Teaching, coaching, and mentoring success have been a part of my life since graduating from college. I graduated from college with a Bachelors Degree in Accounting but chose shortly thereafter to go into the insurance industry. The start of that career was with Combined Insurance Company, whose founder was W. Clement Stone. W. Clement Stone built his extremely successful company on the success principles of personal development and self mastery. I still remember the success sayings posted in my office. Sayings such as, “Do It Now!”, “I Feel Healthy, I Feel Happy, I Feel Terrific,” “To Be Happy Make Others Happy,” “Have The Courage To face the Truth,” “Awaken The Sleeping Giant Within You,” “Think With PMA And Grow Rich,” “Be Willing To Risk Failure In Order To Succeed,” “You Can Do it If You Believe You Can,” “Success Is Achieved and Maintained By Those Who Keep Trying,” and “Achieve Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.”
Besides making great money for a kid fresh out of college, the greatest contribution that Combined Insurance gave me was instilling in me a commitment to personal development and self mastery. I left Combined and went to work for two different insurance companies in the Marketing Department. After 4 years, I left my position as a Regional Marketing Manager and went to work for an Independent Insurance Agency as a Producer. Over the next 16 years, I built the largest book of business in our Ohio operation and along the way was promoted to Sales Manager, VP of Company Relations, then VP of Sales. I thought my next step was to be President, but the two owners decided to sell the agency to a large, publicly traded company. The actual acquisition happened while I was on vacation and when I returned on Monday morning, I was terminated. This was a traumatic event but I believe what W. Clement Stone said, ” Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”
I took the summer off to get my head together and figure out what I should do. I went through a program called “What Color Is Your Parachute” and it forced me to identify my strengths and weaknesses as well as my likes and dislikes. Through it all, I determined that I love teaching, coaching and helping people. As a Sales Manager, I got more of an adrenaline rush watching our salespeople have success, than I did from my own successes.
After wrestling in High school and College, I became a wrestling coach for 13 years, and also a golf coach for 2 years. Again, I realized I was more fulfilled and rewarded to watch my kids be successful than being successful myself.
During that summer, I started Hammons Consulting, LLC. This company was created to help individuals and businesses be more successful. Besides Success Coaching, I was doing Risk Management consulting and sales teaching , coaching, and training for businesses. In addition, I was a CEO Coach for a number of businesses in Toledo. I went out to Redmond, WA and became a certified trainer with the Effectiveness Institute for their Customer Service and People Skills programs and started a seminar business to get this training out to the public. In September of that same year, I decided to start building an insurance business again and became a partner in that firm after 4 years and continue to help build that firm.
In 2007, I started to realize that I would not get to one of my ultimate goals of financial freedom unless I changed something. In searching for other opportunities, I found what I believe to be one of the greatest opportunities that exist today. The Network Marketing business model is one of the best models I’ve studied and the income potential is amazing. I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and I have been growing this business since then. The really neat part of the business model is I get to follow my passion for helping others. In fact, the more you help others, the more you make. Zig Ziegler said, “You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want”.
If I could only share one thing with you about me it would be that I have found my purpose and passion in life is coaching and helping others be successful. I have invested much of my life studying and learning from some of America’s best thought leaders and I want to share what I’ve learned over the years with as many people as possible. Living a successful life is easy if you just follow a process of learning and applying some new ideas every day. A successful life is all about mastery or continuous improvement in all the various areas of our lives. This includes physical, mental, spiritual, family, relationships, lifestyle, business, and financial. My tag line is “Helping People Help Others” and I strive to fulfill that objective everyday. I try to read at least 10 pages of a life changing book each day and/or listen to a CD for at least 15 minutes each day.
I believe that attitude management is critical to living a successful life. Years ago I developed the saying “Success is Attitude Managtement” and it came from the game of golf. Golf has so many life lessons. How you recover from a bad shot is how you manage your attitude. How we recover from the setbacks and challenges is based upon our attitude and philosophy. My favorite definition of attitude is from Charles Swindoll. To summarize, he says, I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it…. we are in charge of our attitude.”
I believe our world has discouraged people from dreaming. My objective is to help people dream again, and inspire them to improve every aspect of their lives. Then go share it with someone else. I want to have a positive impact on our world one person at a time. I believe one person can make a difference.
Hammons Consulting is focused on helping individuals create and fulfill their dreams, particularly their financial dreams. I assist people in understanding the power of clarity in their vision. Keith Cunningham says, “Clarity = Power”. I embrace new challenges and opportunities because that is how you grow. I work hard and play hard. I’m passionate about life and look for new experiences. My hobbies are golfing, riding my Harley, and traveling.
I encourage people to develop their own business. Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and “Cash Flow Quadrant” says that owning a business is one of the few ways to become financially independent. The best thing about having your own business is that you can create your own security. If it is a home based business, you can work it part-time or full-time. You don’t have to report to someone except yourself and the income potential is unlimited. If you want to travel or stay home some day, you have that choice. You get to call the shots and determine your own level of success. You also get paid for what you do and don’t have to rely on someone else to decide what your worth.
I’ve heard it said that financial success is easy. Simply find an unfulfilled need and then fill it. It is available to anyone that has a strong desire to change their situation. No particular skills or talent, no particular education, no huge investment. The type of business you want to look for is a business that is lucrative, even in a down economy like we have now. You also want to find a business that will tap into the needs of the baby boomers. For most of us, that need is to shore up our financial future because of what the economy has done to our retirement plans. Four years ago I found that type of business and I’m looking for people that want to seriously change their life for the better and have the desire and drive to make it happen.
