Omar Soliman's Interview With 'From Founder To CEO'
Omar Soliman's Interview With 'From Founder to CEO'
Omar Soliman, CEO and Co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk, recounted memories about starting the company, becoming CEO and continuing to grow the company on the From Founder to CEO internet podcast.
Todd Uterstaedt, host of From Founder to CEO, introduced Soliman by calling him a “down to earth, smart, and dedicated leader.”
Soliman believes in the powerful promise of value.
“Our company purpose is to ‘Move the World,’” said Soliman. “We want to move people emotionally, not just their stuff.”
Moving can be stressful, so College Hunks Hauling Junk aims to provide a “stress-free” moving experience.
Soliman wants to change the way folks move in and out of their houses and apartments. He believes he can revolutionize the moving and junk removal industry.
“There is a huge opportunity for companies like ours to disrupt an industry that has been the same way for 100 years,” said Soliman.
Soliman realized he and his Co-founder, Nick Friedman, were entrepreneurs after their first job of moving junk for someone. They had discovered their passion: business and marketing.
“It was the first time in our life that we really found something we were passionate about,” said Soliman.
Soliman owes many thanks to his mom for letting the young entrepreneurs use her furniture delivery van.
“It is crazy if my mom hadn’t had that van, we may have never come to the realization that we were entrepreneurs. So that was probably the first, and most monumental lucky break that we got,” said Soliman.
“That story gives the testimony that sweat equity is what makes great entrepreneurs, founders, and CEO’s,” said Uterstaedt.
Overnight, the company began booming after the Washington Post wrote an article about its funny name.
“We were doing one job every few days, then suddenly six to seven jobs in one day,” said Soliman.
He then realized two things: he could make a good living at this job, and he would need another truck.
Soliman attributes much of his success to having a “vivid vision.” Every three years, the team sits down and decides where they hope to be in three years. Then in their quarterly meetings, they plan how to accomplish this.
“My goal is to be spending all of my time scaling the business, which means making sure every department that we have is successful and growing,” said Soliman.
He spends time with the department heads to ensure growth. Consistency is key.
One major trait that attributes to Soliman’s success is being able to see the landscape. He sees where the company is, sees where they want to be and how to accomplish it, then communicates that to his team.
Soliman believes that he and Friedman have a great partnership because they balance each other out – one’s weakness is the other’s strength.
Every day, Soliman wakes up feeling thankful. He expresses his gratitude towards his team and customers constantly. It’s important to him to get out and connect with at least one customer or frontline employee a day by calling them or sending an email.
“I try to make daily contact with someone who is working with the front line of the brand,” said Soliman.
The podcast ended with Soliman revealing his excitement about new franchisees. In the past 12-14 months, College Hunks Hauling Junk has had six veterans open a franchise.
“Veterans are tremendous franchise owners because they follow a system, they believe in the higher purpose, and they love to build leaders. All of these things are our core values, and these veterans really bring them to the table,” said Soliman.