When the Paycheck Stops Feeling Like Enough: One Franchise Owner’s 25-Year Journey to Freedom, Service, and Significance

Free Agent Podcast with Meg Schmitz – Guest: Camille Hamilton, CMIT Solutions Franchise Owner & Rotary District Governor-Elect

Meg Schmitz:

Well, hello everyone, and welcome to, or welcome back to, the Free Agent Podcast. If you’ve been here before, you know who I am. My name is Meg Schmitz. I love this podcast. It’s always so interesting to have these discussions.

The discussion is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self-employment, business ownership, franchising, and freedom.

From corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job, to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey, my podcast aims to spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny, and became their own boss.

And today, I’m so excited to have Camille Hamilton join me. As you can see from the background, Camille is not just a CMIT Solutions franchise owner, but you’re a multidimensional human being with so many interesting things going on. I’ve been very excited to have this interview with you, so thank you for making time for me.

Camille Hamilton:

Thank you so much for having me, Meg.

Meg Schmitz:

So, I generally, for my audience, my audience is composed of people who are thinking about taking the leap into franchise ownership. Some of them are people who’ve already decided, and they’re looking to this, these episodes for reinforcement, to keep going, and to stay committed to the course, because they’re in it already. So I don’t know where you want to start with your story, but you’re… a franchise owner, you’re a former corporate person, you’re a rotarian of some note, and I want to cover all these fabulous things that you’re doing, not only as a female entrepreneur and business owner, but you’re, if I’m remembering correctly, wife, mother… you’ve got all these other hats that you’ve been wearing through all these iterations of your career, and that’s what I found so inspiring.

When we first met, is you’ve got a lot of stuff going on, and you’re very, very accomplished, and so I don’t know where you want to start, but let’s start somewhere.

Camille Hamilton:

Well, it was a big decision, and I certainly understand people that are in that decision-making process to look at buying a franchise. And when this happened to me in 2000, I had been in corporate America for almost 20 years.

Frustrated, took a severance package kind of thing, and my husband was a business owner, too, and he had bought a franchise in the financial services world, and he was like, it’s your turn.

It’s your turn to do this. And franchising just seemed good to me, because I didn’t know anything about being a business owner.

And at least I had a model, and I had support from a home office, and those kind of things, so that’s why I chose to look that way, as opposed to just opening my Business up without that support. So, I went through the decision-making process, looked at several different models, knew I wanted to stay in something related to IT, because that’s what I knew.

You know, it felt more comfortable than to go do something, not that I’m knocking any other ones, but me buying a haircutting franchise was probably not my best decision for me.

So I looked at several things, came to the decision, and purchased this one, and here we are over 25 years later.

I didn’t really…

say, okay, I want to stay open for 25 years. That was never that discussion. It just has kind of evolved. I’m into my, I think, fourth agreement with my franchisor.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

that I’ve re-signed up. I just signed one in 22 that goes to 32.

So, who knows where I’ll be when that comes up.

whether I’ll be still going, or… Right now, I love what I do. I love what it has brought me. I’ve loved it… what it’s taken me on the journey for. You mentioned Rotary. I would never have been in Rotary if I hadn’t gone out on my own. I probably wouldn’t have been able to do that in corporate America. So, that’s my journey.

Meg Schmitz:

Well, you were accomplished and recognized in your corporate life. If I’m remembering correctly, too, you learned about CMIT from a neighbor or somebody close by.

Camille Hamilton:

I did, so when I, when I got laid off.

A friend of mine introduced me to someone that was in this system. It was a different… it was called something different at the time, but, so I started talking to her, and then I went and visited the corporate office. It happened to be in Austin, which is just down the road from me, so it was easy to go visit and talk to them, and that’s how I found it. I…

I think people come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

And this lady happened to come into my life at just the right time, and I have no idea where she is now.

But I’m thankful for that opportunity. I met them through friend of a friend situation.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

And going back to how many franchise agreements you signed with CMIT, I’ve been working with that company for decades now, too. It started off as computer moms.

It did.

Talk about, for you personally, as a franchisee, following your franchisor through some of these navigational shifts, rebranding, were there bumps and warts that came with some of those pivots, or did they do it pretty seamlessly, and you were happy to go along with it?

Camille Hamilton:

Well, you know, Computer Moms was a very catchy name. People remembered it. So one of the biggest bumps I had was when we changed to CMIT Solutions, and we’ve had

two different logos, once we became CMIT, is that people kept calling me computer bombs. I had to retrain people to… come to the, you know, use the different name. So, the whole rebranding was an issue.

when I bought my franchise, first of all, Mom Stand stood for Mentors on the Move.

So, it wasn’t that necessarily we were working only with moms or anything like that. So…

Changing the mindset, I always wanted to work with small businesses.

Because I felt like that’s… where I would be more successful.

So I had to get… at first, I had to get people used to moms, but that didn’t mean I just worked with moms, and then I had to move to a new name, so yeah, there’s been some bumps in the road, for sure. But you persevere, and you keep going, and that… I think that’s one of the things I am definitely… I have a lot of perseverance, and I’m not gonna quit.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah. Yeah, you and I were talking about that. It’s…

We own it, the buck stops with us.

And… you can’t quit.

I mean, you can, and people do.

But I don’t think that’s in your DNA, and it’s certainly not in mine to…

we’re dividing… not divide, we’re conquer kind of people. We’re gonna conquer.

Camille Hamilton:

Absolutely.

Meg Schmitz:

Conquer and.

Camille Hamilton:

Like, I look at all the people that have been just in my… in the Houston area that…

You know, have not stuck with it.

for reasons I totally understand. They just weren’t making the kind of money they needed to support their family, I get that. I was very blessed, like I said, my husband had been in his business a long time, you know, about 6 or 7 years, and was fine, and I’ve been through being a business owner and a mom of a high schooler, and been through lots of things that, you know, you definitely have demands on you.

But I just happened to be at the right place at the right time and could work through my problems.

Meg Schmitz:

And… and build something that you’re clearly very proud of, and has opened more doors for you. Talk about…

Talk about the doors that have opened, because you have the freedom that you didn’t have in your career.

Camille Hamilton:

Well, you know, living in Houston, you know, commuting is a nightmare, takes a lot of time.

And so now that I’m able to work in my area, I don’t have that commuting. Every time I have to go into town, I almost have a nervous breakdown, just because I hate it.

So it gave me more time, gave me more time with my family, with my son. It gave me the flexibility to go to things, like when he was playing basketball, and he had a basketball game an hour away on Tuesday night.

I made that decision, I just didn’t book any appointments late on Tuesday, and so it opened up that. It also… the people that I have met through this journey have been, have become lifelong friends.

You know, I never would have met them had I not gotten involved.

Some of them are not… I mean, most of my friends are not clients or anything, they’re just people I’ve met networking. And that’s led me to another group of friends and all that. And then, most importantly, my journey to Rotary. Again, I would never have been able to be in Rotary

Most likely, unless I had a really understanding boss.

To go to a lunchtime meeting every Wednesday.

And then it’s led me to get more and more involved, and now I’m involved at a pretty high level, and I would never have been able to do that. I control my calendar, and I think that’s the… one of the best things about, being a business owner, controlling your calendar, and not loving… having some other boss do that for you.

Meg Schmitz:

How long was it after you got… became…

a franchisee, that you felt like you were on solid financial ground? And I think we all come into… we come out of a corporate… I did, a corporate role where I was very well compensated, and into this business ownership, and I had this dollar sign on the inside of my forehead.

I said, this is white…

this is what you’re worth. And it took a while for me to build up my franchise to the point where I thought, okay, I’m good. There’s that combination of the money that you’re making along with the freedom that you have. How long do you think it took for you, Camille, to feel like you’re doing well?

Camille Hamilton:

It took several years, I’m gonna be really honest, because,

I put a lot of money back into the business so that I could grow it, and like I said, we were blessed we had another income, so we didn’t…

have to have that, so I could focus on that, on building the business,

And I, you know, when I first started trying to make payroll, for a long time, for, you know, for a couple of years, it was just me.

I did everything. And then I grew it to adding employees, and…

you know, you always dealing with people that pay on time and not pay on time, and making payroll. Now, I don’t… you know, for a long time, I had not worried about making payroll.

But I am very strict on my clients. I start, you know, as soon as they’re over 30 days, they start getting blast from us about… I’ve automated that, it automatically happens.

Because I don’t want a big… Accounts receivable sitting there.

Meg Schmitz:

No.

Camille Hamilton:

I’m not, you know, I’m not a banker for these… my clients, so… and I put a lot of things in place, but…

It is nice to get to that point where you don’t have to worry about payroll.

You know, that’s what I say, if people ever…

If they own a business, they understand about making payroll, and they understand the importance of that, and the importance of clients paying on time, and clients treating you right, and all that good stuff, and doing the right thing. But it wasn’t overnight, for sure.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah, and a lot of those…

skills and attributes that we pick up as franchise owners. We didn’t have them or that responsibility.

In our corporate career, and… I don’t know about you, but in the beginning, it felt lonely left… you are nodding. Talk about… talk about the shift that happened from your corporate career into this, and… because I think they’re typical roadblocks that people just don’t talk about.

Camille Hamilton:

Absolutely, and it’s funny you mention that. I’m in a group through one of the Chamber of Commerces in the area that’s called the CEO Roundtable.

And it’s business owners, and we meet the third Thursday of every month, and that’s…

one of the things, I look at that and I’ll say, oh, what kind of return on my investment am I getting?

you know, my time, because it’s 2 hours once a month, and I make probably at least 10 out of the 12 each year. And I’ve been in the script since it started over 10 years ago, and I actually now have 3 clients out of it, 3 really good clients.

But that’s not why I’ve stayed. I stayed because I could, for 2 hours, talk to another business owner other than my husband, that…

maybe going through the same things I’m going through, like, for instance, when… right after COVID, and how that impacted our businesses, and how were we dealing with that? I mean, we did it on Zoom, but it was great to talk about… I felt very lonely during that period.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

you know, I mean, can’t meet with people, you can’t do anything, and so it…

I think it’s important to find groups you can get involved with.

that are going through the same things that can give you some feedback, like the first time I had to fire someone.

Meg Schmitz:

Mmm.

Camille Hamilton:

That was very nerve-wracking. That only happened about 3 years ago.

Meg Schmitz:

Really?

Camille Hamilton:

Yeah, I fired my first person 3 years ago. That was… it was very nerve-wracking. I hired a consultant and did all those things to make sure I did right, but it was nice to sit there and talk about that.

With other business owners that had already done that.

And so, that’s what I highly recommend, is finding… because there’s those kind of groups all over the place, different formats and things, and so,

I think you find places where you can go and meet other business owners that you can talk about what’s going on, or somebody you can pick up the phone and call. I think that’s one of the advantages of franchising, also. I do think franchisors sometimes forget that you’re their client.

Not their employee.

Meg Schmitz:

But…

Camille Hamilton:

you know, I think that’s one of the reasons you buy that, is you have a sounding board. I mean, that’s at least in the initial 3 or 4 years first 3 or 4 years I was in business, that’s… that was huge. I was probably calling the home office. At the time, we were such a small…

organization that I could talk to the founder.

So… It is a l… it can be a lonely thing. And I will admit, there have been sleepless nights.

Meg Schmitz:

I have to, as a business owner, and continue to be.

a new business owner, I’m 62, and I’ve got no intent to slow down or stop. I can’t…

Sleepless nights?

Yeah. Get… get used to those.

Camille Hamilton:

I mean, whether you’ve got a client problem, or a client’s upset, I mean, that was the other thing, I think it’s hard for me to have…

Realize that you can’t please everyone.

All the time, and you will have clients or customers that are not happy.

and it’s just how you deal with it, but that can cause sleepless nights, it’s the, you know, are you gonna get the clients to pay in time to make payroll? You know, those kinds of things just happen. But I think the rewards far, far surpass.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

the, you know, when you have a great win. I love it when I get a new client. I don’t care how big or small it is.

For me, it’s the win. I got… I gotta win.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

That’s great.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah, yeah, and I absolutely agree with you, whether it’s big or small, it’s the…

it’s what makes it fun for me, is… and I know for you too, having… having new people, new problems to solve, new…

So… Tell me, as…

your business has evolved. What are you doing now that you didn’t used to do that’s either giving you more flexibility and freedom, or…

Changing… changing your business in a way that makes it even more gratifying for you.

Camille Hamilton:

So, in 21, my husband joined the business.

Meg Schmitz:

Nope.

Camille Hamilton:

As, he does business development, but he also likes to play golf, so he controls his calendar, and, he’s not… he didn’t want to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the business, but he wanted to do business development. The best single thing he’s done since he’s… and he knows I would… I’d say this, he found our client service manager.

And it was a position I had wanted to fill, but just didn’t feel like we could afford it. The business just couldn’t afford someone that I needed to do that. And Steve met this

Guy at a networking event.

And he was retired and bored.

And wanted something to do.

And of course, when Steve called me and says, I found your guy, I’m like, I can’t afford him. You know, and it was one of those things that… he said, well, just meet with him. Just see how it works out. Just go talk to him. So I met with him on a Friday.

And I got away from that meeting, and he told both Steve and I that let’s not worry about the money.

let’s… let’s just talk, and that kind of thing. So we talked. I got in my car after I met him, and I said, I’ve got to figure out a way to hire him. I’ve got to figure out a way to make it work.

And that has freed me up.

to do… The rotary thing?

It’s freed me up to work on the business as opposed to in the business.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

I’m not managing all the technical issues.

All the time.

And he’s more technical than I am, especially now, so that’s been freeing, and I’m gonna be honest, too, I think that, over the next year.

There’s several things we’re putting into place that I think are gonna free us up to even grow even more with the same resources we have.

And I think AI is also… I’m going to bring those two letters in. People sometimes don’t want to hear that, but

I think AI is going to do a lot for productivity for us.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

It’s fascinating to be in this AI conversation right now in business.

And I played Dinosaur for a long time. I didn’t want to embrace AI. I didn’t see the need for it. It was all flashy, and…

and complicated, too. Some of the groups that I was participating in were speaking at such a high level of technical knowledge that I, the novice, couldn’t follow along, so it made it very…

Standoffish for me.

And I know a lot of other people are that same way.

But now, having… my husband and I have a number of investments in AI-based technology.

And the speed, the demonstrations that they’re doing, showing us, say, performance of our website, or the technical issues, like CMIT addresses, it’s stunning.

how much… time or money AI can solve, it doesn’t replace the human completely.

Still need that.

But it is going to be a game changer.

It is changing.

Camille Hamilton:

My husband went to a, seminar…

2 years ago, 3 years ago, and he came back, he said, I think AI is going to replace us, and I went, oh, no.

What it’s gonna do for us.

is… because the hackers, and it’s just going to create a bigger need for cybersecurity, because the hackers are also using AI.

Meg Schmitz:

So they can now attack you faster, because.

Camille Hamilton:

They can get more information

in a time… more timely manner. So they’re using it, so you gotta counteract that. But I…

I saw very quickly that I think AI is going to allow us to take on more clients.

with the same number of employees. I’m not gonna have to…

you know, if I want to add 10, I don’t have to add… for every 10 clients, I don’t add another

human body.

Not that I’m trying to not hire, but it’s very hard… it’s hard to hire in my industry, so it’ll allow me to do more with the same people. And other things we’re doing to maximize productivity of our technicians’ time, we’ve done several things over the last couple of years, but I’ll give you an example. I am not good at writing proposals.

I mean, I have it, and I can it, and everything, but now I’m putting it into… you know, I put in the description of what I want to say about a client’s environment.

I put it in AI, and it says it much better than I would have said it. It also gives me a way to explain technical stuff

to…

non-technical people, without it sounding really geeky, and they’re going, what… I don’t know what this says. An example, we were sitting at an airport, waiting to go on vacation, and a client needed something, and they didn’t understand why they needed it, and I could have sat there for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to word this.

So that they would understand

You know, it’s not their thing, not their field. They shouldn’t… you need to say it concise and in a way they can understand. I put it into an AI module and

It sounded beautiful. I copy and pasted it into an email and went about my vacation.

Those are the kind of things I see that, you know, AI’s gonna do for me.

Meg Schmitz:

No.

Camille Hamilton:

And for our business.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah, cybersecurity is such a big, dangerous thing right now. How… how much more… Time. do you see your teams are pointing their efforts toward addressing this? Because small businesses are such an easy target for

Cyber attacks.

Camille Hamilton:

Oh, absolutely. The interesting thing that I was telling… talking about this today at my CEO Roundtable.

Meg Schmitz:

is…

Camille Hamilton:

We used to bring on new things, new products and offerings to our clients.

Maybe once or twice a year.

we’re doing it more rapidly. We’re in the process of bringing on a new product.

Right now. I mean, we’ll have it implemented at our first client site, in…

By the end of next week, and we just started talking and learning about it a week ago.

And…

It’s just that the environment changes so much that we can’t… what used to be good for someone, even a year ago, is not good.

Today. It’s not enough.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

It’s remarkable how nimble you and your business have been able to be. That’s a great example of what used to take years or months of testing and grooming and adjusting the messaging to now, within 2 weeks.

Being able to implement something for a client where it’s going to be… would you call it a game changer for your… for your clients to be able to implement these tools?

Camille Hamilton:

So, this tool is going to, fix a security problem they were having that

It’s something they’ve done for years, and it was fine for years.

But now it’s not fine, because of changes in the cybersecurity attacks that happen.

So, you know, it’s very exciting. Of course, this client, they’ve been… they have not been able to do this one thing for about 2 weeks now.

I mean, it’s either continue to do it, and you’re opening up, and eventually the hackers were going to be successful. They hadn’t been, we were stopping them.

But if they were going to continue to do this one thing, then they needed to do it, and it took the client, about 10 days.

To decide that he wanted to spend more money.

And what had to happen is everybody had to start complaining that they couldn’t do this one thing anymore.

Meg Schmitz:

Mmm.

Camille Hamilton:

Before he saves.

Meg Schmitz:

Productivity.

Camille Hamilton:

I, I give.

I will spend the money. However, we have another client that’s experiencing the exact same thing, and I sent them an email that said urgent.

You’re being attacked. Now, they haven’t been successful yet, but they’re trying.

And it’s only a matter of time, it’s not an if, it’s a when.

And I explained all that. I thought I would get an email back, or a call, or something within 15 minutes.

Four and a half hours later, I called them, and I said, did you not get my email that said urgent?

She goes, oh, I saw it, but I haven’t had a chance to read it.

I’m just gonna say that if…

If I got something that was urgent from my CPA,

I’m gonna open it up immediately. You would think they would have done the same thing when it was from their, you know, their IT provider. But do you know, they still have not done anything, and it’s been 2 weeks.

Meg Schmitz:

Well, if I could be a fly on the wall there, I’d have to buzz them to get them to…

do something. My husband and I have our family office here, and we’re running 7 businesses collectively, and technology, well, particularly for one of his businesses.

He’s a traitor, in the moment, and attacked all the time at that particular domain name, and the algorithmic work that they’re doing is controlled now by AI.

you can’t ignore when it’s… you should not ignore, you shouldn’t, some people will, technology. It leaves you so vulnerable, and…

out of commission.

Camille Hamilton:

Absolutely.

Meg Schmitz:

We have a client that.

Camille Hamilton:

It turned out to be their internet service provider, but

They were down for a week, and it was just… Horrible thing for them.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah, yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

We told them it wasn’t what the internet service provider said it was. We proved it. We got them a new device.

And ended up proving that it was not the device.

It was… and they finally got their ISP back out there yesterday, and magically, everything is working.

Meg Schmitz:

Wow, what… I love… I love the CMIT business model and… and the work.

and how it’s benefited us. But I want to talk about… I want you to talk about… you’re…

your increased role at Rotary And how much confidence… you’re pretty confident already. You’re accomplished.

But as you and I were talking last week about Rotary.

and your involvement there, and your accomplishments, and what a… what a huge, what can I say, but a…

I would think that it is a real ego boost for you to have gotten involved with this group and now risen to the level that you have. You’re so accomplished.

Camille Hamilton:

Well, thank you. So it’s interesting about my role in Rotary. So, I’ve been in Rotary since 2002. I was blessed to have a mom that showed me the importance of being involved in community and giving back. You know, you give back to the community that’s been good to you.

So I got involved with Rotary as a way to do that, and it is the one thing that I don’t…

check to see, you know, how much am I spending on Rotary, and how much time am I spending on Rotary, and what am I getting in return as far as clients?

I just don’t look at that at all, because it gives me that opportunity to get involved, and it’s connected me to people that have been amazing people. And it’s given me the opportunity to do things that I would never have gotten to do.

So, you know, I eventually became president of my club, which, if you’re in Rotary long enough, most people end up being president, just because nobody wants to do it, kind of, sometimes.

And so I served as president, back in 2010, and I happened to be in a club that was not very involved in the district-level kind of activities.

about 7 or 8 years after that, I decided I really want to get to know more people in Rotary, so I’m going to start going to district things, even though my club doesn’t really do that.

Got involved and, became an assistant governor, which just means that you have a couple clubs that you’re responsible for checking in on and helping if there’s an issue, or whatever.

And people said, oh, are you going to apply for a district governor? And I told people, no way! I don’t want that job. That’s… that… no, no. Thankless. It is, and I was like, no, I don’t want to do that. And again, things change with our business, with bringing our client service manager on board.

And just my attitude changed, and so I applied in, 20… in the fall of 23 to be a district governor, and it was one of those things that if I get it, great. If I don’t, I’m okay. I’m still gonna be a Rotarian. I’m not gonna have any hard feelings.

And shockingly enough, I got selected by the interview committee, and so I’ve been on this journey since December of 23, and it’s a…

three and a half year journey.

So, you service, sort of 6 months as a…

getting ready to be a district governor nominee, and then you become a nominee, and then elect, and I’m in the elect phase. I will take my, term starting July 1st of 26.

It’s, like, less than 6 months away. It’s given me the opportunity to meet people and find out just how many great people there are in this world. It is the only thing I’ve ever done in my life

Where people want me to be successful.

You know, usually, like, when you’re in corporate America, there’s always somebody that didn’t want you to be successful because that makes them look bad, or whatever the thought is.

This is not that thing.

This is… I’ve had, since the day I got named, people come, I’ll do whatever you need. I want to see you have a great year. I want to do, you know, what can… do you need money? Do you need time? What do you need? I’ll do it.

And… it’s just been an amazing experience. It is time-consuming. The most difficult, or the most

The hardest working time is actually not once you start your year, it’s the 6 months prior. So I’m in that period right now.

once I take off, take my term and become district governor, then I still will be busy, don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of… because you have to make visits to all the clubs, and…

You know, you’re gonna get invited to all the fundraisers of the clubs and those kind of things, but those are more… to me, that’s more fun things.

Meg Schmitz:

Yep.

Camille Hamilton:

I won’t have the admin stuff I have right now, like putting together my team and, organizing training sessions and those kind of things. So it’s very exciting. I… my husband and I are hosting a couple from Lithuania in a few weeks that are coming in from Rotary, and they’re gonna be… we don’t know them.

We’re gonna meet them the day they come. I’ve emailed them, but… That’s it.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah, you and I were talking a bit about this last week, about how…

Interesting and stimulating the international relationships have become, and people who’ve become real people in your life.

how the.

and I don’t know if you want to talk about some of those examples, but this is where the give back to the community

So reinforces us as human beings, not just as businesswomen.

That keeps us grounded and also giving, moving forward.

Camille Hamilton:

Absolutely, and it, you know, one of the things about Rotary is if you understand everybody else’s culture.

you’re not scared of it, you’re not intimidated by it, and you can… I think that’s where a lot of bigotry comes out of, is not necessarily that people are mean, it’s just that people don’t understand, and they… they’re afraid.

We hosted, several years ago, a guy from Pakistan.

how else in… would I be able to host a guy from Pakistan? We had him for 5 nights. We had very interesting conversations about

Muslim and Christians and about his culture, and our culture, and, just all those things.

that I understand a lot more now about Pakistan, and he’s told us if we come to Pakistan, he’d entertain us, and I’m sure we would be… the red carpet be rolled out for us. I mean, he was just that wonderful… he, kind of a funny story is that we told him we got him from the airport, he’d been in the U.S. for about 10 days.

And, I said… he’d been through a really grueling week.

And I said, well, we’re gonna go out and eat Mexican food tonight. You know, that’s what you do in Texas on Friday nights, go eat Mexican food.

So he took a nap.

got ready to go eat Mexican food, and he came out in the traditional Pakistani

Going out to dinner, attire.

And I’m like, this is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place.

And… but that’s just… what he does, and so we learned that. So the next night, we told him.

We’re going to eat seafood. You can go in jeans. You know, you don’t have to get dressed just because we’re going out, because their culture’s very different.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

But I understood that, so… and then I just got back from International Assembly, which is what Rotary requires of everybody that’s a district governor, incoming district governor, and I had a great week with people from all over the world. There were 500 and something, districts represented.

And we have a culture night, and just to see what all they put out for their cultures was amazing.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

So, it’s been… it’s been an amazing experience.

Meg Schmitz:

How it’s nurtured you, and, and…

I imagine it’s given you a different perspective on… in your business.

CMIT solutions, some of the… some of the adaptations that we call from other cultures, and… and the way… it’s the international perspective of how do you evaluate business opportunity, business challenges. Different cultures look at things so… so differently, and so for you.

I was so inspired when we talked.

By you and this journey that you’ve been on, you and I are not…

spring chickens. And… and yet we both continue to pursue this voracious appetite for meeting people and learning and plugging it in for the betterment of our… not only our businesses, but our personal lives.

Camille Hamilton:

Oh, absolutely, like I said, I’ve,

the connections I’ve made in my district. Tonight, we have a dinner. It’s called the All Club Dinner, so all the clubs are

not every club will have a representative, but most clubs will be represented there. And we’re going to talk about Rotary’s big initiative, which is to end polio on the planet.

And that’s gonna be the focus of tonight. And I’m so excited, even though we have an hour drive to get there, because I’m gonna see people that I haven’t seen maybe in several months, and just get to,

be able to do that kind of thing. Yeah. Like I said, people I’ve met here in our district, in our clubs, in our state, I’ve now got friends in my… in my state that are running Rotary Clubs and running districts, and then all the way up in my zone, and it’s just…

been amazing, and I’ve gotten to do some things that, like… I’m gonna go next year, well, I’m planning on going. The international convention is in Dubai.

If you had asked me 2 years ago if I would ever go to Dubai.

I would have said, well, maybe, I don’t know. I mean, it wouldn’t have been something that was on my bucket list.

But… We’re gonna go.

Meg Schmitz:

And my reason, Phil, for spending so much time on this is you wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for CMIT.

Camille Hamilton:

Absolutely.

Meg Schmitz:

The flexibility, freedom, the rewards that we get as business owner.

Camille Hamilton:

business owners. Is it a pain in the ass? Yes, it is, some days.

Meg Schmitz:

It’s just draining, and you kind of lie there at night and go, oh my gosh, what am I… what am I in the middle of now?

But…

I believe firmly you… neither you nor I would give any of it up because of these types of experiences. Owning a franchise has enabled us to expand our horizons in these amazing ways, and it’s…

It’s, life-changing.

Camille Hamilton:

Oh, absolutely, and people ask me… I’m 65, I’ll be 66 in a few months, and people ask me, well, when are you gonna sell your business and retire? And I, like.

I have no desire to do that. I enjoy what I do, I get the flexibility.

I get the financial rewards, definitely. But…

I’m just not ready. I’m not emotionally ready. I don’t know what I would do. I don’t have… my two hobbies…

I cannot do them all the time. I love drinking Texas wine, and learning about Texas wine, and going to Texas wineries. I can’t do that all the time, I’d be a, you know.

That would not be good for me. And then the other thing is college football, and that’s only on a few months of the year, so…

And my grandkids are getting to the age where they’re so busy, So…

I need something to stimulate me.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

And so, I have no desire to retire.

you know, in 5 years, maybe I’ll look at it again, and when it ceases to be fine, then I’ll reevaluate it, but I like the stimulation of

keeping working. My parents both retired, you know, at 65, and

They had a good time, but…

I think my mom, especially, would have been better off Continuing to work.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don’t know what that word…

I don’t know how I would fit that word, retirement, into my current lifestyle. My husband was funny. Isn’t funny. My husband in 2008 retired.

And he’s the least retired of all of his colleagues.

from financial services, he was a Wall Street, LaSalle Street guy, and he’s… they… they…

prod him to back down, and take some time, and… you oughta see Life of Riley, that we have, because we own our businesses, the significant amount of flexibility and freedom to just disappear, because we have our lieutenants in place.

to take care of the day-to-day, and we’re… we’re monitoring the overview, but we’re… he and I are both involved on a very deep level.

day-to-day, in some element of our business, so it’s always in our purview, but it…

you use the word fun. This is what makes it fun for us, is we’ve got a lot of plates spinning, and there’s always something to do.

Camille Hamilton:

Well, and technology has given you the ability to, Work from anywhere.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

You know, if my son and daughter-in-law need to go off, we’ve gone up there and taken care of the kids for a week.

or 6 days or whatever, and, you know, I can take my laptop, and I can sit in on my meetings while they’re in school, and doing those kinds of things. So, I… and we go on cruises at least 2 or 3 times a year, and I may not get on the

daily staff call every day while I’m on a cruise?

But if I’m… before it’s C, and I’m not doing anything at 8 o’clock in the morning, then, heck, I can hop on and do that if I need to. If a client needs something, I can address it, so you can, today, work from anywhere.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Camille Hamilton:

And I think that that’s one of the positive things that came out of the… out of COVID and the pandemic, is…

the tools, like what we’re on right now with Zoom, and Teams, and all those kind of things, you really can just stay connected

And… and do what you need to do without being in your office.

Meg Schmitz:

Yeah.

Well, this has been fascinating, and thank you so much for taking the time to tell your story, and I’m not sure that you were really aware of why I wanted to spend so much time on Rotary, but it has… I hope it… I hope your story inspires my people to look

at the paradigm differently, that owning your own business is not just an obligation, but it’s a… it’s a door opener to so many rewarding opportunities. So thank you, thank you for making the time for me today, and it’s been a pleasure to get to know you better. Thank you.

Camille Hamilton:

Well, thank you for the opportunity, I appreciate it, and I’ve enjoyed the conversation as well, and, you know, if I can ever help in any way, let me know.

Meg Schmitz:

Thank you so much, I will let you know that.