How Failure Can Be Your Key to Success Feat. Brian Scudamore

September 17, 1997. I go to my parents little cottage on the water. I pull out a sheet of paper and I sit down. You know it was a dock similar to this stage. I sat down on the edge and I said, Brian, you're an optimistic person. Stop thinking of this doom loop. Think of pure possibility. What could the future look like, feel like and act like? If only I could imagine it. So I took out the sheet of paper and I feverishly wrote. It was a Jerry Maguire type moment. We will be in the top 30 metros in North America by the end of 2003. I said we'd be the FedEx to junk removal. Clean shiny trucks, friendly uniform drivers. We'd even be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. I took the sheet of paper and I was out of my doom loop. I had chills and shivers of just going wow. I can actually see the picture that was in my brain now.

Down in writing, serial entrepreneur and author Brian Scudamore has always taken the road less traveled. At just 19 years old, he pioneered the industry of professional junk removal with 1-800-got-Junk turning a chore people avoid into an exceptional customer service experience. Then he scaled that success into three more home service brands which are wow one day, painting u move me and shack shine under the o2e brands banner. Through franchising, he's given thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to live their dreams of business ownership. Brian learned the ins and outs of business by running his own and believes that anyone with a fire in their gut and a vision for doing something incredible with their future can do the same. His philosophy, wtf? Willing to Fail stems from his belief in the power of dreaming big, taking risks and learning from mistakes. And I did a podcast episode with Brian, me and Dean Jackson for I love marketing and I read his book wtf, which I all highly recommend you read. And I was totally blown away with the book and this guy's knowledge and he was already coming to the annual event. I'm like, you gotta give a 10 minute talk on what it is that you do because you're a badass. And plus, he has a small company, it's doing something like 450 million a year, maybe more in sales right now. So give it up for the incredibly talented, awesome businessman Brian Scudamore.

The first time I've ever been in the presence of 357 geniuses. I am learning tons. I am taking so many amazing notes and huge, huge value in being here. So thanks for having me here for my first time. The topic so Joe said, what would you talk about? What are you most passionate about? And I said, vision. Vision is the biggest idea or tool in my brain. 22 years ago, I learned a technique that absolutely changed my entire life, my entire business, and every single decision and moment going forward. So if I take you back to 1997, the day I discovered this, now I'm not claiming that this is my own leaders, entrepreneurs, everyone has used this tactic or tool of visioning the future. But all I'm hoping is I'm sharing it with very, very smart geniuses. Maybe something about my story gives you a slightly different perspective or something that might resonate with you that you can use. First of all, a shout out to Cameron Herold, who was along for this whole ride of building the painted picture. He calls it the vivid vision. We both mean the same thing. We're incredibly passionate about this. But a big round of applause and thank you to Cameron for all the growth of 1-800-got junk. So let me take you back to 1997. I had just joined EO, the entrepreneur organization. I failed at a high school. I talked my way into college, only to then drop out of college. 14 schools. The only diploma I ended up with was kindergarten. True story. And what did I learn? I learned that I love to learn, but not in school. So I approached the Entrepreneur organization. You needed a million in revenue to get in. Bingo, I'm there. After eight years of slow growth, I'm now joining this organization of great smart people that, that have shared passions of growth. But what I started to do, I made my first mistake entering into that group is I started comparing myself to others. I started to look around and say, ah, businesses way bigger than 1, 800 got junk more glamorous than garbage removal. And I just thought, who am I? No high school education, not a lot of money, maybe not a lot of brains. I was stuck. And I really started to go in a bit of a doom loop downward spiral. And I questioned what I wanted to do and how I could even get there. So September 17, 1997, I go to my parents little cottage on the water. I pull out a sheet of paper and I sit down. It was a dock similar to this stage. I sat down on the edge and I said, Brian, you're an optimistic person. Stop thinking of this doom loop. Think of pure possibility. What could the future look like, feel like and act like if only I could imagine it. So I took out the sheet of paper and I feverishly wrote. It was a Jerry Maguire type moment. We will be in the top 30 metros in North America by the end of 2003. I said we'd be the FedEx to junk removal, clean shiny trucks, friendly uniformed drivers. We'd even be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. I took the sheet of paper and I was out of my doom loop. I had chills and shivers of just going, wow. I can actually see the picture that was in my brain now. Down in writing, I started to share it with others. Two interesting things happened. Number one, it separated people into two camps. I had employees who said, brian, I don't know what kind of hope dope you're smoking, but good luck with that. And they left. I had another half that said, this is really compelling. I love your story, I love what you see, and I want to be a part of it. And those people stayed and became a part of it. It became the most powerful recruiting tool I could ever create. How did we do top 30 metros? We were 90 days out from making it happen when one employee comes up to me and said, Brian, we're at 28 of 30 metros. We're missing Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. Cameron and I went screaming through the office. Posters up everywhere. Who do you know in Pittsburgh? Who do you know in Milwaukee? We made the top 30 happen. We made Oprah happen. We made 96% of what was in that painted picture happen.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

Now. Why science would say that it's your reticular activating system. We all know when we're in an airport, we're stressed, we're about to miss a plane, we hear our name over the loudspeaker. You pay attention, your mind pays attention. As Dan Sullivan says, your eyes and your ears, flowers. Focus on what your brain needs to know. A painted picture tells people what is important, not just the entrepreneur, but what do you want every person in your company to be aligned around when they're faced with tough decisions? What are they zoning in on? What's their North Star? So we made these things happen. The company started to grow. Cameron and I set a hundred million dollar painted picture and we looked another five years out together. And what was interesting about that time was we had to make decisions moving quickly we needed to know that everybody was aligned. Now with Cameron, I remember he would say, brian's the vision guy. He came up with 100 million. I'm the executor. I'm just going to reverse engineer and make all the magic happen. Sort of true. But I think Cameron did not give himself credit at the time. He knew a lot more about vision and how to make it happen than he let on. So I said, cameron, you say you can't think about vision. You can. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, money's not an object, where would you go? I don't remember his response, but he set it out quickly. He told me what the beach looked like, who was with him, the cold corona in his hand. He described everything about that dream vacation. And I said, see, you just need someone to ask you questions, and vision can happen. One of the most grateful gifts I that I think Cameron ever gave to me and to my companies is the ability to ask probing questions. In creating a painted picture, you just need someone to pull it out from within you. It's already in your heart. It's in your mind. What do you want? So let me take you from business to a personal story. Get vulnerable here for a second. I don't normally share this with big crowds, but I was with the Same woman for 19 years, high school sweetheart. I questioned myself in and out of that relationship a few times. Ten years later, we get married, we have a baby together. I was a total jerk, and I leave the marriage right after having a baby. It was the right decision at the time for me. I was a total jerk. But my life started to fall apart in many ways and it started to affect my business until Dan, one of my entrepreneur buddies, said to me, you know, you got a great painted picture for your business. I bet you don't have one for your personal life. What are you going to do about it? So I retreated and started writing one out from my personal life. And I know that you share painted pictures with your loved ones and those around you. So I remember after I wrote it, I shared it with Cameron. Here's my vision. And one line stood out to him. It was about my ex wife saying that we will always be best friends and cheerleaders in each other's courts. Cameron said, lisa hates you. She will always hate you. There's no way this will ever happen. And I said, well, it's in my vision. I believe I see it. I'm going to work my butt off to make it happen. And sure enough, I did Proof of that is when I went dating and looking for my next marriage, my last marriage. I got out there and I was tired of dating. So I started to write down everything I was looking. Personality, interests, height, eye color, everything. And I get a phone call from my ex wife, Lisa. We're now great friends and cheerleaders in each other's courts. And she says, so Brian, I know you've been looking for someone. I found her. I said, my ex wife is not going to set me up on a blind date. I'm sorry. She pushed me for a year. We went on the blind date. I actually looked at my list the night after my blind date and went, holy crap, that is magic. So painted picture. I ended up getting introduced from my ex wife to my new wife. Couldn't be happier, found my soulmate. Life's all great and works like magic. Let me give you one last example to conclude on. On a business side, we were 2012. Cameron was out of the company at this point in time. We had a great growth trajectory together. But then the financial meltdown happened. 0809 I had a failed COO I brought in that didn't work out and things were rough. My franchise partners lost faith in me. And it was 2012. We did a conference in Vegas, brought everyone together, about 600 people. And Cameron and I had this concept, lean into the future. It's leaning into five years ahead to see what things look like, feel like, act like in creating a painted picture. So as a leader, I had to go out and create the next painted picture when people didn't believe about growth. So I said, we will double our business in five years time. And I'll read you something I wrote that I read out as I walked. Just checking in on Facebook. Where is it? Okay, so I walk out on stage to get people to lean into the future with me. I carried a surfboard full size. I was dressed in total surfer gear. We had Hawaiian music playing. We greeted everyone at the door in leis. People had mai tais. Hawaiian shirts was mandatory to get in. And I read this. I got everybody to close their eyes. But you don't have to do this. I said, you are sitting by the beach 12ft from the shore. One watching the sun set on the horizon. You feel the warm inviting Hawaiian breeze. You hear the sounds of celebration all around you. Music, shared laughter, the clinking of glasses. Surrounded by some are your closest friends and family. You pause to reflect on the pride you're feeling. In every entrepreneur's journey, there is a dream. A dream of what is possible, a vision of what success looks like. You have achieved yours, you have doubled your business, and the journey isn't over. I then read our 2016 painted picture calling for another double. And what happened? People told me after my ties at the end of that night, they didn't really see it. They said, it's great that you got a Hawaiian theme, Brian, and you spent some money there, but I don't see it. I said, you will. And we read it together as a company every quarter until we made it happen. How did we finish? 224 million in revenue at the end of that year. We were in Hawaii and when I was on stage, I turned around and I said, holy crap, we are 12ft from the shore. I can hear clinking of glasses. I had nothing to do with organizing the event, but everything I had read out and envisioned had come true. So I think when Joe asked us all, do we think we've got the power to change the world? We can all change the world with one small idea planted in your mind. Put in papers, a painted picture, spreads and magic happens. If I can help any of you, please come say hello. Thank you for having me. Thanks very much.

Okay. I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead, you're over here. Do it now.

Come on.

Thank you. Watch them.