Being able to rise from the different challenges in life, whether they are brought on by ourselves or from unknown sources/circumstances, can put a negative type of energy into our body. However, what if we used that energy in a completely positive way to help create systemic value for not only our lives, but for the lives of others? Continuing our month of celebrating Toastmasters making a positive contribution, today's guest, Len Tran, shares his captivating story of escaping communism to create a opportunity for himself and his family. Through his 2nd chance by arriving in the United States of America, Len shares how being a good listener and keeping our thoughts in motion constantly of how we can improve can change everything we think about our lives, even if we do not use our "kicking and punching" powers physically, but use them mentally, to focus and gain clarity through those extremes.

Guest Bio

Len Tran is the founder of Kinetic Mind LLC, a coaching and training company helping individuals increase their productivity results. His clients include athletes, young adults, and emerging leaders. Before devoting time to Kinetic Mind, he graduated from City College of New York with a degree in Chemical Engineering. After working as a Process Engineer for several years, he transitioned to work for the Patent and Trademark Office, which he has worked there for more than twenty years. He is currently a supervisor and has been in this role for the last fifteen years. In addition, he has been practicing martial arts for the past thirty-five years and trained around the world. Len traveled around the United States to provide both seminars and martial arts training. Len is also an author of the book “Split Up by the Sea, A Vietnamese Refugee’s Memoir of Survival and Hope.” He has his second book released this past summer called “Break the Bricks, Breakthrough To Find The Real You!”

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/len.tran.7106

YouTube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk9PtMtYjCUngcI-igZ0G5Q

Website: http://www.LenVTran.com

• Toastmasters International -Home (https://www.toastmasters.org) - Join a local Toastmasters club today by checking out what this nearly century old organization has been able to do to so many talented individuals! Click the "Find A Club" button to locate the closest club to you today!

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Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Welcome back to episode number 54 of Speaking From the Heart, and we

are again recognizing Toastmasters in the month of November in which have

made a significant contribution to society as a whole, and if it wasn't

for Toastmasters, I would certainly not be here as your podcast host.

I will leave a link in the episode notes in case you want to check

out a local Toastmasters club in which it will help you develop your

communication and leadership skills to define your voice of tomorrow.

Today we have Len Tran, and he's the founder of Kinetic Mind LLC, which

is a coaching and training company helping individuals increasing

their productivity results.

His clients have included athletes, young adults, and emerging leaders.

Before he devoted time to Kinetic Mind, he graduated from the

City College of New York with a degree in chemical engineering.

After working as a process engineer for several years, he transitioned

to work with the Patent Trademark Office in Washington, DC, which he has

worked there for more than 20 years.

He's currently a supervisor there and he's been in that role for the last 15 years.

In addition, he's been practicing martial arts for 35 years and

has trained around the world.

He not only traveled to the United States to provide both seminars and martial arts

training, but he is the author of the book Split Up by The Sea: A Vietnamese

Refugees Memoir of Survivor and Hope, which we talk about a lot in this episode.

He also has a second book which has released this past summer called Break the

Breakthrough to Find the Real You.

I have never met anybody that has such an incredible backstory as Len,

especially when he opened up about when he escaped from a communist country,

which I will let that describe in itself the awesome power of not only

determination, but forming the confidence in the relationships, especially at a

young age, become who he is today and.

I have known Len for several years as a result of my Toastmaster's experiences,

and I can certainly say that he definitely has improved himself in just a short

time because of all the things that he's been able to do, not only from

the outside, but from the inside, and with that, let's go to the episode.

All right, we're here with Len Tran.

Len, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Hey, good evening, Josh.

Nice to meet up with you and I'm looking forward to this.

I'm looking forward to it as well, Len, and I appreciate you

taking some time because I have just been following you the last few years;

full disclosure, for my audience.

I've known Len for a few years because of a Toastmasters club I belong to virtually

on my part, but they meet in person as well in the Ashburn, Virginia area,

and I have been following him along and it's been amazing to see your journey,

so, really excited for you to be here.

you have even written a book about this,

and I know I'm going right into it right away, but I think it's really important.

I didn't realize that you had this upbringing in Vietnam, in which then

brought you over here to America, and I'm wondering if you just can tell a little

bit of that story knowing that we really want people to buy your book, which I

want you to reference, but I really would be curious, and especially my listeners

would be about how that all came to be.

Yeah, and thank you very much for asking about my book.

In 2019 it was never my intention to write a book.

My background is engineering and I always figured that, "Hey, you know what?

If I study engineering, all I have to do is stay in the back, do my formulas,

solve my equations, and I don't have to speak to anyone.", because I am

an introvert, but in 2019, life always throw you something interesting, right?

I am a supervisor and I have approximately 60 employees under me, and so I was

sitting one day trying to write something motivational for my employees, and as

I was typing it up, I kept on referring back to when my dad and I in 1982 got

on that small fishing boat with 23 other people trying to escape communism:

Vietnam; probably have heard in 1975 when we lost our country, the communists took

over and you got hundreds of thousands, it's probably almost a million of

Vietnamese boat people like myself, and I keep on referencing back to it and

so when I got to chapter three of the workbook that I wanted to write for my

employees, I figured, "You know what?

Instead of writing a motivational book, why don't I just write a memoir

about my life on how I struggle, and got through those 21 days in the

middle of the ocean?", because we could have died, I mean, my dad was

telling me that, "We're going to find freedom", but really we couldn't tell

if either we are going to find freedom or that we are going to find death.

When I share that story, I was like, "Wait.

I do have more stories to share", and that is after we found freedom, which is

America, we had to adapt to a new culture, and when you live in the South Bronx in

1982, it's really not the freedom that you thinking of, but it's way better

than Vietnam, and for a decade living in the South Bronx, I had to overcome a

lot of struggles, and there were point that I was thinking suicidal because of

putting up with bullies and all that, and that's the reason why I decided to

write that book and I was so glad that it took me three years to finally finish

and it was out back in October of 2022.

Wow.

I am really impressed that you have just overcome those sort of circumstances,

being young to be where you are now.

Were your parents a big influence, especially when it came to just

being able to adapt to America?

Can you tell us a little bit about your parents in that relationship?

Yeah, so in 1982, while I was playing in the front yard,

we are living in Vietnam in the countryside, and we were poor.

We were poor to the point that I have never tasted meat in my entire life;

pork and beef I have never tasted.

The only meat that I've eaten was just shellfish.

For vegetables, we were eating cactus.

One day when my dad took me by the hand and said, "Hey Len, do you

want to go see your uncle in the city?", I was like, "You know what?

Yeah, yeah, let's go see my uncle.", because I mean there's nothing the

countryside for for me to do besides always out at the garden; plowing the land

and stuff like that, and so I was excited to go with him, and so suddenly he took

me to a friend's house and he said, "Oh, we are going to eat and sleep here, and

then we're going to go in the morning", and that morning when I woke up, someone

was carrying me on his shoulder, ran across the beach, threw me into the boat,

and I was screaming for my dad, and he covered my mouth and he said, "Shut up.

You're going to get us killed."

I was like, "What the heck is going on?", and I was about to jump off the

boat until I saw my dad and he said, "No, Len, just stay there.", and so

when my dad jumped into the boat, I looked at him, I said, "Dad, where are

we going?", and he didn't even respond until we got to the middle of the ocean.

That's when he said, "We are going to find freedom."

Now, at that time, it was only me and my dad.

Both of us left behind my mom and four siblings and the fifth one my mom was

pregnant with her, and so when you ask my parents is actually only my dad.

I didn't see my mom until 10 years later, so when we finally got rescued after 21

days at sea, we were brought to the Hong Kong refugee camps for three months,

and then after that, they sent us to the Philippines refugee camps for another five

months where I had to learn English before they can bring us to America, and so, when

I was brought to the South Bronx with dad, my father is pretty much my role model.

I mean at that point, neither of us were speaking English.

I was eight years old or almost eight years old.

My dad was 32 and he said something that stuck with me for a long time

and I believe that's the reason why he has been such an influence in my life.

He said, "You know what?

America has brought us here.

There's no reason why we should be, based on the financial assistance that they

give us, I have two hands and two legs.

I can go find work myself.", and so he decided to work at a pizza store

washing dishes; pots and pans, while going to school to get his GED.

He didn't mind sitting in the classroom with 19, 20 year students.

He was almost double their age, but his philosophy was, "I came here for

a reason and I must accomplish that goal, and that is to have an education

so that we can better our lives.", and so he's been such a role model.

First off, I don't think I had any idea when I asked that question

how much of a story that was in itself and secondly, I should say, I love the

fact that your dad is somebody that you look up to, and I'm sorry that you were

separated, but at least you were able to reunite through all those different trials

and tribulations, which kind of leads me into my next question, because I noticed

that you've been doing karate for over 25 years, and I'm wondering if that has had

an influence on your life, because you mentioned earlier about the bullying and-

Yeah.

Kind of feeling suicidal.

I'm wondering, has that brought focus in your life?

Has that helped you to stabilize the different things that might have

been happening around that time?

Yeah, so when we came to the South Bronx, I was eight going to my third

grade; I'm almost nine years old, and kids back then were very mean and it doesn't

matter what types of Asians you are.

I'm Vietnamese, but when you walk in the street, they always

call you that you are Chinese.

Bruce Lee made Chinese famous with all his movies and stuff, So every

time when I walked in the street they was like, "Look at that China boy.

China boy.", and I thought that would be it, but they'll come to

you and they want to test you.

They smack in the head.

They punch in the face,, so you know what, for me, I'm okay when it comes to

verbal abuse because honestly, I don't understand what they were saying anyway.

They were saying some stuff in Chinese.

I still remember today.

They say, "Hey, Jing Joe Makay."

I'm like, "What the heck does that mean?", but you know what, I kept on walking

until the very first hit that I got.

I was like, "Wow.

Why these kids hitting me?

I mean, this doesn't happen in Vietnam.", and I got home and

I told Dad, I was like, "Dad.

These kids in the neighborhood, they punching me dad."

and I mean maybe my dad was very busy at that time, maybe his focus was to change

our lives, and instead of saying, "Oh, okay, you know what, let me to go talk

to their parents.", and I mean, you know what, let's say if he did go talk to the

parents, they probably don't understand, because our English was just so limited.

The thing that he told me was just ignore them and keep on going, and I was

like, "Yeah, Dad, but I just got hit.

I did ignore them.", and for an entire year, I had to put up with that a

nine year old boy getting punched by other nine year old boy or by even

teenagers who were just constantly punching and kicking me until one day

I met a friend of mine and he said, "Hey, look, there's this Vietnamese

guy and he's teaching karate and it's free.", and I was like, "Oh my goodness.

I need to learn karate.

I need to be like Bruce Lee so I can defend myself.

Yeah.

And so he and I, along with other Vietnamese kids in that neighborhood,

we would walk early in the morning on a Saturday morning from our apartment

all the way to Botanical Garden, which is like a 30 minutes walk, and

we would learn martial art, and the very first thing I told the teacher,

I said," I want to learn some karate because I want beat up those kids."

You know what?

He pulled all of us aside and he said, "You know, if your intention

is to fight with them, I'm not going to teach you karate", and we were

like," What are you talking about?

If you practice karate not to fight, then what's the point?", and he

looked at us, he said, "I'm teaching you karate so that I can teach you

discipline and learn how to walk away.", and we're like, "No, no, no, no.

This is not what we want.

You don't understand.

We get hit every single day.

We need to learn how to punch them again or punch them back."

I didn't understand that.

I didn't understand my first teacher who we call Sensei's wisdom until a friend

of mine who introduced me to him died.

Wow.

And the reason why he died was because that was his mentality.

His mentality, because he also got physically abused so bad

that he said, "You know what?

I want to punch these guys back.", and so at that time, he was nine, 10 years old.

He hang out with bad people and so he got killed by a gang, and that's when

I understood what Sensei was trying to tell us is: when we look for revenge,

most likely one of us going to die and the point of learning martial art

is not to revenge, but the point of learning martial art is that we can

have discipline, so that we can do bigger and better things with our lives

and through the process of achieving our goals is to have the discipline

to overcome obstacles, and I finally got it, and so nowadays when I teach

my students, that's what I tell them.

I say, "We don't teach karate so that we can punch and kick back because

essentially, what we doing in the class, we are punching, kicking the air, and

by kick punching and kicking the air, we are practicing discipline that, hey,

while it might be boring, but yet it's something that we continuously do so

that we can condition our mind that how boring it is, we got to keep on going

in order for us to achieve our goal."

Yeah, and first off, I want to make a correction.

I said 25 years, I meant to say 35 years, and I realized I said that wrong and I

want to give you more credit than credits due there, because that means that for

more than half your life, Len, that you have been practicing that discipline and

been even teaching other people that, which for many people, especially in

today's society, having that discipline to say, "Yeah, I have these skills, but

I'm not trained to use them", because it's really about learning how to have that

inner focus, to have that discipline to say, "I'm better than having to use that.

I can walk away from this", and I feel that message is so desperately needed

in many facets of America today because oftentimes we hear people say, "Well, I

need to get my point across and I need to yell so loud that everybody understands

and I feel like I got to fight them no matter what", and it's like, "No, you

don't have to be right all the time.

You don't have to do that", and I really appreciate your perspective on that and

how that's kind of molded you to the person that you are and I might have to

thank your father and even your mother too, if your siblings probably have a

big influence on that but those kids that bullied you, I so relate to that

because of the upbringing that I've had.

I remember having to have to walk away too from kids that just made fun of my weight.

They made fun of who I was because I was very clumsy with my social skills, which I

still struggle with even to today, but I'm still working on that overall, and to that

effect, you've been working on yourself.

I mean, you have been in chemical engineering.

You have worked now with the Patent Trademark Office.

I had another guest by name of Ivana Miranda on the show that

we've talked about her experiences being part of that office.

What would you say has been, in that professional realm, really important

for you to instill in employees?

You have talked about working with children and teaching

them discipline through karate.

I'm wondering what you've been able to teach your employees as a result of

your experiences, or at least mentor them as a whole with those experiences.

Can you share maybe a story or two of some influences from

people that you have worked with over the years in those aspects?

Yeah, certainly and it is rather funny.

When I graduated as a chemical engineer, and I always wanted to work in a

wastewater treatment plant, and it was in New York City where I graduated,

and so when I worked at the wastewater treatment plant for a couple years, and

I was like, "Oh my goodness, is this exactly what I went to school for?"

I love what I do.

The only thing that I did not like was I have to deal with the wastewater.

I smell every single day and so I got to the point where you know what I

think I am ready for working for the patent office and looking at inventions

and looking at papers instead, so I flew from New York City all the way

to Virginia and applied for the job.

I got the interview, and I made that transition, which was the greatest

thing, well besides that, I found my wife in Virginia as well, but

my life, just changed transitioning from the city here to Virginia and

I thought, you know, this is it.

I thought this is the job that I actually like until six months

into the job as a patent examiner.

It was rather daunting, right, so if Ivana and I worked in different

sectors, so she's more over, I believe, in the human resource.

I'm more in the engineering side and so this is the only agency that has a

quota, so if you don't meet quota on a bi-weekly basis, your chance of being

let go is pretty high and so when I joined the office in July 2000, during

that time, the turnover rate was pretty high, and I was like, "Oh my goodness.

I can't afford to lose this job and I don't want to go back to New York

City.", and so I was working pretty hard to the point that I was like,

"Wow, is this the career that I wanted?"

But then again, I dedicated all that back to my martial arts upbringing,

that I was like, "You know what?

If you want to accomplish big things, you got to be ready to do the little

things", and that's what I did.

The little things was basically throwing in the extra hours so while my friends

were partying, I was still at work trying to finish up what I have to

finish and so when I became a manager seven years later that's what I do in my

leadership role is to show my employees that if you want to see reward, don't

shy away from doing the little things.

I know people want to do shortcut, but that's not life.

Life is not about doing shortcuts because when you're taking shortcut, you are

losing the essence of what you can learn by doing every single steps, because my

philosophy is that the more obstacles you face, the more experience you have.

So don't take shortcuts, I mean, yeah it's nice to say, "Hey, I'm

going from a to z", just like that, like flashman, but feel it.

Feel the BCDs, F G H I all the way to Z because every obstacles that

you face, It's a story that you tell and it's a story that you share

and it builds character basically.

And you have nothing short but understanding those obstacles and being

able to work hard to get to that point, Len, and you have already talked about

those so far, which definitely resonate with me being that we're both coaches in

some aspect, which we'll get into just the moment because I have even had that

experience with some of my own clients just saying to them, "Look, you can do

this the easy way, but I'd rather that you do it the hard way because it gives

you some opportunity to reflect on that journey that it takes you to get there

and doing it easy doesn't mean that it necessarily translates into you being

successful or having that lesson that you can carry on and learn from others."

Exactly.

I'm curious because as you know, we are featuring Toastmasters this

month in terms of their achievements and how they got to where they're at.

Do you feel that Toastmasters helped you prepare for these aspects of

being a coach, being a mentor, being a confident speaker, which

I know that you are doing as well.

Do you think that those all influenced you as well to help you be better with

what you provide, but also what you have done too, so you've been able

to enhance some of those things that you still currently do to this day?

I can honestly say that my life didn't really change until I

joined Toastmaster in 2019, right?

The first day that I decided to join Toastmaster was that, you know what, let

me try to overcome shyness, even though I'm confident as a person to achieve

goals, but at the same time, in front of a large setting, I'm a little bit reserved.

I'm shy.

I always thinking in my head that, "Hey, these people are willing to hear

about my stories", but Toastmaster International allows me to talk about my

life stories, right, with those five to seven minute speeches that the audience

has nowhere to go, but just listen to you.

The first or second, speech was pretty tough because I thought, "Ooh, how the

audience is going to perceive this?", but when I got to the third and the

fourth, I was like, "You know what?

This is pretty good", because I was getting feedback from the audience

saying that, "We like your story", and I would credit that to Toastmaster

International because of that.

That's the reason why also it sparked me to write my book as well, because

here I'm sharing my story every five to seven minute speeches and

when you have 10 of those already, you figure, "Okay, you know what?

It might as well start putting in the chapters", and so it has changed me and

likewise as an audience myself, listening to other speakers and you hear what they

go through as well, and it makes me become a better listener that I can say, you

know what, that's what you do as a coach.

You have to be a good listener in order for you to provide feedback,

and so ever since I joined Toastmaster in 2019, it just, nothing but

great things to say about them.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I appreciate that because for me, I have had many authors on the

podcast, they've talked about, "Well, this is how I got started.

It was because of this or because of that."

Well, here you have the content, and you are literally speaking it out loud at

Toastmaster meetings for those five to seven minutes that are so pivotal because

it's made you feel like you are a million dollars getting that feedback because it's

like, "Oh yeah, you can work on this."

I was like, "Oh yeah, I'll be good for the book.

Let me just write that down and get a good transition."

I love that.

Yeah, and it for my author friends, if you are on the fence, this is a great

example Len just shared of how you can work that technique to help yourself

get to point A to point Z because we know we need to get to point Z.

It's not about just point B.

Yeah.

But Len, I want to talk in the last few minutes about your business,

Kinetic Mind, LLC, because you are essentially pulling all these things,

which I know we only scratched the surface, but you've shared so much insight

as to how this business essentially came to be because of all those experiences,

so although you have kind of talked about it, I want to hear more directly.

Why start a business from it?

I mean, you've already done so much.

You've been a karate instructor, you still do that and travel the world.

You do all kinds of things in the chemical industry because of the patent office and

being able to help other people that way.

Why a business on top of it all is really the question.

Yeah, and you're right.

Yeah, I've been with the patent office for what is going to

be 23 years for me, and so-

Wow.

Congratulations.

Thank you, so when I told my wife, I said, "You know what?

I want to start my business", and I call it Kinetic Mind.

My goal is to help people.

The reason why I came up with Kinetic Mind is because, "Okay, the mind, kinetic,

moving", and isn't that, essentially what happens with all of us is because

our mind is constantly moving and moving and we just don't stay focused.

It's like, we call it the squirrel syndrome.

The Squirrel Light Syndrome.

Whatever you see, you go after, but it doesn't work that way.

You got to do one thing at a time, because when you have too many

things on your plate, you just don't know which one is your priority.

When I established Kinetic Mind, my goal is to teach people to destroy

distractions and focus on the successful actions so that they can achieve their

goal faster, and a lot of my concept actually, again, goes back to my martial

art, like in martial art, when we stand and punch, we call standing in a horse

stance, so horse stance is two legs spread out like you're sitting on a

horse because it teaches you balance, so when you can have your mind balanced

is when you understand what to do.

How to take the next step, but when you don't have balance, and that's a

problem when you don't have balance, you just don't know which side to go

first, because if you go with this side, the other side going to be off balance,

you're going to fall, vice versa, alright, but once you have balance already, you

know how to balance yourself in order for you to keep on moving forward,

as long as you keep on that balance.

Balance, I think is really something that can be tedious in nature,

especially if you have so much going on.

I've had life coaching clients myself that have to work through those different

obstacles themselves, and to get to that other side essentially means facing

some of the past things that have thrown that person or that situation out of

balance and making it so that they can move forward and I love that analogy

because I have made it even in past episodes about having that balance beam.

Mm-hmm.

Walking across it, sometimes life makes us do that because it

narrows down into what that path is.

When we get to the other side though, there's a vast opportunity on the other

side on itself, and I kind of think about the fact that you had that when you

lived in Vietnam and then your dad and you came over to America where it might

have been narrow because of communism.

Yeah.

But expanded over to America with having freedom and opportunity.

Yeah.

Len, one last question for you before I give you the last few minutes.

I'm really am curious why you?

If I were to hire you, why would I want to do that especially if I would want you

for a speaking event or things of that nature, because let's face it, there are

millions of people with unique stories and some of them might share that same

story as you, but what defines you and who you are to what you want to tell

your audience, and the audience could be the audience that's listening to this

right now, or even people down the road.

What do you think people should hear from you as to the why?

I was given a second chance in life.

I could have died with my dad in 1982 on that boat, but because I

was given a second chance in life, I don't take life for granted.

If today, if I were to lose every single thing that I have, my house, my car,

and everything, and have $0 left, maybe a dollar left, I can build from $1 back

all the way to a million dollar again.

Why am I confident, because I have a system that I call RISE.

Actually, it's a system that I did a talk on TEDx.

We fear because our plan is not clear.

If you have a plan in life, you don't feel about anything.

With my RISE system, the R stands for recognize, the I to initialize, the S to

strategize, and the E to energize, and I wish I have another 30 minutes where

I can expound on that and I know we're running down the clock, but who knows?

Maybe we're going to talk about it in the next episode, but I believe

that if we have a formula we can thrive, we can do anything that we

want, and with my background with how I overcome adversity; now living in

the South Bronx in 19 82 was tough.

Not having your mom around was tough.

Your dad has to go to work every single day while you learn how to

cook at the age of eight was tough.

Being beat up and learning how to stand back up and not having

to go after the bullies, but instead, I went after my dreams.

I don't want to be bothered to go after bullies.

I went after my dreams; that was tough, and I did them all, and I got

all of that recipe in my new book.

With that, I am going to give you the last few minutes, but I want

to say to what you just said, the RISE method essentially is allowing us to

realize that opportunity, that it doesn't matter where we are in our lives, we can

take it to that next level, for sure.

Len, I definitely would love to have you back.

We're almost out of time with that said, because I would love to explore

more of those concepts with you in a future episode, but for now, I want

to give you the last few minutes.

How can people reach out to you?

How can they get in touch with your business?

How can they book you as a speaker, maybe even be a coach for some people

out there that are looking because they're inspired by your story?

I'm going to give you the last few minutes.

Let us know how we can do that, and please tell us about the newer book that had

came out in the last few months as well.

Yeah, and thank you very much.

That's going to go back to initially when, when we first talked about my first book.

My intention was to write a motivational book, and so I decided for the last few

months, I was like, "Yeah, you know what?

Let 's finish up that first intention that I started out with", and so the new

book, the title is Break the Bricks, and the subtitle is Breakthrough In Order To

Find the Real You, and the book is about the RISE system on how you can implement

this system in order to find your true potential, and that's the thing, right?

All of us has that wall.

We just put that wall in front of us, but that wall is actually an illusion.

That's the wall that you built in your head, and I'm going to show you how to

break down that wall in order to find the real you on the other side, and

yes, people can reach me and my website.

That is lenvtran.com and I have my YouTube channel as well.

You can do a Len Tran Karate or Len Tran Motivational Speaker, and my

YouTube channel should pop up, but yes my website is the best place to

find me, and please send me an email.

We can do speaking.

We can do coaching, or you can find some motivational videos that

I posted on my YouTube website.

Awesome Len, and I'll put all that in the episode notes in case you want

to check that out and access that more easily, but Len, I wanna close by saying

this is that I don't think I realized your true story about how you got to be

here and knowing that I've only known you for a few years in Toastmasters, I far

supercede you in terms of the number of years; have 11 under my belt, but that

doesn't mean anything because we can have quantity, but it's really about quality.

I think you've demonstrated that quality comes from that hard work, that

determination to have relationships with other people and to gain confidence

through it all, which is some of my values of my own business, Your Speaking Voice,

which I teach people about as well, to make sure that they know that they have

a place, and you definitely have a place.

Thank God you made it through Hong Kong and through the Philippines to get

here, because I've been blessed to have you be a great role model for myself

and what I can aspire to be in my own life, and I know from my listeners they

would say the same for your remarkable story and I encourage everyone to pick

up Len's books, especially as that can help you get to that next stage

of your life as well, but Len, thanks for being on Speaking From the Heart.

I would love to have you back sometime in the future, but it's been

a privilege talking to you today.

Thank you very much Josh, and once again, thank you for letting me share

my story with you and your listeners.

I want to thank Len again for being part of the show and really sharing

an incredible story of not only escaping from where he was at with his father,

but also getting to the other side, and just realizing the true strength

that comes from within us if we're just willing to change your mind and put it

into motion, all the different types of things that we can have in our life if

we're just willing to shift that mindset.

This is not the first guest that has ever talked about this on our show, because

that has been a recurring theme, but what I have learned from Len as a result

of this experience is that we can find freedom or we can find death, and that

really is masked in what we like to say are blessings, and I know that seems a

little cryptic and it also seems very morbid in a sense because you have to

think about the fact that for many people trying to go through life like this is

certainly a difficult struggle and trying to overcome some of those things that have

been struggles in our lives can often be a debilitating exercise of really focusing

on not just the negatives so that we can get over them, but to understand the

root of that so that we can get to the other side, but how can we struggle so

much that we have to then realize that hidden potential inside of ourselves?

Why can't we just find it right away, and I think that Len's story really shows

that it takes some moral discipline, but also mental focus and I really

appreciate his martial arts training more than anything else because it really

has provided him those sort of aspects.

It has allowed him to really train to be disciplined and to realize that when

you are using those sort of skills, it's not because you're the aggressor,

you are being aggressed upon, and you need to be able to take action in a way

in which it defends you from all those different things, but that's the thing

is that we need to transition sometimes in order to not be on the attack, but

to just be able to defend and move away from whatever that is that's causing us

that pain; that suffering and that guilt.

It's really about rewiring all the things in which we have in our lives

in which we can create some of the best versions of ourself, but more

importantly, understanding the little things that are bothering us so that

we can tackle some of the big things.

I can certainly relate to that last part more than anything else because

I always focused on the small things.

On numerous episodes, I have talked about the perseverance that I've had

to go through when it comes to not only dealing with the different types of

people in my life that I've really had to address a lot of those different things

in my life, and which people essentially are the things that I was working

towards to create value, quote unquote.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "Really, you're going to put all

your trust into one or two people that you're really depending upon

in order to create some of the best things in your life, Josh?

That seems a little stupid.", and yes, I was stupid for over 30 years of my life,

just as long as Len has been doing martial arts training all across the world.

I didn't have those abilities to really be influenced by not only the individuals

that can create some of those aspects, those ideas in our life that help us

to understand what's truly important, but I didn't really have the ability to

understand how to move forward from that and I wish that I would've had somebody

that would've took the time early on to help me, not only guide me in the right

direction, but to help me understand why I thought that way, but that's all in good

time because even with all those struggles that I had in my life, I think that really

what comes down to it is how we rise and Len talked a little bit about the RISE

method even in this episode, helping us to move from that next point so that we can

have the balance not only to overcome what those aspects are in our life, but to be

able to move forward in such a way that helps us to understand how to create some

of the best things that are yet to come, and it's really about moving forward.

It's not just about looking at the past, I would say no matter what, those are some

of the things that we need to be looking at, especially as we are reflecting on

what ways we can move forward from that.

It means being a good listener.

One of the many things that we've had in this podcast is talking about

the active listening concept and being able to give motion where we

need to and necessarily remove the distractions that are in our lives.

We have to understand that it creates stories.

It creates opportunities for us to reflect on what has happened in our

lives, especially Len's story, even being teased as a kid and even being bullied of

his background, being called China Boy.

Now, today, if I would call somebody that I know for a fact that there will be a

rave of different comments, there'll be some racially charged comments in return

for that, but as one previous guest has even put it, it's about removing the hate.

It is about removing yourself from the possibility that those sort of things

that kind of create some of those best values for ourselves, might need

to take some time to reflect on why we thought those were best values to

begin with and to help ourselves move forward in order to understand that

thinking was wrong, and that's exactly what some people have to do, especially

when it comes to coaching to help us understand the bigger worldview.

In other words, by helping us to understand what we said or did was

wrong, we can be able to move forward.

That is why Len's company, Kinetic Minds, is so important because

it's helping emerging leaders.

It's helping the children to understand at a young age the importance of not doing

so many different things incorrectly.

We need mentorship.

It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how experienced

you are too, but it means being able to understand that you might need to

ask for help, and asking for help is always something that we can always

do, but it goes way beyond that.

It means that we have to understand that it's the

motivations that create who we are.

It's the motivations in which we do the things that we do in order to not only

be the best versions of ourselves, but to become a higher power in itself.

It doesn't mean that you are overlord of the earth.

It doesn't mean that you are the absolute capitalistic, greedy

butthead that you could be, but it does mean that you have to understand

and go to the roots of really why something exists for the way it does.

We can ignore it.

We can continue to ignore some of the things that are happening in our lives,

and be even happening in our culture for that matter, but is that really helping

us to become something of a higher power?

Is it helping us to understand how to become that best version

if we're learning to walk away and ignore it every single time?

It's one thing to ignore it when it comes to enacting violence, which can be

a human trait in itself, because we're always prone to that because of our

instincts, wanting to defend ourselves means that we throw up our fist,

throw a kick in the air, or even have something that we do that we ultimately

regret, but it isn't about that.

I think that we should not use violence, but we should use our words

and using our words also means not using negative words to be able to

communicate what some of those things are.

The main essence of Your Speaking Voice, the business that I started,

is not to necessarily learn how to communicate, which many people might

think that's the case, but not true.

It actually is to help people understand that we can use our voice, quote

unquote, the verbal and non-verbal, in a lot of different ways in which

we might have never thought possible, because here, especially in the

United States, this is a land of opportunity if we want to believe that.

There are many countries, especially where some of my listeners are coming from,

that don't have the overall full rights of protections like the United States has.

That's not to say that their country is worse than ours because the United

States has something even going on in itself too that needs some

Tender Loving Care.

That doesn't mean that we give up.

It doesn't mean that we just struggle.

It doesn't mean that we just continue to just ignore it and walk away.

We have to be disciplined to not only overcome those obstacles,

but we have to find balance.

That's the only way that we are able to move forward, and it's

okay to have a second chance.

Second chances do not mean that you are a failure the first time.

It means that you're understanding and learning and growing, and you're

being able to understand not just who you are as a person, but how you

interact with the bigger picture.

Even if you are split up by sea, even if you are lost, even if you have a part

of yourself that you are later reunited with, know this: it doesn't matter where

you come from or who you are deep inside.

You can have the love and devotion of time that everyone deserves.

That includes even being mentored in the right way and as long as you keep

that mindset and as long as you actively try to create that mindset, no matter

where you're at, you are going to be successful not only for the rest of your

life, but even with the relationships, the confidence, and the determination

become who you really can be.

Thanks again for listening to episode number 54 of Speaking From

The Heart, and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Thanks for listening.

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Visit us at www.yourspeakingvoice.biz for more information about potential

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