Brian Scudamore's Painted Picture: the one page that took 1-800-GOT-JUNK? from $1M to over $100M, with a fill-in template and 4 filled-in examples
In the late 90s Brian Scudamore was stuck at about $1 million a year hauling junk. He went out on the water by his parents' cottage and wrote one page about where the company was going. He says 96% of it came true, including the Oprah Winfrey Show. This page shows exactly how he wrote it, the questions to answer, four filled-in examples for different kinds of business, and a template you can finish in an hour.
Overview
Scudamore started in 1989 with a $700 pickup truck to pay for college. He later quit university to run it full time. His father, a liver transplant surgeon, took 10 to 15 years to come around.
By 1996 the company was doing about $1 million a year. He had joined a group of entrepreneurs who ran bigger companies, and he kept comparing himself to them. In his words: "I found myself feeling down about myself, and not feeling the hope towards building my company."
So he went out on the water near his parents' summer cottage with a sheet of paper. "Okay, Brian enough doom loop." He wrote down what the company would look like if he stopped thinking about the fact that he "didn't finish high school, didn't finish college, didn't have the money."
The first line: "We will be in the top 30 Metros in North America by December 31st, 2003." It said they would be on the Oprah Winfrey Show. It said they would be "the FedEx of junk removal."
By December 2003, he says, they had hit 96% of it. With his COO Cameron Herold, the company grew from $2 million to $106 million.
What a Painted Picture is
A Painted Picture is a short written description of your business on a set date in the future, written as if that future is already decided. It is a picture you could walk around in, which a goal list or a mission statement never gives you.
Scudamore's first one was a single page, both sides. He later enlarged it and framed it at the head office so everyone saw it every day.
Cameron Herold, who helped him grow the company, later wrote a book on the same method and called it a Vivid Vision. Herold's version is a few pages and looks three years out instead of five. The idea is the same: describe the future in so much detail that people can see it.
Herold's own example of the difference. Weak: "We will have a strong company culture." Strong: "Our team is deeply connected, collaborating effortlessly, and celebrating wins together."
His rules for writing one
1. Get away from your desk
Scudamore wrote his first one on the water by the family cottage. His advice: grab a notebook and find a quiet place with no distractions from daily life. Herold says the same: "You can't write a Vivid Vision while sitting in your office, surrounded by distractions."
2. Jump to a date
Pick a date three to five years out and put it at the top. Scudamore's first one was dated December 31, 2003, about five years away. To make it real, he suggests anchoring on something personal: if your child is five today, picture them at ten. Where are you? What have you built? How does it feel?
3. Write it as decided, not hoped
"All the language was very definitive in, this is where we were going, not where we hope to be or wanted to be, but where we were going." Write "We are in 30 cities," not "We hope to grow."
4. Cover the whole business, not just the money
His covered the number of locations, the trucks, the media, and even "how our employees would describe our company to their family members." Herold lists culture, operations, marketing, customer experience and your physical space.
5. Leave out the how
Herold: "Be bold, this is your chance to dream big without worrying about the 'how' just yet." The plan comes later. The picture comes first.
6. Show it to everyone
Scudamore shares it with everyone in the company. Herold says to share it with your team, investors and partners.
7. Write a new one every few years
Scudamore says they write a new Painted Picture about every four years.
Why it works
It tells people where you are going. "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
It sorts people. When he shared the first one, some said: "Brian, you're smoking some hope dope here and this is never going to happen." Others said: "Wow, I want to stick around. I want to be a part of this." Both reactions helped. He had already learned that the wrong people can sink a company. Years earlier he let go of nearly his whole team, 11 people and five trucks down to one he drove himself, because they did not fit the company he wanted.
It turns big goals into things to chase. Oprah's producers turned them down many times. "Each phone call, each email, each rejection, we would learn from that." The show finally aired in 2003. He says about 35 million people saw it.
It gets you out of the comparison trap. He wrote his first one because comparing himself to bigger founders made him feel worse. The page put his attention back on his own company.
The questions to answer
Scudamore says the third step is to ask yourself questions about the future: revenue, team size, press, culture. Here are the questions we use, one section at a time. Answer each in the present tense, on your chosen date.
- Where are we? How many customers, cities, locations or users? What do we sell now?
- Who buys from us? Describe one typical customer. Why did they pick us? What do they tell their friends?
- What does a customer see? The first thing they notice about us, how fast we answer, what the finished job or product looks like.
- Who works here? How many people? What do they say about the company to their family at dinner?
- What do we look like? The office, the van, the website, the uniform, the inbox.
- Who talks about us? The one podcast, show, newspaper or creator you would love to be featured by. Name it, like he named Oprah.
- What are the numbers? Yearly revenue, profit, price. One or two lines, not a spreadsheet.
- What is my week like? What do you personally do, and what have you stopped doing?
4 filled-in examples
These are made-up businesses written to show the format. Swap in your own details.
Example 1: a one-truck local service business
"It is December 31, 2029. We are the cleaning company that every property manager in Tampa calls first. We have 14 crews in branded white vans, and every van is spotless. A customer books online in under a minute and gets a text with the crew's names and photos. We answer every call before the third ring. Our cleaners stay with us for years and tell their families they finally have a boss who has their back. We were featured on the local news as the best place to work in home services. We do $3.2 million a year at a 22% profit. I spend my week with customers and new hires, not scheduling."
Example 2: a solo freelancer or small agency
"It is June 30, 2028. We are a four-person studio that builds websites for dental clinics, and nothing else. Clinics find us through referrals and a page that ranks for 'dental website designer.' Every site we ship loads in under two seconds and books appointments on its own. We have a waitlist, so we charge $12,000 a site and turn down anyone who wants it cheap. I write one case study a month. A dental industry podcast has had me on twice. I work four days a week and never on weekends."
Example 3: a newsletter or creator business
"It is December 31, 2028. Our newsletter goes to 150,000 readers every Sunday, and 52% open it. Readers forward it because it is the one email that gives them a real business they could copy. We sell one sponsor slot per issue and it is booked six months out. Our paid community has 2,000 members at $30 a month. Two people help me, an editor and a researcher. A reader wrote to say our breakdown helped them make their first $1,000 online, and we get a note like that every week."
Example 4: a small app or software business
"It is March 1, 2029. Our booking app runs inside 3,000 barbershops in the US and Canada. A barber sets it up in ten minutes without calling us. We make $90,000 a month, and 95% of shops that pay for two months stay for a year. We have six people, all remote, and we ship something new every Friday. Barbers recommend us in the biggest barber groups online. I spend my time talking to shop owners and choosing what we build next."
The mistakes that kill it
- Writing hopes. "We hope to," "we want to," "we will try." Replace every one with "we are" or "we have."
- Writing only numbers. Revenue alone is a goal, not a picture. Add what customers and your team see and say.
- Writing the plan. Steps and tactics belong in a different document.
- Keeping it in a drawer. His was framed on the wall. Put yours where you and your team see it every week.
- Never updating it. When most of it has come true, write the next one.
The numbers
| Figure | Number |
|---|---|
| Starting truck | $700 pickup, 1989 |
| Revenue when he wrote the first one | About $1 million a year |
| Length | One page, both sides |
| First line | Top 30 metros in North America by December 31, 2003 |
| Goals hit | 96%, by his account |
| Oprah episode | 2003, about 35 million viewers (his figure) |
| Growth with Cameron Herold | $2 million to $106 million |
| How often he rewrites it | About every 4 years |
| Herold's version | A few pages, 3 years out, present tense |
Write yours in 60 minutes
1. Book the hour and leave (5 minutes)
Do this: put 60 minutes in your calendar this week. Go somewhere that is not your desk: a park, a cafe, your car at the beach. Bring paper or a notes app with nothing else open.
2. Set the date (5 minutes)
Do this: write a date three to five years from today at the top. Under it, write one personal anchor: how old your kids are, where you live, what your morning looks like.
3. Answer the 8 questions (30 minutes)
Do this: one short paragraph for each question above. Present tense only. Do not stop to edit.
4. Cut it to one page (10 minutes)
Do this: keep the lines that make you feel something. Cut anything that sounds like a plan. Turn every "hope to" into "we are."
The template, word for word:
"It is [date]. We are [what you are known for] for [who you serve]. We have [customers / locations / users]. Our customers find us through [channel], and they choose us because [reason]. When someone works with us, [what they see and feel]. Our team is [number] people, and they tell their families [what they say]. We have been featured by [the one show, podcast or outlet]. We make [revenue] a year at [profit]. I spend my week on [what you do], and I no longer [what you stopped doing]."
5. Share it (10 minutes)
Do this: send it to your team, your partner or one person whose opinion you trust.
The message, word for word:
"I wrote down where I think this business will be on [date]. It's one page. I'm not asking for a plan yet, I want to know one thing: reading this, do you want to be part of it? Be straight with me."
The answers tell you who is in. Some will say you are dreaming. That is fine. Scudamore heard "hope dope" too.
6. Put it where you see it
Do this: print it. Tape it next to your screen, or make it your phone lock screen. Every 90 days, mark each line: done, on track, or not started. When most of it is done, write the next one.
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Sources
- Brian Scudamore on The Elevate Podcast with Robert Glazer, episode 44, 2019 (transcript)
- Brian Scudamore, "Think Your Way To Success: The Painted Picture Visualization Exercise," O2E Brands
- Brian Scudamore, "How I Daydreamed My Way To A $200M Business," Forbes, May 2018
- Cameron Herold, "How to Write a Vivid Vision"
- CNBC, profiles of Brian Scudamore, 2017 and 2020
- The Globe and Mail, "Brian Scudamore made his fortune in junk"
- Wikipedia, Brian Scudamore
