In this episode, we welcome our guest Quentin Q. Booth, who shares his personal journey
of faith and purpose.
Q, our former Special Victims Unit Detective and Crisis Negotiator, discusses how his faith
led him to his current role at the Neighborhood Resilience Project, where he works to address
gun violence at its root cause.
Q's story is a powerful testament to the transformative power of faith and purpose,
and the importance of trusting in God's plan.
With that, let's dive in.
Hey guys, how's it going?
Welcome to this episode of Technically Short.
I'm Thomas.
I'm Sean.
And as you can already see, we have another guest on here, Quentin Booth.
I said that right.
You said it right, you guys can call me Q.
Yeah, we'll call you Q.
I know guys, this is the episode three of Why Are You Here?
And there's a whole series all about purpose.
And if you've watched the last episode or even the episode in the last series that we
did on excellence, you know that we bring people on that we respect, that we see in
a very good light.
I didn't really think about how to say that before.
And we just kind of get their perception of what the topic is, and in this case, its purpose.
Before you heard Kendall and then you heard Peter and then you heard us.
And so, yeah, let's get into it.
Well, glad to be here, guys.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
For sure, man.
Thank you.
We start with our exaltations.
Yes.
Yeah, you reminded me.
I almost forgot.
All right.
You want me to start?
Or you want me to start?
Sure.
Well, let me get a quick explanation about it first.
So I don't know, Q, if you have listened to the last episodes, previous episodes, but
every time we have a guest on, we always like to start with some exaltations of, and it
kind of sets up the conversation.
And if any of the listeners are new, this is your first time, we do this every time
just to kind of set the foundation for who we see the guest speaker to be.
And so, yeah, you can start it off, Sean.
All right.
Quentin Boose, aka Q. How would I describe Q?
I describe Q as a man of God, wise, strong, hero, kind brother.
And I personally have a story where Q just recently helped me in my job career slash
job and he brought a pair of pants when I needed it.
Shout out to Q. That's great.
I tell you what, it was very random.
He says, hey, are you in Pittsburgh?
I need a pair of pants.
I'm just like, what is happening right now?
But I hope that went well for you, sir, because I was slightly concerned.
I was like, okay, whatever you need.
In review time, someone calls you and the only need is they just need a pair of pants.
I'm like, all right.
That's fantastic.
But yeah, so I'll go ahead with mine, with my exaltations.
And I just, the way I do it, typically, I just think of a few words and first thing
is pop into my head.
And what I have down is encouraging, happy, kindhearted, and a future father.
Because I've seen how you are with kids and I just get that feeling from you.
And it's pretty, yeah, whenever I was writing that down as we were talking before, I was
like, oh yeah, that's like, I just get that feeling from you.
I appreciate that.
I think it takes a lot for someone to be a father.
And so that is one of the highest honors that we could have.
So trust me and I appreciate that.
Guys, that's wonderful.
I hope I can give that back to you guys as well.
But let me tell you, if Minnie was just like, he said what?
Let's do a few years, all right?
We're still focused on being married.
We're going to focus on being married for a while.
But I truly appreciate that, guys, especially coming from YouTube, because I'm going to
give it back whether I was supposed to or not.
My experiences with Amplify and my faith in church and sanctuary, whatever we want to
call it, definitely you guys play a huge part in that because the first thing that comes
that pours out of your fruits is just the kind hearts that you guys have.
Hearing both of your stories and I don't know if you've talked about it before, but you
both have shared with me some of the struggles that you've been through.
But one of the things that don't get shook is your faith.
Tom talked about some of the things and we even have sometimes similar issues physically.
But one thing that you said is like, I'm praying and I have this faith and expectation that
I'm going to get through it.
And then Sean, to me, you only exude just the pure faith, joy and happiness of God.
So one day whenever I saw that your smile wasn't as bright, I was like, well, wait a
minute.
Even some of the most in-depth and on fire people can be going through a trial and tribulation
but still have that joy and be showing it to other people.
Only by my history, because I was a detective, I was able to say, wait a minute, let me ask
him twice.
Sean, how are you actually?
Because we all love to say, oh, we're good.
But we all go through things.
So trust me, being able to be on the show and hearing that you guys have a podcast and
you're talking about faith, I'm just like, as you say, Sean, these two legends here are
able to spread their faith.
Let me see what this is about.
So thank you again.
Man, I love you.
That was a lot.
Thank you.
Really appreciate it for sure.
But yeah, Q, for those who don't know you, can you give a quick one to two minute rundown
of who Q is?
Quick one or two minute.
I can tell you, I'm going to start, I don't know yet because the person who I am is very
different from two to two and a half years ago when I got saved.
I would love to be able to say that I am a man of God.
I am a man of God first.
I used to be a special victims unit detective and a crisis negotiator for the city.
There was a season for that.
I did the best I could.
Then I moved on and now I'm the director of a nonprofit where we provide services holistically
to address gun violence at the root cause.
I address social determinants of health, social determinants of violence, but who I am really,
I tried to just be someone who actively listens.
Whether I remember or not, you could ask many about that, but I tried to listen.
I tried to be present and just be a vessel for God.
Who does that look like in one to two minutes?
He's still working it out on me.
I'm very different than I was a month ago.
I'm very different honestly than who I was when I proposed to my fiance.
He's even grown me through that season.
So if that answers, I don't know, but that's what I got for you.
That's really good.
That's good.
I actually am curious, what's the name of that nonprofit?
I work for Neighborhood Resilience Project.
We operate in the Hill District, but we also operate on a county level.
What I do is I'm the director of nonviolence, but we are the conveners for a county wide
effort to stop gun violence.
So I meet with stakeholders and community members and try to bring them to the table
and address gun violence really, but what can they do to optimize it and what can they
do to work together?
Okay.
That's really good.
I had no idea.
That's really great.
You have said that throughout the whole Westmoreland County?
Allegheny County.
Allegheny.
Sorry.
Allegheny, not Westmoreland.
There's a few different things I do there.
I am actually right now the interim chief operating officer as well.
So part of the C-suite.
Like I said, God has me in a new season and every day looks different.
So I'm learning how to be in charge, but still being the same person, still recognizing that
these employees are looking to me for leadership.
They're looking to me for faith.
I'm still talking about faith.
It's a church that I work for really.
We are Christian based.
But then also doing the things that I do for the community, we also provide it.
We work with five different nonprofits to provide resources for students in the Stowe
Rocks community.
And so I work with those CEOs and those program managers to really figure out how can we bring
students or IE community members across the county resources.
That really just address root causes.
I don't even know if that was a question, but I wanted to say.
Is there a link or something that we can put in the show notes for that?
Yeah, I can send it to you, but honestly, if you just Google neighborhood resilience
project, it's right there.
Their mission really is to just inspire movement and to provide trauma informed community development
that would take communities who've suffered in trauma, who suffered in generations of
underserved and they try to help them transform to healing and healthy communities.
So it's just, as I said two years ago, I was a detective.
And when I left that job, I mean, you guys know, but it was a leap of faith and I had
no idea what I was going to do.
I had no idea what job I was going to do.
I just knew that God delivered me from that.
And we're talking about purpose.
Imagine telling your parents, hey, I left my almost six figure job with benefits.
Don't know what I'm going to do, but waiting on God.
My dad was like, I might put you in a whip because like, what are you talking about?
But when I told him that I knew for a fact that God had something different for me, all
he could do was say, okay, all right, let's pray on it.
And where I landed, it is literally only a work of God.
That's how I can talk about it.
It took him nine months to deliver me from where I was at, which like I said, I love
that job, you know, special victims unit.
I was working with women and children and people who were victims of crimes and empowering
them and giving them back their identity, right?
Helping them get there.
But, you know, there was a season for that.
But in nine months, he helped me get some mental health back.
I found out later, you know, I do have PTSD, but he gave me a job I didn't know existed,
but doing something that he knew that I would love before I even knew it was a thing.
I didn't apply for the job I'm in.
I applied actually for something called a trauma response coordinator because all I
know really, you know, I was a crisis negotiator and a detective.
All I know is trauma response.
But just through the grace of God, my director, or I'm sorry, my COO, she said, hey, so I
see that you applied for that, but you might be a little overqualified.
How would you like this?
And she gave me the details of the job, but she never said the title and she never said
the pay.
And through just trusting God, I had a generalized idea that I wanted to work for Neighborhood
Resilience Project.
So I accepted it.
And talking about purpose and how it was designed, somebody, you know, Robin Leah Galskowski,
who are, I believe, pastors over at Amplify, close friends of mine, they're going to be
in my wedding, you know, really close friends.
They told me, they were like, hey, this guy we know from Sacred Heart, it's around the
corner from Sanctuary.
He heard you had applied for Neighborhood Resilience Project and he wanted us to let
you know that he's praying that you get that job and that it is everything that you needed
to be.
And to be honest with you, in my thought process, should I go, you know, federal law enforcement
or should I take this chance on this nonprofit?
After I heard that, I said, I have not got any other sign from God other than this random
person I've never met before who's praying for me.
Neighborhood Resilience Project might be the right option, right?
So I take this leap of faith.
I don't even follow up on the federal government job, but like, don't tell my parents that
if you're watching, I'm sorry.
I let it go.
I didn't follow up.
I go to Neighborhood Resilience Project and it was the best decision I ever made.
And then now that guy actually works for Neighborhood Resilience Project.
So now we even get to operate in the same place.
But since then, like gentlemen, when I tell you that it has been a whirlwind of like,
I used to talk about being the change.
I used to operate as a detective and trying to change culture or change the system one
person at a time.
But now I work in politics and nonprofit politics and I get to hear people's ideas and then
help them implement this and help and talk to community members.
And I had no idea that I was going to be here, but God did, right?
And that part with, it took me trusting that God knew what my purpose was and that he knew
that this leap of faith, all I had to do was sit and remain and trust in him and I got
here.
So it's been truly a blessing.
And today, the reason I'm even high on that is today literally marks the start of my second
year.
So one full year has been completed.
Wow.
That's a blessing.
Dude, that is an amazing story.
Yeah.
That's really great.
You said like God knew where you were going to be and the faith that you had to have in
order to stick with that, in order to like hold out and just be like, I know God had
something for me and I know God has this for me and I know that then the confirmation came
and you had the faith that that was confirmation.
I think that's really cool.
That's inspiring.
Yeah, I definitely can't talk about that story without talking about the doubt though, and
I'll talk about trying to do in my own effort.
So in that nine months, I tried, I want to say three different jobs, right?
And it never felt right.
I worked for this place called Assemble.
What they do is amazing.
This is not like, I just wasn't a good fit for that, but they go into schools and areas
and they teach kids like STEM, right?
But I barely know anything about science.
Minnie was doing it.
She's like a science genius.
I'm trying to figure out how to craft and like put things together to teach it.
And I was like, okay, this was fun.
I love children.
That's why I went, but not a right fit.
And then I went to another, I won't say the names of these places anymore.
I went to a alternative school as a kind of like a guidance counselor.
Wasn't a good fit.
And people close to me kept saying like, you have to trust God.
You have to pray and trust God.
If you keep trying to do it in your own effort, you're going to wind up not happy.
And so it took three times for me to be like, okay, all right, I'm not going to just keep
applying to everywhere because it's hard to, if I was being honest and I love to be transparent,
it's hard to continue having faith and trust when bills are due, when you're wondering
how you're going to pay for your meal and all of that.
But I did.
And I ultimately ended up having to just submit and say, okay, I'm going to trust God here.
And then that sign came.
So I said, okay, this is how I'm going to do it.
This is the route I'm taking.
That's so powerful.
Thank you for touching on that.
Thank you for going in.
Thank you for touching on that.
Thank you for going into that because if you didn't go into that part of it, then it wouldn't
have been as relatable to other people who are like, well, I doubted.
So I doubted God.
So I guess I don't have a strong faith or there's people that can maybe even doubt themselves
if they hear sort of like that of somebody saying that, not saying that they didn't doubt,
but not saying that they did.
Even now as this supposed to be interim COO, I kept finding myself asking God, I'm not
qualified for what you have.
How did I get here?
And the answer really is only by God did I get here.
And so I would tell people who may be doubting themselves or may believe that they're not
qualified in their own right.
But if God had, and you hear it all the time, but by my story, even I was the youngest negotiator.
I was the youngest detective.
And then in a system that a lot of people said wasn't meant for me.
But I'll tell you this, as far as that, then going to the director of a nonprofit with
zero nonprofit experience, don't get me wrong, I do have a master's degree in public policy
and management.
And all of that, God will qualify you.
You just have to be a vessel.
And so that's what I will tell anybody is if you by having faith in being obedient to
his word got you to where you're at, then you're qualified because he has it for you.
And only by God will we have the power to continue to do this.
Because I mess up, I mess up at work.
I'm having to learn payroll and I've never done payroll before.
And people are serious about their money.
And so it gets a lot, but I work for an amazing CEO who his name is Father Paul Abernathy.
And it's his thing they call it a Paris sanctuary, Orthodox Christian.
But for me, he just shows the epitome that you still have to just trust God.
And working for a C-suite, this man will come in, he will ask for the world, and then be
like, you guys can figure it out.
And so trust me, it's like, we just have to just trust God.
He said, hey, how do you guys feel about making a change to juvenile justice?
And I'm like, okay.
He's like, all right, well, let's hear about this in like two weeks.
And a lot of CEOs operate like that.
And when I talk about purpose, I got into that work trying to just reduce gun violence,
bring people to the table, being the right stakeholders.
And now I possibly might have a chance to influence juvenile justice on a county, possibly
national level.
Not qualified for that.
But I have faith in God and I've been able to be obedient to his word and by that, through
the fellowship and also through Christian fellowship, I've been able to make contacts
with other Christians who are qualified for that.
And I went to this conference, I think it was called the Man Up Conference.
And I want to just so I can really highlight what I mean by doubting in all of this.
I think there was like a Steeler there, Mike Talman maybe, it was a big event.
But I got up and I asked, how do you operate as a Christian in politics?
Because I had already gotten in trouble for saying Jesus too much in this type of setting.
They said it was exclusionary to people.
Jesus loves everybody, but we'll get to that part.
But I had made connections with other men of God in that scenario who I ended up working
with back here in Pittsburgh.
And they have connections with other Christians and other people of faith who work in the
juvenile justice area.
So what I'm telling about purpose for me, I was doubting how am I going to do it and
then lost my faith of how am I going to be a vessel to let God do it, to get out of my
own way, let him do it, because he was already doing it.
And so now I've been able to find this cohort of Christians who love children and who can
bring their own expertise into it.
And we're all sitting here saying, okay, let's just be, Sean, you may have heard the word
a lot when I say it, but let's just be this ecclesia of Christians who are getting out
of the way and letting God in and we can affect the community.
So when we're talking about purpose, because I had to study this, guys.
I didn't want to come and not have any idea, but I also didn't want to be very fake and
just give you all these bookwork things because that's not how I operate.
So for me, purpose is, especially as a Christian, is finding a way to do what it is he's called
us to do, but getting out of the way for God.
And because if we're talking about crisis negotiation or detective work or COO work
or directive work, the only person who qualified me through my own experiences was God.
I hopefully all the time have a good heart and am kind to people, but I am just a man
and there's some people who don't like me.
There's some people who don't like the policies I hold or the direction I take the company
or anything like that.
But when I take myself out of it and just be obedient to his purpose, to his calling,
it's been one a wild ride, but honestly, it's so much easier.
It's just so much easier.
All right.
I'll get off that sub box for a second.
No, man.
I think that was really good.
Guys, thank you for listening to part one of this episode with Quentin Booth.
It was a great conversation that Sean and I had.
And while Sean is still out on basic training, keep him in your prayers and we'll see you
in part two.
All right.
See you next time.
All right.