From facing seven years in prison at 17 to leading soldiers in Afghanistan, Jevon Wooden’s story is more than a redemption arc—it’s about owning your power the moment you realize you’ve still got one.In Part 1, Jevon, the author of "Functional to Phenomenal" and "Own Your Kingdom", opens up about growing up in one of America’s poorest cities, learning to survive, and ultimately discovering his worth had nothing to do with money.Key Highlights of Our Interview:The Wrong Crowd, the Right Wake-Up Call“I wasn’t guilty that night, but I was heading there fast.” How one arrest changed everything.A Mother’s Sacrifice“She offered to put up her house to get me a lawyer.” The first lesson in love, empathy, and accountability.From Janitor to Army Leader“I worked two full-time jobs before choosing the military.” Why service gave him more than stability—it gave him purpose.Not Just Discipline, But Discovery“In the Army, I learned I was a leader—and I didn’t need rank to prove it.”The Value Shift“I realized value isn’t what you wear—it’s what you give.” How he redefined self-worth from the ground up._____________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Jevon Wooden --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Jevon Wooden and what is his background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is Javon Wooden, Army veteran, leadership coach, and someone whose story grabs you from the very first moment. At 17, he was facing prison time.
A few years later, he was leading soldiers in combat. In this two-part series, Jevon shares how trauma shaped his purpose, how empathy became his strategy, and why he now helps leaders build emotional intelligence like the careers depend on it. Because they do. Let's jump in. Good morning, Javon. Welcome to Chief Change Officer.
I'm glad Chris Hare, the other guest from last year, who introduced you to me. It's my honor to host you on my show.
Hey, good morning, Vince. I'm so honored to be on the Chief Change Officer podcast. Likewise, I'm so happy that Chris introduced us and yeah, he's just an awesome person and I'm looking forward to just meeting you and having this conversation and adding values for the audience.
Sure, last time we spoke, you shared a lot of really meaningful stories about your journey. Before we dive deeper today, let's start with a quick intro. Tell the audience a bit about yourself, not just what you do now, but also some highlights from your past. I think your transitions and experiences are key to understanding the insights we're about to explore.
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Chapter 2: How did Jevon's early life and environment shape his values?
Absolutely. I like to start that I was born and raised in Rochester, New York for the audience. At that time, we were in the United States, like the third most impoverished city per capita. So we didn't have a lot of money. I actually grew up in a household where my mom was white number two, right? So we had to deal with that with her husband bouncing back and forth between homes.
So I had to really understand value and love as I grew older because back then I didn't know it. I thought value was money. I thought it meant that you had to have something material or else people just didn't care about you because that's quite frankly what was shown to me. So I got into some trouble trying to become valuable, trying to get money.
At 17, I got arrested, faced seven years in prison. Now, we'll talk about that a little bit more in depth, but that's important because it was one of the inflection points in my life where I sat in a jail cell awaiting trial, facing seven years in prison. They charged me as an adult and I just sat there and that was the first time I actually died. realized the power of empathy.
My mother and my sister had visited me and my mom told me, like, hey, I'm going to put up the house for you so you can get a lawyer because I don't want you to get a public defender. Because a public defender meant that I was probably going to serve that time because they didn't have time to look at the case. They didn't know that I was a good kid, that I was just with the wrong crowd that night.
They didn't know anything about me. So she wanted to make sure that I had a fair shake, that the court seen me for who I was. So that night I went up and I prayed to God that he gave me another shot. And he did. Two weeks later, I was out and I was able to graduate high school. attempted to go to college, couldn't pay for that. So I went to the military.
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Chapter 3: What led to Jevon's arrest and how was it a turning point?
Military was another inflection point where I understood that I was so much more than I even knew. I had leadership capabilities. The fact that I actually was a genuine person and I was compassionate was my superpower.
As I started leading other soldiers, I was able to see that and tap into that and unlock their potential by pouring into them the same way that some people poured into me to get to that point. And now I'm here in Houston, Texas. I was in the cybersecurity space, tech space for about 10 years, did 12 years in the Army and just realized like that wasn't for me.
That wasn't the journey I had to take for the Army. I'm getting hurt. So my body, my mind, my emotions just couldn't handle any more of what comes with being in the Army, in the U.S. Army. Yeah, I'm here now.
I have this company called Bright Mind Consulting Group, where we focus on leveraging the power of emotional intelligence, which we'll get into how I got there as well to just help other leaders and organizations improve performance.
Earlier, you mentioned a time in your life when you were facing the risk of spending seven years in prison. Can you walk us through what really happened? Just be as honest as you feel comfortable.
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Chapter 4: How did Jevon's mother support him during his legal troubles?
Absolutely. The big mistake was just being with the wrong people. On that night, I got arrested for an assault and robbery charge. So on that night, I ended up, I was supposed to go to the movies with someone I worked with at a grocery store. That did not happen.
So we ended up meeting some of his friends and they wanted to joyride around and hop out on cars on people and just, I don't know what they were thinking. So I wake up, I was like, man, I'm taking me home. I'm going to sleep. I'm not even going to entertain this. So five minutes outside from my home, cops pull up behind us and they're like, hey, Y'all going in. We going in for questions.
I'm like, all right, that's fine with me. So I'm like, I had nothing to do with it. But it turns out that it didn't matter that I had nothing to do with that moment because I was going down that path. And I realized that later on, you may not have been guilty on this one. But you were going down a path, right? You were starting to deal drugs and do all that other stuff.
So I felt like that was my wake-up call to say, okay, you're not guilty of this one, but you were guilty of doing something that you shouldn't have been doing. And this was the opportunity to catch me, my wake-up call, so to speak. So like I said, I faced seven years.
The guy that I was with ended up, he was the only one that didn't sit in that jail cell because he said that we were the ones doing everything. So that's what happened. I ended up sitting in there for a few months and crazy enough, my friend, my best friend, he was telling everyone at high school, they were like, what happened to Javon? He was like, oh, he's just sick.
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Chapter 5: What was Jevon's mindset and experience during his time in jail?
So when I come back to school, they're like, oh man, you're finally back. You all right? And I'm like, yeah, if you only knew what was really happening, right? So I look back at that and I say, I always try to find the jewels in what we go through. And that was my jewel was like, hey, that was just God catching me to say, hey, this is not the path you want to be on.
If you want to make another mistake like this, I'm not going to save you this time. So get it right.
You told me that you grew up in poverty. That was the reality of your family background, right? I've always believed that who we are today, what we choose to do, and how we go about doing it, all of that is shaped by our past. And it's not just about what we did wrong or right.
It's also about the environment we were raised in, things like our relationship with our parents, and even how they related to each other. So looking back, how do you think the way you were raised played a role in the decisions you made, including the ones that led you down the wrong path?
Yeah, for me, I think it gave me some intuition and unique intuition. So I can apply a lot of the situations and circumstances that I've gone through. One, it's provided me with resilience. Right. I'm able to no matter what's going on, I can calm myself and put myself in a space where I can look at things and figure things out with clarity because nothing is a surprise to me anymore.
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Chapter 6: How did Jevon's military service influence his leadership and purpose?
I'm like, OK, this is happening. Whatever. Let's figure it out. So that's one thing that has happened that has really been beneficial for me. The second thing is I don't judge people. Right. Yes, we all have our biases, but I'm able to catch it when I'm doing that because I understand like people were looking at me like, oh, man, you're nothing. You're worthless, whatever.
And at least I thought so. I don't make it a point to catch myself when I'm looking to do that. Whatever my bias is, when I see another person to say, you know what? Let me give them a fair shake. Let me ask them questions to get to know them a little better. Let me understand why they've made the decisions they've made or whatever the case is.
And that bodes well as a leader and as an entrepreneur. The other piece is I mentioned the aspect of love and looking to understand value. I truly realize that value has nothing to do with material assets or material gain. So I treat people with that, whether it's somebody that's the janitor or CEO, they all get that same respect from me. And I'm proud of that.
And then the other piece is my work ethic. So when I think about poverty, when I think about having to depend on someone else to feed me, to give me clothing, whatever the case is, I don't want that and I don't want that for anyone else. So that's why it's very important for me to pour back into my community in Rochester, but also any community that's impoverished and underserved.
underrepresented today. So I do a lot of work, pro bono work in that space, coaching individuals, storing clothing drives, educational, go to prisons to do business pitch competitions so they understand the path of entrepreneurship that's open to them. My dissertation that I'm doing, my doctorate right now is on digital entrepreneurship and how it alleviates poverty in the urban United States.
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Chapter 7: How does Jevon define value and self-worth beyond material things?
So just about everything I do comes back to my experience to say, you know what? I know what it's like and I know we don't have to be there. We don't have to stay there. There are opportunities. And I also know that representation matters because I didn't see anyone succeed from my neighborhood.
And that impacted me because when I started getting that success, you get survivors remorse and you have to be able to understand that. So you have to go through the therapy and the coaching and all these other things to find what the root cause of that is and then find how you can turn that into a power and not something that can weigh you down.
So your mother made the decision to come up with the money so you could hire a better private lawyer, someone who could really help you out of the situation. And it worked. You ended up spending just a few months imprisoned, and then you were set free and able to return to a normal life with no criminal record. Is that right?
No, they gave me six months. I was on probation for six months, so if I had gotten into trouble, I would have had to do that. But it got expunged. So when I went to the military, they expunged it because it wasn't a charge.
During those several months when you were locked up, alone in such a rough environment, what were you thinking? How were you feeling? Looking back, can you recall your state of mind then? Some people in that situation might blame others. Others might decide to work harder. Some even study for a degree while in prison. And then there are those who come out angry, wanting revenge.
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Chapter 8: What is Jevon’s current mission with Bright Mind Consulting Group?
Everyone reacts differently, and those reactions shape the choices they make and the path they take afterwards. You chose to live better. I'm curious, what was that turning point for you? What helped you rebound during that time?
Yeah, that's a great question, Vince. So how I felt initially was, I will say when I called my mother, it was probably like two in the morning. When they finally took me to the cell, they allowed me to call her. And I told her, and I remember that like it was yesterday, calling her and hearing her voice. She's asleep. And I'm like, hey, I'm in jail. I just hear her wake up like, what the hell?
What do I need to do? Do you need a lawyer? Blah, blah, blah. And I remember her kicking into action. And then I remember when she came to visit me. So in this time, it's probably like a few weeks, a couple of weeks, right? She came to the sentencing. I remember her being behind me. Not the sentencing, but when they take me in the courtroom.
And then they put it to recess or whatever so we could get the lawyer and all that other stuff. And I remember seeing her. She looked so worn down. I remember that visitation room, you get the browns in Monroe County, where I'm from in Rochester, you have a brown jumpsuit and then it says property of Monroe County.
And I remember coming into that visitation room and you got to go through the strip search and all that other stuff. And I was just like numb. I was numb until I walked into the visitation room and I looked around and everyone looked like me. And then they interact, there's glass between us. Right. So I'm like, I'm looking at my mom. She's worn looking at my older sister. She's worn down.
And I'm like, I caused that stress. I caused that stress by being here. And it just it broke me down to my core. That's that's how I felt initially before that. Yeah, I was upset at the guy that I went out with. Man, you got me into this, but you're not even in here. But then I realized, like, what part do I play? And that the part that I play was everything. It was on me.
So that's why after that visit and she told me she was going to pay for the lawyer and everything, I had to pray. And it was the first time I prayed to God on my own volition where because I grew up Muslim and we prayed five times a day, but I never really meant it. I just was forced to do it. And that was the first time I actually meant it. Because to be frank, I felt like we were left out.
I'm like, how can we live like this? Why would God do that to anybody? And that was the moment he was like, hey, I'm here for you. I'm here for you. But you got to change, right? You have to look at what you can do, be accountable for your actions and be kind. So that's why now I've... went through this journey of focusing on mindset and all those things.
But I realized that emotional intelligence is really the key because you have the self aspect of emotional intelligence, and then you have the social aspect of emotional intelligence. So I feel like that holistic perspective was really key for me in recovering. I didn't know what it was called back then for my mother and the judge later to be empathetic to me for the judge to say, hey,
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