Soft Skills, Hard Truths: Building, Leading, and Letting Go with Cameron Herold and Joe Polish

Cameron Herold shares how to find, hire, and empower a world-class second-in-command to scale your business. From Vivid Vision to the real reason meetings suck, Cameron reveals the systems and mindset shifts that create unstoppable operational teams.

Here’s a glance at what you’ll discover in this episode: 

• How Cameron hired 800 franchisees—and trained them to recruit 8,000 people—in just 4 months, year after year. (Including the obscure system that made it possible.)
• The Hidden Hiring Mistake That Fools Even Seasoned Entrepreneurs: Why "knowing how" isn’t enough—and how one candidate ran for his car mid-interview when Cameron called his bluff.
• The ‘Detail-Oriented’ Test You’ve Never Heard Of: One question that reveals who actually lives what they preach.
• Why most HR departments are wired to reject your best sales candidates—and what to do instead if you want to build a high-performing team.
• Why vivid vision isn’t a ‘nice to have’—it’s the missing piece in every operational system on the planet. (And how it transformed 1-800-GOT-JUNK into a world-class culture machine.)
• The 12 soft skills every leader must master—and why almost none of them can be outsourced to AI.
• How to spot, coach, and scale your second-in-command...even if you're not ready to give up control. (PLUS: Cameron’s blueprint for the COO–CEO relationship that drives results.)
• What almost bankrupted 1-800-GOT-JUNK at $100M—and how ego, not economics, nearly tanked the company.
• Profit Sharing Gone Wrong: How Cameron’s team accidentally created entitlement—and why true performance alignment requires more than incentives.
• The Truth About Golden Handcuffs: Why the best retention strategy isn’t equity, perks, or bonuses—it’s understanding what each A-player truly wants.
• How to stop being a ‘Seagull CEO’—swooping in, crapping on the plan, and flying away. Here's Cameron’s elegant system to keep founders focused without killing momentum...
• The One Agreement Cameron Had With Brian Scudamore: How he gained decision-making power—without needing constant permission. (And how you can use it to scale leadership without losing control.)
• Why the best COOs will drive you crazy—and why that’s a feature, not a bug. (Plus: how to decide when it’s time to upgrade your #2.)
• The Tattoo That Reframes It All: “None of this sh*t matters.” Why Cameron believes your job, your company, and your to-do list aren’t what’s important—and how to build a business that honors life, not escapes it.

If you’d like to join world-renowned Entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network® Event – then apply today for your invitation to attend at https://geniusnetwork.com.

Show Notes

Make It Up, Make It Real, Make It Recur

• Cameron founded the COO Alliance after realizing no global network existed for second-in-command leaders.
  
  
• He co-built 1-800-GOT-JUNK! from $2M to $106M in 6 years using simple, scalable systems.
  
  
• The Vivid Vision concept was born from a painted picture Brian Scudamore shared in EO, and it became the strategic alignment tool used to grow companies.
  
  
• Cameron created his “Invest In Your Leaders” training system to systematize and scale leadership development.
  
  

Guesses and Bets

• He accepted the COO role at 1-800-GOT-JUNK! based on intuition and a shared Vivid Vision—despite not knowing exactly how to execute it.
  
  
• Cameron backed his belief in the power of vivid alignment even before popular operating systems integrated anything similar.
  
  
• Took risks in creating COO Alliance despite no market precedent.
  
  
• Hired people based on cultural fit even if their background didn’t align, trusting in trainability and chemistry.
  
  

The Opportunity Multiplier

• Learned about team building at College Pro Painters, where he led the hiring and training of over 8,800 people annually—experience that laid the groundwork for his operations systems.
  
  
• Getting fired from 1-800-GOT-JUNK! opened the door to building his global coaching and speaker brand.
  
  
• Built trust and rebuilt relationships with past collaborators (like Brian Scudamore) over time, leveraging that maturity into credibility and teachings.
  
  

Creative Integrity vs. Copycat Culture

• The Vivid Vision method challenged typical planning tools like EOS and Scaling Up—offering vision clarity over checklist goal setting.
  
  
• Emphasized the importance of describing a business’s future in story form rather than metrics alone.
  
  
• Believes most systems miss the foundational creative alignment necessary for execution.
  
  

Collaboration That Works

• With Brian Scudamore, their yin-yang dynamic allowed each to lead in their zone of genius.
  
  
• Partnered with executive recruiters to hire well-matched COOs using culture-first filters and vivid vision alignment.
  
  
• Promotes joint ownership over vision and values when onboarding leadership—especially second in commands.
  
  

The Trap of Misaligned Partnerships

• Discusses how COO roles fail when mismatched with the CEO’s needs, style, or company stage.
  
  
• Warns against title inflation—hiring COOs without the budget, strategic authority, or autonomy for the role.
  
  
• Shared personal experience of being fired when the company's needs evolved beyond his strengths—a mature reflection on timing and fit.
  
  

Firing Yourself (and Others)

• “Coach them up or coach them out” isn’t just theory—Cameron lived it, advocating for strategic exits.
  
  
• Emphasizes that firing isn't failure; it's part of growth when fit and function no longer align.
  
  
• Encourages CEOs to delegate all but genius, even when letting go feels uncomfortable.
  
  

The Social Root of Business Problems

• Highlights how emotional attachments to roles or people delay necessary decisions.
  
  
• His own departure from 1-800-GOT-JUNK! revealed the pain and growth that come from identity loss tied to titles.
  
  
• Advocates for founder self-awareness as step one in hiring any second in command.
  
  

Teamwork and the Creative Mind

• Talks about aligning visionary CEOs with process-driven COOs as the ultimate growth hack.
  
  
• Shared how reverse-engineering outcomes from the vivid vision keeps even creative teams focused.
  
  
• Believes companies often overlook training in soft leadership skills like conflict resolution, delegation, and coaching—critical for team success.
  
  

Make It Work (Or Walk Away)

• Filters potential leaders by their reaction to the vivid vision—if they don’t resonate, they're not the right hire.
  
  
• Encourages building your org chart around your future, not your present.
  
  
• Advises to define roles based on what drains you as a founder—then find someone who thrives in those gaps.
  
  

Resources

• 📘 Meetings Suck – A guide on running effective meetings that don’t waste time.
  
• 📘 Vivid Vision – Describes the visionary alignment process that helped scale 1-800-GOT-JUNK!
  
• 🧠 COO Alliance – The only network for second in command leaders.
  
• 🌐 CameronHerold.com – Home for Cameron’s books, talks, and training.