KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Discover the Secret to Overcoming Adversity Tred Bonds

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

We're doubling down. Poor Mattress Mac may have that $7 million. It just depends on what happens. I guess tonight's pivotal, right? Trellbus, we got, where's our money tonight? Are we on the Rangers of the Astros? You know what I'm different to put it on the Rangers. Okay. Well, I'm with you. I'm going to throw good money after good money is what I'm doing for sure. It is for real, yes. And C3, I'm telling you, I am super excited to have Tread bonds on the show today. Yes, sir. You know, we met this gentleman, actually I did just by chance. I sat next to him in one of our local Mexican food establishments up in Prosper, and we started talking, and I was just blown away by what this young man has overcome

and the success that he's reached, both as a father, a husband, a business person, retired. You're going to learn all about him. And in fact, Traveless if we could. Let's go ahead and bring Tread on the show here with us. And Tread, welcome to Cliff's Notes. We're so excited to have you here. Thank you very much. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, yeah. Well, as I was saying earlier, you know, when you and I first met, there was something about you. You were kind of that quiet reserve guy, but, you know, they say it's the quiet ones you got to worry about, something like that. But when you started to, you and I started to talk and you opened up a little bit. that I was just taken aback. And there's a little sort of backstory here. When I was in college at Rice, my roommate was from Chicago. And he used to tell me stories about growing up in Chicago

and what a different world it was than Houston, especially the South Side. In fact, he mentioned a couple of places. One was the Robert Taylor Holmes. And then he talked about, told us about, told me about Cabrini Greens. which you are very familiar with because that's where you grew up. Now, for those folks in our audience who maybe never knew about Cabrini Greens in Chicago,

what kind of place was that? It was public housing, right, Tread? Yes, it was public housing. This was home. It was a home for me. I could never imagine being outside of where I grew up. I just didn't think there was another world. It was an entire world for me just growing up in Cabrini.

But what was it like? Tell me, I mean, these are big high rises and were there, I mean, you were a young child there. How many children in the family were you? What was your family? What was the structure like in your family? When I lived there, I think it was three bedrooms and there was probably six or seven adults. I don't remember how many cousins I had living with. with us at the time, but it was at least six, all in one little apartment.

Okay. So as a young boy there, how accessible was the playground? Where were your friends? What did you guys, well, how did you guys entertain yourselves? What was the day like when you were growing up? We played on the elevators. We played in the hallways. There was a playground right outside, like if you go downstairs, I think we were on like the 15th floor. So we'd go down. Most of the plane was in the building, though. Abandoned, you know, apartments or whatever, we played there. But if you go down in the open field, right outside the back of the building,

that was the playground, you know, slides and swings and whatnot. Yeah. Now, to say that that was a tough neighborhood is probably an understatement. Right? Definitely. Why is that? I think everybody was. fighting for something. Everybody was trying to get something. And it caused in a hostile environment.

So fights would break out, shootings would break out. I was right in the middle of most of the things that happened. And it was so common that you might run. You might not run. You might hide from it or maybe not. But it's just too many people packed in one place that was trying to get out or a fight for resources, whatever they were. Right. So tell us a little bit about your, your parents? Um, so my mom did not stay in a relationship with my father, but she did marry a guy I called my dad. Um, and he was from, Trebriene from the high rise. Uh, and he was a street guy. They both were street guys. So this was kind of my upbringing, just seeing how he was well respected in our neighborhood. So that kept me, you know, from a lot of trouble. But, uh,

everything around us was you know was tough it was rough it was violence everywhere okay so how old were you when you saw your first your first corpse your first dead body in Cabrini Greens maybe I was about seven about seven yeah about seven years old how many do you think you remember seeing while you were well so I've seen people got shot I wasn't sure if they did die and I think I found two people one in an elevator and One in the stairwell. So it was about two people that was dead on my way to school that I saw. On your way to school?

Yeah. See, we worry about dogs biting our legs and ankles, and he's tripping over stuff like that. That's unbelievable at that age. So who was the, who was your, who was it that really was your parent at that time? You said your mom was sort of working two jobs, if I recall. Yeah. My mom was always working.

She's a nurse, and she was always working. So she was out of the home a lot. So I would be between her mother, which is my grandmother, and with my other uncles and aunts, we were like the same age. So she would send me to her, and she was the disciplinarian for the most part because my mom worked so much. Who was your hero back then? I'd have to say she was my hero. She was my hero.

We were, even though I missed a lot of, like, the loving side, because she was all business. You know, she was all business. We were taking care of. We were, we were going to eat. You know, we were going to have a place to sleep and we were going to have clothes. But there wasn't a lot of embracing and a lot of that type of thing. So, yeah, but she still, you know, I could guarantee that I would have that when I was with her. Okay.

And so you at a young age, you started having to be pretty deadgum resourceful in terms of learning how to make money. Tell us about some of the early entrepreneurial activities that you got involved in. So at an early age, I would go to the downtown area. I would get newspapers, you know, when you stick the quarter in, you get the newspapers out. I would take the whole stack and take a cart and, you know, walk down the street and sell them. I would do that. I would go to the grocery store and find receipts. You know, people would throw their receipts down and I will follow the receipt and bag all of these things that was on the grocery list.

Either I would keep it or resell it. I would go to the wishing wells, pick the coins out of the wishing wells. I would do that type of thing. So collect cans. I collect a lot of cans and turn them in. So I found a lot of ways to do things before I finally actually had a job that somebody, you know, paid me to do work. Yeah. So you didn't have to decide between an iPhone and an Android, your decisions were all based on survival.

Yes, sir. All survival. Everything I did was about making it to the next day. And this is at a pretty darn young age. Yeah. Yeah. I was very young. and most of my family, and they remind me of stories, too, when I was young,

they would say they saw me somewhere and nobody was with me, you know, but I knew my way around the city. I knew how to catch the train. I knew how to catch the bus. And if you're that small and you just get on the bus, usually nobody would say anything to you, if you just go. Yeah. You know.

Yeah. What were your hopes and dreams at that age? So at that age, I hoped to, um, so I looked at where there was on. television or other people that I knew that had parents or a place that they can sleep comfortable at night. Those were the things I looked forward to growing up, like just having a place that I could be comfortable, you know, and rest without gunfire or violence or, you know, having to leave in the middle of the night or something like that. Okay. So as you as you continued, you stayed in school, right? You graduated. How were those years? I'm

high school years for you so it's kind of hard so my life is kind of up down up down it doesn't all piece together where where it makes sense because I don't think I spent a full year anywhere everything was broken down months of months here months there and so forth when I got to high school age I spent a portion of my high school with my mom's mother and then I spent a portion of high school with my father's mother. And the last portion was with my father's mother. That's where I had a more safe environment. She was more loving, but I was more free because she wasn't, you know, as strict as my mom's mom. But, you know, I, that was some of the hardest times because I had to really figure

out how to be my own man because she had a income that was fixed income and she was trying to take care of herself as well. So I started, I looked forward early to have my own life. I got an apartment before I even graduated high school, had two cars and this is kind of how I started working little jobs and stuff like that. Okay. Okay. And then it wasn't long after that that you made a decision, a career decision. Tell us about that decision and why you chose to go the route that you did. So I had kids early and this was actually the change of my life when I started to realize I'm responsible for somebody else. This changed my life. At that point, I wanted to make sure I or attempt to do everything for someone that wasn't done for me. Make a secure. Make a secure.

living environment, provide, you know, food, clothes, the basic things and that they could look up to me, you know, as if you need something, you would be safe to know that I can provide it for you and find out how to get it. So at some point, you know, I was working, I was holding down jobs, two, three jobs at a time. And that was very hard because it kept me away from home, like my mom was away from home, constantly worked. So I made a decision to join the military at that point. I think, do we, Travis, do we have a picture of Tread back in the day? Was this, is that about the time you joined or was that after you'd been in for a while? Yeah, I had been in a little while. That's my old drill sergeant days.

I was a trainer then. Okay. Wow. And where were you stationed? At that time, I was stationed at Fort Seale, Oklahoma. Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Hot summers, huh? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, tornadoes and all kinds of stuff. That's right. Exactly. Well, that was a change from Cabrini Green. It was a huge change. And actually was the first time I ever flew that I remember flying somewhere and being out of Illinois, you know, that I can really remember. Yeah, yeah. That's incredible.

You know, a lot of kids that grew up in Cabrini Green that experienced what you experienced never made it out. That's true. Why do you think you did? That's a great question because I don't I think there were a lot of great talent where I was from a lot of smart people there I think connecting with my grandmother on my father's side she was a woman of faith That rubbed off on me I believed for a lot of things and I think I wanted the best for someone else which was my kids at this point and I know it had a lot to do with what God did for me because I feel like for me, the change is going to be in them to change generations after. So I think just my faith and trusting God to, you know, do something with my life and do something

with their lives is what it was. So was that the rock at your bottom when you hit rock bottom? Oh, definitely. Okay. Definitely. Okay. All right. So let's go a little bit further here.

So you were in the military for how long? total now i retired at 21 years 21 years but you also took a little bit of a break i took to go into another level of civil service right in which you did what so i i was i joined the police department so these are things coming from where i'm from that people spoke against like growing up people of course people said the military was no place for you know a black man or growing up i was taught that police were bad. These are things that I grew up. But when I had the opportunity, I wanted to know and see if I can make a difference for the

outlook of those things myself. I had to know for myself, you know, and I had to write my own story. So midway through my military career, I decided to get out and take a shot at joining the police department. Okay. I don't know, Trellis, do we have maybe a old. there okay sharp what year was this this was 2000 2000 yeah okay oh wow yeah yeah okay and what year did you start to look like Emmett smith's little brother that was you know I get that sometimes

I get that sometimes somebody asked me for my autograph yeah I don't know who you think I am and I had no clue what they were thinking but I was over at the start having lunch and he was like I just want your autograph and I was like I give it to you but yeah yeah So did you sign it in it or did you sign it? No, so after we had the conversation, it was like, Emmett? And I'm like, tread. Like, ah, we don't want to tread.

Oh, my God. I didn't sign it. I love that. I love it. I love it. And so you were a police officer. Now, that wasn't always a smooth right either. I mean, just on the way into the studio today, you were telling us about, you know,

obviously you're a black man. Obviously. And I remarked on your truck, you have a blue stripe on your front where the license plate goes, and you have a thin blue stripe on the back. You've marked me now. Uh-oh. Did I let the cat out of the back? Okay.

It's a Chevy. It's a Chevy truck. Right. But it's purple. You were explaining, and it's purple, yeah. You were explaining the reason why, Tread, you did that. What's the reason behind that? So I had some run-ins.

So before I've had so many things happen in my life. Before I became a police officer, three of my cousins were driving down the street and got pulled over by the cops in Chicago. They pulled us out the car and beat us up and then let us go on our merry way. Of course they said some stuff to us that, you know, I can't repeat here. But I remember those days. Then after becoming a police officer, I've been stopped many times as a police officer. I got stopped while I was in playing clothes, taking out the car roughed up kind of the same way. And that police officer digs in my pocket, which he wasn't supposed to do, pulled out my wallet and saw my badge in there.

And he goes, well, how come you didn't tell me you were a police officer? And I'm thinking that has nothing to do with the job description that you have of how you treat people. So that, thinking about stuff like that, and after the shooting and all that happened in Dallas, and I get stopped every now and again for whatever reason. I know that when a police officer approaches my car and they see the thin blue line, it would cause them to think of questions relating to what's that about. Instead of being nervous and have the hand on their, instead of being defensive, they'll ask me right away, you know, what's that about or, you know, what's the badge or whatever?

So that makes it nice and we, you know, both of us are nice and comfortable and probably go home safe. That's just horrible to think about. Yeah, yeah, it really is. Wow, hopefully that disease will get cured someday. So you, there been 9-1-1 happened, right? I remember as you and I were talking. Yeah. And then what happened with 9-1-1?

So I was a police officer actively in Oklahoma City. 9-11 happened. I got activated to come back into the military, and I was a military police for the military. So when that happened, I realized I had a lot of active duty time already. So after I got deactivated, I started to consider the plan of retiring, because I was kind of close. They would retire me and relocate me and give me a bonus and stuff like that.

So I looked at that as an option. Okay. And so did that mean that you had to, you were always like on alert if there was a war? Like right now, could you be called up if something happened? I don't think so. I'm retired now and this beard wouldn't look good in the uniform. I got a bad knee. I really doubt if they're going to call me right now.

Pickle ball. You've been playing pickleball, huh? Yeah, I got you. Okay. All right. But again, and the reason why I ask. earlier about because at a very young age you started doing very entrepreneurial things you know the on the difference between entrepreneurs and those people who aren't is

entrepreneurs can start with no resources and be resourceful and make money somebody who doesn't have resources that's not an entrepreneur will just be broke right they they they won't be resourceful to go work their way out of the situation you met a young lady and I guess we'll leave out some of the middle part of it, but you guys now are happily married. And in fact, at lunch, he showed C3 and I his phone where he's traveled and he's been all over the world, right, with this young lady. And in between the two of you now, you've got really, you've got three sets of kids. You've got your early set.

You've got the later set. And then she had a child as well. and when you guys blended then now is it does that mean that like at thanksgiving there's it's a big table right at some point you can expect everybody to be there right together right but you made a point to tell us that it's not just you and your wife doing the traveling and stuff all the time you make sure the kids are involved in that now as well yeah even even my older kids i try to make plans we all travel together sure now your kids turned out to be pretty and good, didn't they? I would say. Why do you think they did? Because I love them. Okay.

I think, you know, not just that we're blessed so much. I put a lot of thought into what I was going to do as far as being a parent. I knew that everything that didn't happen for me, I wanted to happen for them, Even though I had no clue on how to be a parent, I did not have a good example of a man ahead of me, not even an older, you know, an uncle or I hadn't, I didn't have a good example, but I really did it. I read stuff, you know, I watched the movies, you know, and looked for good examples of how to be something that I wasn't. And I think, and I'm hoping that that rubbed off, you know, and started them off much better than I started off. I bet you, your, your kid's hero. I hope, I would hope to say that. Yeah. That's nice to say though. Yeah, it sure is,

isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So what advice do you have? You know, we live in a world now. To grow up in Cabrini Green, Tread, is something that nobody watching this show more than likely has ever had to experience. Do you regret that experience? Well, I think, if, well, I think in my situation, if I didn't grow up there, I wouldn't be who I am, because I don't know anything different. But, yeah, I regret. I'm like, wow, you know, if I could have been born to a nice family somewhere, they would have been great. Growing up all my life, I always looked at somebody else who had some securities, and I looked at them like, wow, you know, that they didn't appreciate it. Like, I would love

to be you, you know, but so I look at my upbringing, but I think about now, the results of it is this. I'm okay now. You know, and my kids are okay and I'm proud of them. But if this, if I could have the same results and not have what I went through, of course, I would not want to have gone through. Do you think, is it possible to have the same results without experiencing? Yeah. What you went through. Yeah, I think it's possible for somebody. I don't know about me though, but it is possible for somebody. Okay. See it everywhere. I see it. a lot of successful people and I see a lot of people who are unsuccessful both with with totally separate backgrounds yeah you know I see people grow up very very nice and comfortable in there you know

in a terrible place in life and in just the opposite you know I grew up side by side with the cousin of mine and he ended up getting caught up in the system and we lost contact over many years 20 some odd years and I didn't know where he was back in Chicago and we were growing up together I had no idea where he was. And the funny thing is, and how we were talking about a small world, just recently, it's been almost 30 years, I think.

Just recently, he found me on Facebook, and I had to ask him, where were you? And he said, I was locked up. That's not my story. And he tells me, he said, I knew that you would get out. That's what he said to me.

He said, I knew you were different than the rest of us, and you would get out. And it blows me away. How much of a part of that Did your faith play in your getting out and you're staying in your lane and not doing things to screw your life up? My faith was everything. It was everything.

I think even where I was, my heart wasn't where I was. I learned a lot of bad things being from my neighborhood. My heart wasn't there, though. I knew what was right and what was wrong. It wasn't until I was able to get away. from there and spend time with my grandmother who was full of faith that that part of me could actually blossom, you know, so it wouldn't have been no other way because even now with our marriage and the way things are, we are fully functional at our church. We are volunteering.

We are in the prayer ministry. We are in the marriage ministry. We're in the premaritales. We're doing all this stuff giving back. And it's all about our faith. And I want to continue. I want to be blessed. I don't want to feel like I'm doing it for the result of that. But I know, and I feel better as a person, to trust, trust God and put my faith. And I'd rather do that and see what happens. You know, kids these days, I don't know for sure. I know church attendance is down 40%. People are running away from organized religion. how do you think that's going to impact the next generation? Oh, this next generation, man, I'm worried.

My older kids didn't have the media, internet, and all that stuff. They didn't have it like they got it now. I'm having a tough job as a parent. Now, this is the influence of everything, you know, the media. And I know they're going to have it hard because they look at things and they already think I can be whatever that is because somebody's making it look glamorous. Anything you make look glamorous, young people gravitate toward it. Yeah, that's true.

You know, we've got the young kid from Cabrini Green here who has done some amazing things. And I believe, Trellis, if I'm not mistaken, I think we've got maybe a clip or two. I know you've done some acting work, Tread, and you've done voiceover work. You've gotten into a lot of things that it's like, how did you go from Cabrini Green, military, police? Now you've done voiceovers. You and your wife own a couple of very successful beauty supply houses and things like that. Do we have a little clip, Trelbus, possibly, that might show a little bit of Tread's acting? talents something there we go look at that the demo reel perfect what in the world

tread that was that was a class a plus acting going on yeah thank you yeah that was amazing I would say that but thank you yeah I mean that was the opportunity there and just briefly here we're gonna be run out of time I hate to say that but what's how did you get involved in that so I don't remember I don't think you remember or do you remember I told you I met a guy in Bosnia Yes. A long time ago. Yes. And then out of all places, I bumped into him in the DFW.

At church, right? Many years later, he has a nephew that does film. We link up. He heard I do some voiceover things. Thanks to my cousin Rick Party. And he says, can you read a script for me? And I go, I don't do acting. He said, I just want you to read the script.

And then this is what we got. Wow. That's cool. That is cool. So you, this is a springboard, maybe, is some big times for you. I'm open. Yeah, I'm open. Yeah.

And you've also got, you and your wife, I don't know that we're going to have time for the video here, but tell us a little bit about this, yeah, this incredible. And what's the, there's a story behind the name as well. Okay. So when my wife and I got married, we had to think of something that we can do together. We have to do something together. and we're looking at all these ideas of business ventures and so forth. We went like three years into our marriage, still trying to come up with something we need to do.

But we were already said that whatever it is, it has to represent who we are. So the name, which is our last name, Bonds, we turned it in reverse and called it snob. People had a hard time pronouncing it with the D in there. So we took the D off, and we are the snobs. We're the Bonses. but somebody a friend of ours started first went first into the business we were already connected

with that friend and thinking we could collaborate with them and do it and it'll probably take off then we figure we can do it ourselves and you know that's the short that's the short of it and it's doing pretty good yeah but is luck would have it you signed your lease and what happened the next week The pandemic hit and we thought life was over. Yeah. Oh, you know, we got to pay this rent. And we don't have not one customer and everybody has to stay in the house. So how do you get customers when everybody has to stay in the house?

Yeah. And just it was a blessing that people were still coming out to look good. That's amazing. Amazing. You know, I just in deference to time here and gosh, I'm sorry we got a little bit of a late start, but this is just amazing for you to hear your story. I know you're inspiring hundreds of people in our audience out there right now. I mean, just to imagine what it must have been like to grow up in Cabrini Greens

and to get to where you are as a phenomenal journey. And congratulations. And I know it had to be a bigger power to help you get there for sure. And I admire you for being a man of faith. I'm going to leave it to C3 here to see if he's got one last question to ask you, Tread. Yeah. So where's your favorite place you've tried? travel too with your kids oh man you said with my kids you had to throw the kids in there yeah i know

i know because you and your wife just go yeah we go just us and it i can't say my favorite with the kids because the kids are there it's not my favorite anymore so but i've gone a lot of places and to me every place was the same because of resorts you go to a resort you really can't tell where you are every resort is the same we went to greece oh m g i was really done i was really done i felt like I've seen it all. When my wife and I went to Greece, it was everything. It really, it was breathtaking. That was the best place ever. Would you go to the islands? There's tons of islands. Yeah, we went to islands. Micanos and Mallorca and all that stuff. Because when you first land in Athens, Athens, it's just like Europe.

It's the same as Europe all over. But when I think of Greece, I only think of the islands. Okay. Yeah. So we went to both of those islands. We spent a lot of time. That's amazing. Well, You've got an incredible story, Tread, and I just am so grateful for you to be open about sharing it. You know, I mean, you opened up with some very personal moments in your life, and really we're grateful for that, because I know it's going to impact people watching our show. If there's somebody out there by chance who wanted to connect with you, what's the best way? Do you have an email, a website or somewhere? Beauty snobs, you can reach me at Beauty Snobs, Beauty Supply, at Gmail.

We're also on Facebook and Instagram, beauty snobs. Beauty snobs, beauty supply at gmail.com. That's correct. Okay, that's awesome. Well, my new dear friend, I'm telling you, it's just been a wonderful experience to have you here today. We'd love to have you back maybe in a little while and just catch up with you and see what, I got a feeling you're going to have your hands and a whole bunch of new stuff by the time

we get back around to having you on the show, but we'd love to do that if that'd be okay with you. All right. Thank you very much. I was very excited to be here. Nice to meet you guys. And the first time I heard C3, I was thinking, how cool is that to be calling yourself C3? Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, I mean, it makes it easier for us. Yeah, you know. When my dad was alive, it made Father's Day a little easier. Yeah, you know, there were three cliffs in the in the house. So we just decided to do one, two, three. I was going to call my sons and say, all right, here are your new names.

Your T2, your T3, you know, but I haven't done it yet. For sure. There you go. There you go. Give them name tags. That's a good way to start. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. If it weren't for you, there would be no need for us to be here either.

We hope you got some value and some inspiration and some hope out of the show today. Again, thank you, Tred. Trellis. Thank you, sir. I got one last thing I want to say. Rangers are going to take it in five games. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that means. are going to win the last day here in Arlington go bet on it right now