Category Archives: Leadership

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2022 State of the Moving Industry

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares his thoughts about the current state of the moving industry in 2022.

  • “The moving industry is in the middle of a major transition with the old school making its way out and the new class of movers coming in to take over. So, take note, if you are in the old school way of doing things, it’s time to adapt or die.”
  • “I’m sure you have noticed that things are shifting in the moving industry right now. And it’s important that you understand how you may need to adjust some things in order to keep up with the current evolution that’s happening.”
  • “If you have been following me for a while you know that this is my mission. My whole life is dedicated to helping moving companies reach the next level, avoid unnecessary stress and struggle, and live a better quality of life overall. We need everyone in this industry to step up as leaders“
  • “When owners start to give their teams what they need to succeed… When the team steps up to elevate the level of service the company can provide…  And everybody works together to create a work environment with a rewarding and winning culture… that’s when things will really change.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

***ANNOUNCING MOVING MASTERY SUMMIT 2023!***

OCTOBER 12th – 14th in Scottsdale, AZ!

Come and spend three days with us in Scottsdale and let me personally give you the latest moving business strategies and NEW systems and processes that today’s fastest-growing and most successful moving companies are using!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Join the Louis Massaro Group: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for business owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!

Latest Instagram!
Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your company to the NEXT LEVEL!

RELATED POSTS

Book More High-Paying Moves

How to Conquer Moving Season

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My Secret to How I Win Each Year

TRANSCRIPTION

This industry is in the middle of a major, major transition from the old school moving its way out and the new class of movers coming in to take over this industry. And I know many of you are in that new class. Some of you are in the old school that are, “I need to adapt or die,” right?

I mean, that’s the seriousness of where we’re at. Things are shifting, things are changing. It reminds me of when I was spending, once I opened up my five, six locations, I was up to $250,000 a month in yellow pages. That was my yellow page bill. And then all of a sudden yellow pages stops working, and I have to learn internet marketing out of nowhere.

But in that time, which reminds me a lot about the time that we’re in right now, this was about 2007, 2008, a lot of companies didn’t pivot, a lot of companies didn’t adjust, and they didn’t make it. They didn’t make it. Those of you that know me, have been following me for a while, you know this is my mission.

Literally, my whole life is dedicated to helping moving companies reach that next level, avoid the unnecessary stress and struggles that go with the day-to-day if we don’t go into it with a plan, we don’t go into it with intention. And the same way that I was able to pivot and adjust and learn that new way of marketing, there’s new things that need to happen now. Right?

There’s really, if you think about it, the moving business, there’s only two things you’ve got to do, book moves, service moves, right? Book moves and service moves. But how we do that, it’s different in the times. And you’ve heard me talk a long time about the need for a sales machine.

You’ve got to have a lead come in, a phone call come in and a machine that just turns that into a booked move. But now, we’re in a state in 2022 where you’ve got to have a hiring and training machine to go with it. Right? And the same way that movers took for granted the yellow pages, and didn’t recognize that they were stopping to work or just complained about it, “They’re not working anymore. I’m not getting any more leads,” I see movers today taking for granted the hiring.

Right? For years, it wasn’t so hard to hire and get people on the trucks and train to go out and do a good job. It’s tough. Who’s having a challenge with hiring movers right now? Let me see it. Okay. So the difference between the companies that are succeeding at high levels, which I see a lot of them in here that are just absolutely crushing it, and those that are going to continue to struggle are the ones that are succeeding, recognize that they must have the hiring machine and process down.

No complaining about the labor market and the shortages and the… “Man, I can’t believe these people show up for an interview” or “They don’t show up for an interview.” Right? Or the things that they say. Or we hire them and then they don’t show up. This is the name of the game.

So there’s some things happening right now. Right? The world is an uncertain place. We’ve got some people that are creating chaos in the world in different countries. We’ve got things going on in North Korea, we’ve got things happening in Ukraine from Russia. What’s that going to do to our economy? What’s happening with fuel prices?

What do we need to do to adjust? Right? I see so many people stuck like a deer in a headlights fearful about what’s going to happen. And I just want to tell you that regardless of what happens, the only thing you can control are the actions that you take, the way you lead your team, the way you set up your systems, the way you implement your processes, that’s it. We can’t control what’s going to happen.

Fuel goes up, okay, fuel goes up. You could deal with it. Your prices go up, right? There’s a labor shortage, all right, let’s put more attention, let’s put more effort on our hiring. Everybody here, at least the person who purchased the ticket, right? And I know some of you got dragged into this, but everybody here understands that we need to step up in our business.

And when we do, there’s huge opportunities right now, like nothing before. This industry right now is on fire. It’s on fire. And for the people that know what they need to do and are staying ahead of the trends and ahead of the curves, they’re raking it in, right? They’re raking it in. They’re making a major impact for their team, for their families, for their customers, and they’re raking it in.

Right? But in order to take advantage of these huge opportunities that we have, we need to learn some skills, we need to develop the capabilities that make us the person to form the team inside the company that could go out and take advantage of these opportunities and capitalize on them. So who feels optimistic about this next six months to a year right now? Let me see, who feels optimistic?

If you don’t, then you don’t have to put it up. All right. Now, who feels like it’s in the shitter, the world’s going to hell, there’s nothing we could do? Anybody? Nobody? Oh, I saw one, but that’s me doing this. Okay. All right. Well, good. Good. All right. So at least we’re starting off on the right foot.

What we have today is we also are coming out of the pandemic. And there was some people in this industry, I don’t know if you guys remember, I remember we were set to do a live event, which was supposed to be in-person live event, two weeks before it, we canceled it. We went virtual. You guys have seen, we’ve stepped it up since our first virtual event.

So, but how many of you just felt like when the pandemic hit, “Oh shit. It’s over. This is it. It’s all done. What’s going to happen now?” Right? But for a lot of people, it turned around and became the most lucrative 18 months that you’ve ever had in your business. Who crushed it throughout COVID? Who crushed it through the pandemic? Okay.

So what we got to understand is, look, there’s, and there’s still a lot of people moving, right? But things happened that we didn’t anticipate. Things happened that we didn’t anticipate that caused a lot of people to move. Right? Plus you got the PPP money, right? A lot of people were sitting good through the pandemic.

And this year I noticed, and I was saying it all last year, if you guys were listening, that we don’t know what’s going to happen in the off season between 2021 and 2022, right? The year before, there was no off season. Everybody stayed busy right through the winter.

But when it slows down and you feel that crunch and you feel that tightening of cash flow in January and February, and your mind starts to second guess everything you’re doing, you start to doubt yourself. You start to think, “Am I really good at this business, or did I just get lucky?”

This is what I used to feel. My first year in business, I soared past the off season because we were just had a good momentum. But my second year, I thought it was going to be the same way, the same way I see companies doing now, thinking that because COVID just had us going through the winter that winter wasn’t going to slow down. I was in for a rude awakening.

When all of a sudden moves dried up, cash flow dried up and I’m scrambling just to make payroll. We need to realize that that’s part of this business. Sure, we could talk about and look for ways to boost some additional services in the off season to help, but the answer to solution is maximize moving season. So you make so much money in season that you have the cash reserve to deal with whatever slowdowns come January and February.

Right? My rule became all right, let’s crush it through moving season. Let me have some money in a cash reserve account. Let me get myself through January, February, and March. And when April comes in it starts to pick up again, then I could grab the money and go buy something, do something, get a property, whatever I want to do with it.

Right? But that’s behind us now. But what could we do for next year? What could we do to make sure that we’re in a position where we’re financially strong? We don’t have to start thinking about what do we cut back, what do we cut off, who do we lay off. And we just recognize that this is part of the business.

So I’m saying that because everyone who might be sitting in a position, “Man, we’re good. We made it,” you’ve got to really focus right now. You’ve got to make sure that you go into this moving season. That’s why this day is about this next six months. Intentionally maximizing your profitability, so that next year there’s no issues like that.

I’m also seeing in the industry right now that there’s a major lack of leadership. What does that mean? It means that I’m seeing teams. And when I say I’m seeing, guys, I have access. We’ve got hundreds, 600. I don’t want to say a thousand. I can’t remember the-. Let’s just say hundreds of companies that I work with, that I’m seeing what they do.

We’re surveying them, we’re talking to the owners. We know what’s happening. We’re seeing the inner workings of these businesses. And they’ve got people that they’re not leading. They’re trying to grow, they’re trying to advance. We’ll talk about the four levels of moving companies. They’re trying to advance to that next level, but they’re not leading their team.

Doesn’t mean they’re not a leader. I believe we’re all leaders and we all need to step up. It just means that they’re not leading. Okay. We have to demonstrate our leadership. And that goes for everybody on the team. I don’t care what your role is. I don’t care what your position is in the company. You’re all leaders. You lead somebody in your life. Isn’t it true?

Do you not lead your children, your spouse, somebody you mentor, somebody in your community, somebody in your church? You lead somebody. And if you don’t lead anybody, the first person and the number one person you need to lead is yourself.

So I want to challenge all of you today to step up as leaders and do what you need to do. Not for the company that you might work for, but for yourself. Because how we achieve great things in our life is starting where we stand and the position we’re at and doing great things today in that position. So we’ll talk more about leadership and what that’s going to take.

I’m also seeing that we’ve got owners and employees that aren’t united, and that kind of goes back to the lack of leadership. If this feels like a little bit of a gut check, Hey, I’m talking to you the way that I talk to myself or I talk to my private clients, or I talk to the people closest to me when I know it’s time for them to step up.

I’ll look at myself in the mirror and say, “Listen, [inaudible 00:14:14] you got to step up. Your team needs you to lead them right now.” Right? So I’m not coming at you. Just letting you know, we all need to step up. The world needs more leaders right now. The world needs more people to step up and not ask, “What can I get? What could I get out of this situation?” But instead, “What can I give?”

The stress and mental health issues are through the roof in this industry right now. The stress levels of teams and owners, I’ve never seen anything like it. So the way we start to fix that is we start to take some personal accountability for our own actions. We start to step up in the workplace and start to feel proud of what we’re a part of.

So that when we go home, we bring that same sense of accomplishment, where we walk in that house holding our head high. And instead of yelling at the wife and kicking the dog, we’re hugging and kissing our spouse and bringing some positivity back to the home.

And this is such an important time because as we go into moving season, I see people just throw this shit out the window, “You know what? Relationships, my health, my stress, don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with it after moving season.” And no, we’ve got to do it today.

So when we step up, when we become leaders, when the company starts to give the team what they need to succeed, and the team gives the company what they need to support the company, and everybody works together and you get to spend eight hours a day of your life on this planet, in an environment with a rewarding and winning culture, the stress level changes.

That impacts your families, that impacts everybody you interact with, that impacts the customers that you deal with. You guys got to realize something, there’s a lot of talk online, everybody’s got to have a purpose and everybody’s got to give back and all of that.

And you know what? I don’t think most people in this industry realize how much they give back and how valuable your position is. Whatever you do, whether you’re a mover, a dispatcher, a moving consultant, customer service, bookkeeper, warehouseman, CEO, manager, whatever you do, understand moving is one of the statistically, one of the most stressful things people do in their life.

And you have an opportunity to impact that. You have an opportunity to be a part of the transition from their old home to their new home. In the last 12 months, I’ve moved twice across country. I was reminded of how stressful it is to have your whole life uprooted, put in a truck by strangers and then taken away. And then having to resettle.

There’s so much that you could do on a daily. A lot of people, “Well, I wish there was something I could do. I wish there was something I could do. The world needs help, people need help, what could I do?” And I believe that everyone has their unique part to play. My part is to help to raise the standards in this moving industry.

That’s my mission, to raise the standards in the moving industry. How do we do that? We do that, this is my company Moving Mastery. This is what we do. We help give you guys the tools, the training, the resources, the mindset of how to be thinking about this business. How to be thinking about your role in this business.

And guess what happens when you raise a standard? Your prices go up, your profits go up, your people are happier, your customers are happier and you feel proud of what you’ve accomplished in building your business. Who feels proud of their business? Let me hear it right now. Let’s see. Show me, who feels proud of where you guys are today?

Listen, it bothers me when people don’t realize how important it is, what they do in this industry. We get so caught up in it. It’s, “Oh, book a move, service a move. Oh, there’s a claim. Fuck.” It just becomes routine. But I want you to start thinking about every single one of those customers, they’re going through something.

And even though they don’t call and thank you and tell you how you made their transition so much easier, think about the opposite. Think about when things go wrong, how they’ll make you feel like you ruin their life. Right? And so even though you don’t get the reminder from them about how you played a major impact in that smooth transition, remind yourself of that. I know that. I want to remind you of that.

Everybody here. We’ll talk about each role in the business and what it is that everyone can do to help that. But today’s mission, today’s mission, we’re going to raise the standard of this whole industry, starting with the people here. Okay? You guys are going to raise the standards. Because when you raise the standards, you’re going to be one of those companies that are far exceeding everybody else.

You’re going to be one of those companies that are just breaking through all those industry averages and all those numbers that quite frankly would make me not even want to be in this business. If I knew what the industry averages were before I got in this business, I’d be, “That’s a lot of work for that.” Right?

And so we’re going to talk about where you really need to be when it comes to earning in this business, making money in this business. But we do it all by making that transition for that customer smooth and seamless and stressful.

Posted on

How to Eliminate Overwhelm

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares how to eliminate overwhelm to keep you pushing forward under pressure.

  • “If the feeling of overwhelm doesn’t occasionally creep up in your life, you’re probably not pushing the limits of what you’re truly capable of. The key is to be able to get out of feeling overwhelmed and keep moving forward.”
  • “In order to succeed at high levels, you’ve got to be able to get out of feeling overwhelmed quickly, so that you don’t get consumed by it. That doesn’t mean you should be living with overwhelm, or that you should just accept it as a way of life.”
  • “But if you’re going about things in the correct way, overwhelm is likely to creep up on you once in a while and it’s important that you know how to get out from under it. Because having the tools to be able to stay calm, cool, and collected under pressure will help you continue moving forward and stay focused on what really matters.”
  • “It’s a part of being human. Everyone will experience overwhelm sometimes, in business, in our personal lives, it’s going to happen. So it’s important to have these tools in your bag and be ready to go when the time comes to get out of feeling overwhelmed and keep pushing forward.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

***ANNOUNCING MOVING MASTERY SUMMIT 2023!***

OCTOBER 12th – 14th in Scottsdale, AZ!

Come and spend three days with us in Scottsdale and let me personally give you the latest moving business strategies and NEW systems and processes that today’s fastest-growing and most successful moving companies are using!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Join the Louis Massaro Group: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for business owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!

Latest Instagram!
Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your company to the NEXT LEVEL!

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How to Escape the Daily Grind of the Moving Business

My Secret to How I Win Each Year

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Posted on

Biggest Issues with Your Moving Crews

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares the biggest issues you might experience with your moving crews and how to mitigate those problems.

  • “The success of your moving company relies completely on your marketing to sales to service consistency. And being able to overdeliver on that service that you promised to your customer all depends on your movers.”
  • “A lot of moving company owners will say that the biggest challenge in the business is dealing with crews. And I think they are right. It certainly takes a lot of work to hire, train, and manage your movers.”
  • “And while most of your movers are great people, from time to time some issues can arise that you will need to deal with.”
  • “Your movers are the face of the company. They’re the ones going out there every day, doing all the physical, back-breaking work. Dealing with customers and going into people’s homes. So naturally, there may be some problems that arise.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

***ANNOUNCING MOVING MASTERY SUMMIT 2023!***

OCTOBER 12th – 14th in Scottsdale, AZ!

Come and spend three days with us in Scottsdale and let me personally give you the latest moving business strategies and NEW systems and processes that today’s fastest-growing and most successful moving companies are using!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Join the Louis Massaro Group: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for business owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!

Latest Instagram!
Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your company to the NEXT LEVEL!

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Posted on

My Secret to How I Win Each Year

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares his secret to how he is able to win each year and maintain a consistent level of peak performance.

  • “If you don’t have the tools, the mindset, the equipment, everything that you need to operate at your absolute best… As a business owner, your company is going to be a reflection of that.”
  • “As we make our way through 2022 it’s important that you are prepared to make it an amazing year for your business and your life. And the key to being able to thrive this year is to make sure that you have everything you need to fulfill your role as the leader in your business and be able to perform at your best.”
  • “I know I’ve had times where I wasn’t performing at my absolute best and I watched as my business suffered because of it.”
  • “I didn’t have the mindset, tools and other elements in place that would allow me to lead my team effectively and fulfill my vision for my company. I discovered that I needed to put some specific things in place to keep myself and my business from sinking down low when things got tough.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

  1. Join the Moving CEO Challenge: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for moving company owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!
  2. Latest Instagram!
    Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your moving company to the NEXT LEVEL!

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Posted on

How to Motivate Your Employees

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares how to motivate your employees.

  • “If you give somebody something to do and they don’t do it, you have to start to understand human psychology and why that is. You’ve got to understand what your team really needs from you to perform their best.”
  • “There are certain things that need to be in place if you’re going to get your team to be motivated and do things the way you want them to.”
  • “If you’re trying to incentivize them with money and bonuses, and you’re just dangling a carrot expecting them to perform their best because you’re paying them to… It’s not going to work.”
  • “There needs to be some fundamental leadership culture-building cornerstones in place that will allow you to build better relationships with your team and keep them motivated.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

  1. Join the Moving CEO Challenge: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for moving company owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!
  2. Latest Instagram!
    Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your moving company to the NEXT LEVEL!

RELATED POSTS

How to Manage Sales in Your Moving Company

How to Run a Virtual Moving Company

How to Achieve a Millionaire Mindset

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TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
I want to talk about some fundamental leadership culture-building cornerstones here that will allow you to build better relationships with your team and keep them motivated because a lot of times it’s not a question of motivation. You know, a lot of what I’ve heard we recently over the last month is like, I’ve got this new whatever position or I’ve got somebody that’s been with me for a while and I just can’t get them to do what I keep asking them to do. I keep talking to them, I’m telling them what to do. I’m telling them what to do, I’m going over what it is, but they’re just not doing it. And people are coming to me and saying, well, I’ve got a bonus structure that I want to put in place to incentivize them to do what it is I’m asking them to do.

And repeatedly I’ve been saying, it’s not a matter of money that is the motivation, right? There’re other factors that bring motivation into the mix. And it’s not just about money, right? And I don’t believe that you need to incentivize every person in your company to do their job. I think there’re certain areas that require certain incentives and certain bonuses, which we’re going to talk about. But other than that, I think we just need to have certain criteria that are solid. And for me, it was a real struggle when I first started, I didn’t know how to get people to do what I want them to do. My mindset was I’m putting in the work, I’m figuring this stuff out, you figure it out and I would just give somebody a project and tell them to go handle it and expect them to figure out all the steps on how to do it, and then not only figure it out but then figure out on how to do it and how I would’ve done it and how I wanted it done.

And after a while of wondering why aren’t they doing it the way that I want them to do it? I started to shift and learn some different ways of managing and leading. And that’s what I want to talk about today. It’s really important. We don’t want to constantly be having to hire and train new people, right? Movers, absolutely. Sales people, sure. Those two positions, that’s part of growth. You know, that’s something that you need consistent hiring and training with, but everybody else in the office, you want to start building that relationship with them, building that culture with them, to where they have a true motivation other than the carrot and the stick, right? The here’s the carrot of this bonus if you do your job and here’s the stick and the punishment of what’s going to happen if you don’t do your job. Coming out of season, we’re starting to stabilize a little bit, right?

It might have felt like the wheels are coming off the bus with this busy, busy summer and we need to really not only get our systems and our processes in order, we want to take a look at how we’re interacting with our people. So one of the things is if you give somebody something to do and they don’t do it, we have to start to understand human psychology and why that is, right? What are the reasons? And one of the things that comes up time and time again when I’m talking to people and we’re kind of going through the scenario, well, talk to me, what have you trained them on? What have you talked to them about? When you have these conversations, what are you saying to them? What do they say back to you?

I’m trying to understand and diagnose the problem so I could help them with a solution. And what I’ve come to realize is the one thing we’re going to talk about what your employees and what your team needs from you. Okay. It’s not money, right? So let’s not think that we’ve got to motivate everyone with money. We will talk about that, and there is a place for that, but that’s secondary because if these key areas aren’t in place that we’re going to talk about, and you’re just dangling the carrot, and dangling money, it’s not going to work. Right? The first thing you need to do and the first thing your team needs is they need to know the steps, right? And stick with me if this sounds obvious, they need to know the steps of what it is you’re asking them to do. You’re trying to get your operations manager to hire movers, right?

You’re like, hey, we need movers, this is the process. This is what we need you to do. What I want you to ask yourself is, do they know all the steps, meaning first, starting with what’s the next step, right? When you send somebody off to do something, when you delegate something, whether it’s something you delegate or it’s a full-on, that’s their position, they’re taking ownership of it and they’re going to run with it. Do they know the next step to take? Do they know the next step after that? Right? The ability to take a project and chunk it down, meaning, if you say to somebody, hey, we need to hire 10 more movers.

That’s a project that needs to be chunked down into manageable actions. And what happens is as business owners, as entrepreneurs, that’s what made you make the decision to go in the business and to do things on your own is your ability to take something big and complex and break it down. But not everyone has that skill and not everyone has that ability. So we want to look at it because all problems that are happening in our companies are either people or the process, right? And before we blame the people, we want to look at how we’re interacting with the people. So it sounds so simple. It sounds so simple. But if you’re having trouble getting someone to do something, okay, if you’re having trouble getting them to do something, just look at it and say, do they know the steps?
You’ll save yourself so much time, energy, frustration, stress, if you give up on this idea that if I could do it, they could figure it out, right? Like they should be able to figure this out. There’s a reason that you are the CEO and there’s a reason that they work for you. It’s not a matter of you being better than them. It’s not that, okay? But we can’t assume that just because we’re able to break down complex stuff they’re able to break down complex stuff. And so this goes back to processes, right? Do they have the process? And it could literally be something so simple. Let me tell you why this creates a challenge because the person on the other end isn’t going, hey, you didn’t give me the steps, I’m not going to do it, it’s not that. They feel stuck.

They feel stupid, right? They’re afraid to ask for advice because you’re coming to them like come on, you should be able to do this and what might be stopping them, what might be preventing them from actually following through could be something so small. So small. I went through this for the last month with private clients and it was something so small and it would seem insignificant, right? After you place the ad for the movers and they call in, there was a void, right? I’m thinking of one scenario, there’re an operations’ manager and there was a void on what to do next. What’s the actual step? So if we’re going to set them up on a phone interview, what’s that step? I’m spending a little extra time on this because I know you’re like, yeah, Louis, I know they need to know the steps, but it’s so critical.

So this is all kind of a self-check if you will, on everybody on your team that you’re trying to get to do stuff, that’s not doing it the way you want to do it, I want you to start looking at how you are addressing it, make sure they know the steps. They need that. Okay. They need to know the exact steps. That’s the importance of processes, which we talk about all the time. The next one is what they need. Now, remember we’re talking about motivation, right? And when somebody’s not good at something, they’re not motivated to go do it. If you go to the basketball court and all you do is throw air balls up and just embarrass yourself, you’re not really wanting to go back, but if you start to get good at something, you’ll want to play more, right?

In psychology, it’s called competence, confidence loop. The more confidence you gain at something, the more confident you get at doing it, the more confident you’ll get, the more confident you’ll get. So when they know the steps, that’s how that all unfolds. Right? And so now they’ll be more motivated. We’re talking about getting them motivated which we’re removing all these little blocks that are causing them to just either go from motivated to unmotivated to possibly dreading their job, to getting back to a position of enjoying what they do and being motivated to help the team succeed as a whole. The next thing they need is clarity on goals and roles. They need clarity, right? Ask yourself, your team that you have, are they clear on the company’s objectives? Are they crystal clear on what it is you’re trying to accomplish?

Do they know what their goals are as an individual or in their department, right? What you’re trying to achieve, what you’re trying to attain, and then do they know the role that they play? Number one. Okay. The role that they play and the role that everyone else plays. So a role is who’s responsible for hiring movers? Who’s responsible for checking the voicemail when you come in on a Monday to see if there’s anyone that needs a request for a quote, right? Who’s responsible for what roles? So there needs to be clarity on this and I could tell you, because I’ve recently gone through a team change and just last week had a meeting on goals and roles to make sure that everyone was crystal clear on the goals of the company, and also to make sure that their crystal clear on their role and everyone else’s role.

Because what happens is when we… The mistakes happen in everybody’s company, right? A lot of times when we pass the Baton or when we pass the ball, we talk about dropping the ball. Well, most of the time when that happens, it’s because I got it, no, I got it. Like somebody didn’t know who’s role it was to have the ball at that point or there was no clear handoff to the next person. So you want to make sure that they’ve got clarity on the goals and their roles and your goal you could make it simple. Like, don’t feel that you’ve got to expose everyone to all your personal goals. I mean, listen, our goal is to serve customers at a very high level to perform a quality move and make an extraordinary profit while we’re doing it. Think about a goal that in one sentence you could clear up a lot of miscommunication, right?

It’s like, hey, they want to ask a question, well, should we do this? Or should we do that? Well, our goal of our company is to provide excellent service and make an extraordinary profit. Based on that, what’s the answer, right? If they’re clear on what the company objective is, what certain initiatives are. If you’re trying to roll out something new and if you’re trying to hire a bunch of new movers and you need to make sure that the people that are involved understand the importance of that and the overall goal, this is what’s going to allow us to do it. It’s not just about, hey, I need you to do this thing where they don’t understand that the thing you’re asking them to do has a bigger purpose, has a bigger cause.

I’ve found out over the years that a lot of times when we delegate and we ask our team to do stuff, they think you’re just giving them busy work. Right? They think you’re just trying to come up with stuff to have them do and if they understand the goal and they understand their role in achieving that goal, that creates motivation. Then I hear it all the time, it’s like, I’ve told them, or I’ve told her a bunch of times I’m like what’s a bunch of times? Like just curious, I don’t know, three, four, or five times. And what I tell everybody is you’ve got to have consistent conversations on expectations. When it comes to leadership, I’m sure we all wish we could have robots working for us that we could program and we could say, do this thing and you told it once and it’s going to go do it, but that’s not the reality of it.

And our mind starts going, I shouldn’t have to tell them this over and over. I shouldn’t have to tell them this over and over. I shouldn’t have to tell them this over and over. And so we start to just have a whole negative outlook on that person. When the reality is, there’s a lot of moving parts that they’re dealing with and we’ve got to have consistent conversations about expectations. Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. Like if you’re struggling to get anyone to do anything in your company, slow down the initiatives, slow down all the new stuff you’re taking on and spend time with consistent conversation, repetition, repetition, repetition. I had someone ask me, Louis, I’m running out of topics for my mover meetings.

I’m running out of topics for my mover meetings. And I’m like, well, why do you need new topics? You’re still struggling with these three things. Keep talking about those three things over and over and over and over, right? Don’t worry about sounding like a broken record. That’s okay. That’s how people finally get it. And where we mess up, and what I messed up early on, I know some of you too, is that feeling of I shouldn’t have to tell them more than once. That’s your job, you should know how to do it, but this is leadership, right? It’s not programming robots to go do their thing. So consistent conversations. Anything that you want to have done, you probably could do five times more of the conversation than you’re currently doing. I wouldn’t even say double the conversation. You could probably have five times more of the conversation.

You talk to somebody about something once a week. You could probably talk to them about it every single day. This doesn’t need to be a meeting. It doesn’t need to be a sit-down meeting, whatever consistent message that I want to get across to my team, I use different formats. I’ll do a voice memo on my phone. Hey, just a reminder, what we’re working on today, and here’s the goals, here’s your role in this, send that out. Send that out, send that out. Right? I don’t need to go have a big meeting and sit down and waste time, but I want to make sure that there is a consistent conversation going on about expectations, right? And I think holding people accountable for their expectations, once they clear on their roles that’s management, right? That’s leadership. That’s part of owning a business.

We can’t allow people to sit because we’re afraid of the confrontation that might come from the conversation of that consistent message. We could do it in a soft, delegate way. It’s not like, hey, I thought I told you to do that. Like it’s not that. So the next one is in order to make sure they stay motivated. Because what happens is when they’re in an environment that they enjoy and this is possible guys, don’t think because you have a moving company and you’re not Google or you’re not Facebook or all these cool places that people talk about working at that you can’t have people that are there motivated to do a good job because you can. Right? It’s just all the stuff that shrinks them and brings them down and demotivates them.

And then we try to dangle money out and wonder why that’s not working either. They also need a safe place for questions and feedback, a safe space for questions and feedback. Basically, don’t shoot the messenger. Right? You guys have heard that. Don’t shoot the messenger. Matter of fact, hug the messenger or maybe right now from a distance. But embrace the messenger. You’ve got to allow for a safe space for people to ask questions. And there’s two parts to this. They need to be able to come to you and come to management with questions without you blowing up on them. Okay. We’re all guilty of it. Right? We need to be able to create that space and create that communication chain where we’re communicating on expectations and part of the expectation is how to communicate.

But when people bring stuff to you, you want that, you want to create an environment where all your employees are comfortable coming to you and telling you about all the problems and you got to like even if you got to suck it up. Okay. Thanks so much for sharing. Okay, thanks, I’ll let you know and you close the door and then you’re like mother, after they leave and they don’t hear you and you’re really truly pissed off and you want to tear some stuff down, hey, that’s you, don’t put it on them. Right? Because the first time you do that, the first time, they’re done coming to you with stuff, they’re done coming with things that could be really helpful to help the company, they’re done asking clarifying questions and in my company that’s a term. I can ask a clarifying question, which basically means I ask them to do something they’re not clear on exactly what it is and they need clarification.

And you want that because you don’t want to send somebody off and they’re not quite sure exactly what you want from them. Right? And so we’ve got to create this space where they could ask questions. It also goes when you’re sitting with somebody and the first part here was they need to know the steps. Right? I don’t know the percentage of people, if I had to guess, I would say at least half of the population is scared to raise their hand and say I don’t know something when the person in front of them is talking to them as if they should know it. And then when it’s an employee whose job it is to know that, you have to create a safe space where they feel like it’s okay to go.

When you’re like, hey, I told you, you need to put the ad in for movers. If they’re like, I don’t know how to post an ad and you’re not like what do you mean that you don’t know how to post an ad? You’ve got to create a space where they feel open to talk to you about what they don’t understand. Right? Because you rapidly, you guys think about everything that goes on in your head from morning tonight and growing your business and all it is you’re trying to do and all you’re trying to get everybody else to do. First of all, it’s not everything they’re thinking about like it is everything you’re thinking about. And it’s hard to keep up with all of it. Plus changes. Right? I mean, there’s always changes being made. People are trying to keep up with that stuff. They need to be able to ask questions on what’s going on. And you want to also, when you have conversations with people, be open, be vulnerable, show some weakness in that conversation. Okay.

Stick with me here, show some weakness in that conversation. Meaning, if you come to your team in a way of where it’s like you know everything and they should know everything. You’ve got to show, even if you’re exaggerating it a little bit, you’ve got to show look, I know this is tough, I used to struggle with this myself. We’re just really trying to get everybody on the same page and I totally understand if this is super confusing right now, just feel free to ask me as many questions as you need.

Even if you know it’s not super confusing, even if you know that they should get it, create that space that allows them to not go, okay. yeah, I get it, and then you wonder why they’re not doing it. Allow yourself to show a little vulnerability and a little bit of your weakness and like, oh, I used to struggle with this too because they’ll be like, oh, okay. So it’s okay that I don’t get this. It’s okay that I’m not understanding. This is what they’re thinking in their head. It’s okay if I ask a question, I’m not going to look stupid. People are so afraid of looking stupid, they’d rather not ask the question and then try to figure it out, and then we’re stuck going, why aren’t they doing it the way they’re supposed to do it? All right.

So the next one is what they need to know. These are all things they need to know. They need to know you care about them. They need to know you care about them. One of the things when I teach delegation, people will talk about is guilt. One of the reasons people don’t delegate is guilt. And it’s this feeling of, I need to let my team see how hard I work because if they see how hard I work, they’ll work hard. If they see how hard I work, they’re going to respect me. And the reality is, and just having been there. When I started, I had all my friends, I recruited all my friends to work for me. My first six, seven employees, all friends, other than a bookkeeper. And I felt the need to work just as hard or like, come on, we’re in this together.

And the reality is, they don’t care how hard you work, they just need to know that you care about them, right? That you treat them like a person, that you acknowledge them, ask them how their day is. I don’t mean like chit-chat bullshit water cooler stuff, you don’t need to sit and have a conversation with every single person on your team about everything they did over the weekend. Right? Because we also need to be efficient. We’ve got stuff we need to get done. But they need to know you care about them as a person. You care about their job and them being successful, and that not every interaction is like just go get it done, or why didn’t this get done? Why didn’t that get done? Because what this does is this builds up like an emotional bank account where when you do maybe blow up a little bit, they get it and they understand it, and you’ve had a bad day, but they truly know that you care about them.

I would switch the idea in your mind that they need to know how hard you work, that you need to prove to them that you’re a hard worker, you don’t. Prove to them that you care because when you prove to them that you care, you come to the office for two hours a week and they’ll respect you for it. They’ll respect you for it. And I know that’s hard for a lot of overachievers. A lot of people that are like, I’m in this, let’s make this happen, but we want freedom. Right? So this is like a double bonus here. Show them you care, you don’t have to work as hard to get their respect.

They just want to know that you respect them as a person. That’s all. Okay. So let me just recap those points. Things they need to know to stay motivated to go from feeling like about their job, where there’s like, okay, and go through the motions, we want to start lifting them up. Okay. And this happens with a consistent following of these principles. Number one, make sure they know the steps of everything they need to do. If they’re not doing it, it’s because they don’t know the steps. Just lay out the steps, walk through it with them. Don’t make them feel stupid. Let them know you know what? I know it’s a lot. Right? I get it. Let’s chunk this down. Let’s make it more actionable. And you start to train your team on how to take big projects and chunk them down into actionable steps.

Make sure they know the steps. Make sure they’ve got clarity on the company and department and personal goals, as well as their roles in achieving that, and everyone else’s role. Consistent conversations on expectations. Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. Remove that thought. Okay. You’ll know the next time because you’ll hear my voice. The next time you go I shouldn’t have to tell them that again. I shouldn’t have to tell them again. Right? We can’t look at that and say you shouldn’t, we’ve got to look at it and say, what could we do to correct this issue? Because at the end of all this, if they’re still not doing what they’re supposed to do, then it could be a people problem. It could be that they’re not the right person and that happens and that’s okay and that’s part of the business. Make sure they’ve got a safe space for questions and feedback. Right? Don’t shoot the messenger, embrace the messenger. Let them see you care about them. Okay. So that’s what will help you motivate them and make them more positive about their job.

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How to Achieve a Millionaire Mindset

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares some tips on how to achieve a millionaire mover mindset.

  • “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t grow up saying, “I want to be a mover!” or “I want to own a moving company when I get older!” Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful that I got to build the business that I did. And I hope that, as a moving company owner, you enjoy what you do on a day-to-day basis. But, really, this business is just a means to financial freedom.”
  • “You go out there, you serve your community, you do a good job for them, and with that, you deserve to make money. Hopefully a lot of money. So that you can enjoy your life.”
  • “It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep. It’s about how much money you’re able to use and enjoy. How you’re able to set yourself up so that you’re comfortable, so that you don’t have to worry and stress. And how much you could help contribute to others and give back.”
  • “A lot of times, business owners are just focused on growth, without really thinking about what is leftover at the end of the day for them to live their life.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

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Transcription

Louis Massaro:
All right. What’s up, guys. Welcome to the Moving CEO Scaling series. I think we’re on day three, episode three. I’m Louis Massaro for those of you just joining us, founder, CEO of Moving Mastery where we help moving company owners set up proven systems and processes in their business to increase profits, reduce stress and live a better quality of life.
In this 14-day series that I’m doing here with you live, we are talking about scaling your moving company, taking it to the next level, establishing what works and taking it to that next level so that you can take your life to the next level, whatever that is for you. Today, we’re going to be talking about stabilizing your money and your mindset, specifically. All right?
If you’ve joined us the last couple of days, you know that in order to scale your business, you first have to do two things. You’ve got to stabilize the business that you have now and then you’ve got to systematize the business that you have now. So, we’re still talking about stabilizing today.
We’re going to talk about scaling, whatever that means for you. Whether you just want to become a hometown dominator and dominate your market, whether you want to open offices throughout the country, whether you want to franchise, whether you want to get into different lines of business and eventually sell. Whatever scaling is, it’s different for everybody. It’s different for you.
We’re talking about how to do that in these episodes. And the reason that I’m doing this is because I know we’re coming out of a really busy summer. And a lot of times, that could build a sense of sometimes false confidence that like, “Wow, this is great. This is working. Let’s just go open up another office. Let’s just build and build and build.”
And I love that. I mean, I help companies do that all day every day, but you’ve got to do it the right way. Okay? Otherwise, it turns from scaling into suffering and I want you to scale, and I want you to scale with sustainable success over the long term. Anybody could get busy for the summer.
Anybody could make some money in one year. It’s about making money consistently over the long term, building a business that you’re proud of, building a business that if you want to pass it down to your kids, you could do that. If you want to sell it when you’re ready to get out, you could sell it and get out. That’s what this is about. That’s what this whole entire series is about.
We’re going to talk about your money, okay? Your money, right? There’s the business’ money. You don’t get to keep all that money. We want to talk about the money you get to keep for you.
I don’t care how much revenue you do. Right? I know that’s a marker. I know that’s a goal that we need to set in business, but that goal needs to be determined based upon the money that you want to receive in your life so that you could live your life. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t grow up saying, I want to be a mover. I want to own a moving company when I get older. Right?
And so, I hope that most of you enjoy what you do on a day-to-day basis, but this business is a means to financial freedom. You go out there, you serve your community, you do a good job for them, and with that, you deserve to make money, a lot of money.
And depending on how well you’re able to execute your business, how well you’re able to grow and scale that business, will determine how much of that money you get to make. But a lot of times, I see it all the time. People are just focused on growth, growth, growth, growth, growth, without really thinking about what is left over at the end of the day for them to live their life. Okay?
So, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. And we’re also going to talk about mindset. Really the mindset around money. The mindset around scaling your business and what it’s going to take to really get there. I see you guys on Instagram over there. What’s up six pack moving. I love it. [inaudible 00:05:39], what’s happening? All good.
I wanted to get this message out there because I want to make sure that you take advantage of this time, October through March, the next six months. You might become at a moving season. It might be busy.
The next six months is scaling season. The next six months is the time to really put your strategies in place. Get things implemented. Take a step back, slow down a little bit so that you could make sure that you’re going in the right direction, because there’s nothing worse than going out there every day, putting everything you’ve got into it and then looking back and realizing that you’ve been on this climb and you’ve been climbing the wrong ladder that’s on the wrong wall, or you’ve been climbing the wrong mountain, right?
We want to make sure that the work you do every day is taking you where you want to go for you and your life. Right? And I know you know this, but we all get caught up in that sometimes. And it can seem like the business is everything. And what we want to do is we want to set the business up. We want to stabilize it first right now so that it doesn’t feel like everything in your mind.
Then we systematize it so that you could start to build other aspects of your life up at the same time because the business is systematized. Then you look at it and go, “Okay, this isn’t such a chaotic thing. I can increase business without increasing my stress. I can make more money without bringing on more burden and more work for myself. Let’s scale this thing,” right? That’s what this series is all about. So, thanks for being here.
All right. So, we’re going to talk about money and mindset. When I got started, I would say that the thing that really helped me was the mindset of feeling like, “You know what? I see people making money in this business and if they could do it, I could do it.”
I had no reason to believe that. Right? Barely graduated high school. Didn’t go to college. I just felt like if it could be done, I could figure out how to do it. That was the one thing I had going for me. And just every day saying, “There’s got to be a better way. Problem happens, there’s got to be a better way. Guys don’t show up for the job, there’s got to be a better way.”
And luckily, I also had a mentor early on that talked to me about the importance of really setting up my financial future, my financial life and looking after my money. We see what happens a lot of times with people that get money quick, right? Athletes, superstars, a lot of times, without any proper guidance, the money slips right through their hands, right?
And it’s not just my belief, it’s anybody that’s really financially literate and smart about their money understands it’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep, right? It’s about how much you’re able to use and enjoy, how much you’re able to set yourself up so that you’re comfortable, so that you don’t have to worry and stress, how much you could help contribute to others and give back.
I was lucky enough to have a mentor that said, “Look, you need to get a financial advisor. You need to set up a portfolio. You need to start thinking about that type of stuff.” Because here I was, 19, making no money, 20, eh, 21, started making some money, right? 22 started making some money, 23 going into 24, I was a millionaire from this moving business.
And I’m not saying that to brag. I’m really saying it to show you what’s possible. And it doesn’t have to take this long, extended period of time if you’re on a straight line and you’re not on a merry-go-round. And I’m just so grateful that I started to invest money, put money away, learn how to treat the money when I get it, because I didn’t know that stuff before. I didn’t grow up where anybody was teaching to me about what the right thing to do with money was.
And so, luckily, I’m so grateful that I learned that early on, because one day you’re not going to want to do this anymore. Right? I’m sure you’re like, “Louis, I don’t want to do this anymore now.” Right? Let me know if you’re like, “Hey, I’m done.” Right?
When you know that you’re working towards something, it’s a whole different feel every day. It’s a whole different feel when you go to the office and you have to deal with this and deal with that, you start to look at it as, “This is something that I get to do because I’m going to this place. I’m going to be living this life. I’m living this life now.” Right? That’s what allows you to… Really, it softens the blow on any challenge that you’re having day-to-day in your business.
So, what we want to do is we don’t just want to build a business. Okay? We want to build a life and you want to build a business that could sustain that life. And a lot of times, we just need to zoom out, business talk, business world, business environment, it’s business, business, business, business. And you could get totally lost and miss the whole point of all of it. Right?
So, we’re going to talk about money and mindset. Let’s get into it. Let me give you guys some good points here. First one is, what’s your number? Okay? No, I’m not asking you out on a date and what your number is, right? What’s your number that you need to live the life that you want to live and be done working when you’re ready to be done working? Right?
What is that number? How much do you need to personally take home every year in order to reach those goals? So, my recommendation is to get yourself a financial planner. Okay? A lot of times people will feel intimidated by that feeling that they have to actually move forward with somebody, but go and get yourself a plan. Don’t wait till you feel like you have enough money to do it. Right? Go see somebody, a financial planner who can help you establish, “Oh, you want to live this life. This is what you’re going to need to earn every year.”
And let me show you how that projects out over time. Let me show you how it’s going to adjust for inflation. Oh, you have two kids, they’ll be going to college at this year. Let me show you how much it’s going to be for that. Right? What about your parents? Are they self-sufficient or are you going to need to take care of them. And really lay out a plan for you so that you could determine, “Do I even need to scale? And if so, how big do I need to scale?” Right?
Really the first rule of scaling is, do I even need to scale? Most people, including myself, you have no clue about how much money you need to live the life you want to live unless you have that type of professional help to get you there. Okay?
It doesn’t mean you have to move forward with it, but it could be a real eye-opener to say, “Hey, you know what, why am I working so hard to go two ways? Why am I working so hard and trying to do all this extra stuff when in reality, everything that I want in my life and the future that I want, I could make that happen now with the money I’m making?” Okay.
When you come to that realization, it’s like, “Why work so hard? Why not enjoy life?” Right? But we get caught in this, “I got to scale. I got to grow. I got to scale. I got to grow.” So, it’s one way. You might realize, “Hey, I’m good. Let me start to build my life up alongside of my business,” right? Profit and thrive.
You guys know profit in business, thrive in life. You want to do both. You want to bring both up at the same time. So, if you’re already where you need to be, then you could smooth things out, stabilize, get the business automatically running so that you could live your life.
Or you realize, “Man, I’m way behind. If I want to live this life in the next few years and I want to be able to live this life in the future and do these things, it’s going to require me to consistently bring home X amount per year in order to do that,” then you know where you need to go. Right?
So, first step in this whole process is, make a list of everything you want. Make a list of your wish list, right? Put a spreadsheet together. You don’t have to do it on a spreadsheet. What’s up, [inaudible 00:15:33]. I see you there. You don’t have to do it on a spreadsheet, but make a list of everything you want and then figure out how much it’s going to cost.
And there’s no right or wrong. You want five cars? Great. Go figure out what the payment is. Put it in the spreadsheet. You want to take five vacations a year? Okay. How much are you going to spend on each vacation? Figure out what that’s going to cost.
You want a nanny for your kids, you want a cook? Whatever it is, this is your life. But you’ve got to determine on a monthly basis what’s that going to cost you? Once you have that number, of course you could start backing into some of this yourself, but you go to a financial person. Somebody that is also able to understand tax implications and what you have going on. Because again, it’s not about what you make, it’s about what you keep.
And in order to live that life, you got to figure out what’s that number, right? When you have this, man, it’ll just put everything in perspective for you. It’ll make everything so much less stressful. Even if you’re like, “I’m making $200,000 a year. And in order for me to get where I want to go, I need to make $600,000 a year.” Okay.
Once you know where you need to go, believe me, you’ll figure out the way to get there. If you are here, if you’re listening to this, you’re somebody that knows, “Hey, there’s a better way out there. Let me go look for it. Let me go find it.” You’ll find it.
But if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll spin around in circle, right? So, figure out that number. Okay? What it’s going to take to get you where you want to go, what it’s going to take to live the life you want to live.
Then once you have that, you need budget and buckets, budget and buckets. So, budget, personal household budget, right? More so for your stress level than anything else. Knowing, “Hey, I don’t…” If you ever feel guilty about buying something, or you feel stingy, you find yourself being stingy. “No, we can’t buy that right now. We can’t do that right now.” That feeling is not the feeling of abundance. And it’s not the feeling that’s going to allow you to really grow wealth.
Some people could do it that way, for me, I don’t want to do it that way. Right? If I’m saying, “No, we’re not buying it,” it’s because the household budget says, “We just can’t afford that right now.” Right? And it’s simple. We understand. No big deal. Right? If we want that, we need to increase that number.
So, just look up budgeting, free budgeting softwares. There’s stuff out there that you could just help you do this. It’ll put all your numbers in from your bank accounts, it’ll help you do it. More than anything, it’s just going to give you clarity. You and your family. Right? And people could feel good again about spending money. You need to feel good about spending money.
Then buckets, right? And this is something that your financial advisor could help you put together, but you want to create some buckets for the money, right? So it’s like, if you think about it, we’ve got the money that comes in from the gross, all the moves you do, the storage, whatever other services.
Maybe you’re doing junk removal, cleaning, storage, whatever. The money is coming in. You’ve got all your cost of good sold, you’ve got your expenses, trickles down, trickles down, trickles down. Then there’s money left over to go to you. Now, you’ve got to pay taxes, right?
So, there’s just money coming out every which way, but then what’s left over, right? You want to decide what you’re going to do with that money? What kind of buckets you want? So, I’ll give you a few examples of some buckets. You have a safe bucket, money that you are putting in safe places for your future. Your IRA, 401k, insurance, life insurance, annuities, your home, right? Your house that you buy. Those are safe buckets.
And so, let’s say you’re making, I don’t know, $500,000 a year and you got to figure out, out of that, what are we going to put where? Okay? Because if you don’t, let me tell you how easy it is to just start spending that. “Ooh, I want that nicer car. Ooh, I want that bigger house. Ooh, let’s take that trip.”
But if you’re like, “No, X percent goes to that bucket, X percent goes to that bucket and X percent goes to that bucket,” then it makes those decisions very, very easy. And it allows you to say, “Okay, if we want more, we need to just make more.” But we’re moving everything forward towards that goal of being done one day.
Let me tell you, it’s heartbreaking to see someone, and I’ve witnessed it with several friends and friends of the family that made a lot of money growing up. Watched them like, wow. Drive a nice car. This looked like they were on top of the world. Beautiful homes. And then later in life, struggling. It’s one of the saddest things to see. It really is.
So, I don’t want to be that old guy preaching like, “Save your money,” but it’s really true. It makes it so much easier if you first identify that number, you got your safe bucket, right? Now you have an investment bucket.
In the investment bucket, mutual funds, indexes stocks, real estate, companies. You want to buy companies. Now you have money that is there just for investment purposes, like more risky stuff. It’s not the safe bucket. It’s riskier, but there’s higher reward. Right?
Then you really want to start thinking about your lifestyle bucket also. Right? It’s not all about just putting money away. You want cars, you want boats, you want planes, you want trips, you want jewelry, you want to make major contributions and be in philanthropy and use your money to help. Now you’ve got a lifestyle bucket, right?
So, with the buckets, every dollar that comes to you after the business and the taxes and all that, you have it allocated. This is going into our safe bucket. This is going into our investment bucket. This is going into lifestyle and contribution. It starts to stabilize this. It starts to systematize this. Right? You want to make it to where you don’t think about it whatsoever. Right? Okay.
So, moving on. We’re coming out of moving season. Hopefully, you made a ton of money. Keep a cash reserve coming out of every moving season. Okay? If you happen to be watching this and you’re in a different business, whenever you’re really busy time is going into your slower time, keep a cash reserve.
I learned this the hard way my second year in business. My first year in business, I opened up in February, went through the summer and then kept growing through the winter. And I was like, “Oh, wow, this is great.” I went and bought a house, came through summer again, and then all of a sudden things, I felt to slow down. Right?
And I didn’t have cash reserve. I made it through, but it was tough. And so, going into the winter months, you really want to take a percentage. Even if you took 5% of your three busiest months in the summer, 5% of whatever the gross was, and just put it aside and said, “You know what, I’m going to hold this money until the spring.” Just so that if it slows down a little bit, you’re prepared.
I’ve been there before. I’m sure a lot of you have been there before also, but to be in a position where you’re scrambling for money… When the recession hit and it was like, oh my God, all this stuff was going on. And I was literally had to go through, I had six locations at the time, I had to go through all these bills.
Yeah, pay that one now. Nope, don’t pay that one. Hold off on that one. Send them partial amount. It’s time consuming. It’s draining. It’s the worst. And a lot of people, what they’ll do is they’ll stop their marketing because the funds are slow, but you can’t stop them. You can never stop the marketing. That needs to keep going because that’s what’s going to bring in the business.
So, keep yourself a cash reserve right now. Okay? Just put some money aside and say, “You know what? In the spring, I’m going to take that money and do whatever I want to do with it.” I don’t care what you do with it in the spring. You should really feed it to your buckets. Your safe, your investment, your lifestyle.
But you want to take the whole thing and buy something insanely ridiculous? Go for it, but don’t be in a position in the winter months in your business where you don’t have the cashflow that you need to really make stuff happen. Right?
All right. So now, that was the money portion of this, right? We’re going to talk more about accounting as we get into stabilizing, we’re going to talk more about business stuff and systematizing that later on in the series and money when it comes to scaling as well.
Right now, we’re just stabilizing. That’s all we’re doing. This isn’t everything you need to know about money. This is like, “Let’s get things stable, then we’ll systematize, then we’ll scale.” All right? So, let’s talk about some mindset stuff.
So, let’s talk about mindset, right? Mindset. This was something that started me off right away at the beginning. I was 19. I had no clue, no money, no experience, no education, but something in me made me believe that, “Wow, these people are out here making money in this business. If they can, I can.”
This is what you need to think about. Maybe you’re in a place where it’s seeming really hard right now. Maybe you’re in a place where it’s seeming really difficult, but the reality is, that’s what happens every time you get to that next level, and that next level, and that next level, right? It’s like you’re playing a video game, and I haven’t played video games in years, so I’m thinking Mario Brothers, right?
And you get to the next level, it’s a little bit harder. You get to the next level, it’s a little bit harder. But you figure it out. Right? And you keep going. So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed at all, if you’re feeling any type of, “Man, look at that company. They’re so big. I don’t know how they did it, how they got there.”
I want you to think, “If they can do it, I can do it. If Louis could do it, if Louis could start out of a truck rental yard with no money, two rental trucks, a yellow page ad and that’s it, and take that business to $20 million a year and be done and out of the business before 40, I could do it. I really believe that.”
I think the people who won’t be able to do it are the people that aren’t open-minded enough to say, “You know what, let me absorb all the knowledge. Let me absorb all the information. Let me listen to people that have been there. Let me get mentors. Let me get coaches. Let me read books. Let me take courses and find out the better way.” Right?
I knew I could do it because every day, I kept a little black book in my back pocket. Right? Every problem I had, I wrote it in there and I went and looked for the solution. I went and looked for the answer. I still do that today, but I use my phone instead of a little black book. If they can do it, if I can do it, you could do it. All right?
You could get to where you want to go. Everybody’s got a different dream, a different vision, a different number of what they want to make. Some people are like, “Louis. I just want to make a hundred thousand dollars for myself.” Great. Go do it. “Louis, I want to make a million dollars a year for myself.” Okay, go do it. Right?
There are people struggling in this business. I could have been one of those people that was… I could still be in that truck rental yard right now. Right now. I might sound like I know some stuff about the moving business, I didn’t know it then. Right?
This is years of learning, and making mistakes, and applying new techniques and strategies. I didn’t know it then. Don’t look at me and go, “Oh, he knows all this stuff.” I didn’t know it. I had to learn it. But I could still be sitting there in that truck rental yard, pulling my hair out, going to work every day, coming back, the grind, the grind, the grind.
No, I had a different vision for what I wanted. I made myself a millionaire in a business and I created a life that I’m blessed, blessed to have. And there are a lot of people that made a lot more and are making a lot more money than I ever made in the business. Right?
So, if you’re in this business, you’re in a vehicle that will allow you to get to where you want to go financially. The thing I hate to hear the most is people are like, “Well, let me try this business. Let me try that business.” To me, that’s dabbling. You will never succeed dabbling.
Find one thing that you know they’re making money. Really people are making money. Okay. Focus in on that. Once you get that on point, if you want to do another business and diversify, that’s fine. But get one thing on point and know that if someone else could do it, you could do it. Right? So, hopefully that’s little words of encouragement for you guys. I want to see you get there.
And I haven’t been doing this now going on four years, helping moving company owners reach that next level, the amount of people that I’ve helped transform their business, it’s incredible. So, to me, it’s just, that’s what fuels me is the satisfaction of seeing other people do it.
I personally just don’t have the desire to build and grow and dominate like that anymore. But I want to help those that do, and I want to help those that are struggling to just break through to the simple stuff of like, “Hey, I just want to get this thing running smooth. I just don’t want to be dealing with these problems. I just want there to be some money left over at the end of the day.” Right? So, just know you could do it.
Next thing is talking about mindset. Okay. Compare yourself to yourself. Comparison to others will ruin you. If you want to look at someone in your market that’s got 20 trucks and just say, “Man, that’s awesome. Good for them. I want to get there at some point.” Great.
But what you don’t want to do, you don’t want to be comparing yourself constantly, which is this social media culture that we’ve created of people comparing themselves to people that they see online. Everybody’s showing their highlight reels. I know a lot of you are in my Facebook group, our members. I know there’s other Facebook groups with moving companies. Not everybody’s in there really telling it how it is. They’re bragging about stuff. And I’m not calling anybody out, I see…
People will hear about someone that’s doing this or doing that and they feel like, “I’ve got to be doing this thing. I’ve got to be doing that thing. I’ve got to be doing this thing because that guy does it and it’s successful.” Right?
You’ve got to stay in your lane and work on what you are working on and keep it focused on what’s in front of you. Because if you start comparing yourself to other companies and all that they do, sure, there’s somebody that’s successful that does everything. There’s somebody successful doing local moves, long distance moves, commercial moves, military moves, junk calling, cleaning. You name it. Installations, deliveries. There’s somebody doing everything.
And what I don’t want and what I see happen is I see people, they’ll see, wow that person’s doing something and they totally abandon their mission and like, I got to look into that thing. And I got to look into that thing. I’m here to tell you that when I tell you about my journey and the money I was able to make in this business, the first seven years in this business, all I did was local moves. That’s it. That’s it.
Millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. Only local moves. Every day, we get phone calls for long distance. We just give them to somebody else, right? Not even give them. Just, “Hey, call this van line.” We don’t even know them. We just pick somebody out of the phone book and send them there.
And it’s because I wasn’t comparing myself and going, “Wow, that company’s got all those tractor trailers. I need to get these tractor trailers. I need to do that.” Use what other people are doing as motivation, but don’t compare yourself to others because a lot of times people aren’t even really, they’re over-blowing what it is they’re doing. Overstating what they’re doing.
I do my best to under-exaggerate things, right? Under-exaggerate, believe it or not. I know it might sound like I’m bragging a lot, but I really do try to keep it less than reality. And so, you don’t want to be comparing yourself to other people.
Watch when you’re on social, or when you see people, or when you hear people talking that you don’t do this, because what happens is, the ego will cause you to do something and make a move before you’re really ready to make a move, to open that second office, to get into that other line of business when you’re not ready to do it yet. Right? Because your mind is like, “Oh, I got to get to that point.” Right?
So, you want to compare yourself to yourself. How am I today compared to how I was last year? How am I today compared to how I was last month? Right? Last week. Every week I do an assessment, I do a little journaling exercise, how that week went in the different categories of my life. And I rate myself.
I’m looking to get better, to be a better version of me, not to be better than somebody else, not to be somebody else. Right? So, yes, if they can, you can. Believe that. But as you’re doing that, don’t be in a comparison mode to where it makes you feel bad about you and where you are.
Everybody’s on a different journey. You don’t know what really people have going on. You don’t know the help they might have behind them or the financial help or whatever the case might be. Right?
So, just compare yourself to yourself, but do that. Keep track of your progress of how you’re growing as a person, how you’re growing as an individual. For years, for years, for years, I knew I’m not good at running my numbers or knowing my numbers. I need to get better. I need to get better. I tried it and I got better, I got better and I made that progress. Right?
You’ve got to develop as a person to be able to grow your business. So, just watch that. Compare yourself to your previous self. All right? Then for mindset, as you’re going on this journey, you know what your number is. You’re like, “Okay, I got to make this a year. I’m going to come up with a plan,” which we’re going to be going over in the rest of this series. You believe that you could do it.
As you’re on this, strive to get what you want satisfied. It took me a while to learn this, but it’s one of the best things I ever learned. And what this means is, go after whatever huge, giant aspirations you want to go after, but while you’re doing it, be satisfied with where you are.
A lot of people will be never satisfied, always hustling. And you know what, that doesn’t make for a peaceful, enjoyable life. Right? And I used to be that way. So, I could say that without judging somebody for being that way. And the reason I was that way is because I felt that if I didn’t have that, that I’d lose that edge, that I would lose that I needed that, right? That that was my fuel to keep going. That was my fuel to get to the next level.
And the reality was that it was just not bringing me any type of fulfillment. And here’s what I could tell you, no matter… And this isn’t just for me, this is… I study people, I surround myself with good people, I have good mentors, I have good coaches and no matter what level you’re at, there’s always more.
So, if you don’t ever flip this switch and change the narrative in your mind from, I’m never satisfied, got to get more, got to get more you will never be satisfied. And there is always more. I don’t care how much you make. There’s more for Jeff Bezos. There’s more for Bill Gates. There’s more for all these guys. There’s more.
So, the quicker and the sooner that you can just learn to say, “You know what, I’m going to strive for what I want, but I’m going to be satisfied today where I’m at.” And I’m just here to tell you that it won’t take away your edge because what do you want? Do you want that edge? And do you want to build a hundred million dollar business and be miserable?
Or maybe it takes away a little bit and you don’t go to a hundred million, but you make enough money to live the life you want to make and you’re happy along the way, I’d take the second option all day long. All day long. That’s why I’m choosing to do this now. Because I’m good. I’m good where I’m at.
And you might say, “Louis, but I’m not good where I’m at.” I bet you you’re better off than you were at previous points in your life. I bet you there was a time when maybe you first got your first job and you were like, “Wow, look at this paycheck. 300 bucks,” right?
There was probably a time where that felt like it was a big deal. You got your first apartment. You’re eating Ramen noodles. You’re like, “Wow, this is great.” Right? You’re decorating the place. Then you get a nicer place and a nicer house. And always look back at how far you’ve come and be satisfied with that, knowing that you’re still going forward.
The best place that you can be that you want to get to, that you’ll never get to unless you shut that switch off that says, “I’m never satisfied,” is a place where you’re like, “Life is great. I’ve got everything I want. And everything from here is just a bonus.” Right?
I enjoy the business. I enjoy the game of business. I enjoy it. This is a business, right? Smart moving is a business. I help other businesses. I enjoy that. But I also feel like I’m good. Everything that comes from here is just a bonus, right? And we’re talking here today about not just building a business but building a life.
And getting this in your mind of like, “You know what? I could still strive. I could still go after goals. I could still have things that I want. I could want gold and jewels and diamonds and Rolls-Royces and planes. You could have anything you want. You could have it, but strive for it and be satisfied along the way.
Don’t be the person that’s in the bends going, “Man, this sucks. I’m not going to be happy till I’m in the Bentley or whatever. That’s my little piece of sage advice that will allow you to just have a more enjoyable journey to the top. Because mastery is, it’s not a destination. It’s a journey. Along the way, we’re learning. Things are happening. Always. I’m still learning every day.
Every single day, I read for 30 minutes. Most days of the week I’m then also listening to books for 30, 45 minutes while I’m working out too. Keep learning, keep adjusting, believe that you can make it happen and go get it.
I can’t tell you what it does for me to be able to witness that with people that I work with, with people that come to the seminars, to be able to watch and hear, get DMs and the people I work with personally, to hear from them and get emails about how their life changed and was impacted.
You come to the event, yeah, okay. On the back, profit in business, thrive in life. This isn’t all about just go make money, go make money, go make money. You need money to live that life, establish what that is. But to be able to witness that and be able to help anybody I can do that, that’s the mission I’m on.
Because when someone just says, “Hey Louis, I doubled revenue.” “Cool. How’s life going? How’s the family? How’s your free time? Are you getting those hobbies in that you wanted to get in?” No, it’s okay. No problem. Listen. But they’re like, “I’m thinking about it. I’m working on it.
Okay. Yeah. Listen, took me a long time, took me a long time to figure that stuff out. But once I did, everything changed, everything shifted and this is my public service message to try to get it across that strive satisfied. All right? Keep learning, keep growing.
If you haven’t already gotten your tickets to moving CEO virtual summit, get them. You can’t afford to miss these three days. It’s 1% of your year. You get to do it from home. Okay. I’m going to be laying out strategies on how to scale your business. These are ideas. I’m giving you the roadmap on how to do it. Do this, then do this, then do this, then do this.
You’re going to walk away with this workbook that’s essentially your roadmap of everything that you need to do, right? Your marketing plan, your sales plan, your operations plan, your financial plan.
I see a comment here, A couple of great movers. I love the name. Money will come and go, you’ll never get the time back with your family. Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that comment, A couple great movers. You will never get that time back.
Guys, until I see you tomorrow, go enjoy your weekend. Right? Go spend some time with the family. Go make a list of all the things that you want in your life. Figure out what they’re going to cost and start really getting excited again about this business. This business could drain you. It could take the life out of you. You’ve got to have something to strive for. You’ve got to have something to go for. You got to be satisfied and happy while you’re doing it.
Having that kind of clarity will really make that happen. Go out there, profit in your business, thrive in your life. I’ll see you guys later. Tomorrow, actually.

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Don’t Just Build a Business, Build a Life

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares some tips to help you not only build a business, but to build a life.

  • “True success does not come from building your business. True success comes from focusing on building a life and using your business as a vehicle to financial freedom, to allow you to live that life.”
  • “If you put all your focus and energy on just working and grinding and hustling to build your business, without a vision for where you want your life to go, meaning you don’t have a target on what you’re truly after instead of just business goals, you’re going to end up either completely unfulfilled, burnt out, and just not inspired anymore to continue to grow your business.”
  • “When I started my first company and I was 19 years old, I started a moving company and it was hustle and grind and hustle and grind, and just putting in time, putting in hours, literally until I was sick to my stomach. But I got it going. I got it successful. And I’m like, “Oh, this works. I got to work hard. I got to strive. I got to keep grinding.”
  • “I got to a place where I hit an eight figure business, had the homes, multiple homes and cars and all the money I could ever want. And I was just unfulfilled, unhappy, depressed even. And around that time, I got my first coach and she said to me, “Louis, you’ve done an amazing job of building your business, but you haven’t put that same effort into building your life.” and that really was such a transitional moment for me in my life, because I realized that that’s what was missing.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

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Transcription

Louis Massaro:
True success does not come from building your business. True success comes from focusing on building a life and using your business as a vehicle to financial freedom, to allow you to live that life. If you put all your focus and energy on just working and grinding and hustling to build your business, without a vision for where you want your life to go, meaning you don’t have a target on what you’re truly after instead of just business goals, you’re going to end up either completely unfulfilled, burnt out, and just not inspired anymore to continue to grow your business.

If you’re joining us for the first time, my name is Louis Massaro. I help business owners optimize their business, increase profits, and live an extraordinary quality of life. When I started my first company and I was 19 years old, I started a moving company and it was hustle and grind and hustle and grind, and just putting in time, putting in hours, literally until I was sick to my stomach. But I got it going. I got it successful. And I’m like, “Oh, this works. I got to work hard. I got to strive. I got to keep grinding.”

And I got to a place where I hit an eight figure business, had the homes, multiple homes and cars and all the money I could ever want. And I was just unfulfilled, unhappy, depressed even. And around that time, I got my first coach and she said to me, “Louis, you’ve done an amazing job of building your business, but you haven’t put that same effort into building your life.” and that really was such a transitional moment for me in my life, because I realized that that’s what was missing.

I figured, “Hey, work hard, make the money, work hard, make the money and everything else will fall into place.” And it didn’t. I had to be intentional about it. And once I focused on, “Okay, let me look at all the areas of my life. Let me look to bring them up all together, not just bring my business up and wait for everything else to fall into place,” once I did that, not only did I become a happier, more fulfilled person, my business doubled.

I went to $20 million a year. And I share this with you because a lot of times we start our business in kind of a, “Hey, we’ve got to make this happen.” Like for me, it was like my back’s against the wall. Like if I don’t make this happen, I don’t know what else I’m going to do. So we put in the hustle, we put in the grind, and it’s needed to get the momentum going. But then there’s a point where it’s no longer needed, and we’ve got to take a step back and we’ve got to say, “You know what? If I’m trying to increase the profit, I also want to take my life up with it.”

The thrive. Profit and thrive. You hear me say that all the time. So it’s like, anything you do, you want to bring up the profit and you want to bring up the thrive, at the same time. You know? And you might say, “Louis, but you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to really put in a lot of effort to build a business. It’s hard work.” No one’s telling you not to work hard. What I’m saying is identify what you want in your life. Make that the priority, and then work hard and smart towards them that, not just making money, making money, making money. And so I want to share with you three things to get you thinking about what it is to not just build a business, but to build a life. And the first one is to brainstorm what you want in your life.

You know, it’s easy to say, “Oh, I want to buy these things.” Or, “I want to have these experiences.” But when you start looking at, in all areas of your life, what do you really want financially, in your business, in your relationships, in your personal growth, and the contribution that you make in your health. You know, when we start to look at all areas of our life and say, “What do I want?” That is when you start to create the life that you are then going to go after. You know, if you’re going to put in this work, if you’re going to put in the time, if you’re going to really give your all to build a business, why not make that effort lead exactly where you want it to go? Why not make sure that the ladder is on the right wall before you start climbing?

The next thing you want to do once you have that list of everything that you want in your life … Right? This is what you should be after. This is your ultimate aim. What you want in your life. The next thing you want to do is step into whatever’s possible now. What I mean by that is, I used to, right … Okay, I want to play golf once a week. Right? And so, okay. Am I capable of doing that now? If so, step into it and start doing it now. Don’t put it off. And I want to have date night once a week with my wife. Okay. Start doing that now. Right? Because you’ll have things on this list of your ultimate life of what you want and what you’re after, that you don’t yet have the time, the freedom, or the money to do yet.

But there’ll also be a lot on that list that you do have the time, freedom, and money to do. Start those now. Step into it. Right? You say you want something, it’s there. You’re able to do it. Step into it. Make it happen. Arrange your schedule. Arrange your life to bring up everything, the profit and the thrive.

And the third thing you want to do is from that point, focus on freedom and money to live the rest of that ultimate life. Meaning, get yourself the freedom in your business. Okay? Set up your system, set up your processes, set up your people, set up your automation so that you’ve got the freedom to work on scaling the business. Right? We don’t want to just get freedom to go lay on the beach. That’s great. We want to do that too. But we need freedom to work on the bigger picture, so that we could build a bigger business to really get to that next level.

If you’re stuck day-to-day working in the business, not going to be able to do that. So you want to focus on getting the freedom so that you could focus on getting the money, because once you have the freedom and the money, you should be able to handle everything else you want to handle on that ultimate life list. So do these three things. Let me know how it works. Start focusing on what you really want in your life. Make sure that every move you make, you look to take the profit up with the thrive at the same time. Go out there every single day. Profit in your business. Thrive in your life. I’ll talk to you soon.

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$500K vs $5Million Business Growth Strategy

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares why you can’t reach the next level of success using the same strategy that got you to your first level of success.

  • “What got you to your first level of success in your business is not what will get you to your next level of success. If you’re trying to build a $5 million business, you’re not going to be able to get there with your $500,000 strategy.”
  • “Oftentimes what happens is business owners get stuck in a position where they’ve had great growth, great momentum, good success in their business, and then they hit a wall. And the reason a lot of times that they hit that wall is because they’re operating off the same strategy that they used to get their business off the ground to get it up and running.”
  • “If you don’t change up your strategy, you’re going to end up 10 years from now in the same position, not really reaching that level of success that you’re truly capable of, and your business will start to outgrow the processes and the people, and you’ll have breakdowns in service, breakdowns in your products, breakdowns in the way that you’re able to handle your customers.”
  • “It can be a dreadful frustrating existence in order to really get to that next level, and it causes a lot of people to kind of step back and stop pushing after what they really want and going after building that business that they are truly capable of only because they’ve got the wrong strategy.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

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  2. Latest Instagram!
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Transcription

Louis Massaro:

What got you to your first level of success in your business is not what will get you to your next level of success. If you’re trying to build a $5 million business, you’re not going to be able to get there with your $500,000 strategy. Oftentimes what happens is business owners get stuck in a position where they’ve had great growth, great momentum, good success in their business, and then they hit a wall.

And the reason a lot of times that they hit that wall is because they’re operating off the same strategy that they used to get their business off the ground to get it up and running. But there’s a different level and a different strategy and a different approach to running your business that you need to take if you want to break through and get to that next level.

And if you don’t change up your strategy, you’re going to end up 10 years from now in the same position, not really reaching that level of success that you’re truly capable of, and your business will start to outgrow the processes and the people, and you’ll have breakdowns in service, breakdowns in your products, breakdowns in the way that you’re able to handle your customers.

And it’s just going to be a dreadful frustrating existence in order to really get to that next level, and it causes a lot of people to kind of step back and stop pushing after what they really want and going after building that business that they are truly capable of only because they’ve got the wrong strategy. If you’re joining us for the first time, my name’s Louis Massaro. I help small business owners optimize their business, increase profits and live a great quality of life along the way.

Recently I had a private client group here in my office, a small group that comes, and I work with them to kind of look at where they’re trying to go in their business. We develop a game plan and give them a strategy to be able to achieve that. And at the end of the first day, one of my clients, a great guy, he said, “Louis, have you had to sum up the problems with my business in one sentence, what would it be?” And I sat there for a second. I thought about it. I said, “You’re trying to build $5 million business with a 500,000 knowledge strategy.” Right?

He was already at about $2 million, but wanted to go to five. That was his goal. But his daily activities, the objectives that he had set up, what he had his team working on was all a strategy that was still that $500,000 strategy. And yes, he got the $2 million, but he got to $2 million with such hard work, hours, stress, frustration, burnt out team. He did it because he’s a smart guy and he’s working hard and he did the work. However, I said to him, “Look, your next journey from the two to the five won’t have to be as hard.

You won’t have to put in as many hours. All we’ve got to do is adjust your strategy, give you that $5 million strategy, so that you’re on the right path. You’re doing the right stuff. You could lead your team in the right direction.” And you might be thinking, “Louis, just because someone has a $5 million strategy doesn’t mean they could build a $5 million business.” And that’s true, right? You still got to have execution, and you still got to be able to course correct along the way.

Because for him, the journey from $2 million to $5 million, that’s not an overnight thing that’s going to happen, right? The same way he didn’t build a $2 million business overnight. So along the way, as the environment changes, as regulations changes, as the economy changes, and the dynamic within your business and your people changes, you’re going to need to be able to course correct. But it doesn’t matter how well you course correct. It doesn’t matter how well you execute.

If you’ve got the wrong strategy, if you’ve got the ladder on the wrong wall and you start climbing, you’re going to end up in the wrong spot. So if you want to build a $5 million business or a $10 million business or a $50 million business, make sure that your strategy aligns with where you want to go. Because what we need to be able to do is we need to be able to not only manage the business that we’re in, we’ve got to be able to manage where we’re going and where we’re headed, or we get stuck.

I want to give you three tips to kind of help you realign to a new strategy that will get you to where you want to go. The first thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to set up your one, your three, and your 10 year targets. Okay? Your one year, three year, 10 year targets. Where is your business going to be one year from now, three years from now, and 10 years from now? The 10 years will give you that kind of long-term view of saying, “Hey, we’ve got plenty of time to get there.” One year is more like urgent.

These are the objectives that we need to back into are based on hitting at one year. And three years is like, okay, that’s in the foreseeable future. That’s something we could hit. We need to make sure that we’re in line with where we want to go for that. All right?

The second thing you want to do is you want to make a list of your business fundamentals, the stuff that it takes to run your core business day-to-day. All right? Everything that it takes.

If you wanted your business to be what I call a model business, to make it a machine that it just runs with or without you, you’ve got to make a list of those fundamental activities, roles, tasks that need to happen on a daily, weekly, monthly basis for that to run. Then you need another list of business development activities. This is the stuff that you’re taking your fundamentals and you’re trying to improve upon it. You’re trying to grow. You’re trying to enhance a division. You’re trying to open up another location, whatever it might be.

You’ve got to be able to separate these two in your mind. I know it sounds really simple. But when you separate the fundamentals versus the business development, you could get really clear on the activities that you’re working on and almost treat it like you’ve got two jobs. You’ve got to run the business that you have, because if it’s working and it’s successful and maybe it just needs some optimization, great. Make sure that that’s handled first and foremost. And then on top of that, you do the business develop, right?

But you got to take care of the core. If you don’t take care of the core, it’s not sustainable. But if you’re not looking at what you’re becoming, that’s how you get stuck and you don’t break through to that next level. All right? So once you’ve got that, now you’ve got your one year, three year, 10 year targets, you’ve got your list of business fundamentals, your list of business development, what you want to do is you want to take a look at your objectives, your quarterly objectives, and break those down and make sure they are in alignment with your three year target.

Too often, companies are just trying to align with their one year target without even really thinking about the three year target. Three years is very… It comes quick. If you’ve been in business for a while or just anything that’s gone on in your life, you look back, three years comes quick. Let the 10 year be kind of that guiding light of where you’re headed. But with so many circumstances changing, it’s really hard to dial an exact plan to get to 10 years.

You’ve got your one year target, but make sure that your quarterly objectives are in line with your three year target. Put that in place. Let me know how that works. And until I see you next time, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life. I’ll talk to you soon.

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Moving CEO Skill Development


SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares how to develop skills as a Moving CEO.

  • “I believe that anyone in the moving business can get to any level of success that they want if they focus on skill development.”
  • “When I first started, I didn’t know anything about the business. I literally did not know how to fold a pad, I didn’t know how to book a move, anything. So it became a checklist of skill development, I need to learn how to do this, I need to learn how to do that.”
  • “If you learn the right skills that you need at every stage of the game in the moving business, you can reach any level that you want, but if you don’t learn the skills that you need, if you don’t start to develop this mindset of skill development, it’s going to be very, very hard, and it’s going to be a struggle.”
  • “You’ve got to be able to adopt this mindset of, “Skill development is part of my life,” and constantly be looking at different areas that will help you to improve in your business and in your life, that’s what it’s all about.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

  1. Join the Moving CEO Challenge: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for moving company owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!
  2. Latest Instagram!
    Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your moving company to the NEXT LEVEL!

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Transcription

Louis Massaro:

I believe that anyone in the moving business can get to any level of success that they want if they focus on skill development. What do I mean by that? When I first started, I didn’t know anything about the business, right? I literally did not know how to fold a pad, I didn’t know how to book a move, anything. So it became a checklist of skill development, you need to learn how to do this, you need to learn how to do that, and if you learn the right skills that you need at every stage of the game in the moving business, you can reach any level that you want, but if you don’t learn the skills that you need, if you don’t start to develop this mindset of skill development, it’s going to be very, very hard, and it’s going to be a struggle, because you’re going to try to break through, you’re going to try to will your way through and just work harder and get the trial and error, and just go through all of this struggle and not break through that level that you really want to break through to.

If you’re joining me for the first time, my name’s Louis Massaro, I am founder and CEO of Moving Mastery, where we help moving company owners set up proven systems and processes in their business to increase profits, reduce stress, and live a better quality of life. And I was telling you about when I first started, and I had this little black book that I would keep in my pocket, and every problem that I would run across, I would make a note of, “I need to find a solution for this,” but those solutions, oftentimes, turned into skills that I needed to develop. I started to identify, “Okay, I don’t know how to do this thing. I need to learn how to do it, or I’m going to keep struggling with it.”

And when I first realized this, it was mind-blowing to me, because what seemed like impossible before, now I had hope. I looked it, and I said, “You know what? If I could just learn the skill of accounting and knowing my numbers, if I could just learn the skill of selling and booking moves, if I could just learn the skill of managing and leading my movers, if I could just learn the skill of hiring and training, I’ll get to where I want to go.”

And I watch this now with our clients, where we first start working with them, and some of them already have this mindset, they’re already there. They’re like, “Hey, I know I need to learn skills, that’s why we came to you, Louis. We need to learn how to do this, this, this, and this,” but when I see others that don’t recognize that as one of the most important things they need to do as a leader, one of the most important things they need to do as a moving CEO, and then they finally realize it, and they’re like, “Wow. If I just start going through my day and identifying issues that I’m having and saying, ‘If I had this skill, or I had that skill, would I be able to deal with this? Would I be able to address this?'”

And you might be thinking, “Louis, but like, it’s so hard, you don’t understand, it’s… I have the skills, I know everything I need to know, but I still struggle with it.” And my challenge to you would be, what’s causing you to continue to struggle with it, right? Because sometimes, skills aren’t necessarily skills of the trade, sometimes skills are, “How do I work out my thoughts? How do I get in a better state and out of stress, and focus my attention on the possibilities instead of the obstacles?” That’s a skill.

So, you’ve got to be able to adopt this mindset of, “Skill development is part of my life,” and constantly be looking at different areas that will help you to improve in your business and in your life, that’s what it’s all about. We don’t stop learning when we graduate from school, right? We’ve got to continue to teach ourselves, we’ve got to be able to identify, “What do I need to get what I want? To get where I want to go, what do I have to learn, what book do I have to read, what course do I need to take, what seminar do I need to go to? What person do I need to talk to and get their input on how they did something that I’m trying to do?” Skill development will get you to that next level, make it part of your regular routine. Keep a list of skills you’re actively working on.

So today, I want to give you three skills that I believe every moving company owner needs as a foundation to get to that next level, and you’ve got to be able to start developing these. The first one is self-management. If you can’t manage yourself, you can’t manage your business, you can’t manage your team. If you’re struggling to manage your team, you’re struggling to manage your business, let’s bring it back to self-management. Lot of people call this time management, but you can’t manage time. You can manage yourself within the time that you have. You can make choices on what you choose to do with your time.

First thing in the morning, what are you doing, what’s your morning routine like? What’s your workday startup routine like, what do you do first when you get to work, besides answer emails and react to everybody else’s false emergencies? How are you scheduling your priorities on your calendar to make sure that you’re moving the needle and getting the big impact items done? How are you managing your state of mind to keep you from focusing on, “It’s so hard, it’s a challenge, there’s no good people, customers are cheap,” to focusing on the possibilities of where you could go and what you could do with your business?

Self-management is a skill, something that you can learn. If you’re recognizing that right now as something that’s for you, jot that down on your list. Make a list, skill development list, put in your phone, put it wherever is convenient for you. And if self-management’s one of them, add it to the list.


The second one every moving company owner, every moving CEO needs to develop, is process creation, the skill of process creation, how to develop processes within your business. So many people know that they need to create processes and systems and SOPs, standard operating procedures, but they don’t do it because they don’t have the skill, right? So if you think about things that you don’t do, if you think about the things that you know you need to do, but you don’t do, and you really trace your thoughts back to the source, part of why you don’t do the things you do is because you don’t have the competence to do it, the skill, therefore you don’t have the confidence to go and do it.

In psychology, there’s something called the competence-confidence loop, which basically means the more competence you have, the more skills you develop, the more confidence you have, which will then have you go get more competence. Once you start to recognize like, “Wow, I’m developing skills,” you’ll get confidence to want to go get more skills, and that’ll just loop, confidence, competence, confidence, competence, and you’ll build strength, you’ll become better, you’ll be able to achieve more.

You can’t get to the next level in the business just by working hard, you got to develop those skills, so when we think about creating processes, or anything else that you might tend to kind of, “I know I need to do that, but I’m not going to get to it,” we’ve got to develop those skills. So whether you read books or whether you enroll in our Moving CEO Business Program, where we teach all of this stuff, whatever you need to do, these are skills that I believe every moving company owner needs to know, and they should go on your skill development list.

The third one I’m going to give you today is leadership, right? We’ve got to be able to lead people to bring your business to a level of success where you’ve got systems running the business, and now you’ve got people running those systems, you still have to lead those people, right? You still need to direct them to do what they need to do, you still need to inspire them to do the job. You still need to set the example of how you want your culture to be and how you want people to interact within your business.

And here’s the thing, if you’re looking at it like, “Louis…” Don’t feel bad if any of these skills, you don’t have, and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m not good at that, or I’m not good at that,” so what? I wasn’t good at anything when I started, right? And the reality is, you get good by determining what you need to get good at, and then intentionally going and developing that skill.

There’s tons of books out there on leadership. We teach it in the Moving CEO Business Program, but it’s like, you’ve got to be aware of it, and never look at this stuff as shortcomings. Never let the self-talk go into, “I’m no good, I don’t know how to do this, I’m no good, I don’t know how to do that,” and that’s how the mind tends to want to think. That’s how the fixed mindset tends to think. We’ve got to have a growth mindset, we’ve got to have a mindset that says, “You know what? I can grow personally. Physically, mentally, I could grow, gain skills, gain strength, to be able to do what it is that I want to do.”

That’s it. We can’t just think that we’re going to, by default, show up and be fantastic, right? Skill development. So make your list, right? Right now, even if these three things, you’re like, “Louis, I’m good. Those three, I got those covered.” What else? What other skills do you need to learn? Maybe you need to learn financials. Maybe you’re like, “Louis, I’m way beyond that, my company’s eight figures, I know financials.” Okay, maybe you need to learn mergers and acquisitions, maybe [inaudible 00:09:35] need to learn franchising, right? Maybe you need to learn different areas of ways to sell your business.

There’s always a new skill to learn, actively be working on something every single month. Actively have a list that you add to, and not look at it as self-defeat, like “I don’t know these things.” Look at it as an empowering act of saying, “I’m going to go learn these things, I’m going to prioritize them based upon what I need now to solve problems that I’m having in my business, to solve problems that I’m having in my life,” and with that, you will live an extraordinary life and build an extraordinary business. So until I see you next time, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life, leave me a comment, let me know what you thought of this episode, I’ll talk to you soon.

Posted on

Take Back Control of Your Moving Company


SUMMARY

In this episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast, Louis Massaro shares three things to help you take control of your business after you step away from the day-to-day and you start to feel like you’re losing touch with things.

  • “You’ve got to be able to jump back into any area and get it to be the way that you want it to be.”
  • “I’ve advised so many of my private clients to do the same thing. Companies that maybe they’ve got one or two employees and companies that have multiple locations and franchises all across the board have done the same thing and went back into dispatch in particular because that’s usually where the problems lie and taken back control of their business.”
  • “You know that if you let it continue to run the way that it’s been running, your company will not get to the level that you want it to get to and the problems will keep happening.”
  • “If you’re thinking, “Yeah, Louis, but I don’t have the time to go back in to my business.” Well, let me ask you this, how much money is it costing you to not go in and address the problems, to not go in and fix the problems?.”
  • Watch the video to get full training.

HOT NEWS & DEALS!

  1. Join the Moving CEO Challenge: Official Louis Massaro Community Facebook Group! A place for moving company owners to connect, share ideas, and inspire one another. Click here to join!
  2. Latest Instagram!
    Check out @LouisMassaro for new announcements, valuable tips, and enlightening videos to take your moving company to the NEXT LEVEL!

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Transcription

Louis Massaro:
If you’re not feeling in 100% control of one area of your business, let’s say it’s operations, or let’s say it’s sales, dispatch, whatever it might be. It’s time to roll up your sleeves. It’s time to take back control of your moving company. As we grow, as we start to hire people and bring people on, we delegate and we move out of the day-to-day. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I talk about you need to work on your business and not in your business.


The thing is, sometimes when you remove yourself and you’re not in the business and you’re letting other people do it, you start to lose control because you haven’t set things the way you want them, or you’ve set them the way you want them and they’re not following it that way. In order to get it back the way you want it, in order to optimize your business, you’ve got to actually go back in to your business and work in your business.


If there’s an area, let’s say dispatch, for example, that doesn’t feel like things are being done the right way, you’ve got to jump back in. You’ve got to spend some time in there, getting it to be the way that you want it to be and training your team to do it that way. If you don’t do this, you’re going to just struggle with the same issues over and over and over. And a lot of people are afraid to jump back in because they feel like, you know what, my days of being in dispatcher are over, or my days of being on the truck are over.


And the reality is, sometimes at any level, you’ve got to be able to jump back into that area and get it to be the way that you want it to be. If you’re joining me for the first time, my name is Louis Massaro. I’m founder and CEO of Moving Mastery, where we help moving company owners set up proven systems and processes in their business to increase profits, reduce stress, and live a better quality of life.


I remember a time when I had five locations at the time, and the location where my main call center was, it was the middle of the summer and things weren’t running the way that I wanted them to run. What did I do? I jumped back into dispatch. I let go of the dispatcher that was there and I did it myself. It’s not that I didn’t have anything to do. I had several companies all over the country to run, but it was so important that I get it back to be the way that I wanted it to be, that I spent several months in the middle of the summer working it.


And since then, I’ve advised so many of my private clients to do the same thing. Companies that maybe they’ve got one or two employees and companies that have multiple locations and franchises all across the board have done the same thing and went back into dispatch in particular because that’s usually where the problems lie and taken back control of their business, right? Set things up to be the way that they want it. I’ve got one client, they’re almost at eight-figures.


Just this summer went in, jumped back in, and got dispatch on point the way that he needed it to be. Because he knows that if you let it continue to run the way that it was running, that his company would not get to the level that he wanted it to get to and the problems would keep happening. So if you’re thinking, “Yeah, Louis, but I don’t have the time to go back in to my business.” Well, let me ask you this, how much money is it costing you to not go in and address the problems, to not go in and fix the problems?


See, the thing is our mind plays tricks on us and wants to make us think that we’re taking a step back. Taking a step back is okay if it’s to take multiple steps forward. If there’s ever an area of your business that is not operating the way that you want it to operate, that you’ve stepped out of and have somebody else in, you’ve got to go back in. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to fire the person there. Maybe you’ve got to work alongside of them to get it back the way you want it.


So let me give you three tips that are going to help you go take control back of your business, whether it’s sales, whether it’s operations. First one is go spend three weeks in that department. Whatever that department is, sales, customer service dispatch. Maybe it’s going on the trucks with the movers to show them how you want things. Go spend three weeks. It will be the most valuable three weeks that you spend in your business probably the entire year. Spend three weeks and get it how you want it.


The second thing you want to do is optimize the process. Optimize the process. And if you don’t have a process, create the process, right? In order to move yourself out of positions in the company, and this is where a lot of people go wrong, as they move themselves out of a position, they hire somebody, but they don’t leave them with a documented process of this is how we do it.


So if you don’t have it, create the process. If you do have it, optimize the process for how you want it done now. And then the third thing is train your team on the new process of how you want things done now, right? This sounds so simple, but it’s so powerful. Think about the control you’ll feel by knowing that you can go in and you could solve the issue. This is how you take back control of your moving company. I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed making it for you.


Until I see you next time, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life. I’ll see you soon.