Win the Bigger Plumbing Jobs and Build Apprentices Into Your Next Masters.
Chris Sund is a plumbing conference speaker for plumbing contractor associations, chapter meetings and company events. He speaks about the business side of a plumbing shop: turning a drain call into the repipe or water heater job, recruiting and keeping apprentices and journeymen, leading crews and service plumbers, treating customers well on the worst day of their month, and using AI to cut down the office work. Blue-collar audiences are among his favorite rooms, and he believes the sales and growth habits that grew his company carry over to any business that serves customers.
What a Plumbing Contractor Audience Gets
Plumbing contractors gather at events like CONNECT, the annual conference of PHCC, the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, along with state chapter conventions and local contractor meetings. The owners, service managers, estimators and master plumbers in those rooms already know the code book and the craft. What they come looking for is help with the business: getting paid fairly for the expertise they bring into a home, winning the bid on new construction and commercial work, and keeping apprentices long enough to see them licensed.
Chris stays out of pipe sizing and code and tells the room so. He brings the sales, hiring and leadership practices that helped Uniti Med grow 10x in revenue in two years, and he translates them into service tickets, bid days and the long road from apprentice to master.
For Owners
A plan to grow beyond the emergency call, and confidence when a customer pushes back on price.
For Service Plumbers
Presenting options at the kitchen table without sounding like a salesperson.
For Foremen and Supervisors
Running a crew on a job site and bringing apprentices along instead of leaving them on the shovel.
For the Office
Practical AI for estimates, follow-up, customer messages and job posts.
Topics for Plumbing Conferences
- Winning more jobs and bids. Why a homeowner says yes to the water heater swap but goes quiet on the repipe, and why a GC picks another sub with a similar number. LOCKS names the missing piece, whether it is trust, a clear plan for the first day on site, or the stakes of waiting. More in how contractors win more bids.
- Recruiting and keeping apprentices and journeymen. Hiring for traits like work ethic and the willingness to learn, then making the path to journeyman and master visible from week one so a good apprentice does not leave for the first shop that offers more. See how to recruit and keep skilled trades workers.
- Leadership for foremen and owners. The jump from best plumber on the crew to the person responsible for the crew: feedback that sticks, delegation that is real, and owners who stop answering every question themselves. See frontline leader sessions.
- Customer experience on a bad day. Plumbers often meet customers with water on the floor and stress in the air. How the call is answered, how the options are explained and how the work area is left behind are the moments that earn a review and the next call.
- AI for plumbing contractors. Turning a camera inspection or service visit into a plain-language summary, drafting bid packages and quote follow-ups, and writing apprentice job posts in minutes. See AI for contractors.
Two Stories Plumbing Rooms Remember
Best Sellers, Every Store, and a Display
At the brewery, Chris called the buyer at the biggest retailer in the country again and again. When the buyer finally answered, he told Chris that to him, the product was paper clips, one item in a building full of them. Chris made the case for what not carrying it was costing the store, and won best sellers in every store plus a display. For a plumbing estimator, it is a reminder that persistence earns the conversation and stakes earn the yes.
Hiring the Person, Not the Résumé
Chris once hired a recruiter because of the traits that showed up in the interview, not because of years in the job, and the hire became a top producer. His go-to question is “What’s the hardest thing you’ve done in your life?” Plumbing owners use the same idea when an apprentice applicant has no trade experience but has clearly done hard things before.
Proof: Contractor Stages
Chris closed the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings in Omaha for the Midwest Insulation Contractors Association, running Take Back Your Time with AI as a live session on the follow-ups, proposals and reports contractors would rather not do. He is booked for the NFBA Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio, in February 2027.
Chris was the consummate professional with an excellent stage presence. Not only did he work with our change in scheduling, topics, and even how many speakers were onstage at the same time — but he did it with grace and tact. Chris resonated with the audience to the point I had many attendees come up to me and ask where we got him. I would recommend Chris for any speaking needs as he’s versatile, flexible, and professional.
I enjoyed meeting and working with Chris throughout DisruptHR Omaha 6.0. He was engaged, responsive, and invested throughout the planning process and created a presentation that resonated with our audience and challenged us all to look at employee retention from a different lens. Chris brought both expertise and authenticity to his presentation while making the most of DisruptHR’s fast-paced five-minute format. I’m so glad that we were able to connect and have him join us!
I’ve heard Chris present several times. His topics are well researched, his presentation style has a good flow, and he weaves in practical tips and real-life examples that make the discussion realistic and relatable. We would love to have him present again.
Programs for Plumbing Contractors
Every session is customized, whether the room is service and repair shops, new construction and commercial contractors, or a mix at a chapter convention.
You Are Capable of More Sales
The LOCKS framework for service plumbers, estimators and owners who want more estimates to close.
Winning the Talent Battle
Becoming the shop apprentices pick, stay with and recommend to their friends.
You Are Capable of More: Leadership
For foremen and supervisors who were promoted because they were the best plumber on the crew.
Your Team Is Capable of More
One session for the office and the field together, so dispatch, service and install pull the same direction.
Take Back Your Time with AI
The live working session booked by MICA, built around the paperwork contractors put off.
Formats
Any of the programs can be delivered as a keynote, a breakout, or a half-day or full-day workshop, always in person. Early starts before the first calls come in are fine.
Keynote
A convention general session with real stories and one habit plumbers can use on the next call.
Breakout
A business or management track session with plenty of time for questions from owners and service managers.
Half Day
Owners and estimators work through their own quote follow-up or apprentice hiring and leave with a written plan.
Full Day
A leadership day for foremen and service managers, or a full growth day for an owner peer group.
Who Books This Session
Related pages: Electrical Contractors Speaker · Skilled Trades Speaker · AI Speaker for Contractors · Home Services Contractor Speaker · How Contractors Win More Bids
Other trade association pages: HVAC Conference Speaker · Roofing Contractors Speaker · Landscape Industry Speaker
What Plumbing Conference Planners Ask
Is Chris available for PHCC events and plumbing contractor association conventions?
Yes. Chris is available for national events such as PHCC’s CONNECT conference as well as state chapter conventions and local contractor meetings. He has already worked a contractor room at the MICA 2026 Fall Business Meetings and is booked for the NFBA Conference & Expo in February 2027.
What does a healthcare staffing executive know about running a plumbing shop?
Not the plumbing, and he says that plainly. What he knows is selling, hiring and keeping skilled people, and developing the leaders in the middle, which is what drove 10x revenue growth in two years at Uniti Med. Before healthcare staffing he managed restaurants and ran sales and marketing for a brewery, and blue-collar rooms are some of his favorites.
Which topics work best for plumbing contractors?
Winning more jobs and bids with the LOCKS framework, keeping apprentices on the path to journeyman and master, leadership for foremen and owners, customer experience on emergency calls, and practical AI for estimates and office work.
Can attendees earn continuing education credit?
It can be arranged. Sessions by Chris have been approved for CE credit at past conferences, and the host association files the CE application with its accrediting body.
Can Chris do a full-day workshop for our members?
Yes. Every program can run as a keynote, a breakout, a half-day workshop or a full-day workshop, all in person.
You Are Capable of More
Chris’s bestselling book, named the How-To category winner at the 2026 Paris Book Festival. Ten principles for closing the distance between what a crew is doing now and what it is capable of.
At the MICA Fall Business Meetings, every attendee left with a copy. Plumbing contractors can order copies for apprentices finishing a year of school, or for the whole service team.
A Sales Guy Who Learned on the Route
Chris is President & COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula. He helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue in two years, earning #3 on the Inc. Regionals list of the fastest-growing companies in the Midwest along with a Fortune Best Workplaces award.
His career started with ten years in restaurants, followed by running sales and marketing for a brewery, where he learned to keep calling the buyers who did not call back. For the past decade he has worked in healthcare staffing, a business built on recruiting and keeping licensed professionals, which is a problem every plumbing owner recognizes.
He wrote the bestselling, Paris Book Festival award-winning You Are Capable of More and writes for Forbes and Inc.
Stages I Have Spoken On
Contractor Rooms and Business Rooms
The contractor stages Chris has worked, and the sales and business events where the material was built.
MICA Fall Business MeetingsOmaha, NE · Oct 2026NFBAPOST-FRAMENFBA Conference & Expo 2027Columbus, OH · Feb 2027Definitive Healthcare Sales KickoffBoston, MA · 800+ sellersGreater Omaha Chamber POWER ConferenceOmaha, NEemPower BreakfastBellevue, NEDisruptHR OmahaOmaha, NEAlso: HVAC Conference · Roofing Contractors · Landscape Industry · All Industries · See all speaking engagements →
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