Holly Bond didn’t inherit a business or a playbook—she built her own, from the basement up. In this first of a two-part conversation, she shares how a late return to university, a family health wake-up call, and pure Gen X tenacity drove her to create a kids’ fitness franchise with national impact. Holly’s story is part entrepreneurship, part emotional reckoning, and full of hard-earned wisdom for anyone designing change from the inside out. If you’ve ever thought it was too late, too messy, or too uncertain—this episode proves otherwise.Seventeen Years and One Framed Diploma“My kids framed my degree—with notes saying ‘You’re the bomb.’”Holly recounts how she returned to college as a mom of two, taking one course at a time over nearly two decades—proving that starting late doesn’t mean finishing small.Sales from Scratch“I went from mall dumpsters to headhunter interviews.”Her first outside sales job was in waste management. The job was unglamorous—but it proved she could sell. And it led her, unexpectedly, to the world of recruiting.The Moment That Changed Everything“He said our son was overweight. I didn’t believe it—until I saw it.”A brutally honest conversation about her son’s health launched Holly into action. What began as a home gym turned into Bulldog Interactive Fitness, a children’s fitness franchise powered by gaming.From Basement Prototypes to National News“I said we’re franchising on TV—before we even had an application form.”She hustled media coverage, fielded 100+ franchise inquiries in 24 hours, and built the brand on the fly. It was messy. It was bold. And it worked—until the 2009 crash tested everything.The Lessons That Nearly Broke Her“I stopped listening to the advisors who warned me. Almost lost it all.”From overconfidence to near-collapse, Holly reflects on how she came close to losing her company—and what pulled her back just in time._________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Holly Bond --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.15 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>150,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Holly Bond and why is she featured on this podcast?
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.
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Chapter 2: How did Holly Bond’s early life and education shape her career?
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.
And then I left and I moved to another province. I got married and I had two children. And it always bothered me that I didn't finish my degree. It's something that always stuck out to me. And that was before the internet. We're talking 80s, early 90s. After my daughter was born in 1992, we moved back to Halifax and I went over to my university that I had my certificate from.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Holly face in completing her college degree?
And I talked to my dean. And just a few years before that, I was this mouthy... overconfident young person. And then I arrived in the dean's office with my two children. One was two years old and one was in a baby carrier. And she laughed and she said, I will help you. And it was really difficult, I have to say, because I was reading children's books. I was focusing on being a homemaker.
And so I finished my degree. And from the time I started And I think this is really important. From the time I started my degree to the time I finished and I got my certificate and it was handed to me, it was 17 years. I make jokes about it now.
I said it took me 17 years because a lot of times having a new family and one person in the family was the income earner, sometimes we didn't have money for me to take one course. So I was taking one course at a time. I knew one day I would get there. So when I look over my left shoulder in my office, at my home office. I have my diploma on the wall and it's from 2003.
And my kids, my husband intercepted it. It came in the mail and he had it matted and framed. And on the mat, my kids wrote, my daughter wrote, congratulations, mom, I love you. And then my son wrote, we are very proud of you. You're the bomb. And so that is so meaningful to me because I wanted to show them that it's never too late to finish what you started. And that's how I brought them up.
You always finish what you start. It doesn't matter if you're taking violin lessons or you are taekwondo, you have to finish the semester. You can leave, but you have to finish what you start and then continue on.
When I started my career, now when I, my whole theme and I think the theme for the show is change is good and it's the only thing of course that you can expect in life is that we're going to have change. When you learn to embrace it, This journey that we're on becomes so much more exciting and so much more relevant and beautiful. And so I've changed my career often.
So I went from being a homemaker to working part-time retail to being retail manager. I really love sales, but I don't want to wait for people to walk in. I want to sell. So I thought, so I looked at all the jobs in the newspaper and I didn't have my degree. That prevented me from applying for many jobs, which...
Today, when I'm looking at resumes, I keep that in mind because there are some people that do not have the MBA, the PhD, even a degree that are fantastic. And we cannot overlook that. And that's one of the things with AI that we'll talk about later. So because I never let that stop me, I never let it stop me from moving ahead in life. So I took the first outside sales job ever.
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Chapter 4: How did Holly transition from homemaker to sales and recruiting?
that someone would hire me. And that was with waste management, selling large garbage containers from behind shopping malls. I thought I'm going to do two years and have a proven sales track record. And then I'm going to use that as a springboard to get into a better career. So I was very successful at that.
And one day I was sitting in my car, probably in the back of a shopping mall by a garbage can. And my phone rang and it was this man. And he said, you don't know me. I'm a headhunter and I work at this firm.
And I am wondering, someone gave me your name and they said that you might be able to connect me with somebody in the waste industry that would be suitable for handling pulp and paper waste from these pulp and paper manufacturing plants. And I said, I could do that. I didn't know what a headhunter was. I didn't know what a recruiter was. I went to see him. I interviewed for the role.
And as I went through the process... I was infatuated with this. So I was offered the job, which was very exciting because it was an excellent sales job, you know, where I got to travel and I would have my own F-150 truck. I'm like, this is it. I've made it big time. But I said, I told the recruiter who owned the company, I don't want to do that. I want to do this. I want to do what you're doing.
I find it fascinating and I love connecting people. So can I work with you? So I started to talk to him and interview with him, and then he wanted to hire me. And I thought, wait now, if I look around at the other recruiters, what company is the best recruitment company here? And there was only a few.
And I said, I'm going to use his job offer and go to them and say, look, I can work with you or I can work against you and be your competitor. It landed me in a recruiting job in 2000. I did that for three years. And there was so much that I loved about it. Helping people. And I have stories about people crying in my office because your career is who you are. It's what you do.
And when you're not where you want to be, I want to help people change the trajectory of their life is what I feel a good recruiter can do. So when I was a recruiter, at that time, my father was ill. He was dying of cancer. And it put everything in perspective. So I thought, I wish I had gone into the health care industry.
And I thought that if I went to pharmaceutical and I used my sales experience in the pharmaceutical industry, that it would somehow, I don't know, help my father, help sick people. I don't know what I was thinking, actually. And so I did. I headhunted myself to a pharmaceutical company.
And while I was there, that is when I read the first really big study about youth inactivity and obesity in North America. I remember where I was sitting when I read it. It was in the New England Journal of Medicine. I read that. I can see the picture on the front cover. It changed my life. I looked at that and I said, this is a pandemic.
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Chapter 5: What motivated Holly to start a kids’ fitness business?
And they laugh when they don't know if they're really making a joke or if they actually know or if they know James. And I have two incredible children. Brilliant. My son, Matthew, he's in the ocean sector and he lives in Houston, Texas. And my daughter, Rachel, is in business development and in environmental engineering technology. She lives here in Halifax. Here we are.
Today, we all talk about purpose and making an impact. But when you were younger, in the 80s and 90s, it was all about making money and raising a family. You know, the American dream or in your case, the Canadian dream, owning a house and all that. Looking back at your career, have you identified any particular drivers or motivations behind every move you've made so far?
It's so interesting that you say that. I had this very conversation over dinner last night. And as I'm getting older and I think of what do I want to do next? And my son, I was talking to him last week and he said, I was talking to him about what am I going to do next? And he said, Mom, why can't you just enjoy life, right? You're almost 60. Why don't take time for yourself and enjoy life?
And what drives you? Why do you keep having to conquer something else, move, conquer? And I've been thinking about that for a week now, and I had this conversation last night. And I don't know, Vince, I don't know if it comes from When I was young and grandmother was an entrepreneur. She owned nursing homes, seniors residences.
And she started and she told me the stories where she had $11 and arrived in Nova Scotia and started off with a little corner shop. And then she saved the money and then she kept buying buildings and creating nursing homes. And I always thought that was amazing. But I think... I don't know what, I feel like I have to prove something that I can do it.
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Chapter 6: How did personal experiences influence Holly’s entrepreneurial journey?
And I think it might be because I did not, when I went back to university, when all of my other friends graduated, moved away, we called it the brain drain, okay? In the late 80s and early 90s, people were leaving Nova Scotia and they were emigrating to other parts of Canada and around the world. And our population was declining here. And I think I didn't have my degree,
And in a dinner conversation, when you meet somebody, they go, oh, Holly, what do you do? That always caused me anxiety. Oh, I'm a homemaker. I left university. I have my certificate. What do you do? Oh, I have my MBA. I'm living in Paris or Hong Kong or Florida, and this is what I'm doing. And so I felt everybody was moving ahead of me. I always had this feeling like I had to run to catch up.
And I think might still be with me. I feel like there's so many things that I want to do. There's so many different sectors that are so incredibly interesting to me. And maybe it's because I'm attention deficit. That could be a two. Who knows? But I just know there's so many interesting things to do and I want to try everything. And I don't want to be 85. and look back and say, I wish I did that.
And the other thing that I think has just been recently, my family has told me this, my mother died a couple of days before my 30th birthday, which also happens to be Christmas. And she was my age when she died. I think through the last 10 years, especially, I feel like that date of that she was like 57, I think that... that it was almost subconsciously, what if I only have till 57?
What do I want to do? And I think it's been driving me. And now I'm here. Who knows? Maybe I will realize that I don't have to continue to race.
You must be really proud of yourself, of what you've achieved with Bulldog Interactive Fitness. Can you share with us the humble beginnings of starting this business? I remember you mentioned that it all began with the idea of a gym. Tell us about your journey, not just the successes, but also the ups and downs, the challenges. More importantly, how did you learn from those challenges?
How did they help propel you forward and sustain you all the way to the finish line?
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Chapter 7: What drives Holly’s continuous career changes and ambitions?
Yes, and success is a fleeting kind of moment, right? It's all the other things that people look at, and that was a relatively small company, but people look at very successful business owners and they don't realize that the turmoil and the pain and the sacrifice that they went through, they just see the success and they go, oh, look how easy that was.
But a while back I said, I read this study in the journal and I took that study home And I showed it to my husband. And I said, listen to this. Oh my gosh. And he said, I said, over 50% of kids are obese or overweight. And he said, yeah, Matthew, our son. And I said, part what? And he goes, Matthew, he's... And I could tell by the look on his face, he realized he had said something really rough.
And he said, like, Matthew. And I said, Matthew's not overweight. Matthew's 13 years old. He still has baby fat. He hasn't gone through his growth spurt. He's not fat. And then I was very angry at him and I called my best friend and I was talking to her and she said, what's up? And I said, do you think Matthew's fat?
And there was a pause on the line and she said, do you want the best friend answer or do you want the real answer? And I said, oh my God, the real answer, she goes, yes, he's overweight. I said, he hasn't gone through his growth spurt. Like he's 13, he still has some baby fat. And she said, there is no time in any child's life that they should be overweight. And that's all she said.
And then I hung up the phone. I felt like people were keeping this secret from me. It was a very odd feeling. And then I looked I had a picture on the wall and it was Matthew standing there, the sweetest face. And he had, he was wearing a short sleeved cotton shirt and the stripes were vertical.
And, but they were, you know, when you draw a pumpkin and you draw the line, so they curve, they're not vertical. And I, it was like a brick. Someone hitting me in the head with a brick. I just saw him as being overweight then. I saw it too. And so I went to him and I said, hey, bud. That's what we say over here in Canada. Everybody's bud or buddy.
I said, hey, bud, I think we've got like a little bit of an issue. That's all I said. I didn't tell him what it was. And he goes, yeah, I know. And I said, what do you know? And he goes, I'm overweight. And I said, we had moved into a new house and we had a really nice lower level of the house. And I said, you know what? I wanted to put in a gym. So I said, do you want to help me?
And he said, yeah. And of course, little fat kids, they have little fat friends. All our friends were overweight too. They were all over and now I wasn't going to open it. I had no idea that I was opening Bulldog at this time, but they were over eating pizza and playing video games. There you go. And I said, I'm putting gym equipment in the basement.
And of course they watched the Bowflex commercials too. So even 13 year old boys want to look like the people on TV. I said, what should I put there? And they were talking and I said, would make exercise more fun. And then Matthew said, if we could play video games.
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