Prosperity Point Podcast: Khoa Nam Tran Legless episode

Khoa Nam Tran:
This is where it gets serious.

Khoa Nam Tran:
(Music)

Sean Floyd:
Khoa, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on Prosperity Point mate.

Khoa Nam Tran:
What's up?

Sean Floyd:
What's up? Thank you so much for making the time to come out and see us, taking time out of your busy schedule as obviously a business owner as well is quite tricky and it was great catching up with you over the weekend as well for a quick brunch.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Good food, wasn't it?

Sean Floyd:
It was actually nice. I think it's one of your popular spots?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, it is. It was a halfway point to meet up, so why not?

Sean Floyd:
That's just because you're so nice with time and allowing us to meet up.

Khoa Nam Tran:
And I love to drive, so.

Sean Floyd:
That's what I want to talk about first actually. So talking about driving, what's your favorite car of all time?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I really like the Prancing Horse, so any Ferrari. I'm a car lover so I like any car that's nice.

Sean Floyd:
Any car that's nice, cool.

Khoa Nam Tran:
It depends. Even from the old school 86 Terrenos to Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos.

Sean Floyd:
You know a Porsche that's caught my eye recently, that's doing the rounds is the 911 Turbo S. That's been ripping almost everything from a zero to hundred standpoint. It's become the talk of the town now with all of the guys that I know that love cars because it's something that usually always flies under the radar but Porsche is a popular for that. But what I've noticed is this specific model, the 911 Turbo S the new one, it beats everything out of the sun, it beats the Lambos, it beats the Ferraris, it beats the Teslas.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Is that a 911 Turbo S?

Sean Floyd:
Yes.

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's the funny thing you might say because as I was coming here, I drove past the Porsche dealer.

Sean Floyd:
And you smashed him.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I smashed him. I was like, "They got nothing on me." I'm more mesmerized by what Porsche has done. It's one of the... Who knows? I might buy one.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah?

Khoa Nam Tran:
It's a dream, it can come true.

Sean Floyd:
Of course. Speaking of mesmerized, the whole reason we wanted to have you on here and thanks once again for being here is because your story's inspirational on so many different fronts. I know we're going to dive deep into a few different levels of conversation but talking a bit about your journey from the night that it happened eight years ago and how the bounce back story was so strong to where you are today and what the future holds for you is something that's inspiring not only to me but so many people that I've heard, that have been speaking about you as well.

Sean Floyd:
I know you had a run into our CEO and group founder as well a while back at a speaking engagement, that's how actually we ended up being connected because he was inspired with your story over there and I think eventually it was Mark that reached out, had a conversation, we had a mutual client that we were helping out with and then I got to know a bit more about your story and I thought I have to have you on as a guest. So thank you so much for actually being here, I really mean it.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Thank you very much for having me. We live in a world where we're all connected now and if we want to grow, we've got to connect more. We meet not as an accident it's all on purpose. So we're sitting here, my books right in the middle being supported by something that no one can see.

Sean Floyd:
Of course and speaking about it as well, let's look at even the title of the book, Legless to Legless. How did that title come up? Because when a lot of people see it at first glance they go, "Legless to Legless?" What's the real story behind something like this? Do you want to shed a bit of light for our viewers in terms of what's the backdrop story behind the title of the book?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, so Legless to Legless, people question it, "What does this mean?" And you see a visual picture of me lying there. It kind of gives a hint as to what it means but the term legless, the first legless might not be understood as much only until you dive into the book. Let me take you back to 2012. I was like any other young kid. I don't know if you call 29 year olds young, I do.

Sean Floyd:
We have to call 40 year olds young because they happen to be our clients. So we have to call everyone young, so it's okay. 29 is very young then.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, I was just having fun. My typical week would be gym, drink and when I mean drink I mean drink to the point where I'll vomit, to the point where I'll lose memory. That was my typical weekly session.

Sean Floyd:
So like what we were talking about earlier blackout or get out.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, blackout or get out.

Sean Floyd:
What's the point of drinking if you are not going to get high.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Exactly. That was my mentality. But I also loved training, I saw it as a way to balance things out. So I'm not drinking all the time but I'm also trying to look after my health, going mountain biking, going to the gym or whatnot. But I did that to drink, blackout or get out as you said. So it was just like every other normal day on December 9th getting ready to go to a new club. I've never been to this club. So I wake up in the morning all hyped up. If I remember correctly a couple of days before I would have had a drinking session, so it's a normal day, normal weekend. So I wake up, get ready, looking forward to the night and as night approached, we went to the club. Friends, everything was as it should. I'm living to the moment, living at the moment. Drinks started to come on the table, I'll drink whatever was on the table.

Sean Floyd:
Sure, so you'd be like what I used to be like as just drink anything.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, whatever. Whatever's in front of my face, it'll go into my stomach and I'll dance, not that I can dance but when there's a little bit of alcohol involved, you're thinking you are the Next American Top Dancer or whatever the show was called and one after the other, I wake up, three weeks later. I woke up not knowing where I was, but all I remember was I saw my mother and brother there and they were smiling. I guess that they were just happy to see my eyes open but I didn't know what was going on. All I knew I was in a bed in a white room, white ceiling and I think blanket and it slowly fell off right at the end. But the funny thing was, I told my mom to take my socks off. But she looked at me. Why? Because have legs. But you see I still felt like I had my legs, I still felt I had my socks, my shoes on but when I looked at the end of the bed, there was a sudden drop-off of the shape, but I was still calm about it.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I guess you could say it was all the drugs that I induced during that induced coma. I woke up on boxing day too so I guess that's the present for my family.

Sean Floyd:
Present for the world at this stage.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, but I was fine with it. I was fine at that moment.

Sean Floyd:
But that's insane. Just backtracking a little bit here, we're at the club having a good time and then the next thing we have consciousness of memory of is waking up on that bed and seeing mom and brother.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I had a missing section of my life, that time when I got blank drunk to the time I wake up on boxing day. So in between that time, it's a blank canvas. I've kind of filled that up, it's not that I want to remember everything. I believe it's a good thing that I don't remember what had happened. Everything happens for a reason as I say it. It was a shock only a couple of days later. I was coming off the pain medication and when I gathered the story of what had happened, I was involved in a car accident, 155 kilometers into a telegraph pole.

Sean Floyd:
Wow! That's insane.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I was a very fortunate one in an unfortunate scenario. The front passenger she died and the driver suffered severe head injuries. He got flown to Royal North Shore and I got flown to Westmead and that's where they did the life saving surgery and where I woke up but I was still in that phase where everything was all normal. I clearly remember that I could walk and I told the doctor who was looking after me I said, "Hey, can I go home? Take a taxi go home and I'll come back?" But he looked at me and said, "You can't walk." I was like, "No, I clearly remember jumping off a bed, caught a taxi, went home and I came back and I'll be back." Again, "You can't walk." But I was still in my reality.

Sean Floyd:
So was that because you think maybe there was a level of shock that was involved were coming to terms with the reality that you were used to and let's say now at the snap of a finger, you've got a completely new world at your feet or let's say at where your feet used to be. That was pretty smart, I just came up [crosstalk 00:11:58]. So coming to this reality is that where you had this idea where you wanted to try and merge what had happened from the past versus what you still want to accomplish? Because if you could say, "I'll get up, just grab a cab and I'll be back." And then you're met with saying, "Here's the reality, you can't do this since you can't walk." How did you come to terms with actually realizing that in the new physical reality we're in, we can't walk the way we used to before?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I was in my reality and I was still optimistic about it, "I can walk. I'm not going to listen to this doctor." But it was only until I was in the ICU, a couple of days later, I was still in ICU but I moved, that I wanted to use the bathroom, but bear in mind I'm all hooked up with all catheter tubes, intravenous lines, but I still needed to go to the toilet. That's what I told myself. The nurses weren't in the room and the bed was raised and the bar on my side was dropped down. So I'm going to use the toilet, so I shuffled to the side of the raised bed and...

Sean Floyd:
Oh my goodness!

Khoa Nam Tran:
I was literally on the ground and that's when the nurses ran in and they said, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I wanted to use the bathroom." They're like, "You can't." And that's when I was like, I think I know right now. That's where they helped me put me back onto the bed. At that moment, that was when reality did hit.

Sean Floyd:
The physical reality.

Khoa Nam Tran:
The physical reality. So what I thought when I woke up, I realized that that was all my imagination and when I attempted to walk, I failed miserably. I fell off a raised bed and that was a big shock that made me come crashing down to reality. I didn't know what to expect. I did think back, "Why me?" I did go into that depressive state, started to think I'm useless, no one's going to love me. What can I do now? I drank myself down to that state but it was only I that could pick myself back up and get out of it, grow out of that dark hole. But the question was, when would I do that? Typically you can stay in your dark hole until you feel it's ready and people on the outside, they wouldn't question it, in my case because they can visually say, I've lost my legs. People want to question, "Why is this guy so sad?" But they can see why I'm sad, if I choose that route, but I didn't choose that narrative for my life.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I chose to pick myself back up only a couple of days while I was still in the ICU, recollecting my thoughts. Why do I have to hold myself into that negative state where I could look forward to do what I could possibly do. So I wacked out my iPad and started searching for legs. I didn't know what I was searching for, but I just wrote robot legs and you see Terminator [inaudible 00:16:19] You go, "This is it!"

Sean Floyd:
Oh my goodness! Absolutely.

Khoa Nam Tran:
But the whole world of prosthetics as an amputee was totally new to me so I didn't know what to search for.

Sean Floyd:
And how was the tech back in 2012?

Khoa Nam Tran:
It was good. I'm thankful that technology advances really fast at a fast pace. So I didn't know what I was looking at but all I knew I was I'm going to have mad robot legs and a mad carbon fiber socket that will fit around my leg. That was my vision. That was something that drove me to get out of bed and start walking, just to show off my metal.

Sean Floyd:
The real metal.

Khoa Nam Tran:
The real metal.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, fantastic.

Khoa Nam Tran:
But as we know, when we think at that moment, it's not what it is ahead. In saying that I did feel conscious of my body. I felt conscious of people looking at me, I felt conscious of people talking about me. When I got home after I got discharged, I wanted to stay at home. I didn't want to get out. So I bought home gym equipment just to train. I try to get back to my routine of being fit of course without legs so I just did what I could.

Sean Floyd:
Initially without getting the tech legs come in as well, let's say you had to, was it mainly just wheelchair bound?

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's correct. I was wheelchair bound and i was very conscious. It was more of a physical appearance what people would look at me and being not independent, having someone to look after me, pushing me. I didn't want the world to see me like that. But you know kids, they are very unfiltered, aren't they?

Sean Floyd:
Absolutely, 100%.

Khoa Nam Tran:
So what happened was, I was at the shops getting wheeled around and this little kid came up, "What happened?" Pointing.

Sean Floyd:
Point blank.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Point blank.

Sean Floyd:
Like straight away, "What happened?" Was it at the park or?

Khoa Nam Tran:
No, this was at the shops.

Sean Floyd:
At the shops, okay.

Khoa Nam Tran:
This was at the shops.

Sean Floyd:
And how soon after the actual event?

Khoa Nam Tran:
This was probably around at least six months after.

Sean Floyd:
Six months after, so you had already come to terms with it?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. Six months after being discharged, trying to get my life back on track. This little kid comes into my life and opened my mind because after he said that his mum came, "Sorry." Thinking its rude. I was like, "No, it's fine. He's curious."

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, it's like the innocence of a child, right? It's quite pure. It might be blunt but at least it's pure coming from a pure place.

Khoa Nam Tran:
It was totally pure. It's not being corrupted by the surrounding. They say what they want to say.

Sean Floyd:
But do you feel an element of you at the time viewing it as pure is also to the fact that you yourself view things in a pure light? What if you were a bitter person would you have viewed it the same way? I feel it's a testament to how you are as a person as well. That you viewed it in a pure state despite what negative connotations there might be around surrounding things like this.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I viewed it in a really positive state because it opened my mind into thinking, wait a minute, if this kid could come up and say straight up, "What happened."[inaudible 00:20:45] Why should I have to worry about what older people have to say? I had all these eyes going past me, not of disgust but probably more of curiosity, "What happen this guy got no legs." It kind of froze you off if you get a lot of eyes looking at you. But this little kid made me change that perception. I don't need to care about what anyone thinks, I just got to be me and that's the beauty about being me. I didn't lose myself prior to that, I was always this joyful, happy, positive guy. This time, I've cut the alcohol.

Sean Floyd:
My man.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. I cut the alcohol and I've got no legs but I'm still happy.

Sean Floyd:
That's right. This is what we were talking about earlier as well, right? You're always the same happy-go-lucky person. You have your big grin on your face all the time and if someone was to think of, "What's Khoa like?" The first thing that would come to my mind is happy, energetic and he's uplifting to be around with. That's what would come to my mind and I think it would be the same for the other guys in the office as well.

Sean Floyd:
But if that's what you were like before and that's what you're like even after the event, I think it goes to show that there is a hidden ingredient when you hit that level of adversity to be able to bounce back not eventually but the unique trait I feel you had was bouncing back as fast as you did, instead of waiting for it to take a toll on you for maybe two years or four years or five years because imagine living 29 years of your life thinking that this is how life's always going to be, having fun, drinking, doing whatever it is, what usual 29 year olds do, well most 29 year olds. Then you've got a situation where the reality is different but I'm not going to be upset for more than a year or more than six years. How did that happen where you bounced back so quick? Because I feel that's an amazing quality to have.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. So it's perfect example like the Dogecoin.

Sean Floyd:
Dogecoin?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. It's surely are.

Sean Floyd:
Okay. [crosstalk 00:23:08]

Khoa Nam Tran:
So it's not on a gradual increase, it is actually skyrocketing, that's how I feel with myself. I learned to accept quickly. I learned to not focus on the past, I learned to look forward. I learned to accept that now is reality and I learned that if I was to hold my thoughts about should've, could've, would've, shouldn't have went to the club, shouldn't have drunk, all is past tense, I'll still be in the past. I wouldn't be here having a chit chat with you, I wouldn't be driving. There are a lot of stuff that I wouldn't be doing if I kept myself back in that state of mind, the past. I chose to, all right it's happened now, I got to accept it and look forward to endless possibilities. That's what I said when I laid on the hospital bed, popped out the iPad and started searching for legs because I had that mindset. I'm going to start walking again and I'm going to make myself look the part of the new AI.

Sean Floyd:
And looking the part I must give it to you Khoa. You 110% do look the part. The legs look freaking amazing. Legs look amazing, your attitude's always been amazing I'm assuming, but I feel you've catapulted where coming out with things like the book, speaking and inspiring people that are in tough spots. Before I get into another thing, which is I wanted to show the audience as well something really fun which was the actual legs. A little magic trick for you, would you mind putting your hand out like this?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
All right. That I'm going to do is I'm going to snap my finger and in a second we're going to have a little thing pop up for us as a trick, cool?

Khoa Nam Tran:
All right, lets do it.

Sean Floyd:
What in the world? How did you get three and I only got one? This is not fair whoever did this, but anyway this is our treat. You are special of course. Can I tell you something? You want to give the crowd an ASMR experience?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic.

Khoa Nam Tran:
This is a nice chocolate, yum. It's very nice, I'll eat it later.

Sean Floyd:
You got some reserves now so you can definitely eat it later but yeah, this is for us to devour in a bit. But what I wanted to talk about was yet, I actually completely forgot what I was saying, but that being said, we have to talk about the chocolates, yes and the legs as well. They look freaking awesome. We were having a bit of a talk about this as well. If you were to give someone a fist bump, what's your preferred method of giving them a fist bump?

Sean Floyd:
That's what I'm talking about. So this is our predominant leg?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, this is my predominant leg.

Sean Floyd:
If you were to tell us a bit about it, what's the best way to describe this leg because I know it comes with an added sneaker, but that's your choice there, right?

Khoa Nam Tran:
The good thing is I don't need to change my socks.

Sean Floyd:
Oh, fantastic.

Khoa Nam Tran:
And my feet don't stink.

Sean Floyd:
Your feet will never stink.

Khoa Nam Tran:
One extra thing, I'm taller than before.

Sean Floyd:
What! How many inches did you add?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I was once 10 centimeters taller than I was, my original height now I'm six centimeters-

Sean Floyd:
Taller?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Taller.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. A lot of people would pay a lot for six centimeters.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I know the saying when you get old you get shorter?

Sean Floyd:
Yeah.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Not in my case.

Sean Floyd:
Not in your case. In fact we can have an upgrade where we can build a little shift and pump it up so we can get you six foot five as well.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, we can but then I've got to change some stuff too. I don't know if we want to be that hard, but maybe one day.

Sean Floyd:
No. Why I'm saying it is because then you can walk around really big like full-fledged Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger and then if someone decides to be annoyed with you, you just go, "Whack! Whack! Bang! Bang! Bang! Say hello to my little big friend. Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Khoa Nam Tran:
The good thing about the next Terminator movie if there is anything, they don't need CGI, they can just hire me.

Sean Floyd:
Absolutely, they can of course. That's freaking amazing and I know you've got a situation where you can plug the legs in, you can walk now, which you have been walking all around. How many years have you been walking for? How many years have you the legs for now?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I've had the legs for over six years.

Sean Floyd:
Over six years?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Six years, yes. I'll take you back, I was in the world of amputees, I didn't realize that it was hard to walk. My first time during the rehab, I was wearing a socket yet this is the modern day socket, as I mentioned carbon fiber sockets, it's kind of cool to show it off. But once I started during the rehab phase, learning how to walk, it was slightly difficult. I had blisters, I had pressure sores because as they fold objects around your stump and I thought, "This is how it will be, I'll adapt to it." But my skin kept breaking down. When it breaks down, it means I couldn't wear my legs. I had to be in my wheelchair for a couple of weeks and that wasn't ideal.

Khoa Nam Tran:
So I had to look at another alternative and I remembered that my [inaudible 00:28:45] mentioned about the surgery called osseointegration where they implant a titanium rod into your bone so that takes away the need of a socket. Basically I can connect the leg that you see there straight onto the one that's sticking out of my skin. So I had to inquire about that. Long story short, I got approved, went for surgery in 2014, never looked back.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. Has the legs had any model upgrades or anything software upgrades?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes. I have upgraded legs.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I had damaged the legs.

Sean Floyd:
How did you damage them? Obviously not drinking.

Khoa Nam Tran:
No. Again went to Hawaii. Do you know Waikiki?

Sean Floyd:
No.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Okay. Waikiki is the main center of Honolulu.

Sean Floyd:
I've heard of the Waikiki resort.

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's where the main attraction is, the tourist area and there's this Diamond Head Crater. So that's always where people can walk up the mountain and all that to see the sight of Hawaii, Honolulu, you have to see Hawaii beautiful view and you can see the nice blue ocean. Well, I did that. I climbed up Diamond Head mountain, Diamond Head Crater sorry. It's all in the book.

Sean Floyd:
That's awesome that you climbed them with... How was it, with legs or did you have to do with arms?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I climbed that with my legs. I drove there, I parked there. I spoke to the gate lady and she said, "This is not disabled friendly environment." I'm like, "Okay, let me go anyway." I didn't have to pay 45 bucks, it's cool because she thought I wasn't going to use it. Literally did she know-

Sean Floyd:
That you've got a heart of gold.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I said, "You know what? This is my last day here in Hawaii, I might as well." It was the very last day on a Sunday. I was going to fly back on a Monday morning, that I tackled Diamond Head Crater and it took me a good couple of hours and I heard people give me positive messages.

Sean Floyd:
While they were walking up the hill?

Khoa Nam Tran:
While they were walking back down and then I met someone who was a publisher of a magazine, of an Hawaii in America and he followed me through my journey and I did an interview with him too for his savvy magazine over in Hawaii. He followed my journey and we're good friends now.

Sean Floyd:
That's amazing.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I reached at a top, took mad pictures.

Sean Floyd:
I know you had a camera [crosstalk 00:31:44].

Khoa Nam Tran:
... because you want to try and minimize what you're carrying throughout that walk so I had my small cameras and a small bag and a little water bottle which I smashed because, oh my goodness! It was torture yet rewarding. When I flew home, as soon as I got home on a... I left on a Monday, I got home on a Wednesday I think time difference. As soon as I got home, my legs stop working. My legs literally died when I got home.

Sean Floyd:
Like stopped working in what sense?

Khoa Nam Tran:
The electronics malfunctioned. Now imagine if it malfunctioned when I was on the top of the mountain.

Sean Floyd:
Oh my goodness!

Khoa Nam Tran:
I don't think I'd be doing a zoom call right now. I'll have a long beard. I'll be like that Tom Hanks movie.

Sean Floyd:
Cast away.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Cast away, I'm Wilson.

Sean Floyd:
Wilson! Wilson!

Khoa Nam Tran:
It was an amazing experience. I did push technology to its limits.

Sean Floyd:
I can imagine. That's just comes from your personality as well. The fact that you're going to still do whatever it takes, having the whatever it takes mentality is important and applying it to different facets in life. So do you feel like the event... We know that whatever would have happened that years ago, we know that it's tragic and everything, yes. But everything that's come from it now and to date, we look at what you've done, you've got Amazon's bestseller book, you've inspired kids, not only kids but professionals, people that are older than you, younger than you, you are a gym owner as well which I want to talk a little bit about, which is an awesome gig to how I personally feel. So I'll ask you a few questions specifically on that but what do you feel is the best thing that's come out of the adversity that happened in the beginning?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Making people smile. I've been given a gift. I had to experience my adverse conditions to find that and to share it to the world. That's why I wrote the book, that's why I'm speaking, that's why I'm being on television, being on the radio, getting my face out there to share my story, to inspire others, to inspire millions.

Sean Floyd:
I know you are not one of those dodgy guys that goes up there to share your story to the millions so that you can sell the millions. You're actually so upfront in what you're saying, "Look, here's my story. I want to help purely for the sake of helping, because if I can help you get out of a tough spot..." This is what my take away was having the brunch with you the other day is that you want to help people, not just for the sake of doing something where it's yes, there's an inspirational story and then we milk it for something like profit but you genuinely care about putting that smile on people's face and I feel people sense it around you.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, that's correct. My whole intention was not to sell products.

Sean Floyd:
Apart from the best seller book.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. Apart from the best seller book, buy now.

Sean Floyd:
Buy it right now. This is not sponsored by the way, whatsoever.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I genuinely want to get my story out, to help people who feel like they've been stuck in that dark hole for a while and to pick themselves back up. To learn what I've learned through my journey, accepting quickly, forgiving easily and being physically fit. Those are the three main points that I've taken away throughout my journey.

Sean Floyd:
Correct, so I need to learn to be physically fit ASAP from you now.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
Good, fantastic.

Khoa Nam Tran:
If you train with me, we don't do legs.

Sean Floyd:
Yes. That's my favorite part. Actually I want to say legs are the best part of my body. I actually got great [inaudible 00:35:49], I'll show you later, I'm kidding.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Speed date show, right?

Sean Floyd:
Well, actually we realized that when we were initially putting things up on YouTube, that our channel happened to be a kids only channel, like a kid supported channel. So apparently it wasn't getting enough views where it was being shared around until a client came up and said, "Take your channel off kids friendly and make it open to everyone." So I'm sure we can have a few giggles on here that are not only PG, but I think we'll leave it at MA 15+.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Not R-rated for sure.

Sean Floyd:
Probably not R-rated. We already did the R-rated, we took the leg out and shot at the camera, that's very R-rated. Scarface is R-rated. But going back to, I wanted to share one thing that, I feel your story and just how awesome you are as a person, it made me [inaudible 00:36:41] one of my own excuses when I come to think of it now that you mentioned those things, I'll share what I'm talking about. When we caught up for brunch on Sunday, I hit the bed at 4:30 AM that day from the night before. I was thinking, "Okay, cool. Khoa will be nice enough to reschedule and push our brunch to maybe at lunch or something." And something small struck my brain going, we're all business owners. I'm a business owner, you're a business owner. We've all got busy schedules and making excuses is something that people almost take for granted, they make them all the time.

Sean Floyd:
One thought that I had was in a way that you can inspire people is in a general way saying that if I Khoa can do it, what's stopping me. If some excuse is going to stop me from whether it's a sleeping issue, whether it's putting the effort, I feel you can inspire people on a bigger scale than just meets the eye with the physical fitness. That's because you put in the hard work, you go to the gym. I think we've even seen training videos of you pumping out some back orders at moms but I feel even-

Khoa Nam Tran:
Just not legs.

Sean Floyd:
I'm pretty sure it's not legs. If you technically put a good software update on that thing, you could push big Ronnie Coleman [inaudible 00:37:54], right?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:37:56].

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic, that's good. But I feel there's so many hidden ways that you can inspire people. If people see you out and about, it's a gentle reminder to people themselves say, "What have I taken for granted in my life?" Because let's say the event didn't happen whatsoever, would being an upcoming property investor, a gym owner and author, would that have been in the dialogue whatsoever? Do you think eventually would have been, but not in the pace that it was already for you now?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Most likely that wouldn't been in the dialogue, in my current dialogue. If I was to go back in time and not do what I did, I would not do what I did. I wouldn't change the narrative because everything happens for a reason. But if it didn't happen, I wouldn't be leading this line of life. I wouldn't be having a book. I'll still be partying, which is fine.

Sean Floyd:
It's not that it's wrong but you'd still be the happy Khoa that everyone loves personality wise.

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's correct.

Sean Floyd:
But from the way you can inspire people now to be a better version of themself, whether it's people going through something physically, I'm sure you have spoken with people that have had physical elements. I'm sure you've spoken with people that have had mental elements, because it's different what I feel, personally it's different if you've been all your life without legs, for example, and we were talking about this because you had 29 years where you had legs. Then if it changes, that's where I feel your ability to bounce back is what's important. I feel you're inspiring people that face challenges on ongoing life because my philosophy is everyone almost has a similar level of problems but you just don't get to see it. Everyone's fighting their own internal battles. Is that how you view the people around you as well or do you view it as different challenges need different mentalities?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I believe it's all up to us. It's all starts with us, yourself to tackle your own demons. That's the beauty about humans. We're all uniquely widely different, how we tackle our problems will be different from how I tackle my problems, how you tackle your problems, how any one tackles their problem, but by sharing how I tackled my problems that plants a seed into you, into the next Karen or whoever.

Sean Floyd:
Karen the soccer mom who's 40?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly.

Sean Floyd:
Okay. Sorry, Karen.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Sorry, Karen. I mean sorry not sorry. That plants a seed and that seed can grow and help them in a way where they will step back and remember, "I've read this book. I've seen this guy sharing his story on this podcast, on this TV station, on this radio station. What's my excuse? Why am I holding myself back?" In that same way to alternate decision-making for the better.That's how I see it.

Sean Floyd:
Definitely. It doesn't mean that everyone has to go legless from the old sense in order to get somewhere. Definitely they can do it without the drinking part.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I went the hard yards so leave that to me guys.

Sean Floyd:
Yes and learn from it.

Khoa Nam Tran:
And learn from it, exactly. Learn from my journey. It's not a mistake, it's a journey. It's my journey, it's taught me lots of valuable things throughout life. I've met incredible people, people who've inspired me. In return, I've inspired others inadvertently just my being me. For example, when you were talking about if people will see me and they go, "What is [inaudible 00:42:23]?" That's what I do in the gym. I present myself that way where just yesterday, I was cleaning.

Sean Floyd:
At the gym?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I was cleaning at the gym. I'm not the boss who goes, "Hey, you do this, you do that." While I'm sitting back relaxing, watching my fish tank. I've got a fish tank in the gym.

Sean Floyd:
And you love your fish and you love your koi fish too.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I love my koi fish.

Sean Floyd:
It is funny one of our marketing professionals on the team is wearing koi fish socks today. So I'll show you them and then maybe you can just swap them, like literally put them on your shoe because your pair is fresh. So you can swap the koi fish socks.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'm always fresh 24/7.

Sean Floyd:
We'll have to convince them, maybe we'll give them back or they will dump them on us and see how it goes. But back to the story stories at the gym, you're speaking to people and you're not one of those bosses that does the inactive orders, you do the active orders all the way.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, lead by example. It's like a general in an army, you're fighting the battle with your crew, you're not sitting in the sidelines giving orders. That's how I implement my nature into the gym and visually out of people's peripheral vision, they can see that on putting the hard work to make my gym what it is today, a gym where people love to come. Again, that shows that what's my excuse. Perfect example, what's my excuse not to put away the weights?

Sean Floyd:
Like the nitty-gritties inside the gym.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, the nitty gritties. I don't go, "Hey, you put it back where you got it from." I'll more say, "Hey..." I'm more of a kind boss, I'm a kind person. "Hey, you know if you use that weight, could you put it back now?"

Sean Floyd:
But I feel even if you say it too nicely, they'll think you're being so sarcastic that you're about to beat them over the head with maybe one of the legs, just pull out the gun and just go bang!

Khoa Nam Tran:
Well I get my veins popping out and I'll go like, "Could you put it back?" So maybe that's a hint, you might just see little veins popping, pulsating but I don't tell them off.

Sean Floyd:
Not too much but going back to just being a business owner, the idea of Prosperity Points about the point of prosperity, right? Prosperity point. So it's about, yes if there's a challenge, here's how you can overcome. It's more of a philosophy as opposed to saying, this is what should be done. That's what should be done. So what I like the fact is that because I help people doing property portfolios, building a successful portfolio of property so that you can retire on, for example, passive income, so that you have more time to do what you want to do with your passion as opposed to having to work for a paycheck. So being a business owner is similar to being a property investor because if done correctly, it's all about your balance sheets, profits and losses. But what's the number one thing you love the most about being a business owner in 2021?

Khoa Nam Tran:
The number one thing I love being a business owner, I feel like it's not a business in my sense, in my realm of the gym. Yes, it is a for profit and loss but I don't drag myself there because I need to be there. I drag myself there because I want to be there. It's about the engagement, it's about the social pressure that I instilled in the gym and then it flows onto my staff and it flows onto the members where they'd like to come and love to train and they know that there's that environment there at the gym that makes them want to go there. It's not any sort of physical, but it's also as for the social connection, the mental side of things, where they want to get out of there, they just finished their nine to five work and they just need to socialize.

Sean Floyd:
What I've noticed is that the environment at a gym as opposed to the environment at a home gym or the COVID work from home gym is so much more different. People are at the gym number one, for the mental reasons. Mentally to get out and about, do something, train in an environment where the energy is different as well. Do you feel that's why people come to the gym as opposed to the bodybuilders that have to but even people that just want to be fit and healthy, right? They still like the environment of the gym, which is why I feel it's not going to go anywhere as a business in the next 20 years.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, I'm really excited because there's a difference when you're training at home, training by yourself, you don't have that element of the people around you, that social side of things where you could go up to a person and talk, have a laugh.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah like, "How can I get that bicep?"

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly. "You got to work hard."

Sean Floyd:
You still a little bit of [inaudible 00:47:32]. I'm kidding, see that's a Khoa thing as well. People see people doing well and they go, "He must've done something. He must have taken some supplements that I didn't take." Or, "His diet's probably done by an engineer." For example.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, and it helps people trade IDs in a sense and give them ideas in order for them to improve. As I said not everyone wants to be the next bodybuilder but all it is just to be fit and healthy.

Sean Floyd:
Like what Coleman used to say, "Everybody want to be a bodybuilder but nobody want to lift no any heavy ass weight."

Khoa Nam Tran:
You've got the voice onto it, "Lift weight, baby!"

Sean Floyd:
"Lift weight, baby! Lets do it. Yeah, buddy!" Sounds like him, right? Sounds like he was here. I trained a lot for that. Let's say if I train at the gym as much as I trained on that, I'd be fit but I'm not.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Hey, you got that and now you just got match it with the body.

Sean Floyd:
That's it, exactly. Only giving you about 25 years.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Okay. Tom is on the issue. I saw this lady on Facebook, she's 91 years old. She's a personal trainer, Japanese.

Sean Floyd:
91?

Khoa Nam Tran:
91. She's fit as a fiddle.

Sean Floyd:
That's crazy.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah and she's a personal trainer and she's still running rings around people who sit on the couches, eating potato chips.

Sean Floyd:
So what is everyone's excuse then?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly.

Sean Floyd:
Speaking about the gym as well, just going back to this point, what's the worst part about being a gym owner?

Khoa Nam Tran:
The worst part about being a gym owner, lets says it's the smell.

Sean Floyd:
I had a feeling you were going to say that. It's what you were talking about on the phone.

Khoa Nam Tran:
My nose is desensitized, so I can't smell anything. It smells beautiful to me. But when new people come in, they'll know this gym stinks.

Sean Floyd:
How big is your aquarium in the gym?

Khoa Nam Tran:
It's a four foot tank with [inaudible 00:49:32], warm water. I had a power outage yesterday so I was very concerned for my fish because-

Sean Floyd:
Not for the members of the gym.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Not for the members, they can wait. Their needs can come later.

Sean Floyd:
Your gym needs can come later?

Khoa Nam Tran:
But fish they need that warm water. So I wasn't too sure when the electricity was going to come back. Luckily it came back in a couple of hours but that's something that I don't want to do. I've taken care of it. It holds me accountable because I'll bring that aquarium in and it's up to me to give the fish their best life in a confined space.

Sean Floyd:
To the best of their life-

Khoa Nam Tran:
To the best of their life, yeah. That helps me align myself, to give myself responsibility, to look after someone's life, fishes.

Sean Floyd:
I know you've got a pond at home.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I've got a pond.

Sean Floyd:
It's filled with koi.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yep, koi.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. And koi I know we were sharing some stories about koi so some of them can grow massive depending on the size of the environment.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes.

Sean Floyd:
So then is that just a microcosm for thinking that if you expanded your mental environment, you can be the biggest version of yourself?

Khoa Nam Tran:
100%

Sean Floyd:
There you go.

Khoa Nam Tran:
If you stay in that bubble, if you stay in your group of friends you are in that bubble. But if you expand that, your bubble won't be there. At the end you want to burst that bubble to be bigger than you are and to be bigger than you are, you could be the voice. You might be the voice to inspire other people. That's the beauty about technology, we are so interconnected at the snap of our fingers, on our mobile phones login Facebook, you can connect to anyone and you don't need to send a snail mail like 20 years ago. Remember pen pals back then?

Sean Floyd:
Pen pals were crazy.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, Pen pals were crazy. I was waiting a couple of weeks just to get a-

Sean Floyd:
[inaudible 00:51:43]

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, a message, "Hi, this is Matt." And then I'll get a pen and paper, write it again and send it off again. That's a lost art. I'm sure that they are still around but these days people send an email, bang!

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, of course. Emails, texts, it's overtaken everything but I think people would still enjoy that old school touch when it's a handwritten note.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Now look forward to the mailbox.

Sean Floyd:
The real mailbox because before that used to be full of junk and then your emails all the important stuff, it's the other way now.

Khoa Nam Tran:
It's the other way around now. You've got like 50,000 inbox messages on that, how much I have a lot, I need to delete it.

Sean Floyd:
50,000 not unread though. 50,000 unread?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Mostly unread because there are a lot of junk. Oh my goodness! But yeah, the art of physical writing and giving out obviously.

Sean Floyd:
Cool. What I am thinking is we might need a quick cup of water. Are you a bit thirsty?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
All right. Let's do a magic trick. What you'll do is hold your hand out here, place it on the table. Probably on... Yeah, that way and what we'll do is we'll actually get a cup of water at the snap of a finger. You're ready?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Oh, that's it. All right.

Sean Floyd:
3, 2, 1 and there you have it, just like that.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Do you have a magic office or something?

Sean Floyd:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). It's definitely magical.

Khoa Nam Tran:
You're going to bring out cards?

Sean Floyd:
I wish, that's the only thing. There's no space for the cards.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Oh, space, it could be there.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, I will. That's why we're having you on here because we'll get enough views, we'll get enough users, we'll get enough business and we'll get enough money to get a bigger office.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Awesome!

Sean Floyd:
Now, going back to the gym as well, tell us a bit about, for example, where is the gym? Where can people find you if they want it to get in touch with things fitness related?

Khoa Nam Tran:
My gym is located in Warwick Farm, I'm a part of a franchise.

Sean Floyd:
Warwick Farm?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, Plus Fitness Warwick Farm. If people don't know where Warwick Farm is, it's next to Liverpool. Just across from the racecourse but people can find me on heavily online presence.

Sean Floyd:
If someone wanted to get in touch with either, wanted to have a conversation about something either business-related or speaking related, where could they find you personally, best place to find you?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I've got a website, khoanamtran.com and in that website, it's got my social links, Instagram, Facebook, TiKTok.

Sean Floyd:
Who's TikTok been going?

Khoa Nam Tran:
TikTok's good. I haven't been posting as much but I should.

Sean Floyd:
I think you would do quite well on TikTok. I feel you have one of the most catchy personalities out there.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I love it. It's really good to kill time and LinkedIn but yeah, if you go to khoanamtran.com, you will see all my links there and reach out to me. I'm always active on mainly Instagram and Facebook.

Sean Floyd:
Instagram and Facebook, perfect. But the website will have links to everything.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, that's correct.

Sean Floyd:
Perfect, that's really good. What I want to talk about being a gym owner, you've got the idea of having property investment being a part of your discussions as well, you're a fit person. Do you feel goal-setting has had a big play in your success so far and what are some big goals you see yourself wanting to take off over the next five years from today?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I think in the five years from today, yes, first off goal-setting is important. If you don't have a end goal to achieve, you don't know where you're going in terms of directing yourself to achieve that. Where I want to see myself in five years, I want to see myself out of this COVID bubble and fly around and share my story on a big stage and just put a smile on hundreds of thousands of people and also do my property portfolio as you know have done already invested in one and from there on I'll connect with JR Prosperity to grow from that. That's my goal to have many streams of income, to be more financially free, to know that I've got revenue of income, passive income and I don't need to worry about that next week's bill. I don't have to look at my bank account and worry about if I have enough to buy a Mac's meal. It's simple as that.

Sean Floyd:
A small Big Mac meal used to be $5.95 remember?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
For a full small Big Mac meal and now a big Mac it's [crosstalk 00:56:57]. That's true.

Khoa Nam Tran:
There are so tiny. It's like, hello tiny Big Mac."

Sean Floyd:
My favorite order at McDonald's is three Big Macs with extra Big Mac and two chicken and cheeses on [inaudible 00:57:08].

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'm a health person so I don't eat like that.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, exactly. That's right. You want the members of your gym to be fit and healthy from their diet perspective as well, right?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. It doesn't help because it kind of seats right in front of my gym.

Sean Floyd:
It's like a perfect post-workout meal.

Khoa Nam Tran:
When you open the door, you get smell coming in.

Sean Floyd:
Ronnie used to enjoy a couple of Big Macs sometimes.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I do but one.

Sean Floyd:
One an hour.

Khoa Nam Tran:
One an hour.

Sean Floyd:
Going back to let's say lifestyle the way it is now so we've talked a little bit about the adversity, we've talked about obviously goal setting and your future goals, being able to speak to people on a bigger stage, I see that as 100% happening. What about having some fun along the way? So I know that with the legs, you've actually still been able to drive and enjoy your passion of driving with cars. What are some of the most fun cars you've driven till date?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I've driven Audis, Audi R8. I've driven a Ferrari 488.

Sean Floyd:
The 488 GTB, look at that!

Khoa Nam Tran:
And GTT.

Sean Floyd:
That's a nice one.

Khoa Nam Tran:
What else? A Bentley.

Sean Floyd:
The four wheel drive?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, the Bentayga, nice cars. I think I've driven AVA 85. So that was one of the tests because I was in a high-performance car accident.

Sean Floyd:
That was a high-performance car.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, it was a [inaudible 00:58:45] A35 GBR. I had to see if I'll get any flashbacks with jumping a similar car and I did that and nothing triggered. So I was like, "Yeah, I'm still here. I love my cars."

Sean Floyd:
I love my cars. You are not supposed to hate.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'm not going to discriminate because I was in one and it crumbled.

Sean Floyd:
I think living life alcohol free and having that freedom knowing you're always able to be on, it's something that I've done very recently not near as long as you have. I don't know how long you've been alcohol free.

Khoa Nam Tran:
For eight years.

Sean Floyd:
So pretty much the whole time.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yep.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. I don't think we regret a single day. I don't think you would regret a single day either from all the eight years.

Khoa Nam Tran:
No. I enjoyed being that I'm perspective when I get out with my friends and they drinking because you see how many silly stuff they do. I'll just laugh. I used to be this person now I'm the designated has to drive people home. Bottom line, I love driving.

Sean Floyd:
But at least they're in safe hands.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly. That's the main thing.

Sean Floyd:
Which is good and in a very solid leg as well.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, solid leg. I know people might freak out, "Why is the guy with no legs driving a car?" That's the funny thing about having no legs. What does my number one say?

Sean Floyd:
That's it, that's the trick. I think we might even put a snippet for people to see of what your number plate looks like just so that they can make the understanding known that if they do see the number plate zipping around town, they'll know that's Khoa straight away.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, 100%.

Sean Floyd:
That'd be pretty cool and in terms of the next chapter of what you're seeing yourself achieve now is you've got a situation where we've got all these things in place, like the speaking engagements, We're talking a bit about the book. With the book as well, what's some interesting feedback you've gotten on the book so far from people around you saying, "I didn't know this about you." Or, "I didn't know your personality had this." Or, "Your backstory was either this tough or this easy." What was something interesting you found from the book's perspective?

Khoa Nam Tran:
I've found people saying it's the emotional rollercoaster that I bring them through when they were reading it because that was my whole objective to have the highs to lows to the highest to the lowest but always end up with the high. High being positive, low being in that tragic moment. But people could see that when they're reading it, they know that's me. So if you were to read my book, we had that conversation through brunch and now that you will go, "Wait, that is Khoa." And you could mentally picture it in your head with my voice probably in your head talking.[crosstalk 01:01:46]

Sean Floyd:
Not the Ronnie Coleman. It will be your voice.

Khoa Nam Tran:
It will be my voice.

Sean Floyd:
Yes.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Oh yeah, it transpires into the book.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic, that's awesome. I think with even the period that was blanked out, the three weeks where it got a little tough to have any jogging memory there, I think you're doing an engagement once, someone from the scene or someone from the night you had ended up encountering with them. I think it might've been an officer Sean or something.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, that is correct. So he reached out to me on Facebook, he found me and this was going towards eight years since the accident. I finally met up with him, he came to my gym and so I had a rollercoaster of emotions. I hugged him, those were during COVID days.

Sean Floyd:
So that's even more emotional.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, more emotional. He helped paint my canvas, a bit of my canvas or a blank canvas as to why it happened. Originally I thought throughout those seven years, I thought I was behind the passengers by the driver's side. I assumed that because the front passenger she died and there was no way I could be on that side, I would have been dead. That was far from the truth because what Sean told me at the night he got there and I was behind the passenger side. The roof was splashed down. There's no room for the back passenger to survive of that. What made me survive was my head sticking out of the back window.

Sean Floyd:
My goodness!

Khoa Nam Tran:
My head was sticking outside of the window and the roof was collapsed and I was screaming in pain, "Get me out of here! Get me out here!" I don't remember that but he helped me paint that picture, which I'm forever grateful for him and the fire emergency crew, whoever was there that day. That's something that I could never forget.

Sean Floyd:
Of course. He must've been so proud to see what you were up to all these years and how you would have coped because it would have been the first time that he would have reached out in all these years and he would have been so happy to see you and maybe surprise you at the gym.

Khoa Nam Tran:
He said he found out about me was when I appeared on the TV show Taboo.

Sean Floyd:
Wow! Okay.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah. So that's when I put two and two together, I realized that was the person that saved me and I guess they were very happy to see where I am today.

Sean Floyd:
Of course. Like you said at the beginning, right? Everything happens for a reason.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Everything happens for a reason and for him to reach out at that pivotal moment and to help fill that canvas ever so slightly, not only for a while, I don't need to remember why it happened but to know that I'm alive because of them, I'm very thankful for it.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. I think that goes back to your philosophy, right? Being grateful is a value that you share, being thankful knowing that the future is always brighter than right now, we're in control of our destiny. Speaking of philosophies, you've been doing something interesting with a special 9th Dan master recently. I don't know if you're okay to share this aspect of your life as well, because I find that extremely exciting because this is more Prosperity Point than anything which is the mental side of things and general awareness. So how's the spiritual enlightenment process going for you as well?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, that's amazing because the 9th Dan master, my mentor-

Sean Floyd:
Also, I didn't get it right. I didn't mark it up.

Khoa Nam Tran:
No, that's correct in karate, 9th Dan master in karate. So it's one of the highly coveted awards that any karate master can receive. His name is Hanshi [inaudible 01:06:47].

Sean Floyd:
Hanshi itself is pretty.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes. Hanshi is for... I'm very [inaudible 01:06:54].

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, because I think 9th Dan is the ultimate in karate. Isn't it?

Khoa Nam Tran:
There's 10th Dan.

Sean Floyd:
There is, okay.

Khoa Nam Tran:
The 10th Dan in Australia is Tino Ceberano, he's known as the karate father of Australia. He's Kate Ceberano's father, the singer. He awarded Hanshi the 9th Dan. So Hanshi does spirit and mind awareness which I'm involved in. It's about meditation, lifting your higher consciousness. We have seven levels of consciousness. We start from the conscious to the subconscious and so forth, higher level, super consciousness and it all leads to the divine. We all seek that divine truth and divine is love. So I'm on that journey to help me ground myself, to slow things down. We live in a busy world and sometimes it's good to step back and listen to yourself and with meditation to lift your conscious, to slow down your surroundings and focus on yourself. I believe that's helping me propel for future goals, future life settings, just to be grateful for everything. I'm very mindful, I'm very aware of living organisms around.

Sean Floyd:
More so after you started spirit and mind awareness.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes, exactly. I'm at the backyard, I'm just looking at little ants feeding while I'm cleaning the fish tank and there's these little worms that come out of the filter. They're good for the biological filtration but I need to clean the filter and when those little tiny worms that you might squirm at, they're just stuck there on the concrete but you see the ants just go and grab them, that's their food and I'm awe to see they're working as a team together to evolve this world.

Sean Floyd:
Like the circle of life.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Like a circle of life, exactly. This last week I took a picture of four small ants eating a [inaudible 01:09:57].

Sean Floyd:
Really?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yes. It's an amazing sight in a sense that it's like the David and Goliath battle, small versus the big or a group versus one.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, but like four Davids and a Goliath.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly. Taking down and it resonates with [inaudible 01:10:23] taking down the big corporations, if something happens you've got a lot of people who can take a corporate. I was watching that movie that I mentioned, Dark Waters. That was exactly like that.

Sean Floyd:
We talked about the other movie as well, it's Dark Waters and we're talking about one of the film crew, the church scandal.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, Spotlight.

Sean Floyd:
Spotlight, yeah. So Spotlight and Dark Waters.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly the same analogy.

Sean Floyd:
Fantastic. There's so many analogies going on in this podcast. You've got that, you've got the koi fish expanding its awareness, getting into the bigger and better version of itself, groups taking down the big giant, I think it's good stuff. What do you feel resonated as a microcosm from seeing those four ants try and tackle the...? Did you get to see the outcome who ended up actually winning? Did they pull him apart?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, they pulled him apart, they pulled his little pincer. They pulled it apart and they were eating him. But spirit and mind awareness, I'm more grateful for every living creature, every living thing. So if there's a cockroach, I try not to squash the cockroach. I try to, "Move along now." I see a spider, I won't use a spray can, I'll just look at it, "You're just doing your thing. You're not hurting..."

Sean Floyd:
Unless it's in the gym because then you're going to kill it to keep the members safe or you'll organize someone to look after it and take it outside.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, exactly. So I'm more aware of that and that's the great thing about diving into spirit and mind awareness. Every life has a purpose. We're all energy. If we look deep into ourselves, every single thing around is energy.

Sean Floyd:
I've read something really interesting. I don't know if you know Rhonda Byrne's book, The Secret and the way you've got the power of being grateful, gratitude brings about more success. Then there's another book called The Greatest Secret and apparently it's just that you are not your body. You are not your brain. You are not the physical, you are just awareness. That's what you actually are. When I saw something like that, it just clicked that yeah, that sort of makes sense that all we are is awareness so why not be more aware and then hence be more understanding. It follows on from what you're saying right now.

Khoa Nam Tran:
It's amazing. Once you expand your mind, you appreciate everything. We're all on this fragile earth to help each other. But now we are influxed with before the bad but positivity is a powerful thing and that's where I believe the influence that to change one person's life, maybe change out one person's life, that is the whole world to them.

Sean Floyd:
That's the whole world to them, exactly.

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's the whole world to them .

Sean Floyd:
That's why perspective is important as well and you never know whose life they're changing in the processes as well.

Khoa Nam Tran:
100%. It's like the domino effect. You knock one domino or-

Sean Floyd:
Yeah or it's like... I don't know. There's this one story about a farmer taking two buckets on his shoulder and I don't think he was able to have it go all the way up the mountain. So every time he'd reach up the mountain, half the buckets used to be empty so he had to make too many trips going up and down with the buckets at each side. But then he realized because so much water was leaking out over the years, he realized that he was watering the garden along the mountain the whole time. So yes, all those extra trips gave extra water to the garden and there were beautiful flowers along that journey. So from every hardship you never know who's being impacted in a positive way as well.

Khoa Nam Tran:
That's a perfect analogy.

Sean Floyd:
Thank you, I'm so proud of that.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Of giving, inadvertently giving because he thought it was a negative thing but in return that was something like beauty in disguise, life grew.

Sean Floyd:
Which is awesome and thank you once again so much Khoa for your time, jumping on Prosperity Point. I'm looking forward to having you on here again so that I can just get to say that, "Yep, before TEDx, before all this was all done, I got Khoa in the beginning and I got him after the international stage as well." Once the borders are open.

Khoa Nam Tran:
But next time you might have to speak to my managers and all that.

Sean Floyd:
No I'm not going to do that.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'll give you my personal number.

Sean Floyd:
I need your personal number that way I can say, "The chocolates are still here."

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'll be like, "Sorry, Sean. I'm too busy filming my next fifth movie but I'll make time for you."

Sean Floyd:
You're probably filming Terminator 25 by then. Terminator 25 with some of these bad boys.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, I'll be upgraded by then too.

Sean Floyd:
Yeah, you'll be upgraded but being honest from the bottom of my heart it's been an absolute pleasure having you on here and I thank you so much for your time. I hope everyone watching out there, you guys can take some hidden gems away in your own version of Prosperity Point, whatever that is but thank you for staying turned as well, we really appreciate it and we look forward to having you back again soon.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, great to be a part of it.

Sean Floyd:
Also, let's die. Then it's time for our leg bump. Oh my goodness! This one's a strong one. Yeah, this is so cool. This one's the heavy hitter. If someone looks at you funny across the street, you can literally fling this and they will die.

Khoa Nam Tran:
They will die but then before that they'd have to give me back my leg.

Sean Floyd:
That's right or maybe you have to... Yeah, true. It will be hard to hop around.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I'd be like, "Hey, before you pass away, pass my leg back."

Sean Floyd:
Yes, exactly. But you've got one that's like the proper shotgun and this one's more like the pistol.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah.

Sean Floyd:
It's like a little pistol here.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Funny thing I use that as a croquet stick.

Sean Floyd:
Croquet stick.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yeah, if you watch Taboo this leg was used as a croquet stick to hit the ball.

Sean Floyd:
Oh my goodness! That is awesome and with shoes obviously I think both they're the same size as well, which is cool. Do you still enjoy picking up a decent collection of sneaker kicks?

Khoa Nam Tran:
Not really because I don't really change any shoes. I have a couple shoes but I don't really go shopping for shoes.

Sean Floyd:
Maybe we got gift you some driving shoes because you love driving. So we gift you some driving ones that fit with the legs as well, that'll be fun.

Khoa Nam Tran:
I might be running faster too.

Sean Floyd:
Who knows? I don't know, software upgrade will always help with that part. That would be good. But thanks so much once again and we'll get to wrap up. Let's finally eat our chocolates.

Khoa Nam Tran:
Oh, yeah.

Khoa Nam Tran:
(Music)

Khoa Nam Tran:
Yum.

Khoa Nam Tran:
(Music)


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