Meet Charmaine Hammond | Professional Speaker, Best Selling Author & Executive Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Charmaine Hammond and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charmaine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk taking has played a pretty pivotal role in my life and career. My first career was in Correctional Services, I was a Correctional Officer in both adult and young offender facilities for almost ten years. Every day there was a high level of risk involved in our work. I quickly discovered the the values that I was raised with were ones that helped keep me safe. Those were kindness, treating people with respect, demonstrating integrity, and collaboration. When I left working in the correctional field, I worked as an Executive Director of a women’s crisis facility, then worked in psychiatry and mental health while I completed a degree in social development studies. Working in the field of corrections inspired me to get trained and certified as a mediator, I took a big risk and opened my first business, a dispute resolution practice. I have been in business ever since (almost 25 years). Fast forward to now, I am also an Executive Producer of a new award winning animated movie, Back Home Again. The film industry is a new business world for me, and came with much to learn and some risks. This has been by far one of the best decisions I have made. This project weaves in those same values that guided my correctional work: kindness, collaboration, integrity, and, making a difference. I have learned that risks are part of life, and part of business. To grow, evolve and work on projects of the heart that matter and make a difference brings in an element of risk taking but also much to be proud of.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My professional career has been an interesting path starting with working in the Correctional System, to then working in mental health services, to a contract negotiator and specialist for government to then opening up a dispute resolution practice providing mediation services to families, communities and workplaces, to now having two businesses and speaking and training around the globe on conflict resolution, resilience and collaboration. In the midst of all this I became an author of 5 traditionally published bestselling/award winning books, and am featured in 11 others.

While my career path has been diverse, it does have one thread that links everything I have done together. That thread is collaboration and relationships.

There are so many lessons learned through the years, some through making mistakes and learning the hard way.

If I were to sum it all up, I would say this, this is how one of my keynote presentations begins and ends. “Life is full of moments. Moments that define you. Moments that challenge you. Moments that stretch you, and, moments that help you grow. The question is always… how will you spend your moments?”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite spots in the city are walking paths near water and sailboats, quirky coffee shops, dog parks and places I have not been before.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My life and professional journey has been blessed with mentors, champions and role models the whole way through. My family and husband Christopher are my consistent champions. Not only do I learn so much from them, they unconditionally champion projects that mean so much to me. Knowing they have my back allows me to courageously step forward and challenge myself.

My grade 9 teacher, Ms. Erstikaitis was an inspiration and role model for me, I am pretty sure that my passion for writing was discovered through her grade 9 English class.

Working on the award winning movie Back Home Again with Michael Mankowski, the Screenwriter/Director/Producer has been an incredible journey, one of learning, creativity, taking risks, stepping far out of my comfort zone and feeling overwhelming pride for this film.

Website: https://raiseadream.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charmaine_hammond

Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/charmainehammond

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hammondgroupbiz https://twitter.com/RaiseADream_

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raiseadream

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Gadbois Photography (headshot) Photo Credit: Michael Mankowski, Alien Cow (movie Poster image)