Caden’s Journey and Transformation

Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour. I’m your host, Jake White, and today we are hanging out with a new friend, Caden Vittorini. And this guy is such an inspiration. Let me tell you a few things about him and then we’ll dive into getting to know him a little bit more. So Caden is the CEO and founder of VIT Factor.

He’s a TEDx speaker, number one selling author. He’s been featured in various news outlets, including WGN, NBC, and AP. He is a youth life coach and he leads an interactive school. He does school assemblies with over 50 schools served so far. And he’s the host of the Mission Academy program. So, Caden, thank you for being on the show, man.

Yeah, Jake, thanks so much for the opportunity. And I know you’re doing some great work with our youth as well. So coming on here and sharing our mission and the impact we’re making is what it’s about. So thanks again.

Dude, absolutely. We gotta do this stuff together, right?

Oh, yes, we’re in this together. I mean, there’s tons of kids and you know, as you know, there’s a lot that’s happening within our youth. And that’s where my team and I go come in and being able to help them and teaching them these life skills that are so valuable and, you know, kind of thinking back to where I started and how I was while I was helping out with another coaching brand. And what happened was a lot of the moms and dads were coming to her and say, you know, you’re great. But who’s Caden, my son or daughter interested in working with him and I was just doing it for leadership volunteer experience. I was just doing it to help our youth a little bit. But hearing how their daughter went home and said, hey, I want to work with Caden for a one-on-one coaching session, that’s kind of where I realized that I had that gift of now being 22 years old and being, always say, young, relatable, and relevant. And fast forward a little bit, to get little bit vulnerable here, I went off to college living on my own for the first time. And I was at Western Michigan University.

And, you know, I was on there for a bunch of scholarships for school, playing lacrosse there, and I didn’t realize kind of what living on my own would entail. So within two months, my life was kind of going down a downward spiral. I was making poor decisions, hanging out with the wrong crowd. I wasn’t managing my time. I was, you know, doing the wrong things. I was procrastinating. All those different things that you could think about is what happened until, you know, I came home for the first time and saw my parents and I’ll never forget this moment. My mom grabbed me and she pulled me in front of her and she said, Kaden, you may not like what I’m about to say, but it’s the truth. And kind of like a head dropped. I felt sick to my stomach, but she pretty much told me how I don’t look good at all and I’m heading down the wrong path. So later that night, Jake, where the flips or the switch flipped, I went upstairs and looked in the mirror and I had that truthful conversation with myself. And that was the first time I kind of saw what she saw.

So from there, I started implementing a lot of these life skills that I’m now covering within one-on-one coaching sessions, workshops, school assemblies, the Mission Academy, as you mentioned, that really helps me from the communication skills, the motivation, the peer pressure, the self-confidence, the not comparing yourself to others, knowing your values. So, so many different areas that we cover working with elementary, middle, and high schools.

That’s Caden, that’s inspiring. And I want to actually ask you question about your story quickly. One of my coaches, Rory, he says this thing, he says, where you are most equipped to help the person you once were. And I see that in the work that you’re doing right now. And I wonder when you were in that stage of your life where.

Honestly, you had said, I was making regrettable decisions. was doing things I wasn’t proud of before that epiphany that your mom helped you have. Why do you think that at that moment in your life, you were making those poor decisions? Like, what is it you were going after or what was it happening that, like, looking back, you know, with that 2020 vision maybe, what do you think it was that you were going after?

Yeah, so I just felt like I was a little lost. know, that was my first time being alone, especially three hours away from home. So I couldn’t come home, you know, during the week and, on the weekend, I was too busy partying and making poor decisions. And, you know, that kind of stemmed from who I started surrounding myself with, my roommate that I picked, who was in my dorm hall, who I was surrounding myself with in the classroom, you know, who I was sitting by. That kind of influenced me. And I feel like from there, it led me to stay up super late 4 or 5 a.m. which led me to sleep in. And then from there I was skipping classes. And then I’m sure you can imagine how my grades looked. And I chose partying instead of studying. Right, I chose, you know, sometimes drinking and making poor decisions in that way versus putting an effort towards what actually mattered. Playing a sport, putting an effort towards school, the way I’m eating, going to the gym. I wasn’t doing those right things. And I believed a lot of those things kind of affected one another and big thing that kind of I realized, you know, jumping into the youth a little bit reflecting on how those areas helped me. I saw what our youth was currently facing from COVID-19, pandemic isolation through technology in social media. There is a lot of these skills where students are now comparing themselves to others in a negative way. Well, that affects their confidence. Students are negative more than ever where they’re taking it out on other classmates which from there I feel like is affecting other people where they don’t know their value. So I could go on and on about kind of what I’m seeing, but I realized that ripple effect, one thing led to another within my life in high school, or sorry, not high school, within college. And now working with now in the past three years, close to 40,000 students, seeing the ripple effect of their confidence, their motivation and communication, they’re missing one thing and it randomly and authentically, I feel like affects another.

Yeah, and you said it, you said it. We need these skills in order to run our best life. And you mentioned some of them, right? Even things like confidence is a skill you can build or it’s something that builds within you when you learn new skills. And so going into your college career, maybe you hadn’t developed them as much as you would have liked. And so then when the community aspect is like, I’m around these influences.

Well, you just kind of went with what they did. But if you had had those resiliency skills, those confidence, ⁓ the ability to speak up for yourself and know what you want and your values, things that might’ve gone different, and now your life has gone different because you’ve seen this transformation and you’re able to help other students have this transformation as well. So, Caden, I want to jump into some things, some practical tools that we can learn from you on how you coach students.

And what are some things that we can kind of use from your arsenal in a way to better influence the youth that we’re around? But before I do that, before I ask for the nitty gritty, maybe just a personal question, Caden, about your strengths. So pretend this is a job interview and you’re like, Kayden, what makes you a good coach? Like, what are the qualities that you have that make you a great coach for young people? What are a couple of things that come to your mind?

The Importance of Communication Skills

Yeah, so the first couple things and actually areas that I kind of didn’t do wasn’t the best thing was first one was communication. So I believe one of those strengths now for me is communication, learning how to start expanding and a conversation, learning how to kind of read people, be a good listener, advocate for myself, all things under the umbrella of communication is an area that I believe I excel in. But on the other side of things, something that I do really well with, you know, as running a business is that time management. That was probably the worst area that I struggle with was my time management. My life was out of control. had none of my priorities straight. What I thought was important was not important. So the communication skills and the time management skills, I would say, are my two biggest strengths that I was not good at in the past. But now seeing how I realized that communication is probably the number one skill that a human can have. And because of the isolation through technology and social media and gaming in the pandemic, that is probably the biggest skill that I realized there’s a gap in within our youth.

That’s big and for our audience listening is communication skills is a protective factor, meaning it’s going to help someone protect good decisions and avoid risky behaviors because they can effectively communicate what they need at the right times, protect their decisions, stand up to peer pressure, all those things. now, Kayden, I would love to hear some just practical advice. Like if I’m hanging out or coaching a student, in fact, I will be. So tomorrow through Sunday, I’ll be with a couple hundred students across Arizona. They’re student leaders. And we’re going to have speaking and coaching opportunities and workshops and stuff like that. if you have any practical tools that we can use, that would be wonderful to learn a little bit from you. What advice would you have for us?

Practical Tools for Coaching Youth

Yeah, a couple of different things. would say, you when working with the youth, I try to make it as interactive as possible. Even as something, you know, within the one-on-one coaching or talking in front of 2000 high schoolers, you got to make it interactive because I can’t just talk at them. I want to be talking with them. And that’s what I kind of say, you know, when I start the assembly is I want to hear from you. I’m going to bring the microphone around. I’m going to bring it to the front in the coaching. I’m going to ask you a question. I’m going to be getting you thinking. So bringing that interaction, I think is really important is that grabs and holds their attention. One, two, would say a big thing, going back to a point real quick is with the communication, some areas that we do cover is knowing when to say no, how to say no, why to say no, which helps with that peer pressure and the decision making. We’ll talk about when to leave a situation, friendship, relationship, things like that. So that’s just that whole side of things that I want to add in too is because I believe the communication skills isn’t just making friendships, yes, that’s a part about it, but also with the peer pressure when they’re in a tough situation with their friends or they don’t feel comfortable. That’s where they can learn how to kind of advocate for themselves and share how they’re feeling. But going back a little bit, yeah, so that interaction is so important. One, but two, I would say even a bigger thing as well is when working with kids, I don’t want them to think, what’s wrong with me? I want them to think, know, Caden’s here to better me

And what I do specifically, let’s say within a one-on-one coaching session, is we’ll talk about, yes, your limitations of areas that you’re kind of struggling with, what’s bringing you down, holding you back, but let’s talk about your strengths. Let’s see areas that you’re excelling in and discuss how you can double down to become even better. Because when I want, you know, a client walking into our session, I don’t want him or her saying, I don’t want to be here.

You know, we always discuss everything that’s wrong with me, that I’m not good at this or that, or I’m struggling with this or facing this constantly. No, let’s talk about that, yes. But let’s talk about what you’re doing well with. Because I think that’s a lot that our youth kind of struggles with is maybe it’s stuff with teachers or social media or coach or friend or parent, whoever. They kind of think that, my gosh, they’re always just trying to you know, bring me down or they’re always just focusing on my limitations or my failures or the mistakes that I’m making. But when I come in with my team, we’re saying, OK, let’s talk about what you’re kind of facing on the back end, what’s holding you back or bringing you down. But let’s also discuss areas that you’re excelling in and discuss how you could become even better. So those are the two areas, the interaction, but also not just focusing on their faults and maybe what is it going well in their life.

That’s so good. That’s so good, Caden, because we need that confidence that we can go out and create change in the world and in our own lives. if, yeah, if I’m only talking about what I’m terrible at, I’m not really going to have the confidence to make much change, right? I feel like I’m the problem, but everyone has strengths. And I love what you said too, is that we can double down on those strengths, because if that’s our God-given gift like this is the way I’ve been made. I have this to utilize. And as you become an adult, it becomes so much more important to realize your strengths and like you said, double down in that and create a team around you that has different strengths. And as a student, kind of have to, know, you’re taking eight classes at a time. You’re doing all these extracurriculars. Maybe you’re in sports. So you think you have to be good at everything. But once school ends, it’s like, no, you pick a craft. You probably slip to it and you work within a team to make sure that you operate effectively. So that’s such a cool concept to learn as a young person is like, you don’t have to hate yourself for having areas that you’re not good at. Like that’s totally normal.

Yeah, and a couple of things I want to add, like, you know, I’ve worked with thousands of kids. They say, OK, I’m good at this. I don’t need to work on that. Well, let’s see the little tweaks you can make to become a little bit better. And our motto for VIT factor is one percent better every single day. So showing up, waking up and asking yourself, how can I become better than I was yesterday? What does that look like? But also getting our youth to realize that it’s OK to have some limitations. It’s OK to fail, make mistakes, have things not go your way. That’s a part of life.

You don’t win to lose, you win to learn. And it’s how you respond from there is what’s so important and pretty much gonna lead you to see that success that you’re looking for, that happiness, yourself achieving those goals. It’s not letting those tough moments bring you down.

Yeah. Caden, can I ask you a specific question about like a scenario? Okay. So you had mentioned this before and I thought it’s such a good question. I’ve heard that before from students. Caden, I’ve got a friend, they’re my best friend and they’re, you know, they’re starting to smoke, maybe use vaping products or THC or something. And when I’m around them, like sometimes I’ll use it. Maybe some student says that.

Focusing on Strengths and Positive Reinforcement

Yeah and as an adult, we’re thinking like, it’s not a great relationship, but that’s the person that’s there for me. What do I do? What do I say?

Yeah. So I talk about, know, I always from that moment, you know, I’ve had clients kind of share some very similar stories and I do coach on a weekly basis. So I hear this every single day. I share how I was for me. So I connect with them immediately by saying, you know, just three years ago, I had friends like that. I had friends that were smoking and drinking and I fell into that pressure. Why? Because these are my friends that I was laughing with, that I was taking classes with that lived, you know, next door.

So I’d be surrounding myself with them and I tried to fit in to be cool, right? And what I’ll talk about too, Jake, is investing in yourself is cool. What’s lame is drinking, smoking, hanging around the wrong crowd, not managing your time, making poor decisions. That’s lame. But what cool is, is leading others to do the right things. Stepping up and saying, hey, we don’t do this. Let’s reflect on how it’s making us feel, how it’s affecting other areas of our life.

Let’s start to make that right decision. So that’s where I kind of tie in being a leader versus a follower. That yes, you you’ve done it and I’m bringing you down for that. It’s okay. It’s in the past. Let’s focus on the present and moving towards the future. But if you aren’t proud of that, which you’re not because you’ve already just brought it up to me with how you feel and you probably have that gut feeling when somebody brings up wanting to do it in that moment or you just see it with your eyes and they offer you it.

You have that gut feeling, that pit in your stomach that you know it’s not right, but you do it again because it’s a best friend, because it’s someone you are close with, that you laugh with. But at the end of the day, let’s discuss you being a leader versus a follower. And then, know, it of depends on the client. know, I’ve had, you know, clients as young as freshman year in high school dealing with this. And I actually work with clients even after high school a little bit that are a little bit older. But my main focus would be probably 10 to 18. So freshman year high school or freshman in college, I’ve had clients of mine face the same situation that you kind of just brought up, Jake. And that’s kind of how I would approach it from there.

Okay. And I can super get on board with that, right? Is that you’re reflecting on who you are, are you a leader or a follower? But I’m almost wondering for the student who says, yeah, I get it, Caden, I want to say yes to what you just said, but do I stop hanging out with my friend? And if so, what do I have to say? Like, do I have to say it or do I just ghost them?

Yeah. Yeah. So how would I approach that is start with the leader versus follower, try to have them take action to say something to say, Hey, this is how I’m feeling about all of this that’s going on or Hey, you know, that’s not good for you. You’re better than that. And then from there, maybe that next session, they can say, Hey, Kaden, I actually went and had a conversation with him and he did not listen. And from there we would reflect on, okay, does this friend, you know, bring you down? Are they constantly negatively peer pressuring you even when you say no?

And then from there, maybe it is best to find a new group. Maybe it’s best to find a friend that’s gonna bring that positive peer pressure to your life versus that negative.

Yeah. Caden, I had a friend in college that, like, I was the one not wanting to drink or smoke and I didn’t, but I would go to these parties with my friends and like other people were doing that. And there was this one guy we had at his event and I had never experienced peer pressure, this almost like textbook, like, hey, drink with us, come on. And then I said no, it’s like, What do you mean no? Are you scared? Like the classic peer pressure, not just the one that’s in your head, but it’s someone else doing it. And I had to, I had to like try every trick in my book. I was like, okay, no, no, man. I’m not drinking tonight thinking, all right, the tonight thing, he might just think that I drink other nights and not bother me about it.

That didn’t work. Okay, now I’ve got to ask him for something else to flip the pressure onto him, right? hey, you know what? Like, thanks for asking again, but no, I don’t want to do that. Can I grab something from the fridge? And then he got even more aggressive and was like, dude, why did you even show up here if you’re not going to get drunk with us? And finally, I was like, this is so weird. I’ve never experienced this much pressure.

I just need to tell him like, dude, you’re being a terrible friend. Like I was actually having fun with you until you started bothering me about this. Will you just stop? And what was so crazy is I was so nervous. Like, you know, when you have conflict and your face gets red and your stomach kind of feels out of whack and I was so nervous to say that to him. And I said it and he looked like he got physically hit, like his eyeballs got wide and he kind of paused and stepped back and I thought I had lost a friend that day. I was like, dang, he’s not going to be my friend anymore. But what ended up happening is I saw him again at another get together and someone else came to pressure me and he came to my rescue. It was like, hey, no, Jake’s good. Like he knew what I wanted. And it was so crazy. This fact of like what you’re teaching communication skills is we’re actually teaching people how they can treat us. if we always fit in, they’ll know, great, yeah, Caden’s gonna do whatever I tell him to do. Jake’s gonna do whatever I tell him to do. But if we stand up, then people are gonna understand, like, no, they have strong values. They know what they want and this is not it. And sometimes people will really surprise you because they’ll become your advocates, not your enemies. And that’s super surprising.

I love that. And that’s exactly what I was kind of talking about is like that whole situation. That’s, know, crazy how it happened where you thought you’re going to lose a friend because you took up for yourself and really told him like the truth of how you feel. And then the next, you know, party, he was like, hey, Jake doesn’t do that, like, you know, step away pretty much. And that goes to say, like, stand up for yourself, right, and share how you feel. And you’ll know in that moment if it’s a friend or a fake friend.

If it’s someone that’s truly in your corner and circle or if it’s someone that is pretending to be because he would have said, okay, whatever you’re lame, you’re boring Jake. Like I don’t want to ever see you again. Right? Well, I thought we were friends because I don’t want to drink. That’s how you’re responding. But he said, okay, fine. No worries. And then he actually defended you in that next situation. So that tells you a lot about their character. If they’re a true friend or not.

Right? Yeah, dude, we don’t want any of those conditional friends. yeah, I like you as long as you do what I do. Get them out. that is tough.

No? Correct. Yup, yup. Yup, exactly. No, I’m glad that friend, that’s good though, and hopefully you still talk to him to this day. That’s really good, that’s a good moment.

Yeah. Caden, I would love to get one more tip from you. If we’re working with young people specifically for drug prevention, is there anything else in your toolbox that you would love to give professionals who are in this line of work?

Navigating Peer Pressure and Friendships

I kind of reflect on how it’s very similar to the drinking and when it comes to drugs too. It’s how you respond to that is what matters. And it’s like responding to the peer pressure, but being maybe a positive peer pressure towards that person and saying that’s not right and using your communication skills and saying, hey, you don’t need to do that. You’re better than that. I view you as a leader, maybe propping them up to someone that they don’t maybe view themselves as. Saying, hey, you’re a leader.

I believe you could do this. You know that’s not good for you. You’re better than that, bro.” So there’s some ways you can go about it from there and I didn’t mention that previously, but being that positive peer pressure, you know, because a lot of people just focus here, peer pressure and they go, okay, negative peer pressure. Yes, there’s a lot of negative, but what about the positive peer pressure? If you’re in a situation where you’re getting negatively peer pressured, maybe be that positive influence on them saying, hey, that’s not good for you. You’re better than that. I view you as a leader.

I’m surprised you do that. That’s no good, dude. So getting them to kind of reflect on themselves takes it off you one, but two, gets them to look at themselves.

Cayden, that is good, man. And if you’re listening to that and you’re like, I would love to say that, but if, and I’m always thinking of the opposite side, right? Like why wouldn’t someone say that? And sometimes you think you’re in the minority for making a smart, healthy decision. You think everybody else is out there and they’re smoking and drinking and they’re looking down on you. And I promise they are not.

Now they’re looking up to you. Yeah. They’re looking up to you, exactly.

And the majority of students in high school around this country are not using any substances, right? In middle school, it’s wild. It’s upwards of 80%. In most communities, it’s up 90 % or greater that are not using anything. And so, but we stay silent, we’ll never know it.

Right? Right? But these. Yes, Right. And two, I feel like because of social media and people talking, it happens maybe within, like you said, the five, 10, 15 percent. Well, it’s you see it on social media, you hear about it. So you think everybody’s doing it. You think that’s what’s in. That’s what’s cool. That’s what you have to do in order to become popular. That’s what these kids are thinking. And it’s really sad. But yeah, you know, working with tons of kids.

80-90 % don’t even do that stuff. It’s the small percentage that you’re seeing and hearing about where you believe you have to fit in.

Absolutely. Cayden, this has been an awesome conversation, man. I would love to hear more about just vid factor. What are the ways that people work with you? And then how do we find out more about that?

Of course. So you can find me at www.vitfactor.com is my website, V-I-T-T and then F as in factor, F-A-C-T-U-R. And that’s my same for social media. So vit.factor. offer one-on-one coaching, group workshops and school assemblies. Typically starting around third grade throughout elementary, middle school, and then high school. And then I also have a Mission Academy platform. So it’s about a hundred different videos, worksheets, quizzes.

Each video is very interactive, a lot of learning, two to four minutes. And what’s really great too is we’re talking about many different topics. some things that we discussed today, the communication, motivation, confidence, peer pressure, goal setting, knowing your value, not comparing yourself to others. That’s just a handful of like the more advanced ones that we’ll talk about, but we’ll get into some small ones like some ones like how to say no, like I mentioned, when to leave a situation, little things like that that I believe are very valuable too. And that’s what we’ll discuss going into a coaching session assemblies, making it v high energy, motivational,

That’s cool Caden, keep up the incredible work, man. I can’t believe you’re only 22 years old and you’re making such a difference and putting yourself out there. So I just wanted to let you know, bro, I’m very, very proud of you. I’ve been on your website and seen the great work you’re doing. I know it’s going to grow. So for everyone listening, that’s vittfactor.com. Go check that out. And if you’re listening to this podcast, that means that you’re an educator or you’re a preventionist, you’re working with youth. Keep that up.

Thank you because we cannot do this alone. We need you in the field. We know you don’t always get to see the fruit that you plant with these students’ lives, but you are making a difference, I promise you.

Thank you, Jake.