Lee Godbold

CEO of Junk Removal Authority

Lee is the Founder and CEO of Junk Removal Authority (JRA), the leading consulting, support, and marketing agency for the junk removal industry. Lee started his career in junk removal as a one pickup truck operation in Raleigh, NC. Through hard work and a lot of trial and error, Lee and his business partner Christian Fowler, quickly grew their company Junk Doctors into a $3.5 million a year operation. After finding the right formula for success, Lee considered franchising the brand. But instead, he charted a different path – one that would help fellow independent business owners grow without the restrictions and royalties of a franchise. That’s how JRA was born. Since welcoming its first client in 2018, JRA has served more than 400 independent junk removal businesses across the United States and Canada. JRA offers a variety of services all backed by Lee’s personal experience and expertise that he acquired while building his own multi-million dollar junk removal business. Services include a startup Business Package, Digital Marketing services, a Contact Center, Virtual Assistant services, purpose-built Junk Removal Trucks, a Video Training Series, Operations Manuals, a Mastermind Group, and one-on-one Business Consulting. In addition, JRA offers free educational resources including how-to articles and more than 500 YouTube videos. In 2021, Lee founded Nth Zone ™ to expand into other industries and continue his mission to help business owners make more money and live a better life. Nth Zone ™ is currently serving clients in HVAC, Roofing and Moving.

Sam Schick

$10 Million a Year
Junk Removal Business Owner

Sam Schick built one of the largest and most successful junk removal operations in the United States. For 15 years, he ran a 25-truck, 100 employee franchise in the Chicago market that brought in more than $10 million dollars per year. Sam began his career in the optical industry, working as Regional Sales Manager for Lenscrafters for more than a decade. Then, at 48, Sam was looking to make a career change and came across the junk removal industry. After extensive research, he purchased a franchise in Chicago and built the business into the 2nd largest junk removal operation in the United States. Now, 15 years later, Sam has sold that company and is sharing the knowledge and lessons he learned as a Junk Removal Authority (JRA) Consultant. Sam likes to say that “JRA is just like a franchise, but without the teeth!” He provides a unique perspective as someone who worked within the franchise system and can show independent business owners how to compete. As a JRA Consultant, Sam leads a Mastermind Group, provides in-person training to Business Package clients and one-on-one Consultation services.

Bennett J. Grove II

Owner + CEO of
Fire Dawgs Junk Removal

Watch: Interview with Bennett on JRA's YouTube Channel

Bennett Grove is the Founder, Owner and CEO of Fire Dawgs, Inc., one of the largest junk removal companies in the nation. Bennett started Fire Dawgs as a side-business while working as a full-time firefighter. Today, Fire Dawgs is a seven figure, 20+ truck operation with five locations in Indiana. Bennett plans to expand the company into an eight figure business by the end of 2026. Bennett developed the concept of Fire Dawgs from his service in the military, having served the greatest country in the world for 6 years in the Air Force as a firefighter. After serving in the military, he transitioned his firefighting career to the civilian side working for the Department of Defense as a civilian firefighter. He currently works at Grissom Fire Department on Grissom Air Force Base. With help from his fellow firefighters, the business and concept was launched working off duty days from the firehouse with little cash and part time employees. Today, through ongoing re-investment into the business, he has a management team, lead technicians and a customer service team. Bennett will tell you what he enjoys most about the business is building leaders. However, what he loves the most in life is being a husband to his wife and a father to his two little boys.

Christian Fowler

VP + Co-Founder of Junk Doctors

Christian Fowler is Vice President and Co-Founder of Junk Doctors, a $3.5 million dollar per year junk removal business in North Carolina. Christian and co-founder Lee Godbold started the company with just one truck servicing the Raleigh area. Today, the business is a 15-truck operation serving three North Carolina metro locations: Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro. As Vice President, Christian leads the operations and management of the business and plays an integral role in helping the company succeed and grow. In addition to leading Junk Doctors to success, Christian provides advice and leads training sessions for Junk Removal Authority (JRA) Business Package clients.

Gary Snipes

Senior VP of Nth Zone™ Moving

Gary Snipes is a second-generation mover with more than 40 years of industry experience. He's worked in every area of the moving industry from owning and operating his own independent moving company to working at the executive management level for national, multi-million dollar moving brands. Today, Gary shares his wealth of knowledge with moving business owners as Senior Vice President of Nth Zone™ Moving. Gary's moving industry training started at a very young age. His parents owned and operated two moving companies and encouraged their son to learn the business. Gary began his studies by washing trucks and worked his way up through ranks, first joining the moving crews before being promoted to lead driver. Eventually, Gary segued into sales and marketing. He excelled in that field for a number of years and then purchased his parents' two moving businesses so they could retire. For 15 years, he successfully led the companies, bringing in $5 million per year. He later sold both companies for a profit and joined Global Van Lines as their Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Later, he would join PODs as their Regional Director of Operations, and then Dircks Moving and Logistics as Residential Sales Manager.

Melissa Souto

Customer Service
and Booking Expert

Melissa Souto is Director of Sales and Client Relations for the JRA Contact Center. With more than 20 years of customer service experience, Melissa is an expert on how to interact with customers and book more jobs. Melissa is the architect of the Contact Center's structure and training methods and the author of JRA's proven script on how to answer customer calls. She first came to JRA as a call agent over three years ago. During that time, Melissa took over 2,000 calls a month. She was quickly promoted to manage the Contact Center within her first year and helped grow the department into the massive success it is today. As JRA's in-house customer service expert, Melissa hosts monthly training sessions on "How to Book More Jobs on the Phone." She also provides One-on-One Training to give clients a more in-depth and personalized customer service education.

Ricardo Hernandez

Owner of JUNKGUYS DFW