We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Howes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
OOO I love talking about risks. From the moment I was born, I always knew I was not here to live by a societal standard.. no matter how uncomfortable I was (or still am sometimes) doing something that goes ‘against society’, I have made many decisions that are seen as crazy and/or stupid.
One of the biggest risks I took was dropping out college. Fun story. Let’s get into it : )
I had never liked school and I always felt like something was missing. I felt like I was being molded into something I was not to just join a workforce of unhappy people who would be doing anything else but. In me particular, what fueled and fuels my fire is travel. I knew in university that if I was to continue along my major of biomedical engineering, I would almost certainly not be able to travel for a living or even for most of my life. This realization really, really hit me when I studied abroad in France 2020.
It’s crazy how being in a different environment will change your perspective and being there really changed mine. As a stressed out sophomore in second term, I saw how laidback the students were there, and most importantly how they did not stress about juggling a ‘work-life balance.’ I would constantly compare that to my next semester back home junior fall 2020 and think about how much I really didn’t like engineering. I was always a social butterfly in college, but it felt like I couldn’t be with the hours upon hours of coursework that engineering pilled on top of me. Couple this with my intense desire for financial freedom and trying to start my own brand , not once.. not twice.. not three times.. but four .. FOUR times in the span of two years in college and I realized that it all just couldn’t work out.
I was spread thin. It was college. It was travel. It was financial freedom. It was hours upon hours of coursework for engineering. Which ones would I choose?
Fast forward to that Junior year fall semester 2020, I enrolled in an entrepreneurship class and by God was it the best decision I ever made. My innovated side REALLY kicked in and we ended up winning the competition as me with CEO. I STUNNED the VC there and that’s when I really , really realized that I’m good at things outside of engineering. At the time, I was relatively active on my youtube channel and I let my mind wander by asking it the simple question: “hmm.. I wonder what else I’m good at..?”
Within 2 months, I got a financial internship for a company abroad and decided that if I was ‘good’ at videography, I was innovative, and I genuinely disliked my college major for a variety of reasons, it made absolutely no sense to go back to college.
Well, I didn’t : )
and it is one of the best decisions I ever made. Getting there after I made the decision was not easy. Telling my mom was not easy. Telling the rest of my family was not easy. Hearing everyone call me ‘priviledged’ or ‘ungrateful’ or ‘stupid’ was hard. But damn am I glad I did it ..
Where I’m at today, traveling, and having my own business, I’d say it was a very nice risk to take and an even better reward :)
Michael, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
What makes a journey interesting?
Really, I’d like you to think about this.
Is it the glory? The big payoff? The fame? The journey is the reward? What is it?
For me, it’s who you become along the way and who you meet along the way.
There are many things I have learned with three of them being:
1. Life can never take away your character
2. Friends and important
3. Success nor failure never happen alone
Back to the dropping out of college story :)
Mid sophomore year, a friend.. a very very old friend – bless her soul, reached out to me and recommended a book for me to read. It was called ‘Becoming Supernatural’ by Dr. Joe Dispenza.
I’ve always done my best to keep an open mind, so I read this and I was just WOWed.
From then on out, my conscious desire to grow my mindset kicked in. I really and adopted the mindset that if “One person can do it, so can I.”
I became obsessed with self-development and making my life better . I started meditating, taking cold showers, working out more and it all compounded into where I am now.
I’ve had many ups and many downs, with a few of them being financial, a few being health, and a few being lost friends.
Financially, I have gone broke 3 times.
Health wise, I have felt the effect of 3 years of burn out and almost died from being sick.
With friends, my friend group now is completely different.
This all adds up: keep listening : )
One of the people I met in Los Angeles (the place I went after I dropped out) – yes I dropped out AND moved across the country because I can . And guess what if I can, you can too : )
She told me something that always stuck with me: She said: “What would you do with your days, how would you serve your purpose, if you had no money to do so?”. Well, it took me 3 times going broke to realize there was something I was still doing every time. It was learning about and talking about mindset.
After reading over 100 books and going through a many life changing experiences, I decided to open up my own program that helped individuals with low confidence and bad habits to become the voice, the true voice, in their life.
Currently, I help young professionals with 2 different services:
First: I help open-minded young professionals become expressive high performers.
Second: I help ambitious young professionals become a coach and make $10K in 30 days.
I genuinely believe one of the most impactful things we can do on this planet is teach. However that means. Teaching is both one of the nicest and humblest things to do , as well as the greatest teacher itself. Often the teaching teaches the teacher more than the student : )
With both of my programs at Our New Energy, I approach problems from a very emotional intelligent point of view as well as spiritual point of view and here’s an example:
Spiritually-wise, everything.. every single thing you see, hear, taste, touch, feel, etc.. everything is energy
Therefore with our fears, with our problems, especially with our problems, all that gets to be done is shift that energy and that is what I focus on. I think a lot of people try to force themselves to do things, and if this works, great! For my clients and I, I believe there are better ways: change your perspective by zooming out and asking: “Would I have even done this 3 months ago? Probably not.. Hm.. I should give myself more credit. Hmm.. Now since I feel better about giving myself more credit, I would love to do this thing that will challenge me!!”
That to me, and my clients, is a lot better, and easier : ) , than trying to force our way through things.
As my mentor is a spiritual medium , she has taught me many things. At Our New Energy, we do our best to focus on ‘we’ and a together perspective, rather than a ‘you/ I problem’ and a separate/alone perspective.
One of the main things we teach at ONE is that it all starts with you. Be the change you want to see in the world and most importantly, be before you do. As the leader, I know this starts with me.
People can feel intention. Be love. Be giving. Be you, before you do :)
As someone who’s failed by burnout and financial illiteracy, I hope everyone reading this can have the courage to reach out, ask questions, and learn from someone who’s already failed at what they are currently failing at. We’re all failing at something and that’s perfectly okay. What is better is to challenge yourself and ask for help. Be vulnerable. Be courageous. This is how not only you, but how we all grow : )
There is one thing, that I absolutely love to say and that is:
“The things you don’t express have power over you. The things you express you have power over..”
It’s that simple
Today, I challenge you to express ONE thing that you have not let yourself express because of fear. Do it : ) You can do it, if I can do it :)
Raise your energetic standards, now. Because it’s not one day, it’s day ONE BABY!!!
How did you build your audience on social media?
OOO Today today today there is so much , so much on how to : *mhmm* “Build your brand on social media”
If I could give one, and only one, tip for you and my past self, it would be:
Be ENTHUSIASTIC!!
I am not an expert. Neither are you. Well, maybe you are. Who knows right?
Regardless, nobody or maybe a few people, but many people don’t like to listen to someone monotone. It’s boring. It’s bland. It’s ‘inhuman.’
On social media today, the way I built my brand is owning that fact that I don’t know everything damn near immediately and being enthusiastic about what I do know. Why?
What I do know has changed my life and I know it has the power to change yours. So by all means I’m going to be excited and enthusiastic about sharing it : )
Everyone I feel knows how to grow on social media already: be consistent, be willing to experiment, be ready to fail, etc… but what I feel most people don’t *yet* understand, is really just how important it is that you be enthusiastic.
Anyone will be willing to listen to you on social media if you’re enthusiastic and lead with the intention to give value, not to gain followers.
This is a lesson I learned. Learn it now and grow your brand faster and most importantly HELP PEOPLE MORE!!! : )
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Honestly, be honest.
But first, be honest with yourself. And this is the hard part if you haven’t been.
You genuinely ‘need’ to see what your why is. Your why should be so powerful that it empowers you to act, always and is almost like a fire under your ass.
The best strategy I have for growing my clientele is being curious. So many people try to fake being curious and I understand why. I’ve been there. I’ve done it. You wanna know why you’re doing it..?
It’s because you’re not being curious enough about yourself. It all starts with you. You need to be curious about yourself and become your own best friend before you go be curious about other people : )
People can smell intention from a mile away and if you lead with the intention to give, people will reward you TENFOLD. They might not become your customers, but they will tell people something about you.
This goes to my next strategy: give people an experience and by all means do I do that. Every time I end a call , my clients and I have a standard that for 10 seconds we go absolutely CRAZY!! This means that every time someone speaks with me in my business they have AT LEAST one experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
Give with the best intentions and give experiences: these are two intentions and strategies that have helped me grow my clientele and will certainly help you grow your clientele. You must give from a full cup because people, even you right now, can feel it : )
Contact Info:
- Website: ournewenergy.co
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/michae17l
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/michaelhowes