Les Brown

Les Brown is one of the most renowned motivational speakers in the world, an award-winning author, and a former broadcaster and state legislator whose life is itself the message he delivers. Born Leslie Calvin Brown on February 17, 1945, in a low-income section of Miami called Liberty City, he and his twin brother were adopted at six weeks old by Mamie Brown, a single woman who worked as a cafeteria attendant and domestic and whom Les credits with everything he became. In the fifth grade he was mislabeled "educable mentally retarded," an assessment he internalized until a high-school teacher, LeRoy Washington, confronted him with the words that would define his life: "Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality."

Brown never went to college, but he built an extraordinary career on will and voice. He talked his way into a job at a Miami radio station and became a popular disc jockey and broadcast manager, then a community activist, and then a three-term member of the Ohio House of Representatives, where he was known as one of its most effective freshmen. When he turned to motivational speaking full-time — founding his own company in 1986 — he rose within a few years to become one of the highest-paid speakers in the country, addressing audiences as large as 80,000 and delivering keynotes for Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations around the world.

His accolades reflect his standing in the field. In 1989 he became the first African American to receive the National Speakers Association's highest honor, the Council of Peers Award of Excellence; he won a Chicago-area Emmy for his PBS presentation "You Deserve"; Toastmasters International named him one of its Top Five Outstanding Speakers in 1992 and awarded him its prestigious Golden Gavel in 1994. He hosted the nationally syndicated "The Les Brown Show" and has appeared with Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, and countless others. His books — including the best-sellers Live Your Dreams (1992) and It's Not Over Until You Win! (1997) — have carried his message to millions of readers.

Decades on, Les Brown is still on the road and still on a mission. In 2024 he launched "The Power of Possibilities," a tour blending motivation, mental-wellness advocacy, and music, on which he speaks openly about his own battles with depression and adversity, and he continues to tour and take keynote engagements as one of the most in-demand inspirational voices alive. His signature promise to every audience remains the same one he learned to believe about himself: you have greatness within you.