Escaping War, Embracing Challenge: Linh Huynh’s Unconventional Path to Success

In this episode of Discover Fresh Perspectives, we sit down with Linh Huynh, whose journey from war-torn Vietnam to small-town Alberta exemplifies resilience, curiosity, and the courage to carve your own path.

As the seventh of eight children in a family that survived conflict, perilous migration, and stark adversity, Linh shares how her upbringing shaped an insatiable drive for adventure and self-discovery—whether that meant being the first in her lineage to earn a university degree or setting audacious goals like running marathons at both the North and South Poles.

In a conversation full of warmth, wisdom, and humour, Linh reveals her approach to manifesting dreams, overcoming naysayers, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible—from extreme running challenges to writing a memoir and beyond. Get ready to be inspired by a story of grit, gratitude, and relentless curiosity.

A Bit About Linh

Linh Huynh’s story begins with a moment of bold decision: when faced with uncertainty, Linh’s parents chose to leave everything behind, boarding naval ships bound from Saigon. There, in makeshift refugee camps, they started their lives anew. Young and ambitious, they found odd jobs, working tirelessly to support their growing family. Linh’s mother had her first child soon after their arrival, and by 1955, she welcomed her eighth. Through perseverance and resilience, Linh’s family survived and thrived, laying the foundation for future generations.

Linh's Website at Sparking Wonder Creations

Linh's LinkedIn

***************************************************************

You can connect with David Gouthro at:

• Website:https://davidgouthro.com/  (where you can also subscribe to my Blog)
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgouthro/

NOTE: If you wish to join in the podcast fun, please click here to book your own episode with me: https://calendly.com/gouthro/podcast-pals!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Are you stuck in the same old routine at work? Do you find yourself hitting a creative wall, unable to see beyond your current perspective? It's time to break free and unlock the power of fresh perspectives. David Gothrow, back this time with my guest, Lynn Wynne from Calgary, or roughly that area. So welcome, Lynn.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Welcome. Nice to see you. Speak to you.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

So Lynn, one of the reasons I was hoping to be on my podcast is the last time I saw you in Calgary, I was starting to get a sense of the um rather indirect career path you've taken. All the things you've done and things like that. I just thought it might be interesting to explore where you've come from, how you made your decisions, and just to give people a sense of there's more than one way to get where you want to go in life. How's that sound?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

That sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

So, Lynn, where should we start this conversation? Take me back to you, you know, let's assume you were born and a few things like that. But when does the the current story of Lynn begin?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I think the current story of me actually begins when I entered the world the first day. If Yeah. Yeah, truly, truly. Um imagine my family were in Saigon and it was a 20-year civil conflict, the Vietnam War, which funnily enough, uh the Vietnamese call it the American War.

SPEAKER_04 1:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah. So but imagine that you're the seventh child of eight, and you that your my dad had escaped China because of their civil conflict, and had walked to northern Vietnam thinking that he was safe. And by then it was early 1955, and that was the date of the Geneva Accords, where the country was split into North and South Vietnam. Wow. And so there was this remarkable program called Operation Passage to Freedom, where the US Navy offered any willing participant in Northern Vietnam safe passage to the South, which was the side that the Americans were supporting. So my parents would have been 19 and 23 at the time.

SPEAKER_04 2:39

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Um, and just looked at each other and said, you know, do we stay or do we go? And my they just decided that it would be it would be better off to go. And so they boarded these huge like naval ships and were transported to Saigon, which um, you know, to receive the influx of people had set up what was essentially refugee camps. And my parents were young and ambitious and found odd jobs right away and just kind of clawed their way through the next 20 years. Um my mom had her first child that year and then continued uh 1955. My youngest brother, the eighth child, again, I'm number seven. But my youngest brother was born in '77. So mathematical, like my my mom was pregnant from you know, 1955 to 1977. She was either pregnant or nursing or getting ready to be pregnant.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

So yeah, so when you ask me where my story began, I think my story began, you know, a few decades before I entered the world. And luckily for me, um, being born in December of 1974 meant that four months later, at April 30th, was the l they call it the liberation, where the Northern forces broke into Saigon and seized all the government buildings. Uh, and that was technically the end of the war. So I would have been four months old when the war ended.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

But but you have, I mean, your family came through all of that. Like I I can't imagine that that experience hasn't somehow influenced or shaped who you are today. Like, that's that's a lot. You know, even in in your DNA, that's gotta be a nice thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, yeah. I I I firmly believe that, you know, how I look at the world and how I walk through it with curiosity and gratitude is primarily um rooted in how my family had to fight to live. And, you know, and that fight didn't begin in Saigon. That that fight didn't begin in Northern Vietnam. Like for my father, like he had to leave his youngest brother and mother behind.

unknown 5:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

He was already a teenager when he started his journey to the northern Vietnam. And later on, like the how many days my dad walked, like this just put a pit in that. But it's it's kind of important to what I was able to do as an adult.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Wow. And and we, you know, have no idea. Hearing about these things, reading about them is one thing, but having having had a family that live through that, it's just like I just I can't even begin to imagine.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah, it's you know, we joke about, I'm sure that there's many of your listeners, you know, have siblings and there's this concept of sibling rivalry, like, but it was in my mind, like sibling rivalry was was quite warped because, you know, imagine growing up and at the dinner table, and we were always really close as a family, but you know, like my between me and my oldest brother, there was a 19-year gap.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Right? So, you know, I remember that we finally made it safely to Canada, and at that dinner table, you would hear things like, you don't know what suffering is. You know, just like I mean, other sibling rivalry will be like, you know, I'm better at I don't know, I'm a better track star than you are, or right? Like, um, there's there's a competitiveness to siblings, but when you have I had six older siblings that didn't have access to education. Oh consistently fed, or you know, the abundance of food that I experienced by the time I was five years old and landed in Brooks, Alberta. Like I I don't know true hunger. And I don't know true adversity, and and that was always you know basically like pounded in me. Like you are just a fortunate little soul that n has never known struggle and adversity the way that we have.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So Lynn, I'm because this isn't being aired, I just I have a dog that it's got an on-air sign on my door, and the dog is barking to let it in. I'm just gonna let it in.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Cool and we'll be sorry, right there. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I've recorded like 150 episodes. This is the first time this dog has actually interfered. So I guess you know, first time isn't bad. So, okay, so you landed in Alberta, and how did your family choose to arrive there?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Um, so yeah, we escaped Vietnam in late 1979 and arrived safely. Um surprisingly, because the survival rate of that journey was let's say that there was countless people who lost their lives crossing that ocean in Vietnam and and you know, and these little rickety little wooden fishing vessels that were coastal fishing vessels, they're not meant for the open ocean. And so the fact I read somewhere that the 30% of the people that made that attempt perished, which is an impossible number to verify. But if we do, you know, if we if we consider that to be accurate, then three of us should have died.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Out of the family, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Yeah, so there's ten of us traveling, uh, you know, eight children and two and two parents. So we arrived at the refugee camp and spent about a year there.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

And sorry, was that in Alberta, the refugee camp?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

No, the refugee camp was in Indonesia.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Oh okay. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Yeah. So I missed that little piece. Yeah, so we were in Indonesia. Uh the United Nations had set up just you know, tons of refugee camps in all the little islands and archipelagos, and so that to, you know, to to receive the the influx, the mass exodus of people leaving Southeast Asia. And so Canada in 1979 had a really um you know, I think they still have it. It's like the the private sponsorship program.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Where um essentially a group of people, whether it's like a church congregation or even just like a larger family or a circle of friends, like but that they were able to privately sponsor individual or individuals and uh, you know, jump through all the hoops and indicate or demonstrate that they were able to support, financially support this group for one year, but there would be no um social programs available to to us. But this congregation happened to be in Brooks, Alberta, and and they raised enough money. Again, like you had to demonstrate that you're gonna pay for their living quarters, all of their groceries, all of the incidentals, the utilities, their travel. It's like that's a lot. Like that's a big number.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

It's a lot for one person, much less again. Holy smokes.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

So the congregation had like done all these fundraisers and you know, uh because after you reading the news in the 1970s, like late 1970s, you can't you can't turn a blind eye to that. Like it was just the world was greatly impacted, and I w I feel lucky that as refugees out of Southeast Asia, there was just a huge opening in different countries of the world. Like Australia took a lot of Canada and the US and Europe, but it was just so extraordinarily generous of this small congregation to decide that somehow we would raise tens of thousands of dollars, which is what it would like you make sure that they're housed and fed and right. Um so that's how we ended up in Brooks, Alberta. We left the refugee camp uh via Singapore, and we ended up in Edmonton, and we were processed at a military base, and um, and then put on a greyhound when there was greyhound. Uh and then we arrived in January.

unknown 11:46

Great.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Nice time to be in Alberta for the first experience coming in.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah, so it was like middle of a blizzard. Um, but you know, there were the congregation was there to greet us and showed us our new home, and that's how we arrived in January of 1980, when this year marks our yeah, 46 years that we've been in this country.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Wow. Wow. So so you've arrived, you're a youngin' in Alberta. Then why? What's what's the path that you've taken, Lynn?

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Um I don't like my I was very lucky that I was able to start school um at the age that I did, because according to my family, you didn't speak English and then one day you just came back fluent. You know, like it was you came home and you were speaking English. So it was you know, s language acquisition for children is much easier than older. So like because of the 19-year gap, like my brother who was minimally educated in Vietnam, you know, ended up being minimally educated here because he was already 24. And what do you do when you are not in high school age, but you don't have the credentials to go to pre post-secondary, right? So I was just immediately fortunate that I started grade one and um finished high school and then moved up to Calgary to attend UFC. But that would have meant that I was the first, not in my whole family, but in my entire lineage to receive a university education. Cause my my father bragged that he had more education than his father. And my father received three years, right? Like it's not like we have a scholar in our background and then fell on hard times and couldn't pay school fees. Like there was just, we were obviously came from really rural and agrarian roots.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

And how much pressure was there on you to get that degree? And like how how much how much did you direct your education and where you went versus sort of the the either the conscious or unconscious family pressure to be successful, given that you're in a a new country and everything?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Yeah, remarkably. Like I know that there's a lot of immigrant families and they're just they you hear about those pressures all the time. And my parents, their view of things was always like, um, work hard, I don't care what you do. And there's, you know, the strong suggestion that education is, you know, a stronger path to a brighter future, but there was there was really no pressure.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

So, so at this timeline, so you you had a number of other uh uh siblings. So what was going on? Like, did everyone live in the same place at the same time? Or or and and what were their thoughts on you going to university, what were they doing? Like just so many questions or anything, and what that would have been like.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

So according to the World Bank, if you have an income of $50,000 or more, and that's a family income.

SPEAKER_04 15:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Then you're better, yeah, family income. And you're better off than 99% of the world globally. So, you know, when I hear about the 1% and the billionaires in Elon Musk, I mean, that's, you know, that's a totally different financial picture, but I think I can safely say that there are like a large percentage of families in Canada that meet that 50,000 threshold.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Right. But 50,000 when you have one child is different from 50,000 when you have 10. When you have a family of 10, rather.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Yeah, but I think uh, you know, having uh parents who were raised in such scarcity, like my mom could feed us on almost nothing. Wow. Right? And she had a garden and they would fish from the rivers and lakes, and like our freezer would always be full of frozen fish and produce, and you know, like so somehow she managed. And but I say this because when we arrived in 1980, I had a brother, I had two parents who were adults, adult age, and then I had my f my oldest brother, my second oldest brother. Oldest brother was 24, the second oldest one would have been about 22, and then a sister who would have been 19. Like so immediately, because of our work ethic, like you had five adults. Right. Like just when my mom was cleaning hotels, my dad was a janitor, like um my sister washed dishes in a restaurant. Like when you're making $4 an hour, that's still like better than a day's wage in Vietnam. Right. So there was this just there was always an immense sense of gratitude and possibility because the crappiest jobs that they could take in Canada were still better than any of the jobs that they could have had in Vietnam. So with five adults working, we we managed. And then whoever, if you turned 14, like you had to start start working. And so, you know, the people that I've listed that are already in their 20s, like there wasn't that possibility to learn English and do upgrading and do a career program in a post-secondary, like that was just out of the question. So they knew that they would just be laborers their whole lives. And and if sort of younger ones like myself and my brothers and and sisters, like we we just knew that we at the very least had to finish high school and then head to university.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

So how is that work ethic uh how has it infused you?

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Um Yeah, there's just this idea that you I I uh you can ask my husband, I don't rest well. Like I can't like you know, if I'm watching a football game, then I'm also folding laundry. If I'm like it's just I don't rest well. Like I'm either like practicing my chords on my guitar or doing exercises, but that yeah, like so this so you're five years old and you've been told by your family that you've already endured the hardest thing that you would ever do in life. So how that how did that inform my life? Well, if I walked through this world, which I did, believing that the hardest thing was behind me, then as an adult there was this constant search for the hardest thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

So that took me so this mindset took me to the literally to the ends of the earth.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Um so I have to ask more about that, Lynn.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

Like are you s speaking metaphorically or or No, like uh like geographically to the ends of the earth. Like I ended up uh I had this opportunity with CBC had a writing.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Sorry, I so I I have to peel this back a bit so we're not getting the sequence. So you graduated from university in in what program?

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Uh I I got my B of A in English. Okay. And then I and that was enough to satisfy my parents. And I just said, well, now I'm gonna go traveling. And so I wanted to see the world. Um, but then it was in my mid-30s that the true adventures began.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Okay, well, let's hear about some of those. This sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Um, yeah, so in 2011, CBC had a contest and they asked Canadians to submit their idea of like the ultimate adventure. And the prize was $10,000. And I submitted that I wanted um for n you know numerous reasons, my background, my curiosity, that I wanted to run a marathon in the North Pole. Oh, sorry, in Antarctica.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

So Okay, that's that's pretty extreme.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

Yes. Um, because again, what is hard, what is difficult, what is challenging, like a marathon in Antarctica. Well, Antarctica has in the summer has the same weather as the prairies in the winter, right? Like so growing up in the prairies, it was not uncommon to have minus 20, minus 30 with wind chill. And that's essentially like the summer temperatures of Antarctica. So temperature-wise, I could handle it. I had run a marathon or two before that, and I just thought if I put those two things together, why couldn't I, why couldn't I run a marathon in Antarctica? So um, based on the strength of my writing and my idea, which is I'm grateful that I had there was a judging committee that deemed my idea worthy of the prize. So I got $10,000 and used it to run a marathon in Antarctica.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

You know, it just occurs to me that that many people in a similar situation, you know, rather than seeking another hard thing to do would be, okay, it's time to seek out comfort. And you kind of go in a totally opposite direction and seeking something more of an adventure and something that you know is going to be hard, which I think is is pretty unique.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah, that's funny. Because I, you know, I I do have a TEDx talk and one of the lines in there talking about like growing up really comfortable in Alberta. And one of my favorite lines that I delivered was, but that comfort didn't feel safe.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

You know, like I just and just yearned for something more. So Oh sorry, that the safety didn't feel comfortable. Safety didn't feel comfortable. Because like you know, when you when you have struggle in your family's DNA, like can you be the one that has a comfortable and mundane and average existence? Like, can you respect your family's struggles by enjoying a life that's so abundant in comparison to theirs?

SPEAKER_01 22:56

And it almost feel guilty to do that.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Yeah, yeah. It's like the whole end of say, you know, at the end of saving Private Ryan when he gets saved and he's like, you know, did I did I earn this? And that's how I've always felt. And so, you know, being the seventh of eight children, I just I wanted to dispel any kind of thought that I didn't know what struggle meant.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Now, when you submitted that and CBC chose you, what kind of response was there from your parents and your siblings?

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Well, it was it was the beginning of what I call my like the golden decade, because somehow, you know, Paolo Coelo said in The Alchemist that the universe conspires to help the dreamer. And winning the CBC contest was the beginning of a decade of the universe just coming through at every turn for me. And it was really so magical. So I think when that first one happened, we were all kind of stunned. Like um, I mean we know Antarctica exists on a globe, on a spin globe, but like do people actually travel there? Like how yeah, I joined an organized race, so it was not that I ventured out on my own, but yeah, there was just there was just you didn't know what to think because it was just the most peculiar thing.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

So that was the beginning of what you've described as a golden decade. What what what else filled that 10-year period for you?

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Oh my gosh. Every everything that I wanted, I was able to manifest. And it was really, truly peculiar, David. Like I just there were 30-something runners in Antarctica, and I just happened to be the roommate of Alison Hamlet, and she was from the UK. But so we went in this two-person tent and we're sleeping uh above ground on these cots, but it was still, according to my little thermometer, then it was still like minus 10 in the tent. So you're sleeping in minus 10. But I finished the race and I I remember saying to Alison, like, that was, you know what, that was that was all right. And she said, Well, you know, Richard Donovan is this amazing winner from Ireland, and he's the one that um organized this race. And she said, Well, did you know that Richard has another race? It's like the sister race of Antarctica, which logically, if you run at the bottom of the world, where would you go next?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

I'm thinking the top.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

The top of the world. And so I found myself back in Canada after Antarctica, and friends asking me what what's next, and I said, well, I have to do this now because kind of have to bookend these accomplishments. Like it just makes logical sense that I would run in the North Pole and I trust Richard. He's great at logistics, and I knew that he would get us there safely. But I'm a teacher and I don't have $16,000. And if I did, I probably wouldn't spend it on a silly thing like a race.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

So Lynn, you keep slipping these little things in, like, oh, and I'm a teacher.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

Like there's there's all kinds of Well because you can't cover a life in 30 minutes, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Like So you're teaching. What were you teaching?

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Uh post-secondary. I was um teaching English to newcomers who were trying to re-certify in their careers. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And then so and that meant that that was going to be tough to get away to do this this run in the North Pole because you're a teacher.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Time-wise, it would have been okay. I think our my college at the time um just really supported individuals and their qu like that I mean, this is pretty extraordinary. I'm not asking for a week to go to Hawaii, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Like, it was a cost factor, you said as well, to do that with the case.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Oh, yeah. I mean, that was the main inhibitor, really. Like I knew my body could hold out. I was certain of the safe travel conditions. Like it was just, I don't have $16,000. And so and someone asked, like, how are you gonna do this? And I said, Well, I won a contest, so I'm going to win another contest. And I did.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

You're manifesting is like incredible.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Oh, it's it truly is. And so this time it was through Kellogg's cereal, and they were promoting uh their new healthier cereal, which is called Vector, and it isn't meant for athletes. And if you like look at the design of the box, it's meant to mimic like the the ribbon of the metal, right? Like Vector.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

I didn't realize that. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Because everything else is candy, right? Like cocoa puffs and fruit loops. Come on. Like it's not it's candy that's soaked in milk, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:18

This this uh podcast is not being spongy like general food, so so it's okay to make comments like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

So yeah, so then I I flew to Oslo and then took a flight to Svalbard, and then there was a Russian team who flew us to the geographic North Pole, and we ran a marathon there.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

That's okay. So, all right. So we've got 10 years. At the beginning of the 10 years, you did a marathon in Antarctica.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

I don't know anyone else that's done that. And then you did a marathon in the North Pole. Yeah. Uh both times as a result of having one contest. So that's a number of things I've never heard of anyone else doing. So how many years are left in the golden decade here, Lynn?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Oh um like an about another seven.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Okay, well, what's what next? What next?

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Well, I've packed across the finish line of the North Pole. And I said boldly, huh. That was really reasonable. And that was the word I used. I said reasonable. And there was a man there from Lebanon, he's an amazing runner. He's an amazing fundraiser too. Like he just runs to support different um organizations that treat children's illnesses. Like just an extraordinary man. His name is Ali Webby. And Ali said to me, What are you what are you talking about? Like that was reasonable to him. I said, Yeah, because in my mind, I thought I would get like frostbite on my nose or like something, right? Like you see those pictures of people finishing Everest. But because I grew up in the prairies and it was minus 33 that day at the North Pole, it wasn't anything that my junior high self walking to school in winter in a skirt and a jacket wouldn't have experienced, right? So minus 33 didn't feel that bad to me. Um so when I crossed the finish line, I joked that I was, you know, the first that uh because I had finished a race at the South Pole and then I finished a race at the North Pole, that I had become Canada's official bipolar runner. But it was so anyhow, Ali said, You thought that was reasonable? I said, Yeah, I thought that was really reasonable. He said, Well, clearly you're adapted to the cold, but I challenge you to I challenge you to test yourself in heat. So he had finished this series called The Four Deserts, and it's four races through across deserts. Each race, each race is 250 kilometers, and it's self-supported. So you would I'm not the water. It's impossible to carry seven days of water unless you're a camel. Um, but self-support it meant that we had to carry all our food. We had to carry 14,000 calories, right? We had to carry uh we were given water every 10, 10 or 15 kilometers or so, right? So and and at the end of every stage there was a tent set up for us, but still we had to carry all our food, our gear, uh, emergency kit, things like that, and we had to cover 250 kilometers over seven days. And that sounded so terrifying to me until I thought about it, I did a search, um, and I found out that no Canadian woman had ever finished the series.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

You rise to a challenge, don't you, Linda?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Well, you know why? Because if you're you when you're the seventh of eight kids, like you don't get to do anything first, right? So I just want this for me. Um and as scary as that was, like I thought, you know, when you added up all the the race, I mean it was scary. I'd never done anything more than a marathon, and now I'm asking my body to do back-to-back marathons for a week, carrying this gear through the desert of like 40 degrees, um, sleeping very little, you know, sleep deprivation, uh, sandy terrain, and 2,000 calories a day. I mean, you could carry more, but just meant that you had a heavier pack, right? But uh minimally we had to show that we were carrying 2,000 calories a day of food. But but again, I wasn't worried about my body. I wasn't worried about the travel or the safety of it. The biggest obstacle in all of these things was always the money, because when I added up the registration and the travel cost and the gear, like the you know, the whole thing would have cost about 50,000. Which, I mean, please just invest in some property or something, right? Like repeating.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

I sense more manifestation coming on here.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

Yeah, because we're still we're still in the golden decade, right? Yeah, so still in the golden decade. And um I love that. I think it's in Indiana Jones the first one. I'm not sure about that, but when they're like there's this chasm and they have to get to the other side, and magically, like they've you know, they've set up this obstacle for whoever was supposed to like traverse this cave. And they had to, if you took a step, then the stone would appear under your foot. Oh, okay. And I and I felt, I felt it's like the whole like leap in the net will appear, right? Um so I basically so it's a it's it's called the Four Deserts. It's so three hot deserts, and the fourth desert is called the last desert, but it's Antarctica. Oh. Because Antarctica is a desert. And because no Canadian woman had finished the series, I wanted to finish the whole series. And because no and I and I didn't want to take years to do it. I wanted to do it all in one calendar year, and I knew that if I did that, there were eight women in history that had done that. But the hard thing about Antarctica is that the space is limited, meaning like you can only hold as many people as the boat will hold.

SPEAKER_04 35:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

So the three desert races, I mean, if you have No boats required. No boats required, and just like, oh, we have 50 more people than we could thought we had, pitch another tent, right? Like there's not print out another bimp, carry boat. Like So it was January of 2014, and I was prepared to do all the four races. Antarctica was happening November of that year. The only way that you can go to Antarctica is if you successfully complete two of the three desert races. But if I postponed registering for an Antarctica, I would have finished the three desert races and like, okay, I'm ready to pay now, and they're like, it's full. And that the the Antarctica race fills up quite quickly because it they only run it every two years.

SPEAKER_04 35:58

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

So if I didn't get Antarctica, I would have had to wait to 2016. I would have done three and then in 2014 and then one more in 2016. And I wasn't I wasn't willing to do that.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

And so and the first Antarctica didn't count.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Well, because I was only a marathon.

unknown 36:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

Only a marathon was a very good one. Well, a mere marathon. Yeah. A mere, just a mere.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

I think of walk walking 10 minutes to the store and I started going, do I really need it that badly? My gosh. Difference in scale here, Lynn.

SPEAKER_00 36:30

So I think the most courageous thing I ever did was put down a $5,000 US deposit that's non-refundable.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Not knowing that you'd be able to finish the other three at this point.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Well, yeah, like I mean, they're reasonable. So you only have to finish two of the three. Well, yeah. They leave a market for error, right? So if you finish two of the three, then you get this official invitation. It's like you are invited. It's all by invite only. But I put down a deposit, a 5,000 US deposit for a race happening later that year that I hadn't qualified for, that I had no idea how I would find $50,000 to do the whole series.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

So you probably would not make a good stock broker encouraging people to take um measured risks.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

Or maybe I would be a great stockbroker.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

It could be. You probably make a lot of money out, yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. So four desert races, three warm and one uh less warm. Yes. Yeah. Very good. And okay, and I I hesitate to ask, and then what? Because I can't believe there's more, but I suspect there is. So we're still in the in the golden decade then after those four races.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

Um yeah, so somehow I continue to win more contests. And that, yeah, like it paid for a large portion of those races, and I managed to complete all four of them without injury in in fine health and set a Canadian record. I was the first Canadian woman, and one calendar year meant that I was the eighth woman in history to complete it as a Grand Slam.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

That's incredible. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

So so let me ask you a question, Lynn. So you you win a lot of contests. So is this I I'm going to enter once into this contest, or do you spend like eight hours a day entering contests? I just I don't want you to give away any secrets here, but like is it just that you're exceptionally uh lucky or the universe smiles on you, or is there something that you do to increase your odds?

SPEAKER_00 38:50

Um I would I truly believe that if you set yourself on your intended path, then the universe meets you halfway. So with all those contests, I would say that I didn't spend as much time as people thought. Like for CBC, it was just my friend found it, sent me the link. Kellogg's, I saw it, and I applied. Um and then all these other opportunities that lined up, it was because I had told myself and the universe that uh this is what I want to do. And I feel like the universe I call it my universe committee. I just picture this group of people up there, um, lots ones that I've lost, saying, like, hey, she's sent out the call and we need to help her. Like it's extraordinary, David, how how many contests I won.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

Well, I you know, I guess the the quest that comes to mind, because you know, I hear some people would like to think that, oh, if I manifest it, that's all I have to do. And it's just if I manifest strongly enough, I don't actually require any effort, the universe will look after me. And and that's one view. My my my hunch is, and I don't know if it's a hunch or a hope, that you can put that out to the universe, but you also have to invest more than just hope.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Oh, yeah, yeah. You have to actually like invest elbow grease. Like you there, I say like it's action and putting yourself on that path. And like like that's truly blind faith to put down 5,000 US dollars, which is really like a million Canadians um to save a spot for something that I hadn't qualified for. It's like paying the tuition for your PhD when you're not finished your bachelor's, right? Like it makes no sense. But it happened and I did it.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

So then if you were to like uh it's it's always nice to leave listeners with something that they can think about or or or work on. So uh, you know, it's probably some people listening thinking, well, I could never do that. You know, what what would your advice be to them on some steps they could take to overcome that, you know, comparing themselves to you, I could never do that. And so as a result of that, paralyze themselves and end up doing nothing. So what are the steps to get someone to overcome that inertia? And not compared to something that's great, but just to do something that that maybe they hadn't thought they could, but something that they kind of dream about.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

When you come up with an an idea as audacious as this, like there, you know, your friends and family will approach it with new neutrality or ridicule. Right. And the the greatest thing that I learned is the people who told me that I couldn't do it were also the people who had never done it. And every ultra racer that I reached out to, like that I had met in previous adventures, every single person that I had reached out to that had only seen me in the marathon capacity, every single one that had crossed the finish line of those desert bases, unequivocally, they're like, Yeah, you got this. I'm like, but not nothing I've demonstrated, like I've haven't shown you two marathons even. And she they're like, no, you've got this. And it was it was so clear that the people who had completed it themselves. So I use my friend Michelle as an example. She wanted to become a naturopath at the age of 40. And all her friends and family were like, Are you kidding? Like you have to go back to school to do your pre-med, like your science courses to get into so it was like this 10-year journey because of what she had t previously taken in university that didn't apply to this new path. And everyone said it was a crazy idea. And then but when she talked to other other people who had done it, they said it's you're never too old to go back to school. And also, don't the naysayers, I I I wouldn't put any stock into what they say. Like, I have never met a desert runner that told me that I couldn't. But everyone else who hadn't run one told me I couldn't, which is so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

So maybe there's a suggestion here as well, uh, Lynn, that you should really, you know, hang out when whenever you can with the yaysayers rather than the naysayers.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Right?

SPEAKER_00 43:49

Because I I uh remember uh surround yourself with people who dream as big as you do.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Yeah, as bigger or bigger, but yeah. Dick Leiter wrote a book a many years ago called The Power of Purpose. And he said in that some people though you'll find people in your lives, some that are nourishing and some that are toxic. And it it really, you know, to me, there's a clear dividing line down the middle. So who are the ones that nourish me? And they're the ones that say, yes and why not, rather than the toxic ones that say, why? And, you know, here's here's a hundred reasons not to, because they're not choosing to do that themselves. So, you know, identifying those people and hanging with them as much as possible, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:31

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

Like I hesitate to ask this question, Lynn, but Audacious seems to be a theme in your life, pursuing your curiosity. Is there a next thing that you're kind of thinking about that you want to plant the seed in your s yourself and maybe know some other people out there going, Golyn, Golyn? Is there anything that you're kind of toying with at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Yeah. Um I do want to finish my memoir. Um I have been awarded numerous writing grants.

SPEAKER_01 45:05

Oh, sorry, I just have to say, of course. Yes. A grant.

SPEAKER_00 45:09

Another word for a contest. Um, yeah, when my uh, you know, when I wanted to set athletics aside and decided that I wanted to capture all this in the form of a book, the contest in some way or another continued because it was like the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. So I I had this financial support to finish this memoir. And um I want to publish this and do a world book tour and land on the New York Times bestseller list and impact millions of people to live their biggest dreams because this five-year-old refugee whose family of ten escaped the Vietnam War, landed in a small town in Canada and set her finish line at the ends of the world.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

So one of the questions that I've just, you know, a lot of times, especially in our business, we uh typical question is you're either an airplane, an elevator or something, say, so what do you do? And the question I'm asking people now instead is what's the impact of what you do? So if I were to ask you the question, what's the impact of what you do, or of what you're going to do when you write this book? Like it's not about writing the book. Think about what's the impact of writing the book. Do you have a sense of what that might be?

SPEAKER_00 46:28

Absolutely. Yeah. So the book is called Luck Pusher.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Luck Pusher, okay.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Yeah, because I my friends are like, you're such a luck pusher. Like you just keep going for it. I say, uh, you know, this the impact would be this understanding that success isn't built on talent um or effort solely. But the success that you can access through curiosity is more powerful than any other. Because I'll tell you, I am the I'm a bad runner. Like I was last in every race, right? Like I'm not a CEO of an oil and gas company. I can't afford $16,000 just to for a hobby, right? So all of my physical and financial barriers were overcome not from anything else but curiosity and pushing my luck.

SPEAKER_01 47:31

Well, I you know, I think that's I think that's a really good point that it's not just luck, it's the curiosity. Right, fuels fuels the luck, right?

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Yeah. So my um I had this trademarked, uh, Mark Hain helped me to trademark this, walk me through the process. Um, but the phrase is uh I encourage people to wander off the beaten path. And if you just have like kind of shift your mindset of what's possible, then the world opens up to you and you can break away from the conventional.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

So I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions before we close off, and that's and when do you hope to have the book published? I just want to have this year in mind.

SPEAKER_00 48:18

Yeah, so it's like right now I think it's just in a very crappy final draft. Like I'm not happy with it, and life keeps evolving.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

So and the uh year would be the answer to the question would be uh the end of next year because the publishing world is working really slowly.

SPEAKER_00 48:36

So even if I finish by this summer, it would wouldn't be out until next summer.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

Okay. So let's say people are start starting able to access it in June of 2027. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So now let's be audacious here. Let's set a target. So June 2027, that plus 10 years would be uh June 2037. Yes. So in your mind, how many uh people would you like to have been able to say took a new path, wandered off the path as a result of reading your book? How many people would you like to have have not just read the book but have impacted by 10 years after the book gets launched? What's the number?

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Ten million. Ten million. I want it to be translated into many languages. I want to do a speaking tour. My goal is to do a keynote in Cantonese. So or and another one in Mandarin. Uh and then my by then my Spanish will be good enough. But in the meantime, like I'm also working towards winning a Grammy for a good blues guitar, right? Because no no Asian woman has ever won a Grammy for blues guitar.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

I I did not know that, but I believe it. So so okay, so I do have one more question. I have a couple more questions. So so uh I think given what you've said in the languages, things like that, 10 million shooting a little low, but we'll we'll accept that as a as a baseline. And then so what are some other things about you that like I look at you, you look like an an ordinary human being that I'd seen on the street.

SPEAKER_00 50:10

Oh yeah, I'm very avid looking.

SPEAKER_01 50:13

But there's kind of like this invisible cloak around you with an S on it or something like that. So yeah, just a snapshot of some of the other things that you do that you're focused on on what you're doing right now. So you've you've let's say you've got one minute to say, oh, and also, and what are some of the and also's that my listeners could hear?

SPEAKER_00 50:32

So uh after 16 years of being an ESL educator and where my passion was and helping newcomers, um the college department was closed because the federal government pulled funding. So I was I'm jumping uh diving in deeply into this being a keynote speaker, and I've managed to speak across Canada and internationally in my first year, and I just want to keep going. Like I I want to be I want to speak on every continent.

SPEAKER_01 51:07

And so you've got keynote speaking under your belt. I heard you've got a TEDx under your belt. Yeah, that yeah you're you're uh you have a guitar under your belt. What else is under your belt at the moment?

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Um, I I can't even imagine, honestly. Like, um I want to get my motorcycle license because I was driving illegally in Asia. So I want to be legal. Um and like I love West African dance, so I want to go to Ghanaian dance camp. So there's like dance camps in Ghana where you go and you dance with this vill, like the village of women come out and dance with you. It's Ghanaian dance camp, right? I want to study, I want to go and study martial arts at Shaolin Temple for a month, and I want to wake up at 4 a.m. and do all the exercises. Like I just want to experience as much of this life as I possibly can because we we do share something similar though that I would like to wake up at 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

one morning. Morning, just down in my own bed. But I'll, you know, I'll start Rowan and build. So Lynn, this this has been absolutely fabulous. I've, you know, I'm I'm both inspired and in awe. And it's I think it's good to have both of those, right? Because if you're in awe and you're not inspired, it doesn't do a whole lot of good, but but inspired. And I hope some of our listeners are as well. So, Lynn Wynne, I would like to thank you so much for being my guest here today.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

Thank you for having me. It was so nice to chat with you.

SPEAKER_01 52:39

So, this has been David Guthrow, Discover Fresh Perspectives. The only guarantee uh is that I can make visit next week. There'll be a new guest with some other diverse perspectives. Thank you so much for listening. Subscribe now because on Fresh Perspectives, every episode is an opportunity to explore new horizons and redefine what's achievable.