Feb. 22, 2026
From Failure to Fortune: Joel Steele's Blueprint for Transforming Life and Finances
Send a text In this empowering episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we sit down with Joel Steele, an accomplished finance expert, author, and speaker with over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Joel shares his remarkable journey from near bankruptcy and personal struggles to becoming a successful entrepreneur focused on helping others achieve their health and wealth goals. He opens up about his transformative book, *Life Switch*, which details his path to success and th...
In this empowering episode of Living the Dream with Curveball, we sit down with Joel Steele, an accomplished finance expert, author, and speaker with over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. Joel shares his remarkable journey from near bankruptcy and personal struggles to becoming a successful entrepreneur focused on helping others achieve their health and wealth goals. He opens up about his transformative book, *Life Switch*, which details his path to success and the mindset shifts that enabled him to rise above adversity. Joel discusses the importance of developing a clear vision for your life, the connection between physical health and financial success, and how to cultivate a winning mindset. He also provides practical tips for managing time between business and family, and emphasizes the power of belief in achieving extraordinary results. Join us for an inspiring conversation that will motivate you to take charge of your life and pursue your dreams with unshakeable confidence. Don’t forget to check out Joel's book at bookjoelsteel.com and help him reach his goal of selling one million copies to support charity!
www.bookjoelsteele.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
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> Curtis Jackson>Welcome to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. If you believe you can achieve.
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> Curtis Jackson>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today, I am joined by author, speaker, speaker, and accomplished finance expert, Joel Steele. Joe has been an accomplished finance expert for 20 years, and he is the co owner of a leading financial firm. But he'd rather be known as the best father, husband, and person that he can be. Joe uses his advice to help others learn and not make the same mistakes that he has made. And he has helped thousands of people with their health and wealth. So we're gonna be talking to Joel about why he does what he does and everything that he's up to and gonna be up to. So, Joel, thank you for joining me.
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> Joel Steele>Thank you for having me. this is a pleasure. I'm happy to be with you. I've been looking forward to this. It's been circled on my calendar for a while.
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> Curtis Jackson>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself? And we're glad to have you.
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> Joel Steele>Thank you. It's. Yeah. I've become an author, a speaker, a financial expert, and all. Before this happened, I was a nobody. I was going nowhere. I almost ended up in jail, I almost ended up in bankruptcy, and I almost got shot on five different occasions. So I come a long way from where I started. And people ask me often, well, what changed? who did you talk to? Who were your mentors? And what happened was I flipped my switch. Right. My book is called Life Switch. And I think that people are living on or they're living off. And for most of my life, I was living off. I was wandering around, seeing what was going to happen, hoping bad things wouldn't happen. I wasn't playing to win. I was playing to not lose.
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> Joel Steele>And there's a big difference, Curtis. And ultimately, I got fed up being average to below average in everything that I was doing, from academics, athletics, physically, financially, you name it. And I just land on the brakes. I said, enough. And I started to think, why not me? Why can't I be one of these people that is out there living their best life, accomplishing and achieving? And that's when I did exactly what your intro said. I started to believe, and then I started to achieve. And that's how everything changed for me. And that's how everything can change for anybody listening today.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, let's talk about your biggest failure. To talk about what that biggest failure was and how did you turn that biggest failure into your biggest success.
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> Joel Steele>All right, let me lay down on the couch here and we'll get into that one. Yeah. So my biggest failure, was an absolute massive failure. So what happened was after I had all these different series of success, I built my body, I built some finances up, I built my mental game to be very strong. And after achieving a lot of little things, I decided to set my sights really big and open up a healthy fast food restaurant chain at, 20 some years old. Because I was passionate about helping people eat healthier and just be more physically fit. So I was convinced that that was my key and my tickets of success. And I was totally planning on having a lot of success in the restaurant business. Being a restaurateur over a several year period, I realized that it was a very difficult business. And I continued to try to climb that mountain. Ultimately, I got knocked off the mountain and plummeted down. And I thought I was done. I thought I was going to have no chance of success in anything. And really I thought I might have a massive heart attack. But I was only 24 years old when this all happened. So I'm feeling crushed, I'm feeling catatonic, I can't move, I don't know what to do. Nobody and nothing can save me. And I realized that, you know what, I'm not going to just sit here and die. I've got to get up, I've got to do something because I'm too young and there's enough time left to figure this out so slowly, one day at a time. I put one foot in front of the other and I had to dig myself out of debt that I had from the restaurant in today's dollars of $750,000. So it was a significant hole that I was in. I realized that I could either try to claim bankruptcy, but I would be considered a failure, a loser. I would never be able to shake that. And I decided that I was going to admit defeat in the restaurant failure, but I wasn't going to accept it. I was going to still chase after the dream and vision I had of success and being an entrepreneur. It was just going to have to be a different industry, a different business. And that's when I pivoted to the financial services industry back in 2004. Because in that business, the reason people don't like that business is because it's commission based.
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> Joel Steele>You don't have a salary, you start every month at zero. But Curtis, that was the best thing I'd heard in years. Because with my restaurant, I was starting negative $20,000 in a hole every month.
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> Joel Steele>So when they told me I was starting in zero, I thought that was the best thing I heard in years.
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> Joel Steele>And so over time, I bet on myself, and I built that business up one day at a time. I couldn't control what people would tell me, but I could control my activity. And so I worked as much as I could to dig out of that massive debt, and I was able to do that in a relatively short period of time.
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> Curtis Jackson>Do you feel like there is a secret to, success?
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> Joel Steele>I think there's a lot of secrets to success, and some of the secrets are the fact that there really aren't secrets. There is just strategy and hard work. And so I actually have a simple formula for success, and it's for anybody in any line of work.
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> Joel Steele>Step one is figure out what needs to be done. Step two is go out and do it every single day.
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> Curtis Jackson>Do you feel like there is a connection between being healthy and wealthy?
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> Joel Steele>I do. I do not because it's so much about being in good shape, but it's the mindset. People that want to be in their best shape physically, mentally, they understand that they can control things. They do control things more than any other person or any other source. So if you think about it this way, everybody is writing the script to their own story, like a movie. Everyone's writing the own.
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> Joel Steele>Their own movie to their own life. And if you don't actively participate in writing that story, somebody and something else is to going to Reddit for you. So when people decide I'm going to be physically fit, they are taking control. They're making the choice to be in good shape. And those people, once they do that, they usually realize, well, I can apply this to other things. I personally feel when I'm in better shape that I am more sharp, agile, physically, and in the in business as well. So I personally find there to be some synergy. but I know people that aren't in great shape and are successful too. But I think it all starts in your mind. You have to have a strong mind, mindset, discipline to have success in anything.
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> Curtis Jackson>What do you feel like is the first thing a sinner can do to begin living their best life?
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> Joel Steele>M First thing you can do and should do is to develop a vision in your mind. So you don't need any tools, you don't need to buy or subscribe to anything for this, but you come up with a vision in your mind, a picture of what you want your life to look like. Because if you're going to be writing this movie or building this puzzle, this masterpiece, you have to know what you're trying to build, right? What it looks like without that.
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> Joel Steele>You don't know if you're making progress or not.
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> Joel Steele>You don't know if you're getting hotter or colder towards that goal, that destination. And so if you start with a vision and you think about this vision often, if you can, you get it down on paper. You can't get it down on paper. You get it down on something that you can listen to. Right. I have, different things that I have quotes. I don't just have quotes that I read, I have quotes that I play back to me because I want them burned in my brain, almost like a tattoo, so I don't forget them even when things are difficult. So, so to answer your question, again, sum it up. Come up with a vision of what you want your life to look like. Get it down on paper or audio and refer back to it often. Because what will happen is your mind and your body will gravitate towards it the more it's on the forefront of your mind. That's step one. Absolutely.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, how do you manage your time between business and family? Because I know both, you know, your family and stuff is very important to you as well.
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> Joel Steele>Yeah. Well, I manage all the passionate, the passions I have in my life. So being with my family, being part of a couple sports teams that I'm in the ownership group, running my financial business, being an author and speaker, I love being in front of people to try to inspire, entertain and guide them, I, I just get high on life. The busier I am, the more energy and electricity I find is going through my veins.
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> Joel Steele>Specifically because I'm excited to be doing these things. I, heard a long time ago, if you can blend the two things, one, that you're really good at and two, that you love doing, you're going to go far in life. And so that's what I've been doing.
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> Joel Steele>I've been taking the things that I love and I'm passionate about and I'm figuring out a way to get them all into each and every day. Because I'm home at dinner almost every single night with my family. I'm working hard on my business, whether I'm in the office or on the road. I'm promoting my book, I'm in front of people, on stage, in front of my computer, on the phone, all the time. 24 hours a day is actually, I think, more time than people Realize you can squeeze things in. So if you're passionate about it, you will find a way.
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> Joel Steele>So identify your passions. It's another step here.
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> Joel Steele>Identify your passion and figure out how you can incorporate them into and around the other things that you're probably not as excited to do. Maybe your day job, you don't have to quit your job, but you have to find ways to inject passion into your day, in or around your work and everything else that you have to do.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, for someone out there who might be listening, who wants to go from ordinary to extraordinary life and go from plateau to peak performance, what are some best practice tips that you recommend that they do?
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> Joel Steele>Yeah, on top of what we talked about, what I would say is this. Ask yourself the question, if you had all the money in the world and you never had to work again, what would you do with your time? What would today look like? What would tomorrow look like? And then the question, once you figure that out, right? what, what you really enjoy doing, maybe what you thought about as a kid. Is there any of that that you can do today? Because the people that are doing really well are doing generally doing it with a smile on their face.
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> Joel Steele>They're, happy to get out of bed. They're excited to see what they can make happen again. They're not seeing what happens, they're making things happen. So it goes back to what I said a little earlier, is figure out what you're passionate about, what you're good at, and also define what your purpose is. Like any business has a defined mission statement or purpose. And what's yours. It was a great quote by Mark Twain. He said, the two most important days of your life are the day that you're born and the day you figure out why. When you figure out why and you're doing things you're passionate about and you realize that anything is possible, it's amazing. That's how you live on.
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> Joel Steele>That's how you thrive. That's how you feel electricity going through your veins. And that's how you can get anything done that you wanted to and need to get done each day. So, look, it's not easy, right? We know we need to exercise and diet.
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> Joel Steele>It's not easy. But these are some of the simple tips of what you should do and can do. But it's up to each person to make it happen. So it's a choice. That's how you decide between ordinary and extraordinary.
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> Curtis Jackson>Well, talk to the listeners about your, your writings. tell us, what inspired you to write it and what you hope listeners get from it and what we can expect when we check it out and where can we get it?
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> Joel Steele>Yeah, sure, yeah. You can learn more about the book and me and why I did it. You can visit my website book joel steel.com Steel, has an E on the end book Joel steel.com the book is called Life Switch. You can find it on Amazon and hard cover, audiobook and ebook, all three versions. And I wrote the book because I just felt that I had gone through so many things, good and especially bad and some, some experiences have been ugly where I didn't know if I was going to survive. And it just hit me one day about 10 years ago that there's a lot I went through and there's so much more value that can be extracted out of it if I share the honest full tilt story. Right? No holding back unedited about what I went through and how hard it was emotionally, mentally, physically, sometimes.
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> Joel Steele>And I shared that with people because I really think it can help people save time, money and misery and ultimately get from their point A, where they're at right now in their life to where they want to go. That vision we talked about, that's point B. I think I could really help people get from point A to point B much easier, much quicker and more intact. And look, if more people are happy, fulfilled, living their best life, ultimately it's going to be a better world. So I decided to put that in black and white on paper and the audiobook.
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> Joel Steele>And the final thing I mentioned about this Curtis, is if the book Life Switch sells 1 million copies, I'm going to personally donate $1 million to charity. So I'm excited about that.
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> Curtis Jackson>Absolutely. Well, tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of.
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> Joel Steele>Curtis. That is all I'm doing. I. All those things I mentioned, running my business, being a speaker, traveling around the country, speaking, promoting the book, doing signing, spending time with family, getting to the sports games that I can get to. that is a full schedule. There's nothing else I want to be doing. So that's all I'll be doing.
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> Joel Steele>Maybe there'll be a follow up book in 10, 15 years, but that's, that's it for now. I'm fully committed to having Life Switch sell 1 million copies. So that is where I'm at all.
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> Curtis Jackson>Ah, right. Book JoeSteel with a e.com so close us out with some final thoughts.
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> Curtis Jackson>Maybe if that was something I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.
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> Joel Steele>Yeah, I just want to sum this up, that everybody listening, everyone who's listening is capable of living an extraordinary life. However you define that and anything is possible. You have to take that saying and swallow it like a pill so it runs through your entire body because you need to believe it. People oftentimes have the enemy within it's doubt. Doubt is people's kryptonite.
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> Joel Steele>It's their own worst enemy. And it's the primary thing that can stop you from living that extraordinary life. So remove doubt. I, say delete doubt from your life. Anytime it pops up, you want to skip it like a song you don't want to hear.
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> Joel Steele>Don't doubt yourself. Believe anything is possible. You believe it, you can achieve it. And I know when you fully believe this and have an unshakable belief in yourself, you will reach out in six months or six years and say, you're right.
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> Joel Steele>Look what I did. So go out and do it. You know what to do. Go out and do it all.
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> Curtis Jackson>right, ladies and gentlemen. And one thing you need to go out and do is go to bookjoesteel with an e.com and help Joel get to that million copies and follow rate review, share this episode to as many people as possible so he can get to know million copies as quick as possible. Also, another thing I would like for you to do is sign up for the Living the Dream newsletter and follow the show. Leave us a review. You can do that by going to www.craveball337.com and share and share the website to, everybody that you know. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. And Joel, thank you for all that you do and thank you for joining me.
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> Joel Steele>Thank you. Take care.
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> Curtis Jackson>For more information on the Living the Dream with Curveball Podcast, visit www.craveball337.com until next time, keep living the dream.
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