A man who faced sexual abuse and neglect as a child – and was drawn to a life of crime – has managed to completely turn his life around.
Lewis Raymond Taylor is a 32-year-old entrepreneur who founded The Coaching Masters, a £25m business offering support for aspiring life coaches.
This achievement is particularly impressive as only seven years ago Lewis was serving his third prison sentence.
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He was dealing with the affects of a very difficult early life filled with crime, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health disorders and a string of self-sabotaging behaviour.
Speaking with the Daily Star, Lewis explained how the abuse and rough life he endured shaped who he is today.
“My time in the young offender's institution was chaos. Everyone there wanted to prove themselves, prove themselves to be the bigger and badder inmate with the longest sentence,” he told us.
“There were often fights, people running in with tuna cans stuffed in socks, smashing you in the head in the morning and stealing your canteen, one of the few luxuries you get while in prison.”
Growing up, Lewis was the victim of verbal and physical abuse, which left him with low self-esteem and a fear of failure.
After experiencing sexual abuse at 11 years old, Lewis went on a downward spiral of crime and anti-social behaviour.
When he was 13 he was arrested on multiple occasions for shoplifting, starting fires and criminal damage.
At the age of 14, he had an Antisocial Behaviour Order – and by the time he was 15, he was expelled from school.
Lewis celebrated his 18th birthday in a young offenders institution and the following years were rife with violence and substance abuse.
He suffered a variety of injuries because of this – such as a broken jaw, knocked-out teeth and his oesophagus being slashed with a knife. He was also hooked up to an ECG machine multiple times due to cocaine use.
Lewis was eventually moved to a mainstream, adult prison for those who are aged 21 and over.
At the age of 24, he was serving his third prison sentence for violently attacking a man when he decided to turn his life around.
“I started to access the resources that were available to me and the rehabilitation offered to me which I was blinded to before,” he said.
“I used the time to reflect and think about what I wanted to do with my life and found a lot of peace in the process. There was no pressure to try and be anyone, or do anything other than to think, plan and work on me.
“I enrolled in maths and english functional skills level one. I started going to the gym, reading from the library and going through rehabilitation in prison.
“I was given the opportunity to leave prison and go into a six-month rehabilitation program which I would not have had access to if I'm grateful I could take advantage of those services available to me.”
Lewis says that everything he’s experienced has taught him a lot about how to help other people, which is what ultimately led him to life coaching.
Now he is the founder of The Coaching Masters, a seven-figure business offering innovative online coaching for aspiring life coaches.
“The abuse I went through in my early years has helped me become who I am today, helped me become a better coach with a better understanding of how the mind works,” he shared.
“It's also made me someone who is resilient, who can push through a lot of fear and uncertainty where others might struggle. This has been one of the advantages of being through what I went through.”
One of the disadvantages of the trauma that Lewis has been through is the fact he wasn't aware of it at the time so didn't know how to manage it.
Sadly, he says he allowed all of his negative experiences to sabotage his life.
“My thoughts dictated my feelings which in turn led to bad choices and results, and what I saw in my outer world. I was operating on autopilot and the difference now is awareness,” he reflected.
“Abuse is something that can hold you back and make you feel like life isn't worth living or you can become aware of it, process it and see it as a gift which you're able to share to ensure others don't get into the same situation.”
Becoming a life coach and founder of The Coaching Masters has changed Lewis’ life.
It has allowed him the freedom to travel, to work in a field that he finds rewarding and fulfilling and it gives him the financial freedom to live life how he wants.
When he was younger, he never thought he’d be where he is now, and he didn’t even think that university was for someone like him.
“Despite this, there has always been a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I'm here for something big and I realise that's a contradictory feeling,” Lewis said.
“On the one hand I felt useless like I had nothing to offer, but there was also this strange feeling inside that there was something big for me that I couldn't comprehend and I guess I was right.
“Being a life coach in itself is amazing but the fact I get to help other life coaches and other people, making life coaching available to the masses means I get to make a real mark on the world."
The Coaching Masters was launched in 2017 and now boasts thousands of members and a 100% year-on-year growth.
Lewis now works all over the world as a motivational speaker and was named by Yahoo! Finance as one of the top ten coaches in the world helping people to thrive in the pandemic.
The business works on a membership fee model starting at £8 per month, allowing members access to 100s hours of coaching content, the option to enrol for accreditation and further courses and workshops.
The Coaching Masters are Crowdfunding this October and are set to raise an estimated £1.7m investment to scale their business internationally, and develop CoachApp a new innovative app bringing VR and AI to the learning experience. Find out more here.
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