Chris Freund

Chris Freund

Director at Integra Marketing Agency - Sales & Marketing Company in Minnesota & Washington

Advice for someone new : Ask your questions. Challenge your leaders. Challenge your owner. Ask them tough questions. Be transparent and direct. This will not only get you the answers you seek but it will also cut through the crap and allow you to understand the opportunity more fully and sooner. It will also build a better relationship and establish trust and respect.

Something interesting about yourself : I compete at a semi-pro level in rock climbing - it's my biggest passion outside of work and I plan to use this opportunity to set myself up to travel the world to climb.

Favorite thing about your position : Those EUREKA moments when you've been coaching someone, and you finally see the switch flip and everything changes. Nothing more rewarding than helping someone get better.

Words to live by : "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." -Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

Best advice you’ve received in business : I once asked my trainer about 6 weeks into training: "I'm tired of being set up for failure by being in this shitty store. I can't produce any lines. The store sucks. Are you going to do anything to get me out of here?" and her response was: "Not with an attitude like that." Changed the game for me and I realized it was all about attitude. Now I'm an owner launching AT&T in Fred Meyer for Kroger in Seattle.

Your career goals in the next 1-2years : Promote out 5 sustainable and confident owners.