Josh Jacobs was born in Park Ridge, IL and grew up in Vernon Hills, a suburb just north of Chicago. He is an entrepreneur, podcast host, husband, dog dad, and life enthusiast. Josh’s life experiences have led to him building his own marketing business and a podcast to help others improve their lives and realize their true potential.
“I’ve had many experiences in my life from a young age that have exposed me to a lot of diversity. As a teenager, I struggled with drug addiction and was in and out of jail and rehab multiple times. As a result, I was put in many different environments and lived with people from all walks of life. I believe these experiences have stayed with me to help keep a good perspective in my current daily life.”
– Josh Jacobs
Josh has been an entrepreneur from a young age. He started off by creating business cards for shoveling snow, raking leaves, and things like that. In 2003 at age 11, he started an eCommerce business and began dropshipping products on eBay and selling items on consignment for his parent’s friends and friend’s parents.
While he stayed entrepreneurial, things took a turn shortly into Josh’s high school experience. He started smoking weed and quickly realized the potential money he could make selling it. He started selling weed and grew it like a business. Obviously, this didn’t end well.
After 2 years of becoming addicted to all sorts of drugs and going in and out of rehabs, Josh was arrested for possession and distribution which resulted in 2 adult felony convictions at age 17. Even though he wasn’t legally an adult, he was charged as one and sent to an adult county jail for a month before transferring to a residential rehabilitation center for 8 months.
This was when Josh had a major fork in the road. He could have continued on the path he was going, wind up in jail, dead, or institutionalized, or he could stop all of the negativity in his life and focus on his future. The threat of going to jail for a long period of time is what ultimately scared Josh straight.
“They say you will only change when you’re ready. I was sent to rehab multiple times. I wasn’t ready. I had multiple friends die of overdoses. I wasn’t ready. My relationships fell apart. I wasn’t ready. I remember the exact moment that I felt ready. It was when I was 17 years old sitting in a jail cell for the 5th time going over my charges and reading that I was facing 6-15 years in an adult prison. That was the moment when I realized I was ruining my own life and also the lives of those I love the most. It was at that moment when I made a decision that I would no longer break the law and commit to not doing drugs.”
– Josh Jacobs
Since Josh was in jail and rehab throughout his entire senior year of high school, he was unable to graduate. He earned his G.E.D. while in rehab and started community college as soon as he got out. After 3 semesters of good grades, he was able to apply and get accepted to the University Of Illinois at Chicago where he went on to graduate with a bachelor of business specializing in marketing.
Simultaneously when beginning college, Josh also started a business. He discovered performance marketing and started learning everything he could. He saw a lot of success becoming the #5 affiliate out of over 40,000 in one of his companies and by the time he was in his senior year at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the professors had him lecturing the class on e-commerce and marketing.
Come 2016, Josh was on top of the world. He was 24 years old and had just graduated from UIC, made hundreds of thousands of dollars online, bought his dream condo with his future wife, took luxurious vacations all over, and life looked like it was about to get even more exciting.
That’s when Murphy’s law kicked in and within a month of graduating, Josh was quickly humbled. Right after moving into his newly purchased condo, Josh’s business started to fall apart and as all of his expenses and responsibilities had just gone up, his income started disappearing. At the same time, he was dealing with two major family issues and the deaths of three loved ones.
Josh went from feeling on top of the world to crumbling into a ball of depression. He had tied his identity so deeply to the success of his business that when it started to go away, he didn’t know how to react.
“I always said that I would never get a job. I said it to myself, I said it to my friends and family, I said it publicly to my followers. Then when my business started tanking after all the financial responsibilities I took on, the idea of getting a job quickly became a reality. I was bleeding money every month and my income was declining. I had no choice so I applied for one job and got hired. Don’t get me wrong I am blessed to have had the opportunity I did. It was an excellent job and I learned a lot. However, I felt horrible internally the entire time because my identity was so tied to being an entrepreneur that I felt like an imposter in my own body.”
– Josh Jacobs
A little over a year after starting the job, Josh decided he needed to make a change. This imposter feeling was taking over his life. He describes it as waking up every morning being depressed and anxious about anything and everything, having that feeling overpower you the entire day, and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. It was August of 2019 and at 27 years old he was 300 pounds, sick of his job, feeling totally lost, and losing hope.
Josh discovered a podcast named “The Passionate Few” and watched an episode on YouTube with Ed Mylett as the guest. Something Ed said changed Josh’s life that day. He said you need to keep the promises you make to yourself because that’s when you will feel good about yourself when you’re by yourself.
“When I heard Ed say that, my life shifted instantly. At that moment, decades of letting myself down flashed right in front of my eyes. I realized at that moment how much I’ve truly let myself down in my health, in my business, in being the best version of myself. That was when I decided I was done living my life giving 30% of my effort. I want to see my true potential in this lifetime so I started living at 100% and let me tell you from someone who’s done it both ways, the more productive lifestyle is much better.”
– Josh Jacobs
Josh became obsessed with podcasts, reading, self-improvement and committed to these activities daily. After 8 months of consistently giving 100%, he was able to rebuild his business, quit his job, and lose nearly 100 pounds. These achievements were the byproduct of a massive mindset shift and reinforced Josh’s belief in the power of the mind.
In June of 2020, Josh started his own podcast named Decide Your Destiny. The premise of the show is to help people take control of the voice in their head and create their own destiny.
“I felt a calling to start a podcast. Podcasts have helped me improve every area of my life and contributed to my massive transformation so I felt a need to share my experience in hopes that it will help others live a happier more fulfilled life.”
– Josh Jacobs
If you’d like to experience Josh’s podcast, Decide Your Destiny, you can watch the video version on YouTube or listen on your favorite podcasting platform.
If you’d like to engage Josh for speaking or coaching, please reach out at https://joshjacobs.com/contact-us/