TFBIP | Ep 45 - Chris Bond: From Scrap Yard Janitor to VP of Sales

Chris Bond started as the janitor in his family's scrap metal yard, scrubbing floors on his hands and knees and polishing bathroom faucets until he could see his reflection. Twenty-two years later he was a partner and VP of Sales in a company doing several hundred million a year across ten facilities in three states. Then he sold his stake and left.What changed was COVID. The job had been ten to twelve hour days, five and sometimes six days a week, with travel on top. Being home showed him what he'd been trading away. His words: he was sacrificing the most important asset he had. Everyone thought he was crazy to walk away from that kind of comfort, and he says there were moments he agreed with them.His conclusion was that it wasn't actually a choice. He could still make a lot of money, still make an impact, and be there for his kids.This one covers the full arc. Growing up in a blue-collar scrap yard and working alongside men two and three times his age doing hard physical labor for the same money a sixteen-year-old was making — which taught him respect for that work and a clear sense that he wanted something different in twenty years. Taking a sales job at 23 because he was nervous, and deciding that nervousness was a yes. Going from one location to ten, and being the one sent into every newly acquired yard to win over employees who'd just been bought and were bracing for what came next.That last job produced what he names as his superpower: building trust with people fast, authentically. The second one is the reason he coaches — he can see potential in someone who can't see it themselves, and hold the mirror up until they do.He's clear-eyed about why coaching works. Most of his clients already have it together. They started a business for freedom or passion and somewhere along the way it became a headache with employees to manage and a scaling problem. His job is helping them remember why they started. And he reframes accountability as something done with love, not someone busting your chops.Also in this one: why the top is lonely and what to do about it, the line from his friend Brian that the things that are most private are the most universal, where mortgage rates actually sit right now, and his answer for what he credits his success to — optimism and mindset, trained deliberately, no matter what happens.