all we had. And there were eight girls on our basketball team and I fouled out almost every single time. So I was probably a disservice to my team, but I was a captain because it helped me develop leadership skills, even if I couldn't dribble, which I could not, or do anything other than a three-pointer, I did learn leadership skills.
[00:18:45] And so I agree that it is, even if you're not great at it, it can be really important. If you're shooting threes, you know, you just out there and shoot threes. I don't think anybody else, that's what coach ed said. He said, stay on the three point line and don't move. Stop fouling out. Yeah. I mean, they kind of said that to me on the other [00:19:00] end, I was so tall that they were like, stay up on the, go get these rebounds and throw it down the court.
[00:19:06] Yeah. And get the points and that was like the play. It was like, get the rebound, throw it down. Yep. Nikki would make the layup every time. It was a repeated pattern.
[00:19:16] Another big part of TRILUNA is diversity and inclusion. When Liz and I started this business, we were very aware that we had never seen a black woman and a white woman come together to start an organization.
[00:19:35] Not at this level, not wellness, not in Nashville in particularly. And we've done yoga here. We've worked out here, we've done all the things in this community. And we see the same type of people every time. The same type of people that are represented on magazines, that are modeling the clothes that they say are for everyone.
[00:19:58] And we wanted to make a [00:20:00] change in that. We wanted to be intentional about building out a diverse team. Where not only our team saw reflections of themselves, but our community, the people who were coming to our events, you know, the organizations that we were working with will see reflections of themselves.
[00:20:17] It's been, I don't know if the word challenging is the correct word, but it hasn't been as easy as we thought because it first starts with us. Right. And if it starts with us truly understanding each other's background and where we come from and it calls for some hard conversations, hard in the fact that I've never felt so free to speak so openly to a white person in general.
[00:20:45] In Liz's defense, like just where to find her role to be active in the things that I had told her that I felt she wasn't doing. And so I can only imagine for [00:21:00] yourself what this road and what this has looked like. I mean, I was going to a lot of predator games for a very long time.
[00:21:07] And when I found out that we had a black hockey player, I was like, ecstatic. Like I loved him. He was like, he was the reason why I went to the games. And so can you share with us your journey as a black man in the world of hockey?
[00:21:22] I've had some conversations about this before that will lead to this answer so I'd say I've definitely thought about it before.
[00:21:29] You say it. Like you said, inclusion, which is a big thing. I only played with another black hockey player. Three out of my, started playing when I was 5, twenty-five year hockey career, three seasons I played with another black hockey player. I was on a panel. They had a black basketball player and a black female who was a sprinter and we were talking and then I was the black hockey player.
[00:21:49] And we were talking about inclusion, about the same thing. One thing that was a, that was brought to everyone's attention that I didn't realize before is that they felt safe in their sport. [00:22:00] Maybe they were picked on and in the classroom at the University of Michigan, maybe like, someone's like, Oh, there's just a stupid athlete.
[00:22:06] Like, blah, blah, blah. Maybe they felt like that. But like, they at least had an assistant coach who was this, look like them, or they could relate to. They had other players on the team who looked like them, who they could relate to. I never had that. So I was always by myself except for those three seasons.
[00:22:23] And I went back and looked at those three seasons. They were by far my three best seasons point production wise. There, I played the best, like statistically, any way you want to dice it up. Those are my best three seasons of hockey. The one season I got, I got a scholarship to the University of Michigan and the next season I got an NHL contract deal and my last season I won Man of the Year. And those are all when I was playing with another, not minority specifically, another black person.
[00:22:45] Looking back cause I've, I've gone through this and I've thought about these things and I've come to them conclusions and like scenarios that it was, um. I never felt like I was safe when I went to the rink.
[00:22:57] I never felt like, like, Oh, I'm going to my [00:23:00] safe spots. Like, Oh, like, More uncomfortable shit that I have to deal with type of thing. Like more is more of like, okay, like here we go. It's going from one meeting to another meeting to another meeting. Like I was never like, Oh, okay. Now it's time. I can just like play hockey.
[00:23:14] I'm like relax with my friends. Like, like, yes, they're your friends, but like, they're not like you so I felt very excluded from everything and still do because of that. I think I have some definitely lingering, whatever, tendencies or like just mannerisms from that. But yeah, I, it was very lonely. Yeah and Nicole shared with us some like pretty overt racism that you've experienced during that time.
[00:23:41] Can you speak to that experience? I'll speak about all my pro experiences with racism. And one, it happens every single year, every week, every month, at least. And most of the time, I'd say 90% of the time it's from your teammates or your coaches. In hockey. lIke you're just, you're playing a white it's from your teammates or coaches.
[00:23:58] And most of the time it's like someone [00:24:00] making some slick comment, like I dunno. They'll go like Scooter's faster than us cause he has extra muscles on his leg. Like stuff like that. Like it's like ignorant stuff or just like, "Oh, it's, you need sunscreen?" Oh, Scooter doesn't need sunscreen because he's black. He doesn't burn or like, Oh, he can't swim at the pool.
[00:24:15] It's like little stuff like that by teammates. And like, I, it came to a point where my first year in Chicago, his name was Mark Hardy. I think he still coaches in hockey. I don't know how he was a terrible person, but that's neither here nor there. He would like make comments like you can, like, this is my coach.
[00:24:30] This is, this is a person that's supposed like, have your back, get you to the next level. He made comments like, uh, "Oh, where'd you go for spring break? You look tan. Like, did you go to Cancun?" And like, this is my coach and he, uh, we're in the airport traveling. I'm like, it's just like, it happens to be that I'm standing next to another black guy and was like, Oh, scooter's dad made the trip. I didn't know he was coming.
[00:24:49] Like, like, like that was the, like when Straight out of Compton came out and I remember he, uh, was mocking Straight out of Compton, like doing this, like, and then go like "Sick movie Scooter." Like, like, like, like, I don't [00:25:00] know what he was trying to do. I've, it came to the point where like, I was just like appalled that it was like allowed to go on.
[00:25:07] Like I wrote down in notes and I dated them and like bullet points, all of them. And I, I brought it up in the meeting after and like with, like, you know, you doing your exit meetings. And like, I brought it up in the meeting with like the GM and stuff and just like, the response was so typical. It was like, those were like racist stuff, but like Hardy's not a racist.
[00:25:27] He's not. I'm like, coming from the white man that he serves coffee with and has beers with where they make fun of me for my skin. Like, yeah, of course you don't think he's racist. It always happens on a yearly basis. And it's usually always like, stuff like that. Like I've had some instances obviously where after an altercation, I mean, you can fight in hockey.
[00:25:43] So I got in a fight with someone in hockey and then we were in the penalty box and like. In the penalty box in hockey, like you're in the penalty box and professional, like you have someone in there who gets paid to like open the door with you, give you water if you need. Then in the middle, you have a scorekeeper's table where you have three people who work the scoreboard [00:26:00] table.
[00:26:00] This very intelligent human being was just like yelling "nigger, nigger, fuck you." Just yelling it through the glass of the penalty box. And it's just like, Oh, like there's like five people in here. Like, but like that just shows to me. It was like that's not a problem to him. He doesn't care. There's five of his white friends in there.
[00:26:20] Like there's five white people in there. Like they don't care. Like that's what you are. Like, I'm saying a fact to you. So that happened. That was one of my earlier years playing. And the funny part about that is like the kid, they made the kid call and apologize. And I was like, I don't accept your apology.
[00:26:35] You're calling because you got caught. Not because you're sorry. Right? One. So like, it's bullshit that they're calling to make you apologize, one. Two, like everyone, like, you know, like if it's funny, like when that happens. People are like, Oh, I'm so sorry that happened. I'm so sorry. I'm like, why are you?
[00:26:47] Sorry, dude. Like, and then like, people like want to talk about it. Like, like they were like, why do you like, when somone is yelling like obscene things about you. There's nothing to talk about it. He was just yelling that. Like, you're just [00:27:00] bringing up the situation over and over to me, like I'm. And so that, that was just one of those situations.
[00:27:05] And so I still played that kid multiple times. So every time we played, we fought. When you talked about the inclusion in hockey, like in like playing pro you're pretty much a grown man. You're not really gonna, no one's gonna say anything to break you when you're an adult. No one's going to get me out of playing hockey.
[00:27:22] No one's going to discourage me to do anything when I played pro. The thing that is the most troublesome is that like a 10 year old or a 12 year old kid who's playing. And like that's happened in my youth, like he's going to quit and he's going to say like, I hate hockey. Not like I hate racism. I hate my coach.
[00:27:37] I hate some of that. He's going to quit. And he's probably not going to tell anyone and he's going to quit because obviously that's a crappy experience and they're like, screw hockey, screw this. If I played basketball, if I do something else, I won't get these feelings. And so that is one thing that's most worrisome to me.
[00:27:52] And so that's a weird, I have a project coming up. It's called Underground Hockey Club. It's similar to rate my professor where we're going to rate coaches and cities [00:28:00] and specifically for BIPOC, black indigenous people of color; they're going to go in and be the rating system and do that.
[00:28:06] So that's really important to me because no one pro is going to stop playing because someone dropped an N bomb, but a 12 year old kid might. So, but that, that those are the two probably more extreme versions, not extreme. The two ones that stick out the most for me, but every year something.
[00:28:21] Yeah, that was me that was laughing because I, you can't help but to laugh about it when people want to just talk about it and it's like, this is my mental health. Like you think I want to sit here and have a conversation with you to replay that over and over and over again? So that's why I chuckled when you say that, because it's like, come on. For real?
[00:28:46] Speaking of that, how did this affect your overall mental health, your wellness? I'm working on it. The last year actually, playing hockey was actually a very good release for me because that's one of the few sports where you [00:29:00] can like be violent to the foreigners. Like you can literally fight someone to punch him in the face.
[00:29:03] And so that was a good release to me. If someone could do that, you could use those things in hockey and that's just a slap on the wrist, like a penalty. It's completely fine. Obviously when I retired and you get into the working world and you're working in the business, that's not an option to do.
[00:29:16] Obviously nothing happened like that, where like I got in fights at work or anything like that. But there's like realizing that I'm angry was the first step that I'm like pretty angry at stuff and like why? And it goes back to that inclusion thing. That's the way I was treated. Like people always treated me super rude and mean like, that's how I get the point across or like how I did.
[00:29:34] So, like, it's been, it's been a work in progress. It's been fun because I know it's there and I know it exists and I know I have stuff to work on, but it's been a work in progress, for sure. Yeah, I love that you put such a big emphasis on the inclusion part, right? Cause everybody wants to yell out diversity and inclusion, diversity and inclusion.
[00:29:52] You can build a diverse team. It's enough individuals, but it's like you said, how does that person feel safe? [00:30:00] How do they feel safe in that organization? How. Who do they have to turn to in the situation like yours, where you're going to the GM who looks exactly like your coach and of course is going to just nod his head and give the coach a pat on his hand because he's the same person, you know?
[00:30:18] So how can we take the focus from diversity to really building inclusive environments for everyone, from sports to organizations, to corporate organizations. So thank you for for saying that. I mean, I just think that we could probably talk to you forever. There's so much more that I want to ask so we got to have you back.
[00:30:38] This has been great. I'm going to say for our first cup of coffee together, this was lovely. And we just are so grateful for you sharing, you know, everything from your knowledge around CBD and your company with us, from the work that you do in the community, and then speaking on some [00:31:00] of the racial acts that you've encountered in your life as a black hockey player, or as a black man in general, let's just be honest here.
[00:31:08] We can't thank you enough. Will you tell everyone where they can find you and how they can support you? Yes. Um, I am on Facebook and Instagram, I think, uh, scooter V O N. Uh, S C O O T E R V as in Victor, O as in ostrich, N as a Nancy. And then my name is not usually spelled like that. I'm sure they can pop it up, but, um, I think LinkedIn and everything, it's just Scooter Vaughan spelled as V as in Victor, A U G H A N.
[00:31:35] And then Iso Spec Health. That's my company's name. That's the website. Isospechealth.com and that's all of our social media handles and tags and what have you. And then kids for camps, if you want to go donate. Send some kids to camps, get computers, kidsforcamps.com. So we have our black history month box launching. The content in this book comes from our diversity and inclusion series where we've turned it into a [00:32:00] workbook centered around just different shared stories, understanding why supremacy.
[00:32:06] That was important because I felt like even on the opposite end, sometimes we weren't able to put definitions and words towards certain things that were happening in our lives. So having that in place. Yeah. The whole series is designed to move from awareness to action. So it like starts you in experience share and ends you with steps that you can take.
[00:32:29] And that's actual workbook portion. And then the workbook, all of the workbooks have QR codes that will lead to landing pages where you can learn more about the people that are in the box. Ashley will share her story. There will be some meditations and some yoga classes. So all kinds of good stuff in that box. And then we're going to feature your product.
[00:32:45] So tell us about what you're going to have in the box. Yes, I have for you guys, a 450 milligram peppermint pain stick. It's a half ounce. It looks like an oversized chapstick, and this is a, it's a salve. It's an all natural, it's a similar to an A and D [00:33:00] ointment so it's made with that beeswax. It's got cocoa butter, Shea butter, artica, frankincense oils that are shown to rejuvenate the skin when applied as a topical and then obviously has the peppermint in there.
[00:33:11] It's a phenomenal product. The pain stick is one of our best sellers. You can put it in your pocket, put it in your purse, put it somewhere to go with you. And one thing about CBD that people don't know is that CBD is similar to vitamin C.
[00:33:20] You're not going to overdose. You're going to just secrete it out once if you have too much in it, but it's best off using it and having your body build it up. So use it in the morning, use it at night, use it when you're sore. You can't use it enough. The more you use it, the better your body will feel, the more your body will adapt to it. So it's a phenomenal product.
[00:33:38] I use it every day, so I hope you guys enjoy it. That's awesome. Yeah. So we will be doing a limited run of 50 boxes only for this black history month box and your product will be in all 50. And it will only be 49 of his products.
[00:33:56] I mean, did you not want it? It's your box, it's your podcast. [00:34:00] You can do whatever you want. Liz lets me live my life and I love it. I love it. I love okay. I'm not kidding. It will be 49. So, um, make sure that I'll find something to replace that 50th one with. No, I'm just kidding guys. The box is on sale. Now you can go to TRILUNAwellness.com and go to our store and shop and shop and shop.
[00:34:21] I really want to see all of these boxes gone. Yep. Right. All right guys. I think that's it. And that's all. Peace out.
[00:34:35] Thank you for listening to the wellness community magic podcast. If you liked this episode, leave us a review or drop us a message and tell us your favorite part. You can find us on twitter @wellness_pod or online at TRILUNAwellness.com/podcast. Tune in next week for more tough but necessary conversations about the future of self-care.
[00:34:55] If you're interested in learning more about TRILUNA or ordering one of our wellness gift boxes for a [00:35:00] loved one or yourself, check out our website at TRILUNAwellness.com.