Brian Scudamore built 1-800-GOT-JUNK? into a $300 million company using a "painted picture"—a detailed vision he drafted to escape a business crisis. He credits systems over people for scalability, pushes employees to write 101 life goals, and lives by Walt Disney's motto: "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have serial entrepreneur and author Brian Scudamore with us. He has always taken the road less traveled, and 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 3 more home service brands: WOW ONE DAY PAINTING, You Move Me, and Shack Shine. So welcome to the show, man.
Yeah, thanks for having me, Tyler. Pumped to be here.
Of course, man. Grateful to have you here. And we'll jump right into the first one. The first question I have for you, Brian, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think the best story, probably the most pivotal, pivotal turning point in my life I was in a bit of a doom loop, a bit of a depression, a downward spiral, whatever you want to call it. I had a million-dollar business. On the outside, it seemed like things were going well. But what I had done is I started to feel like I'm in junk removal. I didn't finish high school. I didn't graduate from college. A million-dollar junk removal business, not so sexy or glamorous. Is this really what I want to build? Is this really the future? I was about 26 years old. I retreated and went to my parents' summer cottage. They had this little dock out in front of the cottage. And I pulled out a sheet of paper and I said, okay, Brian, enough doom loop, enough negative thinking. What if I could imagine pure possibility with this business and my future? What could it look, feel, and act like? And I came up with what I called the painted picture. It was this one-page, double-sided. I said we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show, we'd be the FedEx of junk removal, we'd be the largest junk removal company on the planet. I started to put things in there, even though we were only in one market doing a million in revenue, I started to envision or crystal ball the future of what things could look like. And so the, the story for me is imagine the future, create a painted picture, and really try and get your handle on what could possibility look like if nothing was in your way.
And I'm excited for your answer on this next one too. What is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, I think my first point of vision, one of my talents, I think we're all given gifts, and by no means am I perfect at anything, but one of the things I think I'm pretty good at is dreaming up big ideas. I love Walt Disney's quote, uh, it's kind of fun to do the impossible. We've got that quote in our boardroom, and it reminds us each and every day that you've got to dream big, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. We push our employees when they join 1-800-GOT-JUNK or Brands, any one of our companies, to come up with 101 life goals. So to list big things that you never dreamed of in your wildest dreams, you think you could make happen personally or you want to see happen. And then as a team, as a company, we rally around those people to help support them to make those dreams come true. So I think the gift I have is challenging people to think bigger. If you're not thinking big enough, something, something's wrong. You know, you just got to be stretching yourself. If you know you can accomplish your goals, you're definitely not thinking big enough.
And could tie in, but what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Yeah, I think best business advice would be, you know, have clear, measurable, well-defined goals. I call them SMART goals: Shared, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based. Make sure that you really have a clear— you don't need to know how you're getting to your vision or your painted picture. Like the story on the dock of my parents' cabin, I wrote up that we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. I didn't know how to make it happen, but we did eventually make it happen. So it's coming up with goals. It's really listing them out in a measurable way. Sharing them with others and making your dreams come true.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think my younger self, the advice I'd give— I've got a book that we're publishing that would be coming out shortly called WTF. And what WTF actually stands for is willing to fail. So I think my younger self, I'd say, hey, Brian, Be willing to fail. You know, I just tried water skiing for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I failed miserably over and over and over again until I got the hang of it. Don't be afraid to fall. Don't be afraid to fail. Make some mistakes. And anyone who's starting their own business, who becomes an entrepreneur, or anything you're doing in your career, be willing to make some mistakes. Whoever you're working with, tell them, hey, listen, I'm not perfect. I'm going to make some mistakes. I'm going to mess up here. But I learned from my mistakes. They make me better. They make me grow. So WTF, be willing to fail.
Yeah, man, I like that right there.
That's cool.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Key to happiness is making a life, not a living. I think it's really getting out there and going, okay, people want to make money. They want fancy things, whatever things they want. I've learned through building a business that's, you know, $300 million in revenue and growing that money doesn't buy happiness. It never has, never will. I drive a pickup truck. I don't have fancy things. But what I'm doing is I'm building a business at Brands that is giving opportunity for others to grasp. I believe in building a life versus building a living. Of course, you've got to have a living and make money to survive and grow. But I believe if you put your passion forward first of what that life is that you want to build, and you recruit others who are cheerleaders in your life's dreams, that's the secret to happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read? And what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I think the best book ever was The E-Myth by Michael Gerber, which stands for The Entrepreneurial Myth. And that book talks about people don't fail, systems do. Businesses scale and grow because of the systems that have been put in place. Michael Gerber has since become a friend and a fan of ours, as well as me being a fan of his. He's been into our business and toured the company, and he feels that we've done a great job E-mything our company. So, The E-Myth Revisited is the name of the book. I read it. I'm not a guy that reads a lot of books. But I read this one cover to cover twice in one sitting because I was so blown away by the impact I knew it would have on my business.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Favorite quote, I've said it already, is "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." Walt Disney. You gotta dream big, and it is, I've gotta say, kind of fun to do the impossible. I've been told over and over by many people who are experts in franchising that this business can't be franchised, that there's no way we could grow into multiple countries, all sorts of barriers that people said no, no, no. They thought it was impossible, but I knew it wasn't and gave it my best try. And we've made these things happen.
I agree, man. Dude, thank you so much for coming on. It was an awesome interview. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find and connect with you online?
Well, it's, you know, I think the best place is o2ebrands.com. There'll be information there about book. It's letter O, number 2, letter E. We are making ordinary businesses like junk removal, painting, window washing exceptional through customer experience.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.
Awesome. Have a great day, Tyler. Thank you. The podcast you just heard was published with Anchor. Got something you want to say to the creator of this show? Send them a voice message using the Anchor app. Free for iOS and Android.
