As told to Paul Kita

As a star linebacker on my high school football team, I was in the newspaper every week. People would stop me on the street to talk with me about a game I had played.

Thirteen Division I schools tried to recruit me before I selected the University of Oregon.

After I graduated from high school, I was ready to take the next stepI thought.

In 2010, I left for the University of Oregon, which was 1,000 miles away from my home in the greater San Bernardino area. My life did not keep going the way it always had. I struggled to connect with people.

We were all from different backgrounds and cultures from all over the U.S., but because we were so different, I found myself feeling judged or misunderstoodwhich caused me to shell up and suppress my emotions.

And that was the biggest contributor to depression. Growing up I was always expressive and not afraid to be vulnerable or share my emotions, and that was widely accepted in my hometown. But when I went to college, I quickly realized I was in a different environment.

Things escalated when I was forced to redshirt and to sit out my freshmen year. I was 18-years-old, two months out of high school, playing a game with grown men. I wasn't the biggest, the fastest, or the strongest person on the field. Which was a hard concept for me to accept, but I was forced to redshirt until I was prepared and trusted on the field.

I was devastated. I went from being a happy-go-lucky teenager, to being a depressed college student within three months.

As my emotion struggles built up, I started having thoughts of self-harm. As a subconscious cry for help, I even shaved my entire head bald.

Thankfully, someone from my team's football staff noticed my behavior and reached out. It was the first time anyone asked how I was feeling or asked if I was struggling during college. That conversation may have saved my life.

I started seeing a therapist, where I was diagnosed with severe depression. Therapy helped power me through the rest of my freshman year.

First, I learned to control what I could control. Sometimes certain situations are out of my control, but it's up to me to live in the present moment, and only focus on the things I can influence. Although I redshirted my freshman year, which was out of my control, I focused on my training and preparation. That's the only thing I could control, and I had to have faith that everything would play out for the best.

Second, I learned self awareness. I learned to be conscious of my thoughts, feelings, and actions. I was able to gain an understanding of how my thoughts, feelings, and actions affect those around me. All in all, self-awareness turned into self-love, which turned into empathy and compassion for others.

Over the next few years life turned around for me. Even though I suffered some significant injuriesbusting both my right and left shoulder within two months in 2013it was from getting more playing time, and I eventually became team captain.

A Star Linebacker's Battle for His Mental Health

After graduating college, I became an unrestricted free agent for the Atlanta Falcons after the 2015 draft.

I had achieved a goal I'd set at 15-years-old to play football in the NFL.

Although I was picked up by the Falcons in May, he was released in June after failing a physical. It turned out that the injuries I'd sustained during college were worse than I'd realized.

After I got released, I went back to Oregon, got an MRI, and found out I played with a fractured shoulder socket for about a year and didnt know.

Just days after my 23rd birthday and my third shoulder surgery, a doctor recommended that I stop playing football. This was during very difficult break up with his long-time girlfriend. I didn't have a job. I didn't have a home.

For months I slept on any couch I could find. To survive, I had to sell the majority of my college jerseys. My depression was at an all-time high and I had no answers on how to overcome it.

On August 24th, 2015, I wrote a blog post called <a href="https://impoeticsoul.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/depression-i-struggle-too/" id="78178aff-3cee-354c-a542-bb1debfb7112"> Depression, I Struggle Too </a> . It was the first time I publicly shared his mental health struggles.

Its when I realized what my purpose was.

Thats when I started changing every aspect of his life. I listened to self-help audiobooks, like The Power of Vulnerability by Bren Brown. I was afraid of how that stigma of being vulnerable would bleed into my life, but through that book, I realized that vulnerability will change the world.

I also started meditating, using the app Headspace to clear my mind. And while I had physically therapy twice a week, hed also go to the gym to focus on my lower body and my shoulders' range of motion.

After four to six months, I started seeing a difference in myself. I used all that I'd gone through to start putting my new purpose to work.

One of those ways was collaborating with the University of Oregon. I created a mental health video that they show to each of the incoming freshmen athletes.

Most recently, I was asked to be part of Gillettes new campaign, #TheBestMenCanBe, as well a project w/ NBC Sports called On the Other Side.

I also started a podcast, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/normally-unstable/id1499848160" id="59352d7d-7474-3452-a5a9-7bcccb58a7da"> Normally Unstable </a> , where I share stories of vulnerability.

Fifteen-year-old Malone assumed that playing football was the be-all-and-end-all. But now, at 27, I sees that its all the life lessons I've endured through the years that happen for a reason.

For me, high school felt like <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/g26343949/best-sports-movies/" id="9ee6848a-6ece-318d-a688-e99c622b6ff4"> a movie </a> .

This Guy Went From Star Linebacker to Homeless. Now He's Helping Others.

I had people doing most of the work and I would make a 90 percent profit margin. Instead of marketing myself and my business for all those years, I played a lot of Xbox.

Then the recession hit and everything flipped. I found myself in 2009 with no clients, no money, and no direction. I was flat out broke and it was my fault.

How broke was broke? My net worth was -$25,000. Negative, because it included my credit card debt.

I hit an especially low point when I had to tell my assistant, Karen Glass, that I couldnt pay her anymore, and she needed to start looking for other work.

Sometimes it takes someone else believing in us before we can believe in ourselves, and thats what happened to me.

Karen refused to leave and said she believed in me and wasn't going anywhere. She worked for over a year for no pay, simply on the belief that I could turn things around. That's when I started focusing.

In January of 2009, I decided to turn to Twitter to re-build my business. I wanted to focus on building a greater sense of community. Being an entrepreneur is an isolating thing, and I needed to find my "water cooler." I wanted to find my people without the constraint of geography and it was starting to happen more and more online.

I decided I was going to give it my all and live on Twitter that month and if it worked, I'd stay, and if it didn't, I would know I at least tried. I tweeted 7,000 times that month.

It worked. I went from 1,200 followers to 10,000an especially impressive feat, because this was before celebrities and politicians were really on Twitter.

Thats when everything skyrocketed. My following kept getting bigger and bigger, and then requests to consult came. There were speaking invitations. And then the book deal with Wiley &amp; Sons for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/UnMarketing-Stop-Marketing-Start-Engaging-ebook/dp/B0041D8VDA" id="21a33288-4ccd-3710-a635-f2c37e725430"> UnMarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging </a> .

The book deal lead to speaking tour. I travelled to 30 cities in 10 weeks. I was still flat broke, but I had a belief it would work. My goal my entire life had been to be a keynote speaker.

That 30-city tour was a testament to the community I'd built through Twitter. Half the events that were put on, were by people who had never created an event before. They just knew they wanted to support the book.

Deciding to bet on myself has continued to work, and I've now done hundreds of keynotes across the country.

But my best decision? The best ROI in the history of social media was meeting Alison, my now wife, biz partner, show co-host, and co-author.

In 2009, Alison was one of the people I'd tweet with. We quickly became best friends, dated, and later married in December 2013.

We feel like theyre a perfect complement of skills. We connected when I was finishing up a train wreck of a first draft of UnMarketing and she redid it into the best-selling book that still sells today.

We do everything together. Our show/podcast has been going for over 6 years, 300+ episodesand it's just her and I. Without her, UnMarketing would no longer exist.

I Was Broke. Now I Make Close to a Million a Year.

In 2008, I was running a successful <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/nutrition/a19544800/gainz-burrito/" id="0fa6f250-3d73-3608-aa3c-1a421f7a7bc2"> viral video </a> agency, but, I never did any marketing, didn't <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a25627815/how-to-save-money-in-the-new-year/" id="8bacffa0-4a45-31d4-a68f-3a9d43b4c685"> save </a> anything, or put much effort into it.

This Guy Went From Flat Broke to Making Close to a Million a Year

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As told to Paul Kita

Articles written by the author

This Guy Went From Star Linebacker to Homeless. Now He's Helping Others.

This Guy Went From Flat Broke to Making Close to a Million a Year