Chief Change Officer
#180 Holly Bond: From Fitness Franchises to Entrepreneurial Faceplants
Sat, 15 Feb 2025
Holly Bond has lived every entrepreneur’s dream—and nightmare. One minute, she’s celebrating a national TV feature for her children’s fitness franchise, and the next, she’s grappling with the harsh realities of running a business. Now, as President of Facet Recruitment, she’s using her hard-earned lessons to help others make bold career moves. Tune in as Holly gets real about taking risks, bouncing back, and why fear should never be the boss of you. Key Highlights of Our Interview: The Highs and the Crash “We sold 11 franchises, won awards, and partnered with an animation company to integrate exercise into kids’ shows. Then the 2009 recession hit, and it all came crashing down. But every tough moment was a lesson in resilience.” From Local to Global Buzz “After a single news segment, I came home to over 100 emails from people wanting franchises—from Canada to Dubai. It was surreal, exciting, and chaotic. I had to build the plane while flying it.” Racing Against Time “I’ve always felt like I’m running to catch up, maybe because I took 17 years to finish my degree or because my mom passed away at the age I am now. That sense of urgency—it’s hardwired into me.” The Fear of Regret “I don’t want to be 85 and look back saying, ‘I wish I’d done that.’ There’s so much to explore, so many industries to dive into. I just can’t imagine stopping.” Reflection in Progress “My son recently asked me, ‘Why can’t you just enjoy life?’ It’s a question I’m sitting with. Maybe it’s time to slow down, but for now, the drive to conquer still burns bright.” _________________________ Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Holly Bond --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Who is Holly Bond and what is her background?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is our first ever from Canada, Holly Bond. I used to live in Calgary, Alberta and Toronto, Ontario in Canada.
Talking to Holly really brings back memories of my adolescence and college days in Canada. Holly is special in my eyes. Why? She's now the president of a head hunting firm I'll be honest, in my career so far, I haven't worked well with headhunters. I've mostly landed jobs through networking. But something on Holly's LinkedIn profile and her company's website caught my eye.
It said, we are a talent management and development firm with unshakable belief that change is a good thing. I was skeptical at first. It could just be empty words. But then I dug deeper and discovered that Holly had built a very successful franchise business from the ground up before moving into the headhunting business. From that moment, I knew Holly truly believes that change is a good thing.
She has mastered turning change to her advantage, making her a natural fit for my show. After two months of emails back and forth, I finally convinced her to come on board. We did a 70-minute interview, which I've decided to break down into two parts.
In part one, this episode, we'll hear Holly's story of being a mother of two and taking 17 years to earn her college degree, all while starting and building a fitness business that turned into a successful franchise. In part two, Holly will share why she entered the headhunting business and her human-first approach to serving not only her corporate clients, but also the candidates themselves.
I'm speaking to you from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada. The population of Halifax is about 500,000 and growing rapidly. The population of our province is about 1.1 million. So not a lot of people here, but as I've grown through the years, the population has significantly increased. We're in a boom right now.
So I was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and I've spent my entire life on the east coast of Canada. And I absolutely love it. I've traveled many places in the world and I love and I'm always excited to come back home.
So interesting when I go back to and I'll go back to the very beginning of when I was growing up, it was interesting because I have five brothers and sisters and education wasn't a priority. In our growing up, you were probably going to go to trade school, as we called it.
And now it's community college referred to, but trade school and become a secretary or a hairdresser or one of those careers, which is wonderful, but it wasn't for me. So I was more the black sheep of the family. And I fought to talk my parents into helping me go to university. And I did go and I took two years. So I had a sort of business certificate.
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