Phillip Couture

Foodservice focused micro business owner and problem solver offering 7.5+ years of experience with the United States Army. Strong customer service skills enabled me to build long-term positive relations with customers. As part of a company-wide effort, I helped carry out training programs that strengthened small-team cohesion and improved employee skillset. My willingness to adapt and pivot to different strategies allowed me to perform in different positions as well as to motivate team members to do the same.

During my active duty career I always struggled with running and it caused me to suffer in performance related to cardio-based activities. I had enough of feeling like I was unable to succeed and decided to divert my focus from a weight-training high-intensity steady state (HITT) oriented fitness program to a low-intensity steady state (LISS) based program. Over the course of six months I slowly increased my mileage every week by one mile to the point I was running half marathons at a steady manageable pace. This wasn't a requirement that my leadership had set for me but a challenge for my self. After completing my first half-marathon I realized it wasn't physical ability that I lacked but the mental drive and determination to pivot to a completely new form of physical activity. I knew then I have the ability to achieve what I want if I put my mind to it. 

In May of 2023 I had taken it upon myself to try new things and found an interesting activity to find myself in: spelunking, or cave exploring. There's a sense of adventure and adrenaline to be found in walking through dank, dark and cramped spaces that are relatively safe yet can trigger fears of claustrophobia. The slightest misstep can cause a rolled ankle or greater bodily harm and oftentimes some cave systems require a team effort to overcome obstacles. Exploring these systems brings out a wild, primal side of the Self out that is generally left tucked away in civilized society.

In 2018 I ventured into the Behavioral Health Clinic at Fort Liberty, North Carolina for some mental irregularities I had found becoming problematic in my personal and professional life, notably anxiety and depression. Over the next six to nine months my therapist and I would be unraveling the outer layers of my mind like an onion to expose a Self that had been traumatized in the past. I had unknowingly turned to self-destructive behaviors such as alcoholism and drug abuse to cope with these events, compartmentalized deep in the recesses of my mind. I was living a life that was against the value systems that I had constructed for myself. I was introduced to yoga as a means to rebuild that connection of mind and body, to become more in-tune with my emotions - something that the United States Army Infantry programming had an excellent way of disconnecting. Yoga's helped me find peace and to be able to live in the present moment, allowing my self to reflect and to be able to deconstruct negative feedback loops and negative self-talk that had held me back for years.