On January 13, 2023, John messaged Justin about this idea John had been sitting on for a while:
"I'm building an advocacy apparel brand... focused on men and men's mental health and literally dudes talking to each other."
On the 18th, they met for lunch at Maria Bonita's in Orem, Utah. As they sipped the best Horchatas known to man, there was an instant bond of brotherhood as they shared their own stories. After tears were shed, they set out to build a world-class brand centered around awareness for men's mental health.
A month later, John and Justin were connected to Mike, who had already been facilitating men's retreats for more than a year.
Mike invited them to attend his retreat coming up on April 28-29.
On April 19, John and Justin went to lunch and met with Jason for the first time.
Afterwards, Justin and Mike invited Jason to join the upcoming retreat.
That evening, John, Justin, and Jason joined Mike in Midway, Utah for one of his men's retreats. All four of them had such a transformational experience that they knew that Mike's retreats would have to be a central part of what they were doing.
- held more than 150 events; both in-person and virtual.
- launched multiple limited apparel collections (The Launch Collection & The Oath Collection) & the Heare Essentials Collection of evergreen apparel.
- created the Heare Brotherhood online community (now available to join after attending a retreat)
- became a global brotherhood, with men representing every habitable continent and more than 50 countries
- held the first official Heare Retreat at Rogers' Ranch in Franklin, Idaho; then, held their biggest retreats yet:
- 33 men at Zion's Wildflower Resort in Virgin, Utah, where men from eight states gathered to have a transformative weekend.
- 31 men at Mountain Meadows Camp in Payson, Arizona joining from Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, and all over the country.
- 17 men gathered in beautiful O'ahu for a transformational retreat on the island, including several brothers based in Hawai'i and many more who traveled in.
- 43 gathered for another Zion's Wildflower retreat, the largest gathering to date.
- 29 more for a fall retreat at Camp Oakley, Utah – this time with returning Heare brothers stepping into staff roles to help facilitate and serve their brothers.
- 32 came together at the SUU Mountain Center in beautiful Cedar Canyon near Cedar City.
- launched The Heare Brotherhood Podcast, which would go on to chart in more than 8 countries, and become a Top 200 podcast!
We are here to hear.