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:Veterans Day, Forever Changed“I watched six people die. A year later, my daughter was born on the same day.” When trauma and hope collide.From Pain to Purpose“That red flash in my nightmares? It stopped the day I forgave my father.” The invisible work behind healing.Coaching the “A-hole Executive”“He said, ‘I care—I just don’t know how to show it.’” Helping leaders reconnect with their team, and themselves.Empathy ≠ Weakness“It’s not about being soft—it’s about being smart.” Why emotional intelligence is the hardest and most essential leadership skill.Watch Your Patterns“Triggers tell the truth. Learn what sets you off—before it costs your team.” The self-awareness most leaders skip._____________________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. So you stayed in the army for over 10 years. Is that right?
Chapter 2: How did Jevon Wooden's military experience shape his life and leadership?
Yep. Yep. I was in there for 12 years. And my last deployment was probably not probably is the hardest thing because, and this is one of the reasons why I knew like my body couldn't handle it, my mentally and emotionally, and I just couldn't do it. So I was in Afghanistan in 2016, 2017, and there was a suicide bombing that happened where I was stationed on Bagram Pearfield.
Chapter 3: What was the impact of the Veterans Day suicide bombing on Jevon Wooden?
And the suicide bombing was on Veterans Day. So Veterans Day traditionally has been a very hard time since then. We lost, I think we lost six or seven people and then 18 others at least got injured, got injured physically. But of course, mentally and emotionally, those of us who survived or who wasn't hurt physically, that happened. That plays a toll on you.
And then I was a part of the remains cleanup team where that's what mentally really hit me hard because I'm like, I'm treating the bomber with the same respect that my friends and my comrades and my colleagues that he killed. And that was another inflection point for me because when I got home from that deployment in 2017, I just was not the same. And it hit me like six months later. Here I am.
After that, I took some time to just travel and get back into the space of civilian life. And it just didn't work. Six months later, I struggled severely with depression and PTSD. Kept having the same nightmare over and over again. And at the end of that nightmare, it was a red flash. I just remember the red flash. It was the detonation from the bomb.
Chapter 4: How did Jevon Wooden overcome trauma and PTSD after his deployment?
And I had to go to therapy and the therapist once asked me, she said, what happens at the end? I said, I don't know. It doesn't end. Once the flash happens, I wake up. And she was like, I want you to see that as something that's saying that there's something unfinished in your life. So she gave me this whole exercise to find what was unfinished.
And this ties back into my childhood because what was unfinished was my relationship with my father. And I hadn't been in touch with him. He actually got arrested while I was with him. So that was weird. Trying to establish a relationship. SWAT team jumps out while we're at the gas station. And they put me down on the ground. I thought it was something I did, but it wasn't. So it was him.
So fast forward, I had to reestablish that relationship with my father. And that nightmare stopped. since then. And what is another change? My daughter was born on Veterans Day. So it went from the worst day to the best day. And that's just how things happen, right?
That's serendipitous moments that I really leaned into now with all the change and adversity that has gone through throughout my life.
From what I know, the military really shaped you, taught you leadership, exposed you to all kinds of people and pressure. Most of us never experienced that. We work in stable, quiet, and peaceful environments. You didn't just learn resilience. You lived it. These days, a lot of people talk about resilience. But few have actually walked that path.
I've had my own struggles, including three episodes of depression, but nothing like what you've gone through physically or mentally. So I'm curious, was that what led you to become a coach and speaker on emotional intelligence? Did all of that push you to help others this way?
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Chapter 5: Why did Jevon Wooden become a leadership coach focusing on emotional intelligence?
That's a component of it for sure. It is everything that I've seen and gone through and realizing that tech was just not, it wasn't my thing. I didn't feel like I was making an impact in that. So I wanted to really help people. And so that was one catalyst.
Like,
Human is going out the window for a lot of leaders, whether that's in the country level, whether it's in the corporate space, doesn't matter. It's like going away. I mean, yes, we can blame technology, but it's not. Technology can be actually a force multiplier, so to speak, because we can we can do this. Right. I can see no matter where you are, we can have these conversations.
But that's just a scapegoat that I see people use. What it really is, people are not taking the time. They're not putting in the effort to make genuine connections. And so what have you done for me lately, society? And say, oh, I'm going to blame this thing and that thing instead of taking accountability and taking ownership for what I can do to improve the situation in my company.
Those types of things. So that's really what sparked me to really dig into this and research all of this stuff and start speaking on the topic and coaching and everything else. And the reason why I focus on like readers specifically is because that trickles down.
So if you have a leader that is not emotionally intelligent, that does not show empathy, that does not take care of those people, I've seen the cause of that. And the cause of that, a lot of people are like, oh, you just leave a job, you just do this, and then you go to your normal life. That's not what happens. That is impacting people's lives. That is causing people to take their lives.
Opioid addiction is at an all-time high. Substance abuse is crazy right now in a lot of industries. So that's really what has caused me to do this. Like, I've lost a lot of friends to suicide. And when I look back at it, a lot of them didn't show any signs. Because in the military, you're just taught to, you show this facade, like, I'm good.
They say, if you're in a pain, you break your leg, you drink water. And that was the mentality. Even the military has had to change their culture because they realized that what they were doing just does not work because we are humans. We have emotions. And when you get weighed down and you go into that darkness, it's very hard to get out of it. I don't want people to get into that darkness.
Or when they start to feel like the light is leaving a little bit, I want them to realize that they can get support, that they don't have to walk that walk alone, that they are people who really care and support genuinely, that love is not just a business strategy, but it's a human thing. So
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Chapter 6: What challenges do corporate leaders face regarding emotional intelligence?
I like to show them statistics of how if they continue on this path, how it's going to impact their people, them and their companies. So that statistic I mentioned of suicide, right? Construction industry is second only to the mining and oil and gas industry here in the United States to suicides and opioid addiction. So that's one of the first things I want to show.
And then once I do that, it shows them like empathy and all these things that I'm talking about is relevant. All right. So that's the first thing. Second thing is I show them what it looks like because there's a misconception that being empathetic is weak. They're like, oh, if I'm empathetic, then I'm just going to get walked all over. So I have to dispel that myth.
So I have to show them my empathy is actually the opposite because empathy is holding yourself and that person accountable. It's the ability to see and understand their perspective and standpoint and get to the point where you can ask them questions that clarify what's going on. What do they need to feel supported? What do they need to succeed?
To have foresight to say they're going to need these resources. Put yourself in their shoes to get these things done. They're going to need support from you. And a lot of leaders just don't have that type of vision. So I really help them to see how empathy taps into their daily operations, how it can improve, for instance, supply chain.
If you're not if you don't have an inclusive space, you're skipping over people who may have better ideas than you do as the leadership committee. You're not giving people their voice. You're not able to see the diamonds that you have within your organization because they don't look like you. So all those things, right, all those things are part of emotional intelligence.
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Chapter 7: How does empathy function as a leadership strategy in organizations?
Like I mentioned earlier, realizing my biases, looking in the room and saying, OK, everyone looks like me. So how are we getting the best diverse perspectives? All those things tie into emotional intelligence.
So if you're going to really create the spaces that organizations have been talking about, especially now with DEI initiatives being rolled back, we have to say, what exactly were those initiatives for? Because the work was not about hiring unqualified people into roles. It was about amplifying, giving people opportunities who deserve those opportunities.
And that's really what emotional intelligence is. But to see it, you have to listen. You have to take a step back and not feel like you have to have all the answers. You have to be willing to try different things and take calculated risks, right? You have to be willing to invest in your people and realize that whatever result you wanted will not happen if
If you don't take care of your people, because if your people are not at their best, you cannot get the best results. So these are a lot of things that I work on, but it's always tied to the bottom line initially until I come in with them. Same thing with coaching. Leaders are under the perception that they cannot be empathetic and that they need to make decisions fast and all these other things.
I show them case studies on what that looks like. So if you think about Microsoft, for instance, when Satya Nadella became the CEO, he didn't just go in there and make sweeping changes. He actually listened to his people, saw what they thought. He went to different locations and all this other stuff. The CEO of Best Buy did the same thing.
He went to different stores, got ideas from them, from the people who were doing the work, everything. That's empathetic leadership. That's transformational leadership. They're really synonymous. So that's how I do the work these days.
Let me ask you this. Empathy. You've mentioned that word a few times already. And I want to zoom in on it for a moment. We all say it's important. We know it matters. But the truth is, empathy is hard work. hard to develop, hard to sustain. Because at the end of the day, we are wired to look at the world from our own lens. We are naturally self-focused. It's just how we're built.
And sometimes people even confuse empathy with sympathy. So I love to hear your take. How do you help leaders who struggle with empathy? Can you share an example, maybe a CEO or someone in a senior role who came to you stuck and how to help them really understand and practice empathy in a meaningful way in a business setting?
And I'm glad you're bringing this up. So Again, empathy is really counterintuitive to our normal human condition, right? Because you really have to stop and pause and say, you know, I'm going to go out on a limb. I don't feel safe doing this action, but I know I need to do it. For instance, like giving someone delegation.
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Chapter 8: Why is empathy considered hard work and how can leaders develop it?
But that's really the real key is showing them the difference between empathy, not really caring, just focusing on the bottom line. Sympathy saying, oh, I'm sorry that you had to go that get it done anyway. You're looking on the outside in, whereas empathy is putting yourself in that person's perspective and saying, you know what? How can I support them better?
Because I understand that it may be something that I can do to help them out. And even if you have someone who's just performing at the level, you also have the opportunity to see if maybe that's not the fit for them first before you get rid of before you fire. Right. So a lot of times a job rotation could be a part of your solution.
So that's a part of empathy, giving people the opportunity to show that showcase their various skills, even though that's not what their resume said. Because I've seen it where I've come into an org for a cultural transformation consultation and people showcase the skills, but because the leader is not seeing it, they're not looking at it. They just see them as a role, a fitness role.
They don't understand that they can actually be better over here. So we really have to open our eyes as leaders and slow down a bit to understand what's happening and get the diverse perspectives of our people. And that's how we're going to be firing our own cylinders.
You focus a lot on emotions and emotional intelligence. And of course, we're human. We have emotions. But being able to understand them, manage them, and work with them, that's what makes someone a better leader, a better teammate, a better person. So here's my question. What are some of the emotional blind spots we need to watch out for? Maybe it's fear, maybe ego, maybe something else.
I ask this because it's not just about learning what to do, it's about knowing what to look out for. These hidden villains, if you will, can pull us back into old habits or reactive behavior. And if we can name them, we can manage them better. So from your work, what are those few things we should all be more mindful of? Whether we are leaders or just trying to grow as human beings,
The first step is to master you. So I see a lot of leaders who really don't take time to just be with themselves, to get to discover who they are, what are their values, all these types of things. And a lot of people say it's fluff. It's really not. Because what happens is they're so busy. They have meetings back to back. They're always on. They're always thinking.
Once they're done with that, they have to do things with their family or be social. All these things they get to do, but they now feel like they have to do. because it's just a job. So I recommend for everyone to just take some time daily, even if it's 15 minutes, to just be, right?
Put some time on your calendar to just focus, to disconnect from tech, to disconnect from meetings, to just recenter yourself. That's the first step, to get to know who you are. What are your thoughts even saying? What are you saying to yourself? That's the first thing. That's the self-awareness component.
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