About Bradley's HVAC-Schools.org

The Story Begins
My Early Years

Hi, my name is Bradley Stansbury.

Reflecting back, it must of started in 1983.  I was a 5th grader at Hawthorne Elementary when I realized that I was an entrepreneur.  

My Mom used to give me a dollar for the school lunch everyday.  But instead of using it for lunch I would walk down-the-block to the convenience mart and buy candy with it.  Back at school the other kids would see me eating candy and want some of it so I'd trade them some candy for a quarter or so.  

I soon realized I was taking in more money then my Mom was giving me for lunch and I liked it.  But the convenience store was too expensive.  So I started purchasing those 10 packs of Wrigley's gum that cost $1 from Fry's Foods - Big Red, Juicy Fruit, etc...and sold them for .25 cents each, which more than doubled my money.

It was chump change, but I was a happy camper.

Around the same time, I started getting up every morning at 3:30 to 4 a.m. to go running before I had to go to school.  I don't remember why I was running, I just wanted to run.  Kind of reminds me of that movie Forrest Gump.

It was always really dark out during this time, but every morning I would pass this one guys house that was always working in his lighted garage.

One day as I was running by this guys place, he yelled out...."Hey Kid!  how would you like to get up at this time every morning and make some money.  I said yes and gave him my home phone number.

He called my parents a few days later and arranged a meeting.  He was a District Sales Adviser for The Arizona Republic.  The Arizona Republic is a newspaper for all of you Millennials or Gen Z's brought up on the Internet:)

He wanted me to be a Newspaper boy but said I was out of his district.  So he hooked me up with the District Sales Adviser for my area and BAM!  I was making more money.  Although it was more like a job, I quickly realized that the closer I got that newspaper to the customers front door, the more tips I would get.

Every Wednesday, my District Sales Adviser would take us newspaper boys out to the newest residential neighborhoods to sell subscriptions.  Our payment was mostly in the form of him taking us out for pizza afterwards and for a chance to win an all expense paid trip to 6 Flags Magic Mountain.

Yeah, they were exploiting us kids, using us as bait to sell their paper, but I didn't care.  I just wanted to win that trip!!!

I didn't like selling the newspaper door to door because I didn't like rejection.  But I quickly found out that for about every 10 houses that I went to, around 2 would buy a subscription.  So instead of looking at the 8 no's as rejections, I looked at them as getting me one step closer to the yes's that were going to win me that trip to Magic Mountain.  

I won that trip, but the greatest reward was the lesson that I learned from it...

Sales is a Numbers Game!

Fast Forward 22 Years

I've held a few different jobs and started several businesses over the years...most of them failed.  But I don't look at them as failures because each and every one of them taught me something.  Each failure was added to my tool bag of "what not to do" and as a result,  I've come to understand that failures are just stepping stones to success.

It's 2005
Time to go Back to School

I'm the Director of Facilities Maintenance for (3) Charter Schools located in Mesa and Gilbert Arizona.  Although I was responsible for the training, hiring and firing of janitors, ordering supplies, and maintaining the schools, my title was just a fancy name for being a handyman.  Me and my Brother Kerby performed most of the maintenance and repairs for the schools.  What we couldn't handle, we out-sourced.

However, when it came to the HVAC side of things, we were stumped.

So we both enrolled in HVAC School.  We took the Electro-Mechanical Technologies program at RSI.

I graduated at the top of my class with straight A's (I give all the credit to hard work and the temporary brain power that Skittles candy will give you).......if their were only a candy that could help with retention:)  My brother graduated as well, but decided that the HVAC industry wasn't for him.

I was offered a job upon graduation with Disney on Ice for $50,000.00 per year.

This was a great opportunity and probably would have been a wonderful, even magical experience:)  But I declined because it required traveling and I didn't want to be away from my family.  Also, I didn't want to work for the man, even if it was Disney on Ice.  I wanted to be my own boss.

Me and My Awesome Daughters/Grandson

Me & My Lovely Wife Carmen (in Cancun, Mexico)

Started my HVAC Business in 2008 under Handyman law. Later, acquired my Contractors License and became a proud member of the Better Business Bureau

I still operate A/C Handyman and I've done well in the HVAC Industry.  Owning your own business brings you an awesome sense of freedom that simply can't be described in words, you just have to experience it.

The blessings in my life have given me the desire to share, and so Bradley's HVAC Schools was born.  A hobby of mine and my way of giving back to the community. 

If you're interested in entering the HVAC field, I hope this website will be of value to you.

HVAC Schools › About Me

“Learning is experience. Everything else is just information.”― Albert Einstein

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