Stress Relief On Moving Day; How College H.U.N.K.S. Delivers Peace Of Mind with Anne Smith

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:36hey there welcome this week's episode of epic entrepreneurs i am bill gilliland your host i am also the principal at action coach business growth partners and one of the founders of the asheville business summit a lot of times i am talking to people that i've just met or don't know but i've got a friend today that we get to talk to so i've got ann smith from college hunks and I'm going to get the rest of it, hauling, junk, and moving. So it's College Hunks, hauling, junk, and moving. That's a good name because it tells you pretty much what they do. But Ann, introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about the company and what you do and how you're serving the community.

1:17Well, great. Thank you so much, Bill. Appreciate you having us on today. My husband and I are the owner-operators of College Hunks, hauling, junk, and moving here in Asheville. I think we could all agree that moving is stressful Am I right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. There's always some complaining or something going on. Exactly. And some heavy stuff, too. But, yeah, even trying to figure out how to get rid of items can be stressful. So our goal is to decrease our client's stress during those transitions so that you can focus on other things. HUNCS is an acronym. So our team of hunks, which stands for Honest, Uniformed, Nice, Knowledgeable, and Service, will come out and take care of that moving, junk removal, loading a truck, unloading, whatever the project is.

2:04They'll take care of that. And again, to reduce the stress of moving. We opened this location about five years ago here in Western North Carolina and have just really loved being a part of this community. I'm going to go ahead and put the cat out of the bag. Like everyone asks me if it's all about college students, and it's not. The reason college is in the name is because the founder of the overall franchise was at the University of Miami, which is why the colors are orange and green. And so we are all in the University of Stress-Free Service, but it doesn't really have anything to do with college at all.

2:37Yeah, I understand. That's cool. Yeah, I always ask people, like, what business are you really in? And you're really in the reducing stress business. You know, everybody says, yeah, I love that. I love that. So let me ask you a few business-related questions. You guys, how long have you been in this business here? We've been doing this for five years. So for five years. So that's good. That gives us a background. We moved up mid-pandemic to start this. Perfect. And then we've had a pandemic, and we've had a hurricane, and we've had all kinds of cool stuff happen around here. But looking back, if you had to start over again, what would you have done differently?

3:20That is such a great question. You know, there's definitely small things, small things that I would probably have done differently. But on a broader level, I probably would have acknowledged that my calendar is going to be chock full of business choices and decisions. And I probably would have been more intentional from the beginning to have probably planned fun, planned activities for friends and family, even outside the area, been more intentional. I eventually got to that point when I realized that life was consumed with work. But I think I would have been a little bit more intentional from the beginning and just plan to get those on the calendar.

4:02I think a little bit further ahead than just the one year. But yeah, other decisions here, small things, but overall, not too many things that would change. Yeah, I actually love that. I mean, I had to make it one of my major goals to plan fun. So as one of the top three things that I have to look at every week is like, you know, when is there fun in the week? Otherwise, we just work all the time. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are some of your biggest learnings as an owner and an employer since you started? I think it's the importance of having a support network is invaluable. We're being part of a franchise, you know, we've got that network and we ask for the support and we get the support.

4:50But gosh, here, being a part of the Western North Carolina community, we feel so supported in relationships that we've built. I always say, hey, if I can't help you with the problem, I can probably point you in the direction of somebody that can assist you. But really just being transparent and being a part of the community and building those relationships. Networking gets a bad rap, but I really believe it's really about just understanding who people are and getting to know them and their business and being a center for, you know, point people on resources. I think bad networking might get a bad rap, but good networking gets a good rap.

5:28I mean, I'll share. I'm a client, and that's how my wife is using you today, actually, because of networking. I mean, otherwise, I would have never known who to call. So, yeah, I think networking is basically critical for most businesses and business owners in the thing. So any learnings as an employer? Oh, as an employer, there's always going to be surprises, right? Things are going to happen in your business, no matter what your line of business is. As an employer, I guess I was surprised to realize that they are always into your team is in tune to what's going on. You know, you got to be congruent, right?

6:18How you're feeling on the inside needs to match how you're expressing yourself on the outside. side. And if you, and that was a little bit newer to me. But yeah, yeah, I guess that was, and it's just, business is fragile, right? All industries, everything we're doing. It's, you've got to control the controllables and realize what's in your control and what's not. And one of the things that we can control, right, is that mindset. And I think you guys do such a great job at Action Coach. I've learned so much from you, Bill, through our conversations and even just, you know, allowing me to pick up the phone and ask you some things, just that business relationship.

6:56I so appreciate that. But I do believe that mindset is you can't ask your team to have a great mindset if you're, you know, not taking a step back with a broader perspective and going, okay, hold on a second. Is this going to matter, you know, in five years what I'm talking about for five minutes? Yeah, no, I love that. And thanks for those. You know, it's interesting to me that, you know, I'll talk to anybody. If anybody's got a challenge, they can pick up the phone and call me. It's not a problem. But life really is a mirror. Like if you show up with a good attitude, then that's probably the employees will probably rub off on.

7:30If you show up in a bad mood, I guarantee you that's going to show up in your employees. So it's an interesting one. What are some of the common misconceptions about running a business? Well, everyone thinks that it's, you know, you're rolling in money. other misconceptions or that I guess they would think that you know that it's that it's easy and that time is always in your control so those things are you know there's just challenges with all things that you do I think as an owner it's very difficult to have boundaries with your time maybe it's a it can be a physical barrier that your boundary that you're not at the event or you're not at the office, but it's tricky, especially, you know, to stop your conversation, whether it's in your mind or with your spouse or your partner, talking about the business.

8:20So those are, you know, those can be challenges. It's very hard. It's very hard. What do you attribute your growth to?

8:30We have, again, this points back to Western North Carolina. I think it's just an amazing community. We've built a lot of relationships here that have been able to advocate for us. one of our both, you know, relationships with it company-wide as well as just personal relationships. Our mission at College Humps, Holland Junk, and Moving is to move the world, but that doesn't mean just moving your things, right? That means being a part and serving in the community is where we provide service. So we work a lot with Homeward Bound. Any items that we get from Junk Removal Services, we try to save those.

9:06They'll come pick them up from Homeward bound. Obviously, we work with Habitat for Humanity, Asheville Tool Closet, when we get weird tools and things like that, we're working with them. And then for the month of October, which is the month for domestic awareness, domestic violence awareness, we do free moves for working with shelters, and that's as a brand. So I think when we're able to build those relationships and communicate that we're doing more than just moving and junk removal, that we're trying to put, you know, some good things in the communities here. I go back to relationships, Bill.

9:43It's all about those relationships that have been created here. Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, I mean, yeah, this really is a giving community. And I think it shows, you know, how we help each other and how we work together. Even competitors a lot of times will work together to help, you know, on things. You know, I was I was out of thing for the builders the other night. And, you know, there's a whole room full of builders there. They're technically all competitors, but they're kind of not. So, yeah, it's pretty it's pretty interesting. So you you you talked about this a minute ago. How do you balance like the demands of business and your personal life?

10:26Yeah, that's that's an ongoing question, isn't it? In the world. I think, again, I think it goes back to that, you know, working with our mindset, what kind of practices can we put in place to keep that mindset good and keep that energy good? You know, personally, I believe in gratitude is a big thing. Gratitude journal and really starting off my day of looking at that and, you know, exercise. And again, those relationships. Okay, if I'm feeling a certain way with some certain challenges, well, what's a positive thing that I can do? Who can I reach out to and encourage them? What can I do to kind of flip the script, if you will, in my brain at that moment?

11:07So, yeah, just try to put some routines and things in place to keep the mindset good and the energy good. I like it. I like it a lot. Yeah, I actually got an app that includes like a journal and you can put in the gratitudes. And I kind of tried it for a while, didn't do it. Now I've got a pretty good habit on it. But it's interesting. It kind of does set the day for you, doesn't it? It does. And I think it's so funny because our brain will do what we want. If we want to solve a problem, we're going to keep looking for those problems. But if we start identifying what the good thing, what happened that day, then we're going to keep finding those good things.

11:49One of our core values is building leaders. And so I love talking. You know, we're helping folks put different types of skills in that are transferable to whatever they're going to do in life beyond college, hauling, junk, and moving. But that skill, you know, right, to being able to look at things through a different lens. And really, especially when you're working with folks that are stressed out, right, moving is really hard. It's very, very difficult. So the folks that are working for us have got the ability to be compassionate, to say, hey, I understand this is stressful. You're in good hands.

12:26You know, let's work through this. I hear you. You've got where you're in good hands. So that's really important to the line of work that we do is really make sure that we've got the right team to have that customer experience. Yeah, I love that. So what qualities do you look for when you're looking for employees? That's a good question. My background is career development. So interestingly, that kind of can leap over into this realm. And I'm not necessarily looking for so much for experience, but I like to get a foundation of who someone is. I'm not looking for a laborer. I'm looking for someone that's got a positive mindset, someone that's coachable, someone that can think critically.

13:12and when I say, hey, what do you want out of this experience if we're to bring you on the team? I'm hoping that they can, you know, come up with something. I want to learn more from a business sense or I want to, you know, work in a good, positive environment or I want to decrease someone's stress, you know, those kinds of things. So, yeah, that coachability, that positive mindset, you know, being able to play well in the sandbox, get along with other people and problem solve. When they do come up with something to the answer to that question, what do you want out of this job, essentially, is what you, I think what you just said.

13:46What kind of, I mean, I'm just curious, this is, you know, what kind of answers do you get? I get everything under the sun. And, you know, I've got one person in mind and he said, as we go through that, what I mentioned, you're going to learn skills in marketing and sales and critical thinking and positivity and coaching other people, which is more than just picking up heavy stuff, right? You think it's just picking up stuff. There's so much beyond that. And Nazir said to me, I want to improve my communication. I said, okay. So I wrote that down. And he's been with us for almost two years. And let me tell you, he's just got, he just made junior captain.

14:23his communication, his desire to believe in himself and to, you know, to lead. That's really impressive. We've got a structure where you come in as a junior wingman, then you go wingman, captain, senior captain. There's a junior captain in there too. But point being, you can just stay at the basic level if you choose to. We want people that want that desire more. But that one always stood out to me because I saw it. I saw his communication improve. I've seen his confidence grow. And yeah, I love that. Yeah, so you're also in the people development business. 100%. Yeah. Building leaders is our number one core value, and we are living that core value every day.

15:05We start our mornings with a huddle, so we've got someone that's kicking off that, and then we're sharing what moments that our team has seen each other in regarding those core values. And it kind of goes back to that gratitude, Bill. When you start highlighting things that someone on your team has done, then you start to look for those, right? And then you get to bring that to the team. And then the person standing next to you is like, oh, I've got something, too. Oh, yeah, that reminds me of how they did this for that customer or how this worked. Yeah, it's infectious. So, yeah, it has to be intentional, but it's infectious once it is.

15:43All right. So, PEPIC is one of my taglines, and it's an acronym, and I'm going to ask you to do like a quick fire round. Give me just a couple of thoughts about or sentences or words about each one. And so I'm kind of jumping around for the acronym, but I took a license really with the B. So the B stands for bring the energy. So give me some thoughts about bringing energy. Yeah, bringing that energy kind of goes back to what I was saying was just starting the day with that huddle, having that morning energy, getting that going at whatever time that happens and really getting that communication and understanding that it goes beyond what we're doing.

16:35We're helping someone else. So trying to relay that. Yeah, I love that. How about the E in EPIC stands for education? Education. I think it goes back to that building leaders. We're always reading. We're always encouraging our team to read. You know, what can we, is it a quote? Is it a book? What can we do? We've brought three team members to a virtual three-day summit for Building Leaders Summit. It was put on by corporate. And we paid for their time to be there. Their walk away, they had breakout sessions. So I love that. They did have a book that went with it, but they got to interact in a small group.

17:09And another one of our team members has been on, Christian's been on a podcast before. So yeah, it's just always learning and growing. And I think gaining skills outside your comfort zone, that's what the E is about to me. I love it. P stands for planning. What are your thoughts around planning? You got to plan. Everything you do needs to be planned. However, the caveat moving and junk removal, everything here, you know, it can be an ebb and a flow. Things can, it's not always an industry where you can plan and things go exactly to plan. So that would lead me to the P might be pivot. It might be make the best decision that you can in that moment and get support if you need to make.

17:46I might add that plan and pivot. I like it. The I stands for inspiration. Our inspiration, again, goes back to that mission is to move the world. And we just love being a part of the community and working with that. As we were honored by our franchise meeting last year, and they, due to some of the hurricane relief work that we did amongst all the other businesses here, right? Everybody here in Western North Carolina was doing their thing. But it was such an honor to be gathered around other teammates and be recognized with that. And it was called the Move the World Award. I love it. Congratulations.

18:22Congratulations on that. So, yeah, I love that. How about the C is commitment? Commitment goes back to those core values. We live our core values and it sounds corny. That's what we've done. When we first got started in this business, people said moving and junk removal. Wow. You're coming from corporate. That's what you're doing now. That's interesting with a little bit of a smile in their voice, like what is going on? But when you're living your core values daily, you're realizing that we're pouring into people, helping with the skills that are building them, not only to provide excellent customer service, but we'll provide transferable skills, you know, with whatever they're choosing to do next.

19:00So I think that goes back to that, those core values. Well, you know, anybody who would poo-poo the core values doesn't understand the process. And a lot of people don't know that there's no way you would have invested in this business and its core values if you didn't believe in them and were willing to go 100 % into them. Otherwise, why would you invest? And so that's, yeah, I think that's super important. So one of the things I've always liked about a great franchise organization is that they did have systems and core values and things that you could buy into. So, yeah, so if the core values align with you, then why wouldn't you buy into them and be 100 % and live them?

19:45And we expect our employees to live them, too. And when that doesn't happen, then they're not the right fit, and that's okay. Yeah, 100%. 100%. Yeah, we actually have 14 core values, and I go over them with my team, one of them every week, and we dive into it. And what does it mean? And we try to make that our core value of the week. And, you know, it works out great. So what words of advice would you give to other business owners who are looking to grow? That's a great, great question. I'm going to throw one more thing in there going back to that C, if I may. Yeah, go ahead. And as an example of commitment, we've got two employees that have been with us for five years.

20:24So they joined not too long after we first got started. We're bringing them to our annual conference that's called Reunions. They'll go down to Tampa with us. We'll all get our five-year jackets this February. So that's pretty exciting. And I think that, again, goes to show that they're not supervisor managerial roles. They've gone up to use all the variety of skills and they're leading. And so that's a really cool thing to see the commitment and to see what's going on there. Well, they've bought into the core values, too, or they wouldn't still be there. And it's easy to be committed when your values align.

20:58So, yeah, that's awesome. So back to the advice you'd give business owners looking to grow. Looking to grow, I would say, again, goes back to those relationships. looking short-term and long-term at the different things that you can do. Because obviously business ownership can get you tied up in the weeds of the detail, but you need to make sure you've got that strategic view as well. And the realization that energy is your most precious resource. So you can waste it in those weeds or you can try to protect it and deal with what you need to deal with and then focus on some of the things that maybe are going to be more fruitful.

21:38Love it. Love that. So what's the next big thing for college hunks in Asheville? Well, we've got that big event. We're taking them in a few, what, just a couple months down to the reunion. But, yeah, so things are going well. We've done a little expansion into some of the territories, expanded our fleet. So we're happy to be rocking and rolling. Congratulations. Congratulations on all that. So what's the best way for someone to get in touch with if they need some hauling, some junk removal, or some moving? They can call our local office in Arden at 828-483-6054. If you Google us, you'll go to our call center, and we'll still be able to catch you that way.

22:29That will be just fine as well. They can always email me. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. So, hey, look. Thanks. really appreciate you being on man i think this has been a great interview and uh there is a lot of great that you're doing in the community i really appreciate all you're doing congratulations on your success so far and i'm sure you're going to continue that that success on and into the future so thanks for all you're doing well thank you for letting us be a part of this appreciate that and until next time all the best

23:04hey thanks for listening to the epic entrepreneurs podcast here's three things that you can do number one remember to subscribe to the podcast it takes very little effort on your part it's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs plus you you guys know how it works the more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

23:52Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.