Episode Summary – WHAM AND A BLINK OF AN EYE – IMPAIRED DRIVING - CAR ACCIDENTS that alter your life! In Episode 82 of the Shining Brightly Podcast (links in the comments) titled “ONE MOMENT IN TIME”, come meet the resilient Joey Lewis. He shares some poor decision making growing up that led to two severe and life changing car accidents leaving him with brain surgery, epilepsy and seizures. Living with the scares and disabilities Joey is now making his best life for him and his daughter. He shares what the CC TEST is for him as he asks himself if the situation or decision “contributes or contaminates” him and his moving forward. Joey is the AI MUSIC MAESTRO as he uses his digital song making superpowers to help coaches, speakers, conferences and corporations customize theme songs for brand building and social media content. Join us for an amazing story and I will share the song Joey made for Shining Brightly in the comments. Please listen, download, share, review and of course keep shining brightly!

Mentioned Resources –

• Website: www.joeylewisspeaks.com
• Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/joeylewis
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/josephlewisjr/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joeylewis_viceversaent/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/viceversaent/
• AI Music: https://www.facebook.com/tufftonesai
• Tuff Tones: https://www.facebook.com/tufftonesent
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TuffTonesStudio
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tuffturfmedia
• Amazon Book link: Coming soon in June 2024

About the guest –  

Joey Lewis, founder of Tuff Turf Media, Tuff Tones Entertainment, and motivational speaker at Joey Lewis Speaks, hails from Veedersburg, Indiana. A creative mind with expertise in video editing, graphic design, and music production using artificial intelligence, Joey leverages his diverse skills to inspire and educate. He graduated from Danville Area Community College and excelled academically, making the President’s List.  I went on to get certified in Digital Marketing and worked for Digital Maker Marketing & Dream Big Media. Joey's life was profoundly altered by two severe car accidents in 2005 and 2007, which left him with epilepsy and a new perspective on life. These experiences ignited his passion to become one of the world's top motivational speakers, aiming to change lives by sharing his story and promoting responsible decision-making. His greatest joy and motivation is his daughter, Isabella Rose. Joey’s hobbies include making music, reading, and DJing—a passion since he was 21. His career spans various roles from event management to music production and digital marketing. Currently, Joey is focused on speaking at educational events and schools, driven by a mission to teach others that a single moment in time can change the direction of a person's life. Through his speaking engagements, Joey aspires to prevent others from making the mistakes he lived through and to provide a better future for his daughter and the audiences he reaches.

About the Host:

Howard Brown is a best-selling author, award-winning international speaker, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, interfaith peacemaker, and a two-time stage IV cancer survivor. He is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for corporate businesses, nonprofits, congregations, and community groups. Howard has co-founded two social networks that were the first to connect religious communities around the world. He is a nationally known patient advocate and “cancer whisperer” to many families. Howard, his wife Lisa, and daughter Emily currently reside in Michigan, and his happy place is on the basketball court.

Website

Http://www.shiningbrightly.com

Social Media

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

LinkedIn - https://wwwlinkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Instagram - @howard.brown.36

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Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's another episode of

The Shining Brightly Show. Oh, my goodness, you are going to be

so psyched to hear from Joey Lewis. This is incredible. Joey,

how are you doing?

Doing great, man. Thank you for having me, Howard.

I'm really excited. We've been part we'll

give a shout out to Blanca and the laws of life. We met through

there maybe six months ago. And we just got to know each other.

And I'm so impressed. And I just became a client of Joey, I'll

tell you all about that in a second. But this guy has been

through so much. And he's coming out the other side. He's helping

people all with the theme of shining brightly. And he has a

cool talent. We're gonna hold that off. We're gonna tease you

a little bit on that. Let me tell you who Joe is Joe Lewis.

He's the founder of tough tough media and tough tones,

entertainment. And he is a motivational speaker at Joy

Lewis speaks. He's in the in the suburbs of Indiana outside of

Andy. He's a super creative mind, really talented video

editor, graphic designer, a music producer. And he uses AI.

And I'm learning a tonne from him. And it's the coolest thing

ever. Joey takes his diverse skills and his inspiration and

he educates others. And he has a special skill. He was a

presidential Dean, this guy. He's certified in digital

marketing. And he's got this. He's worked for big dream media

and things like that. He's got great experience. Now. This is

what we're gonna get into. Joey's life just got changed in

2005, and seven, he got into two severe car accidents. It left

him with epilepsy. And it left him scarred that he had to heal

from and it's still healing from a new perspective on life. So

these experiences ignited his passion to become one of the

world's top motivational speakers. He wants to change

people's lives by sharing his story and promoting responsible

decision making. And his greatest joy is motor and

motivation is his daughter, Isabella rose. That's awesome.

How old is Isabella?

Isabella is 14.

She's 14, just like my pride and joy Emily

who's 22. So Joey's. He has lots of hobbies. But music, reading

and DJing are his passion. Since he's 21. And music production

and digital content is just his jam. He's just great. So he

loves speaking at educational events in schools to young

people. And he just wants to people understand that a single

moment in time. And you know, can really change the direction

in one person's life. And he wants to aspire others to learn

from their mistakes, provide a better future for his daughter,

and just reach audiences and touch their hearts. Joey, I'm so

thrilled you're here today. But now that I've kind of set the

table tell us something, how you shine brightly each day.

Well, thank you very much for that introduction,

Howard and how I shine bright each day as I remind myself that

there's a statement. Or actually I say a quote that a guy gave me

and it says today is today. And what we've done yesterday, we

can't change but what we do today can change tomorrow. And I

follow this 2020 20 routine where I spend 20 minutes getting

up and moving, getting around walking, doing some exercise, 20

minutes doing some kind of education, whether it be reading

or listening to a TED talk. And then 20 minutes and some form of

of metta meditation and then given thanks to God that I woke

up today.

That is shining, brightly, baby. Oh my god, that

is awesome. That is really, really awesome. So take us

through, you know, a little bit more of your background growing

up a little bit and then into the car accidents and what

happened?

Yeah, well, I what I was in a bad car accident in

2005. And to kind of speed it up is I grew up with some of the

wrong people. And I didn't have a whole lot of I wasn't taught

responsibility at a young age. So I wasn't taught to fear the

consequences of bad acts and to be responsible and to make good

choices and to do the right thing. So that kind of led me

down a road that I've surrounded myself with bad people in high

school. And it just so happened that one of those people was

people that I was in an accident with in 2005. I was a passenger,

he was driving and I did the wrong thing. I was uneducated, I

mixed prescription medicine with alcohol. And it caused me to

blackout. And I'm not sure if he didn't mix the medicine with

alcohol or what but he was driving us home and I woke up in

the hospital. All I remember is leaving his house waking up in

the hospital. So on the way home at some point he either looked

down fate, you know, blacked out or whatnot and hit a telephone

pole on my side of the road. I woke up in the hospital two

weeks later enough From an induced coma, and I remember the

first thing I remember from waking up in the coma was I was

I was typing on my stomach to see if I remembered the

keyboard. And then I looked at the lady that was in the room

and I said, what happened and she just started crying. She

didn't, you know, she didn't, I didn't know I have no

recollection of how I got in there. What happened? It was a

complete blackout. So I, I just want to educate the kids and

inform them that you know how important these decisions are.

And I use something that I was taught by one of my mentors,

it's called a cc test. And whenever you make a decision,

you bring it up, the CC test is what you're doing going to

contribute to your freedom or contaminate your freedom. And if

I would have been taught that at a younger age, I felt like I

would have grew up and kind of went down in a straighter road.

But hey, we all learn, live and learn. But due to that accident

in 2005, I was had brain surgery, I was cut here to hear

I had reconstructive eye surgery. And then in 2007,

actually, in 2006, the epilepsy came after the brain injury. And

then I had another accident 2007 Where I rolled my car on the

interstate, because I had a seizure when I was driving, it

got through out of the vehicle, and was lifelines to Champaign,

Illinois. But luckily, I don't know if you'd want to call it

luck, or if you want to call it God, but I call it God. And I

was the lady that pulled over on the side of the road. When I was

laying there, dying, she taught CPR at home and was and that was

her thing. And she taught CPR. So she helped me, you know, she

cleaned the rocks out of my mouth and kept me alive

basically, until the helicopter got there. So I'm just very

blessed to be here and very blessed to be alive.

Well, I'd like to take a break there because I

actually, first of all, I love the 2020 20 in the morning, how

you open your day up every day that is shining brightly. But

this CC test, boy, I mean, that that's something simple that you

can just think about, is this going to help or hurt? Okay,

there's the h h, right. But I wake up every day the same thing

because you and I have lived, you know, some parallel stuff,

right? I had a young man I got diagnosed with stage four T cell

non Hodgkins lymphoma, and then at age 50, stage three, the

metastatic stage four colon cancer. So we've seen kind of

this darkness, right? We've lived this darkness, we've lived

this hurt and this pain, and we're trying to just rebuild,

and I always call myself Humpty Dumpty. Version Three, oh, now

you're the same you're rebuilding, putting the pieces

back together again. But thank God for that people. I thank God

for my doctors and my nurses, right that care to me, my

caregivers, the people that prayed for me, right, but you

you had a woman there that actually pulled off the side of

the road. And you know, you might not be here, you know,

maybe not probably not going to be here for that as well. So

those two car accidents. You know, you're still a young man,

how did you rehab yourself? How did you get yourself back

together?

Well, it took a while I remember leaving the

hospital in a back brace. I broke my back in that second

accident. And it took a while to get back to where I was able to

actually do physical work. And I had to learn a lot of digital

skills because I was always a technical person. So I learned

digital skills. And then when I when I was limited to drive in

because I have now I have seizures. I can't drive. I had

to you know, educate myself on what can I do from home to make

money. And so I taught myself graphic design and I started a

DJ business. And that was something my cousin came to me

and he said, Hey, man, I've got this equipment, you've got the

knowledge, you're good talker. Let's go out and let's DJ

weddings. So we started DJing weddings that helped me get some

income back in my pocket. And you know, it was just a matter

of making the right choices after that, you know, taken

taking the lessons of you know, Tomorrow is not promised and

you've got to do what you got to do. And then it came to the

point now I'm kind of fast forward into you know, i When my

daughter came, I transitions down to Petersburg, Indiana,

from Crawfordsville, Indiana and I got asked to work at an event

centre, called the crazy man's hideaway. And I was we booked we

did weddings out there. So I did that for about four years and I

just was able to live on the property and you know, didn't

have to travel I would just be the event manager and I was able

to DJ the wedding so I would book the wedding DJ the wedding.

I've been through my series of weddings but it's just a matter

of surrounding yourself with better people. I truly believe a

statement that ever you know a lot of people say that you are

the average of the people you surround yourself with. And so I

started surrounding myself with better people started making

better decisions. I

love it and that's important. And you know, the

thing is, is that your pain is now your purpose and you now are

taking kind of life threatening car accidents and still dealing

with the epilepsy still you the surgeries, the trauma All right,

and that trauma takes healing. And also, you know, I'm coming

to realise we call it in the cancer world chemo brain or

brain fog, it's PTSD. And you have it, and we have it. But we

wake up every day, we're breathing, right? I shot two

hours of basketball found my happy place, because that's

where I feel a stress free zone. But I can't feel the ball.

Right? So you lucky i It's so funny. You said you're feeling

the keyboard on your tongue. Because you're looking at your

magic, how you make magic with your fingers. It's really,

really absolutely incredible. It taught me a little bit about

becoming a dad.

Yeah, well, it was. It was one of the greatest

things because if I hadn't survived that accident, and if

it hadn't, the series of events hadn't led me to where it did,

you know, I wouldn't have you know, got led to the, to meet

the mother of my, my daughter, Ashley. And, actually, the good,

the good thing about one of the best things right now is my

daughter's moving in with me this and starting school, this

next fall down here with me. So I've had her, it's been really

hard with what's growing up with having epilepsy not being able

to drive up there, you know, so you know, and I only get her on

the weekends. So that's like, now I've got the last, you know,

like three years of her high school life to come live with

me, and let me try and give her all the skills I can and the

best information I can before she goes out into the world and

does her own thing. You

know, I gotta tell you, she's gonna get something

that you didn't get, which was a lot of mentorship, a lot of

guidance to make, make, make good choices, and she's gonna

watch you help other people. And that's a legacy to leave with

her. And that's the thing that I'm proudest about is that, you

know, my volunteer service, with entrepreneurs and in mentorship,

and in cancer, also an interface stuff. You know, I do that

because when I want to, and I want to help people, but I know

that my daughter has been watching. She's watching, we're

role modelling. You know, these athletes, I don't want to be a

role model. Well, you know, you are a role model. And being a

dad is the greatest gift. And I tell you, I'm so happy for you

that it's going to do that. Tell us alright, so I am going to

reveal the big secret now. Alright, so I met Joey and Joey

has this magical tool, he can actually take your input, okay,

and make a custom song for you. Well, and again, you're offering

this up for folks. Mother's Day is coming Sunday. So we maybe

missed that window. But unbelievable. So I became a

client at Joey's because I'm looking for a theme song for

shining brightly. Right. And you know, within just a couple of

days, he's sending me back samples to listen to. And you

you do AI music. So I nicknamed him okay, he had heard here

first, he is the AI music maestro. All right, that's who

he is. He makes magic on the keyboard. And then beautiful

music and lyrics come out. So tell people about that. Tell

people about your service. Oh,

thank you, Howard. Yes, so the AI music, it started

as a hobby, you know, it's it all started, you know, well, the

the DJ and the music has always been in my heart, I started

making music back when I was in my 20s That kind of faded away.

And then now I have the ability to make a song within minutes

from my keyboard, you know, and from my, from my living room.

And it's, it can be a hobby, it can be a career, because I mean,

it's like anybody that just has a passion for technology, or I,

what I think was gonna be really neat is teaching my I've taught

my daughter how to do it, and she loves it. She's able to make

her own songs. So I'm like, you know, it'd be so cool for these,

you know, these kids to be able to say, I'm graduating and I've

released four albums already. You know, I've already but um,

so it's it can be a career, I'm trying to I'm trying to see what

the what the abilities are, what their capabilities are, as far

as being some friend Jeff Caldwell was my music coach and

my AI music coach. And he started a platform called My AI

team. And through there, there's a coaching group that I joined,

and I learned how to start using the app called sumo AI. And

through there, you can make songs within minutes. And it's

there is a skill in engineering the song you know, like

stitching it together and, and getting that fine tuning that

sound that you really want. And I just we put out I think I've

got like 30 songs out now. And like for my my daughters, I'm

collaborating with two different lyricist that are from overseas.

And so it's like she's it's changing the way she sees

herself. She feels better about herself. She feels like she's

doing more you know, like it's motivated her to want to keep

writing songs and her daughter is now writing songs and it's

just a way that people you know, some people just they want to

sing but they just don't have a good voice. Now you can just

take your words into AI and make a song Randy travels Randy

Travis just put out an app pisode on CBS. And he's actually

used AI to clone his voice because he can no longer speak

well speak very well. So, so yeah, it's I'm trying to I'm

giving it all I got right now to see if I can make money out of

it and to see if there is potential there. And

that's, you see where it takes you because that

was a motivational speaking and your design and all that stuff.

So listen, I will tell you that I proudly say that my book and

my memoir is AI free. Okay, that's all me it's 158

interviews turned into transcripts into chapters turned

into a manuscript, okay. But AI is here to stay. And I just was

actually speaking at Babson College to some scholars,

students, scholars, and the big question and there was two

lessons there. One was, how does AI affect my personal life? And

how does it affect me as a skill going forward in the jobs that

I'm going to be able to do? And it's going to affect everybody?

I think it's going to affect medicine first, particularly.

But there's, you know, with anything good, anything bad,

there could be bad things use for AI too, you can person aid,

there's deep fakes, all that stuff is true. But AI is here,

it's groundbreaking. It's changing. And it's great. So so

at this conference that I spoke at, they learned about AI, we

talked about it. And then I taught the soft skills. I taught

mentorship as leadership, becoming a mentee, or also an

opening yourself to being mentored and then being a mentor

yourself. And that's what I call using your light to lift

yourself up, and then being able to lift up than others. So I

think this is cool. So I the ability, I'm looking for a theme

song for shining brightly, there you go. Father's Day is coming

up, you'll have a Father's Day Special, I'm sure birthdays to

be able to give someone you know, a custom saw. It's cool.

And it's not that expensive. I think it's $249. And then you

offer a discount if they say shining brightly down a buck 99.

So we'll talk about that at the end as well. But that's just

outstanding. So

music is one way I see it is it's just, it's an

evolution of music, you can look at it that way. I've had people

that's been completely against it. And then they've shifted

their thoughts thinking like, Okay, well, I see, you know,

like, it is an evolution of the way things are going with AI and

they just now they're accepting it and but first off, you know,

actual people, musicians that have been working their whole

life to get where they're at. They were kind of against it,

but they're coming around.

Listen, you're you did the theme song for Blanca

and the laws of life, you did the theme song for Qisas event

down in Miami happening right now, you know, this has so many

cross uses, right? You know, it's just a cool thing. So I

think birthdays and lifestyle events, weddings, you know, all

that stuff is great. But it can be used in a lot of different

places. So I'm really looking forward to watching you see how

far you go there as well. And so we're coming towards sort of

towards the end of the show, but I wanted to actually, you know,

talk about, you know, some some upcoming things you got going

on. So let's talk about your books. I know you got a couple

in progress here. Let's talk about your first book and what

its title what it's about. And, and I think it's coming soon. So

fill it fill us in on the details there.

Yeah, the book is called high speed profit fast.

And it's the small business owners guide to digital

marketing. And I worked for a digital marketing agency for two

years or so before I started my own. And I learned that there

were so many things that business owners could do on

their own, that they were paying outrageous amounts of money for,

or you know, or paying someone to do a job and they didn't even

know what they were really doing behind the scenes. So it was

like, you know, okay, well I'm gonna put this this blueprint

out there and all this information like this is what

this is, what it consists of. This is what it is and if you're

if you're gonna do it yourself, this is the information you need

to know to you can go research more in depth to look more into

these things. Or if you're already working with somebody,

you can ask them are you guys doing these things? You know, I

mean, like I've heard I'm paying you guys $10,000 A month are you

guys doing back end you know, links are you guys doing? You

know, like all the all the techie stuff? They it's not

real, you know, it's not real. It's not super techie. It's just

borderline you know, get to understand what what they need

to do what they could be doing. And it's, it's really cool. It's

um, I think every small business owner that is participating in

digital marketing don't have any idea about digital marketing.

should take a look at excellent

I listen, I will put the links in will promote

the book when it's out. You targeting what ended June ish

timeframe?

Yes, the goal is to have it put out by mid mid to

end June. Yes. Excellent.

So we'll be tracking you on that. Now. You

also have an inspirational goal of a second book What's that

second book gonna be? Oh, my

second book. And it's going to be about it's, I'm

not sure what the title is maybe the motion picture of my life or

one moment in time, something like that. But I want to, I want

to do something so good in my life with my life that I can

make a movie, a documentary about the impact that we've made

in difference in people's lives and the changes that we've made.

And I just want to shine bright Howard, just like you, I want

to, I want to, I want to be like you.

I appreciate you allowing me to mentor you and

you open up to be a mentee. And I take you under my wing and I'm

learning from YouTube. So it's a two way street. Alright, who

plays you in the movie of your life?

Oh, man, I haven't even thought about yet. I might,

I might. Well, I mean, eventually, I would like to get

it to the point where I could play myself but early me I'm not

sure.

No, no, no, you just got to be a movie star if

you think about it, so I'm going to share with you mine. All

right. So shining brightly. My goal is I went from book to

stage to podcast and I want to go to movie. I want Keanu Reeves

to actually play me in movie, my lead role. I'll tell you why.

Keanu Reeves is a role model because he lives a very humble

life. He gives to charity he gives proceeds to the crew he

gives to causes cancer causes and others and he lives very

humbly. And that's a role model for me. And that's that would be

the ideal lead for my picture. So Keanu, if you're out there,

play Howard Brown in shining brightly. The movie. So does

that give you an idea? You have anybody else?

You know, I can't think of the guy's name. There's

an old movie that actually inspired my business. This was a

movie called tough turf. There's a movie called tough turf. And

the guy who played it in that movie, he had a British accent.

I'm not sure what his name was, but he was inspirational. He

that was one of my favourite movies. But that's that's

homework for me, Howard. I'm not really sure I can't get

I'll give you a suggestion. We'll give a shout

out to Adam Sandler. Because he's from Manchester. He's from

Manchester, New Hampshire. I'm from Framingham mass, we will

gotta get in touch with them. Because here's the deal. He

could play a serious role. Yeah, he could add a lot of comedy to

it and all that. So maybe I'll maybe we'll go out and sell it

for you for now, until you decide differently. So I love

playing that game. Thanks for playing.

Adam Sandler. He's great. Jonah Hill. He's He's

funny. But Adam Sandler, I think he's, he's, I like that guy.

Oh, we got it. We got to make phone calls to

Hollywood. So we'll do that. What I'm gonna do now is have

you put on your glasses, but on some sunglasses. All right, we

are going to shine brightly on you. This is the shining,

brightly spotlight. I want you to tell people how they should

best get in touch with you anything else you'd like to

finish up with? And then share some inspiration and then kick

the show back for me for close?

Thank you. How are ya so you can get a hold of me

on Joey Lewis speaks.com. And my quote of the day is, and it's

something that I always like to remember I tell my daughter, I

tell everyone has decisions made on emotions without deep thought

can lead to disastrous outcomes. And that's where I that's,

that's what guided me here today. My bad my bad decisions

I'm turning into I'm looking at the bright side, I'm taking the

bad and looking at the bright. So decisions made on emotions

can cause disastrous outcomes. And if anybody that's listening,

like Howard said, I do have a promotion going on. If you

mentioned shining brightly, we buy one song, get the other one

50% or $50 off the second song. And there'll be more

information. I'll pass the Howard but thank you for thank

you so much for having me today. Howard, I appreciate you so

much. Oh,

great high energy show. Thank you. So I'll take my

glasses off shining brightly on you. And so this, this is the

shining brightly show, you can reach me at shining

brightly.com. So there's plenty of information about the book

and you can hire me to speak or to facilitate your event. I'll

make it shine, I promise. And then also, there's certainly

information about this podcast but more importantly, my

advocacy, how I lift up myself and lift up others. And I do

that through mentorship entrepreneurship leadership with

Babson College, and then also within the cancer world about

screening and people walking with them in treatment and

getting them well informed. And then lastly, memorialising,

those that passed because their cancer burden was too great and

interfaith work because knowing the other we live in a world

where they're all different people and you should get to

know your neighbour and understand your neighbour and

love that neighbour. And so those are my passions as well.

Let me give a quick shout out to the folks that make me look good

each week, my publishing house front edge publishing, read the

spirit.com where I blog and my podcast team which is

incredible. They amplify you network. So thank you for making

me look good. And if you're looking for sponsorships, you

can contact me for that as well. So just remember, as Joey and I

have shown today, if you choose to shine brightly, just a little

bit each day for yourself first. Okay, then go lift up others in

your neighbourhoods in your community. The world will be a

better place Joey it's been a pleasure and an honor thank you

Thank you Howard