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Permission to be Powerful Podcast

Permission to be Powerful Podcast

By: Anton
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About this listen

 “Permission to Be Powerful” is your battle cry for breaking free from self-doubt, reclaiming your voice, and living life unapologetically on your terms.

www.antonvolney.comTeam Healthy LLC Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • This Is My Last Crusade

    This Is My Last Crusade
    Dec 4 2025
    “Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”— Anne Frank, January 13, 1943Those words were written eighty-two years ago.And somehow, they feel truer than ever.How is that possible?There’s no time to figure that out…I’m out of time.Listen carefully… Friend…This is my last crusade.Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader,For years, I lived in limbo.Stuck. Unsure if I can stay.Unable to leave.A stranger in a strange land with no future. One Federal officer could destroy my life. Before long, I expect masked men with guns to come for me.In my reality, it’s possible to wake up in Alligator Alcatraz.You think I’m exaggerating?I wouldn’t be surprised if my next stop was Guantánamo Bay…You think they care if I’m legal, not legal, or something in between?All because I made a single decision that could cost me everything. I have a U.S. Green Card.And, I have NO police record…I came here with my wife in 2019, right before COVID.The pandemic crushed our marriage—like so many others around that time.After three years, I left. Alone.A new city. No friends. No family.The divorce placed me in a gray area with immigration.Perfect timing to be on Uncle Sam’s bad side.I figure it’s only a matter of time.When I got my green card, it wasn’t real freedom.It came with an expiration date.The government handed me a two-year status with a timer attached and said:Prove it.Prove your marriage is real.Prove your life is real.Prove you deserve the right to stay.It means my life in America is fragile and reversible.I built a career, a home, a future… and still, I could lose everything.I lived every day knowing one bureaucratic hiccup could delete my entire existence here. I’ve found refuge in the Buddha.I’ve chosen one final refuge as my last stop before riding out the apocalypse. The Zen Center is the only place I feel safe. Why did I risk it?If they take my green card away, I’ll be gone forever.I’ll never be able to come back—not even if I have a U.S. wife or children.But when push came to shove, I couldn’t stay—not even to keep a green card.My ex made life unlivable.I reached a point where I saw my marriage with clarity.There was no saving it.I hate speaking about my immigration situation.Most Americans can’t relate.They don’t know what it’s like to earn something everyone else got for free—only to have it threatened forever.One guy at work tried to compare it to the time he lost his passport in a foreign country.Buddy…Not even close. YOUR rights are inalienable.You don’t understand what it means to lose something you could never lose.Your brain can’t process. In fact, there’s a high chance you WANT me to leave. Perhaps my plight makes you happy.If I went home, I would basically go and live in a cave for the rest of my life.Total destruction of my future. FOREVER. A life sentence.Forever living in regret.Forever thinking about the life I was supposed to have.It gave my dancing a particular urgency that nobody else could see. So I lived like there was no tomorrow.Because I knew there might not be.It was a profound place to come from when I started my salsa dancing journey.From the minute I left her, I knew the system could hand me a life sentence.Permanent exile…So I ran—one hundred races, half-marathons, tens, fives.And when I wasn’t running, I was dancing.Salsa. Bachata.Dance floors in Toronto, New York, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Philly, Chicago.I partied harder in the last 3 years than the whole rest of my life combined.I started with two left feet — and kept going…Until people started filming me wherever I went.Until I became a spectacle.I danced with thousands of women after years of living in complete isolation.Then I wrote for giants—Tony Robbins, Neil Patel, Agora, and others whose words move markets.And still… none of it can save me.Some stranger gets to decide my fate.Me being here—writing to you—is the product of generations of sacrifice.This journey didn’t start with me.I’ve been waiting four long years for my verdict.I couldn’t sleep at night…Until I finally hung a massive flag on my wall.It helped.A little. In my dreams, I see masked men.Am I overreacting?We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.Until next time,Dancer, Writer, Buddhist.Permission to be Powerful is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.antonvolney.com/subscribe
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    6 mins
  • You're Worth Being Wanted

    You're Worth Being Wanted
    Nov 20 2025

    Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,

    Have you ever been treated like you’re a pest?A burden?A nuisance?

    Fire that person.

    Quit.Dump them.Check your prenup.Start hiding assets if you must.

    You’re a gift, not a burden.

    When someone shows you they don’t want you around, believe them. Leave.

    People pleasers snap straight into “please like me” mode the second they feel distance. They twist themselves into knots to win someone who can’t pass the simplest test on earth:

    Treat me the way I like to be treated.

    Not the way you prefer.Not the way your ex tolerated.Not the way your parents conditioned you.

    This is the part people never understand about me:

    I want to be wanted.I need evidence.Effort.Initiative.Reciprocity.

    And I like watching people over time.How they act in good seasons and bad.Whether they’re the same person when their mask slips.Patterns don’t lie.

    Marriage taught me that.Divorce hammered it in.

    You can live with someone for decades and still not know them. You think you do. You build your entire life around what you think you know. Then one day, the floor disappears and you realize you were living next to a fantasy they never actually embodied.

    Two people.Two universes.Zero overlap.

    I’m learning it again with my father.

    There were truths about him I refused to see. Not because they were hidden—nothing subtle about that man—but because I needed him to be someone he never was. Someone capable of love.

    He resented his children before we could even speak.Then we grew up and surpassed every expectation he had for us. The irony writes itself.

    Sometimes you don’t know someone at all.Sometimes you know them too well.

    You see right into the wiring of their mind. The circuitry. The blind spots. The limits. And then you realize you don’t share a reality with them. Just a mailing address.

    He is who he has always chosen to be.And I finally stopped needing him to be anything else.

    That’s the turning point.

    Once you figure someone out, you stop confusing fantasy with loyalty.You stop mistaking potential for character.You stop begging for crumbs.

    And the shift isn’t in them.It’s in you.

    If someone in your life ignores your feelings, breaks your boundaries, treats you like an inconvenience, or acts like you’re optional… they need to go.Now.

    You can do better.You will do better.

    Life hands you the same chapter until you finish it properly.Close it.File it.Move on.

    Once you do, everything changes:

    Danger stops feeling exciting.Abuse stops feeling familiar.Respect stops feeling expensive.And “bare minimum” stops passing as love.

    The curse breaks.Groundhog Day ends.

    Until next time,

    Dancer, Writer, Buddhist.

    Permission to be Powerful is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.antonvolney.com/subscribe
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    3 mins
  • They Nuked My Substack

    They Nuked My Substack
    Nov 9 2025

    Dear Permission to be Powerful Reader,

    I felt like a God…

    23,520 Subscribers…

    FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.

    What an incredible milestone.

    One click…

    Twenty thousand emails sent.

    And within minutes—boom.

    They NUKED 90% of my subscribers.

    Gone.

    Substack? 15,000 Nuked.MailChimp? 23,000 Gone too.

    Go to Jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

    Twice in one week.

    You ever build something for a year, spend every dollar you’ve got, finally reach the promise land…

    And then watch it go up in smoke instantly?

    On the first f*****g send?

    That’s where I was.

    👉 Wiped out almost everyone…

    👉 Without warning…

    👉 OVERNIGHT.

    [Figure 1: Crossing 14,000 Subscribers on Substack]

    [Figure 2: Big Brother Deletes 13,000 Subscribers without warning overnight]

    Forget about the thousands of dollars I invested in my list.Forget about hours I can’t get back.

    Turns out, sending an email to 20,000 people isn’t like sending one from Gmail.

    If Gmail = paddling a rowboat...

    20,000 subs = a nuclear submarine

    Imagine being that fisherman who bumps into the sub and climbs into it.

    You start pushing buttons because the lights are pretty, and before you know it—you just started World War III.

    Lights are flashing red…

    Russia and China are “responding”

    No take-backs.

    You done fucked up.

    That’s what happened to me.

    I’d never sent that many emails all at once.

    I honestly didn’t know what to expect.

    I felt like I’d gotten the death penalty for J-walking.

    Even though I’ve written for titans like Tony Robbins and Neil Patel…

    And my words have been seen and read by millions…

    I didn’t have the first clue about email deliverability.

    I tripped every spam filter, every compliance alarm, every internal red flag. Substack saw the smoke, panicked, and hit the kill switch.

    At the time, I was furious…

    Like “Big Brother” was all up in my business—poking their nose where it shouldn’t be.

    But now, I see it differently.

    If I’m being frank with you…

    My first thought after losing the list was…

    “I’m finished.”

    This was an extinction-level event.

    I was wrong.

    Just a speed bump.

    They didn’t destroy me…

    They exposed a weak link in my business.

    And, this could have been way worse if it had happened later on.

    Say, when my list hit 100,000.

    Yikes.

    I’d built a machine on shaky ground.

    But the good news is…

    I got a crash course on list hygiene.

    But man — what a kick in the nuts.

    I learned the hard way that your empire can vanish overnight.

    So I’m rebuilding.

    From scratch.

    I’ve got a new lead generation system.

    It consistently grows thousands of real subscribers every month.

    Almost nobody knows this Substack growth trick, and it’s working exceptionally well.

    You can delete my subscribers.But you can’t delete Permission to be Powerful.

    I can’t be broken.(LOL — 2025: The Year I Joined a Cult to Save on Rent?)

    I’ve cut all my expenses down to the bone to keep this going…

    Because that’s how much I believe in it.

    There aren’t too many people with this kind of vision and commitment.

    I’m all-in.

    I keep telling people: starting a business is like skydiving with a sewing kit. You jump out of the plane, fabric flapping everywhere, and try to stitch your parachute together before you go splat.

    That’s been my entire year—needle between my teeth, wind in my face, praying the thread holds.

    Pimpin’ ain’t easy.

    Until next time,

    Dancer, Writer, Buddhist.

    .

    Permission to be Powerful is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.antonvolney.com/subscribe
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
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