Cameron Herold: Scaling 1-800-GOT-JUNK? & Lessons for Law Firms

Welcome to episode 40 of The Earley Show podcast, hosted by personal injury attorney Christopher Earley! For this conversation, Chris is joined by Cameron Herold, founder of the COO Alliance and the Second in Command podcast.

Check out the episode below. You can also enjoy it on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

In this episode, Cameron shares insights about his journey from running businesses in university to scaling iconic brands like 1-800-GOT-JUNK, emphasizing the importance of creating a vivid vision, fostering a cult-like company culture, and leveraging media attention. Cameron and Chris discuss practical strategies for law firms to attract the right talent, manage effectively, and the role of mindset and manifestation in achieving success. This episode also covers the significance of listening to team members, handling failures, and the philosophy of giving A-players the freedom to excel.

About our guest:

Cameron Herold is known around the world as THE CEO Whisperer. He is the mastermind behind hundreds of companies’ exponential growth. Cameron has built a global consultancy, and his clients have included a ‘Big 4’ wireless carrier and a monarchy. He has earned a reputation as The CEO Whisperer by guiding CEO & COO clients to double their profit and double their revenue in just three years or less.

Learn more about Cameron Herold here!

About The Earley Show:

For nearly 20 years, Christopher Earley has successfully led a personal injury law firm in Boston. On the Earley Show, a new podcast launched in the summer of 2023, Christopher and other standout attorneys will be sharing their secrets to success, and discussing the law office management habits that have allowed their practice to thrive. If you’re looking to make better use of your time, increase daily productivity or even just spend less time answering emails, you’ll definitely want to tune in to The Earley Show.

Learn more about the Earley Law Group here!

Check out the previous episode of The Earley Show here!

The Earley Show is a part of the Answering Legal podcast network. Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Click here to learn more about 400 minute free trial!

This podcast is produced and edited by Joe Galotti. You can reach Joe via email at [email protected].

Episode Transcript:

Intro

Chris Earley (Host): Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of The Earley Show, sponsored by our friends over at Answering Legal. I am your host, Chris Earley, a personal injury attorney and entrepreneur in Boston.

As always, we bring you the very, very best guests. And today I’m really excited because we have a successful, humble, driven, and dynamic guy with us. Cameron Herold is on the show today. I’ve read a lot of his stuff, I’ve studied his lessons, and he’s built businesses in the way many of us are trying to build our law firms.

So I’m really excited to talk with Cameron and learn a lot. As always, make sure you sharpen those pencils — I’m sure there will be plenty of writer-downers.

Cameron, welcome to the show. How are you?

Cameron Herold (Guest): Good, Chris. Thanks very much for having me. I really appreciate this.

Early Influences

Chris: I was first introduced to you when you were a virtual speaker at PILMMA a few years ago. I believe Ken Hardison brought you on. That’s when I first started seeing your name everywhere.

I read Vivid Vision and I’m really excited to talk about your lessons learned. Could you take us back — growing up, what were some influences? What did your mom and dad do? What did they imprint on you?

Cameron: I’ll go there in a second, but I want to share something before I forget. One of the biggest problems for professionals — lawyers, doctors, dentists, chiropractors, accountants, engineers — is that they never get trained on how to run a business.

You go through years of school, maybe seven years of law school including undergrad, and you come out with maybe two hours on how to hire, how to train, how to market — and then you’re told, “Go run a business.” That’s almost malpractice.

Lawyers end up spending all their time stressed out, trying to manage something they have no experience in.

I was the exact opposite. I had business training and grooming. I ran a business while I was in university. But guess what? My undergraduate degree major was law.

So I have a bachelor’s degree with a law major in Canada. I did private law, public law, corporate law, international import/export, banking, criminal law, employment law, contract law — I did all kinds of courses. So I had enough law concepts and experience to understand the legal world, but I was trained on how to run a company, which most lawyers never get.

It’s really a disservice. I’ve done a lot of work with law firms and dental chains, and I feel bad for you guys because you take some of the smartest people on the planet and set them up for failure. That’s frustrating.

Chris: I’m with you on that.

Cameron: My background was different. I was groomed to be an entrepreneur. My dad ran his own company. Both sets of grandparents ran their own businesses. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family where we were taught to actually be entrepreneurs.

When I was very young — even through most of university — I wanted to be a lawyer. Well, that’s not entirely true: people kept telling me to be a lawyer because I had traits that would make me successful in that field. But what I really wanted was to be an entrepreneur.

So I had that weird background. I ran lots of small businesses as a kid. I had 12 full-time employees when I was 20 years old. I ran my own company for my last three years of university.

That’s really my story. And I was probably best trained as an entrepreneur through a Massachusetts-based group called College Pro Painters.

College Pro became the largest residential house-painting company in the world. The head office was in Toronto, and the U.S. head office was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I worked as a franchisee for three years, then opened the West Coast for them, where I was in charge of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training franchisees.

So I was coaching entrepreneurs back in the late ’80s and early ’90s before “business coaching” was even a thing.

I became a minority owner of an autobody chain that later became Gerber Auto Collision, now the largest collision repair chain in the world. I was then hired as president of a private currency company, which we built up and sold to a U.S. public company.

Then I joined my best friend Brian, who was building a company called The Rubbish Boys — later rebranded as 1-800-GOT-JUNK?. I helped him recruit his first franchisee, and then I joined as COO. We grew from $2 million to $106 million in revenue over six years.

I exited that company 18 years ago, and since then I’ve worked behind the scenes with CEOs and COOs, spoken in 29 countries, and written six books.

Chris: That’s all? Sounds boring!

Cameron (laughing): Yeah, right.

Failure, Resilience & Growth

Chris: So it sounds like you grew up around entrepreneurs, and that was the momentum behind you. Now, some people grow up in entrepreneurial families but don’t end up becoming entrepreneurs. But you — it seems like you were incubated for it.

Cameron: Yeah. And again, it’s very different to grow up in an entrepreneurial family versus just a business background.

A lot of people in the college system wanted to go do their MBA. I wasn’t smart enough to get into an MBA program. I struggled in school. I was distracted all the time.

I have 17 of the 18 signs of attention deficit disorder. In fact, my ex-wife once said, “If you’d been paying attention during the test, you’d have all 18.”

I’m also on the spectrum for bipolar disorder — 11 of 11 traits. So I really struggled with the traditional school system.

But being an entrepreneur? That was different. It was about street smarts, hustle, sales skills, leadership, problem-solving, spotting opportunities. Not the spreadsheets and case studies of a classic MBA program.

Chris: That really resonates with me, and I’m sure with the audience too. It’s all about emotional intelligence, hustle, grind, mindset. We’ll get into mindset later, but you’ve got to have those intangibles.

You could go to Harvard Law, crush it, be a genius — and still fall flat in business. The real world doesn’t reward academic achievement. I’m sure you see that all around you.

Cameron: Yeah. It’s funny — I was talking to my wife about this earlier this year. My wife had a 4.3 GPA. I didn’t even know you could score higher than a 4.0.

But what she struggles with is failure, because she never encountered it in school. When she fails, it beats her up.

For me, failure was constant. From kindergarten through university, I was used to getting 62% on exams, D-minuses, C-pluses. I got one A ever — in a law course on euthanasia and suicide, of all things, because I found it fascinating. That’s it.

So I was used to failure. And as an entrepreneur, you face failure every single day. If you can’t handle it, it’ll crush you.

That’s a big difference between entrepreneurs who bootstrap a company and corporate CEOs who get hired to run a 5,000-person business. Those are two totally different breeds.

Chris: I love that discussion. Failure really is the key.

As you grow, you break barriers, you’re challenged, and sometimes you feel imposter syndrome. “Do I belong here?” But really, that shows we’re in the right spot.

So let me ask — what was one particular moment of failure that stands out to you?

Cameron: I think failure can breed success, but I don’t believe we should seek it out. If you can learn from mentors, coaches, or mastermind groups, that’s better than learning the hard way.

For example: I broke my arms and legs multiple times ski racing. Painful lessons I didn’t need to learn.

But here’s a good failure story: at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we almost went bankrupt.

We were approaching $100 million in systemwide sales. We had 248 people at head office, almost 3,000 systemwide. And we were running out of cash.

We had just spent $5 million on bonuses, taxes, an office renovation, a move — and drained the business. We figured, “No problem, we’ll just go to the bank for a credit line.”

We’d been profitable, had 100% revenue growth six years in a row, had just been on Oprah, were ranked the #2 company in Canada to work for, and had a Harvard case study. But the bank said, “We can’t lend to you.”

Why? Because we’d spent all our money.

We were proud we hadn’t needed financing before — but the truth was we didn’t know how to run a $100 million business.

The lesson? Our head of finance had been warning us to slow down, to be more cautious, to open fewer locations, to secure bank facilities. Brian and I ignored him.

So the takeaway: if you’re not willing to listen to the people you hire, hire people you will listen to.

Chris: That must have been humbling. You were having rapid growth, and then that gut punch.

Cameron: The humbling part was firing 20 people. Calling suppliers and saying we couldn’t pay them. Slowing down growth. Facing the team and admitting we’d made mistakes.

That was humbling.

Culture & People

Chris: Why was 1-800-GOT-JUNK? so successful? Why did it just take off?

Cameron: It takes a long time to become that “overnight success story.”

Here are three things I did in my first year that really propelled the growth:

1. We raised prices by 40%. I came in and said, “No one’s making money. Not you, not the franchisees, not the truck teams. The call center’s being paid minimum wage. This whole model is broken.” So across all 12 locations, we raised prices by 40% in one week. People thought I was crazy. Franchisees said, “We’ll go bankrupt.” And I said, “We’re already going bankrupt.” The choice was: go bankrupt trying to be profitable, or go bankrupt losing money. We chose the former — and it worked. We positioned ourselves as the Starbucks or FedEx of junk removal. Premium brand, premium service, premium price.
2. We built a cult-like culture. If we wanted to attract customers, suppliers, franchisees, and employees, we couldn’t just be a business. We had to be a little more than a business, a little less than a religion. That’s how we built a culture so magnetic people were drawn in. Employees even tattooed our logo on their bodies.
3. We got free PR. We didn’t have money for marketing, but we knew how to get the press talking about us. We’d call newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and bloggers, and share our future vision. Oprah, Fortune, local outlets — we landed stories everywhere. In six years, we secured over 5,200 unique media stories — before social media even existed.

And then a fourth one: we obsessed over franchisee profitability. If franchisees make really good money, they validate the brand, buy more locations, spread the word, and keep the energy up.

All of that created the flywheel that scaled us.

Chris: I love that. Let me unpack a bit. First, raising prices — I’m always telling attorneys, raise your fees. The market can bear it. You don’t want to be a commodity.

And culture — I’m obsessed with culture. Business leaders need to be obsessed with culture. Sounds like you had fanatics.

Cameron: We did. In the early years, we had an employee and a franchisee both get permanent tattoos of our logo. That’s unheard of.

But that didn’t just “happen.” We engineered a cult-like culture. I even studied cults to understand how to build that level of loyalty — but without going too far.

I was even interviewed on the podcast A Little Bit Culty a few years ago about exactly that — how to take the best elements of cult culture and apply them to business.

Chris: That’s wild. What was your focus for building culture? What did you do right?

Cameron: Several things:

• Core values. Not just posters on the wall, but values you live by. You hire, fire, and promote based on them. At College Pro Painters — a company I left 40 years ago — I can still recite their four core values today: deliver what you promise, respect the individual, pride in all you do, and find a better way. That’s culture.
• A vivid vision. A clear picture of the future that gets everyone aligned and inspired.
• A BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). At 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, ours was to build a globally admired brand. Everything we did was tested against that question: does this make us a globally admired brand?
• Hiring only A-players. And letting go of toxic or underperforming people. A-players want to work with other A-players.
• Internal language and mantras. We had sayings like, “Who’s doing what by when?” and “Plan, brief, execute, debrief.” We even banned the phrase “no problem.” From the outside, people thought it was quirky. Inside, it was our secret sauce.

Culture isn’t an accident — it’s built deliberately.

Chris: I love that. But with culture, you’re attracting a specific type of person, right? Not everyone fits that vibe. How did you find the right people?

Cameron: We cast a wide net, but filtered aggressively.

We didn’t even read resumes at first. We’d reply: “Thanks for applying. Before we review resumes, please read our vivid vision, and here’s a recent media article about us. If this excites you, send us a 2–3 minute video explaining how you’d help make this vision come true. Put ‘Group Interview’ in the subject line. If we like your video, we’ll read your resume.”

So the only people we considered were those who read the vision and said, “Hell yes, I’m in.”

That filtered out the ones who weren’t true believers.

Steve Jobs did the same thing. He’d show candidates a wooden prototype of the early Mac, and if he didn’t see their eyes light up, he didn’t care how skilled they were. He only wanted people who were genuinely obsessed.

Chris: That’s so cool. True believers.

Cameron: Exactly. People would raise both hands and say, “I’m in.”

One guy even stood outside our office in Vancouver in a blue wig and sandwich board that said, “Please interview me.” Another franchisee got our logo tattooed on his shoulder.

That’s what culture by design looks like.

Media & PR

Chris: You mentioned media attention earlier. You guys were savvy about getting it. How can an attorney get media attention? Because that’s a win-win — it gets your name out there.

Cameron: Reporters don’t care about “just another law firm.” That story doesn’t sell. You need story angles.

Here are five that any firm can use:

1. The Genesis Story – Why you started your firm. Why not go work for another practice? Why did you choose your area of law? What problem were you driven to solve? These stories inspire and educate. They’re evergreen, so media can run them anytime.
2. The Hero’s Journey – Lessons from the edge. Where you struggled and fell. Maybe you almost went bankrupt, or almost lost something important, but overcame it. Those stories are powerful and human.
3. Client Stories – How your work changed a client’s life. If you’re national, you can localize the same type of story in multiple cities. At 1-800-GOT-JUNK? we did this all the time — landing 5,200 unique stories in six years, before social media even existed.
4. Culture Stories – Everyone “hates” law firms, accountants, insurance companies. But what about the cool law firm? The fun one? For example, a friend of mine started a law firm in Toronto in the mid-90s. Instead of going corporate, he made it feel like a startup: pool table at the entrance, no ties, trendy dress code. They landed the IPO for Research in Motion (BlackBerry) because they were the tech-friendly, cool firm. That story got press everywhere.
5. Technology Stories – How you leverage technology, whether it’s AI or a unique tech stack, to do more with less. That’s interesting to the media.

Each of those angles can be pitched multiple times, to multiple outlets, year after year. It’s not about more stories — it’s about making it easy for journalists, who need a new story every day.

Chris: So would you just call reporters? How did you actually do it?

Cameron: Yeah. In fact, I wrote a book called Free PR that covers this.

We never called the news desk or the city desk, and we never sent out press releases. Here’s why:

Every morning, journalists wake up thinking, “What the heck am I going to write about today?” They’re under pressure. Editors, meanwhile, are drowning in 400 press releases they don’t want to read.

So why deal with the editor? I’d rather call a reporter directly and say: “Hey, I think I’ve got a good story for you. Want to hear it?”

They almost always said yes, because they need content.

That’s how we landed every major story — from Oprah to Forbes to American Airlines’ in-flight magazine. Actual print editions, not just online.

We weren’t asking them to write about us. We were helping them by offering a good story.

Chris: That’s fantastic. And it goes back to emotional intelligence and hustle. Just picking up the phone and asking.

Cameron: Exactly. It’s not about begging for coverage. It’s about solving the reporter’s daily problem: they need a story, and you’ve got one.

Vivid Vision

Chris: Let’s talk about Vivid Vision. Really good book. I know a lot of lawyers listening have probably read it because it’s been circulating in the legal industry.

I read it, wrote my vivid vision, and then a couple of weeks later my key lawyer resigned. At first I thought, “Oh no, the sky is falling, I’m screwed.” But it turned out to be a blessing. He said, “I’m not that guy.”

It felt like rejection at first, but then I realized it was a good thing — for him and for my law firm.

For those who haven’t read the book, could you talk about what a vivid vision is? How often should you share it, whether you have one employee or a hundred?

Cameron: Sure. The vivid vision is a 4–5 page written description of what your company looks, feels, and acts like three years from now.

It’s not just for your leadership team — you want to share it with everyone: suppliers, customers, accountants, lawyers, employees, board members. The idea is that everyone can see what you can see.

Each section of your business is described. For example:

• A paragraph about what your customers are saying about you.
• A paragraph about how employees show up to work.
• One about sales, one about marketing, one about operations, one about finance.
• Even how your meeting rhythms look, or what your dashboards track.

It’s like you’ve traveled into the future, stepped out of a time machine, looked around, and written down what you see. You don’t know how it came true yet — but you can describe the destination so your team can figure out how to get there.

Think of building a home: the homeowner describes what it should look like. The architect then draws blueprints, and the workers build it — without ever having to talk to the homeowner.

That’s the power of the vivid vision: alignment.

Chris: This sounds a lot like manifestation to me. Writing down what you want, putting it into reality, and attracting people who believe in it.

Cameron: It is, and it’s not woo-woo. Quantum mechanics and physics prove that focus matters.

Back at 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, we studied The Secret. We gave every employee a copy of the book and watched the movie together multiple times. We even brought in John Demartini and John Assaraf, two of the featured teachers, to speak in our office.

The key is this: vision without execution is hallucination. You can’t just write a vivid vision and put it in a drawer. You have to share it, focus on it, and then do the work.

I have a vivid vision for myself personally — Cameron Herold 2027. It describes me as a father, husband, friend, speaker, even down to hobbies and lifestyle choices. My wife and I even wrote a vivid vision for our marriage.

When you share your vision openly, others help you make it come true.

Chris: That’s wonderful. I encourage everyone to read the book, write down your vivid vision, and put it into practice.

I’ll admit — I even stole something from Jim Carrey. I wrote a check to myself for an obscene amount, carry it with me, and visualize it becoming reality. That’s my way of putting things into the universe.

Cameron: Exactly. That’s true manifestation — combined with hard work. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and get after it.

Affirmations, visualizations, vivid vision — all of it works if you combine it with execution.

Leadership & Mindset

Chris: You coach a lot of high-level entrepreneurs. What do the best of the best that you coach have in common? What are their mindsets? What do they do well?

Cameron: A few things stand out.

1. They focus on the critical few, not the important many. The best entrepreneurs zero in on the high-leverage activities that drive revenue per employee, margin per employee, and push the flywheel forward.

2. They embrace Who, Not How. The school system sets us up wrong — it teaches us to memorize everything and try to be the smartest in the room. But the best entrepreneurs realize they don’t need to know how to do everything. They just need to know who can do it for them.

Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy wrote a book called Who, Not How. The smartest entrepreneurs live that principle.

3. They delegate everything except genius. Entrepreneurs should spend their time only on the things they’re truly world-class at. Everything else — delegate it.

4. They protect their confidence. That’s critical. The world and the market will beat you down if you let them. Coaches, mastermind groups, strong COOs — these are ways to protect your confidence.

And finally: The CEO has to be the Chief Energizing Officer. You have to bring energy and momentum. Momentum creates momentum.

If you spend your time doing work that drains you, or that you’re bad at, you’re bringing negative energy into the company. That energy spreads.

Chris: That’s so true. People pick up on that. If the leader’s in a bad mood, it drags everyone else down. They stop being culture carriers and become culture killers.

Cameron: Exactly. That’s why entrepreneurs need to pay attention to their own energy — and why they need to surround themselves with A-players.

Letting People Go

Chris: Let’s talk about the tougher side of leadership. Sometimes you realize you’ve got people on the bus who aren’t helping move things forward.

I’ve heard you say before to ask yourself: “Would I enthusiastically rehire this person?” If the answer is no, then you’ve got to make a change.

Can you talk about that? About being honest with yourself and letting people go?

Cameron: Sure. A mentor of mine, Rob, taught me something 25 years ago that stuck: “When you have doubt, you have no doubt.”

If your gut is telling you someone isn’t the right fit, they aren’t. You need to set them free.

If you keep them, you’ll end up excluding them from meetings, pointing out their mistakes, bringing negative energy into every conversation. That ruins their life. You’re not helping them.

Let them go so they can find a place where they’ll be inspired and happy. Even if they end up at the post office, they’ll be better off than being stuck in the wrong seat at your company.

Chris: How do you actually do it? Do you go quick and direct, or more compassionate and explanatory?

Cameron: Always direct, but respectful.

I’ve been firing people since I was 20. If it’s my direct report, I do it myself. And I expect my direct reports to fire their own direct reports.

Here’s how I do it. I say one of two things:

• “I’m sorry, it’s just not working out. It’s not a core values fit anymore.”
• Or: “I’m sorry, it’s just not working out. The results aren’t what we need anymore.”

That’s it. If they argue or push back, I just repeat: “I’m sorry, it’s not working out.”

It’s like being 21 at a bar and the bouncer says, “Sorry, you can’t come in — you’re wearing running shoes.” You can argue all you want — “But my friends are inside!” “But my girlfriend’s inside!” — and the bouncer just repeats: “Sorry, you can’t come in.”

When you’re letting someone go, don’t get sucked into a debate. Stay calm, repeat the message, and let them exit cleanly.

And do it at a time that makes it easier for them — end of day, so they can quietly gather their things. Or let them come in early the next morning to pack up. Always with dignity.

Chris: That’s great advice. Full circle: you bring people in because they align with your values. When that alignment breaks, you let them go the same way — based on values.

Retaining A-Players

Chris: Okay, let’s go to a happier topic. You’ve let go of the wrong fits, but now you’ve got true A-players on the bus and they’re crushing it.

What do you do when you’ve got A-players?

Cameron: First, let’s define it. A true A-player is someone who, for the money you’re paying them, delivers the results you expect and lives the company’s core values and vivid vision.

When you have those people, you want to handcuff them to your company for at least five years.

But here’s the thing: you can’t create one generic “golden handcuff” program. Everyone’s motivated differently.

• Some want a results-only work environment.
• Some want flex time.
• Some want overtime.
• Some want more responsibility; others want less.
• Some want more vacation.
• Some want visibility with the board or with the press.
• Some want to go do speaking engagements.
• Some want to pursue an executive MBA while working.
• Some want to spin off a division.
• Some want equity, phantom stock, or profit-sharing.

The only way to keep A-players is to understand what motivates each one — and then build that into their role.

At 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, for example, I was very different from the other leaders. What motivated me was building a brand so successful that everyone knew I was part of it.

I wanted media interviews, speaking gigs, to be the face of the company alongside Brian. That’s what handcuffed me to the business.

The other executives just wanted a job, pay, profit-sharing. That’s fine. But for me, it was brand equity.

So Brian kept me happy by letting me pursue that, and that’s why I stayed.

Chris: So the key is identifying their “language,” right? What resonates with them at a deep level so they never want to leave.

Cameron: Exactly. My current assistant has been with me for nine years. My head of projects and IT has been with me for seven.

That’s because I’ve taken the time to understand what each of them wants, and then I’ve given it to them. That’s what keeps them climbing the ladder — and makes sure they don’t want to get off the bus.

Life Lessons from Global Travel

Chris: You’ve now been living as a nomad with your wife. You travel a lot — I see you on Instagram in Australia, Cape Town, all over.

What lessons have you learned from that lifestyle — lessons you didn’t learn in business?

Cameron: A few big ones.

1. None of this really matters. At the end of the day, we’re just walking each other home. That’s actually a Ram Dass quote I had tattooed on my arm in Hindi last year in Italy. It reminds me that business is just a way to make money. What truly matters is time with friends, family, your spouse, your community, and yourself.

2. The world is full of wonder. In the last 3 years and 9 months, my wife and I have been to nearly 60 countries. We sold our homes, cars, furniture — everything — and have lived in about 120 Airbnbs.

Every day I’m exploring new neighborhoods, coffee shops, yoga studios, beaches. Even now, I’m in Vancouver, where I lived for 25 years, staying in a part of the city I never spent much time in. I feel like I’m rediscovering wonder daily.

3. Bucket lists matter. My wife and I each wrote down about 120 things we wanted to do, try, explore, or experience in our lives. And now we’re crossing them off.

Two weeks ago, we went paragliding in Cape Town. This summer, we’re heading to Tonga to swim with humpback and blue whales. Those are bucket-list experiences we’re living now.

Chris: That’s so cool. And isn’t that the whole point of being an entrepreneur? Freedom.

Cameron: Exactly. There are three reasons people start businesses:

1. To feel a sense of accomplishment — “I did it.” For a lot of us who struggled in school, entrepreneurship is the first time we really get that recognition. I remember going to my 25th high school reunion — I’d been told all through school that I’d fail. But when I added up all the salaries of my teachers and professors, I realized that in one year, my company’s profit was greater than all of theirs combined. That was my “I did it” moment.
2. To make money. But at some point, money stops mattering. Elon Musk could have been paid $500,000 a day since the time of Jesus and he still wouldn’t be worth what he is today. Clearly he’s not doing it for the paycheck anymore.
3. To have freedom. Freedom to do what you want, when you want, how you want. That’s what my dad taught me. And it’s the one most entrepreneurs forget. They get caught in the flywheel and never step off to enjoy it.

Chris: That’s such a powerful reminder.

Closing

Chris: Cameron, this has been a really interesting conversation. I’ve talked to a lot of people on this podcast, but this has truly been one of the best. I appreciate you very much — it’s been really inspiring.

How can people get in touch with you? You’re not hard to find — you’re all over social media and the internet — but what’s the best way if someone listening is serious about leveling up?

Cameron: Thanks, Chris, I appreciate it.

Instagram is where I share the most and communicate directly, but the best place to start is my website: cameronherold.com.

It’s set up like a link tree. From there you can find my books, my Second in Command podcast, the COO Alliance, my Invest in Your Leaders training — everything’s there in one place.

Chris: Perfect. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom today, Cameron.

Cameron: Of course. Thanks, Chris.

Chris: That’s it for this episode of The Earley Show. Be sure to check out more episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the Answering Legal YouTube channel.