237 - This Will Kill a Business Before It Even Starts | Brian Scudamore, 1-800-GOT-JUNK

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Making It with Jon Davids

Episode 237: This Will Kill a Business Before It Even Starts | Brian Scudamore, 1-800-GOT-JUNK
Release Date: December 19, 2025
Length: ~10 minutes (content portion)

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Overview

This episode dives into the founding journey of Brian Scudamore, creator of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, chronicling his path from scrappy beginnings to $100M in revenue. Host Jon Davids and Brian explore the perils of overthinking, the power of speed in entrepreneurship, pushing through self-doubt, and the crucial turning points that led to the company’s explosive growth. Listeners are treated to actionable insights on starting and scaling a business, the value of self-awareness, and the commitment needed to succeed against the odds.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Danger of Delay: Start Before Doubt Sets In

• Momentum Over Perfection

  • Jon highlights a common entrepreneurial pitfall: waiting too long to act on an idea (00:09).
  • Brian stresses that inaction breeds self-doubt and external negativity:

    "The longer you take, the more doubt can sprout in your brain. People will tell you either yourself or those around you, not a good idea... So to get around that doubt, starting something quickly, before anyone has a realization it's a bad idea." (00:32, Brian)

• Low-Risk Entry

  • Brian advocates starting businesses with minimal cash to lower the emotional risk of failure:

    "If you can start a business with low cash so that if, God forbid, you lose everything, you're not really losing that much, you can start again. That's the way to start a business." (01:16, Brian)

2. Early Hustle and Learning by Doing

• First Summer’s Earnings

  • In his first summer, Brian netted only $1,700:

    "All I remember was my net was seventeen hundred dollars, which was not a lot... it wasn't very good." (01:39, Brian)

  • Yet, it was the independence and learning that mattered:

    "It was enough to get me excited to go, hey, maybe I can do better next year." (01:57, Brian)

• Choosing Entrepreneurship Over School

  • Brian left college after realizing traditional education didn’t suit his learning style:

    "I'm a very ADD type, and I had a hard time sitting in classes that I didn't enjoy. But... I realized that I'm learning more by talking to my peers and connecting than I am studying." (02:41, Brian)

• Family Difficulties

  • Brian’s father, a liver transplant surgeon, was skeptical about Brian's choice to leave school:

    "He looked at me and said, you're crazy, and tried to talk me out of it. And I said, I got a plan. And I went out and bought a second truck. And off I grew." (03:17, Brian)

3. Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

• Navigating Parental & Self-Expectations
  • Jon asks how Brian counsels his own children about entrepreneurship and school (04:18).
  • Brian stresses individual self-awareness:

    "If someone's dream is to become a liver transplant surgeon like my dad, don't drop out of school... If someone wants to go into entrepreneurship... Maybe go give it a shot." (04:42, Brian) "And at the end of the day, you can always go back to school. ...This is where I got my education as an entrepreneur, I believe you need to learn by doing." (05:24, Brian)

4. Turning Points: Proving Commitment & Overcoming Plateau

• Scaling Up with Confidence

  • Brian bought a second truck right after dropping out:

    "The main reason I added a second truck was... I wanted to prove to my dad, you know what, dad, I'm all in. I'm going to double the business." (05:53, Brian)

  • He points out that it took around 15 years for his father to acknowledge the wisdom of this decision.

• The Beneficial Adversary

  • Jon asks if Brian’s dad’s skepticism was motivating:

    "It helped me further see inside myself, like, I'm committed and I want to do this and I'm going to do this... I might have had something to prove in my early 20s." (06:39, Brian)

• Stuck at $1 Million: The Power of Vision

  • After eight years and reaching $1M in revenue, Brian felt outclassed by peers in the Entrepreneurs' Organization.

    "I was surrounded by entrepreneurs with much more glamorous businesses... I felt like I wasn't good enough." (07:25, Brian)

  • This led to creating the "painted picture," a vivid written vision that inspired him and his team:

    "I wrote down the future on one page... I started to see that five year vision come to life... it gave me a destination and off I went, made it happen." (07:43, Brian)

5. The Five-Year Vision

• Bold Goals and BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)
  • The five-year plan included expansion to the top 30 metro centers, being the "FedEx of junk removal," and getting featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

    "I said we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. This big BHAG... most people said to me, brian, you're smoking hope dope. Like this is not happening. And I said no, it will. You watch." (08:41, Brian)

  • The painted picture inspired recruitment and buy-in even when the goals felt out of reach:

    "Having the picture drew people in who wanted to be a part of the game... I don't know how we're going to get there, but we're going to find a way. And we did." (08:56, Brian)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the risks of waiting:

  "The longer you take, the more doubt can sprout in your brain." (00:32, Brian)

• On starting small:

  "If you can start a business with low cash... you can start again. That's the way to start a business." (01:16, Brian)

• On learning by immersion, not classroom:

  "I'm learning more by talking to my peers and connecting more than I am studying with a professor." (02:54, Brian)

• On vision as leadership:

  "Having the picture drew people in who wanted to be a part of the game... we're going to find a way." (08:56, Brian)

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Timeline of Key Segments

• 00:09 – 01:32: The importance of speed and avoiding overthinking
• 01:32 – 02:25: Brian’s early entrepreneurial results and his decision to leave school
• 02:25 – 03:39: Big decisions and difficult conversations with family
• 04:17 – 05:39: Advice for young entrepreneurs (and Brian’s parenting philosophy)
• 05:39 – 06:26: Expansion, second truck, demonstrating commitment
• 06:26 – 07:14: Using adversity (his dad’s skepticism) as fuel
• 07:14 – 08:22: Plateau at $1M revenue, the "painted picture" moment
• 08:22 – 09:19: Five-year vision and the power of bold goals

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Takeaways

• Act fast before self-doubt or naysayers take root.
• Invest just enough to test your idea; avoid betting the farm on an unproven venture.
• Education comes in many forms. Learning by doing, for some, often surpasses what’s taught in a classroom.
• Set vivid, aspirational goals. Written visions attract collaborators and build momentum.
• Skeptics can serve as valuable motivators if you use their doubt as fuel.

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Transcript

[A]

This clip of Making it with Jon Davids features John talking to Brian Scudamore.

[B]

Founder of 1-800-GOT Junk.

[A]

You said that you saw the truck, and then a week later, you're knocking on doors with your pickup truck, looking for your first gig. I think a lot of people take a long time between their idea and they want to get it perfect, and they want to take a long time to flesh everything out. And I'm sure you see this with entrepreneurs that you talk to. There's something to be said for momentum and speed and just getting that first doll dollar in the bank.

[B]

I agree, John. I. I think a challenge that entrepreneurs go through, an obstacle they face, is I've seen people try and start businesses, and they spend time talking about them, and they never get around to it. And why? Because the longer you take, the more doubt can sprout in your brain. People will tell you either yourself or those around you, not a good idea, John. I think it's going to fail. It's too risky. There's a million other junk removal companies out there. Why would. What's different about you? And so to get around that doubt, starting something quickly, before anyone has a realization it's a bad idea. And the models I love to follow are the apples of the world, where Steve and Steve get in a garage and they're just like, oh, there's something here. And they start for under a thousand bucks. If you can start a business with low cash so that if, God forbid, you lose everything, you're not really losing that much, you can start again. That's the way to start a business.

[A]

All right, so I've got so many questions about how this story is going already, but let's just stop here for a second. I think you made about 1700 bucks that first summer.

[B]

Yeah. So after I can't remember what I did in revenue, all I remember was my net was seventeen hundred dollars, which was not a lot. If you took an hourly wage and what I would actually be paying myself, it wasn't very good.

[A]

Yeah, but this was the late 1980s. I think 1700 bucks was pretty good.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I think a good summer job, people were making five grand, ten grand. So for all the effort I put in, plus an investment of buying my own truck, it. It wasn't great, but it was enough to get me excited to go, hey, maybe I can do better next year.

[A]

And I bet the ironic part is that you actually enjoyed getting paid less money, but working for yourself. So you did this for one summer, Two summers, and then after the third summer, you decided this is going to be your full time thing, right?

[B]

Yeah, it was really. Once I went to university and started to really have that realization that school wasn't for me. My plan had been to fund my college education with the business. I was making friends, I was learning, but it never connected with me. I'm a very ADD type, and I had a hard time sitting in classes that I didn't enjoy. But the icing on the cake was my organizational behavior. Professor said to me, brian, I know you're running this business on the side. And what gave it away was the big brick cell phone that I'd pull out that would ring in class. He goes, do you think you could talk to the class about your experience and what you're doing? So I did. I spent a whole class talking, answering questions, and the energy I got and the realization that I'm learning more by talking to my peers and connecting more than I am studying with a professor. That was time to leave. And I left, sat my father down who's a liver transplant surgeon who's done a lot of schooling, and I said, dad, I'm leaving school. He looked at me and said, you're crazy, and tried to talk me out of it. And I said, I got a plan. And I went out and bought a second truck. And off I grew.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by my Playbook social media selling machine, available right [e-mail] playbook. Let's be real. You don't want likes. You want sales. You, you want to know that customers are going to show up every day from the content you're already posting. This Playbook shows you how that's done, how to turn social posts into cash flow, and how to scale in a way that's simple, repeatable, and on brand. Grab it free right now at johndavids.com playbook. That's johndavids.combookbook. okay, so hard question. Here you are today, and I'm not sure, do you have children?

[B]

I do. I've got three.

[A]

Okay, you got three kids. What do you do when you're talking to your kids or other kids who are maybe 16, 17 years old, thinking about going to school, but they got the entrepreneurship bug. What do you say to them? Is there a level of self awareness that maybe you had that others don't have? How do you reconcile that?

[B]

It's a great question and it is a hard one, and there's no perfect answer. But my opinion is it depends on the kid and it depends on what their dream is. If someone's dream is to become a liver transplant surgeon like my dad, don't drop out of school. Nobody wants a transplant from someone who's figured it out on the streets. If someone wants to go into entrepreneurship and they really think that the time is now and they've got an idea and it might not last forever, they've got the next ebay in their mind, hey, maybe go give it a shot. Now would. If any one of my kids said to me, I'm going to drop out of school, I've got one in university, two in high school, what would I say? I would ask them questions and make sure they were making the right decision for them and that they weren't making a decision for me. And at the end of the day, you can always go back to school. That's what I said to my dad. I'm like, dad, I can go back to university and get that degree. I can go to high school and get my diploma. I never did either because this is where I got my education as an entrepreneur, I believe you need to learn by doing.

[A]

So you bought a second truck, and did you hire an employee, or what did you need that second truck for?

[B]

Yeah, we needed to grow the business and take on more capacity. The marketing was working. I started to get some free press. We were on the front page of our local newspaper in Vancouver, got 100 phone calls in 24 hours. The phones were ringing off the hook, and it was exciting. So we added trucks, and I added about one truck a year. But the main reason I added a second truck was it was right after I dropped out of college. I wanted to prove to my dad, you know what, dad, I'm all in. I'm going to double the business. And I went and bought a second truck, and I don't know what it did to my dad, but because it took him about 15 years before he said, okay, you made a great decision here. But it was commitment to me that I was all in.

[A]

Do you think having your dad be the adversary. Of course, in a loving way, but telling you that you shouldn't be doing this, did that help you move forward faster?

[B]

I think so. My dad and I are great friends, and I know at the time everything was from a loving perspective. He was trying to protect me, but I appreciate his questions and his push and ultimately his disagreement of the decision I was making. But it helped me further see inside myself, like, I'm committed and I want to do this and I'm going to do this. And then I Might have had something to prove in my early 20s to prove to my dad that I was successful.

[A]

So you were doing this for about 10 years and then I think at some point you plateaued at about a million in revenue and you had joined an entrepreneurship organization. What was that like?

[B]

Yeah, I, I hit a million bucks after eight years in business. I joined. You need a million dollars to join eo. So I joined the entrepreneur organization and then that became my group of people. People I would learn from, ask questions of, be inspired. And I, it was funny, it had a bit of an opposite effect because I was stuck at this million dollar plateau and I was surrounded by entrepreneurs with much more glamorous businesses than junk removal with big tech companies and things that were taking off. I felt like I wasn't good enough. But what it did is it had me retreat to my parents summer cottage that this little shack on the water an hour from Vancouver. And I started to say to myself, okay, enough of the doom loop, enough of feeling sorry for myself. What do I want? And I came up with a process I now call the painted picture. What's the vision? I wrote down the future on one page, double sided. And I started to see that five year vision come to life in my mind. And that's when I knew I had something that I needed to start growing. So it gave me a destination and off I went, made it happen.

[A]

What was the five point vision?

[B]

Yeah, so five five year vision. It was to be in the top 30 metropolitan centers within. Within five years time. We were in Vancouver. So there were 30 cities bigger than Vancouver population wise. I said we would be the FedEx of junk removal, clean shiny trucks, friendly uniform drivers. That wasn't who we were at that day. I said we'd be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. This big bhag, this hairy audacious goal that we are going to land the mother of all media hits and things that just seemed like most people said to me, brian, you're smoking hope dope. Like this is not happening. And I said no, it will. You watch. And having the picture drew people in who wanted to be a part of the game. We were playing the race we were running and it had people go okay, this is cool. I want to be a part. I don't know how we're going to get there, but we're going to find a way. And we did.

[A]

Thanks for listening. Get my best stuff to your [e-mail] Talk to you soon. This episode is brought to you by my playbook website selling machine available right now at JohnDavids. Most companies want websites that look nice, but a lot of nice looking websites don't sell. What you really want is a website that grabs attention, builds trust, and turns visitors into buyers while you sleep. That's what this Playbook gives you. Based on 10 years of work we've done at Influicity, optimizing websites for 7, 8 and 9 figure brands. Download the Playbook now at johndavids.com playbook that's johndavids.com Playbook.