Alan Melton: Most business owners think the trap is about working too hard. It’s not. The trap is about building a business that can’t run without you, then realizing too late that it is costing you everything: your time, your freedom, your family, and your future. I’m Alan Melton, founder of Small Business Coach Associates, and over the last 24 years, I’ve helped more than 1,100 business owners escape that trap. This is Beyond the Owner’s Trap: real stories, real frameworks, and real freedom. Let’s get into it.
Alan Melton: It is my pleasure to introduce Chris Sherwin. He has one of the most remarkable stories I have encountered in 24 years of coaching. Chris is the CEO of USIA, a law-enforcement-owned private security firm specializing in executive protection, corporate security, and risk mitigation. He is also a full-time police officer who runs his business from 1,300 miles away.
Alan Melton: Before Chris put on a badge, he had a corporate career and the lifestyle that came with it. When he chose to become a police officer, he made a promise to his wife: the badge would change his title, but it would not change their lifestyle. That promise became the quiet engine behind everything you are about to hear. In 10 months of coaching, Chris took USIA from $3 million to $9 million a year in revenue. USIA was also named to the 2026 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing privately held companies. Chris, welcome to Beyond the Owner’s Trap.
Chris Sherwin: Oh my God, thank you for having me. It is great to be here. It is a crazy story, and I am glad to share it. Hopefully it gives people inspiration or insights when things are looking grim. Thank you so much for having me.
Alan Melton: Tell us what USIA does—not the brochure version, but the real truth.
Chris Sherwin: USIA provides private security for warehouses, apartment buildings, and anywhere that needs a physical guard. We also provide executive protection and related security services. Our niche is communicating with customers and clients. We built our formula around providing a response within 15 minutes. You are not calling an 800 number. We want clients to feel like clients.
Chris Sherwin: I started the company while working security as a police officer. When I decided to make this leap, I believed I could do it cheaper, better, and more professionally—while giving clients a better experience. That is our biggest claim to fame.
Alan Melton: Before we started working together, what did the business look like?
Chris Sherwin: The business was good. We had certain clients we had worked with for 14 or 15 years. It was steady, mainly driven by word of mouth. But I wanted to make a move and increase the business because I believed we had a great model.
Alan Melton: What made you decide to bring in a coach?
Chris Sherwin: Growth is a big word for me: business growth, personal growth, and growth in my ethical and moral behavior. Business can get sticky and shady, and you need someone to bounce things off. As a solopreneur, you need someone who can say, “That is a good idea,” or, “That is not the right move.”
Chris Sherwin: My wife and children are everything to me, but business is a different mindset. I needed someone who could help me, call me out, and hold me accountable if I was going to grow personally and professionally.
Alan Melton: What happened with your team as the company grew?
Chris Sherwin: My team grew. One of my struggles was believing that nobody could do things better than I could and wanting everything done perfectly. When people did not do it 100 percent my way, it could be frustrating. But we hired two additional people in sales and operations, then another person for social media and administrative work.
Chris Sherwin: Alan and I talked about handing off the day-to-day work that does not bring me joy or energy. I still struggle with delegation, but bringing in people has been a positive step. It is growth.
Alan Melton: Take us back to the moment you decided to become a police officer. What was that conversation with your wife like?
Chris Sherwin: I always wanted to be a police officer, ever since I was a kid. I went to high school, was recruited for college football, and was blessed to attend college even though my parents could not easily afford it. I finished two majors in three and a half years because I wanted to get into the world and start working.
Chris Sherwin: I kept getting jobs, working hard, and moving up. With my Polish background, the mentality was to work, grind, and keep moving forward. But I realized I wanted to try my passion. My wife was not thrilled at first. Her main concern was that when we had children, she wanted to stay home.
Chris Sherwin: I told her the lifestyle would never change. She basically said, “Figure it out.” That is where my police journey began.
Alan Melton: How close did you come to breaking that promise?
Chris Sherwin: A few times. When you make money, you want to invest it back into the business, while your wife expects the lifestyle you had when you were CFO of a $50 million corporation. It was a fine line. The promise made me a very good money manager—maybe better than I was as a CFO—because my goal is never to break a promise.
Chris Sherwin: I prayed about it and created workflows to figure out how to make it work. God willing, I made it through.
Alan Melton: Was there a time when the business struggled and that promise felt impossible to keep?
Chris Sherwin: Absolutely. I was a full-time police officer on the K-9 unit, always getting called out. I was taking calls from the squad car and constantly on the phone. The business was not growing. I had one or two clients, and I wondered why I was doing all of it for what I was making. That went on for a year to a year and a half.
Chris Sherwin: I kept taking one more step and trying one more thing. Then I landed one larger client, and that changed things. As an entrepreneur, once you reach one level, you look at the next level and it seems impossible. Now, $25 million can feel impossible. But when you look back, you realize you have already reached goals that once felt impossible. You cannot give up. You bounce ideas off people, pray, think, try, fail, and try again.
Alan Melton: You relocated to Florida, 1,300 miles from the operation. Did you think you had escaped the day-to-day grind?
Chris Sherwin: No. I knew it would be challenging. I knew I would have to find good people and put faith and trust in them. My phone use would go up. For my personality, separating from daily business tasks will take time.
Chris Sherwin: Some people fish, hunt, or build birdhouses. I like business. It is my hobby. I like growing it, solving problems, and knowing it benefits my family and other families. I never fully escaped the day-to-day grind, but with coaching, that grind is shifting from an administrative grind to a growth grind.
Alan Melton: How do you navigate work and family?
Chris Sherwin: There is no perfect balance when you have a full-time job, another full-time job, and a family. You have to be honest with yourself. What works for me is giving my wife and daughters permission to say, “It’s time. We need time.”
Chris Sherwin: For example, my daughters were flying home from a birthday trip and called to ask if I could pick them up from the airport. Absolutely. I might make 20 calls on the way there, but once I am with them, I focus on them. Then I get back home and resume working.
Chris Sherwin: I put things in the calendar. Every Monday, I have a calendar reminder to book an outing with my wife, Debbie, or schedule a dad date night. It is not because they are unimportant. It is because they are important enough to be in the calendar. My family has permission to interrupt and say it is time to go to dinner, spend time together, or do something as a family.
Alan Melton: When you moved to Florida, what were you still holding onto that you should have released?
Chris Sherwin: A lot of administrative work and smaller tasks that I could have given to other people. The people were there, but I thought nobody would do it as well as I would. I did not want to bother people.
Chris Sherwin: For example, the person who takes care of our fleet loves cars. I put gas in them and start them; beyond that, cars are not my thing. I held onto work that other people actually enjoy doing. I also held onto business that was not good business—work where we were spinning our wheels, serving people who did not want to pay, did not understand, or did not want to partner with us.
Chris Sherwin: Security is a partnership business. We are not there to carry suitcases or laundry. We are there to be alert and protect people. Some of the business I left behind involved clients who did not truly want security.
Alan Melton: What did it feel like to realize you were still the bottleneck from 1,300 miles away?
Chris Sherwin: It was devastating. Admitting you are the problem is the worst. Then you have to figure out how not to be the bottleneck. You want the problem to be someone else, but you have to say, “I am the problem. How do we fix it?”
Chris Sherwin: I am a typical male in the sense that I want to fix a problem and move on. But working with a coach means continuing to talk through it and solve it. Nobody likes self-evaluation and realizing they are the problem, but you have to do it. If you want to reach the next goal, you have to swallow your pride, admit your wrongdoing, and move forward.
Alan Melton: What was the hardest thing to let go of, and why?
Chris Sherwin: The hardest thing was allowing others to do the work and only checking in periodically instead of doing everything myself. I built this from zero. When I became a police officer and worked security, I obtained a $10,000 line of credit. I used about $2,000 for licensing and the first year of insurance. I believed I could build something bigger and better.
Chris Sherwin: Everything was me. Letting go feels like handing a piece of yourself to someone else, someone unknown. Every piece I give away is hard, but if you do not give work away, you will not grow.
Alan Melton: Walk us through the coaching process. What did it look like week to week?
Chris Sherwin: The process started before we worked together because I knew I needed coaching. I had tried some coaches, including group programs, but they left a bad taste. It was a big group meeting with a whiteboard and no real access to ask questions. That was not the coaching I needed.
Chris Sherwin: I had to identify what I needed: someone to work with a solopreneur who needed direct access and honest conversations. I searched for small-business coaches using ChatGPT or Claude, researched the options, and booked a 30-minute call through your calendar. We interviewed each other, and it was a good fit.
Chris Sherwin: The right coaching requires honesty, plans, and a willingness to grow. That was the relationship we built. It started with giving it a try and seeing where it could take us. Nearly a year and a half later, we are here.
Alan Melton: When did you first notice a shift in yourself or the business?
Chris Sherwin: Internally, it was probably after our third meeting. We completed worksheets about what brings me energy, takes my energy, where I spend time, my vision, and growth. It was a difficult shift because I knew what I needed to do: give things to others, get on the phone, and get into sales.
Chris Sherwin: I would rather go into a gunfight than make a sales call because the street was my comfort zone. But I knew the shift had to happen if I wanted to reach my goals. By week three, I had to look in the mirror and ask whether I truly wanted to do this. It was uncomfortable, but I had to become comfortable being uncomfortable.
Alan Melton: One assignment was watching Undercover Billionaire. Did it have an impact?
Chris Sherwin: I had heard of it but never watched it. After it became homework, I binged it. You see billionaires starting with $100, a phone, a car, and a full tank of gas. They are used to $30 million deals, then they are trying to make $30. One person sold discarded tires for $300, and that sale felt like $300 million.
Chris Sherwin: It showed that you can make lemonade out of lemons. The crazy things they tried made me think: what is the worst that could happen? That was one of the biggest takeaways for me.
Alan Melton: What was the lowest point in the overall journey?
Chris Sherwin: The lowest point was running like a hamster on a wheel with nothing happening. You try everything. You look at Google, ChatGPT, the internet, and sources telling you that you are doing the right thing, but nothing is happening. You are struggling, then the car breaks down and you need $500. You start thinking maybe you would be better off working for someone else and working part-time.
Chris Sherwin: That would mean being away from my family, which is not what I wanted. I had promised Debbie our lifestyle would not change. I kept pushing, and by the grace of God, something came in and made it better.
Alan Melton: Was there a specific event that almost derailed the business?
Chris Sherwin: Yes. We were sued over an incident where a young girl was hit by a car while riding a bike. She had broken bones, and the claim tried to hold security responsible for not stopping the driver from speeding in a parking lot. We were not even there. It was not our assigned shift.
Chris Sherwin: They were pursuing significant money against the business and against me personally. I knew we would come out okay because we were not there, but it went on for months and cost money. It made me wonder why it was happening at all. I talked to my attorney and friends, shifted my mindset, and moved through it. It was tough, but I came out smarter and better.
Alan Melton: You came into coaching wanting to double sales. What actually happened?
Chris Sherwin: We tripled. It was a combination of coaching, following recommendations, reading, and follow-up. I would say about 80 percent came from coaching. We had a contact that was struggling, and we pushed through the things that made me uncomfortable. That helped us land the deal and triple the business.
Alan Melton: Beyond revenue, what changed personally?
Chris Sherwin: The biggest change was realizing that having the right people around me makes a huge impact. I surround myself with good people, and it makes a huge difference. The other major lesson is that you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. You hear it in every business book, but it is true. I have to wake up every day ready to be uncomfortable.
Alan Melton: One of your zones of genius is deal-making. How did that develop?
Chris Sherwin: It came from a police story. There was an officer on the force who could take people to jail without them realizing they were going to jail. He was great at talking people through a difficult situation, reducing confrontation, and keeping everyone safe.
Chris Sherwin: The lesson for business is not to tell people only what they want to hear. The difference is that in business I am truthful about what I can and cannot deliver. If you are honest—even when it is uncomfortable—you can help people understand what is really happening and make a deal based on truth. I do not love cold calling, but when I get in front of people, I can have that honest conversation. That became a foundation for my sales approach.
Alan Melton: You always tell the truth.
Chris Sherwin: That is the main thing. You can take a strategy someone else has used and mold it into what you do. But you have to use 100 percent truth, good or bad. People respect you more when you are honest. I will be honest whether it costs me money or not. That is what clients are paying for, and I have to live with myself, explain things to my family, and answer to God.
Alan Melton: Looking back at the promise you made, what does your wife think now?
Chris Sherwin: She still thinks I am nuts. The phone never stops, and she shakes her head. But I think she believes it is great. More importantly, she recognizes who I am. She can come in and say we need another date night, and she has the right to do that. It has been a big shift and learning experience, but I think she is proud. She probably also still thinks I am as nutty as I was 20 years ago.
Alan Melton: When the Inc. 5000 email arrived, what was your first reaction?
Chris Sherwin: I had to make sure it was not spam. Seriously. I put the email into Claude, ChatGPT, and Google to check whether it was a scam. Then it hit me. It was amazing. I was grateful and thankful. I told my wife and kids, thanked them, thanked God, and thanked Alan for his help.
Chris Sherwin: The entrepreneur side of me immediately asked, “What is next? The Inc. 100?” But you take a brief moment to say, “My hard work paid off.” It feels good.
Alan Melton: When you think about your promise to your wife and where USIA is today, what does that feel like?
Chris Sherwin: It is amazing. I started by trying to keep a promise that our lifestyle would not change. Now the company is an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company. What began as trying to make ends meet became something special: a lifestyle and life goal.
Chris Sherwin: Being able to protect and provide for my family is huge. I never expected to be where I am now, able to do the things I can do, continue growing, and feel good about it. The struggles still exist, but you feel better about them when you see what your hard work can create.
Alan Melton: Chris, you are a full-time police officer running a business 1,300 miles from operations, and you kept a promise to your wife. You tripled revenue not by working harder, but by getting out of your own way. The Inc. 5000 recognition is deserved, but the takeaway is not just the number. It is the decision to let go, build something bigger than yourself, and keep a promise even when it would be easier not to.
Alan Melton: Before we close, I want to return to the promise Chris made to his wife when he put on the badge: their lifestyle would not change. That promise motivated and held him accountable in a way that no coach, metric, or milestone could.
Alan Melton: If you are a business owner, ask yourself: What is your promise? Who are you building this for? When you know the answer, everything else gets clearer. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a business owner who needs to hear it. Visit smallbusinesscoach.org and book a free strategy session to map out where you are and where you want to go. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review to help more owners find the show.
Alan Melton: I’m Alan Melton. This is Beyond the Owner’s Trap. We will see you next time.
Chris Sherwin: Thank you, Alan.
Alan Melton: Thank you, Chris. I thought it went really well. What a great story. How about from your side?
Chris Sherwin: I think it was great. A lot of people get stuck. The promises I made to myself and my wife are what get you through it.
