Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPClassic: Brian Scudamore, Turning Trash Into a $600M Empire

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's episode of Yap is sponsored in part by Shopify, Porkbun, Indeed, and Airbnb. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Profiting. Build your digital brand and manage all your links in one spot with Porkbun. Get your.biodomain and link in BioBundle for just $5 from porkbun.com slash profiting. Attract interview and hire all in one place with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash profiting. Generate extra income by hosting your home on Airbnb.

Starting point is 00:00:36 Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host. As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes. Hey, YAP fam. On this episode of YAP Classic, we are bringing back one of my favorite interviews with Brian Scudamore. Brian is actually a friend of mine. He was a former client at Yap Media for many years.

Starting point is 00:01:12 We ran his personal social channels, his company's social channels, and I worked really closely with his team because it was when I first started Yap and I was very hands-on with all my clients. So I worked with him daily almost. And what I remember about Brian is that he was just such a great, humble leader. And he fostered such a great company culture at 1-800-GOT-JUNK, that's his company. I just love the way that he treated his team

Starting point is 00:01:41 and he was so intentional about everything. He was so intentional about what he was gonna talk about on social media, how he would be communicating with people in the comments, how he communicates with his own team members and he was just really conscious about branding and what he wanted to represent. He never wanted anyone to take him seriously,

Starting point is 00:02:00 so much so that his thumbnail profile picture was him speaking into a banana. But we should take Brian serious because he's a serious entrepreneur. He is the brain behind the junk-hauling empire, 1-800-GOT-JUNK. In college, he started this idea of hauling junk and it turned into this incredible franchise empire in North America and Australia. And you see his 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks everywhere. Brian took his recipe for success and applied it to two other businesses,

Starting point is 00:02:36 Wow One Day Painting and Shack Shine, which are also two super well-run franchise companies. Brian has been featured everywhere from Oprah to Ellen DeGeneres. He's also the author of WTF, Willing to Fail, and BYOB, Build Your Own Business. Now I talked to him about his latest book, BYOB,

Starting point is 00:02:55 in episode number 168. You guys can check that one out after this interview. And in today's Yap Classic, we're gonna talk about scaling companies, getting started without taking out loans, and organizing your business like a franchise from day one. We also chat about the power of honing in your vision and setting audacious goals for future success.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Brian is a living, breathing reservoir of entrepreneurship advice. He knows everything about starting a business from scratch. He's been doing it since college. If you're looking to scale your business or curious about franchising, you've got to keep on listening. Enjoy my interview with Brian Scudamore. You have a really interesting come up story and I think it's absolutely amazing. I'd like to start with that first.

Starting point is 00:03:45 You didn't finish high school, you didn't finish college. What were you like as a child? What was your childhood like and how are you as a student? I was not a great student. Now I am a student of life. I've always loved to learn. If you interviewed my parents they would say Brian was the most curious kid always asking questions. In fact, I kind of drove them nuts. I'm getting paid back by, I've got three kids and my youngest, he asked me questions nonstop. So I get it. But that's how we learn. That's how I learn. I was never good with books. I was never good in school. Kindergarten, I wouldn't say I got a degree, but a diploma. And that's the only one I have. I've gone to 14 schools from kindergarten through to college or university. And what I was like as a

Starting point is 00:04:30 student was very ADD. I was the class clown. I dropped out of school because I just found it challenging and not fun. But again, I want to emphasize I've always loved to learn. So my way of learning is conversations like this. I will learn tons out of this podcast because you'll ask me great questions that get me reflecting on my success, my failures, the journey. I love learning. I'm constantly asking people how they do what they do, what their passions are. And if I look at what motivates me and drives me is I love being the coach.

Starting point is 00:05:04 I love being the coach. I love being the person that inspires possibilities in others, especially if those people like me were not great in the school system. I love that. You know, I think so many of my listeners are contemplating like dropping out of school and don't know if, you know, traditional schooling is the right thing for them. And it's great to have an example like you and so many other entrepreneurs that can do it without necessarily schooling.

Starting point is 00:05:28 And it's more of like the experience and like you said, the one-on-one conversations, the mentoring, which kind of helped you get to where you are today. So I heard that you convinced a college to let you into school and that you didn't finish high school and you essentially convinced a college to admit you without having that high school degree. It's funny because I really relate to that. I did terrible in my undergrad and I remember I was begging the MBA director

Starting point is 00:05:55 of my alma mater to let me into the MBA program. I ended up getting like a 4.0 and doing great. But like I also did the same thing where I was just like, you know, just took it into my own hands. Can you talk about making your own luck? And if you have any other examples of how you've made your own lock and didn't take no for an answer Yeah

Starting point is 00:06:13 So I believe that people need to work at an opportunity that they see for themselves If you've got the spark and you say okay Here's my opportunity which at the time was getting into school, was getting into college. And why I saw that opportunity or wanted that was all my friends were going. I was the only one who didn't graduate from 12th grade. And I said, you know, I'm one course short from graduating. I got to figure this out. And you don't often get second chances.

Starting point is 00:06:40 So I wasn't going to go back and complete another year just to get that one course. And I didn't want to miss out with my friends. So I went to the admissions office of the college and had three different conversations with them, pretty much begging them to let me in. I said, listen, I'm smart enough. I get it. I miss this one class, but I can do this. And I wrote them a letter in the end that they liked and appreciated. And they said, this guy's got tenacity, let's give him a shot. Now, little did they know that years later,

Starting point is 00:07:09 I would not actually finish that degree as well and drop out, but I guess they liked me and they liked my perseverance and off I went. Ironically, while I talked my way into university, I had to find a way to pay for it. My father is a liver transplant surgeon. He certainly came from very humble beginnings, but at that stage when I was going to college, I'm sure he could have paid for it, but chose not to. He said, Brian's got to learn a lesson

Starting point is 00:07:34 here. He has not finished high school. It's not going to be a good return on investment. If he really wants to go, he can pay for it. And so I was in a McDonald's drive-through of all places, saw this beat up old pickup truck with plywood side panels built up on the box. And I looked at the truck and said, that's my ticket to pay for college. I talked myself in, I now found the money by creating or would have the money by creating this business, which at the time was called the Rubbish Boys.

Starting point is 00:07:57 It was just me, I had a vision for something bigger and off I went hauling junk and within a couple of weeks, the business paid for itself. And by the end of the summer I had enough money for for college. I love that. I know about that story and I know you only paid $700 for your first truck which is such a little investment and so you probably ended up paying that back like very shortly after. What's your perspective on getting loans and taking on debt when running a business? Did you purposefully not take on any debt

Starting point is 00:08:28 and kind of build it really organically just based on your cash flow? Or was that just like an accident? No, it's all the money I had was $1,000 in the bank and so enough to buy a pickup truck. I had $1,300 in repairs within a couple of weeks. So while I did recoup the investment, I also then had more money flowing out of the bank account to fix my truck.

Starting point is 00:08:50 But I'm a believer that if you're going to get out and start a business, start within your means. If you've got 100 grand in the bank and you think you can make a business work, and you don't mind putting your life's savings on the line, great. You're 401k, whatever you need to do, but don't overextend yourself. I don't love the concept of people getting out there and raising money, A, because it's not their money, and B, because you need to understand the value of really being connected to every penny that you're spending

Starting point is 00:09:20 and spend it frugally so that you can build out the business in a sustainable way. My company Ordinary to Exceptional, O2E Brands, we took first the junk removal business, a very ordinary space and made it a very exceptional professionally run business through service and through finding the right people. We're doing that in window washing with Shack Shine. We're doing it in the painting space with Wow One Day Painting. When franchise partners come to us and say, hey, Brian, I want the proven recipe. I don't want to reinvent how to grow a business. I want to learn from you, your team, your franchise partners, but I don't have a lot

Starting point is 00:09:56 of money. We like that. We know people need enough money to invest in a franchise fee and to grow their business, but we want people that come that go, listen, I've got about $25,000 in cash. We can figure out how to help them get the rest, but they're young, they're hungry, they're ready to grow something. That's more important than having a whole stack of cash. Yeah, I totally agree. It's so important to know how to be resourceful to, like you said, appreciate every single penny, know where it's going,

Starting point is 00:10:25 be frugal. I definitely agree. I want to talk about how you have sort of like copied other businesses and how you decide if a business is ready to scale. So you were in that McDonald's. You saw a gritty pickup truck with like a sign on it for junk removal. Then you had the big idea, you know, I'm going to scale this. I'm going to get a bigger truck. I'm going to do it better. I'm going to do the big idea, you know, I'm gonna scale this, I'm gonna get a bigger truck, I'm gonna do it better,

Starting point is 00:10:46 I'm gonna do better guerrilla marketing, and I'm gonna scale this, and it worked, you know, you're in every metropolitan city in the US right now, you're obviously huge, and I think you did something similar with One Day Painting, where you saw somebody who did it right, and you're like, I can help you make the scale. So can you give us a story of how you copied again,

Starting point is 00:11:05 maybe copy is not the right word, but how you kind of took someone's business idea and helped them scale or saw the potential in a business that could scale. And what do you look for in a business that could potentially scale? Tell us a story about one day painting because I think it's really interesting.

Starting point is 00:11:20 Yeah, lots of great questions there. So what I did is I think I've got an ability to see opportunity and to look at things differently. So when I saw Mark hauling that truck in the McDonald's drive-thru, it was, hey, there's an idea to pay for college. And yes, I went out and copied the model and I bought a truck and started hauling junk exactly like Mark did. But when I got attuned to an opportunity, the bigger idea, as you said, was, how can I be the FedEx adjunct removal? Clean, shiny trucks, friendly uniformed drivers, on-time service, upfront rates,

Starting point is 00:11:51 taking the industry to a level that had never been seen. And that bar to me was exceptional. So again, my company, Ordinary to Exceptional, O2E Brands, I said, I'm going to make this exceptional and we're going to scale a business where we have people come in who are investors, who are owners and partners, franchise owners who will build the model out in their city. Paul Guy, who was the first franchise owner, built a million dollar business in his first full calendar year. Today he's got about $60 million worth of revenue across his franchise territories. So I then said, what is the opportunity in a new space?

Starting point is 00:12:27 If I was in, 1-800 got junk for 22 years at this point when I started to look for another opportunity and it was serendipitous, it sort of just hit me, but I needed to get my house painted. I didn't want the disruption of someone comes in your house and it takes two weeks and they practically move in and become part of the family and all that sort of stuff. And so I got some estimates. I had three different people that I found through Facebook friends who said here's companies I would recommend. The first two came in and smelled a cigarette smoke, showed up late, didn't give me confidence

Starting point is 00:13:00 that they were going to do the job well or quickly. But the third person impressed me. Jim comes into my front door. He's uniformed. He's got the shiny van outside. His company was called One Day Painting. And he said, listen, Brian, prices, same as everyone else. I've done this for 22 years. My quality's the same or better than everyone else. But what got me excited, the kicker was that he said, when we agree on painting day, I will give you back your home, freshly painted

Starting point is 00:13:28 and transformed at the end of the day. And I said, how is that even possible? How do you paint a home in a day? It's not possible. But I signed up and I said, great, let's do this. I liked Jim. And sure enough, end of the painting day, 6.30 PM, I come home, moldings trim the walls. One

Starting point is 00:13:45 wall needed three coats because of the dark color that was there. He had painted my entire house and I was so wowed that I said, I got to get in on this. I can help you grow. I acquired the company and we renamed it Wow One Day Painting because that's the feeling I felt and I could see other customers across North America feeling that same thing. And so what was different about what we would do things is this system, this model of people think you can't paint a home in a day, that you're compromising quality, you're rushing. Absolutely not. Everyone knows you can paint one room with one person in a day.

Starting point is 00:14:19 If it's a big room, maybe you need two people. If you've got 10 rooms, then you need 10 people. It's a numbers game. Nobody's bumping into each other. It's just a coordinated effort that gets this job done without disruption and people walk out saying, wow. And so when we look for franchise partners to then take our system and model and grow it, we're not looking for people to be painters. We're looking for people that see the opportunity like our early day franchise partners with 1-800-GOT-JUNK, who say, I want to build and grow a team.

Starting point is 00:14:47 I want to build an empire in my city, and I want to build some wealth and freedom for myself. Businesses that come in that say, we're going to transform a space, one we're all familiar with, Netflix. You didn't need to go to the video store anymore and go get that tape and bring it home and return it and have late fees.

Starting point is 00:15:04 They said, listen, we're going to it home and return it and have late fees. They said, listen, we're going to stream movies and look what they've become today. It's taking a model and saying, how do you reinvent an age-old space like painting? People will forever need painting. No matter what's going on, we're trying to find innovative new ways to get in there, virtual estimates. We're doing estimates where someone walks around with their iPhone on FaceTime or Zoom showing us their home and we're able to give them an estimate.

Starting point is 00:15:30 We're finding unique ways to deal with old problems and how to solve them, which is a big challenge and it's something I enjoy being a part of. I want to touch on a point that you briefly mentioned. So, 1-800-JUNK used to be called Rubbish Boys. Your painting company also had a different name you briefly mentioned. So 1-800-JUNK used to be called Rubbish Boys. Your painting company also had a different name in the beginning. So what do you think about when you're naming your brands? What are the important elements to consider?

Starting point is 00:15:53 Yeah, so I think it's naming the brands and what they look like. So let me start with Shack Shine as an example, and then I'm gonna tell you a 1-800-JUNK story if I can. So Shack Shine, similar type of situation as wow one day painting. How did I find the business? I was looking to get my gutters cleaned out. I found a company.

Starting point is 00:16:10 It was difficult to find someone, but a friend introduced me to someone that was building this business called Shack Shine. I loved the business, saw the opportunity to also scale and grow it. And I like the name, the tongue in cheek sort of Shack Shine. your home isn't really a shaft, especially some of the ones that we wash windows for. But I didn't like the look and feel of the design of the logo. And so I said to Dave, who started the business, I said, if we were to partner together or acquire your business, I'd want to redesign the look and feel of your entire brand. Are you open to that? He said, yeah, I think I'd be open to it.

Starting point is 00:16:46 And I don't know if he really was. We then went off and hired a designer before buying the company. Noel Fox comes in and completely redesigned and revamped the brand. I presented it to Dave and Dave's like, man, we are doing a deal. He bought into how we repositioned the look and feel of his brand So words and visuals are everything how we represent ourselves to the world is incredibly Important and it needs to be consistent. So again the importance of branding I'll tell you a quick one. I kind of got junk story

Starting point is 00:17:19 We went from the rubbish boys to I want to expand out of Vancouver where I started the business. I was born in the United States. I wanted to expand into the United States. And I thought the word rubbish was more of a British Canadian term. We had to come up with something different. And so our phone number at the time was 738 junk. And I said, what can we use in the United States as an 800 number? And we played on this old ad campaign called the Got Milk campaign that was in the 90s. We said, what could we use in the United States as an 800 number? And we played on this old ad campaign called the Got Milk campaign that was in the 90s. We said, ah, 1-800-GOT-JUNK. And I got so lit up and excited about this idea,

Starting point is 00:17:54 I immediately called the phone number and it wasn't available. And so I'm just like, ah, gotta figure out how to get that phone number. So I started making phone call after phone call to AT&T, the phone company, trying to find out who owns the number. I was started making phone call after phone call to AT&T, the phone company, trying to find out who owns the number. I was persistent as could be. While not just making phone calls, I hired a

Starting point is 00:18:10 designer to design the logo exactly as we have one at Undergot Junk today as part of solidifying the vision that I'm going to get this phone number. I'm going to figure this out. So at the end of the day, the person that owned the phone number was the Department of Transportation in Idaho. Government owned my number. Oh my gosh, I'm never going to get this. And so I took a route where I tried to sort of solve things and I went to the phone room. I called up and I asked for their phone room. And sure enough, government has someone running their phones. And Michael in the phone room after three calls finally said, you can have the number. It's important. I don't know why you want it, but take it. And I called him a couple of days later,

Starting point is 00:18:47 after all the forms were signed with AT&T, to thank him. He was no longer with the company. I have no idea what happened, but I had my number. I got it for free, and it was sheer determination that paved the way for the starting of the One Eighth Underground Chunk brand that we built today. That's amazing. I love that story and it's just another example of how you took things in your own hands and you made your own luck. You wanted it, you went out and got it, you made the phone

Starting point is 00:19:13 calls. A lot of people probably thought you were crazy, like you're never going to be able to do this, you're never going to get it, but you just used your charm and and your grit and did it. So it's so many great lessons to learn from that. Yeah. If you really want something bad enough and you can see the picture in your mind of pure possibility of what it could look like, you figure it out and you stick with the program. Most people would have given up after a couple of phone calls trying to get the number. I didn't give up till I got it, which was 60 phone calls.

Starting point is 00:19:41 Wow. That's amazing. It's such an easy to remember name. Everybody knows 1-800-GOT-JUNK. It's like 1-800-CONTACT. It's up there with 1-800-FLOWERS. It's huge, so congrats. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.

Starting point is 00:19:58 Young and Profiters, I don't know about you, but I love to make my home some place that I'm proud of. And that's why I spent a lot of time on my apartment, trying to make it my perfect pink palace, all set with a velvet couch, an in-home studio, and skyline views of the city. And while I love my apartment, I can get really sick of it. I can get really uninspired, and if you work from home,

Starting point is 00:20:20 you know exactly what I'm talking about. But the good news is, like many of you guys, I'm an entrepreneur and that means that I can work from anywhere. And finally, I decided to make good use of my work flexibility for the first time. This holiday break, the sun was calling my name, so I packed my bags and my boyfriend and we headed to Venice Beach, California. We got a super cute bungalow and we worked from home for an entire month. The fresh air and slower pace helped to inspire some really cool new ideas for my business and now I'm hitting the ground running in Q1. Airbnb

Starting point is 00:20:53 was the one that helped me make these California dreams come true and in fact Airbnb comes in clutch for me time and time again. Whether it's finding the perfect Airbnb home for our annual executive team outing or booking a vacation where my extended family can fit all in one place, Airbnb always makes it a great experience. And you know me, I'm always thinking of my latest business venture. So when I found out that a lot of my successful friends

Starting point is 00:21:18 and clients host on Airbnb, I got curious and I wanna follow suit because it seems like such a great way to generate passive income. So now we have a plan to spend more time in Miami and then we'll host our place on Airbnb to earn some extra money whenever we're back on the East Coast. So I can't wait for that and a lot of people don't realize they've got an Airbnb right under their own noses. You can Airbnb your place or a spare room if you're out of town for even just a few days or weeks. You could do what I did and work remotely and then Airbnb your place or a spare room if you're out of town for even just a few days or weeks. You could do what I did and work remotely and then Airbnb your place to fund your trip.

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Starting point is 00:24:26 Again, that's Shopify.com slash profiting. Young and profitors, I've been a full-time entrepreneur for about four years now, and I finally cracked the code on hiring. I look for character, attitude, and reliability, but it takes so much time to make sure a candidate has these qualities on top of their core skills in the job description. And that's why I leave it to Indeed to do all the heavy lifting for me.

Starting point is 00:24:55 Indeed is the most powerful hiring platform out there and I can attract, interview, and hire all in one place. With YAP Media growing so fast, I've got so much on my plate. And I'm so grateful that I don't have to go back to the days where I was spending hours on all these other different inefficient job sites because now I can just use Indeed.

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Starting point is 00:26:19 and support the show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash profiting. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Let's go back to 1997. So you were still the rubbish boys at this time.

Starting point is 00:26:38 And you hit $1 million in revenue. And at that point you were actually, you were doing well. I mean, a $1 million business is not too sh shabby but you were misaligned with your team and you ended up firing nine out of ten employees from my understanding. Why did that happen? Why do you think that things kind of got to that level where you felt like you needed to get rid of your whole team? How did you decide to do that and what did you do to build your company back up after that? Yeah, it was one of the darkest days of my junk removal career, if you will. It was five years into the business.

Starting point is 00:27:12 It was 1994. We were a half a million in revenue. And the way I like to explain it is everyone can relate to the one bad apple spoils the whole bunch saying. And I probably had, I had a team of 11 and I had nine bad apples. I didn't know what else to do. I'd lost hope in my business.

Starting point is 00:27:32 I wasn't having fun any longer. I wasn't enjoying the people I worked with. Now, I was the only one to blame. I'm the one that hired them. So I sat them down at a morning meeting, all 11 people, and I started with two words. I said, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I've let you down, failed. You haven't given you the love and support that you've needed to be successful.

Starting point is 00:27:50 Maybe I didn't even bring the right people into my organization, but the only way I knew to solve things was to start again, wipe the slate clean and get rid of my entire team. They didn't love it, but I did it with a heart. I treated them fairly. I was transparent and honest, and I took it with a heart. I treated them fairly. I was transparent and honest. And I took it as a big learning moment for me. So as the leader, the lesson for me

Starting point is 00:28:11 over the next six months as I was rebuilding the business was it's all about people, finding the right people and treating them right. Now you mentioned my book, WTF, Willing to Fail. This was a WTF moment if I've ever seen one. It's sucked trying to rebuild the business, trying to hire people again, but it gave me a fresh start and opportunity to find nothing but happy, smiley, optimistic people. Our hiring practice today, the number one thing we look for, happy people.

Starting point is 00:28:40 The second I get onto your podcast yesterday when we said hello, I mean, you're smiley, you're energetic. It's awesome, right? Those are the people I want in my world as my friends and connections and so on. And so I went out on a path of chasing down happy, optimistic people. We hire an attitude, we train on skill, and we build something bigger and better together. So while it was a dark day, a dark six months of rebuilding, I'm sure glad I didn't have to take the thousands of employees we have now and make that kind of change.

Starting point is 00:29:10 And it really taught me something. Yeah, I love it. I heard you say something on another podcast that you're slow to hire, quick to fire. And I love that. I think that's so smart, you know, like taking your time, making sure you actually know someone, making sure that you enjoy spending their time, that you like their energy,

Starting point is 00:29:27 because energy is contagious, right? Absolutely. And when I say slow to hire, quick to fire, it's not like up, someone's made a mistake, boom, you're out of here, you're fired, you know. It is very much, we still take our time to do any sort of changes right, and make sure we've given someone a chance to correct.

Starting point is 00:29:45 But we also don't waste our time. There's nothing worse than in a manager or leaders live, bringing someone into the company when you know it's not going to work, cut them loose, free them up to another opportunity, help them find another opportunity. We let someone go recently, it just wasn't the right fit. But I did believe they'd be the right fit somewhere, and I was helping coach that person through a new opportunity. They're good people, let's help them,

Starting point is 00:30:11 but it's not always meant to be, and make sure you make that decision sooner rather than later. Yeah. Talk to us about the importance of customer focus, because I think that one of the reasons why you actually let these people go is because you felt like they weren't customer centric.

Starting point is 00:30:26 You felt like they were misaligned with your value proposition to your clients, which is like, you know, go above and beyond, make them super happy, give them, you know, great service. Tell us about the importance of that to you and all of your businesses and how you implement that. Well, I think as someone who's a consumer myself, I enjoy when people treat me in a friendly, happy manner. I enjoy when people do what they say they will do, which is rare in this world of business.

Starting point is 00:30:52 There are so many experiences we have where a promise was made and it wasn't delivered. Some of my favorite companies, FedEx, anytime I've ever had to courier something anywhere in the world, it does show up on time and it's amazing. Their slogan in the early days was the world on time and they deliver on that promise. Starbucks, the drinks are done right. People are friendly. If they make a mistake, they give you a free drink voucher for next time. They just do the little things to treat you in a way that you walk in and you've given

Starting point is 00:31:23 them the customized drink of choice that nobody else on the planet drinks. Just you've got that recipe, but somehow they remember it the next time you come in and they treat you by name. I think what a business does the little things right, that helps like the examples I've given of those brands growing and dominating the world. The thing that motivates me the most in the world besides my family is building businesses with amazing people that want to be a part of something, that want to join our movement of building great businesses,

Starting point is 00:31:53 but they have to understand that platform of exceptional customer service. That's the bar. When someone reaches out to me as a CEO and says, hey, there was a mistake, something went wrong. The first thing we do is we own it. We take responsibility for that mistake, and then we say, how do we learn so this doesn't happen again?

Starting point is 00:32:11 Humans make mistakes. It happens. But it's how you care about the customer. If you can truly care, that's how things grow and scale. The last thing I'll say is a philosophy we have, which has been something we're proud of and I think something that's been very impactful in our growth. People will often say the customer is always right, that the customer is the most important. I disagree.

Starting point is 00:32:31 I think the people, your employees are the most important. So on a hierarchy, I believe take care of your people. They will then take care of the customer. And if you take care of the customer, they will then take care of the brand, both growth of profits and revenue. And so the most important person in our entire organization, it's people. Finding the right people and treating them right. When they get it and they've been treated right, they will treat the customer with love

Starting point is 00:32:58 and respect. You mentioned it a few times that as you were trying to grow your business, you really envisioned it as like the FedEx of junk removal. Another thing that I heard you say before is that you really wanted to get on the Oprah Winfrey show as well. You did a lot of visionary things where you put something out in the universe. I'm not sure what your practice was, if you wrote it down, if you had a vision board, what it was, but you basically put these things out there,

Starting point is 00:33:25 like I do this all the time, so I wanna be the female Tim Ferriss, and I keep saying it out loud, and I keep saying it everywhere. Because I want it to happen, right? So tell us about how you kind of set big, hairy, audacious goals, and what you do to kind of make sure that you subconsciously take the actions

Starting point is 00:33:40 to make that happen. Yeah, so I discovered a process. I didn't create this. Others use the same type of process, but I stumbled into it. I call it the painted picture, so that would be my language for this. 1997, eight years into my business,

Starting point is 00:33:56 I was a million in revenue, which was exciting. I had the right people now in my business, but I just felt stuck. I felt like it's junk removal, I'm a college dropout, I'm a high school dropout. Can I build this business? Do I want to? What's the potential?

Starting point is 00:34:09 So I went away for a retreat and I wanted to be creative and solve this problem and just reflect. So I went to my parents' little cabin. It was a tiny little beat up place on Bowen Island, about an hour from Vancouver. And it was a nice sunny summer day in September. And I sat out on their dock. And I was in a doom loop. And I was like depressed and just feeling bad about myself and my business. And I said, what if I can imagine just pure possibility? Forget all the negativity. What if I could build something great and amazing?

Starting point is 00:34:43 What could that look like? So I took a sheet of paper and I started to write down not what I hoped to build, but what I was going to build in five years time by the end of 2003. So I started with the date, December 31st, 2003, Brian's painted picture of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. I said we'd be the FedEx of junk removal because I had that bar of

Starting point is 00:35:03 we had ugly, beat up old, dirty trucks, but what if we could have clean, shiny, well-branded trucks the FedEx of junk removal. Because I had that bar of, we had ugly, beat up old, dirty trucks, but what if we could have clean, shiny, well branded trucks like FedEx? I said we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey show. First of all, I loved her as an entrepreneur and as a leader and an amazing woman, and I thought I'd love to meet her, but wow, imagine if she helped propel our brand

Starting point is 00:35:19 into the universe. And I imagined all these things of our culture, how we treated people and the franchise owners and the millionaires we would build and support in this world. And so I took that painted picture. And after I wrote it, I went from pure doom to this is unbelievable. I can see this, I can feel it. And I, you know, I get goosebumps when I even retell the story. I took this sheet of paper, my painted picture, and I brought it to groups of people, my friends, family, employees, different people.

Starting point is 00:35:47 And I shared the painted picture and I said, what do you think? I was all excited. And I had two sets of people. One group said, gee, Brian, top 30 metros in North America, getting on Oprah, being the FedEx at junk removal, I think you're smoking some Hope Dope. Like this, this isn't going to happen. And then I had the other group that said, wow, this is unbelievable. How can I be a part of it? So I actually had employees leave because they didn't think that I was grounded in reality and

Starting point is 00:36:15 that we were going to accomplish what we set out to accomplish. But we did every single thing in that painted picture, 96% of it. By the end of 2003, we hit the top 30 metros in North America. We were the FedEx of Junkerboogal. Nobody was near our size. And I got on the Oprah Winfrey show and got to give her a big hug and had four and a half minutes of fame on national television in front of 35 million people. So my process is dream it. See it in your mind. Don't let doubt get in the way. You say you want to be the female version of Tim Ferriss. I mean, yeah, that's part of it is just talking about it.

Starting point is 00:36:50 And this will happen. You'll find somebody. Have you met Tim Ferriss? No, I'd love to, but not yet. So you're you're going to have somebody who goes and any of the audience that's listening, if you know Tim Ferriss, you got to introduce this amazing business leader and woman to Tim. So let's make it happen. But part of it's just throwing it out to the universe. So I believe we help each other as entrepreneurs. So from a painted

Starting point is 00:37:14 picture perspective, if I can ever help anyone that's out there and you want to see my vision that I've just talked about, go on to LinkedIn, follow me or go to Instagram, wherever you need to do and send me a note saying painted picture. Someone from my team will send you a copy of our painted picture and an article I wrote that goes into more depth of how to create one. But huge fan of vision. Every successful leader and person in this world has had a clear picture, not how to get there, but a clear picture of what there looks like.

Starting point is 00:37:43 Totally. I think it's so important, like you said, have a clear vision, say it out loud. I also think it keeps you accountable. I purposely say I'm going to be the female version of Tim Ferriss because I feel like if I say it out loud, I hold myself accountable to all my listeners, all my fans for me to accomplish as big of things as he does. So I love that. I love the way that you do your vision board with that wall and painting. That's amazing

Starting point is 00:38:05 Let's talk about the interplay between being a visionary and an implementer at your company I know that you actually don't do your operations from my understanding you hire outside COOs for your brands and presidents. So why did you decide to do that? And How did you decide to do that? And why do you do that? to do that and how did you decide to do that and why do you do that? Well I wore every hat in my company up till a million in revenue maybe even up to a couple of million and then I started to realize there's things I hated to do there's things I wasn't good at and as the owner of the company it doesn't mean that you're the best at everything usually far from it and so I was in my

Starting point is 00:38:41 own way and I realized in about, when I had a COO in the business that wasn't the right fit any longer, and I got that person out of the business after 14 months, my franchise, it just wasn't the right fit. My franchise owners started to say, Brian, what are you doing here? You just got rid of a COO. You're not the guy to take it to the next level. We're here because of your vision, but you can't execute us out of this situation. And so I got out there and I said, okay, what am I good at? I made a list.

Starting point is 00:39:10 What am I great at? What do I love to do in a business? On the other side, what are all the things I'm bad at that a business still needs or that I don't like to do? And I went and found someone that was great at these things. And so I hired Eric Church after interviewing 75 COO candidates. I found someone who was great at these things. And so I hired Eric Church after interviewing 75 COO candidates. I found someone who was the right leader for me.

Starting point is 00:39:29 He's been around eight years. I sure as heck hope he'll be around forever. We took the company from 100 million to over 400 million in revenue together. And it's super exciting when you've got the right fit. So I think businesses often have a visionary and an implementer. I'm not great at execution.

Starting point is 00:39:46 I've done it, but it's not my deal. I want to be the idea person. I want to look for new brands. I want to find great franchise partners to build something bigger and better together with. If you focus on what you love to do and what you're best at, stay in that niche. That's how you really grow and scale an awesome business. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:40:04 I think it's so hard for people when they're first starting out with their business. You don't have a lot of resources, so you're wearing a lot of hats. I think it's really hard to let go, but I think it's, like you said, it's super important. Once you start to actually make money and you can afford to hire experts and outsource, you really got to think about what is your core competency? What am I really good at? What can nobody do better than me? And then what do like is a time suck? What makes me feel drained after I do it? What am I not that great at that

Starting point is 00:40:30 somebody else probably would love to do and would be passionate about and kind of make sure that you you hire the right people? That's how you scale like you said. So I think that's great guidance. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors. Yeah, fam, I got links on links on links. My clients got links on links. My students got links on links. We all have so many links, social media sites, websites, podcast episodes, webinars.

Starting point is 00:40:58 I got so many links piling up, I can't even keep track. That's why I like to use Porkbun, the all-in-one solution for managing links and building your digital brand. In the past, Lincoln Bios were a random set of numbers and letters. It'd be like the name brand of the Lincoln BioTool slash randomness, right?

Starting point is 00:41:20 Nobody knows what they're clicking, so they're unlikely to click. And even if you were lucky enough to be able to customize and pay a certain amount of money to customize the end of your link, still unactionable, hard to remember. Now that's no more because now you can use Porkbun. It's a LinkedIn bio tool where you can customize your own page, you can add buttons,

Starting point is 00:41:42 you can embed videos, podcast episodes, they have everything you could imagine in terms of customizing this splash page, you can add buttons, you can embed videos, podcast episodes, they have everything you could imagine in terms of customizing this splash page, so to speak. And then you can customize your.bio domain name. And it's very affordable for just $5 for your first year, you can get Pork Buns, Linkin' Bio Tool, and your very own.bio domain name. And with just one click, your audience can access

Starting point is 00:42:02 all your latest content, your online store, your website, your different social media handles, and any other resources you want to share. Plus, I love that Porkbun has an incredible support team that's available 365 days a year. Get your.biodomain and link in BioBundle for just $5 from Porkbun at porkbun.com slash profiting. That's porkbun.com slash profiting for a $5.biodomain and link in BioBundle, porkbun.com slash profiting. That's porkbun.com slash profiting for a $5.biodomain and link in bio bundle. Porkbun.com slash profiting. Yeah, fam, I did a big thing recently.

Starting point is 00:42:33 I rolled out benefits to my US employees. They now get healthcare and 401ks. And maybe this doesn't sound like a big deal to you, but it was surely a big deal to me because benefits were like the boogeyman to me. I thought for sure we couldn't afford it. I thought that it was gonna be so complicated, so hard to set up, lots of risk involved.

Starting point is 00:42:55 And in fact, so many of my star employees have left in the past citing benefits as the only reason why. And here I was thinking that we couldn't afford benefits when it's literally not that expensive at all and you actually split the cost between the employee and the employer. I had no idea. I found out on JustWorks.

Starting point is 00:43:17 JustWorks has been a total lifesaver for me. We were using two other platforms for payroll, one for domestic in US, one for international. We had our HR guidelines and things like that, employee handbook on another site, and everything was just everywhere. Now everything's consolidated with JustWorks, a tried and tested employee management platform.

Starting point is 00:43:40 You get automated payments, tax calculations, and withholdings with expert support anytime you need it. And on top of that, there's no hidden fees. You can leave all the boring stuff to Justworks and just get to business. And with automatic time tracking, it has made managing my international hires a little bit more soothing for my soul that I know that they're actually working and they're tracking their time. I mean, it's really hard to manage remote employees. It's easy to get started right away.

Starting point is 00:44:10 All you need is 30 minutes. You don't even have to be in front of your computer. You can just get started right on your phone. Take advantage of this limited time offer. Start your free month now at JustWorks.com slash profiting. Let JustWorks run your payroll so you don't have to. Start your free month now at JustWorks.com slash profiting. Let JustWorks run your payroll so you don't have to. Start your free month now at JustWorks.com slash profiting. Tell us about the franchising model,

Starting point is 00:44:34 why you chose that direction instead of going, just being like a corporation, and what the important elements of a franchising model are. And also, I've heard you say in the past that like everybody can implement principles from franchising in their business, no matter if they're a franchising business or not. And so I think that's also important

Starting point is 00:44:52 for people to kind of get like the main principles and why it's helpful. So two things I love about franchising. So I grew up with McDonald's being everywhere and I had admired Ray Kroc's business model. He took the McDonald's brothers and said, here, I can systematize everything with you and we can scale this incredible brand together. What I loved about what Ray Kroc did is he brought owners into his business.

Starting point is 00:45:18 He said, listen, you want to build something in this town or this city, I've got the proven recipe. They matched up the proven recipe and the systems with the people. The ability to have someone who's got skin in the game and watch them grow and develop beyond their wildest dreams, that's what I love about franchising. I also love the fact that franchising is about systems.

Starting point is 00:45:41 What's the best practice on how you do everything? So with One Day Tender Got Junk, I read a book called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, highly recommended to anyone. I looked at that book and I said, okay, he says build your business out like a franchise. Even if you don't anticipate you'll choose that model, have all the best practices documented. So I said, how do we answer the phone? How do we price jobs? How do we market the business when things are slow? Everything had a one page best practice

Starting point is 00:46:09 of here's exactly how we do things. It started, the business started to look, feel, and act so much like a franchise and the consistency and the branding and the look and feel and personality of our people. So we then said, okay, let's look at the franchise model. And Oprah and others got, we got great publicity and that franchise engine started to roar.

Starting point is 00:46:29 And people started to come to us. And we said, what we offer is this proven recipe. Many entrepreneurs want to figure things out from scratch. That's part of what drove me is I want to invent things. A lot of people want to make money and have freedom in lifestyle. They want to control their and lifestyle. They want to control their own destiny. They want a proven recipe. They don't want to waste time figuring

Starting point is 00:46:50 it out. So again, to your unique ability and do what you love best, taking a recipe and executing is amazing. Some people want to bake a cake and they want a proven recipe and boom, off they go. Some people want to invent different recipes and figure out, you know, what kind of cake could I invent, understand who you are and then figure out what type of business is, is it a franchise? Is it a corporate startup or whatever you might be interested in? I love your example of how you guys created all these best practice one sheets based on all your little processes, big and small that really inspires me.

Starting point is 00:47:24 I have three new interns, so they have a new assignment to look at all the practice one sheets based on all your little processes, big and small. That really inspires me. I have three new interns, so they have a new assignment to look at all the different areas of the podcast and our agency and come up with processes because it's so important to train new team members and to just have efficiencies. Like you said, that's the only way you can really scale. Very cool stuff. Awesome. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:47:43 My last question to all of my guests on the show is, what is your secret to profiting in life? I think it's grow where you're planted. I heard that from Vern Harnish, a mentor of mine. Vern said, listen, entrepreneurs get this, you introduced me as a serial entrepreneur, which I don't want people to think I'm

Starting point is 00:48:02 jumping around from business to business. I have three brands. I also have three wonderful kids. You stay in this situation where you go, these are all home services. They are all taking ordinary fragmented businesses and making them exceptional by sticking to our knitting and staying planted in what we can do best. That's what I want to own. I think one of my secret formulas has been to not be driven by money. I like the freedom that money can provide of a cabin I've got here in Whistler

Starting point is 00:48:32 that I love to ski with my family, but I'm not a fancy cars, fancy boats, have all the toys type person. I'm driven by building things with amazing people and having fun experiences together. And the less I became driven by money, the more the money just started flowing to a point where you're like, what do we do with all this? Let's invest, let's grow, let's provide amazing opportunities.

Starting point is 00:48:54 So I think those would be what I'd leave you with is understand what you're best at and grow where you're planted. And then understand what really motivates you. It's not for me the money, it's the watching entrepreneurs live the dream of business ownership. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha - YAPClassic: Brian Scudamore, Turning Trash Into a $600M Empire

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