We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luke Mizel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Luke, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Doing parkour isn’t necessarily the most lucrative career path. You’re required to train as if you’re in the NFL, as top athletes are working out twice a day, 6 days a week, in order to stay in competitive shape, yet the star athletes get paid less than the janitors for said NFL teams. I made a name for myself in the sport, competed in 5X world championship competitions, yet was still not monetizing my passion. Competing cost me more than I made, and my body’s injuries were stacking up rapidly. Now, doing parkour full-time was the goal — the mission. But, something needed to change. I knew If I wanted to find a way to be successful in a growing sport, I was going to need to learn how to monetize myself outside of the sport itself. I pivoted into pitching myself to brands as a highly-talented dynamic model for commercials, which slowly gave myself opportunities to get good in front of a camera. After being diligent in this pursuit, more doors opened, and I landed TV show appearances on ESPN’s World Chase Tag & American Ninja Warrior. It was in those moments, I realized, I could also be the guy behind the camera. In 2023, I started experimenting with content creation, leveraging that same passion and skill for parkour but across the internet instead of strictly in niche communities. That evolved into a full business where I now produce UGC for brands worldwide, as well as run a thriving YouTube channel where I still share my parkour roots. It was a long journey, but God made it happen in His timing, for which I am eternally grateful.

Luke, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Luke Mizel, and to keep it simple, I’m a parkour athlete and online content creator. I’ve been training parkour for over 10 years, and during that time, I’ve competed around the entire world: China, France, Mexico, Bulgaria, Canada, etc. Some people may know me better from my TV show appearances on ESPN’s World Chase Tag and NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. Those are my roots, but in time, I started focusing less on being an athlete and more on being a creative. I now do UGC full-time, creating dynamic content for companies to use in order to promote their product or other services across social media, often leveraging my parkour abilities in those pieces of content. I have gotten my clients hundreds of millions of views across socials now, garnering countless sales and increased exposure. I have an entire team behind me that helps with the creative process from start to finish, creating beautiful projects with a fraction of the budget. My personal YouTube channel also has over 1.2 million subscribers, where I continue sharing my parkour training.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout high-school, I was brainwashed into thinking my goals and dreams had to be accomplished myself. This was something nobody did to me, but rather, I did to myself. If I asked for help, I saw it as weakness. I didn’t let many people into my pursuits, or even aspirations, as I feared pushback, mockery, and failure. I even closed the door on God when it came to my life, as if He wasn’t aware of my goals He placed in my heart. I came from a large, goal-driven family, where everyone was a highly successfully individual. Naturally, wanting to create my own script rather than follow the proven formula, I greatly feared what people would say, and often got teased in my circles when vocalizing trying to make a career out of the meme from The Office.

In college, that changed. I opened the doors to a new community, and found myself supported by people in my circle pushing and rooting for my success. This was something my Dad specifically encouraged me to do, find a new group that would enhance the quality of my life and push me closer to God: And that is exactly what this group did. Instead of Luke vs. The World, it became Luke, Jesus, and Luke’s friends and family working in unison to push up towards the goal. My success is due to God, His provision in the circle he placed me in, and His wisdom spoken through those people. It’s simple: Once I was willing to let God steer the boat everything started moving easier.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I didn’t do anything special, and I truly don’t believe my online success has anything to do with me as a person, it has everything to do with this one fact: I did it longer than everyone else and when other people gave up I didn’t. If you do anything long enough, you’re eventually going to get good at it. Social Media is a game of consistency, adaptability, and the willingness to learn, that’s it. It’s not hard, but it’s HARD WORK, and you need to be patient. Take your time, find your why, and don’t lose hope when it gets hard.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lukemizel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journalofluke/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukemizel/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lukemizel
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@journalofluke?lang=en