Description: A Husband, father of 3 incredible children, ages 17, 16, and from some miraculous conception an 8 yr old! Who lives in Dunlap TN, a small town of 5,000, on a " mini working farm" of 300 acres raising cattle, llamas, a seemingly endless amounts of ferrel cats, and a small garden.
Curtis received a full scholarship for Jazz trumpet and blew it after 3 years, eventually graduated with a 2 yr associates degree from a community college. It only took him 10 years to obtain a 2 yr degree.
He's had many jobs - fast food, bouncer, bartender, managed a Golds gym, construction supervisor etc..ended up with a 23 year career in leadership of a fortune 500 community pharmacy business.
But, his true passion is helping others succeed in whatever success looks like to them.
He was fortunate enough to take an early retirement at age 50 in order to chase my dreams and passions instead of someone else's! Since Early retirement in 2021 Curtis started a non-profit organization that supports start-ups and entrepreneurs in general. Teaching, facilitating, creating courses and supporting is what he is passionate about.
His wife and he started and currently own a publishing company, coaching company, and various other smaller companies.
HE has organized 2 sucessful meet-up groups. One for entrepreneurs, the other for positive and/or Christian Men.
Currently he is in the process of opening a Postal Annex shipping franchise his small 2 red light town. With plans of owning 90% market share in the 4 neighboring counties by opening 4 more in the next 10 years. He would like to leave the business to his children ( if they have any desire to do so) , then he might actually retire 100%, but then again he'll probably start something new.
Description: A Husband, father of 3 incredible children, ages 17, 16, and from some miraculous conception an 8 yr old! Who lives in Dunlap TN, a small town of 5,000, on a " mini working farm" of 300 acres raising cattle, llamas, a seemingly endless amounts of ferrel cats, and a small garden.
Curtis received a full scholarship for Jazz trumpet and blew it after 3 years, eventually graduated with a 2 yr associates degree from a community college. It only took him 10 years to obtain a 2 yr degree.
He's had many jobs - fast food, bouncer, bartender, managed a Golds gym, construction supervisor etc..ended up with a 23 year career in leadership of a fortune 500 community pharmacy business.
But, his true passion is helping others succeed in whatever success looks like to them.
He was fortunate enough to take an early retirement at age 50 in order to chase my dreams and passions instead of someone else's! Since Early retirement in 2021 Curtis started a non-profit organization that supports start-ups and entrepreneurs in general. Teaching, facilitating, creating courses and supporting is what he is passionate about.
His wife and he started and currently own a publishing company, coaching company, and various other smaller companies.
HE has organized 2 sucessful meet-up groups. One for entrepreneurs, the other for positive and/or Christian Men.
Currently he is in the process of opening a Postal Annex shipping franchise his small 2 red light town. With plans of owning 90% market share in the 4 neighboring counties by opening 4 more in the next 10 years. He would like to leave the business to his children ( if they have any desire to do so) , then he might actually retire 100%, but then again he'll probably start something new.
Hello. Hello, this is Coach Melinda and we are here today with Coach Stephanie, my co-host, and a coach who has taught self-discipline coach Curtis Hammond. Curtis Is a husband, father, and a man who lives a life that is comprised of a strong work ethic and discipline. Someone who lives an Oola life, striving to live the life of his dreams. Curtis lives in Dunlap, Tennessee, a small town of 5,000 on a mini working farm of 300 acres, raising cattle, llamas, and endless numbers of cats and a small garden. That's the here and now. But if you know Curtis, you know he didn't get here without some serious discipline. His true passion is helping others succeed in whatever success looks like to them. Curtis is fortunate enough to have taken an early retirement at age 50 in order to chase his dreams and passions instead of someone else's. Hence, he is semi-retired and has since early retirement in 2021, started a nonprofit organization that supports startups and entrepreneurs in general, teaching, facilitating, creating courses, and supporting. We have every ounce of discipline we need. We just need to find it and go get our Oola life. I am excited to discuss how Curtis has made this happen for himself. We are pleased to have Curtis with us to share about himself and ULAs Accelerator discipline. Hey,
Stephanie:
I am coach Stephanie. Melinda and I are on a mission to showcase some of our fabulous Oola life coaches and share their stories, and we are very excited to introduce Curtis Hammond to our listeners today. Welcome Curtis, and thank you for joining us. Hello. Hello. I wanna thank you very much for, for what y'all are doing. Uh, not only are you helping individuals like myself, but you're spreading the word of, of vula obviously. It's just incredible. If you've never heard of it, you need to talk to these two ladies afterwards, that's for sure.
Melinda:
Well, we're excited to have you on. I know very little about Curtis, so this is gonna be fun. Would you like to tell us how you came to find your balance the Oola way?
Stephanie:
Yeah, well, I, I'm glad you went over to Bio because, um, I forget half of that stuff and, and all that has been done since, uh, since I started Oola, and it, it's pretty incredible. Am I a success? It depends on your definition of success. I feel like I'm successful. Am I making a lot of money right now? No. In fact, you know, I took a huge pay cut to chase my dreams. Huge pay cut. But, you know, I was, I, I used to make fun of people that I worked with. It's like they would go to work, then they'd go home, then they'd go to work. And they'd go home. I was like, what a boring life. You know? I don't ever want to be like that cuz I'm a yellow personality. I want to go, go, go. I wanna have fun. I wanna be spontaneous. I hate discipline and I hate the word hate. I, I didn't mean to say hate, I dislike discipline. And it's funny that you mentioned it, that that's the, accelerator today. So next thing I know, I find myself being just like those other people. Going to work, going home, eat, sleep, going to work, going home, eat, sleep. I've always worked out. it's not a discipline anymore, it's just a habit. Um, but I tell you, I, I had everything honestly that everybody says it takes to be a success. You know, I've got the, a lot of land. I've got a nice house, I've got a wonderful family, got a great car, got five of them, used to have 10 motorcycles. So as far as looking. From the outside in, I was a success and I was happy and it was great, but the pressure, I was the only breadwinner. I ran a, Walgreens store is the number 180 in the company out of 18,000. So an extremely successful store. But the pressure, it, it literally felt like somebody had 500 pounds on my chest. And it, I, I couldn't get off, you know, I was sitting there and there was nobody there to help me with it and I was like, God almighty, please Lord, there's gotta be something to help me here. Then I found Oola. I really did what sent me to Oola. I read this book called Think and Grow Rich. I think it's by Napoleon Hill. I was like, It was years ago. We, we were on vacation somewhere and we went into a bookstore. Cause my, my daughter loves to read. She's awesome with it. And, uh, I was just glancing and I saw this, I was like, Hey, I've heard this book. You know, I'm, I've been in personal development for 20 plus years, you know, just as my own little practice, that kind of a hobby. And when I read the book, I like, this is, this is, I'm gonna have to buy this. So I bought the book, which is rare for me. And I usually listen online to, to things. But, uh, I said, I've got to find other people that are putting this into practice because the book is not, it is not just a read, it's a study. I mean, it truly is. Uh, you can study it, take notes, go back, read, come back again, read it again, talk to other people that have read it, talk to other people that are teaching it. And it was hard to find people that were teaching it wholeheartedly and without any sense of re reciprocation. You know, they, they weren't looking for something so, Out to get out of teaching it. But I finally did find a, a group and it was a Oola. Um, my wife had read the book, gosh, like two years prior, and, uh, she talked about it was all excited and she got, she became a coach and she tried to talk me into it. I'm like, I don't want nothing to do with that. You know, I got my own thing going on. I don't need any help. Come to find out, you know, I, I didn't need a lot of help. Um, and like I said, I, I probably spent$15,000 on personal development up until that point, yet I still needed help. What I really needed was a mastermind alliance. I, as we called an inner circle. That's what I needed, other people around me that will help support. Me and my dreams, other people that we can brainstorm with other people that'll be supportive, whether you're doing good or whether you're doing bad. And it's definitely, definitely an Oola. That's my favorite thing about it is Oola. So once I found Oola, I actually found hope. I, I, I mean that's, that's what it boils down to. I found hope. I was like, I can be better and there's people that will help me.
Melinda:
ULAs community is definitely a giant inner circle for all of us, like coaches So let's talk about the accelerator of discipline for a minute. If we described it as rule following, behavior, regulation, order control, and authority, would you say that we're pre-wired for discipline and can you tell us how you think you could use it to your advantage to make your life better? I missed half that. Cause the, the definition of it just made me gag. Uh, just I felt like somebody was choking me. Cause it's, that's not my personality whatsoever. Um, I do feel that some people are, uh, really born with it. You know, it's like a genetic thing. So as, so many other things are, but you can change those genetics, by the way. Um, I, I definitely am not. The ideal person to come to as far as discipline, although I've found a way to make it work for me. Okay. It takes me much longer. It takes me much longer. If you, if you really do your studies, people say that to build a new habit, I think it's 28 days is what people normally say. For me, it's more like 60 really is, and when I, when I got into the discipline thing, And this was because of Hula, I, I started charting my, my discipline, okay. And my goals were to have your written goals every day, do three, three tasks a day towards that goal, and write them down for the entire month. Then write them down for the week and then write them down each day. So I, so I tried how well I did that, and after, right about 60 days, I was just doing it. Know, it was just, it's just, I felt weird if I wasn't doing it, but after the first 30 days, it was still, I had to be extremely disciplined to build the habit of discipline. Like I said, people ask me all the time, like, how do you work out all the time, man, you must be really disciplined. Like I said in the beginning, no, I, it's a habit now and, and once something becomes a habit, you don't really have to be disciplined anymore to do it, you know? That's one thing I learned. I was trying to do too much, trying to do too much. So it was over, it was stressing me out, but I was doing it to myself. Um, so things that are easy, you don't have to have discipline. Things that you don't like is really what you need to discipline for things that you're just not used to doing. Like going on a diet. A diet is normal. People need to be disciplined for that. But if you could find a way to. Change your mindset to where it is called, the law of substitution. So when, when you think of, let's say, dieting and, and you're not disciplined at all, you've tried it 50,000 times, it never works. Change your mindset as if you enjoy dotting. And when you self-talk, when you speak to yourself about dying, you say something other than I have to diet or man, today I'm going to diet. No, no, you gotta, you gotta change the words just like anything else. Make it a positive and present tense sin. So instead of, well, I have to do my diet today or have to, don't know, I get to diet today. In fact, take the whole word diet out. I get to eat healthy today, right? That's going to change everything. And you say it to yourself when you wake up, say it to yourself in the middle of the day. You say to yourself at the end of the night, especially in your theta state, theta states, when you're almost asleep, that's the best time to subconsciously sink things into your mind. So in a theta state, man, tomorrow I, I get to eat healthy and every day I eat healthy every day, and I am healthy. That's discipline itself right there. Teach yourself to be changing your mindset every day you'll become very disciplined.
Stephanie:
Yes. It takes discipline to build discipline, and that's where it's really difficult, right? it is one of the things we do to help our clients shift their mindset. it can be just a little shift or they do need to take lots of shifts and lots of steps. And so what are you the most passionate about with the Oola life coaching that you do? Oh, wow. You know, you have the generic, I like helping people, right? Um, and I do, but, but what I really like helping people do, It's become great at things that I'm comfortable with, helping them become great with, like, with entrepreneurs. I love, I found through Oola actually, that I love teaching entrepreneurs. I've done a lot of little things throughout, my life and that I, I felt like I could teach a class and networking got me to the case where someone in town, the Chamber of Commerce, asked me if I could teach an entrepreneurial class. I'm like, absolutely. I had no idea if I could or not. Right. Have to have confidence. You have to have confidence, you have to have self-worth. And I felt worthy. I'm like, I can do this. And do you know what the best thing to do to learn a topic is you teach it. It's the best way to learn something. Cause you know, if you're gonna have to stand up in front of 50 people to teach something, you're probably gonna be disciplined enough to learn them as much about it as you possibly can. And so that's what I did. And. This whole time teaching entrepreneurs, I'm still slaving away at my 70 to 80 hour a week job. Not spending time with my family, not spending time with my friends, stressing out at a, at, at the drug store. You know what I mean? The whole thing. Not, not just the front end, the pharmacy. And I had 78 stores underneath me to do specific things, right? So I learned so much. I mean, for four years I taught this class, and then we started a group. And then every, every month we meet and every week we have a call. And I've got, the contacts I received through that were just unbelievable. So I was like, why am I still sitting here miserable at this store now? Why don't I do my own thing, right? Because that was just a side gig, a hobby, right? I gotta pay a little bit, but not enough to pay the bills. And so now, I, I'm opening a, a franchise, so in fact, I'm sitting in the building right now. I was, uh, thinking about what you were saying and how at Oola we are teaching others how to rebalance their life. And so can you share with us how discipline has played a role in achieving some of your. Past or current goals? Absolutely. Well, first of all, they give you kind of a direction of where you need to go, right? Discipline. You have to know where you're going before you can get there. We've all heard a thing with the Google Maps. You know, if you want to get here, you gotta put it in the right address. And then it shows you where you are now and where you will be. And you have to draw that out, uh, in your mind on paper, in handwritten ink. Uh, it makes a big difference. Um, So I started writing down my goals and one of my goals was not to open a franchise but a, a little bigger picture. A and this will get me to that goal. Opening a franchise will get me to that goal. And the reason I was so disciplined on doing this. Because I was passionate about it, right? Ex, I'm, I'm really extremely passionate about the end goal, right? My 30 year goal, that's what I'm passionate about. And I have complete confidence that this is going to help me get there. So I didn't mind writing down notes every day of what it needed to go to do this, all the painstaking it takes. Um, I'd left my job, you know, you know, for Oola really, but I'd followed. All the stuff that they talk about in the Green Gap. Years before I joined up Oola. So I was lucky. I already already had that. No debt, don't, don't even owe on my house, no cars. You know, I had, uh Oh goodness, I went a little above. Above. I had two years worth of salary put back. Okay. And this is just cause I know it's the right thing to do, you know, it's a smart thing to do. It makes me feel better when I have money, you know, in the bank. So I had two years worth of that in case I lost my job. Didn't really plan on retiring like I did. Oola got me to do that, thank the Lord. And I had three months, actually, I had seven months worth of emergency thoughts, well, two days before my last day at the drug store. It's kinda embarrassing, but I've got a farm truck. It's kind of a old beat up, big old, huge monster thing. And uh, I don't have anything but liability insurance on it cuz it's paid for and, and we normally just use it around the farm. But this day I can't remember why, but I drove my truck. Okay. What do you think happened with no insurance? Yeah, I, I hit somebody completely my fault. There's no way I could even try to imagine making it their fault. You know, you wanna know how much that cost me in cash. My seven month emergency pump gone before I even left my, to take my early retirement. I was like, uhoh, you know, uh oh. May, maybe this is a sign. And, uh, and I got a little depressed. I, I really did. I thought maybe I'm doing the wrong thing. Am I really worthy? Can I do this? I'm, if I fail, I'm failing my entire family, you know? And, uh, the discipline and Oola got me past that. It really did got me past that. Like I said, I don't, I don't really, I wish they wouldn't change the word discipline because it really has a negative effect on me and it probably does others. But, and kind of going back to one of the questions. Discipline made it easier because of this, I, I found I was making lists this long in my brain, right? And then I started, when I started putting'em on paper, which is what I really needed to help my discipline, was I found out how much I wasn't getting done. I'm like, I'm, I talked to some people in New England. They're like, well, you're trying to do too much. I was like, but you know, I'm excited. I'm passionate. I wanna do this. And I had a strong why I didn't wanna fail my family. I, I didn't wanna fail my family. Um,
Melinda:
it definitely sounds like discipline has worked out for you with this new venture you're on.
Stephanie:
Yeah. Sorry. I about, I got chill bumps when I said that I can,
Melinda:
I can believe that. And it, that is, uh, kind of awesome though in itself. It's a strong life and that that really matters, but, Where, where discipline really helped me was I, I figured out that I was trying to do too much and then, believe it or not, it made things easier once I kind of honed it down to more of a craft that I felt like I'm getting more accomplished. Cuz I could check it off at the end of the day and I could look at it go, yay, I, I could celebrate my win for the day cuz I got something accomplished. I can move on to the next thing you know, and everything in, there's a lot of baby steps, you know, and those. A lot of baby steps. You know, you could be crazy about, you know, tall Jim Bob, about the franchise, right? That's, that's one. You know, uh, the next step you do the next step for the next day or whatever. So, simplify, simplify. we're asking all the coaches on our show some questions similar to the Pru questionnaire, and we're gonna ask you just five, Curtis. Okay. Okay. We're gonna try to streamline it for you. Thank you. Tell us something in life that has grown out of a personal disaster or challenge, which I feel like you kind of just did telling us the truck story. So that was good. Let's switch it up when and where were you the happiest you have ever been?
Stephanie:
Wow. Probably when I was six years old. Had no worries, no complaints, no cares, no was telling me what to do. Really. You know, once you turn seven, you get into school and then everybody sets, their expectation is on you, right? They're gonna, what you're gonna be in life, what you can do, what you can't do. All that kind of comes into play around age seven. So definitely age six. But you and more life terms, not really. Well, just with the, with the family and when I'm stress free from, uh, from money problems. That's good. And uh, and work problems. That's what I'm really the happiest. That's a good answer. Yeah. What relationship defines love for you? And this can be real or fictional. My relationship defines love, but I've always had a skewed, uh, view of, of love cuz you know, you picture it. Again, like everybody says, it's supposed to be right. Rainbows and butterflies. You know, everything's wonderful. Everything's great. Uh, you're happy all the time. Well, in life it's not that way. Uh, marriage or any relationship I is not that way. It's not great all the time. You have to make it great. Okay. God's relationship with us. I mean, and that's, that's what I'd love to have with, with my wife. I don't know if it's possible. He's just, he's incredible. He's incredible. Right. Let you know, faith was one of my top two goals like three years ago, so I've dug a lot into that and, and I'm glad for it. It wasn't for Oola. I probably wouldn't have dug into that so well, Anyway. Yeah, God's love is, I mean, completely forgiving, right? If you ask forgiveness, he never, ever will let you down, but you have to go on his timeline, you know, somebody won't let you down. Good answer. Um, hey, what person, place, or experience has shaped you the most person or place or experience? Actually, back in my bartending days, I'd say I, I didn't look at these places before cause I really wanted it to be AAU authentic. Um, I, I, I had a lot of fun bartending and on the side I was a male stripper, so you don't have to tell anybody that, but, uh, had a lot of fun. But how it shaped me was I saw where I didn't wanna be the rest of my life. And that, that's one way to build a goal if you don't have any ideas, is start with what you don't want to do, what you don't want to be. Because everybody around me, for the most part, um, were 40 years old, they had families, they have to work the weekends and late nights to make any money. I was like, I, I don't want to be that. Right. So that shaped me a lot and the people I met, You know, that would come into bars. It was a high volume dance club. You get to talk to a lot of people, but that shaped me the most. So
Melinda:
what advice would you give your younger self? Is that it, skip that phase?
Stephanie:
Absolutely not. I, I, I would not skip that phase for nothing, even though it got me in a lot of trouble. A lot of times I feel like I wasted those six or seven years. Because all my other friends were, you know, they graduated college, they're, they've got careers, they're doing good. And, you know, all I'm doing is just playing. Really. That's all I was doing. But it, it gave me a lot of insight and wisdom. Uh, tell my future self. I would maybe get outta that a little earlier and start living. First of all, realize my own dreams, one are my own dreams. As a younger self and start living it little by little every day and help others along the way. That's definitely what I would tell myself. Start living your dreams earlier, because a lot of people don't even know what their dreams are. You ever ask anybody what their passion is in life, what their purpose is? Hardly anybody knows, but that's that answer.
Melinda:
Do you have a quote or a motto that you value that you wanna share with us?
Stephanie:
Hmm. Believe. Well, you were born of greatness and for greatness. Now go prove it. I've got a lot of'em, but that, that's one of my favorite. I like it. Yeah, that's a good one. Very to the point. Yeah. So we are also asking all the coaches on our show if they have taken an Enneagram test, and that is a systema, a personality typing that describes patterns in how people interpret the world and manage their emotions. And I know you took the Enneagram test for our show, right? Yeah. And yeah. Do you remember what your number was? I think it was an eight. Yeah, I got that too. Yeah. So you're, you're only our second eight on the show. Oh wow. I'm special. And the eight is the Challenger. Um. And I have a little blurb that I'm just gonna talk about the strengths of an eight, if that's okay with you. I love to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So with the natural confidence and the charisma to get things done as well as their disinterest in taking no for an answer, eights often automatically end up in positions of leadership, and they find it easy to take care of things nobody else will and are honest and upfront in their communication. Eights have the ability to inspire strength and endurance in others and can push through things that other people simply lack The will energy and grit for eights are people with high levels of energy, intensity, and willpower. They project power and toughness and take challenges as an invitation to prove their strength. Eights also have a fierce passion to protect the vulnerable and weak. Does that sound like you? Yeah. It's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing. These tests and how they can help you coach others. Yes. Yeah. If you don't know, if you don't know who you're talking to, you're, you're speaking a different language, right? You might as well be speaking French, just somebody that has no idea you know how to speak French. If you don't know their enneagrams or their personality or core motives, you knows extremely important. That is a good point. Yeah.
Melinda:
I've had a chance to follow some of your Facebook Lives, and when I saw that you were an eight, I could really see how that resonates. Yeah, for sure. Um, you're very authentic on your lives. I like it a lot. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, well thank you for joining us today. Is there anything else you wanna share with our listeners?
Stephanie:
Yeah, um, yeah, I got this thing called Facebook Families. I like to, I like to say where, uh, Everybody's fake all the time, right? You see'em one day and they're all happy and smiles and cheers. And then next thing you know, they're divorced like two days later. But, but here they thought, or you looking at them, you thought their life was great, right? Everything's perfect. Why can't my life be like that? That's one thing I, I despise about some of the social media that fake families, right? Um, Kind of back to where I said, do I feel like I'm a success? I said yes. But monetarily wise, right now I'm not. You know, um, when, when you are chasing your dreams that you're very disciplined about what you have to be, you, you sometimes have to take a step back right before you can move forward. You know, I've gotten last two years have been some really, really tough times. You know, I've never had to do a budget, right? I've never had to worry about money. I've always been fine with that cause I've been physically confident for a long time because I, I did Oola gap stuff for a long time. So if I wanted to go out and buy a motorcycle, I'd buy a motorcycle, you know, cash. But, you know, but that hasn't been the case, you know, since I took early retirement, had to cut back a lot and matter of fact, Last month now I've been working in construction, which is something I did 25 years ago, so I had to step back. It's been difficult. It's been tough, and the road coming is gonna be difficult and it's gonna be tough, but I'm passionate enough to be disciplined to get to where I want to go, and I'm lucky to have people around me that will help support me. So just remember that not everybody's as great as what you think they are. And don't judge your life by their life cuz it's not even real what you see. That's what I
Melinda:
wanna say. Yes. That's a great little recap for discipline and a great description of chasing your Oola life. I just think we're gonna close up there cuz that was awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. It was a real pleasure to meet you. Thank y'all. We would like to let our listeners know that our next episode will showcase coach Michelle Kun and the topic of the Oola Accelerator Humility. Be sure to like and subscribe to life coaches in cahoots and be sure to listen to our six month anniversary bonus episode. You just might make a connection. And on that note, I'd like to remind you we are all designed by God for greatness and with purpose. We wanna truly thank Coach Curtis for taking his time to share about himself coaching and ULAs Accelerator discipline. It has been a real pleasure. Until next time, stress less, feel better, and enjoy life a little more. Bye now. Bye.