Episode 68: Macoupin CEO Program | The Power of Mentors and Coaches with Tommy Campbell

0:00 Welcome to Lead with Hope, the podcast where we explore the power of hope, leadership, and resilience in today's world. I'm Brandy Kelly, and each week I'll bring you stories, insights, and actionable advice from leaders and change makers who are using hope as their compass to navigate challenges and inspire others to create positive impact. Whether you're a seasoned leader or just beginning your journey, this podcast is here to remind you that no matter the obstacles, hope is the fuel that can drive transformation. So let's dive in and discover how you can lead with hope.

0:45 You will not want to miss this amazing episode with Tommy Campbell. Tommy is a 2025 CEO alum and he shares stories from ACEO experience, his experiences in football, youth group, and his work life. This episode is packed with lessons on leadership, resilience, and showing up. This is one you're going to want to hear from start to finish, so let's get started. Why don't you tell me a little bit about your background and about T&D's entertainment? Yeah, Thanks for having me today, Brandy. I really appreciate it.

1:26 It's an honor to be on here. I guess to start with a little bit about myself, I my name is Tommy Campbell. Obviously, I graduated from Staunton High School in 2025. So I guess you would say last school year. I lived in Staunton my entire life. I've I'm still living at home, but I've grown up this spot in the middle of nowhere where we kind of got to do everything ourself. Like we got a well that we have to haul water and stuff for. So I've been accustomed to work my whole life. And I mean, there's not much more background. I've just always been willing to try new stuff and be willing to do stuff that makes me get on my comfort, comfort zone. The kind of quote Scott Reichman from last year, one of my favorite quotes that he said was don't be afraid to suck at something new.

2:10 I can say that I'm not afraid to suck at anything new. I love that quote. Don't be. Afraid I do too. To suck at something new. I'm writing that down, Tommy. That was my senior quote last year. That's great. Now what, what is TN DS Entertainment? You mentioned that in our correspondence and I'm just curious if you could share a little bit about that. But just a little bit about TN DS. So TN DS was a child of the badge, the badge business program for CEO. So that was the first thing we did and what we did for our way of doing badge business was we did a little advertisement plan. We did three plans.

2:51 We had tier one was 25 bucks. We just do a collage post of everyone that's around. So like just shout out, thank you for everyone who supports the CEO program. Second one was $50 and that was just a little bio personal post and then 100 and then $100 was the real money maker, which was videos. And we kind of preface me and we just we got to the videos. I'd be going with the got done with the class business because the class business took a lot of her time up after we got done initially getting the money for the badge business. After the badge or after the class business, we were all kind of stressed out and ready to just kind of unwind. So me and Dylan we our first video that we did, I guess you'd say for like pre op T and DS and then doing it for CEO. We went to Bill's IGA and Staunton. We both kind of looked sure like let's have some fun with this. So if you, I mean if you go look at the CEO Facebook page or anything, they got the our videos on there and rest of the CEO students, but you'll kind of see the beginnings of TNDS there.

3:50 OK, So what do you do with TNDS? Well, we advertise local businesses around the Coopin and we're trying to kind of expand out right now, OK. And then then the, what really became T and DS was we were sitting at Hawthorne one morning talking with Carrie and all of them and a couple and Carrie and then Macy Wright and a few others suggested, hey, you guys really were good at doing those videos. You should really start the business. I kind of look at Don and go. So we went to his house, played darts, wrote up a business plan. A couple days later we presented it. We got polos and whatnot.

4:30 And then T and DS was born. That's not, that's amazing. I love that story, Tommy. It was born right there at Hawthorne's coffee shop in Carlinville. There's a plug right there for Hawthorne's to sponsor the Lead with Hope podcast. I would. Completely agree with that Brandy. So Tommy, what's something special about you or something that brings you joy? You know, coffee brings me joy, that's for sure. What brings you joy? Well, I have to say the biggest thing, which could be stereotypical, but being able to go out and spread Jesus word. Being a Christian is a big part of who I am and I am not afraid to admit that. You can quote me like I said. Well, like I was saying, Jesus is a humongous part of my life.

5:11 He, I mean, for one, he was there when I first started. He's always been, he's kind of just been the well for me, it's been the background. But now that I've gotten older and realized how much of an impact he has, it's become my passion and my love to be able to go out and lead and proclaim Christ's name. I'm not afraid. I try to do it in every little way. I'm not afraid the criticisms about it. So that's what I find my most joy is. Being able to praise His name and being able to help people is the biggest thing for me. That's beautiful, Tommy, and that gives me a lot of of encouragement. You're a young man just starting out in the world, just a recent graduate from high school, and you're shining Jesus love into the world very brightly. So that gives me a lot of hope and encouragement. What experiences or lessons have had the biggest impact on your life or your leadership?

6:10 That's a really good question. I got. I got a few good ones. We'll start with when it comes to my faith, that had the biggest impact for me starting out on the path in 2022. Well, the kind of more like in 2021, my church, I go to Zion Staunton in Zion Lutheran Staunton in Staunton. We haven't had a youth group there for a long time, but a guy by the name of Christy Cook, which huge shout out to Christy because without her, like her guidance and whatnot would not be who I am today. She helped me really like kind of breakdown and hone my my faith and be able to use it as a positive light.

6:51 But. The people in your life, the people in your life, that's what makes all the difference and it's so encouraging whenever you can connect with somebody in a youth group and they can have that big influence on you. Right now I'm reading a book, Tommy, it's called Lead Like Jesus. I highly recommend it. Highly recommend. It talks about our heart, our head, our hands, and our habits and how we can put the mission to love God, love people, serve all into action, and use Jesus as the role model for our life and our leadership.

7:33 And it sounds like that's what Christy did in your life, too. Yeah, not just Christy, but I I would not be who I am without my mom and dad pushing me. And always with mom and dad, I I would not be real. I mean, for one, I wouldn't be around without them, but I wouldn't be able to have the mindset that I do without their guidance and then willing to like wanting to push me instead of just kind of shelter me. They are always like, go try it, let's see what happens. I'm so thankful for that. Yeah, and God knows it. It's such a perfect plan. He knows the parents that we need and he gives us the perfect parents that we need. And I will tell you, Tommy, my, my father passed away in September and he had fought a long courageous battle with Parkinson's. But knowing that he's in heaven now with my mother, it gives me so much peace.

8:28 And just reflecting back on his life and his legacy, I'm just so grateful that God gave me the parents that he gave me. And I'm sure your parents are butt and bust and proud of their son. They are, and I don't really like bragging about myself with that kind of stuff, 'cause I, I'm ultimately, it's not my doing, it's God's doing. I'm just a vessel. That's, that's the way I look at it. That's why I try not to be Mr. Barrel Chest and showing off everything. Yeah. But. And also I'm sorry for your loss as well. Thank you. Harmi, thank you. But like I said, there's hope there.

9:08 There's hope because there's heaven, and I will see him again one day. When you were working in the CEO program, you guys did a badge business. You did a lot of business visits, things like that. What stands out to you about your experiences in the CEO program? That's a really good question and I, I, I hope this is a good answer. But for me, the biggest thing that I took from CEO was when we got the mentors, I had Ken Doyle, which another humongous shout out to Ken. He really helped me understand how to be business minded, how to think, like think how to use your money. And the biggest thing is he helped me realize how big connections are.

9:51 That's the biggest thing I pulled from CEO is having connections in networking is key in life, period. Yeah. 100% agree with you there, Tommy. Now, we all have defining moments in our life too. And you've talked about some really big ones. You know, you've talked a lot, a lot about faith in your youth group, your mom and your dad, your mentors. But adversity strikes us all. We all deal with hard spots. And if you haven't yet, hold on because it's coming. It's not if, it's when, Oh yeah. Are there any challenges that you have maybe overcome and you can give the listeners some tips or some strategies regarding how you overcame that challenge?

10:39 I do have one and it's one that, I mean, if I was going to kind of either talk about it later or talk about after I talked about the youth gathering, but we'll get to that anyway in 2020. I mean, it was a bad year for everyone, but for us, that was when my mother was diagnosed for cervical cancer. And along with that, while she was like, like she's cancer free now, got it cut out, She's all good. But that same year, my father also shattered his leg and both my parents were down. I was the only one able to operate this entire little, I'll call it little homestead or what what it's a we're, we live in our, in the country. We have, like I said, we got water, we got a hall, we got a furnace that I have to cut wood for, which is why I also start a firewood business that I have to cut wood for, to have heat for everything. And we got bunch like how many 7 animals or so that we have to take care of.

11:36 So when that happened, I was left, I was left this humongous platter of stuff I had to do. And the biggest, the biggest moment that kind of helped me don't go to who I am was one day I was out cutting wood and there's a log that was frozen to the ground 'cause it like freshly iced over. So it was a big old sheath. It was not working. And I just, I just lost it right then and there. And right then that's when I really felt God was like, hey, you'll get through this. And well, he did. I instead of like being what was me, I looked, OK, how can I better myself? That's where I, what I really learned from that was and that's the lens I look at any challenge like anyone that I go through now is how can I be better from this? God's here with me, but how can I grow stronger and better from this instead of laying down and accepting defeat? Because that's not how I operate. Yeah, and that's a beautiful reframe, Tommy, because how old were you when that all happened in 2020? It was 13 going on 14.

12:39 Yeah, You were young and you were handling a man's load of responsibility at that young age. And to be able to reframe those challenges into opportunities to grow. There's a lot of adults in their 30s, forties, 50s, man, even probably 60s that they can't reframe it like that. They can't see the potential in that growth, and I see that that adversity LED you to be the young man that you are today. With how many businesses? 2 currently. Two businesses. That's awesome, Tommy, that is awesome.

13:20 So are there any passion projects or anything that you are working on that you want to talk about? There is right now what right now, like I'm actually after this, I got to go get a load ready Big T's firewood. I started it back in 2020, 23, two years ago now. And there was a good friend of ours that we've known for years. He helped me because that's when I turned 16, got my license, started selling firewood because I know how to do it. It's pretty fun to do. Last year I was kind of like dwindling because I was like, oh, I have football going on. I got all this going on and I was like, yeah. But now that I'm kind of free to do whatever I want, I'm trying to get another truck. Maybe start blow.

14:01 Like not blowing money but getting more stuff ready to go. Like being a little more streamlined and maybe get to a point where this side hobby makes me quite a bit of money. Yeah, that's awesome. And then another one is so I mentioned youth groups. So I did it for three years. I'll just kind of preference. Like what really started me on the journey is I went to Houston, TX in 2022 and it was called, it's called the National Youth Gathering. It's a week long like convention with like 20,000 other kids and adults my about my age or older that all gather there that praise Jesus. Like when we were there, we were at the Astro Stadium. We got the whole stadium filled up. And that's what like if you ever heard the term mountaintop experience, that's what was for me, really helped me go to the trajection I am today because it's like, Oh well, he's here. Let's do let's do something about it. Let's not sit down and helped me drive to become a big leader in youth group and tried my best at which that has led me today where our youth director Christy stepped down. She got a new opportunity in Collinsville which grateful that she got the new opportunity to go spread her life somewhere else.

15:13 I have I'm trying to take I'm in the process of taking up the mental the new youth leader right now, that's a. Passion project. Thank you. That's awesome. And then I think two more and we'll move on is so I went to a thing called youth lead for the last three years. It's like a little, it's a leadership program that is a weekend long program where you get into small groups, talk about how you can be a leader in price and just so much more. It I'm just scratching the surface of it because I don't want to get too much detail, but it's it's great. It could make a lot of a lot of connections, a lot of networking. I've met a lot of people that I've still in quite contact with from around the country from there. That's awesome, and I love that you started growing yourself in the CEO program, but you haven't stopped there.

15:59 You graduated and now you are seeking out other ways to grow, not just as a leader, but as a human being in your faith. And Tommy, throughout this entire interview, I have heard you say that your values are at least in part faith, family, and that work ethic and it shows. And when you lead in your values, I believe you can accomplish anything you set your mind to with God's help. I completely agree, but last year what so they have So the way youthly works is every three years this big gathering occurs. Like this year we went down to New Orleans. Great trip, great food.

16:39 I recommend going. Maybe don't go to Bourbon Street if you're too young. We bit crazy, but went down there. There was kind of like a send off with all the old, like not old, but like the old. The people that I went to youth group with kind of just graduating this kind of little send off and the passing of the torch for me because I'm trying to take up youth group. But I got elected to Youth League because it every there's a team every year that has a three-year term and I got elected to it. I'm representing the central region of the United States right now and starting to prepare for the in March is when Youth League starts, something very passionate about. And then another thing is I'm very passionate about. I'll go into football, all of it. So you understand why I'm why I am. I'm coaching now.

17:29 I started playing football for Staunton in 3rd grade and I ended last year. So I played for about 10 years and I wouldn't change a thing of it because football really taught me OK, how to pick yourself up, dust yourself on and get back to it. And then something I tell my 5th graders would like told my 5th graders and going to be 6th graders, I tell them next play, move on. Don't worry about what happened last time, move on. Yeah, let it. Go and then, especially in high school, I have nothing I like. I'm going to plug another mentor, coach Austin Shirfey. Without him, I would not be so headstrong and be willing to step up and leave because he gave me that opportunity. He let me, well, he helped me realize that I can be. I can be myself and it'll work.

18:16 I was elected team captain for two years in a row, which was awesome, and without Shirpy's help, I would not be who I am today. I, I really wouldn't without football, without Shirpy, without Jesus, without Christ, without my parents, I would not be who I am today. So if you shout out to all of them, I'm extremely thankful for all what they've done for me. And in the Bible, in Jeremiah 2911, it's one of my favorite verses, it says that he has a plan for our life, a plan to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us hope in a future. And your life shows that, Tommy, it really does. So I'm wondering what's giving you hope in our world right now? Little things, honestly, Brandy, just seeing right now that my little cousin who I asked if she want to come to a youth group of her starting to love it.

19:07 Just just just one. Just seeing one kid, seeing one person that I'm affecting with how I'm doing things gives me hope. And then one of my my favorite, it's a basic verse, but it's a good, it's a basic verse for a reason. Philippians 413. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's my favorite, one of my favorite verses of all time because for me it really summarizes, you know, what God does. Tommy, this conversation was, I knew it was going to be good, but it is an unexpected blessing to me today because I had no idea of your faith. I didn't know about this part of you.

19:49 I knew that when you were in the CEO program, you had a really fun story that I'm hoping that you will end on today and share with the listeners because you have a lot of charisma, you have a lot of personality, and you bring humor into into the situation, which I think we need more of right now in our world. So can you think of your most funny? Story from the CEO program and we'll end on that story. Oh, all right then I'll talk about class business, which goes back into how T&D started, why me and Dylan are so goofy when our videos. But the day of like we tried having it. So what it was is like we tried having a 5K and a fall festival in the same day.

20:33 Weather was not on our side. We only had like 6 runners and you know, things were not looking too good. We had about 180 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts to do so before and we were going to do like a hot dogging, hot dogging competition, which is why I had a hot dog costume. And then we had we were like advertising the pet park because it was like a pet festival. So I got a hold of our school's bulldog mascot costume so we could advertise that no one was showing up. And then me and Dylan were like kind of looking at each other because him and I are both like, OK, let's do something right now instead of like kind of wait and be logical with. We like to attack, not really defend or anything like that. So we walk out there.

21:19 Well, first he's like, Tommy, put on the hot dog costume, give me the bulldog costume. Like, OK, what are we going to do, head out there? We start dancing like strippers the whole time. We sold 180 dozen dozen Donuts within like an hour or two from us. Just being so stupid. That's great. That is great. And I will tell you, I had Macy on the she shares a little bit about this story whenever I talk to her as well. So it is one for the history books for sure. So thanks for sharing. Yeah. So as listeners are listening to us talk and you Share your story, share about the CEO program, if somebody wants to get into touch with you, would you be open to that? And if so, how can they connect with you? I would be more than willing to help like if someone wants to talk to me please do and I'll just give just phone numbers. Normally how I do it just text or call me. Normally text if you call me, we'll see if I answer. I normally do because I it's normally customers that call me but my number is 217 556-9181.

22:34 OK, Tommy, and I'll add Tommy's number in the show notes. If you want to get in touch with Tommy to talk about CEO program, TS Firewood or T and DS Entertainment, call Tommy. You won't regret it. Tommy, thanks for being on the show. Thanks. For having me Brandy all. Right, thank you so much for tuning into today's episode of Lead with Hope, where we believe that leadership rooted in habits, optimistic mindset, purpose, and excellence can truly change the world. I'd love to ask you for a small favor that makes a big impact.

23:16 Help me spread hope. Share this episode with a friend or a colleague who could use a little encouragement today. And if this conversation inspired you, please take a moment to head over and give the show a five star rating. It helps others find us and keeps the message of hope growing strong. I'm also excited to share something new with you, the Hope Fueled Kickstart. This is a powerful short term one-on-one coaching experience designed to help leaders like you reclaim your vision, reset your mindset, and reignite your purpose so you can lead with hope again. To learn more about the Kickstart program, just click the link in the show notes.

24:00 Until next time, remember the world needs your leadership and change starts with you. Fuel your life with hope, embrace your purpose, and shine your light for others.