School of Hard Knocks Podcast

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Omar Soliman is the co-founder of College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving, a national franchise business generating roughly $300 million in systemwide annual revenue.

After starting the company with a borrowed cargo van, Omar and his co-founder bootstrapped the business, became the first entrepreneurs to reject a deal on Shark Tank, and later raised minority private-equity capital at an approximately $140 million valuation.

In this episode, Omar explains how they scaled from two founders in a truck into a national operating system, why franchising became their growth engine, and what entrepreneurs must change as they move from startup to scale.

We also discuss hiring, leadership, focus, education, resourcefulness, surviving recessions, and why building real wealth is often a “get rich slow” process.

Follow Omar:
Website: OmarSoliman.com
Instagram: @omarsolimanceo
LinkedIn: Omar Soliman

College HUNKS:
Official Website
Instagram @collegehunks

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Learn from the millionaires and billionaires we interview on calls every week. Sign up for our community here: https://www.skool.com/schoolofmentors/about

Jason Mickool is the Founder and CEO of Florida Financial Advisors, a financial services business he started from his kitchen table after years in corporate leadership and repeated firings.

In this episode, Jason shares his philosophy on ownership, uncapped income, recruiting, real estate, entrepreneurship, building scalable businesses, and creating generational wealth. He also explains why his wife pushed him to bet on himself, how he thinks about risk and cash flow, and why he believes the people you surround yourself with can determine the trajectory of your life.

Follow Jason:
Website: JasonMickool.com
Instagram: @jmickool
LinkedIn: Jason Mickool

Florida Financial Advisors: Florida Financial Advisors
Take The Power Back: Take The Power Back
Greatness Lab: Greatness Lab

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Bob Duggan is a billionaire entrepreneur and investor best known for helping transform Pharmacyclics from a struggling biotech company into a cancer-treatment powerhouse that sold for $21 billion.

In this episode, Bob shares his journey from a modest childhood and early investing career to building businesses across food, robotics, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. He opens up about losing his son to glioblastoma, how that experience shaped his commitment to medicine, and the principles behind his approach to risk, leadership, investing, responsibility, and wealth creation.

Find Bob Duggan here:

Website: https://robertduggan.com/

Genius Inc.: https://www.geniusinc.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertwduggan

Pulse Biosciences: https://www.pulsebiosciences.com/

Summit Therapeutics: https://www.smmttx.com/overview/

Duggan Investments: https://www.dugganinvestmentsresearch.com/

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Kim Perell is a nine-time entrepreneur, angel investor in more than 100 companies, and the founder behind a business that grew from a $10,000 loan from her grandmother to a $235 million exit.

In this episode, Kim shares how she built through uncertainty, what she looks for when investing in early-stage founders, and the lessons she learned scaling companies from their first million toward nine-figure and billion-dollar outcomes.

She also breaks down mentorship, founder resilience, building valuable relationships, increasing a company’s attractiveness to buyers, and why focus matters more than diversification in the early years.

Kim closes with her philosophy on family, money, creativity, long-term thinking, and why no one becomes successful alone.

Find Kim Perell here:

Website: https://kimperell.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimperell/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimperell/

Check out Kim’s books: https://kimperell.com/books/

Learn more about Juni: https://drinkjuni.com/

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Eddie Maalouf is the founder and CEO of BAD Marketing, an agency generating roughly $18 million annually, and an entrepreneur behind multiple businesses including Scoville Hot Chicken.

Before building his agency, Eddie became the top sales rep by volume at Lifetime Fitness and later helped generate an additional $1 million in profit for his family’s businesses.

In this episode, Eddie explains the sales systems, marketing strategies, hiring decisions, and organic content playbook that helped him scale from struggling to acquire clients to working with major brands including Yeezy. He also breaks down how he negotiated a restaurant business from a $1 million asking price to a $130,000 deal.

Follow Eddie Maalouf:
Instagram: instagram.com/eddiemaalouf

BAD Marketing: badmarketing.com

Scoville Hot Chicken: scovillechicken.com

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Jhalesa Seymour is the founder of Salt.XO, an eight-figure feminine hygiene brand generating more than $20 million annually, with one launch producing $1 million in just 30 minutes.

She started the company in college with only $67 and became the first millionaire in her family by age 25.

In this episode, Jhalesa shares how she created demand, built trust through organic marketing, survived a devastating 20,000-order fulfillment crisis, scaled with paid advertising, and learned to manage people and money through explosive growth.

She also discusses faith, motherhood, competition, building the right circle, and her ambition to turn Salt.XO into a global billion-dollar company.

Find Jhalesa Seymour here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jhalesa.xo/
Salt.XO: https://www.instagram.com/salt.xo/
Website: https://www.saltxo.com/

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Mike Wystrach is the founder of Freshly, the prepared-meal company acquired by Nestlé in 2020 in a deal valued at $1.5 billion. Before Freshly, Mike experienced business failure, lost his home, faced a $1 million judgment, and at 35 had just $15 in his bank account.

In this episode, he explains how he rebuilt his mindset, scaled Freshly to more than 1 million meals per week, navigated fundraising and hypergrowth, and ultimately decided to sell the business. Mike also shares lessons on entrepreneurship, customer obsession, building great teams, wealth, failure, and what he is building today through Petfolk and Cutting Horse.

Find Mike Wystrach here:
Website: https://mikewystrach.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikewystrach/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwystrach/

Check out Mike’s businesses:
Petfolk: https://petfolk.com/
Cutting Horse: https://www.cuttinghorse.com/
Listen to The Advantage: https://mikewystrach.com/podcast/ https://mikewystrach.com/newsletter/

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Jamie Salter is the founder and chairman of Authentic Brands Group, the global brand platform behind Reebok, Champion, Forever 21, Quiksilver and partnerships with names like Shaquille O’Neal, David Beckham and Kevin Hart.

In this episode, Jamie breaks down how he went from a childhood paper route and the snowboard business to building one of the largest brand licensing companies in the world.

He shares how Authentic evaluates acquisitions, what gives a struggling brand a “heartbeat,” why global expansion matters, and how licensing can unlock growth without owning every part of the supply chain.

Jamie also talks about working alongside his four sons, partnering with major personal brands, the rise of creator-driven commerce, financial discipline, and why organization has been one of the biggest advantages of his career.

Follow Jamie Salter:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiejsalter/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-salter-04a08933/

Learn more about Authentic Brands Group:
Website: https://corporate.authentic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authentic/

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George Heaton is the co-founder of Represent, the British fashion brand that has grown from a bedroom operation into a global business generating roughly $140 million in annual revenue. In this episode, George shares how he and his brother built the company from the ground up, navigated a multimillion-dollar trademark dispute, and scaled from approximately $8M to more than $100M in revenue. He also breaks down product strategy, international expansion, hiring, retail, pricing discipline and the importance of delayed gratification. A practical conversation about building a brand designed to outlive its founders.

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David Royce is an entrepreneur and sales leader who built and sold five pest control companies for more than $1 billion in combined value. Starting as a broke college student in door-to-door sales, he went on to create high-performance sales organizations, scalable operating systems, and recurring-revenue businesses across multiple markets.

In this episode, David explains his RACK sales system, how he survived early cash-flow crises, why training and culture became his competitive advantage, and why “boring” businesses continue to create extraordinary wealth.

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