Second in Command with Cameron Herold

Episode 515: Erik Church – How To Scale A $100M Brand Into A $365M Powerhouse

Release Date: October 2, 2025
Guest: Erik Church, President & COO, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? and O2E Brands
Host: Cameron Herold

Overview

In this episode, Cameron Herold sits down with Erik Church, the President and COO behind the explosive growth of 1-800-GOT-JUNK? (and related O2E Brands). The two reconnect as old friends and former colleagues, delving into how Erik built on the company’s $100M foundation to nearly quadruple revenue. The conversation explores leadership evolution, the vital role of culture, the partnership between visionary founders and skilled operators, strategies for internal talent growth, and balancing rapid change with operational discipline.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Erik’s Leadership Journey: From Helping Founders to Building Powerhouses

• Background & Chemistry with Brian Scudamore:

  • Erik and Cameron both have long histories as "second in commands" working with strong founder-visionaries, notably Brian Scudamore.
  • Erik’s career focus: partnering with founders to realize organizational growth and “true intent”.
    • "My background has been working with a variety of founders, organizations ranging anywhere from a startup up to a couple of billion dollars." – Erik (03:23)

• Learning Command vs. Collaboration:

  • Early leadership style was too "command and control"—a lesson learned to shift toward collaboration, listening, and peer buy-in.
    • "If I look back, I had way too much command and control in my world. So one of the things I did learn...was how do you work with your peers and how to get buy in and how to use your ears more than your mouth." – Erik (00:00, 12:27)

2. The Vivid Vision (Painted Picture) as a North Star

• The Power of Visionary Documents:

  • All brands in O2E (1-800-GOT-JUNK?, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, You Move Me, Shack Shine) use distinct “painted pictures” to define future states.
  • The “painted picture” (now “Vivid Vision”) is set four to five years ahead, describing what success looks and feels like beyond just numbers.
    • "For anybody in the organization...to see where are we going? What is it going to look and feel like...when we're standing in that moment?" – Erik (05:28)
    • Enables strategic clarity and helps teams know what to say ‘no’ to.

• Strategic Planning & Prioritization:

  • The vision document becomes the anchor for a four-year strategic plan, annual goals, and monthly reviews. New ideas are filtered based on alignment with the vision.
    • "Strategy is more about what you say no to and less about what we say yes to. And this really does afford us the opportunity to know what to say no to." – Erik (05:52)

3. Saying No – The Art of Focus

• The Discipline of Focus:

  • True leadership and strategy are rooted in discerning which opportunities to decline.
    • Quote: "True leadership is saying no more often than we say yes." – (07:02, referencing Greg Clark, College Pro founder)

• Balancing Founder Boldness with Operational Scalability:

  • Erik’s approach: let the founder (Brian) generate the “crazy” ideas, then operationalize and scale the winners.
    • "The best thing you can do as a COO is empower them to do what they're good at...Our job is to figure out can we make it scalable and can we replicate it?" – Erik (29:57, 32:19)

• Memorable Anecdote:

  • Brian’s idea for a "Hunks of Junk" calendar: an example of bold (and sometimes wild) founder visions that need steering for maximum impact.
    • "He had this amazing vision, and we're just looking at him going, are you out of your fucking tree?" – Cameron (29:04)

4. Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast

• Onboarding to Sustain Culture:

  • Erik draws from fraternity, military, and EF Education experiences to emphasize onboarding as critical for cultural perpetuation.
    • "How you bring people into an organization is equally important because you want people to start to learn and onboard the culture.” – Erik (09:00)

• Global Perspective:

  • At EF Education, the company culture transcended local customs in 45 countries—a model for consistency at scale.
    • "You get exactly what the culture is, regardless of what the culture is of that country. The culture of the company shone through." – Erik (10:00)

5. The Yin & Yang – CEO/COO Partnership

• Division of External/Internal Focus:

  • Brian handles the external brand, media, and vision, while Erik steers inward development and franchisee relations.
    • "For me, my leadership really turns inwardly to the organization...And so it's just, it's kind of a match made in heaven in that sense." – Erik (13:31)

• Two-in-a-Box Model:

  • At the executive level, CEO and COO operate as true partners ("two-in-a-box") rather than isolated silos.
    • "So we are operating together not in a co-CEO role but as two in a box decision making and defining a role." – Erik (34:18)

6. Developing Leaders and Succession

• Replace Yourself to Grow:

  • Leaders are encouraged to develop their replacements as a prerequisite to their own advancement.
    • "There’s no role available to you inside the organization until you replace yourself." – Erik (15:18)

• Internal vs. External Hiring:

  • Rapid growth (from $100M to $365M) has reinforced the need to grow talent internally for speed and cultural fit.
    • "The only way that we can truly grow is from within." – Erik (16:20)

• Coaching & Feedback Loops:

  • Erik invests in executive coaching, frequent performance/professional development reviews, and seeks constructive feedback.
    • "I actually work externally with a coach who gets intimately involved, who really challenges me." – Erik (17:28)

7. Building Connection Beyond Work: The 101 Life Goals

• Implementing Dream Manager Concepts:

  • Inspired by Matthew Kelly’s "The Dream Manager," O2E Brands employees list 101 personal life goals (tracked company-wide).
    • "We get all of our employees...to list out their 101 life goals. And we track it and we post it so everybody in the organization can see." – Erik (20:18)

• Community & Retention:

  • Shared personal goals enable unrelated employees to connect and support each other (e.g., school-building trips to Africa).
    • “The goal is that we can find communities within our community who have common aspirations.” – Erik (21:00)

• Manager Integration:

  • Managers reference team members’ goals in check-ins, coaching them to progress not just work, but personal ambitions.
    • "When you sit down with a direct report...many of our managers will spend time looking at 101 labels of their direct reports and ask them how things are progressing." – Erik (22:09)

8. The COO Superpower & Self-Reflection

• Humility and Developing Others:
  • Erik’s “superpower” is making others successful and putting the spotlight on their contributions.
    • "Where I get great pride...is having the people around me be successful. And I want them and their names and their work to be associated with the achievements." – Erik (24:49)

9. Systematizing Project Prioritization

• Filtering Initiatives:
  • Projects are weighed for impact/urgency, grounded in the vivid vision, and continually pared down to the essential.
    • "We start with our painted picture...build out a four-year strategic plan...and then on a monthly basis we have our executive steering group. This is where we bring the new ideas." – Erik (27:23)

10. Managing Rapid Growth & Constant Change

• Change as a Constant:
  • The company’s appetite for innovation requires ongoing focus on how to support team members through frequent transitions (e.g., major Salesforce rollout).
    • "Change is the constant and the only constant for us." – Erik (40:15)
    • "Those who don’t change in time will be changed by time." – (41:25, quoting EF Education founder)

11. Optimizing Time & Personal Performance

• Leveraging Travel Time:

  • With operations across Toronto and Vancouver, Erik carves out nine hours of undistracted focus weekly while flying—critical for reflection and planning.
    • "Those weeks where I stay in Vancouver for the weekend and I miss that nine hours of focus time. It's a terrible thing." – Erik (38:16)

• Mentorship & External Networks:

  • Importance of peer accountability, e.g., YPO forum and COO Alliance for learning and best-practice exchange.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Strategic Clarity:
  "Every sentence of the painted picture is a future state...the key is to look at which project to put in place first because it's foundational. You build almost like building a home." – Cameron (29:04)

• On Letting Visionaries Soar:
  "There's no controlling Brian...the best thing you can do as a COO is empower them to do what they're good at, which is come up with those big, bold ideas which people in the data departments hate because they can't measure them." – Erik (29:57, 32:19)

• On Growth Through People:
  "I've built a strong team. I've brought people from the outside who believe in people, believe in empowering people, believe in developing people and providing a vision not just for the company, but...for what growth of the individual means." – Erik (47:03)

• On Handling Change:
  "Human beings are not generally calibrated to constant, ongoing change. So how do we affect change in a positive way where people feel valued, part of the experience...?" – Erik (41:28)

• On Two-in-a-Box Leadership:
  "I would say...sharing best practices around working with...a founder visionary type, how that works, and how that two in a box can work." – Erik (34:18)

Timestamps of Key Segments

• [00:00] Leadership lessons from college, using ears more than mouth
• [03:23] Erik’s background working with founder-led businesses
• [04:28] The “Painted Picture”/Vivid Vision and its use at O2E
• [07:17] Saying no, the importance of strategic focus
• [09:00] Lessons on onboarding and sustaining culture
• [13:31] How the CEO/COO partnership is balanced inward/outward
• [15:18] Succession planning: replacing yourself to grow
• [17:28] Erik’s learning and feedback process as a leader
• [20:18] Implementing “101 Life Goals” company-wide
• [22:09] Managers coaching to employees’ personal goals
• [24:49] Erik’s superpower: shaping other leaders’ success
• [27:23] Project prioritization, executive steering group
• [29:04] Managing visionary “big ideas” and operational reality
• [34:18] The “two in a box” leadership model
• [40:15] The challenge of leading through endless change
• [47:03] Erik’s core growth philosophy: it’s all about the team

Conclusion

This masterclass episode dives deep into what it really takes to scale a business from $100M to nearly $400M while protecting culture, focusing strategy, and developing leaders at every level. Erik Church emerges as a model COO—steady, humble, people-focused—who proves that empowering others is the surest way to drive organizational greatness. Whether you're a founder, operator, or aspiring executive, the frameworks, candid advice, and entertaining war stories offer practical roadmaps for scaling fast and staying true.