Cherry Hill, NJ native Joel Steele, best known for his book Life Switch: How to Experience the Power of Living On by Discovering Your Potential, Passion, and Purpose, has always been a go-getter. When he sets his mind to something, he makes it happen. How many people can say that they opened their own restaurant chain in their early 20s? This unique road led Steele to where he is today—a successful business owner, motivational speaker, and now bestselling author.
Of course, Joel Steele did not become successful overnight. His career started at Stockton University, where he got his Bachelor’s degree in Business. After graduating, he founded Thinkers Grille, which had been a longtime dream of his, as he explained, “When I would look at jobs… It kind of felt like you're just going into a box, and you're kind of confined by that box… I figured, you know, ‘I've just got to start my own business at some point…’ I decided to take it to the next level and then open a real business, open a restaurant chain.” Unfortunately, by April 2004, all Thinkers Grille locations had closed permanently. The few years that followed were some of the roughest for Steele, as at just 24 years old, he had $800,000 in debt. It caused Steele to make many wrong choices, as he almost wound up in jail and nearly died several times. Luckily, Steele is an optimist and saw this failure as a good lesson, as he stated, “[Thinkers Grille] was the biggest failure of my life, but that also was used as a catalyst to then lead to the greatest success I've ever had in my life… It's not about failing. It's about having a vision of where you're trying to take yourself… taking whatever comes at you and figuring out how to use it to your advantage.”
More than twenty years later, Joel Steele has completely turned his life around and has a story to share. After Thinkers Grille’s closure, Steele spent years digging himself out of a hole with the right mindset. He has since pursued various ventures, including serving as a fitness trainer, founding Steele Financial Solutions, speaking as a motivational speaker, serving as an owner and investor, serving as a board member for various businesses, and winning an NBA championship ring. Steele’s most recent venture is authoring his book Life Switch, which he did not follow a traditional process for. In fact, a rough draft of Life Switch had been sitting around on his computer for eight years before he launched it. It was around Thanksgiving 2016 when a switch went off in Joel Steele’s brain that inspired him to share the business lessons he had learned, as he recalled, “I was sitting there… being grateful for all these things in my life, and I just had this life switch moment to say, ‘hey, you need to share this information with other people.’... sharing not just what I do, but how I did it, and how other people can do it too.”
In 2023, feeling that spark of inspiration to help others again, Steele reopened the Word document and decided to turn it into a self-help book. For two years, he worked hard with publishers and editors until Life Switch was finally ready to launch to the public in late 2025. Steele, as he and his publishing team understood how important his stories would be in helping people turn their lives around, wanted to, in his own words, “...be 100% confident it was going to be what I wanted to be, which was not just a book, but a guide on how people can live the best version of their own lives…”
While Steele’s main background is in business and finance, and readers can certainly learn a lot about how to be successful in their careers or money-wise from Steele’s personal stories in Life Switch, the beauty of this book is that anyone can learn something from it. Life Switch is for anyone trying to turn their life around or reach their full potential and success. Steele believes that success vs. failure comes down to one’s mindset. No matter what readers are looking to improve in their lives, Life Switch will help them find the inspiration within themselves to make that change happen, as Steele best put it, “I can always tell, you know, sort of who's who's getting it, who's flipping their switch on in real time… I want to really help those people who are interested in digging deep in themselves and seeing what they can do… The biggest payoff is these seeds I'm planting in people, seeing what they sprout into over time.”
In addition to being an author and a businessman, Joel Steele is also a philanthropist. When he decided to write a book, he did not set out to write an autobiography, but rather a self-help book with personal anecdotes from his life. Also, when he decided to become published, it was not so he could say that he is a published author, but rather to help others find the motivation to success in life, as he stated, “...when the publisher said, ‘Hey, your book’s ready to ship. How many copies do you want from the warehouse?’ I said, ‘zero. I don't want the book. I want other people to have the book.’”
Furthermore, Joel Steele has pledged to donate $1,000,000 to charity once Life Switch sells a million copies. Readers can vote for which charities they want their money to go to, and the top ten charities will each receive a $100,000 donation. With that being said, not only does Joel Steele’s Life Switch: How to Experience the Power of Living On by Discovering Your Potential, Passion, and Purpose inspire readers to find the motivation to achieve their desired personal changes, but it also provides the ability to make a positive impact on the lives of others and the world.
You can buy your copy of Life Switch: How to Experience the Power of Living On by Discovering Your Potential, Passion, and Purpose today at bookjoelsteel.com/book/
