In a YouTube Live session on November 23, 2019, Brooke Cheney, owner and instructor of A Great Start Shooting School, opens by acknowledging her own teenage suicidal experience as the personal catalyst for the broadcast. She frames suicide as a pervasive, under‑discussed public health problem and stresses the importance of talking about it, especially during the holiday season when isolation can increase risk. Throughout the stream she shares concrete, free resources: the Connecticut‑based SafeTalk 3‑hour suicide‑prevention training (December 7, 9 am‑12 pm, with contact email), National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) flyers for gun‑store owners, a short article on positive visualization from her fitness coach, and the “Better Life 30‑Day Challenge” (a daily 2‑minute habit program run by Dean Grazioso). She intersperses personal anecdotes—high‑school reunion, a student’s father’s praise, her own late‑night schedule—and engages with live viewers by name. The session concludes with a compassionate call to invite anyone who may be alone for Thanksgiving, reminding viewers that suicide rates rise during holidays, and she promises to return weekly at 9 pm on Saturdays.
Chapters
All right, it's two places that says it's going live. Hey everybody, happy Saturday! And look, I even posted what time, and I'm a little bit late. It's 9:02, and on Facebook I said I was gonna be here at 9. So close but not quite. Hold on, I'm gonna turn off my, my, uh, my speakers so that they don't make sense— don't make sense— don't make noise. Holy smolies, I can actually talk, I swear. Um, All right, so it's really weird seeing myself in two different places, but today's Saturday. Hi, my name is Brooke Cheney, and I am the owner and instructor here at A Great Start Shooting School. And every Saturday for like, I don't know, almost a year now or a year now, um, this may have actually been around when I started doing this last year. Um, so why do I do this? Yeah, that's usually the intro. I do this because as a teen I was suicidal, and I don't say that lightly. I just, uh, it's a fact. It just is how it was. So suicide is a problem in our country right now, and I didn't know this, but I'm doing YouTube Live and apparently suicides on YouTube Live is also a trend, which is very distressing to say the least. So, um, hi Leanne, hi Kevin, and everyone else who's watching because I see like 3 people's names but I see like 6 people watching. So, um, let's see. So yeah, so suicide's a big problem and I think one of the challenges is that nobody wants to talk about it. When people commit suicide and I go to those funerals, people just don't really know. They just, oh yes, they they died unexpectedly, but nobody actually says, oh, they committed suicide at the funeral. And hey, Dean, how are you? Um, so it's important to talk about. It just is. It's the elephant in the room when someone does commit suicide. It is something that we want to prevent. Now, here's the reality of life. We cannot prevent all bad things from happening always. We can help to prevent some bad things from happening some of the time, and that is actually just life because bad things do happen on a regular basis. So tonight I actually have a plan because I posted up I was going to be on at 9. I even made an outline, but do I have my outline open? No, because it was like 9 o'clock when I'm like, I am not on. So give me just one moment while I look at my handy dandy a file that has a couple different things for everybody. Well, so I want to be able to cut and paste down below, but I might do that at the end. So safe talk resources, we have actual resources for those of you here in Connecticut. There is this handy dandy, and I can't tell who can see what, that's why I'm gonna just put a link up here. I'm gonna read this to you. So, uh, for those of you in Connecticut, SafeTalk is a 3-hour suicide prevention training course that is going to be this, uh, not Saturday, December 7th from 9 AM to 12 PM. And, um, ha, thanks Kevin. By all means, you can share everywhere. I throw it up there, you get to share. I don't usually put my own stuff up on other people's names. If they are interested, they get to come here. So SafeTalk, 3-hour suicide prevention training course, It's in Bantam, Connecticut, December 7th, 9 to 12. And the learning goals and objectives for SafeTALK— oh, and this is a free training, by the way— is notice and respond to situations where suicide and thoughts might be present, recognize the invitations for help are often overlooked, move beyond the common tendency to miss, dismiss, and avoid suicide, apply the TALK steps: Tell, Ask, Listen, and Keep Safe. So, um, one of the things that I definitely— so this is presented by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Living Works, and Litchfield County Creating Hope Corp. So I will post the link down below when I am done, and there's a little email down here, admin@lcchcorp.org, if you want to register for this. And John's putting up another resource. Yay, because we are looking for resources today. Um, so this is one thing I will, I will be going, um, as far as I know. I'm not sure I put it on my calendar yet, but, um, I am planning on going. So this is one of the things I don't think a lot of people understand. There are actually a ton of, um, what do you call it, there are a ton of free resources out there for suicide prevention. NSSF, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, is another one. I have their flyers, and if you're a gun store owner or something along those lines, you can get them from NSSF for free. And it also just sort of talks about, um, uh, you know, just different things to look for. So like Dean said, people who are seriously suicidal are often great actors pretending to be happy. Funny you should say that, Dean. One of my favorite, um, I shouldn't say favorite, but one of my favorite examples of that, I think, to me would be think of all the comedians that you have heard over the years who have died now and committed suicide, and actors. So here are people that are literally actors, but they also are just simply showing that no matter what you have, because most everybody thinks, oh, I'm an actor, I've got all this money, everything is great, and it's really not the case. Um, as for me, uh, I went to my 30th high school reunion this past spring, and I asked all my girlfriends, I'm like, hey, did you have any idea I was suffering from depression and suicide? And they're like, no, no idea. So, um, yeah, there are not always signs, hence the reason you can't always tell if there is something wrong. Now I really do need to find my notes because I have other things that I want to share with you guys. So give me one more second while I muddle through to my notes, um, because unfortunately I have too many things open. I'm very excited. I'm like working on a mastermind class for my shooting school., and I'm looking forward to that. So that's why I was a little bit late. So, ah, here we go. Another thing, one of the things I try to give you guys each time that I come on is some kind of tools. So here I will actually cut and put— cut and paste. There we go. Oh, funny thing, I can cut and paste to YouTube. I can't cut and paste to Facebook. So I'm going to be putting that out there later. However, what is— you're going to be looking forward is, uh, um, sorry, Dean, I don't mean to be laughing, but I understand, um, there are people that have plans on how to commit suicide and they are not successful, which is a good thing because you are still here and you— that's, that's a bonus. The good news— oh, Pastor, how are you? Um, sorry. Hello, Brother Mason, it is great to see you. Um, So anyway, positive visualization is the link I'm going to put down here at the end, which I think ends up being at the top. So it just talks— it's a really short article, take the time to read it, take the time to share it. It's from my coach at Yes Fitness, and it just talks about how we get stuck in stuff. Um, yes, you did finally get me live, it is a miracle, praise be to God, right? So, um And for anybody watching, Patrick Mason Jr., who is on here, if you want daily information, preaching from God, he is awesome. He does some short stuff, some long stuff. I found him originally on Periscope and he's pretty cool. So anyway, hey Christine. Ooh, yes, I'll reach out. So, so anyway, positive visualization. If you are sad, if you are depressed, if you're having challenges, even if you're not, even if you want to be more successful than where you are currently, positive Visualization really helps. So that is going to be a, um, link I'm going to throw in at the end here. Now, one more thing, because I just started this thing called the Better Life Challenge. It's a 33— not 30, it's a 30-day challenge, and it's put on by Dean Grazioso. And each day he challenges you to do 3 things. No, no, a 2-minute challenge. 2-minute challenge. You log in, you get a text in the morning, I think you get an email. The text reminds you to check your email, then you click on the email, and then it brings you to a, um, oh, what do you call it? It brings you to a, a video and you watch the video. And so today's— I am on day 2. I'll give you a sneak peek because I just started it. Day 2 is stop watching the news. If you want to be happy, don't watch the news, which is, uh, thank you so much, faster. Um, so don't watch the news. And it's little keys like this that help you get better, that help you be happier. Um, for me, one of the things, like, I just, I was teaching today, hence the reason I'm in my shirt and all that, and I got a wonderful text from the father of the student who I was teaching. And he said that he loves it when I'm done with his son because his son is glowing the way that I am. And it's just so humbling. But, uh, it's one of those things where what we focus on, we get more of. And if we're constantly focusing on being just a little bit better than we were yesterday we're going to be just a little bit better than we were yesterday, which helps make your life in general better. It's not that life is always going to be easy. It's not that every day is going to be better than yesterday, but even if this is the best day of your life, tomorrow could be better. So I am also going to throw on here the link to the Life, um, to the Better Life 30-Day Challenge, because I think that could absolutely help anyone and everyone who would like to do something a little better. I hope that makes sense because it's called the Better Life Challenge. And, um, oh yeah, and I get points if you join, so there's always that. But it's also kind of cool because you get to do it as a team. And I've— like I've been saying, I want to give you guys resources to go to and just simple things. Um, uh, so Dean is a fan of my grandmother who is Libby Holman, and so, uh Um, he, he does expand his collection from time to time. So anywho, all right, so resources: Safe Talk, that's coming up. Sorry about that. Safe Talk is coming up here in Connecticut on Saturday, December 7th, 9 to 12. So you don't have to just listen to me, you can listen to like actual professionals who talk about how to help people who are in suicidal position of Suicidal Challenges and, um, Positive Visualization, a super short article that you could read that can help you and me because I read it as well. And then maybe do something fun. The Better Life Challenge— today is the 23rd. If you click on that link and start it today, then you will be done by the 24th of December. And what a great Christmas present to give yourself— little tiny 2-minute habits that will help you be happier in theory and a better you at the end of 30 days. So that's what I have for you guys today and tonight, and I am gonna do my best to make it 9 o'clock on Saturdays. My husband and I talked about this and gonna try to do, um, 9 every Saturday so you guys all know when to, uh, check in. So hope that makes sense, and that's all I got. It was great seeing everybody. I guess telling you all what time I'm gonna be on allows me to get to see more of you, so Um, I will see you all next week as far as I know. Have a great weekend. Oh, Happy Thanksgiving, because by this time next week it'll be— you— everyone will have their nice big belly from Thanksgiving. And oh, actually I should bring that up, is that it is the holidays, and for some people this is the first holiday without someone. For us, we lost an aunt this year, and this will be our first holiday without her. And I know that the first holiday we had without my baby sister was also very hard. So do kind of try to have a little more compassion for some of your friends or family who may have lost someone during the holiday season, because unfortunately suicide is actually very high during the holiday seasons because people do feel alone. So if there's someone who you're not sure if they have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving, invite them to your house. There you go. We, uh, invite everybody that we can think of that we're not sure if they have somewhere to go or not. I'm not saying you have to, but if you're struggling and you need somewhere to go, please reach out to somebody and ask them if you can join them for the holidays. Um, and that is my really final thing. I know I always say I'm gonna go and then I don't, so I'm really and truly done. And I will see you all next week. So Happy Thanksgiving. And goodbye.
