Psychopath Life Coach Lewis Raymond Taylor's rise from thug to mogul millionaire
A new gripping Netflix documentary The Psychopath Life Coach charts the extraordinary rise of Lewis Raymond Taylor, taking a look at his journey from a mindless thug to a millionaire.
The Brit, who has been in and out of prison, managed to turn his life around and became the founder of a $25million (£20million) business, The Coaching Masters. The filmmakers say they 'peel back the mask' on psychopathy and force viewers to form their own opinion about the academy CEO - has he genuinely evolved or has he masterfully manipulated the world for his own gain?
Haunted by a tumultuous childhood where he suffered both physical and emotional abuse, Lewis, 33, from Hertfordshire, seemed destined for a life of self-sabotage. He turned to crime for attention and first got arrested at 13 for shoplifting.
Lewis Raymond Taylor had a troubled upbringing (Supplied)In an interview last year, Lewis explained: "As a kid, I picked the easiest way to get attention - crime. I kept being told I was a bad kid so in the end I thought I couldn't do anything about it - people thought I was bad anyway.
"Things spiralled out of control at 18. I was drinking and taking cocaine - I got addicted to the power and reputation I was getting as 'the crazy one'. I just went on to self-sabotage - the convictions were racking up but the damage I had done to my life didn't even enter my mind."
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His teenage years saw him expelled from school and even get an ASBO for criminal damage. By the time he was 18, Lewis was put behind bars and spent his late teens and early twenties in and out of prison for violence and drug offences.
Things spiralled when he was cheated on by his ex-girlfriend, and he ended up being sectioned under the Mental Health Act at Albany Lodge psychiatric unit after he took a knife to his own throat. He said: "I smashed up the kitchen and grabbed a knife - before I knew what I had done I saw blood spurting from my neck."
Lewis began getting in fights which saw his jaw broken and teeth knocked out. He would also regularly overdose on drugs and wake up in the morning with ECG stickers on his chest - not even remembering being in the hospital the night before. His mental state was made worse by walking into his home at the age of 21 and finding his father dead on the floor from pancreatic cancer as a result of years of alcohol abuse.
But Lewis said his lowest moment was his final prison sentence - after getting in a fight at a taxi rank. He served 18 months for GBH after a fight which left his victim in a coma, and this was the turning point.
"My lowest point was a fight in a taxi queue aged 24 when the guy hit his head on the ground and had a brain haemorrhage," he recalled. "That time in prison I wanted to change - I was the problem, but I was also the solution, so I did a rehab course after leaving prison.
"I realised I had a lot to offer helping others by sharing my journey and what I learnt. I thought maybe I could do it professionally - and it grew from there." He took advantage of the rehabilitation services offered to him in prison and once he left and found his experiences were inspiring to others who asked for his help.
After leaving prison, he remained in Portsmouth and got housing benefits which allowed him to get a "dingy little flat" - but it allowed him to start a new life. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous sessions to prevent him from going back to his old ways - which he never did, despite feeling tempted at times.
After qualifying as a 'life coach', he monetised his casual advice and launched a business on his own, and within a year made £100,000. Lewis said: "I realised I had a lot to offer so I would meet up for coffee and help people every week. Not just former convicts - I helped someone split from a toxic partner, start a business, and even help a woman get help to overcome anorexia. I had no idea what I was doing at first but just shared the lessons I had learnt over the past few years."
More than a decade on, Lewis' life is unrecognisable. He is now married and travels the world while running a £20million business. He said: "It blew my mind. I came off benefits and moved out of supported housing as well as getting my broken teeth done. The more I worked the more I invested into myself completing more courses to train further.
Lewis Raymond Taylor attends the documentary premiere of The Psychopath Life Coach (Getty Images)"I realised I had a skill for digital marketing - I was able to connect with people and they related to me because everyone has had an experience where the feel lost and unloveable." The business has continued to boom as Lewis found partners for the company and created online courses, which have now been bought over a thousand times.
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He said: "We created a course based on real life. We threw textbooks out the window and based in on our own experiences on how to transform your mindset." Lewis even planned to take a break from the business about seven months in to go travelling around South East Asia.
But after realising he could deliver the same coaching from anywhere in the world, he became a digital nomad and hasn't settled since. The business became less about coaching people and more about training people to become coaches, with the tagline "coach your way to freedom."
Six years on, the business has 80 remote-working employees and has customers in 78 countries around the world paying up to $5,000 for their various training courses. Lewis said: "We have a lot of people coming to us who just want to change their lives.
"We actually have a lot of police officers come to us for help - which is crazy given my past!" Now the business, The Coaching Masters, trades $2.5million a year and CEO Lewis has continued working whilst travelling and giving TEDx talks.
Ahead of the documentary airing, Lewis shared a post to Instagram urging fans to share their reviews of the show. He wrote: "It's a deep dive into the perplexing world of self-help and life coaching, revealing some startling truths.
"At its heart is my story - a rollercoaster of a life that took me from the depths of prison to the heights of founding @thecoachingmasters a multi-million dollar coaching empire. But here's the twist: some see me as a manipulative psychopath, while others view me as a traumatised individual who turned his life around.
"The documentary explores these contrasting perceptions, featuring insights from experts like Celebrity Big Brother Psychologist Geoff Beatie and Former Dragons Den Investor Richard Mcfarleigh, as well as raw, never-before-seen interviews with people whose lives I've impacted - for better or worse.
"It's a journey that confronts uncomfortable truths about society, the allure of power, and the complexities of the human mind. I invite you to watch 'The Psychopath Life Coach' and join me in reflecting on these profound themes."
The Psychopath Life Coach is available on Netflix from November 22
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