Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Ray Coleman.
Christopher Ray, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2013, I started the year off homeless sleeping out of my car, taking showers at the YMCA I worked at, and spending late nights at a local Waffle House. I was at a crossroads in my life where I knew I had to make a drastic decision in my life if I wanted the drastic change I sought. So, I cut off all ties to my family, safety nets, and toxic bonds and there, I was homeless. In April 2013, I cake across an opportunity at a sales organization after my friend wrote my name down as a personal recruit. Keeping the pattern of making drastic decisions I decided to show up for an interview and landed a position on the sales team. I always viewed sales as something that was “unethical” and really something I wasn’t capable of doing so, I knew this opportunity would push me out of my comfort zone to grow. After two weeks of sales, I was promoted to Assistant Manager.
After two months, I was promoted to Sales Manager. And after nine months, I was promoted to District Manager which was one of the fastest promotions in the companies history at the time. I moved 6 1/2 hours away from Mobile, Al to Florence, Al where I started a District HQ from scratch in an untapped territory where there had never been a District HQ before. At 23, I was responsible for the northwest part of Alabama, parts of Mississippi, and parts of Tennessee. I moved to the area, negotiated a lease, hired a receptionist team, and painted the town red with printed fliers. And in 18 months, I recruited a sales force of 150 reps that generated right over 6 figures in business. All of this being done in an area where the median income is $35k a year. Despite the success I was having there; I had family members back home suffering from health and financial issues. So, now that I had the universal tools and skills to run a business, I stepped down as a District Manager in August 2015 to go all with Health Is Wealth Nation. It’s a health/wellness company with a collection of brands dedicated to change the state of health in the south by 2030. Since 2015, I’ve been on a crusade to grow the health/wellness company as well as my personal. I’ve coached hundreds of clients to get results, I’ve mentored dozens of health coaches to help people in their lives, I’ve self-published a 2X Amazon best selling book on how I went from homeless to business owner titled “The 180 Effect”, I’ve been featured on a few podcast shows/platforms, and have spoken at a couple of events as a keynote speaker and panel guest.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The road has been everything but smooth; which I feel is the case for everyone who has achieved any success. I’ve had sleepless nights, hungry nights, cold nights, and lonely nights/days. I’ve had my car repossessed right before moving from home to starting my District Headquarters from scratch. I’ve had the A/C & toilet in my office go out in the middle of the summer with dozens of applicants and sales reps coming in and out during the day. I’ve even been racially profiled and locked up for a weekend and placed in the system which has led to an accumulation of legal issues which I’m happy to say is close to being resolved. Challenges have come in all shapes and forms. To close friends and family members not seeing my visions and supporting me to competitors working to sabotage my reputation or momentum. But I’ve found the bigger your purpose is that it has a positive intention to change people’s lives, the bigger a negative force will attempt to destroy and disrupt your purpose. It’s ying and yang, you can’t have one without the other. So, it’s not about what happens in life. It rains on ya all. Night falls on us all. What separates the affluent from the average, the struggling from the successful is how they react to life. How they respond to adversity and allow it to serve them and fuel them.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Health Is Wealth Nation story. Tell us more about it.
I’m the Founder/CVO(Chief Visionary Officer) of Health Is Wealth Nation. Which is a health/wellness company with a collection of brands dedicated to changing the state of health in the south. Our primary division is a corporate wellness consulting agency that I head where I help business owners & entrepreneurs optimize their health while accumulating wealth. We do this via personal development, nutrition programs, and sales training. Our main philosophy is; “There’s no way to get true and sustainable results physically unless we’re first emotionally fit and mentally strong. Our secondary division is a Nutrition Club organization. Where my health coaches use the number 1 nutrition in the world and provide communities with nutrition that’s fun, simple, and magical. And our third division which is an apparel line is scheduled to launch Jan 2020. I’m most proud of the duplication we’ve had in our organization. It’s one thing for me to have success. But I’ve been able to create leaders in the organization and they’ve gone on to do the same. It has made a big difference in our impact in Mobile, AL and we now see our impact spreading through the south. What sets us apart is first our vision. We truly care about the lives in our communities and aim to abolish the obesity epidemic and lower the chronic illness statistics in the south. We operate with a long term vision in mind as opposed to a short term financial goal. Secondly, our coaches lead from the front with their results then pay it forward to clients and customers. We live in an age where there are business coaches online that have never run a business, speakers that have no experience and only speak from theories, and life coaches that haven’t lived any life. We’re all about practicing what we preach. There aren’t many health coaches/consultants that got into the health/wellness industry after they build a successful sales organization in the marketing & advertising industry. So, not only do I know what professionals need to do to improve their wellness and the wellness of their workplace; but I’ve done it myself as a professional and I’m currently doing it now with the endeavors I’m pursuing.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I personally want to skip this question due to my personal views on “luck,” haha. I’m a firm believer in luck but it’s something we have ZERO control over so it’s useless to exert energy into it. It’s like the sailor spending all his time on the wind blowing. We can’t control the wind. The same wind blows on us all. But the sailor can control how he sets the sail. We have 100% control over the actions we take and the position we place ourselves in “to be lucky”. I’ve always been an inspiring guy and poured into males younger than me. It was a younger male that graduated from the same high school I did that wrote my name down to be interviewed for the sale position and that one occurrence changed my life astronomically. The District Manager that interviewed me also graduated from the same high school I did. The health coach on my team who is the team leader for our home town Mobile Al is only on our team because I happened to be on Facebook one day and responded to a status where she expressed she wanted to add a smoothie bar to the gym she owned at the time. There are a number of instances like this that have served me in life. A share a bunch of them in my book during my lowest days while homeless. However, I had to be in the position to capitalize on said luck. I had to have the right mindset to notice the opportunities and moments. I also believe bad luck is just good fortune we just confuse. I grew up in a house full of women without my dad. In addition to being an African American male in the Deep South in the State of Alabama. There’s a length list one could conjure up on how they would have bad luck. But growing up surrounded by women has built respect and adoration for them that has helped me in life and business with many powerful women around me. I also have a level of empathy and perspective that is second to none. And the adversity I’ve experienced from racism, poverty, and systemic oppression has made me tough-skinned and ambitious to a fault sometimes that will leave many generations after me in a better situation than I was presented.
Contact Info:
- Address: 202 Government St Mobile, Al 36602
- Website: https://christopherraycoleman.com the180effect.net
- Email: info@christopherraycoleman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christopherraycoleman/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christopherraycoleman/
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/doublec180
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/hiwn_consulting/
Image Credit:
Travis Middleton, Michael O’Sullivan
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