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.”
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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.
