EPISODE SUMMARY:
This week, on The Conscious Consultant Hour, Sam welcomes Executive Director and bestselling author, Quan Huynh.
Quan Huynh has been described as a mighty warrior, a magician, and a mountain of goodness. He is the bestselling author of Sparrow in the Razor Wire: Finding Freedom from Within While Serving a Life Sentence. His book was written for men that are doing long or life term sentences, and in it, he shares how he found his freedom years before he was even paroled.
He works as the Executive Director for Defy Ventures in Southern California, a non-profit whose mission is to shift mindsets, to give people with criminal histories their best shot at a second chance.
After spending 22 years in and out of correctional institutions, Quan was paroled from a life sentence in 2015 and created his first company, Jade Janitors, Inc. six months later. The following year, he received the Peace Fellowship Award for his work with the Alternatives to Violence Project.
Quan has given talks at Tedx, Talks at Google, and been featured in Entrepreneur, PBS Newshour, and numerous other publications and podcasts.
Join Sam and Quan as they discuss how we all can find freedom from the prison of our own minds.
00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:48.740 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. Wherever you're tuning in from welcome to the conscious consult now, or awakening humanity.
00:00:48.740 --> 00:01:07.330 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I am very, very pleased that you're all here with me today. We've got another wonderful, amazing show. I've actually really been looking forward to the the show for quite a while ever since I met the gentleman who i'll be introducing to in just a moment. But of course, first we have
00:01:07.330 --> 00:01:16.380 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: a little section from my book Everyday Awakening. As you know, I always start off with my show with a little section.
00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.010 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I think this one is the one 100
00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:31.230 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: section of my book, or the one hundredth chapter, which means this 26 left to go after this. So we're we're moving along pretty well. We'll finish before the end of the year.
00:01:31.820 --> 00:01:42.250 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I hope you've been enjoying these. So Today's section is entitled. There is often a huge difference between perception and truth.
00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:45.800 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Our perceptions are tricky things.
00:01:45.850 --> 00:02:01.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We think we know what is going on, yet we only see it from our perspective That conversation we had with our partner, or the event that happened in another part of the world is open to our interpretation.
00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:13.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: based on our perceptions. In order to stay grounded. It is useful to ask ourselves a simple question. Is that really true?
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:35.200 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Is our perception or interpretation of a given situation actually true for other people and not just us. If a third party third party, someone not involved emotionally in it so, or heard what went on with. They have the same conclusion as we do
00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:41.380 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: what we often think of as an objective fact is rarely so.
00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:52.050 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: The more we question our perceptions and our assumptions, the more we realize how much of our belief is opinion, and that fact.
00:02:52.990 --> 00:03:01.830 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: By asking what is really true, it becomes obvious that even our own thoughts are interpretations.
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:06.820 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: What is true for us today is not always true for everyone else.
00:03:08.040 --> 00:03:17.090 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It is so. It is so. It is useful to double check when we recognize that there are assumptions and interpretations present.
00:03:17.920 --> 00:03:20.270 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Is that really true.
00:03:20.850 --> 00:03:27.730 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: If this question becomes part of our daily practice, we can catch our assumptions.
00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:31.130 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We can catch other people's assumptions.
00:03:31.450 --> 00:03:39.090 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: We can be humbler when presenting our opinions. we can connect with people on a deeper level.
00:03:39.990 --> 00:03:46.780 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So can you remember to turn this simple question into a daily practice.
00:03:47.260 --> 00:03:49.480 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Is that really true?
00:03:50.990 --> 00:03:52.070 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So
00:03:52.420 --> 00:03:57.960 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I I wrote this section after a while ago.
00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:05.570 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: but it came after I was working with someone in the session, and and they said to me.
00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:14.200 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Hmm! Is that really true? And I thought about it for a moment like, what do you mean? And they're like, Well, I know you think that's true.
00:04:14.440 --> 00:04:22.590 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: But is that really what happened? Is that really, honestly true for the other person, for other people involved?
00:04:23.620 --> 00:04:25.700 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I think about it for a minute.
00:04:26.010 --> 00:04:35.310 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: because I always assume. Well, look I, this this is this is what I believe to be true. What what do you mean? Is that really true? But then.
00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:40.790 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: in in. In looking at this situation, I began to realize oh. well.
00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:50.370 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: at least part of what i'm thinking is true is really just my interpretation of what's going on.
00:04:51.280 --> 00:04:55.560 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: especially the emotional stuff around it.
00:04:55.630 --> 00:05:06.550 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: What they said, what they, what they did, why they did it. and it, and it just kind of struck me that we have so many of these assumptions
00:05:06.990 --> 00:05:17.080 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that we don't even realize on a day-to-day basis that we really believe these things are true. and they may not be.
00:05:17.670 --> 00:05:28.860 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I mean they might be true. Don't get me wrong, I mean. Sometimes you know what. What is obvious is obvious, and something is true when you begin to really look at it
00:05:30.130 --> 00:05:32.150 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and ask ourselves.
00:05:32.590 --> 00:05:38.640 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Is this really true? Is the way I feel about this situation
00:05:39.520 --> 00:05:49.700 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: true for everyone involved true for other people is, is what I believe to be true. Is it objectively verifiable?
00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:54.920 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Now look so? Sometimes things are true that are not verifiable.
00:05:55.910 --> 00:06:00.340 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and i'm not talking about that kind of stuff i'm talking about.
00:06:02.730 --> 00:06:10.620 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Oh, so it was a bad person, because they did this. Is that really true? Why did they do what they did?
00:06:10.940 --> 00:06:26.370 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Did they do it from a place of maliciousness or a place of necessity? Or were they just doing it mindlessly? And they were being careless. I mean there's so many ways to interpret a given action, a given interpretation
00:06:26.520 --> 00:06:27.380 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that
00:06:27.950 --> 00:06:33.200 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to say with absolute certainty. Oh, this this is what's true.
00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:34.860 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: You know what.
00:06:36.260 --> 00:06:50.050 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: in my opinion and in my life I have found that what I held is very strong truths and beliefs. especially when I was younger over time. shift and change dramatically.
00:06:50.320 --> 00:06:51.480 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: dramatically.
00:06:53.430 --> 00:07:03.140 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And so that's another reason Why? Asking the question is that really true? Is helpful. because it's also a reminder to us
00:07:04.590 --> 00:07:09.200 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that even what we believe to be true in our own lives
00:07:10.330 --> 00:07:24.160 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: may not stay the same. It's not static. and may not really stay true for us over the next decade. 20 years, 30 years, 40 years.
00:07:25.770 --> 00:07:30.980 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: When we're young, we think that what we know to be true is going to be true for us, our whole life
00:07:32.190 --> 00:07:38.020 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: older we get the the for if we pay attention.
00:07:38.110 --> 00:07:42.700 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: the less we hold on to these truth so tightly.
00:07:43.470 --> 00:07:45.410 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: at least that's what I've found.
00:07:45.870 --> 00:07:52.670 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So that's the little section from my book. There is a huge, often a huge difference between perception and truth.
00:07:53.260 --> 00:08:06.440 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And of course that's from my book Everyday Awakening, which is available@everydayawakeningbook.com that takes you to the Amazon listing. But if you're like me and you like supporting small independent bookstores.
00:08:07.370 --> 00:08:20.880 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: You can go in and ask them to order it. It. It's widely available through major book distributors. So just say, hey, i'd love to get this book every day awakening from Sam, and they can order it for you.
00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:30.920 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Awesome. So I hope I hope you got it so. So my my homework for you, should you choose to accept it. Your mission this week until next week's show is
00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:36.620 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to just ask yourself when you find yourself making a decision or conclusion
00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:42.200 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to ask yourself. Is that really true? Let's see what happens.
00:08:42.710 --> 00:08:52.600 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Awesome. So now it is my pleasure to welcome to the show, and God. I hope I don't push you his name executive director, and best selling author.
00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.360 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: One hewn Is that right?
00:08:58.720 --> 00:08:59.580 Quan Huynh: Good morning.
00:08:59.660 --> 00:09:05.660 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Good morning. It's it's close enough. Okay, all right, you know. I look. I try to be respectful.
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:19.180 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So Kwan has been described as a mighty warrior, a magician and a mountain of goodness. He is the best-selling author of Sparrow in the Razor Wire, finding freedom from within, while serving a life sentence.
00:09:19.180 --> 00:09:28.780 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: His book was written for men that are doing long or life term sentences, and in it he shares how we found his freedom. Years before he was even parole.
00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:40.420 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: He works as the executive director for defy ventures in Southern California a nonprofit whose mission is to shift mindsets to give people with criminal histories their best shot at a second chance
00:09:40.530 --> 00:09:59.410 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: after spending 22 years in and out of correct correctional institutions, Kwan was parole from a life sentence in 2,015, and created his first company j janitors ink. 6 months later, the following year he received the Peace Fellowship award for his work with the alternatives to Violence Project.
00:09:59.410 --> 00:10:11.990 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Juan is given talks at Tedx, talks at Google, and has been featured in entrepreneur. Pbs new Us. Out News Hour and numerous other publications and podcasts. Welcome to the conscious consultant are upon.
00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:19.060 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Thank you. My pleasure, my pleasure. I've been looking forward to having you come on for a while now.
00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:30.390 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: so we got a couple of minutes before our first break, and I would love for you to just start to tell your story. I know it's going to take a little while. But how did you end up in prison?
00:10:31.390 --> 00:10:40.060 Quan Huynh: I ended up in prison for shooting and killing a man named I'm trying to shoot, kill his 3 friends.
00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:48.820 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and I I can't imagine that getting to that point to wanting to take someone's life
00:10:49.270 --> 00:10:52.260 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: was a a a, a, a, a
00:10:52.790 --> 00:11:04.140 Quan Huynh: it just something that happened this for the moment that there were things that built up to that chapter 2. My first, the first line says, I was not born a murderer.
00:11:04.150 --> 00:11:04.760 Quan Huynh: Yeah.
00:11:04.850 --> 00:11:16.940 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So so can you give us, maybe just a little brief sketch of of like, how you started and and and just roughly, what brought you to that point.
00:11:17.180 --> 00:11:24.460 Quan Huynh: Yeah. I first generation Vietnamese immigrant. I grew up in Provo Utah
00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:41.230 Quan Huynh: experience what I do now know to be racism. It's a beautiful state, but I did experience racism growing up. My father passed away from leukemia. By the time I was 13 we had moved out to California, and
00:11:41.250 --> 00:11:45.160 Quan Huynh: I think a lot of my acceptance issues, and that and then
00:11:45.370 --> 00:11:58.750 Quan Huynh: identity issues were very involved in that. After my father passed away, which then I funneled, and I felt so accepted inside the gangs. So I ended up in a very violent with this Vietnamese.
00:11:58.920 --> 00:12:02.730 Quan Huynh: and that's ultimately what let me in and out of
00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:04.740 Quan Huynh: Joe prisons.
00:12:05.390 --> 00:12:15.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: you know. It's interesting that people often don't get like why someone would end up in a gang. and
00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:20.750 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and I think that it does kind of highlight, a certain point that
00:12:21.380 --> 00:12:23.140 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: there is a certain
00:12:23.230 --> 00:12:31.770 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: safety and gangs, and and especially when the outside world is beating you up and pushing you down.
00:12:32.020 --> 00:12:39.340 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: that it is a a not a very effective way, but it is a way to kind of feel like you have some.
00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:51.040 Quan Huynh: Yeah, I mean, it ties into what you were reading from a book about perception and truth. Right, like my perception is that the world was against me. My perception was that there was a a
00:12:51.280 --> 00:13:01.310 Quan Huynh: was an outside a world against me, and I felt safety inside the game. And the truth was, we were a bunch of ruthless, misguided
00:13:01.770 --> 00:13:03.340 Quan Huynh: kids. 2:
00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:06.530 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine.
00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:11.860 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And just out of curiosity. Did any of your fellow gang members end up in prison with you?
00:13:12.560 --> 00:13:15.370 Quan Huynh: Yeah, quite a few of them
00:13:16.630 --> 00:13:21.750 Quan Huynh: with the prison for different things. Some have passed on, and
00:13:22.110 --> 00:13:34.210 Quan Huynh: i'm glad to say, though, that many of them are now just successful, contributing family numbers, wonderful families, and and are doing good things for the community.
00:13:34.390 --> 00:13:41.050 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Excellent, excellent. Okay. So so let's pause there for a moment. We'll take our first break, and then when we come back
00:13:41.060 --> 00:13:43.460 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I really want to dive into
00:13:43.690 --> 00:13:59.910 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: sort of your story, and and how you, you, your experience of of being in prison, and and this is a topic I've I've had other people on the show in the past. Talk about this, but I really feel it's an important topic of sort of the
00:13:59.910 --> 00:14:07.340 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: the the physical prison we're in versus the mental prisons that we're in, and and how that sort of
00:14:07.880 --> 00:14:37.870 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: awareness, and how that that sort of got risen up inside of you, and and how that internal freedom kind of came about for you. Okay, yeah, that I think it's going to tie right in with your your reading on perception and truth this morning, so i'm ready to dive into that it. It. It's kind of so funny, because i'm just reading these sections in my book just in order, you know, going from the beginning through the book, get somehow the the section that I end up. Reading is always so apropos for the the guest I have for the
00:14:41.790 --> 00:15:03.280 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: perfect, even if it doesn't seem like it. So everyone please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consult now, or weakening humanity. We do this every Thursday, 12 noon to one Pm. Eastern time here on top radio that Nyc. And Wednesdays at 10 am. On Kmt. At a Palm Springs, California, and we will be right back with our guest
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00:16:41.470 --> 00:16:42.450 Precious.
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00:16:50.890 --> 00:16:52.120 The
00:17:08.430 --> 00:17:14.220 Okay. Okay. you
00:17:22.630 --> 00:17:39.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and welcome back to the conscious consult now awakening humanity. We're speaking this out with Kuan Heon, author of the Book Sparrow in the razor wire. So quan when you were a kid growing up, you said you experienced some racism being a Vietnamese immigrant.
00:17:39.760 --> 00:17:53.940 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and you ended up drawing in a gang when you joined the gang. Did you ever for once think that you would end up hurting someone ending up in prison, or or going in that direction.
00:17:57.250 --> 00:18:12.720 Quan Huynh: I think for myself I justified it to say, Well, i'm not really hurting somebody. I'm defending myself, or you know I so I think it's the tying, that perception of just the things that I told myself to justify that i'm not a bad person. It's just
00:18:12.940 --> 00:18:27.210 Quan Huynh: these are things that are these are circumstances that happen, and this is how I have to respond. This is how I have to be said. Oh, I I didn't mean to hurt that guy, but he was attacking my friend by, you know. So all of this, that type of a work mindset.
00:18:28.470 --> 00:18:29.590 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and and
00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:33.670 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: when you killed the person that you killed
00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:47.100 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Did anything like shift or change inside? If you were you already like so hardened it didn't affect you that. Yeah, I would say the the I was so hard and and call it I mean.
00:18:48.510 --> 00:19:06.540 Quan Huynh: I'm. E. Even at that time I like okay. It was my life or theirs, and that's how I just to find it for years, even into my life sentence, I would say, for at least 10 years, 1011 years. I never once thought wait. I I killed somebody, or there has to be some sense of remorse. It it was always
00:19:06.700 --> 00:19:17.610 Quan Huynh: Oh, well, i'm in prison for ging murder, and which then justified me. Like in the California business they have this pecking order of okay.
00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:24.460 Quan Huynh: You're in for a prison murder. So that's that goes to the top of the food chain at the bottom is, you know, people that
00:19:24.930 --> 00:19:33.970 Quan Huynh: Amen for sex crimes or people that, or someone that killed their wife, or something like that there's there was. There was always this whole spectrum, and
00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.520 Quan Huynh: they'd be going into prison for a a game murder then. Yeah. But you know i'm not as bad as those around them. That's kind of how we looked at it.
00:19:42.730 --> 00:19:44.490 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Gotcha Gotcha.
00:19:44.780 --> 00:19:47.540 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And so over the years that you were in prison.
00:19:48.040 --> 00:19:51.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: How did that shift or the shift of
00:19:51.430 --> 00:20:03.180 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: consciousness or shift of awareness. However, you want to phrase it. What changed inside of you? What got you to to see your situation differently.
00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:05.540 Quan Huynh: I
00:20:07.050 --> 00:20:12.200 Quan Huynh: I got where that my grandfather, my father's father, passed away.
00:20:12.280 --> 00:20:15.570 Quan Huynh: and finding about his death.
00:20:16.850 --> 00:20:21.020 Quan Huynh: brought me back to my own father, and and
00:20:21.330 --> 00:20:29.630 Quan Huynh: it made me think like, how did my life end up here? And I can trust that. I think by the time my father passed away, when he was
00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:31.200 Quan Huynh: 30 slides.
00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:41.840 Quan Huynh: and I was coming around on that age. So I was like Wait! I contrasted my life with my father. How did I end up with a life sentence. And yet my father, in his 35 years on earth
00:20:42.150 --> 00:21:02.400 Quan Huynh: created such an amazing legacy. Like you know we lost our country, we came here to the United States. He created the Vietnamese Refugee Association. He helped or displaced refugees, adjusted their new homeland, and he, like his funeral, had so many people there of so many different from families that he had helped
00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:12.020 Quan Huynh: adjust to the United States, where we, I remember his little boy going to different States with him, and he was
00:21:12.140 --> 00:21:13.880 Quan Huynh: helping them fill out
00:21:13.910 --> 00:21:27.590 Quan Huynh: social security documents and drivers license to me as a little kid. This was utterly boring, and I didn't understand why my dad explain like, yeah, I do this for the community I use for people, and I was like, how can you do something you don't get paid for it, and
00:21:27.590 --> 00:21:34.150 Quan Huynh: and it it was lost to me at the time. But the the only reason why I like going is because I I got to spend time with my father.
00:21:34.360 --> 00:21:47.890 Quan Huynh: so I was thinking about that. I also got a picture of my little niece. It was my younger brother's daughter, and she looked just like him as a little girl, and that also took me back to my childhood like
00:21:48.260 --> 00:21:54.700 Quan Huynh: like what happened to my life like? How did I end up here, and am I meant to die in here?
00:21:55.050 --> 00:21:59.320 Quan Huynh: One thing that always gave me an escape are were books.
00:21:59.450 --> 00:22:09.630 Quan Huynh: and I've been known to be quite the bookworm and go down rabbits. Well, so if I read a book I've become fascinated with that topic.
00:22:09.640 --> 00:22:23.200 Quan Huynh: I go to the back of the book. Look at the acknowledgment, see what other books they recommend, or look at the footnotes, and just go down. Rabbit Charles. and during that time I was really fascinated with different books on entrepreneurship and
00:22:24.510 --> 00:22:27.560 Quan Huynh: business in general. But I,
00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:40.870 Quan Huynh: in reading those books I went down different rabbit shells, and I stumbled and became very fascinated about stories of the saints in particular, stories about saints that had failed
00:22:41.010 --> 00:22:51.940 Quan Huynh: or dial failed or made huge mistakes in our lives. But yeah had gone on to create such amazing legacy. And these stories really drew me in like I became fascinated with them. But then of
00:22:52.360 --> 00:23:00.970 Quan Huynh: then those lead me into books on mindfulness and spirituality and personal development. So all of that just
00:23:02.520 --> 00:23:07.530 Quan Huynh: became like this, I guess perfect storm in my head, my heart, my soul whatever.
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:25.080 Quan Huynh: And it was just one morning on the prison yard I was standing at the the the fence, and my head filled up with all these readings and teachings, and and I, I I asked myself, Why do I have to view prison as punishment?
00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:39.950 Quan Huynh: Why can't this be a place that I we make myself, even if i'm supposed to die in here right like what you were talking about earlier perception and like, Why, okay, this person we all experiencing the same. But why can't I view this as a place to
00:23:39.950 --> 00:23:48.480 Quan Huynh: an opportunity to make myself a better human being like how these things did it? What i'm reading about in in is teaching on mindfulness, and
00:23:49.140 --> 00:23:51.960 Quan Huynh: of course we the
00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:58.700 Quan Huynh: we can. So I remember that moment the sun was coming up over their deals like it feels warm
00:23:59.050 --> 00:24:09.640 Quan Huynh: on the little blades of grass. I could see the individual drops of do. and up above me in the razor wire I heard a sparrow chirping.
00:24:09.690 --> 00:24:12.350 Quan Huynh: and I tell one, you know.
00:24:12.420 --> 00:24:17.080 Quan Huynh: which Barrows had probably been chirping my whole prison term. I never heard it
00:24:17.180 --> 00:24:29.640 Quan Huynh: but that day I heard it, and I would say it was from that day 4 that it began for me. You know this sense of consciousness, the sense of awakening. I then saw
00:24:29.760 --> 00:24:42.900 Quan Huynh: other men on the yard, many of them much further along on their journey, some of them perhaps not even awakened. But I saw, like wait. These are opportunities to connect with other human beings. We're all just on a journey. So i'm here on my journey.
00:24:43.620 --> 00:24:48.240 Quan Huynh: whether it's in prison or not, I can make something of myself.
00:24:49.520 --> 00:25:00.310 Quan Huynh: One of the first things I did is I checked into therapy. So this is 25 years after my father had passed away I begin the briefing process.
00:25:00.450 --> 00:25:06.150 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So then, being the tons of it before I became fascinated with the grief and last process
00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:11.870 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: in particular, about 10 years into your prison term.
00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:19.050 Quan Huynh: Yeah, just about the tenth to twelfth year of my term. Yeah, this is where it does a wake up.
00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:24.540 Quan Huynh: I became fascinated with Elizabeth Kubler Ross's model on brief and loss.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:30.090 Quan Huynh: I put together a syllabus, and I submitted it well. I saw around me, though, like
00:25:30.230 --> 00:25:49.100 Quan Huynh: men were also suffering, and we're also unable to grieve that that was like. I saw my own issue of an inability to express my emotions and bottle it, and I saw all around me in the men, whether it's men that had lost their wives because or they have left them so they have that lost
00:25:49.100 --> 00:25:58.830 Quan Huynh: we men that had lost children, or they have lost their, you know, have grown old in prison men that have lost friendships because there is transfer from one
00:25:59.270 --> 00:26:04.220 Quan Huynh: prison to another, and they're leaving behind friends, and there's no way to express this.
00:26:04.410 --> 00:26:11.200 Quan Huynh: So I saw this huge need for being able to grieve these losses, and there was nothing there to help support them.
00:26:11.290 --> 00:26:13.460 Quan Huynh: So I put together this
00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.450 Quan Huynh: a syllabus, submitted it to the prison psychologist.
00:26:17.480 --> 00:26:21.990 Quan Huynh: He loved it, and we were able to create the prisons first, ever reef and law school
00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:26.340 Quan Huynh: inside that group is when I saw for the first time
00:26:27.620 --> 00:26:29.520 Quan Huynh: an ability to make
00:26:30.340 --> 00:26:35.930 Quan Huynh: meaning, and there's a sense of fulfillment for myself, and suddenly I felt alive
00:26:36.170 --> 00:26:52.040 Quan Huynh: for once in prison, and then then that became this. I suddenly had this huge appetite for learning on, and facilitating groups and group cycle dynamics and going down those rabbit trails, but then creating groups, getting involved in groups.
00:26:52.140 --> 00:26:53.960 Quan Huynh: And next thing I know, I realized.
00:26:54.360 --> 00:27:07.590 Quan Huynh: hey? I'm! Here I am in prison in this little forgotten corner of the world. Nobody would know about it. But yet here I am. I'm making a difference in the lives of other human beings. So for me, I felt
00:27:07.690 --> 00:27:08.990 Quan Huynh: absolutely free.
00:27:09.020 --> 00:27:16.780 Quan Huynh: goes right back to that perception question that you were talking about.
00:27:16.870 --> 00:27:31.960 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: You know most people who've never been in prison experience person. Th there's a certain image they have that's probably from Tvs and movies about how dangerous prisons are, and people constantly getting killed, and things like that.
00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:35.430 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: I I imagine, when you made that shift
00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:45.650 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: it, it might have been a little challenging for some of your prison mates to kind of see you like what happened to Kwan? Why, why is he acting so different all of a sudden?
00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:47.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Did you get a lot of that
00:27:47.710 --> 00:27:50.250 Quan Huynh: I did, but I think I thought more
00:27:52.380 --> 00:27:54.600 Quan Huynh: it I it drew
00:27:54.620 --> 00:28:05.780 Quan Huynh: the right kind of people, or withdrew to people that were also looking for, like they would come up to me like, hey? I I feel your happiness, or I feel your like. Oh, however, we want to describe it, but
00:28:05.850 --> 00:28:16.240 Quan Huynh: I drew them in, and then we began to help. We find each other and to help each other. Yes, in the midst of prison, but I think we were able to bring light to to a lot of that darkness in there.
00:28:16.320 --> 00:28:29.470 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Hmm. Yeah. So so even though it, you know, prison is not such a great environment. But you you were able to sort of make that switch, and as opposed to like.
00:28:29.520 --> 00:28:36.180 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: you know, some other inmates like beating you up for it, like people actually
00:28:36.250 --> 00:28:42.340 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: got attracted to you because of it, because they were experiencing their own pain, and they wanted.
00:28:42.430 --> 00:28:50.160 Quan Huynh: in a way, what you would find. But I think this that goes back to even the perception of what
00:28:50.520 --> 00:29:01.710 Quan Huynh: substitute someone that's incarcerated Are these just ray meat animals wanting to to hurt each other is that on the the media, or are these just human beings that
00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:04.100 Quan Huynh: inherently
00:29:04.250 --> 00:29:18.050 Quan Huynh: every human being is is good, and it's looking for goodness and others and in themselves, and but they've forgotten it, or or it's very deep. And so that's that's that's what I I truly believe, because I I saw
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:23.870 Quan Huynh: I was on the right path, and then there were. It started to draw others, and I never felt like.
00:29:24.580 --> 00:29:28.290 Quan Huynh: Oh, somebody's gonna come get me because I am on this path.
00:29:28.410 --> 00:29:45.830 Quan Huynh: It's more. Wait, I think I see a lost soul behind those that man with the 1,000 yards there I see a a a a young, scared boy behind this tough and exterior, with tattoos all over his face and neck. That's how he started seeing me.
00:29:46.020 --> 00:30:02.060 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Wonderful, wonderful! All right, awesome. So we're gonna take our next break when we come back. I want to talk a little bit more about what happened once you started this group and working with the prison psychologist in this program, and and and the changes that you saw in and other inmates as well. Okay.
00:30:02.060 --> 00:30:16.010 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Wonderful Quant: Thank you so much. So everyone, please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consult now awakening humanity. My guess is, Sarah is Kwan June, author of the Book Sparrow and the razor wire, and we will be right back.
00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:17.850 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It was just a moment.
00:30:19.430 --> 00:30:33.750 Are you passionate about the conversation around racism? Hi! I'm Reverend Dr. Tlc. Host of the dismantle racism show which airs every Thursday at 11 a. M. Eastern on talk radio, Dot Nyc
00:30:33.750 --> 00:30:46.290 join me and my amazing guest as we discussed ways to uncover, dismantle and eradicate racism. That's Thursdays at 110'clock a. M. On talk radio and Nyc.
00:30:48.690 --> 00:31:16.700 www.TalkRadio.nyc: In the most common world You may have many unanswered questions regarding your health. Are you looking to live a healthier lifestyle? Do you have a desire to learn more about mental health, and enhance your quality of life. Or do you just want to participate in self-understanding and awareness? I'm. Frank R. Harrison host of Frank about health, and each Thursday I will tackle these questions and work to enlight you. Tune in everything at 5 P. M. On talk, radio and Nyc. And I will be frank about how to advocate for all of us.
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:46.130 everybody. It's Tommy Gee, the non-profit sector connector coming at you from my attic each week here on talk radio and Ny Z I hosted program, the lamp of game focus nonprofits in cocktails each and every day, and it's my focus to help them amplify their message and tell their story. Listen: each week at 10 a. M. Eastern standard time until 11 a. M. Is from standard time. Right here on talk radio dot Nyc.
00:31:47.100 --> 00:31:57.560 You're listening to talk radio and Yc: at Ww: talk radio and livec. Now broadcasting 24 hours a day.
00:31:58.090 --> 00:31:59.050 The
00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:11.760 Okay. Okay.
00:32:12.800 --> 00:32:13.700 you.
00:32:22.700 --> 00:32:29.750 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So Kwan, getting back to sort of your story. You had this moment of extreme presence.
00:32:29.780 --> 00:32:35.420 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and it really woke up within you this desire
00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:39.390 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: to to live a better life, I guess, in a way.
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:42.730 regardless of what your external circumstances were.
00:32:42.970 --> 00:33:02.660 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: And then you you started exploring this idea of grief and loss, and you work with the with the prison counselor to to sort of create these programs. What did you see in in the other inmates that you worked with like? How are you able to help them in. And and were there? Was their transformation similar to yours, or was it different?
00:33:03.590 --> 00:33:05.540 Quan Huynh: Yeah. So
00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:13.990 Quan Huynh: I mean, we could tie this right back into perception again in the California prison system with
00:33:14.170 --> 00:33:18.030 Quan Huynh: a for goes to the pro board. Each
00:33:19.180 --> 00:33:22.760 Quan Huynh: a person is issue a parole here in transcripts
00:33:24.910 --> 00:33:36.230 Quan Huynh: it and the culture, and there's men never shared their transcripts with each other Each time you go to the book board they issued a transcript, and nobody asks about it. Nobody shares it they don't talk about.
00:33:38.080 --> 00:33:41.980 Quan Huynh: So I never knew what the pearl process really looked like, heading into it.
00:33:42.100 --> 00:33:43.170 Quan Huynh: So
00:33:45.370 --> 00:33:51.670 Quan Huynh: you know, remember, we're talking about drawing the right people into our circle. There was this other man that him and I used to share books.
00:33:53.690 --> 00:33:55.910 Quan Huynh: and one day he decided
00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:02.070 Quan Huynh: to. I don't know why to this day, but he decided to
00:34:02.310 --> 00:34:03.670 Quan Huynh: bringing to me
00:34:03.760 --> 00:34:15.420 Quan Huynh: his 6 or 7 pearl transcripts of every pearl here that he had got into. He didn't incarcerate probably like 30 something years right. He had a pants at him here. He wanted to read my transcripts.
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:20.699 Quan Huynh: and as I read it I realized
00:34:21.090 --> 00:34:33.800 Quan Huynh: what he told me, happened in the hearings and stuff. and what actually happened were 2 totally different things. Here is the form of truth that I could actually see with my
00:34:33.929 --> 00:34:52.900 Quan Huynh: my eyes, you know it's something tangible, whereas before, like even like I knew like, hey, we're looking at prison. We're all we're looking, but it's just more like, am I looking at this wrong, or or these guys looking at? But there's nothing really tangible. It's like that. Is how I see this place there's such opportunity for us to become better.
00:34:52.900 --> 00:34:56.000 Quan Huynh: But then, with the pro transcript, i'm seeing
00:34:56.449 --> 00:34:57.330 Quan Huynh: wait.
00:34:57.630 --> 00:35:11.590 Quan Huynh: I know why the Pearl Board is not letting him to go home. It's not because of his time. It's because of how he's describing his culpability and the choices that he's only and i'm starting. I started to see this, because at the time
00:35:11.840 --> 00:35:13.660 Quan Huynh: I was very fascinated with.
00:35:13.880 --> 00:35:25.030 Quan Huynh: you know, books on personal responsibility and yeah ownership, and and how powerful even works, and the words you use can describe things. So
00:35:25.860 --> 00:35:29.410 Quan Huynh: I sat with him, and I said, I think I know why
00:35:30.100 --> 00:35:47.040 Quan Huynh: you're the they're not letting you go. So one of my other friends also began to sit with us, and he gave me his transcript, and we started helping each other. And so people saw us in them like, what is what are you guys doing sitting there with crime? And and
00:35:47.400 --> 00:35:48.520 Quan Huynh: Bobby says.
00:35:48.550 --> 00:35:57.040 Quan Huynh: quiet, helping me prepare for the and you guys are crazy. That quad has never been to the parole board. How inquiry to help you
00:35:57.090 --> 00:36:05.030 Quan Huynh: and he's like I don't we're helping each other. So we were sitting there, and my friend that sat. With this he went to the pro board first.
00:36:05.720 --> 00:36:11.460 Quan Huynh: walked in with the understanding what we had said, or the how how we wanted to approach the hearing.
00:36:11.680 --> 00:36:13.350 Quan Huynh: He gets found suitable.
00:36:13.770 --> 00:36:17.630 Quan Huynh: and that opened up like this like well.
00:36:17.670 --> 00:36:26.200 Quan Huynh: quant and them know something. So then men started coming to me more. But one thing I required was the truth. The transport? I asked.
00:36:26.330 --> 00:36:35.300 Quan Huynh: But it's not what, and and and sure enough to that. Well, okay. But let me tell you my story, and they start telling me and you by that time it takes me like, hey, listen!
00:36:35.850 --> 00:36:36.940 Quan Huynh: It became
00:36:37.370 --> 00:36:54.320 Quan Huynh: for me. I'm more so efficient ways like No, you know I don't I I will not sit with you until I actually reach your transcript and your and your site. Eb: I want all people first, and then i'll see how they describe the truth. Right? Their perception of the truth. So
00:36:54.600 --> 00:37:00.820 Quan Huynh: that's how it began, and I started to see it's. I guess it's human nature to always
00:37:01.970 --> 00:37:04.750 Quan Huynh: cast ourselves in a good light. So it's.
00:37:06.030 --> 00:37:11.200 Quan Huynh: I mean, yeah, like even the the little thing of
00:37:11.900 --> 00:37:22.550 Quan Huynh: jumping on to a zoom call late, and instead of just owning saying, hey, you know i'm sorry for being like oh, it's because this this this, this this so I still see it out here, but it's
00:37:22.620 --> 00:37:29.550 Quan Huynh: it, and it's normal. And and I think the the freedom, though, and the liberation, is
00:37:29.590 --> 00:37:31.560 Quan Huynh: to just own it
00:37:32.020 --> 00:37:38.030 Quan Huynh: on the truth, and instead of try to tell ourselves a different story, and that is where
00:37:38.120 --> 00:37:41.230 Quan Huynh: the men that used to sit with me they all wanted to come home.
00:37:41.330 --> 00:37:52.500 Quan Huynh: which is, that's a great idea. I mean that's that's great. But my motivation in sitting with them is Yes, I I want to help you go home. But I think more importantly, I want to help you
00:37:52.620 --> 00:38:06.920 Quan Huynh: to get to this place of inner freedom that I've already achieved like I I feel like this is such a responsibility of mine to share like I I am free already, and and these guys don't see it, and I want to get them there. So there were.
00:38:07.560 --> 00:38:16.030 Quan Huynh: Maybe I helped like 1012 men go home over those last few years. Then I was there, which is not an insignificant amount. But
00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:23.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: when you were helping these other inmates, be able to get parole and go home, did you ever think that you would be able to go home.
00:38:26.470 --> 00:38:45.930 Quan Huynh: I I i'm not sure. I I think I think so. But for me it was like it's it's gonna be up to the universe for me that that's why I looked at like, hey, if that's the path for me, then that's the path for me, but for me right now. I know I am right where I'm supposed to be, and i'm I am doing for once in my life what i'm supposed to be doing
00:38:45.930 --> 00:38:58.370 Quan Huynh: So when I was in I parole the first time they did I me 5 years. So I said, okay, Well, for the next 5 years I can help quite a bit of men, and I can become an even better human being. But then
00:38:58.700 --> 00:39:10.850 Quan Huynh: that was a part of me that I I guess by that time I I I felt very led by my intuition or my that, and whatever things feel right in my that I move forward with it. That's how I base my decisions
00:39:11.720 --> 00:39:15.970 Quan Huynh: since then, and that's how I base my decisions now. But
00:39:16.360 --> 00:39:19.570 Quan Huynh: even after that 5 year denial.
00:39:20.120 --> 00:39:23.660 Quan Huynh: I think I saw just
00:39:23.770 --> 00:39:36.900 Quan Huynh: the the people on the outside that when they saw me get a a 5 year, they said, See if Kwan do it all. Why would he get a 5 year denial, and I had some of my own inner circle and some family like
00:39:36.930 --> 00:39:45.800 Quan Huynh: doubted like, hey? We think you should it? We're concerned about your mental health. You shouldn't put all your age in one basket.
00:39:45.800 --> 00:39:59.170 Quan Huynh: because I think at the time there were less than 1% of life first going home, anyway. But for me I just felt like, I know, I think, like my, there's much more for me to do in this world. But yes, I can do stuff now, but
00:39:59.340 --> 00:40:17.560 Quan Huynh: my my fate is not to be to die in here like my fate was in here to learn. But then I could share this gift that I've in the secret. I've learned and and and do much more impactful things. So I just knew it might cut like. I'm going to go home some day, but not just to go home. But i'm going home to do bigger things.
00:40:17.560 --> 00:40:24.120 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So how how many times, how many times did you end up going to the parole board, and
00:40:24.200 --> 00:40:41.600 Quan Huynh: i'm like twice I got a 5, 80 n but I put in a petition to advance my tune at a year and a couple of months, after which also caused its own like, because men had said, oh, you have to wait at least 3 years before you put this in? And I said, Why, why, where do we come up with these
00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:49.030 Quan Huynh: like truth that we say? And I questioned it. And and so guys on the yacht when I when I
00:40:49.030 --> 00:41:02.010 Quan Huynh: put it in, and and they granted it, they all said, oh, they only granted it so they could bring them in and give them a longer denial. So it was just weird consciousness that that men bleed in in there. So I went in my second time, and they found me suitable.
00:41:02.120 --> 00:41:06.300 Quan Huynh: So I've rolled in November of 2,015.
00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:17.820 Quan Huynh: Were you surprised that that they parole you after the second time in that hearing? Yes, because it was. It was going awful. It it it was. Yeah. The the hearing was not going well, but
00:41:17.990 --> 00:41:28.970 Quan Huynh: I mean, maybe that's I. I had to go through that to improve my my work to the poor Commissioners, because they were not giving it to me easy, and I thought for sure I was getting denied, but
00:41:29.500 --> 00:41:35.460 Quan Huynh: my attorney even thought I was going to be died, and we said, hey, let's just push up this hearing. This is an unfair hearing.
00:41:35.570 --> 00:41:36.940 Quan Huynh: But
00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:40.320 Quan Huynh: I said, you know I'm here to hold myself
00:41:40.330 --> 00:41:52.670 Quan Huynh: accountable. I showed up today not to be found suitable, but to be held accountable. So let's go back in there and continue to hearing. There's no need to postpone. And because I felt a betrayal of everything that I had
00:41:53.120 --> 00:42:01.440 Quan Huynh: built and and and wanted to achieve in my own personal growth and in my own personal self. So I went back in.
00:42:01.530 --> 00:42:04.010 Quan Huynh: We finished the hearing, and they started.
00:42:04.240 --> 00:42:15.980 Quan Huynh: They would to deliberations, came back and started reading all the legal jargon. And suddenly somewhere in it I heard, and we find the prisoner is no longer dangerous.
00:42:16.200 --> 00:42:18.180 Quan Huynh: And I
00:42:18.630 --> 00:42:31.830 Quan Huynh: yeah. So I guess that was a big surprise after the the the trial going so challenging to hear that like, oh, oh, oh, they couldn't let me out. Oh, my God!
00:42:32.320 --> 00:42:36.070 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: It must have been really something.
00:42:36.990 --> 00:42:50.320 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: you know, before I ask my next question when we take our last break, because when we come back. I want to talk about your life after prison and and what things have been like since, and and what the adjustment has been like for you. Okay.
00:42:50.570 --> 00:42:51.260 Quan Huynh: sure.
00:42:51.630 --> 00:42:57.630 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: awesome. So everyone please stay tuned. You're listening to the conscious consult. Now, awakening humanity.
00:42:58.110 --> 00:43:02.590 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: and we'll be right back with our guest on you in in just a moment.
00:43:05.780 --> 00:43:29.870 Hey, everybody! It's Tommy deed and non-profit sector connector coming at you from my attic each week here on talk radio and Nyc. I hosted program the lab of game focus non-profits in cocktails each and every day and it's my focus to help them amplify their message. And tell their story. Listen. Each week at 10 a. M. Eastern standard time until 11 a. M. Is from standing time right here on talk radio and myc
00:43:30.720 --> 00:43:58.510 in a post- movement world. You may have many unanswered questions regarding your health. Are you looking to live a healthier lifestyle? Do you have a desire to learn more about mental health, and enhance your quality of life? Or do you just want to participate in self-understanding and awareness? I'm Frank R. Harrison, host of Frank about health, and each Thursday I will tackle these questions and work to enlighten you. Tune in every Thursday 5 P. M. On talk radio and Nyc. And I will be frank about how to advocate for all of us.
00:44:02.010 --> 00:44:32.320 Are you a conscious Co-creator? Are you on a quest to raise your vibration and your consciousness. I'm. Sam Liebridge, your conscious consultant, and on my show the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity, we will touch upon all these topics and more. Listen, live at our new time on Thursdays at 12 noon Eastern time. That's the conscious consultant hour awakening humanity. Thursday's 12 noon on talk radio and nyc
00:44:36.700 --> 00:44:46.640 You're listening to talk radio and Yc: at Ww: talk radio and Yc: now broadcasting 24 h a day.
00:44:55.750 --> 00:45:01.910 Okay. Okay. you
00:45:10.930 --> 00:45:18.160 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So so Kwan and and quick shout out to Paddy, loyal listeners who are checking in on the live streams. Glad you with us today, Patty.
00:45:20.050 --> 00:45:22.690 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: You get paroled. You come home.
00:45:24.830 --> 00:45:30.870 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Was that adjustment difficult for you from going from this very structured.
00:45:31.300 --> 00:45:42.260 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: very closed environment to now you have freedom, or or or was it actually easier than you thought it would be because you already found the internal freedom within you.
00:45:45.090 --> 00:45:49.820 Quan Huynh: Can I cheat and say yes to both? I mean.
00:45:49.840 --> 00:45:57.010 Quan Huynh: I mean, there, there, yeah, there's so many things like so much color out here so many smells. The first night.
00:45:57.530 --> 00:46:05.200 Quan Huynh: even the first week. I probably only slept like 20 something hours the first night coming home.
00:46:05.480 --> 00:46:08.880 Quan Huynh: It was too quiet and too dark for me.
00:46:09.310 --> 00:46:20.200 Quan Huynh: I'm used. I was used to at that time. the shuffling of men walking to the rest of them in the sandals, the toilet flesh in the
00:46:20.470 --> 00:46:25.630 Quan Huynh: the guards walking. And there's always this constant noise or or low buzz.
00:46:25.940 --> 00:46:30.410 Quan Huynh: and to come home to complete darkness and quiet.
00:46:30.640 --> 00:46:34.170 Quan Huynh: So I remember waking up. I like 3, 4 in the morning.
00:46:35.750 --> 00:46:43.820 Quan Huynh: not being able to sleep, and being so excited, i'm home. but that everybody's asleep. What do I do? Okay, You know what? Let me
00:46:44.130 --> 00:46:48.870 Quan Huynh: make some coffee, and looking through the cupboards at my brother's house at the time.
00:46:49.560 --> 00:47:07.450 Quan Huynh: Where is instant coffee and looking at the coffee machine, and I I don't know how to work the machine. So I was like, what? Why is it so hard of? Why, it's just there no instant coffee, not just put some hot water. And so then okay, I can't have coffee right now let me just watch TV, and
00:47:07.450 --> 00:47:09.710 Quan Huynh: so maybe all back to sleep
00:47:09.860 --> 00:47:16.490 Quan Huynh: and turning on TV and being feeling overwhelmed. Because there's hundreds of channels. And I was like, Why can't
00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:25.280 Quan Huynh: where it's just Cbs or pbs, or just regularly, you know. How do I get there? And not being able to figure it out? Because there's so many buttons on the remote.
00:47:25.620 --> 00:47:31.890 Quan Huynh: So even just little things like that. I remember the first time seeing the the self check out kiosk
00:47:32.190 --> 00:47:38.890 Quan Huynh: and just yeah, being fascinated and like, oh, like how this is work like this technology. But
00:47:39.020 --> 00:47:40.540 Quan Huynh: yeah.
00:47:40.830 --> 00:47:45.560 Quan Huynh: So those are just those are just one things that I I I noticed.
00:47:47.450 --> 00:47:53.230 Quan Huynh: of of coming out just yeah, the those little things. And there's always this constant
00:47:54.770 --> 00:47:57.460 Quan Huynh: consciousness back my head like, do they know
00:47:57.740 --> 00:48:07.860 Quan Huynh: that I just got on prison. I know people know. They just look at me and know, but nobody knows. But there was in my head. I said, Tell me something. No, I just got out what? What's your family's reaction to you coming out?
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:17.040 Quan Huynh: Oh, they were! They were so so happy. Yeah, they! They were very happy with me coming out.
00:48:18.260 --> 00:48:26.070 Quan Huynh: I think there there were also challenges in that, though, because I think many of them only knew the quorum
00:48:26.110 --> 00:48:29.320 Quan Huynh: from 1617 years ago
00:48:29.380 --> 00:48:33.920 Quan Huynh: I had involved in my thinking in the way I
00:48:34.200 --> 00:48:39.860 Quan Huynh: communicate the way I hold space the way I
00:48:40.570 --> 00:48:44.080 Quan Huynh: have my boundaries, and
00:48:44.720 --> 00:48:49.160 Quan Huynh: some of them. most of them had not.
00:48:50.390 --> 00:48:59.260 Quan Huynh: or maybe not had the opportunity, but never had to be faced with having any self examination. So some of them.
00:48:59.500 --> 00:49:00.670 Quan Huynh: and not
00:49:00.810 --> 00:49:07.370 Quan Huynh: have even evolved, or there was still a certain family dynamics that they interact with each other. And
00:49:07.850 --> 00:49:13.820 Quan Huynh: so now I saw it where it back then I was. I was oblivious to it, and now I saw it. And so there's
00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:18.410 Quan Huynh: yeah, so it's just for me being able to come to a place of acceptance like, hey?
00:49:21.590 --> 00:49:23.860 Quan Huynh: Nobody's better or worse than anybody is just.
00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:29.590 Quan Huynh: We. We we don't see the world the same way. Our reception. The world is not the same.
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:43.830 Quan Huynh: and our perception of this. This experience together right now is not the same. But i'm okay with that, because I know where I come from it. I know what? What, what are my values now, and and and
00:49:44.500 --> 00:49:46.600 Quan Huynh: how I want to show up.
00:49:47.150 --> 00:49:47.980 Quan Huynh: So
00:49:48.180 --> 00:50:01.030 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So when you got out of prison, you you, you your own business. You also now have started a nonprofit once you talk to us about the nonprofit a little bit. What is the mission of the nonprofit? And and and why did you start it?
00:50:01.030 --> 00:50:18.040 Quan Huynh: Yeah. Oh, to be clear, I did not start it. I I was involved with. I was involved with them. It's called Defi ventures. Their mission is to shift mindsets to give people a criminal history their best shot at the second chance through a career, readiness.
00:50:18.040 --> 00:50:24.770 Quan Huynh: personal development and entrepreneurship training programs. So they run a 7 month program inside the prisons
00:50:24.840 --> 00:50:33.940 Quan Huynh: culminating in a a business stitch competition. That's judge shocking style by volunteers from the business community that come in. So
00:50:35.040 --> 00:50:39.630 Quan Huynh: yeah, I'd love to invite you and your network in with us. So. But
00:50:39.640 --> 00:50:44.590 Quan Huynh: I was involved with that program while incarcerating. So I remember the first
00:50:44.740 --> 00:50:50.770 Quan Huynh: coaching event we have, with like 40 50 volunteers coming in their smiles, their color, their warmth.
00:50:50.780 --> 00:50:53.120 Quan Huynh: and I was like man. These are
00:50:53.480 --> 00:50:55.550 Quan Huynh: successful human beings.
00:50:55.780 --> 00:51:04.390 Quan Huynh: This was in Solano. So it was. They had a really big tech presence, a bunch of people from Google Ebay that everything came in
00:51:04.750 --> 00:51:06.950 Quan Huynh: and I saw it. Man, These are
00:51:07.020 --> 00:51:12.260 Quan Huynh: very successful people that really believe in us like, yeah, the world is not
00:51:12.670 --> 00:51:24.800 Quan Huynh: what we tell ourselves about the outside world, or how they're they they judges, or there's this thing. But yes, there's a stink. But then that's not all of the the
00:51:24.860 --> 00:51:40.920 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: there may be some people like that, but not everyone is like that. But that's how our mind tends to work right. We sort of lump everybody in together into one big category, whereas the truth is, there's many different shades of that calendar there's many different
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:45.100 Quan Huynh: instead of being a black and white is different color. So. Yeah, but
00:51:46.140 --> 00:51:54.140 Quan Huynh: I I joined. So, of course, when I came home I worked in real estate and
00:51:54.240 --> 00:52:11.250 Quan Huynh: helped Lot to my family's restaurant. But then, when I found out that the 5 ventures was expanding out to Southern California. and they were looking for someone to help build up their post release program. I I felt like K. I felt led in. My that like this is what I want to do like
00:52:11.250 --> 00:52:28.350 Quan Huynh: i'm not doing impact for work like I was doing in prison. Let me get involved with them. So I joined their their team in 2,017 over the years my roles and responsibilities have grown. And then last year I stepped into the role executive director for Southern California. So I oversee your
00:52:28.530 --> 00:52:37.650 Quan Huynh: our entire post release program or prison delivery. Or. Yeah, so I could tell him before
00:52:39.650 --> 00:52:54.300 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: we all have a couple of minutes left. But I would love for you to, just to give, maybe, some advice to my listeners that if anyone listening to this either on the podcast or if they find the video somewhere, however, they hear this on the on the radio and and and
00:52:54.480 --> 00:52:55.950 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: in Palm Springs.
00:52:56.130 --> 00:53:01.920 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: If somebody has a relative, a friend, someone they know in prison.
00:53:02.680 --> 00:53:09.950 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: What would you say to that person? How would you say they can best support the person they know in prison.
00:53:11.490 --> 00:53:15.280 Quan Huynh: I think they would best support them. not by
00:53:17.240 --> 00:53:28.800 Quan Huynh: not by telling them what they should do. I think they should best support them by asking them what they the loved one could do for them, or what they
00:53:30.930 --> 00:53:43.860 Quan Huynh: like, show up in a place of not like, okay, just because you're in prison. I that you don't know better. You don't know any better. It Just ask about their journey, understand about them and get them to a place of
00:53:43.950 --> 00:53:46.240 Quan Huynh: of awakening.
00:53:46.400 --> 00:53:47.240 Quan Huynh: Yeah.
00:53:47.340 --> 00:54:01.420 Quan Huynh: instead of being coming from place of giving advice, unless that person asks for advice, maybe just come with lead with curiosity, and and ask them about their journey, and just ask them about. So you opened up the opportunity to
00:54:01.510 --> 00:54:07.020 Quan Huynh: give them the advice when it's needed, because they may not need it at that moment in time.
00:54:08.080 --> 00:54:26.530 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Kwan, thank you so much for for sharing your journey with our audience, and thank you for the work that you do something I've been very aware of for a number of years that our our prison system is not a a reformation system. It's more of a punishment system.
00:54:26.530 --> 00:54:41.990 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: But there are ways of turning it into something that can really reform people and help people. If if someone listening to the show would like to learn more about your work or learn about the 5 ventures, where can they find you like? How would they get in touch with you?
00:54:42.020 --> 00:54:50.050 Quan Huynh: Yeah, They could find me on all social media at Quan X when, like Q U. A. And x
00:54:50.390 --> 00:55:04.660 Quan Huynh: 8 U. Y. And H. They could find me do my website sparrow in the razor wire.com If they want to learn more about my work in the presence or want to get involved, come in as a
00:55:04.760 --> 00:55:11.990 Quan Huynh: a coach or a judge@oureventstheycouldgorighttooursitedefyavengers.org
00:55:12.110 --> 00:55:14.300 if I like to find the odds. Yeah.
00:55:14.330 --> 00:55:31.870 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Wonderful, wonderful. Well, thank you. And yes, I very much. I i'm actually believe it or not in Southern California right now. I'm down in San Diego, but I leave Friday to get back home to New York. But I would love to to to connect with you more afterwards, and and
00:55:31.910 --> 00:55:35.850 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: there are some things going on that can maybe help help facilitate this.
00:55:35.860 --> 00:55:53.630 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: So so thank you so much. Have a great weekend. Thank you for sharing your story. I really hope people get out there. Remember, his book is entitled Sparrow in the Razor Wire. You can find it on Amazon and all the major booksellers. Please pick it up.
00:55:54.060 --> 00:56:00.880 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: read it, and check out to 5 ventures.org, so you can see the wonderful work that they're doing
00:56:01.260 --> 00:56:29.130 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: so. Thank you, Kwan. Thank you. My loyal listeners for tuning in, as always. Remember, if you missed any part of today's show, you can always catch the replay on talk radio, Dot Nyc. And you can find us on all the major social media, Youtube, Facebook Linkedin Twitter and we're in all the major podcasting platforms. Apple Google Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, I art radio. And if we're not on your favorite podcasting platform, let me know and we will make sure to get on there.
00:56:29.410 --> 00:56:45.570 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Thank you all for tuning in Don't. Forget later today at 5 Pm. Eastern time. It's Frank Harrison, and to show Frank about health. And tomorrow, of course, we have our Friday block of business shows starting off with philanthropy and focus always Friday, and ending up with, intensify our newest show on the network.
00:56:45.570 --> 00:56:50.510 Sam Liebowitz | The Conscious Consultant: Thank you all for tuning in. We will talk to you all next week. Take care.
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