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Meet Zach Freeman of Veterans Moving America in Fort Worth

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Zach Freeman.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I usually start by telling people that I have four passions in life: Faith, Creativity, Helping Others, and Challenging Myself. As for “my story”, I guess I’ll start from the beginning below!

I was born and raised in a suburb of San Diego called Encinitas. It’s a small beach town with a lot of culture and wonderful people. Both of my parents still live there as does my younger sister, Hannah, who is attending grad school at USD. I also have an older brother named Jay who lives in San Francisco with his wife, Kristin. I feel incredibly blessed to have grown up where I did and with the family that I have. My parents instilled the values of love, faith, patience, and integrity in all of their children, and for that, I am very grateful.

Growing up, I played several sports including soccer, football, baseball, and wrestling. I excelled the most at wrestling and did it through my sophomore year of high school. Wrestling is a grueling sport that requires A LOT of hard work and discipline. Looking back, I think wrestling played a large roll in making me the hard worker that I am today.

I transferred to a large public high school for wrestling in 2005. I knew no one, but I made friends quickly. I was never part of the “popular” crowd in high school, but I didn’t mind or care. I made my friends mostly through shared interests, music being one of the most significant. I had played in various bands since 5th grade (mostly terrible punk rock bands) and ended up making three of my best friends through playing music with them. I also had friends in theater, sports, and all kinds of other “groups.” I also managed to make friends with some of my teachers, some of whom I still speak with today.

When it came time to consider colleges, I knew one thing: I wanted to stay in California. But when the opportunity came to go see OU play Texas with my old wrestling coach, my mom would only allow me to miss school to go if we also visited some colleges while we were in Texas. It seemed like a small sacrifice to make in order to go have a long weekend with my coach and friend, so I agreed. I expected to tour TCU and SMU and never consider them again. I was wrong. TCU took me by surprise, and, by the end of the tour, the thought of scrapping my CA plans and starting new at TCU (where I knew no one) actually sounded like fun. A year or so later, I declared my intent to go to TCU in the fall of 2009.

When I first got to TCU, my plan was to get a business degree in Entrepreneurial Management and then become a firefighter paramedic. There was also a two week period that I thought I wanted to go premed (it turns out I had just been watching Scrubs too much). Then, there was about a year where I wanted to become an audio engineer.

Sometime during my sophomore year, I took a supply chain class, loved it, and ended up adding supply chain management as a second major. I loved almost all of my classes, made great friends, and got pretty involved in the business school, my fraternity (Sigma Phi Epsilon), and my part-time job at the police department.

My junior year, I got an email about an internship with a microfinance organization (Esperanza International) in the Dominican Republic. It sounded different than the normal opportunity, challenging, and like an adventure. I had taken four years of Spanish in high school but hadn’t really used my Spanish since then, so I began frantically trying to relearn everything I had forgotten. Somehow, I managed to pass the interview and ended up spending my entire summer in Santiago, DR. It turned out to be an incredible experience that challenged me in ways I didn’t know were possible. (Blog: https://thedominicanadventure.wordpress.com/)

Going into my senior year, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do but ended up deciding to start my own company. I’ll tell the rest of this story later in this process I’m sure. 😉

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’ve had plenty of challenges in my life, but overall things have been pretty smooth. I was blessed with a great family and upbringing so it’s hard for me to complain. Overall, I look back at my childhood and upbringing with a positive view of things.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Veterans Moving America – what should we know?
Veterans Moving America (VMA) is a values-based moving company that only hires veterans. We provide moving and moving-related services to anyone in the general DFW area or anyone within Texas that is moving to/from DFW. We are known for providing quality service (just google us and read our reviews) and for being authentic in our mission to serve veterans.

I am most proud of the work that our teams provide to our clients and the culture we have been able to create within the organization. Staying true to our values by only hiring veterans has been a challenge at times, but I am proud that we are not willing to compromise like many other companies. There are a lot of other companies that have a firefighter/police/veteran name, but none of them (to my knowledge) have stayed committed to only hiring that group of people. VMA’s culture is unique, the service we provide is superior, and the experience that our guys and customers get is one of a kind.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I could probably write a short book on everyone who has helped me and VMA. VMA’s success so far has 100% been a team effort from the beginning. (I often tell people that if everything had been up to me that the company would’ve gone out of business a long time ago) I’ve had a few mentors along the way. VMA’s board of directors is really more of a board of advisors. They have helped shepherd me along the way and have kept me from making several mistakes. I’ve had support from almost all of my professors from TCU as well as another faculty. They are always available to me if I have questions and several of them have hired VMA to move them. In fact, our first move ever was for a faculty member who knew what I was doing. (Brad Hancock)

My family and wife, Linley, have always cheered me on and supported me. Linley has had to make many of the same sacrifices that I have as the company has grown. Whether it’s late nights, unexpected meetings/phone calls, canceling of plans, or any other burden that running a company can bring, she has supported me every step of the way. It takes a very special person to date an entrepreneur and I find myself incredibly blessed and lucky to have her as my wife.

I wasn’t able to cash my paychecks for the first year or two of VMA’s existence, so I had to find my income from other sources. One of the primary sources was through photography. I had a handful of clients, but the largest one was TCU’s Frogs For The Cure program which was run by Ann Louden. Ann not only allowed for me to have another source of income through hiring me, but she was also one on VMA’s loudest cheerleaders. She would mention VMA during speeches, hand out brochures to anyone she knew, and connect me with strategic people who might be able to help VMA. She is one of the most giving people I know and she helped me and VMA more than I could probably ever fully describe.

Internally, I have been given a lot of grace from my employees over the years. As a young leader and entrepreneur, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to lead and run/grow a business. I have made many mistakes, but I have always been given grace by my team. One team member, in particular, has seen more than anyone. Austen Gulley joined the VMA Family in November of 2014, only eight months into the company’s existence. He has seen me make more mistakes than anyone, has endured the consequences, and has still stuck around to see the company succeed. He has sacrificed more than most and I am incredibly grateful to have him on our team. VMA wouldn’t be the same without him.

There are many more, but I will leave it at that. I am incredibly grateful to every single individual who has helped me and VMA.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Alex Lepe (Fort Worth Magazine)

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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