About

Come to this page looking for my professional bio? Click here to read!  Watch this video below to get a good scoop about how my business came about, or feel free to read the personal bio below.

Life should be lived passionately.

Otherwise, we are all playing by another person’s game, and by rules we didn’t make ourselves.

Screw that!

My name is Lewis Howes and I want to tell you about the mission I’m on, and the purpose for which I live. Today I’m running a 7 figure business online, traveling around the world when I want, salsa dancing any chance I can get, and getting in the best shape of my life through CrossFit.

You might know me through one of the following ways:

• How to make it in the world of sports marketing
• How to build a webinar-driven business
• How to generate more leads and sales on LinkedIn

But my life wasn’t always this way. In the last four years I went from sleeping on my sister’s couch to building a million-dollar business. The journey has been an interesting one to say the least, and here’s how it all got started:

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Not many people can say they had a life-changing moment in 3rd grade, but I can (really!).

The football-playing build of my adulthood was preceded by what some would call an “awkward phase.” As an 8 year old, I was the childhood equivalent of a gangly 7 feet tall ogre. If it can be believed, my ears were growing faster than I was,and I was skinny enough that I had elbows sharper than a samurai sword.

Because of my height, though, I imagined I was King of the playground. I was already a beast at four square and tether ball, but one day, a new game was introduced.

It was the classic class dodge ball game and two of my peers were the team captains. With my previous tether ball victories under my belt, I figured I was a shoo-in for a first round pick.

Instead, I was picked dead last.  

I was even picked last over the nerds with glasses and EVERY SINGLE GIRL IN MY CLASS! In the fragile social stratosphere of 3rd grade, this was death.

Needless to say, I felt hurt, rejected and extremely lonely.

As an adult, I can see now how that moment has impacted my life and career, because I decided right then that never again would I get picked last for a sporting event or game.

Soon, I found myself heading to the gym or courts every night after school. I challenged myself to play basketball with the high school kids, and I wouldn’t come home until it felt like my stomach was eating itself from starvation.

I played every sport in school including Soccer, Football, Basketball, Wrestling, Swimming, Golf, Baseball, and Track & Field.  I was determined to achieve athletic excellence in anything I participated in…no matter how big or small the stakes.

The Social Media Jock?

Some people in the Social Media world think I’m a big shot athlete. It’s true that I was a two sport All-American (football and the decathlon), broke a world record for the most receiving yards in a single football game and went on to play professional football after college.  I even happened to win my school’s ping pong tournament, and once upon a time was ranked in the Top 100 of the World in Air Hockey (don’t hate on the air hockey!) .

Although I believe I’m a great athlete (and I’m happy to challenge you to a ping pong match if you disagree:)) I was never good enough of an athlete to make it to the NFL.

That’s right. All that hard work, the training, and harnessing that fear of being picked last wasn’t enough to get me to the NFL. In short, I felt like I had failed…BIG time.

Making It “Big Time”

Despite not making it to the NFL, I did have an all-too-short career in Arena Football. Thanks to a career ending injury, my season was over almost before it began. During the second game of the season I was running to catch a football, and gracefully dove…right into the wall.  Although the walls were padded, it didn’t stop my wrist bone from snapping in half.

(But don’t I at least look sexy in my rookie football card? )
I thought I was tough enough to just “tape it up” and play out the remaining 14 games of the season, only to find that I had to have surgery at the end of the year because my bone had crumbled by the end of the season.  Here’s me right after getting a bone taken out of my hip and placed into my wrist. Talk about rock bottom:

At least I had fun even though I was in pain the entire season with a broken wrist.  Here is a brief segment of me salsa dancing during football practice

and a few highlights of me scoring touchdowns

 

The End of a Dream

Most non-athletes don’t realize what happens to athletes emotionally once they finish their career. 78% of NFL athletes go bankrupt two years after they retire, and many other athletes face severe depression when they are done because their entire life they focus all of their energy to playing a sport. When it’s over they have no real world working experience to show for it, and therefore most aren’t sure what they are doing to do after the game.

I was in that same situation for six months while sleeping on my sister’s couch, eating the extra mac and cheese in the cabinet because I was broke, and unable to find a job because:

1. I hadn’t finished my college degree yet, and,
2. No one would hire someone with a huge full arm cast during the economic downturn.

Although things could have been much worse, I was feeling a deep sense of depression of what to do next in my life.

Make Your Own Game, Create Your Own Rules

Finally, I just decided I wasn’t going to be depressed. I wasn’t going to let a set back get me down.  I wasn’t going to let even a career ending injury of my biggest passion in the entire world hold me back from being great at other aspects of life, and really doing what I love best… inspiring others.

I became a student of a new game other than football.

I learned that there is no set playbook for being an Internet entrepreneur because the game is being invented as we go along. I’ve applied everything I know about performance, discipline, and excellence in sports to building my businesses today.

Whether it’s through my sports business, developing membership sites, creating products, writing books, speaking on stage, presenting with webinars, or connecting with individuals and helping them achieve their goals… this is all part of playing my own game and teaching others how to do the same. I’ve been my operating by my own playbook and making the new rules of the game with any situation I undertake in business, relationships and life. You can too.

My goal these days is to play to my highest potential and exceed my reach in everything I undertake. I love making connections and making champions out of my friends and business affiliates as without them–my teammates–I wouldn’t be where I am today.

My journey continues. From a kid who was picked last on the playground, to breaking world records and falling short of my dream of making the NFL… to reinventing myself out of necessity. I’ve now learned how to create my own game in business, to live financially free and on my own terms.

Playing with Passion

I know what it feels like to be unappreciated, an outsider, and left out. That’s why I’ve always wanted to make others feel comfortable about themselves. I still remember what it was like to get picked last on the school yard, or to have a dream of becoming a professional athlete only to have that dream railroaded before it really even began.

What I like about Internet marketing is that there are no scouts and coaches in the online world. The beauty of it is that you get to create your own game and you don’t have to ask for permission… because no one can pick you last when you set the rules. And, it’s much easier to win a game of your own creation, right?

This is the mission I’m on… this is the game I’m playing.  My goal is to cut the BS and scammy info and only bring the best information I can to my audience to show them how to play their own game with their own passions and on their own terms.

If that’s a philosophy that appeals to you, let’s stay in touch. Sign up here for my FREE weekly newsletter to find out how I’m writing the next chapters in my life, business, and travel (and receive some fun marketing tips as well!).

Let’s keep re-writing the rules on how to do business.

(Hey! You made it! Here are a couple of videos I’ve done that explain a little more about who I am and what I love to do.)

Some might call me a “global vagabond”. While I love to travel, and currently spend a majority of my time in New York City, here’s a great video about where I call home:

This is a quick video of my story on what happened during my first webinar… and how the light bulb went off for me on building a BIG online business.

Here is a fun one I did with Bryan from Behind the Brand

 

Also, if you want to learn more about me and how I built my business then watch this interview I did with my good friend David Garland from TheRiseToTheTop.com (p.s. I’m very open and honest here so I hope you enjoy