Why Blue-Collar Workers Need Mental Health Tools, Not Just Toughness with Chris Le Veck

Chris Le Veck, founder of Facility Innovations Group and co-founder and CEO of Shift, joins Will Craig to trace the path from rural Ohio entrepreneurship to building a mission-driven health and performance platform for frontline and blue-collar workers. The conversation covers his early sales hustle, the lessons of building and losing businesses, and the personal losses that pushed him toward a deeper focus on mental health, resilience, and vulnerability.
In this episode, Chris explains why the real opportunity is not just improving facility performance—it is supporting the people who keep those facilities running. He also shares how Shift aims to give workers practical tools for recovery, emotional regulation, and support before burnout turns into crisis.
Chris shares how selling light bulbs door to door as a kid in rural Ohio taught him the basics of sales, initiative, and earning freedom through work.
The conversation explores his father’s definition of success as time freedom, not just money, and how that shaped Chris’s own view of ambition and experiences.
Chris describes starting a baked-goods business at age 12 and later building lighting and maintenance divisions as a young entrepreneur.
He explains how he generated leads by photographing half-lit signs at 1:00 AM and turning those photos into hyper-specific flyers.
The episode covers his leap from his family business to launching his own company, Facility Innovations Group, with a 20-foot container in his driveway serving as a warehouse.
Chris talks about the importance of cash flow, including keeping the sign-and-light maintenance work alive because it produced revenue within 24 hours, while retrofit projects took months to close.
He recounts the painful experience of bringing in investors for a new venture, only to lose control of the company and later be let go 90 days after giving up majority shares.
The conversation turns deeply personal as Chris reflects on his father’s sudden death from COVID, his divorce, and the grief work that followed.
Chris shares how therapy, coaching, breath work, yoga, qigong, meditation, and men’s retreats helped him rebuild and reframe what it means to live well.
He connects that healing journey to Shift’s mission: giving frontline workers tools, permission, and community to care for their mental and physical well-being.
Visit shiftwell.com to learn more!
This video is sponsored by HighLevel. Visit gohighlevel.com/reset to learn more