You Can Make a Difference: Remarkable Story To Inspire You to Do Something Big | Mel Robbins Podcast
Mel Robbins (host), Lorenzo Lewis (guest)
In this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast, featuring Mel Robbins and Lorenzo Lewis, You Can Make a Difference: Remarkable Story To Inspire You to Do Something Big | Mel Robbins Podcast explores from Prison Birth To Barber Chairs: Revolutionizing Community Mental Health Access Mel Robbins interviews Lorenzo Lewis, founder of The Confess Project, a nonprofit that trains barbers and beauticians as frontline mental health advocates in Black communities. Born in jail to incarcerated parents and later incarcerated himself, Lorenzo describes how unresolved grief, depression, and anxiety shaped his youth until a pivotal courtroom moment pushed him to change course. After working in a hospital and witnessing the gap between mostly white clinicians and patients of color, he realized barbershops and salons—trusted, historic hubs in Black communities—were ideal places to normalize and support mental health. The Confess Project has now trained over 3,000 barbers in 35 states, reaching more than three million people annually with practical listening, validation, and stigma-reducing skills.
From Prison Birth To Barber Chairs: Revolutionizing Community Mental Health Access
Mel Robbins interviews Lorenzo Lewis, founder of The Confess Project, a nonprofit that trains barbers and beauticians as frontline mental health advocates in Black communities. Born in jail to incarcerated parents and later incarcerated himself, Lorenzo describes how unresolved grief, depression, and anxiety shaped his youth until a pivotal courtroom moment pushed him to change course. After working in a hospital and witnessing the gap between mostly white clinicians and patients of color, he realized barbershops and salons—trusted, historic hubs in Black communities—were ideal places to normalize and support mental health. The Confess Project has now trained over 3,000 barbers in 35 states, reaching more than three million people annually with practical listening, validation, and stigma-reducing skills.
Key Takeaways
Lived experience can become your most powerful qualification to help others.
Lorenzo turned his history of incarceration, grief, and misdiagnosed behavioral issues into the foundation of a mental health movement, illustrating the idea that you are best equipped to help the person you used to be.
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Representation and cultural relevance are critical in effective mental health care.
With only about 4% of licensed therapists being Black, many patients of color don’t feel seen or understood, which fuels distrust and low engagement with traditional mental health services.
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Barbershops and salons are underused but ideal platforms for mental health support.
Historically central to Black social, economic, and civil rights organizing, these spaces already host intimate, cross-class conversations and long-term relationships, making them trusted venues for emotional support.
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Simple conversational skills can dramatically improve everyday mental health support.
The Confess Project teaches four skills—active listening, validation, positive communication, and stigma reduction—that any person can use to respond more helpfully when someone opens up about a struggle.
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Nonjudgmental, consistent relationships can be life-saving in moments of crisis.
Barbers trained by The Confess Project have helped clients get into rehab, improve family relationships, and in some cases directly prevented suicide by recognizing warning signs and connecting people to care.
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Stigma around male vulnerability, especially for Black men, blocks help-seeking.
Cultural expectations of toughness, absent fathers, media portrayals, and historical mistrust of institutions all make it harder for men to admit emotional pain, which is why bringing mental health into familiar spaces matters.
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Answering a personal calling often requires risk and sacrifice.
Lorenzo left a stable hospital job with little savings and a young child to build The Confess Project full-time, emphasizing that urgency around real crises—like suicide rates among young Black men—can justify bold career moves.
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Notable Quotes
“You are best equipped to help the person you used to be.”
— Mel Robbins (quoting Ed Mylett and applying it to Lorenzo’s story)
“A child who does not feel warm from the village will burn it down.”
— Lorenzo Lewis
“I remember saying, if I could get out of this, I don’t ever want to experience this again.”
— Lorenzo Lewis, on his turning point in juvenile detention
“It’s the perfect way of doing a grooming session—making someone feel good on the outside and on the inside.”
— Lorenzo Lewis, describing The Confess Project model
“This Confess Project helps keep people alive and keep them going until the professional help arrives.”
— Mel Robbins
Questions Answered in This Episode
How could this barber-based mental health model be adapted for other cultural or community hubs (e.g., churches, sports teams, workplaces)?
Mel Robbins interviews Lorenzo Lewis, founder of The Confess Project, a nonprofit that trains barbers and beauticians as frontline mental health advocates in Black communities. ...
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What specific training or safeguards are needed to ensure barbers don’t feel overburdened or act beyond their scope when handling crises?
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How can communities increase trust in traditional mental health providers while also expanding peer-led models like The Confess Project?
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What would it look like to systematically integrate these four skills—listening, validation, positive communication, stigma reduction—into school curricula or parenting programs?
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If you applied the idea of “help the person you used to be,” what need or gap in your own community might you be uniquely suited to address?
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Transcript Preview
(ticking sound) I cannot wait to introduce you to Lorenzo Lewis. He came up with this wildly creative and innovative way to deliver free mental health services to millions of people. According to recent studies, 47% of us still believe that seeking therapy or help for mental health issues is a sign of weakness, and 60% of us, we don't fully trust the person we're getting the help from. How did you connect the dots between barbers and mental health? (upbeat music) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. So the other day I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, and I heard the most incredible, like, crazy story, and I'm like, "I have got to talk to this guy with you. I mean, we gotta get him on the podcast," and he is here today. I cannot wait to introduce you to Lorenzo Lewis. He is a guy who, against all odds, turned his own life around, and then he came up with this wildly creative and innovative way to deliver free mental health services to millions of people who otherwise might not receive the support that they deserve. Wait till you hear Lorenzo Lewis's life story. It is so incredible. The odds were stacked against him since the day he was born. His mother gave birth to him in jail. His father died in prison when Lorenzo was only 10 years old. As a child, he acted out. He was labeled a problem and struggled with anger and anxiety and depression, but of course, you know, he was never told that all of these feelings had a name. He was never told about the trauma that he experienced, and despite all these odds, Lorenzo turned his life around. He graduated from college and became a mental health advocate for the Department of Health and Human Services. Now, it was there working in a hospital that he noticed this major disconnect between the therapists, the psychiatrists, the mental health professionals, and all the patients in the hospital that they were trying to help. As Lorenzo puts it, only 4% of therapists and licensed mental health prote- and licensed mental health professionals are Black, and this creates a major gap in representation because the therapists don't have relevant life experience. Plus, there's a stigma around mental health in the Black communities causing this sense of shame and a lack of trust that makes it difficult for people to open up to therapists, and this gap and this distrust is not just in Black communities. According to recent studies, 47% of us still believe that seeking therapy or help for mental health issues is a sign of weakness. We know it's not, but that's what a lot of people think, and 60% of us, when we do seek help for mental health issues, according to research, we don't fully trust the person we're getting the help from. Now, Lorenzo wanted to do something about this, and this man is used to beating the odds, so he was not discouraged. He was on a mission. With his wife's support, he quit his job, and he decided to pursue a breakthrough idea. Now, what if I told you this mental health revolution all started with your hairdresser? The Confess Project was born, and it trains barbers and beauticians to be mental health advocates for the men, women, and children who are sitting in their chairs. How cool is that? Lorenzo's nonprofit has trained over 3,000 barbers and beauticians to become mental health advocates. They now reach over three million people a year. Now, the reason why I wanted you to hear this remarkable story is because I knew it would inspire you to think again about the difference you can truly make. As you listen, I want you to consider, Lorenzo's not a psychiatrist or a therapist. He doesn't have a medical, he doesn't have a medical degree, and nobody gave him permission or asked him to do this. He just saw a problem, and he wanted to solve it. So he answered the call, and that's all you need to do if you wanna make a difference in your family or community or the world at large. Get ready to be inspired. Please help me welcome Lorenzo Lewis, the founder of The Confess Project, to the Mel Robbins podcast. Lorenzo, it is so fabulous to have you here.
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