Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Chorman.
Hi Megan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I definitely didn’t start with some big, perfectly thought-out business plan. I started because I needed to figure out how to provide for myself and my daughter during one of the hardest seasons of my life.
I had gone through a messy divorce, then bankruptcy, and was essentially rebuilding my life from the ground up. No matter how hard I tried, everything I was doing wasn’t providing what I needed sustainably or for the future.
I had about $400 left to my name. I asked God, “Do I buy tools to start this business or groceries?” I took a massive leap of faith and pulled into Harbor Freight after watching YouTube videos on the bare minimum needed to get started. I had a willingness to work really, really hard and a desperation deep inside to become more for myself and to show my daughter that I could do this. That she could, too, no matter what she went through in life.
Within about two weeks, I had created I Put Your Junk In My Trunk LLC, was insured and bought marketing material. I didn’t have a truck, trailer, employees, or a pile of money sitting around to start a business. I had a Ford Focus and access to U-Hauls and rented trucks when I could get them.
In the beginning, I did whatever needed to be done. I said yes to everything. It was all worth it, even when I lost money in the moment, because every experience taught me something I needed to learn. There were plenty of times when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but I learned quickly that you don’t have to know everything before you start. You have to be willing to learn, take accountability when you get something wrong, and keep moving forward.
My faith has been the reason my journey exists and the reason I still exist. There were seasons when, on paper, things really didn’t make sense. I had to trust God, take the next step I felt He was putting in front of me, and work like crazy once I took it. I truly believe God can use some of the hardest parts of our lives to build something we never would have had the courage to build otherwise.
What started as me simply trying to survive and provide for my daughter has grown into a profitable, woman-owned junk removal and demolition company serving the Triangle and beyond. We now have trucks, trailers, employees, systems, commercial relationships, and work alongside contractors, builders, homeowners, realtors, property managers, and other businesses throughout the area. I’m incredibly proud that, alongside God, I’ve built a reputation around something that matters a lot to me: doing what I say we’re going to do, communicating, taking accountability, and treating people well.
My life has grown outside of that first business, too. I started as a single mom and ran the company that way for three years. Now, I’m married to an incredible man, Justin. Together, we’ve stepped into real estate investing through Chorman Capital Group. We also started Stump’d, a stump-grinding company, and I’ve continued building my businesses while exploring new opportunities to expand.
Over the last few years, though, the biggest change has actually been in me. As my company has grown, I’ve grown even more as a business owner, a friend, a mom, and a woman.
I started this journey trying to create financial security. Somewhere along the way, God used my pain and my passion for entrepreneurship to teach me resilience, leadership, humility, boundaries, confidence, and how capable I actually am.
I don’t think I’ve “arrived” anywhere yet. I’m still building. I’m still learning. I still make mistakes, and there are still hard days, Very. Hard.Days. But the woman who started with a Ford Focus, $400, and absolutely no backup plan would be pretty amazed by the life we’re building today.
And that’s what I want my daughter to look back on when she faces hard seasons in her own life. Because she will. We all do. Those experiences can build us if we choose to let them.
That’s my favorite part of the story: paving a path of strength and resilience while learning how to become soft through it all at the same time.
We do not have to let our pain or the hard parts of life define us.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No could not be screamed loud enough. Where do I begin? HAHA
Being a single parent and running a company will make you or break you. It has broken every version of me that ever existed before and has needed to be broken to become who I am today. There’s still more breaking to be done. Growth is a journey, and I’m a life long learner.
As you know, we’re big fans of I Put Your Junk In My Trunk LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The easiest way to explain I Put Your Junk In My Trunk is that yes, we remove junk, but really, we solve problems for people.
Sometimes that’s a homeowner completely overwhelmed by a garage, attic, or entire house. Sometimes it’s an emotional estate cleanout. Other times, we’re doing demolition or hauling debris so a contractor can keep working instead of spending their day making dump runs.
We handle junk removal, cleanouts, interior and exterior demolition, and construction cleanup for homeowners, contractors, builders, realtors, property managers, and businesses throughout the Triangle and beyond.
What really sets us apart, though, is how much I care about the experience people have with us. This industry can have a reputation for being a guy with a truck who may or may not show up. 😂 I wanted to build the opposite of that. We’re insured, we have employees, we communicate, we show up, we protect people’s homes and job sites, and we take accountability when something doesn’t go as planned.
I built a brand that looks like me because I never wanted to feel like I had to become more masculine just because I chose a male-dominated industry. I can pull up to a demolition job in an F350 , large pink dump trailer, back it into some of the tightest places effortlessly, get dirty, work hard, run a professional company, and still be completely myself.
The pink Fleet and funny name make people remember us before we have completed job, but are remembered because of how we made them feel, how we handled their home, property and etc and the way we communicate. What I’m most proud of is the reputation behind the “Pink”. I want people to come back because we did what we said we would do, did the job well, and treated them well while doing it.
What were you like growing up?
Oooh, I was rough, loud, boisterous, opinionated, funny, weird, and I definitely learned most things the hard way. 😂 I’ve always worn my heart on my sleeve, loved hard, and had a personality that was difficult to miss.
I grew up on a farm in North Dakota until I was 10, then we moved to “the city.” Eventually, at 17, I moved to Minnesota, California, back to Minnesota then back to California and eventually North Carolina now since 2016.. I know growing up on a farm and working for my dad who eventually sold the farm and became a handyman to contractor builder, gave me some of the grit I still carry today. Hard work wasn’t really optional, it was just part of life. Easy has never existed.
I’ve also always worked. I’ve never been afraid to find a way to make money or figure something out. As I got older, I became a stylist for a total of 18 years, inside of there I found a real passion for health at a functional level, fitness, and the mind and entrepreneurship.
I LOVE learning. I love learning about people, why we do the things we do, how we can become better versions of ourselves, and how our experiences shape us without having to define us. Looking back, I know a lot of who I am today was already there when I was little. I just had absolutely no idea what to do with all of it yet and it was just summed up into two words. “Too much”, but I’m grateful for being too much because it’s who God created me to be. Yet in His eyes. I’m enough 😃
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.iputyourjunkinmytrunk.com
- Instagram: ipyjimt_llc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meganschauf360/
