Episode #54 - Lost At Sea, Kicked & Punched, But A Motivator: An Interview With Len Tran

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:11

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

Joshua: 00:00:15

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

Joshua: 00:00:19

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

Joshua: 00:00:23

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

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

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

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communication and leadership skills to define your voice of tomorrow.

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

Joshua: 00:00:45

is a coaching and training company helping individuals increasing

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their productivity results.

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

Joshua: 00:00:55

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

Joshua: 00:00:59

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

Joshua: 00:01:02

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

Joshua: 00:01:06

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

Joshua: 00:01:10

worked there for more than 20 years.

Joshua: 00:01:13

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

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

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has trained around the world.

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

Joshua: 00:01:29

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

Joshua: 00:01:34

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

Joshua: 00:01:41

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

Bricks: 00:01:45

Breakthrough to Find the Real You.

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

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

Bricks: 00:02:00

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

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

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young age, become who he is today and.

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

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

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

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

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All right, we're here with Len Tran.

Bricks: 00:02:37

Len, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Len: 00:02:41

Hey, good evening, Josh.

Len: 00:02:42

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

Joshua: 00:02:46

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

Joshua: 00:02:49

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

Joshua: 00:02:53

full disclosure, for my audience.

Joshua: 00:02:54

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

Joshua: 00:02:59

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

Joshua: 00:03:04

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

Joshua: 00:03:09

so, really excited for you to be here.

en, my first question is this: 00:03:11

you have even written a book about this,

en, my first question is this: 00:03:16

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

en, my first question is this: 00:03:20

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

en, my first question is this: 00:03:25

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

en, my first question is this: 00:03:29

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

en, my first question is this: 00:03:33

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

en, my first question is this: 00:03:37

would be about how that all came to be.

Len: 00:03:41

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

Len: 00:03:44

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

Len: 00:03:49

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

Len: 00:03:53

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

Len: 00:03:57

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

Len: 00:04:01

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

Len: 00:04:07

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

Len: 00:04:13

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

Len: 00:04:18

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

Len: 00:04:27

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

Len: 00:04:32

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

Len: 00:04:38

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

Len: 00:04:41

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

Len: 00:04:46

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

Len: 00:04:51

employees, I figured, "You know what?

Len: 00:04:53

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

Len: 00:04:58

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

Len: 00:05:04

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

Len: 00:05:07

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

Len: 00:05:13

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

Len: 00:05:17

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

Len: 00:05:19

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

Len: 00:05:25

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

Len: 00:05:31

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

Len: 00:05:38

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

Len: 00:05:43

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

Len: 00:05:48

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

Len: 00:05:52

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

Len: 00:05:58

and it was out back in October of 2022.

Joshua: 00:06:02

Wow.

Joshua: 00:06:03

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

Joshua: 00:06:10

being young to be where you are now.

Joshua: 00:06:13

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

Joshua: 00:06:18

being able to adapt to America?

Joshua: 00:06:19

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

Len: 00:06:23

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

Len: 00:06:29

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

Len: 00:06:34

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

Len: 00:06:39

pork and beef I have never tasted.

Len: 00:06:41

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

Len: 00:06:44

For vegetables, we were eating cactus.

Len: 00:06:48

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

Len: 00:06:51

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

Len: 00:06:54

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

Len: 00:06:57

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

Len: 00:07:02

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

Len: 00:07:07

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

Len: 00:07:13

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

Len: 00:07:18

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

Len: 00:07:22

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

Len: 00:07:26

You're going to get us killed."

Len: 00:07:28

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

Len: 00:07:32

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

Len: 00:07:37

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

Len: 00:07:41

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

Len: 00:07:48

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

Len: 00:07:51

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

Len: 00:07:54

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

Len: 00:08:00

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

Len: 00:08:06

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

Len: 00:08:13

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

Len: 00:08:18

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

Len: 00:08:23

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

Len: 00:08:31

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

Len: 00:08:36

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

Len: 00:08:39

I was eight years old or almost eight years old.

Len: 00:08:42

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

Len: 00:08:49

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

Len: 00:08:54

He said, "You know what?

Len: 00:08:55

America has brought us here.

Len: 00:08:58

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

Len: 00:09:04

give us, I have two hands and two legs.

Len: 00:09:07

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

Len: 00:09:13

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

Len: 00:09:20

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

Len: 00:09:26

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

Len: 00:09:32

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

Len: 00:09:38

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

Joshua: 00:09:43

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

Joshua: 00:09:47

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

Joshua: 00:09:53

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

Joshua: 00:09:57

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

Joshua: 00:10:01

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

Joshua: 00:10:06

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

Joshua: 00:10:11

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

Len: 00:10:14

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:10:14

Kind of feeling suicidal.

Joshua: 00:10:16

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

Joshua: 00:10:19

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

Joshua: 00:10:23

been happening around that time?

Len: 00:10:25

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

Len: 00:10:29

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

Len: 00:10:35

matter what types of Asians you are.

Len: 00:10:37

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

Len: 00:10:40

call you that you are Chinese.

Len: 00:10:41

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

Len: 00:10:45

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

Len: 00:10:47

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

Len: 00:10:51

you and they want to test you.

Len: 00:10:52

They smack in the head.

Len: 00:10:54

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

Len: 00:10:59

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

Len: 00:11:02

They were saying some stuff in Chinese.

Len: 00:11:04

I still remember today.

Len: 00:11:06

They say, "Hey, Jing Joe Makay."

Len: 00:11:07

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

Len: 00:11:11

until the very first hit that I got.

Len: 00:11:14

I was like, "Wow.

Len: 00:11:14

Why these kids hitting me?

Len: 00:11:16

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

Len: 00:11:20

I told Dad, I was like, "Dad.

Len: 00:11:21

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

Len: 00:11:24

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

Len: 00:11:30

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

Len: 00:11:33

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

Len: 00:11:37

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

Len: 00:11:41

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

Len: 00:11:45

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

Len: 00:11:46

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

Len: 00:11:52

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

Len: 00:11:56

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

Len: 00:12:00

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

Len: 00:12:04

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

Len: 00:12:08

I need to learn karate.

Len: 00:12:09

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

Joshua: 00:12:12

Yeah.

Len: 00:12:13

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

Len: 00:12:18

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

Len: 00:12:23

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

Len: 00:12:28

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

Len: 00:12:32

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

Len: 00:12:35

You know what?

Len: 00:12:36

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

Len: 00:12:41

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

Len: 00:12:44

like," What are you talking about?

Len: 00:12:46

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

Len: 00:12:51

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

Len: 00:12:56

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

Len: 00:13:02

This is not what we want.

Len: 00:13:03

You don't understand.

Len: 00:13:04

We get hit every single day.

Len: 00:13:05

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

Len: 00:13:10

I didn't understand that.

Len: 00:13:13

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

Len: 00:13:18

of mine who introduced me to him died.

Joshua: 00:13:21

Wow.

Len: 00:13:21

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

Len: 00:13:24

His mentality, because he also got physically abused so bad

Len: 00:13:28

that he said, "You know what?

Len: 00:13:29

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

Len: 00:13:35

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

Len: 00:13:40

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

Len: 00:13:46

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

Len: 00:13:50

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

Len: 00:13:54

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

Len: 00:13:59

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

Len: 00:14:03

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

Len: 00:14:08

my students, that's what I tell them.

Len: 00:14:10

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

Len: 00:14:13

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

Len: 00:14:18

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

Len: 00:14:22

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

Len: 00:14:27

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

Len: 00:14:32

in order for us to achieve our goal."

Joshua: 00:14:35

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

Joshua: 00:14:37

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

Joshua: 00:14:42

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

Joshua: 00:14:47

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

Joshua: 00:14:51

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

Joshua: 00:14:55

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

Joshua: 00:15:00

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

Joshua: 00:15:05

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

Joshua: 00:15:10

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

Joshua: 00:15:16

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

Joshua: 00:15:21

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

Joshua: 00:15:25

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

Joshua: 00:15:29

don't have to be right all the time.

Joshua: 00:15:31

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

Joshua: 00:15:36

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

Joshua: 00:15:41

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

Joshua: 00:15:46

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

Joshua: 00:15:50

because of the upbringing that I've had.

Joshua: 00:15:53

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

Joshua: 00:15:58

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

Joshua: 00:16:03

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

Joshua: 00:16:10

effect, you've been working on yourself.

Joshua: 00:16:12

I mean, you have been in chemical engineering.

Joshua: 00:16:16

You have worked now with the Patent Trademark Office.

Joshua: 00:16:19

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

Joshua: 00:16:23

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

Joshua: 00:16:27

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

Joshua: 00:16:32

for you to instill in employees?

Joshua: 00:16:34

You have talked about working with children and teaching

Joshua: 00:16:37

them discipline through karate.

Joshua: 00:16:39

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

Joshua: 00:16:42

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

Joshua: 00:16:46

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

Joshua: 00:16:51

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

Len: 00:16:54

Yeah, certainly and it is rather funny.

Len: 00:16:57

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

Len: 00:17:01

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

Len: 00:17:05

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

Len: 00:17:10

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

Len: 00:17:14

I love what I do.

Len: 00:17:15

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

Len: 00:17:18

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

Len: 00:17:22

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

Len: 00:17:26

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

Len: 00:17:30

to Virginia and applied for the job.

Len: 00:17:33

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

Len: 00:17:37

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

Len: 00:17:41

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

Len: 00:17:47

I thought, you know, this is it.

Len: 00:17:49

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

Len: 00:17:53

into the job as a patent examiner.

Len: 00:17:57

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

Len: 00:18:02

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

Len: 00:18:05

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

Len: 00:18:14

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

Len: 00:18:21

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

Len: 00:18:27

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

Len: 00:18:31

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

Len: 00:18:34

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

Len: 00:18:43

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

Len: 00:18:46

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

Len: 00:18:52

that I was like, "You know what?

Len: 00:18:53

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

Len: 00:19:00

things", and that's what I did.

Len: 00:19:02

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

Len: 00:19:07

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

Len: 00:19:12

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

Len: 00:19:18

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

Len: 00:19:25

shy away from doing the little things.

Len: 00:19:28

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

Len: 00:19:31

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

Len: 00:19:36

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

Len: 00:19:43

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

Len: 00:19:49

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

Len: 00:19:53

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

Len: 00:19:57

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

Len: 00:20:02

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

Len: 00:20:06

and it builds character basically.

Joshua: 00:20:09

And you have nothing short but understanding those obstacles and being

Joshua: 00:20:14

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

Joshua: 00:20:17

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

Joshua: 00:20:23

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

Joshua: 00:20:27

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

Joshua: 00:20:31

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

Joshua: 00:20:36

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

Joshua: 00:20:41

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

Joshua: 00:20:45

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

Len: 00:20:51

Exactly.

Joshua: 00:20:52

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

Joshua: 00:20:57

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

Joshua: 00:21:02

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

Joshua: 00:21:07

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

Joshua: 00:21:12

I know that you are doing as well.

Joshua: 00:21:15

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

Joshua: 00:21:20

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

Joshua: 00:21:24

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

Len: 00:21:30

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

Len: 00:21:35

joined Toastmaster in 2019, right?

Len: 00:21:38

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

Len: 00:21:42

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

Len: 00:21:46

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

Len: 00:21:52

I'm shy.

Len: 00:21:53

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

Len: 00:21:58

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

Len: 00:22:05

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

Len: 00:22:10

has nowhere to go, but just listen to you.

Len: 00:22:12

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

Len: 00:22:16

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

Len: 00:22:20

fourth, I was like, "You know what?

Len: 00:22:22

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

Len: 00:22:26

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

Len: 00:22:31

International because of that.

Len: 00:22:34

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

Len: 00:22:39

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

Len: 00:22:45

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

Len: 00:22:48

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

Len: 00:22:54

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

Len: 00:23:01

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

Len: 00:23:06

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

Len: 00:23:09

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

Len: 00:23:14

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

Len: 00:23:19

great things to say about them.

Joshua: 00:23:21

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:23:22

Oh, yeah.

Joshua: 00:23:22

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:23:23

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

Joshua: 00:23:28

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

Joshua: 00:23:32

It was because of this or because of that."

Joshua: 00:23:34

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

Joshua: 00:23:39

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

Joshua: 00:23:43

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

Joshua: 00:23:47

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

Joshua: 00:23:49

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

Joshua: 00:23:50

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

Joshua: 00:23:53

I love that.

Joshua: 00:23:54

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

Joshua: 00:23:59

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

Joshua: 00:24:03

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

Joshua: 00:24:07

It's not about just point B.

Len: 00:24:09

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:24:09

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

Joshua: 00:24:13

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

Joshua: 00:24:18

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

Joshua: 00:24:23

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

Joshua: 00:24:28

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

Joshua: 00:24:33

Why start a business from it?

Joshua: 00:24:35

I mean, you've already done so much.

Joshua: 00:24:37

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

Joshua: 00:24:40

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

Joshua: 00:24:45

being able to help other people that way.

Joshua: 00:24:48

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

Len: 00:24:51

Yeah, and you're right.

Len: 00:24:52

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

Len: 00:24:56

be 23 years for me, and so-

Joshua: 00:24:57

Wow.

Joshua: 00:24:58

Congratulations.

Len: 00:24:59

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

Len: 00:25:01

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

Len: 00:25:05

My goal is to help people.

Len: 00:25:08

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

Len: 00:25:12

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

Len: 00:25:16

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

Len: 00:25:20

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

Len: 00:25:22

The Squirrel Light Syndrome.

Len: 00:25:23

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

Len: 00:25:27

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

Len: 00:25:31

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

Len: 00:25:34

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

Len: 00:25:40

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

Len: 00:25:46

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

Len: 00:25:51

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

Len: 00:25:54

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

Len: 00:25:58

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

Len: 00:26:06

is when you understand what to do.

Len: 00:26:10

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

Len: 00:26:15

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

Len: 00:26:18

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

Len: 00:26:21

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

Len: 00:26:25

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

Len: 00:26:29

as long as you keep on that balance.

Joshua: 00:26:32

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

Joshua: 00:26:37

especially if you have so much going on.

Joshua: 00:26:39

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

Joshua: 00:26:44

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

Joshua: 00:26:49

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

Joshua: 00:26:54

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

Joshua: 00:26:59

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

Len: 00:27:05

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:27:05

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

Joshua: 00:27:08

narrows down into what that path is.

Joshua: 00:27:10

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

Joshua: 00:27:14

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

Joshua: 00:27:19

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

Joshua: 00:27:24

have been narrow because of communism.

Len: 00:27:26

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:27:26

But expanded over to America with having freedom and opportunity.

Len: 00:27:30

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:27:31

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

Joshua: 00:27:35

I'm really am curious why you?

Joshua: 00:27:38

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

Joshua: 00:27:43

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

Joshua: 00:27:48

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

Joshua: 00:27:52

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

Joshua: 00:27:59

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

Joshua: 00:28:03

right now, or even people down the road.

Joshua: 00:28:06

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

Len: 00:28:10

I was given a second chance in life.

Len: 00:28:15

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

Len: 00:28:22

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

Len: 00:28:26

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

Len: 00:28:32

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

Len: 00:28:40

all the way to a million dollar again.

Len: 00:28:43

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

Len: 00:28:48

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

Len: 00:28:52

We fear because our plan is not clear.

Len: 00:28:57

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

Len: 00:29:01

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

Len: 00:29:06

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

Len: 00:29:11

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

Len: 00:29:14

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

Len: 00:29:19

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

Len: 00:29:24

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

Len: 00:29:33

the South Bronx in 19 82 was tough.

Len: 00:29:35

Not having your mom around was tough.

Len: 00:29:37

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

Len: 00:29:40

cook at the age of eight was tough.

Len: 00:29:44

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

Len: 00:29:47

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

Len: 00:29:50

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

Len: 00:29:53

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

Len: 00:29:59

all of that recipe in my new book.

Joshua: 00:30:03

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

Joshua: 00:30:07

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

Joshua: 00:30:12

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

Joshua: 00:30:16

take it to that next level, for sure.

Joshua: 00:30:19

Len, I definitely would love to have you back.

Joshua: 00:30:21

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

Joshua: 00:30:24

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

Joshua: 00:30:28

to give you the last few minutes.

Joshua: 00:30:29

How can people reach out to you?

Joshua: 00:30:31

How can they get in touch with your business?

Joshua: 00:30:34

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

Joshua: 00:30:38

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

Joshua: 00:30:41

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

Joshua: 00:30:42

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

Joshua: 00:30:46

came out in the last few months as well.

Len: 00:30:48

Yeah, and thank you very much.

Len: 00:30:50

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

Len: 00:30:54

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

Len: 00:30:58

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

Len: 00:30:59

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

Len: 00:31:03

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

Len: 00:31:10

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

Len: 00:31:16

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

Len: 00:31:20

All of us has that wall.

Len: 00:31:22

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

Len: 00:31:26

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

Len: 00:31:29

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

Len: 00:31:33

yes, people can reach me and my website.

Len: 00:31:35

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

Len: 00:31:41

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

Len: 00:31:45

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

Len: 00:31:50

find me, and please send me an email.

Len: 00:31:52

We can do speaking.

Len: 00:31:54

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

Len: 00:31:57

I posted on my YouTube website.

Joshua: 00:32:00

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

Joshua: 00:32:03

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

Joshua: 00:32:07

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

Joshua: 00:32:12

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

Joshua: 00:32:17

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

Joshua: 00:32:21

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

Joshua: 00:32:27

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

Joshua: 00:32:31

determination to have relationships with other people and to gain confidence

Joshua: 00:32:36

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

Joshua: 00:32:40

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

Joshua: 00:32:44

a place, and you definitely have a place.

Joshua: 00:32:47

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

Joshua: 00:32:52

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

Joshua: 00:32:58

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

Joshua: 00:33:02

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

Joshua: 00:33:06

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

Joshua: 00:33:12

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

Joshua: 00:33:16

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

Joshua: 00:33:19

a privilege talking to you today.

Len: 00:33:21

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

Len: 00:33:25

my story with you and your listeners.

Joshua: 00:33:28

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

Joshua: 00:33:31

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

Joshua: 00:33:37

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

Joshua: 00:33:41

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

Joshua: 00:33:45

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

Joshua: 00:33:50

we're just willing to shift that mindset.

Joshua: 00:33:53

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

Joshua: 00:33:56

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

Joshua: 00:34:02

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

Joshua: 00:34:08

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

Joshua: 00:34:13

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

Joshua: 00:34:18

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

Joshua: 00:34:22

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

Joshua: 00:34:27

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

Joshua: 00:34:34

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

Joshua: 00:34:40

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

Joshua: 00:34:44

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

Joshua: 00:34:49

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

Joshua: 00:34:55

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

Joshua: 00:35:00

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

Joshua: 00:35:04

has provided him those sort of aspects.

Joshua: 00:35:07

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

Joshua: 00:35:12

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

Joshua: 00:35:17

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

Joshua: 00:35:21

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

Joshua: 00:35:27

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

Joshua: 00:35:32

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

Joshua: 00:35:38

that pain; that suffering and that guilt.

Joshua: 00:35:42

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

Joshua: 00:35:46

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

Joshua: 00:35:51

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

Joshua: 00:35:55

we can tackle some of the big things.

Joshua: 00:35:59

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

Joshua: 00:36:03

I always focused on the small things.

Joshua: 00:36:06

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

Joshua: 00:36:09

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

Joshua: 00:36:12

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

Joshua: 00:36:16

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

Joshua: 00:36:21

towards to create value, quote unquote.

Joshua: 00:36:25

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

Joshua: 00:36:28

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

Joshua: 00:36:32

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

Joshua: 00:36:35

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

Joshua: 00:36:42

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

Joshua: 00:36:48

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

Joshua: 00:36:53

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

Joshua: 00:36:58

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

Joshua: 00:37:02

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

Joshua: 00:37:08

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

Joshua: 00:37:13

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

Joshua: 00:37:21

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

Joshua: 00:37:28

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

Joshua: 00:37:34

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

Joshua: 00:37:39

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

Joshua: 00:37:44

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

Joshua: 00:37:49

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

Joshua: 00:37:54

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

Joshua: 00:38:00

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

Joshua: 00:38:04

what ways we can move forward from that.

Joshua: 00:38:07

It means being a good listener.

Joshua: 00:38:10

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

Joshua: 00:38:13

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

Joshua: 00:38:18

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

Joshua: 00:38:24

We have to understand that it creates stories.

Joshua: 00:38:27

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

Joshua: 00:38:30

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

Joshua: 00:38:36

his background, being called China Boy.

Joshua: 00:38:39

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

Joshua: 00:38:44

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

Joshua: 00:38:48

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

Joshua: 00:38:55

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

Joshua: 00:38:59

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

Joshua: 00:39:03

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

Joshua: 00:39:07

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

Joshua: 00:39:12

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

Joshua: 00:39:18

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

Joshua: 00:39:23

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

Joshua: 00:39:28

wrong, we can be able to move forward.

Joshua: 00:39:31

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

Joshua: 00:39:36

it's helping emerging leaders.

Joshua: 00:39:38

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

Joshua: 00:39:43

so many different things incorrectly.

Joshua: 00:39:47

We need mentorship.

Joshua: 00:39:50

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

Joshua: 00:39:54

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

Joshua: 00:39:59

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

Joshua: 00:40:04

do, but it goes way beyond that.

Joshua: 00:40:08

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

Joshua: 00:40:10

motivations that create who we are.

Joshua: 00:40:13

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

Joshua: 00:40:18

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

Joshua: 00:40:23

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

Joshua: 00:40:27

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

Joshua: 00:40:31

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

Joshua: 00:40:37

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

Joshua: 00:40:44

We can ignore it.

Joshua: 00:40:45

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

Joshua: 00:40:49

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

Joshua: 00:40:53

us to become something of a higher power?

Joshua: 00:40:57

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

Joshua: 00:41:01

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

Joshua: 00:41:06

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

Joshua: 00:41:11

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

Joshua: 00:41:15

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

Joshua: 00:41:20

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

Joshua: 00:41:25

regret, but it isn't about that.

Joshua: 00:41:30

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

Joshua: 00:41:34

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

Joshua: 00:41:39

communicate what some of those things are.

Joshua: 00:41:43

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

Joshua: 00:41:46

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

Joshua: 00:41:50

think that's the case, but not true.

Joshua: 00:41:53

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

Joshua: 00:41:58

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

Joshua: 00:42:03

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

Joshua: 00:42:08

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

Joshua: 00:42:14

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

Joshua: 00:42:17

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

Joshua: 00:42:24

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

Joshua: 00:42:27

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

help, some TLC: 00:42:31

Tender Loving Care.

help, some TLC: 00:42:36

That doesn't mean that we give up.

help, some TLC: 00:42:38

It doesn't mean that we just struggle.

help, some TLC: 00:42:40

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

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

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but we have to find balance.

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

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okay to have a second chance.

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

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

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

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interact with the bigger picture.

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

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

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you come from or who you are deep inside.

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

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

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

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

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

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become who you really can be.

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Thanks again for listening to episode number 54 of Speaking From

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

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Thanks for listening.

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For more information about our podcast and future shows, search for Speaking From

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The Heart to subscribe and be notified wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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

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services that can help you create the best version of yourself.