How to Deal with Overwhelm

Moving CEO Mindset – Part 2

Don’t Just Build a Business, Build a Life

TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey, what’s up everybody? Welcome to The Moving Mastery podcast. I’m Louis Massaro, I’ve got my main man Chris with me here today, and we are still in lockdown. We’re at home, Chris is at home, I’m at home. We’re kind of talking right here through Zoom. What’s happening Chris?

Chris:
Hey, how’s it going? We’re still zooming.

Louis Massaro:
We’re still zooming. So those of you that maybe are just joining us or haven’t seen the past several episodes or listened to the past several episodes, we’ve been kind of having a new format where Chris is bringing in questions from the audience. I don’t know what these questions are. And he’s dropping them, and we’re rolling with it. So let’s jump into it today. You feeling all right Chris? You good today?

Chris:
I’m feeling good, and I got a good question for you this week. I think you’re going to really like this one. It came in through our Facebook this time. This was a guy who had attended one of the previous seminars and had taken some really great valuable lessons from that seminar and has been having trouble ironing out the details to some of the stuff you taught. So I’m going to read you the question here. It says, I attended your Moving Mastery Summit seminar, and I was really inspired by your talk on committing to mastery and not being a dabbler. So I’ve been committed to mastery and I’ve been working on improving my business and not being a dabbler, but I’m getting overwhelmed with all the stuff that I want to implement. And I just feel like I’ll never get it all done. Do you have any advice for me?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. All right. You’re getting good at this, you’re getting good at picking the ones.

Chris:
I like this one.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. So just to put that all in context, that was the discussion of mastery, committing to mastery versus being a dabbler for those who weren’t there, for those that didn’t hear it. Essentially when you look at what you want to accomplish in your business and you look at what you want to accomplish in your life, you’ve got to be able to commit to mastery. And mastery is not you’re perfect in everything that you do. Mastery is a journey. You’ll never get to a place where you are a master, it’s an evolution of you as a person, you as a business person. But committing to mastery is the sure fire way to make sure that you succeed. Because what a lot of people will do is they’ll be a dabbler.

They will either get into a business without the clear intent of like, hey, I’m going to make this thing work, whatever I need to do. If other people are making it happen, I’m going to make it happen. And they won’t commit to implementing processes fully, they’ll dabble with some stuff, they’ll watch a few YouTube videos or look for a few quick hacks, implement those hacks. And then if they don’t work, they’re onto the next thing. They’re kind of dabbling in different areas, maybe even dabbling in different businesses. So the fact that he committed to mastery, pretty much you remember. I mean, everybody there was like they’re committed because I was discussing what the road to mastery and what committing to that path really does for you as a person, does for you with your business and just overall how it makes an impact on your life. And now he’s overwhelmed, right now he’s like, “I’ve got too much to implement.” And what did he say feel like I’m never going to get it done or?

Chris:
He said I’ve been working on improving my business and not being a dabbler, but I’m getting overwhelmed with all this stuff I want to implement.I just feel like I’ll never get it done.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, overwhelmed, making notes. Well, first thing is accept the fact that you’ll never get it all done.

Chris:
Really?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. When he says all, I don’t know what he means. I’m sure there’s more than just what he took away from the seminar. I’m sure there’s other things he’s looking to do in his business and improvements that he’s looking to make. And accepting the fact that you’ll never get it all done is one of the biggest things you can do to give yourself a break from just constantly being on yourself, I need to do this, I should be doing that, I need to be doing this, I should be doing that. That stuff could just beat you down. That was me for a long time until I finally realized my to do list keeps growing and my project keeps growing faster than I could get this stuff done.

A lot of times, especially with entrepreneurs, your mind is always working looking for that better way. There’s got to be a better way, there’s got to be a better way. And then when you look for it and you find it, you’re like, “Wow, there is a better way. But there’s a lot of stuff here.” Coming to a three-day seminar with us, it’s a lot in three days. It’s full immersion for three days. So you leave there with a lot of stuff where maybe before you didn’t have all those thoughts and things you could do to improve. Now you see them, your mind attaches to the outcome. It’s like, “Yeah, I want that.” I could see clearly what that’s going to bring to me and my business, and it wants to solve that as quick as possible.

It’s like it wants to take it and implement it and just get it all done immediately. There’s the gift and the curse of learning systems and learning from how people have done it before whereas doing things the hard way with trial and error. You kind of like try something, it doesn’t … I mean, it’s definitely more painful to do trial and error than to go and get all the information that you need to apply and then just figure out how to prioritize it, how to implement it, how to accept the fact that you’re just not going to get it all done.

Chris:
I see these people when they leave the seminar after day three and they’ve just been given all of this information, they’ve got their workbook that’s 100 something pages, and they’re just so fired up and they’re like going back to the office ready to just implement everything. But I could see how coming up with a way to sort of … What do you do? You come up with a process to kind of start implementing things in a systemized way. When you go back to the office after the seminar, when you have a great idea that you want to implement, what’s the first step? How do you go about making it happen?

Louis Massaro:
You got to have a little system for yourself on how you do it. But that system, the basis of that system needs to be the acceptance of you’ll never get it all done. And the reason I say that is not because you’re not an achiever. Most people that we talk to are overachiever. They’re putting in the extra hours, they’re doing the extra work. So it’s not about you’re never going to get it all done because you’re not capable of getting it all done, it’s that that list is going to continue to grow. If you’re creating constantly and you’re thinking of new ways and your mind is focused on there’s got to be a better way and you have a little system of like, oka, you’re keeping track of it, you got a notebook of all the ideas you want to implement. You’ve got a note in your phone, you’ve got a project management tool, you got a task list, whatever.

Wherever you’re keeping track of it. You’ve got this stuff. And as you evolve in business and as things unfold for you that you didn’t see previously, you’re going to get new ideas. You’re going to have new strategies you want to implement. And so it’s a matter of being able to not get overwhelmed with taking too much information in because you want to get all the information you can. You want to take it all in, and then you just need a process for like, okay, how do I take this and slowly start to implement it. And I just want to keep going back to the fact that you first have to relieve yourself of the pressure by just saying like, look, I’m never going to get it all done.

The reason you’re never going to get it all done is not because, again, you can’t do it all. It’s because some of that stuff might become unimportant as you continue to get one thing done after the other. Because you can only do one thing at a time. You can only do one thing at a time effectively. So if you’ve got a list of 20 things, 30 things that you want to do in your business, well, maybe you get the first 5 done and then it changes the way you look at it. It’s kind of if you’re climbing mountains and you don’t know where you’re going, you get to the top of one peak, then you could see clearly what’s kind of out in front of you. And then you can decide, okay, well where I thought I wanted to go, maybe there’s a different path.

Chris:
So I see. So it evolves, things can change as you’re working your way through all of these things you want to implement. It reminds me, I had a teacher once tell me that it’s almost like when you’re flying in a plane and you think you just get in the plane and go from point A to point B. But during the journey there’s all kinds of little microscopic course corrections that happen along the way to keep you on the flight plan. And if you didn’t make those small little adjustments, you could end up being way off course by the time you get to the end.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, yeah. That’s absolutely right. But you have a destination, you know what your destination is. And so we talked about a few episodes back don’t just build a business, build a life. If you haven’t listened to that, go listen to that episode because all this stuff that he wants to do in his business should be based on where he wants to go in his life. So a lot of this overwhelmed, there’s a lot of information out there these days. There’s social media, there’s podcasts, there’s people in your face constantly sharing advice.

A lot of times it contradicts somebody else and you’re like, okay, there’s this way to do it, but then there’s that way to do it, which way is the right way, right? So then that gets in the mix too. It’s not always what to do exactly. Because if you have the step-by-step and you just go and implement it, they come to the seminar, they’re in one of the courses, they just follow those steps. But what happens is you talk to other people, you hear what other companies are doing. Somebody kind of says, “Hey, this works for us. We’re doing this, we’re doing that.” And it makes you start to feel like, wow, I should be doing that or I should be doing this.

And then it takes you off track of your flight path, where you were really headed. And before you know it, you keep doing these course corrections that are random like dabbler stuff, they’re random and you run out of fuel before you get to where you need to go. You get burnt out.

Chris:
So are you saying that even though you know you’re going to make some course corrections, do you need to have an exact plan? Is it okay to just kind of have an idea and start working towards it even though you may not know exactly what needs to happen to get there? I mean, kind of learning-

Louis Massaro:
You’re never going to know all the steps that need to happen. You have to know where you’re headed, right or at least an idea of where you want to go in your life and start taking the best next actions you can take. Have faith that the rest is going to unfold for you as you move forward as you’re driving through the dark and the fog and your headlights can only let you see three, six feet ahead of you. You’ve just got to know that as you continue to move forward, more and more will be revealed to you, and you’ll be able to see more of where you’re going.

So let’s talk about his big list that he feels like he’s never going to get done. Basically what you want to do is you want to take that list, whatever it is. We’ve all got a list of things we want to do, whether we sit down today and just write out a list or we have an ongoing list that we keep and start to look at, okay, first of all, what are my goals? Where do I want to go in my life in the next 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, 1 year. You look at one year, you say, okay, the next year, if my goal is to do X, whatever that might be. Maybe it’s my goal is to double my business, my goal is to take home $400,000 a year for myself, my goal is to open that second location.

Whatever it is, whatever that your big goal that gets you fired up, that gets you motivated. And then start breaking that down into what’s going to make the biggest impact. And realize that first thing you need to do is, let’s back up a minute, let’s back up a little bit. So you want to make sure … By the way, guys, this is all off the cuff, this isn’t a lesson that I had prepared. I realized I missed a step. We need to first fine tune the fundamentals, fine tune the fundamentals. So in the moving business, there’s five fundamentals that everything you do in your business falls under these five fundamentals. And they’re lead generation, booking moves, servicing moves, customer service, or making your customers raving fans and then accounting and reporting. Everything falls in those.
So it’s like you’ve got all this new stuff you want to do. First, take that list. Let’s say he’s got a list from the seminar or whatever else, his ongoing list of things that he wants to improve. Grab everything that falls into those categories, lead generation, booking moves, servicing moves, customer service, and accountant. And categorize them in those, get everything in there. That’s all the fundamentals of your business that it needs to run daily. That stuff right there. If you spend time focusing on that alone, that’s where you start increasing profits. That’s where you start to have a smoother running business. That’s where you start to have happier customers, better reviews. When you focus in on just the fundamentals and you allow yourself to block out the idea of expansion or business development or these other shiny objects that maybe somebody’s like, “I’m doing this, and I’m doing this thing, and I’m doing this new little hack.”

And you say, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Before I venture off into all of this, am I taking care of my core business of the five fundamentals?” So again, he takes this list and puts it into those categories to see what fits there. Because your goal before you start growing, before you start expanding, before you start scaling franchise and opening up additional locations, moving from local moves to long distance moves, your goal needs to be that your business can run without you. Your business needs to run without you. That’s why we talk so much about processes and systems and getting all that in place.

Chris:
Now, if I’m somebody who is like this guy, he has a list of things he wants to implement and he’s really fired up about it. Won’t that kill your enthusiasm a little bit if you’re like you’ve got a bunch of stuff you want to do, but you’re like, “Okay, I got to slow down”? it seems less exciting to me.

Louis Massaro:
Yes, it is, it is. It’s like being forced to finish your vegetables as a kid before you’re allowed to go get ice cream. You want the ice cream, but what’s really good for you is to finish your vegetables first. So setting up the fundamentals is like eating your vegetables, forcing yourself to do it if you don’t want to do it so that you can feel good about then going and having the ice cream. And the reason that happens, Chris, is that we think that we’re all over the place. We think like, “Oh, I’m here, I’m there. I’m here, I’m there.” But the reality is we’ve got different versions of ourself in our mind that are competing to take the lead, to take the steering wheel and lead us to where we need to go.

As a business owner, you’ve got the CEO. The CEO is making the big decisions, looking at P&L, strategizing and thinking about where we need to go, where we need to take the business, what direction we want to head in. They’re also constantly thinking of new ideas, new strategies. But then you need to step into the role of manager in your mind and say, okay, how do I take all these ideas, organize them, like what we’re talking about now, how do I take them, organize them in a way to where I don’t have to slow down what my CEO self is saying and doing and wants to implement. I don’t have to slow stream of thoughts because you never want to slow the stream of thoughts of creativity. You’ve got ideas, great. Keep them coming, keep them coming and put them somewhere. Keep a list of everything that’s going, That’s where he’s at, he feels overwhelmed. He’s got this big list.

So then he needs to go into manager mode, put his manager hat on and say, “Okay, I got this list, now what’s going to get me to my goals?” I can only do one thing at a time, how do I prioritize this and set it up so that I can be effective? And then from manager, now you go into doer, now you actually have to do this stuff. And what happens is if you’ve ever felt like you started to do something and you started to talk about something and you just got yourself all wound up and didn’t really get anything done, it’s because each one of those versions of ourselves needs room to breathe. It needs room to do its own thing separately.

And what happens when we get overwhelmed is that those three are typically competing. This might sound crazy to some people, but you’ve got these three different voices going on in your head. The CEO self is like, “No, no, no, we need to be doing this.” People think because they’re always changing their mind and they’re flip flopping on things that there’s something wrong with them. It’s not that there is anything wrong with them, it’s that they have to kind of separate out these three selves and say, “Look, the CEO is having this big vision.” The manager is like, “Look, we need to order, we need to structure this thing. We need to figure out what to do first, what to do second. And the doer is like, “Guys, let me just go start getting stuff done.”

You’re over there yapping, “I just want to do, I just want to take action.” So what happens is somebody comes up with an idea, then they’ll spend a brief amount of time managing and to figure out what the move is to set it up. But they want to jump right into doing, they want to jump right into doing and just getting stuff done. A really important technique to start to learn is how to allow yourself to know when the CEO version of you, the manager version of you, and the doer version of you is needed in that particular moment. Right now, I’m the doer, I’m here, I’m doing this with you. The CEO version that thought of, okay, let’s set up the podcast, this is what we’re going to do, this is how we’re going to help people, this is how we’re going to serve them.

That was just a lot of conceptual stuff. Then I had to put on the manager hat and said, “Okay, how do we orchestrate this so that we could be streamlined, so that we can effectively get these episodes done and it doesn’t take us all kinds of time?” And we set up the processes and the systems for how we do it, how we get everything over to the editors, how do we get it out to everybody else, how we send out the emails. And then it’s doer, you got to show up and just do it. That makes sense?

Chris:
It makes it seem less overwhelming, which this guy was having an issue with feeling overwhelmed. But when you break it down like that, it doesn’t seem overwhelming at all. Are you literally creating time for each one of these people to do their thing? You give the creator some time to really visualize and then you give the doer some time to get it done, how does that …

Louis Massaro:
When you think about routines and how you structure things, a lot of people think that they’ll hear somebody on a podcast or they’ll hear me or somebody else talk about this is my process for doing this, and this is my system for doing that. But sometimes your system and your process changes and you need to try different stuff to see what works. So one way of doing it and one way that I’ve done for a long time is I’ll have certain days where, like Friday is my CEO day. Friday is all CEO stuff like big picture, reviewing numbers, strategy, vision, overseeing. I’m not doing, I’m not really managing.

Then there’s other days, like today, I’m a doer, we’re recording some podcasts, we’re doing some other videos. And then there’s other days where I’m a manager, when I’m really just managing the team, seeing what’s going on, checking on progress, having our weekly meetings, stuff like that. Managing. So yes. I think you don’t necessarily have to create a separate day for each one of these, although that’s a really helpful place to be because the way that are … When I wake up on Fridays and I know it’s CEO day, I’m carrying myself a little bit differently that day. I’m feeling a little bit different. I’m feeling that CEO vibe, if you will.

Whereas manager day, my mind’s like, “Okay, let’s look at everything that’s got to get done, let’s figure out who’s doing what.” It’s just a different mindset. And one of the things that really overwhelms people as well is when they shift gears. So anytime you shift gears between one task you’re doing and another task, it’s hard enough to switch gears. Like for example, if we ended this podcast and then I had to go put together a presentation or write some emails or something like that, that’s a gear shift. Like my mind is here and this is the type of thing I’m doing today, that’s why I want to shoot videos today, I want to be doing this all today because I could be in one gear all day.
And so you don’t have to do it all day, but you’ve got to be conscious of, okay, if I’m going to start off with a sales meeting in the morning where I’m getting my team fired up and I’m doing this and I’m doing that, and then after that I have to go directly into reading some contracts. You have to be able to know how well you adapt and you adjust to that gear shift. You might do half a day as CEO and then in the afternoon you go to manager and then you have time blocked out on your calendar for the things you need to do and that you’re you’re being the doer.

The first step is really acknowledging when each one of those characters, if you will, you’ve got your CEO, you got your manager, you got your doer, who’s required to show up right now? If you just take a look at your calendar for the next week or what you have going on, or each day as you step into each new thing, who’s needed? Is it the CEO, is it the manager, or is it the doer that’s needed in that moment? Does that make sense?

Chris:
That is cool. That’s interesting that you could break down your list with maybe a different tag or a different label. That’s a really cool, it’s a way to organize it.

Louis Massaro:
I thought I was crazy at first. And then when I first started teaching this stuff, people were like, “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that works, it works. I did it, it works. I was like, “Okay, good. Because I thought maybe I just had voices in my head.” Try that, it definitely helps. That’s what’s going on when you feel super overwhelmed is that each one of those voices has their own opinion about what should be done next.

Chris:
I know there’s people out there who kind of thrive on the weight of having stuff to do and being overwhelmed. For somebody like that, what would you say to them to get them to kind of be able to separate it all out? Because some people, they like the chaos.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. And that used to be me, it used to be me. And it was like, when I knew I had stuff to get done, I wasn’t even thinking about the three versions. It was just sad stuff to get done. I found myself and I realized it. The first step to making any changes is first being aware and realizing what’s happening. The best thing you could do as a business owner is start to learn how to just be self-aware and look at yourself objectively and, why am I doing that? Is that helpful? And so I used to wake up, from the time I woke up to the time I got to work, I was just like winding myself up. I feel like I needed to wind myself up so that I could just charge through the day with energy and momentum and all of that.

And that’s how I learned to get stuff done. So it took a while to break that habit. Once I started to pay more attention to my wellbeing and understanding the mind and how the mind works, I realized that that whole time period I was in what’s called fight or flight, which is a fear response from caveman days. When fear pops up, you’re either ready for a fight or you’re ready for flight, like you’re ready to run. A lot of people are in that place daily trying to get stuff done. And for me, it worked. It was like, “Hey, man. All right, I’m getting stuff done, I’m building the business, this is happening.”

So it became kind of a go to strategy without realizing it, it felt like that’s what I needed to do in order to get stuff done. Because if I didn’t wind myself up like that, I might just want to chill. I might just want to relax. So it’s like I had this one side where it’s like, all right, I get myself going. Almost like you’re winding up a little toy soldier or something, it start marching forward. The other side of me was like, “Man, I just want to chill out. Let me go lay in the pool or something.” So it felt like those were the two options. And so over time being able to kind of realize that fight or flight state that I was in and get myself wound up to go tackle the day, it was part of what wasn’t allowing me to get to that next level. It was part of what wasn’t allowing me to step into that Moving CEO mindset we talked about in a few episodes ago.

~Because as much as it was helping me get things going and get things off the ground, that next level needed me to be more at peace, more grounded and focused on feeling good, making decisions from a place of certainty and clarity as opposed to I need to be wound up or I’m not going to get stuffed done. It became like a balance.

Chris:
At some point, you became conscious of this and you decided that, okay, I’m going to stop running around crazy with all of this chaos going on. I don’t know where to go. First of all, when did you make that decision? And then secondly, what do you think would have happened had you not made that realization?

Louis Massaro:
Well, first of all, it’s not like I just flipped a switch and it’s on. I mean, I still deal with it. It’s a natural response, it’s a habit that I learned, and I got rewarded for it early on. So it was like there was that reward there. So it’s still deeply ingrained, but I’ve come to learn that I don’t need that energy, I don’t need that like, oh, we got to make this happen now, we got to make this happen now, we’ve got to strike while the iron is hot now. I don’t need that energy to be effective. Matter of fact, it actually makes me not see opportunities and not be able to be on top of my business.

I would say right around that great recession period was when I got my first coach and I started to really get into self-development and started to learn how the mind worked. And I got so fascinated with, wow, it’s not about the outside world, and that’s the way it is. It’s about how I’m perceiving the world and how I choose to operate within it. It was in that period. But it’s something that I still struggle with. I have to remind myself, look, the most important thing is that you feel good. I used to feel that stress just came with the territory, that it just came with the territory and that it helped fuel the growth.
And to some extent, it’s true. But I just made a decision that, you know what, I don’t want that type of growth. I know I could get much further if I just stayed in that mode all day, but I could probably drop dead too along the way.

Chris:
Oh, okay. So you’ll get results, you’ll get-

Louis Massaro:
But it’s not profit and thrive, it’s not profit and thrive. It’s just be so focused and just go for the money and just go for the goals and go for the accolades. But you’re not thriving in your life. And to me, it felt like an evolution of, look, I did that, I made money doing that. Well, now let me challenge myself to slow it down and continue to build a business and continue to make money, but go slower while doing it. If I heard myself saying this 10 years ago, I don’t know what I would say or agree 15 years ago. But you got to slow down a little bit and enjoy the process and feel good on a daily basis.

Just having gone through being in that mode and reaching certain levels and get into those levels and be like, “All right, is this it?” It’s like, you know what, now I want to do it at a different pace. So getting back to feeling like you’re never going to get it all done. I’ve accepted that I’m never going to get it all done, I’ve got great ideas, amazing ideas. And people will always give you ideas and be like, oh, you should be doing that, you should be doing that. But the reality is if you go chase this and you go chase that, you’re going to get nowhere. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah. I feel like for someone who is overwhelmed, this could be … If somebody’s got this whirlwind happening, where do they start? Because after you’ve conditioned yourself to operate like that for so long, it’s got to be tough to put the brakes on.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Because what happens is the ego starts to fear that you’re going to lose all your edge. That’s what happens, it’s super scared that you’re just going to lose your edge. That was what happened to me. That’s what got me to where my first level of success, to try to undo that is huge. So it just really starts with saying, you know what, what’s the alternative? My way of slowing down used to be I’d get sick, just a cold or whatever. And then I’d almost be relieved to where I could just like chill out for a few days at home. And that was the only time I would give myself time to slow down early on.

Chris:
You need to slow down when you’re getting sick.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. If that’s you, if you’re listening and you’re just constantly stressed out and you feel burnt out, I’m trying to show you that there’s a different way to go about it. You think about gears, you’re driving a stick shift. And let’s say it’s one through five or one through six. You always have it at five or you always have it at six and you’re just going, going, going, going. What I’ve found is that for me to take it down from that five and bring it into a three, it actually unlocks more potential for me and what I see. And it’s like that sweet spot of being able to still keep moving forward but enjoy the ride.
That sounds so cliché. Listen, having done it, having made millions in the moving business and done it early on, it’s really the way to go. And it’s hard, it’s a discipline because default, we are stressed out, we get taught to be stressed out. Our society is just stressed out. Everybody walks around stressed out. As a business owner, it’s like a badge of honor, how are things going? Oh, man, it’s crazy. It’s just so busy, I got no time. I’m just working. We walk around like that’s a badge of honor. And it’s not, it’s basically a early indication that you’re going to have a heart attack.

Chris:
That’s serious. You’re not saying don’t be ambitious.

Louis Massaro:
No, you got to be ambitious, but you’ve just got to find your way of settling into a place where you could still drive forward. You know what I mean? You’re not stopping and going, stopping and going, which was happening to me. I would go so fast and then I would catch a cold or something and I’d have to stop for a few days, and then go again. Where now, it’s more like smooth and steady. There’s certain times, imagine you’re on the road, you’re driving. And there’s certain times where maybe you got to gear up and accelerate to get past a situation, then settle back in. There are things that come along that cause that to happen. Last summer, I had a baby, I had my daughter last summer.

And we had a new course coming out, we had a new seminar coming up. And I had to put it in full gear to like get ahead of all that to make sure that I had everything ready when it needed to be ready. But then my mind got so wound up that I had to remind myself to downshift. Because if not, what happens is you just get burnt out and then you’re not moving, you’re done. You, you pulled over to the side, your engine is smoking, and you’re not going anywhere.

Chris:
How does somebody know if they are overwhelmed?

Louis Massaro:
I mean, you feel it. If you feel like you’ve got too much to do and you don’t have enough time, that’s overwhelmed, that’s overwhelmed. Too much to do, not enough time. The reality is accept that. There is not enough time. If you’ve got too many things you want to accomplish and not enough time, it’s because you have a creative mind. I finally came to the realization that my mind is producing ideas at such a rapid pace that my physical body can’t keep up with them. You’re not going to win that race, you know what I mean? Let your mind go, don’t shut down the stream of information. Let it go, capture those ideas keep a list of all the ideas, of all the things you need to do. We’ll talk in a minute about how to organize it all and how to start executing it.

But then just say like, “You know what, I’m coming to terms with what I could really get accomplished, and I’m just going to pick and choose the things that are going to make the biggest impact. And some of them, I may get to. And some of them, I may never get to.” One of the things that I see that prevents from succeeding to the levels that they want to get to is that they’re chasing down too many things at once.

Chris:
So is there a magic number, a sweet spot?

Louis Massaro:
What I recommend is that you take every quarter of the year. You know this, we work with a group and we hold them accountable for all this stuff. But every quarter of the year, you pick three big objectives per quarter. So there’s four quarters in a year, three big objectives, that’s 12 things in a year, right? And some people will look at that and be like, “Man, I can get hundreds of things done.” And you do, you will naturally. If you first focus on your fundamentals, lead generation, booking moves, servicing moves, making sure your customers are happy and accounting, that’s your core business. Most of our listeners are moving company owners. If that’s your core business, make sure that’s all on point.

And there’s going to be things that just have to get done as part of all that day-to-day. Day-to-day, your focus is, “Hey, how could I set this up so I could go away for a year and this thing is going to run smooth without me?” That’s like the real test to know do you have it fine tuned? Are your processes in place if you feel confident to do that. Once that’s there it’s like, “Okay, all these big ideas that you have … I’m all for growth, you want to franchise hundreds of companies, great. You want to open a location in every city in the country, great. Whatever you want to do, great. But you’ve got to be able to make sure you’re in the right gear.

And sometimes having the highest gear with the pedal all the way to the ground is not what’s going to get you there. So pick three big objectives per quarter and focus on those. So that basically gives you three months to work on three big things. So every quarter before the quarter comes, sit down and just look at your … This is the simplest way to do it? We can get into more advanced strategy, but let’s just talk about a simple way to get this done, which is look at your whole list and say, “Okay, this new quarter is coming up, what three things can I work on that will make the biggest impact right now for me achieving my ultimate goal of where I want to go?”

What are some big objectives? Big objectives could be an income objective or a revenue objective. Maybe you say I want to get up to $200,000 a month in local move revenue, or maybe one is I want to get our monthly storage recurring revenue to 35,000 a month. Wherever you’re at. Maybe for somebody it’s like 6,000 a month, whatever it might be. A big objective might be to hire a operations manager. A big objective could be to implement a new CRM, it could be to buy two new trucks. It could be to implement a mover training program. If you could only work on three things outside of your fundamentals, and your objectives might also fall into those fundamental categories too.

But if you could pick three big things, what would they be? And then make sure every single week you’re moving towards completing those and you’ve got three months to get all three of them done. And so what this does is it removes all the distraction. Distraction is one of the biggest killers to people achieving their goals. They think they need to be doing 10 million different things when in reality there’s a handful of things that will make the biggest impact. When I work with private clients, they come with the same kind of dilemma, I’ve got all this stuff I want to do. And almost every single time the conversation comes, it’s like I’m going to take all that off the table and let’s just focus on this, this, and this. That’s it.

Chris:
Even if it’s a golden opportunity that’s lingering out there, that if you don’t act now you might miss?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. But what is a golden opportunity? Very few people have the ability to really recognize a golden opportunity. What’s really happening is the mind wants something new, the mind wants to move on to what’s next. The mind is bored with the fundamentals. Remember, the fundamentals are that plain plate of vegetables that you just have to keep eating, that big opportunity is like that awesome butter cake with ice cream and the whole shebang there, like the whole big dessert. And so, yes, there are opportunities. But if you go chasing down opportunities, which most times are just shiny objects, they’re just these things that, wow, look at that. And it’s just luring you off course. That is the curse of a dabbler.

Somebody that’s committed to mastery is focused in on where they’re going. They realize there’s going to be a lot of distraction along the way. They realize there’s going to be a lot of opportunity along the way. But they’re focused in on what’s important, and they don’t let this shiny object and that shiny object and this thing they saw on Facebook and that thing they heard works for somebody else make them just go and turn around and take a detour when they know the destination of where they’re headed. If that thing comes along, if that opportunity comes along, you want to be able to put it on your list. And if it really, really is that golden opportunity, sure. You can then take one of your big objectives and move it or take it off the list and replace it with this new one.
You got to look at your own track record because there’s a lot of genius out there, there’s a lot of people with a lot of great ideas, and there’s a lot of people that are able to spot those opportunities. But there’s opportunity and then there’s execution. So if your track record is like, ooh, what’s that new thing? And you’re not really getting ahead. I’m telling you it’s easier to pass on some of these golden opportunities and just stay focused on those fundamentals in front of you and those three big objectives that you know are moving you towards it. It’s a shift from where your excitement used to come from was from these new things, this new opportunity where it takes a little while, and you have to pass through this uncomfortable place of going from constantly looking at the new and the exciting and the shiny objects and going through this place of what seems like boredom because you’re focused in on just the fundamentals, you’re focused in on three big objectives for the next quarter.

Your mind wants to basically do what Netflix and social media and all that stuff tries to get your mind to do next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing, next thing. And that stuff’s actually exercising your mind to want that more. And where you won’t experience the satisfaction of the fine tuning, the fundamentals, working on your three big objectives until you pass through this place of a real uncertainty. Same thing if you’re used to just eating sugary foods and now all of a sudden you’re focused in on just eating the vegetables like, it’s going to suck for a while until you finally start feeling how good you feel based on that. It’s the same thing because when you’re stuck on new, new, new and now you move into, okay, nice and steady, get the fundamentals on point, fine tune this, tweak this, improve this.

Let’s take three big objectives, let’s do them, and let’s do them right. Let’s follow all the way through. Let’s not just hire that person, let’s hire that person and train that person and make sure they know exactly what they need to do. Once you start doing things like that, then you’ll feel the satisfaction because you’ll see your business change. And what you thought was not possible, the more money, the more time, the more freedom, the less stress, all that stuff. You’ll start to feel it and then you’ll go, “Oh, okay. That’s why I’m focused on the fundamentals, that’s why I choose to eat my vegetables over eating the ice cream.”

Chris:
Okay. So trust in that process, especially at first it could be overwhelming to try to not be overwhelmed.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Listen, again, keep the ideas common. Shiny object comes, great, put it in its place on the list.

Chris:
Talk about how you organize that? You had mentioned something about you have a process for your ideas and what you do with them.

Louis Massaro:
We teach a system in Moving CEO business program, it’s called OMS strategic execution system. Those of you that are in the program, you know what I’m saying? But it’s basically taking where you want to go in your business, in your life from a 20-year standpoint and then breaking that down to your quarterly objectives and then taking your quarterly objectives and breaking those down into your weekly action plan. We give everybody in the program what’s called the top three planner. So it’s like each week these are your top three objectives that you’re working on. What are you doing to move those things forward on top of your normal daily functions. And so once you establish that right, let’s keep it simple. The easiest way to do it is just have a list of everything you want to get done, every three months, every quarter, look at and go, “Okay, I accomplished these last three things. What are the next right?”

A lot of people will try to plan out the whole year, what’s the next, what’s the next, what’s the next? Unless you have it like really strategically set up, it’s easier to just pull up the list each quarter and go, “Okay, let me pick three more things that will make the biggest impact now.” And then you block time on your calendar for current objectives. The more time on your calendar that you could work on current objectives, meaning you have a … Let’s say you go and you’re like, okay, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:00 to noon or 9:00 to noon, whatever time you could spare, you carve out that time and you just put current objectives. And in that time, you’re just working on the current objectives.

This is the stuff that’s like over and above those fundamentals that’s taking you to that next level. Again, it all starts to come together when you’ve got your processes in place, when you’ve delegated to your people, when they know exactly what to do, that starts to free you up. When you free up, you now have more time that you can add blocks on your calendar that says current objectives. Now, your current objectives can be bigger, they could be bigger and more in depth because you have the time to actually execute them.

Chris:
That’s awesome. So let’s recap, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you got to introduce yourself to the three different people that are living in your mind, the CEO, manager and the doer. Do we give them names? Are they three distinct characters, three distinct-

Louis Massaro:
I mean, you could, that’d be cool. Give them each a different name. You’ve got the CEO, you’ve got the manager, and you’ve got to doer. And it’s just a matter of deciding who needs to show up in this moment. And if you find yourself getting totally overwhelmed in any moment, like let’s say you’re just in between tasks, you move from one thing to the next thing, you’re in your email and you just feel that feeling come over. What should I do next? I don’t even know. I got to do this, I got to do that, I got to do this, I got to do that. Take a step back, put the manager hat on and get yourself organized. Because the doer is going to say, “No, no, no, no, just pick that next thing and just do that. Pick that next thing and do that.” That’s one voice that’s going on.

The CEO is going to be like, “Screw all this, we got more important stuff to do, we got big stuff that we need to be working on.” This is not important, why are we doing this? I should have somebody else doing this.” Tell them both they’re not needed right now and let the managers show up and just get yourself organized for a few minutes, 10, 15, 20 minutes. This could be at any moment during any day at any time. Come up with your plan and then keep moving forward.

Chris:
Okay, okay. And then set your quarterly objectives and-

Louis Massaro:
Also, make sure that you are fine tuning your fundamentals, get that going. Then set your quarterly objectives, just pick three, just pick three. So people will say, well, three is not a lot. Then pick bigger stuff, big impact stuff. Stuff that if you spend all your extra time working on that and you pulled it off and you got those three big things done, you’re really moving the needle, not just incrementally, you’re moving the needle.

Chris:
And then develop your own system for making the time to get those things done.

Louis Massaro:
If you’re in Moving CEO business program, by the way, if you’re not, if you want to check that out, if you want to learn basically everything you need to do to take your moving company to the next level, just go to movingceo.com. All the details are there. Inside of one of those programs that you get as part of the program, we teach the OMS strategic execution system. But essentially take your list every month, pick what’s going to make the biggest impact, pick three of them and then have time blocked on your calendar where you’re just working on that stuff. And then the next thing is just keep a list of everything else and be totally okay if it never gets done.

I have a list in my project management tool that I use, it’s called someday maybe. The stuff that’s not on my current radar in the next year to stuff that I’m like, “This isn’t going to happen in the next year,” which those will be in their own separate projects, it just gets thrown into a folder called someday maybe. You could review that once in a while and pick some gems out of there. It might be three years from now and that amazing golden opportunity that you thought you had, now it’s the time for it. Timing is a big deal too. People think they get a great idea, they need to act on it right away. That used to be one of my things too. I used to take pride in that, that was a badge of honor, like speed of implementation, ooh, I just thought of it, let me make it happen.

But not at the expense of your fundamentals, not at the expense of your current objectives. So be okay knowing that everything has timing and when ideas come to you, great, you don’t have to act on them right away. And then be totally okay with the fact that you’re never going to get it all done. If I was looking at my someday maybe list and I was trying to figure out when I’m going to do all of it, yeah, I’d be super stressed out. I’d be super stressed out. And it’s just a matter of saying there’s a time and there’s a place or maybe there’s not a time and a place.

And it’s one of the things that happens as people start to capture their ideas because a lot of times people don’t write down their stuff. When you start to write it down and when you start to keep a list and that list starts to build because you physically can’t keep up with how fast your mind is going on ideas, you could be overwhelmed. So you’ve got to be able to accept the fact that you will never get it all done. But as long as you’re making good progress on the things that matter, it’s okay that not every little item gets a check next to it.

Chris:
There it is, that’s the magical cure for overwhelm.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it, that’s it. I think that pretty much covers it.

Chris:
That’s really good.

Louis Massaro:
So yeah, implement that stuff. Listen guys, I know we talk a lot about your mindset and how to approach your role as Moving CEO and how to run your business. And that’s because it is all one. You’ve got this whole podcast, go through and listen, there’s marketing, there’s sales, there’s customer service. But this is the stuff that will really help you make that adjustment that you need to get yourself to that next level. So I hope you enjoy it. If so, leave me a review, leave me a comment down below. If you have any questions at all, that’s where we’re getting all these topics. We’re getting these topics from people that are sending in questions. The easiest way to do that is send me a DM on Instagram, it’s @LouisMassaro on Instagram, @ L-O-U-I-S, M-A-S-S-A-R-O on Instagram. And until we see you next time, go out there every single day profit in your business and thrive in your life. We’ll see you later. Be safe. Talk to you soon.

Posted on Sunday, 05-24-2020

Get Freedom from Your Moving Business

SUMMARY

In this episode, Louis Massaro shares how to get freedom from your moving business and create the life you want.

“The minute that you start having to do things that are outside your comfort zone, which you will have to do, because if they weren’t outside your comfort zone, you would already have the freedom that you want. When you start doing that stuff, a lot of things go on in the mind that start popping up that self-doubt.”
“In your business, what needs to be organized? You will need things to be consistent. How do you do that? You need processes. So organize the process of process creation. Make it systematic and organize it. Make sure all the files are filed away organized. Organization, it’s tremendous.”
“If you don’t set yourself up and you’re not committed and you’re not organized and you don’t have the discipline, you’re going to live a really, really tough life. When I say that, you might still be successful, you might still have a great business, you might still from the outside everything looks good, but it’s going to be much harder than it needs to be.”
“Don’t get overwhelmed by this stuff. This is years of me putting this stuff together and applying it to my life. All you’ve got to do is have the commitment to say, ‘you know what, I want to work on this. I want to work on building my life. I want to clear out all the confusion and all the chaos and I want to have clarity.’”
Watch the video to get full training.

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Moving CEO Mindset – Part 2

TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey my friend, welcome to the Moving Mastery Podcast. My name’s Louis Massaro. I’ve got my main man, Chris with me today. We are still on lock down as we’re filming this, at least. Hopefully, by the time you’re listening to this we’re back in action, but we’re here, we’re doing this for you. We’re trying to listen, give you the tools that you need to set up the life that you want, the business that you want so that you can profit in your business, thrive in your life. And I’m excited to be here with you today. What’s happening Chris?

Chris:
Hey, I’m happy to be here. And I got to say we’ve received a ton of really great feedback about the last episode, figuring out what you want in your life.

Louis Massaro:
Okay. Don’t just build a business, build a life.

Chris:
Yes, that was the episode. And so I really feel this week I’ve got a specific question that somebody wrote in regarding that particular episode that I think you’ll really enjoy.

Louis Massaro:
Okay. All right. What do we got?

Chris:
So this question came in and this guy, the last episode really impacted him on a deep level and so he had sort of a followup question for it. So what he said was, I really loved the last podcast and I made a list of everything I want in my life, just like you said. And I realized that my ultimate goal is to get freedom from the business. So what else can I do to achieve that freedom?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Okay. Well, he is wise because ultimately that’s what it’s all about. Everything we’re doing, it’s really about freedom. Even the money. What is the money? It’s dirty paper, what is it? It buys you the freedom that you want. And so… Oh, great question because this is, by the way, you guys, just so you know I think we’ve done maybe one episode where I knew what the topic was going to be, but I’m not aware of these until Chris brings them up.

Chris:
I know. I love dropping them on you too, it’s…

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, it takes me a minute to wrap my head around it. Freedom is really what we all want, to be able to go where you want to go, with who you want to go with. So just to be able to do anything you want without restriction, that’s what it’s all about. That should be the reason that you go to work to make money and he’s looking for freedom from the business, which I totally get that. When you open a business, when you have a business, you might have been in business 20 years, you don’t want it to just be a job for yourself. Your time of grinding and working hard should be to get it off the ground, get that momentum and then start kind of moving yourself back and building that life that we talked about in the last episode. There’s really three keys to freedom. You’ve got commitment, organization and discipline.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Commitment, organization and discipline. He said that he’s got his list of the seven key areas. If you guys haven’t listened to that last episode, by the way, go listen to that. Don’t just build a business, build a life. We’ve been getting a ton of great feedback on that one. He knows what he wants, but now how does he get it? First step is you have to commit to it and that’s why you got to commit.

Chris:
Commit to?

Louis Massaro:
Commit to the life you want.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And commit to the actions that it’s going to take to get there. I’m committed to make this happen.

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
Because if you’re not committed, with anything, if you’re not committed to your relationship, it’s not going to work. If you’re not committed to your business to seeing it through and you’re just a dabbler, that’s just kind of, Hey, let me see if it works out. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, that’s okay. You’ve got to be committed to something first and foremost to make it work. If he knows what he wants, commit to that because without that personal commitment to say, I’m going to see this thing through. You’re going to hit roadblocks, you’re going to hit obstacles, you’re going to hit things that get in your way, that can make you deter and go do something else. You’re also going to be presented with other shiny objects and opportunities. You might establish, this is what I want my life, this is the steps that I need to take to get it. And you’re chugging along and all of a sudden it’s like, Oh, shiny object, shiny object. Oh, this person has an opportunity for me. I saw that person online. They’re doing that. Maybe I’ll try that. And you just get super distracted. You’ve got to get focused and committed on the thing that you really want. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah. So it’s like taking a vow, you’re just like, I’m going to accomplish this no matter what.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Is that it?

Louis Massaro:
Exactly. It’s, I’m in. I’m committed because without commi… if you’re like, I’m going to get in shape. You’re just like, I’m going to get in shape. There’s no commitment there. What are you committed to do specifically? He’s got this whole area of his business, all of his life mapped out he wants freedom. If he’s committed to that freedom, he’s locked in on it. Meaning, there will be times on that path to freedom that he’s going to have to do a lot of hard work that feels the total opposite of freedom and he might just give up on it. What really helps is anything that you’re committed to that you feel there might be some reason why you might get deterred. I like to do a commitment sheet and I basically write out, here’s what I’m committed to do. Here’s why I’m committed to do this. Here’s how I’m going to feel if I don’t do this. Here’s the consequences in my life, if I don’t do this. Here’s what it’s going to do for me in my life, if I do do this.

Louis Massaro:
And what would cause me to give up on this and break my commitment? And then if you establish what those things are that would cause you to break your commitment, then you got to work through those. Just thinking about making a real commitment to something. I had to do that when I got into doing this. I’m like, I wanted to help but I’m like, Oh man, I got to go on video. I’ve got to talk to people. It wasn’t something I really wanted to do, but it was the means of how I needed to do it, to be able to serve and to give back and to be able to help. I had to do things that I knew were going to be uncomfortable. And so, I used my commitment sheet for that. It’s like get married, get the commitment sheet. Anything that you’re going into in your life just write down why you’re committed. If you don’t do it, what’s the opposite?

Louis Massaro:
A lot of times we think about, I want this thing. I’m going to go after this thing. All right, well think about what the opposite of that thing is. If you’re right now, heading into a recession. It’s like, are you committed to get your business on point and doing the things that you need to do and really make an impact or are you not? But if you don’t have that reminder of, okay, if I don’t do this, then I could end up going out of business. It could end up causing major stress in my family. It could cause me to not be able to pay for my kid’s school. It could cause my, you know what I mean? You’ve got to also see the flip side of something that you’re committed to because you’ve got two motivating factors always. You’ve got the thing that you’re going towards that you want and then you’ve got the thing that you’re trying to get away from that you don’t want.

Chris:
Yeah. It’s like…

Louis Massaro:
It’s like you’ve got the carrot over here and you’ve got the steak over here.

Chris:
People talk of you make pros and cons of lists all the time, but this is more in depth, right?

Louis Massaro:
I mean, pros and cons it’s not a bad thing to start with, but it’s a very logical approach. This is a more visceral, this is, you feel this. You need to express to yourself, if I’m committed to it this is what’s going to happen in my life. And just write yourself out a little statement. If I don’t do this, if I start down the path and then I give up, what’s going to happen. Maybe you’re finally committed to like, all right, look, I know there’s these things that I need to get in place in my business. I know I need to finally set up those systems and those processes and get my team in order and do the things that I’ve been putting off. Your consequence of not doing it.

Louis Massaro:
Maybe it’s not as extreme as I’m going to go out of business, but maybe it’s something like, I’m just going to continue to feel terrible and feel, you know what I mean? It’s going to weigh on me as something that I know I should be doing and it’s going to ruin my self confidence and eventually it’s going to cause my business to just go in a direction I don’t want it to go. Commitment’s important. People make commitments way too flippantly, like way too, yeah I know, I’m committed. That’s cool, you could say it to somebody else, but just by writing down. I’m a big proponent of journaling and writing stuff down and get it out of the head. But always explore both sides. If I do this, where is it taking me? If I don’t do this, where is it taking me in my life and how I feel as well.

Chris:
Explore both sides. Now it makes me think of a few episodes back, you’re talking about the moving CEO mindset and one of the tenants of that was accepting and really getting behind the idea that the business, the moving company is your vehicle to be able to achieve the life that you want. Is this commitment a deeper level to that or is this commitment more just like a daily thing? Like, Hey, I’m just going to make sure that my tasks today are each going to take a step towards building that life that I want?

Louis Massaro:
No, that’s great. It depends, it’s a tool. It could be something totally simple. You might say, Hey, I want to start waking up at five o’clock and you might need to write out a sheet for yourself that says, okay, here’s why it’s important to me. Here’s what it’ll do for my life, if I start. If I don’t do it now, this is what my life will be or what the consequences will be. And then, what would cause me not to do that? And let’s just say on the waking up as an example and you’ll be like, well, I stayed up late, I didn’t get good sleep. And you work through some of this stuff that’s going to stop you from honoring that commitment in advance so that if there’s anything where it’s kind of making you, maybe you have to make a decision, maybe then you have to make another commitment to go to bed at a certain time. It could be for anything, you don’t have to do it everything. There’s certain things that you know that you’re just, I’m committed to it and you’re committed to it. I’m not saying you got to make a sheet for everything. What I’m saying…

Chris:
Somethings you just do because you’re so fired up about it.

Louis Massaro:
Sometimes you know you’re committed. But if you know it’s something where let’s say, Hey, I know I’m going to hit a tough time. I know there’s going to be moments where I’m going to second guess this. What I’m committed to is not a short term victory. I’m going to have to go through a lot of peaks and valleys to get there. I’m going to hit a lot of obstacles, a lot of walls, a lot of moments where that self doubt pops in my mind then I start thinking that I’m crazy and it’s the wrong decision and I shouldn’t be doing this. That’s when you’ve got to have this, and I like to keep it in my phone, where I’ll pull it right up the minute I start second guessing something and I’m sitting there and I look and I remind myself, okay, this is why I’m doing this. This is what’s going to happen to my life and to this situation if I don’t do this.

Louis Massaro:
And the whole point is not even just the act of writing it out. It’s having it there in those moments where you need it, where you feel you’re going to break the commitment. Because we’ve all made commitments and we’re all probably guilty of breaking commitments too but to yourself. A lot of people will never break a commitment to somebody else, but they’ll constantly break commitments to themselves.

Chris:
You’re literally writing this down and you’re using it almost as accountability for yourself.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. As accountability and to check in because we’ve got our higher selves, we’ve got our lower selves when we’re on fire, when things are good, we’re feeling great. We’re like I’m going to do this. I’m going to conquer the world. And then when we’re depleted and we’re stressed and our energy is low and we’ve been either not taking care of ourselves, we feel like, ah, man, I don’t want to do this anymore. And those are the moments that before you break that commitment, it’s time to break out that commitment sheet or that commitment note and take a look and remember why you did it in the first place. And again, by doing it what you’re going to gain. And by not doing it, what you’re going to suffer.

Chris:
Okay. I think you’re right. I think a lot of people might say, yeah I’m committed to this. But when you make a sheet like that, you’re going to be more invested.

Louis Massaro:
You’re taking it seriously and you’re having that tool to help you remind yourself in those moments where you want to give up. Because look, you don’t need to, if you’re like, Hey, my commitment I’m going to work out today. You probably don’t, maybe you do need a sheet for that. But if it’s something where you only need the sheet again, if it’s something that you know is challenging and you should be setting out some challenging stuff for yourself. No wonder he wants freedom in his business, and we’ll talk about more how to get there.

Louis Massaro:
But if you’re not committed to it, the minute that you start having to do things that are outside your comfort zone, which you will have to do, because if they weren’t outside his comfort zone, he would already have the freedom that he wants. When you start doing that stuff, a lot of things go on in the mind. That start popping up that self doubt, that’s Oh, man, who are you kid you can’t. All these different things or this isn’t worth the effort. You’ve just got to have something to kind of pull you back in and just go, okay I’m just having a moment, I’m having a day, but let me get back on this because I’m remembering why I’m doing this.

Chris:
Okay. So it’s important to stay in touch with that. Do you check in with that on the regular, daily, weekly, how is like?

Louis Massaro:
Whenever you need. If you’re doing something that’s extremely hard every single day, you feel like, man, today it’s going to put me to the test. I don’t know if I could do this anymore. You might need to look at it every single day. Otherwise, you have it close by for the moments where you’re feeling really challenged, where you’re second guessing it or you’re thinking about breaking that commitment, which people do very, very lightly. And I say people, I was one of those people. It’s just easy to go, yeah, I’m going to do something and I don’t feel like doing it anymore. But before you commit to something, it’s important to commit to things that you’re really committed to.

Louis Massaro:
And then that’s why the last episode of building a life and knowing what you want has to come first. Because otherwise if you commit to something and then you realize, it’s not really in line with what I’m doing, then it’s just easy to shift gears. And what happens is people become afraid to make commitments because they don’t believe in themselves. They remember all the times where they committed to something and then didn’t follow through. I committed and didn’t follow through and that’s Hey, listen, it’s human nature. It’s nothing against you as a person. It’s human nature and that’s why you’ve just got to have some simple tools to help hold you up in those times where you’re weak and then if you are going to break the commitment, you’ve got something else. It’s like, all right, I’m thinking about breaking this commitment. Why? Because sometimes you need to break a commitment.

Louis Massaro:
Sometimes you commit to something and you realize that was the wrong thing. Don’t blindly see it through for the sake of seeing it through. You know what I mean? You could totally, totally, totally shift gears and go in a different direction, but do it in a thought out way. Not on a whim, not because you saw some other shiny object, not because somebody said a comment to you about what you were committed to and it just threw you off. But as you go down your path, see that that’s not the right way to go anymore, then make a shift. But do it after you’ve read through your sheet. That’s like, okay, here’s why I’m doing it. Here’s what will happen if I don’t, and let me now write down the reason why, my case for justifying breaking this commitment. And then do I feel good about that? Yeah, I feel good about that. Cool, break the commitment move on to the next thing.

Chris:
Sometimes you’ll read in personal development books and stuff like that where they say if you’re, they may not use the word commitment, but if you’re going to do something, tell everybody about it. And that way they’ll help hold you accountable. Do you recommend that or do you want to, because if you’re just saying right now, you got to go back on some committed sometimes. If you’re telling everybody, Hey, I’m going to do this and then you decide later that it’s not for you?

Louis Massaro:
No, it depends on the person because I’ve seen it go both ways. I’ve seen it to where people, the minute they come up with an idea, they go and tell everybody about that idea. Then they don’t make a true personal commitment to it. And they give up on it and then it just beats down their self confidence because they told all these people and then the next time they’re like, they know that people don’t believe them this time. And it’s like, if you’re truly committed, you can make that declaration to people.

Louis Massaro:
If you’re truly going to do something in your business and you want people to hold you accountable for it, you could tell everybody in your business, look, here’s what we’re doing. Here’s where we’re going. We’re committed to it. But if you’re constantly telling your team, Hey, we’re going to do this or we’re going to do that, and then you don’t follow through, they stop believing what you say. And if that’s where you’re at today, that’s okay. You can redeem yourself. Just keep it to yourself before you’re ready to really commit. I like to say, tell the world what you plan to do but first show them. You know what I mean?

Chris:
That’s good.

Louis Massaro:
You go talk about it all you want, how about you just do it first and then they’ll see it. Unless you need people on your team to help you orchestrate it, you don’t have to go make this big declaration. Because we all know people it’s like, Hey, I’m working on this, I’m doing that. I’m working on this, I’m doing that. And the next time you talk to him, I’m working on this, I’m doing that. And how about that other thing? No. And those people that are doing it, they feel that too. They feel that self confidence take a shot, I don’t know. I think it’s okay to put stuff out there if you’re truly, truly, truly committed. But otherwise I want to just make that your first. Don’t make that your crutch. Make your commitment sheet and internally be committed to yourself and not need anybody else. And if you’re truly, really committed at that point, then you can enlist somebody else to help hold you accountable.

Chris:
I see the benefit there. Like you were saying earlier, it’s easier to let yourself down than it is to let other people down. But it’s only if you’re fully committed to this thing, whatever it is. We talked about in the last episode, you got to figure out what you want in your life. How do you commit to something if you don’t know what it is? You have to kind of have that foundation first, right?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, the first thing you could commit to is saying, I’m going to commit to figuring out what I want my life. You know what I’m saying? And again, you don’t need a sheet for everything. You just need a sheet if you’re like, I know myself, I know that I’m going to… somebody who was listening to the last podcast. I’m like, I’m fired up about this right now. Right now, I could see the importance. Good, write down why it’s important. Write down what’s going to happen if you don’t do it. Write down how you’re going to feel five, 10 years from now if you did not stay committed to this thing. And that could be the first thing. It doesn’t have to be some big major commitment.

Louis Massaro:
Sometimes it could literally be, I’m going to commit to running my P and L’s every month. My profit and loss statement every month. Something that you need to do that you just haven’t been doing and it’s going to help you get to where you want to go. I think, but once you create that life plan, if you will. You kind of take those seven areas and you lay them out. You commit to that and commitment doesn’t mean I’m going to make this happen happen or die trying. It’s, no, I’m committed to this and I’m going to take all the actions that I need to take to make it happen.

Chris:
Now, part of commitment is diligence. You’re committed to just, like I said, accomplish this no matter what. What are some ways that you can make sure that you’re staying committed besides just pulling up your sheet every day or whatever.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, the next step to freedom organization is organization.

Chris:
Oh, okay.

Louis Massaro:
And so you’ve got these big life desires that you’ve then reversed into goals. You’re committed to it now. Well, now you’ve got to organize yourself and organize your company to be able to orchestrate that because if you’re all over the place, you’re not going to be able to get it done. And so when we talk about organization, it’s kind of across the board organization. You’ve got to be able to organize yourself first and foremost, your self management, how you manage your day. You’ve got to be able to organize your team and your business and have your processes in place. That helps organize your business. You look at one moving company that’s got everything organized and in place and processes and then you look at another one that doesn’t, and one’s like a nice well oiled machine and the others like the wild West. And they’re doing and they’re doing the same stuff. And it’s really because the person that’s got it like a well oiled machine they committed to setting that up and then it’s organized.

Louis Massaro:
First the owner has to be able to organize themselves. That could be literally as easy as, let me organize my desk to start. Then let me organize the way I handle my emails, okay. Let me organize my day and set up some block time and schedule stuff on my calendar. Let me organize my meetings and things I need to do with my team, okay. Now in my business, what needs to be organized here? All right, I will need things to be consistent. How do I do that? I need processes. Let me organize the process of process creation. Let me make this systematic and organize it. Let me make sure all the files are filed away organized. Organization, it’s tremendous. For the past few weeks I’ve been getting reorganized again. Because I’ve felt myself fall off. I had a baby last year and it’s just been busy. We’ve been busy with the business, we’ve been busy with everything. And you’re probably surprised when I’m telling you this because you’re like, what do you mean?

Chris:
Yeah, you’re the most organized person ever.

Louis Massaro:
But I felt off track. I had to kind of take a re-look at everything and how I started. I was like, I took a week and I’m like, I’m just going to organize everything. I literally organized, this was during the lockdown. I literally organized my home office, I organized my computer the desktop, the files. I organized my email, I organized some structure that you probably noticed between the team and communication. I looked at everything that was creating any type of unnecessary confusion or distraction and wanted to bring order to it. And when you do that, it unblocks so much creative energy and allows you to be so much more focused. Like they say, cluttered desk, cluttered mind it’s so true. But you’ve got cluttered desk, you’ve got cluttered phone, you’ve got cluttered desktop. Even cleaning out your closet helps you to maintain a level of organization that frees up creative abilities in your mind that’s going to allow you to do things better in your business.

Louis Massaro:
For me I was like, okay, I did a clean slate, went through everything and I was like, okay, now let me just revisit and relook at my workflow and just make sure that’s all good. Meaning my morning schedule and my daily schedule. How I communicate with the team, our processes, where we’re filing them, how that’s all going. Anything that wasn’t feeling organized in the business and the past few weeks we got everything organized at home. And I know we talked about it and I know you organized some stuff at home as well. That alone, number one, it just does tremendous things. I don’t know for you whether it’s like Feng Shui or whatever it is. When you get organized you have more clarity.

Chris:
Were you always organized? How did this come about in your life?

Louis Massaro:
No. I wasn’t organized at all. It became a necessity. And it really happened when I started my business and I started to realize what not being organized, I started to associate that with problems. If I didn’t have a spare set of keys where I needed them for the truck and then all of a sudden the truck keys went missing. Okay, we can’t start that truck today. Right. We need a system for that. That can’t happen again. That’s unorganized. And then just simple stuff. I started, every few months I would go into the office and I just felt so disorganized, in the early days that I would go in on a weekend and my only thing I would do is just clean everything up, clean off my, go through all the emails, clear all that stuff out and just get organized. And I felt amazing.

Louis Massaro:
Again, you don’t do the things that are difficult or challenging or uncomfortable or boring or whatever, unless you know what it feels like on the other end. I did it out of necessity of things being so unorganized that I started to be able to feel the difference. Like, wow, I feel great. Let me try to keep this. And then it would get on organized again and then I would bring it back into place and I just started to close the gap between how long I let things get unorganized. It was like, I just got reorganized again, but I closed the gap and I don’t allow it to go for a long period of time.

Chris:
What about, the more you do this, do you stay organized longer in the same respect?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Because once you understand that in order for your… you need flow. You need the flow, your business needs to flow. And what that means is you need to lay down train tracks for all your routes. It’s whatever you do in your day, whatever you do in your business, you need it to be smooth and there needs to be a path to how you do it. You need to organize yourself with your calendar and your day and how you manage your time. You need to make sure that you’ve got all the stuff that you need when you’re working to be organized and not have to go searching for a file or scrawling through emails or not having the information you need or worse, doing something more than once because the first time you did it, you didn’t document it to a point where now you have it documented and then you can just delegate that to someone else to do. And so again, processes in your business, that’s part of organization. So whether it’s your sales process and just the way you organize your followup with your team and the way they’re going to follow up with your customers. If that’s unruly, there’s chaos. It’s either there’s organization or there’s chaos. That’s it.

Chris:
How deep does this go for you? Are you so organized that you have a process for brushing your teeth in the morning or how deep does it go for you?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, it’s not that deep. It’s a discipline to do it. It’s not a natural thing. It’s a results-based belief that I have discipline to take the action. Meaning, I believe in organization. I believe what it does for my stress levels, my clarity and my ability to execute. And I believe the same thing for the team. I can’t let anybody on the team get on organized. If there’s ever, we talked about in the episode on mentoring employees, how I brought you in and you didn’t really have any business experience and we started that. Guys, if you didn’t listen to mentoring your employees, go back and listen to that podcast. It was a great one. It was the first one Chris and I did together.

Louis Massaro:
But if you’re unorganized, which at the beginning you didn’t know how to organize office type stuff. You’re a neat guy, your house is organized, you’re put together. But you didn’t know how to do all that. And so it was my job to teach you that, in order to make the business organized. Because if you got a bunch of people doing stuff and they’re all unorganized, then it’s all reflection of you. If you’ve got a dispatcher that’s always losing the keys and they can’t keep track of the contracts, maybe they just need some help getting organized, they need a little system for things. For me, it goes as deep as it needs to go, to make sure that the things that are important, have some structure and have some order because it feels better and I know I get better results that way.

Chris:
For a business owner, how do you suggest they go about getting their team organized?

Louis Massaro:
Start by getting yourself organized. Learning to get yourself organized, what we are talking about today. We’ve talked about it in the past as far as scheduling and we did a best of episode, a few episodes back on self management. Definitely go and listen to that. That was one of our live monthly trainings that we do for our moving CEO business program, listen to that for sure. You’re going to get yourself organized. We use a task, a project management platform. It doesn’t really matter the one that you use. It’s more about the scenario and the process in your system of how you use it. Simple stuff of just, how do you put things in their place. Going from checking your email constantly. Whenever it’s like ding ding ding, you’re checking it. You can organize yourself around that kind of reaction. By taking and going, okay, I’m going to put that time block on my calendar in the morning and after lunch and later in the day and that’s when I’m going in and I’m going to check email. When I check that email, I’m also going to make sure I process it thoroughly.

Louis Massaro:
Where do I keep my loose and paper that I have in the house, where do I keep files that I’m working on at the office? How do I organize my projects for this quarter? What am I working on this quarter that are my big objectives and how do I organize them? It’s a matter of, there’s tools out there, but you don’t want to go get into softwares and get into tools until you just have a basic system. A really good book to read would be, Getting Things Done by David Allen. That it’s a method for being organized, it’s a method for handling your day. It’s called the GTD method. And so what it is, I could tell you the software, I could tell you, but it doesn’t matter what you use if you don’t know how to use it, if you don’t have a method for how you use it. And so…

Chris:
Give me a loose idea of the method. How do you go about getting things done?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. For me, you’ve got ideas in your head all the time. Stuff comes to you, I got to do this, I got to do that. And we want to get it out of our head, but we want a system to get it out of our head and into action. We want to get it out of our head and done, but we don’t want to just think of something and then go and do it. If you’re in the middle of something and you have something going on, I have an app on my phone that I use and again, it’s a project management software. You can just look up project management softwares or task manager and there’s a bunch of options out there, but I’ll just throw it at my phone real quick. The ideal, a thought, well, I got to do this. I’ll throw it in there. That’s just capturing the information.

Louis Massaro:
And then I let it go. I forget about it because I trust that it’s there. But that’s not enough. You’ve got to then know, okay, from that point I just threw it in my phone in the project management piece or it could be on an in a note, whatever. But then it’s, when do I take that and then do something with it? Then what I’ll do is at a designated time, I will sit down and go through all the stuff that’s in there and the inbox, if you will. My personal inbox of stuff I put in or stuff you or people on the team have put in there because we use it in the company and basically I have a set time that I go in and essentially process that information.

Louis Massaro:
I’ll pull up that thing that I thought of. And maybe I’ll look at it and say, what do I need to do here? And I’ll make a decision, is this something that I could do right now? If I could do it in a couple of minutes or less, let me do it right now. Is it something that I could delegate, could I give it to you or somebody else on the team? Or is it something that I might need to defer to later? It’s not something I’m ready to take action on, but I’m going to go ahead and put it in a project and save it inside a project. And so from there, I’ll be able to let’s say I delegate it to you. Alright, but now I can keep track of what I’ve delegated to you so that I am able to follow up on that.

Louis Massaro:
If I do it, I’ll just do it real quick, check it off. If I defer it, in the project management software I’ll have different projects for everything that we’ve got going on. So certain objective projects that we’ve got where it’s like, something you’re trying to achieve. Maybe you have an objective to hire a manager, that’s the manager. And then inside that project you’ve got all the different tasks that it’s going to take to get that thing done.

Chris:
You’re literally breaking down the whole process of hiring a manager and putting each individual step in there to sort of keep you on track. Is that it?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, because what happens is people will say, I need to hire a manager. And they’re like, put on the task list or whatever. But hiring a manager is not a task, it’s a project. There’s a lot of steps that go into that. First I need to write the role description. Then I need to place the ad, then I need to hold interviews. There’s a whole, well, anything that’s more than one step is not a task, it’s a project. Now, if you’re going to buy a truck, you can’t just go buy a truck. It’s not buying a candy bar. There’s more that goes into buying a truck than just buy a truck. What happens is, that creates congestion and confusion in the mind where we get overwhelmed because we didn’t chunk it down, we didn’t break it down and show just a matter of steps. I take this step and that step, then this step, then that step. That’s my way of getting stuff out of my head. I literally just pull up my phone, type it in and put it in there. Or I tell Siri to put it in there. You got to be careful saying that.

Chris:
Once you get it out of your head and you’re in there, you get it into this container that holds all of your ideas or things you need to do. How often are you going to that container and saying, okay, let’s get this done now. Are you doing that daily or?

Louis Massaro:
I’m doing it three times a week. It’s something that I would like to do it daily, but it’s not that crucial for me. I could do it once a week, but then it’s too much to process. But I think doing a daily at first would be the way to do it. Think about it as your own personal inbox. A lot of people treat their email as they’re, pull up the email and that’s like, here’s all the stuff I need to do. But this is like your personal, stuff that comes from you, not from other people.

Chris:
Oh, I see. Now what’s the degree of items in there? Is it, I got to get more paper for the printer or is it, Hey, in five years I want to have 10 locations? How wide is that?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. You could totally have all your goals in there, and a certain project for goals. But think about it more as stuff that needs to get done and projects that you have going on with your team. We could communicate there with that on anything that’s going on in any particular project. But the idea that the biggest thing is this, the first step is really you have an idea, you have a thought of something that needs to get done. It could be, we’re out of milk. It could be something totally easy like that. Or it could be a major piece of the business. Maybe you just thought of it, it’s a great idea, raise the rates by $10 an hour or you hear something in a podcast and you’re like, Oh, I need to do that. Put it in there so you could forget about it. It’s creating one trusted place to put everything and then process it all after.

Chris:
I see. Okay. Wow. That’s huge because how many times a day do you come up with some good idea and you’re like, Oh, I got to remember that. And then it just goes away, you totally forget. I always forget it.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Or you think of something and you’re like, you’ll break your focus and your concentration and you’ll go to Google and check it or you’ll kind of dive into it. Oh, I thought I got to do this before I forget. I got to do this before I forget. And the idea is like, you want to be able to stay present with what you’re doing, what you already organized yourself to set up your calendar to achieve. Because you want to be working on your big objectives that are leading you towards your ultimate life of what you want or distraction that happens. The more you’re being taken off track, the more you’re not achieving the things you want to achieve. You need a way to say, get this out of my head, but I trust that it’s in my system and that it’s going to come out on the other end as completed. Or I might even decide that it’s not necessary anymore and just take it off. But at least I’ve got it captured.

Louis Massaro:
And so listen, when it comes to organization, don’t feel you’ve got to get super, super, super into it. Start with something simple, start with cleaning off your desk. Start with cleaning off your desktop and your files and start with just pulling out your calendar. What am I going to do next week? And put it on the calendar. What important stuff am I going to make happen? And start putting it on the calendar. And then for me, I love the topic. I love learning new ways of getting organized. I love figuring out things that, getting rid of unnecessary steps.

Louis Massaro:
Yesterday we got rid of one of the little software platforms that we use to communicate just because I was like, you know what, it’s an unnecessary thing. Why have all this extra stuff that create complexity when we could just do what we need to do and communicate the way we need to communicate very simply. If you think about just, if your house is like, if you’re a hoarder or any area of your life represents a hoarder’s life. Just clean it up. That’s a major, major place to start. And then from there, dive into just different techniques of how to get organized.

Chris:
Okay. Is there more to being organized or is it sort of that you just got to have a structure?

Louis Massaro:
When it comes to freedom you want that you’re organizing and executing around priorities. Organizing and executing around priorities. It’s hard to do that though if you’re in chaos. And let me just say something. I was not a naturally organized person. People will be like, I’m just not organized. No. That’s not the case. The case is you just haven’t learned how to be organized and you haven’t learned how to be organized because you haven’t had a compelling enough reason to get organized. I don’t believe that, some people are organized, some people aren’t, I just don’t. Some people might naturally do it, but that doesn’t mean the people that aren’t organized can’t become organized. They just haven’t attached an outcome to it yet. They haven’t looked past the extra work that it’s going to take to get organized and go, that’s worth it. My mental clarity is worth it. My streamline processes and communication within my company is worth it and therefore I’m going to do the things I need to do to get and stay organized.

Chris:
They haven’t committed to being organized.

Louis Massaro:
They haven’t committed. Exactly, there’s a lot that goes in. We’re talking about how to get freedom. That’s what this is all about. How to get freedom, personal freedom for your time, financial freedom. You’ve got to be able to commit, and then you’ve got to be able to get organized. And so we said, organize and execute around priorities. If you’re not organized, you’re in a total reactionary state. You’re just dealing with whatever comes your way. But if you’re looking to achieve the life that you want and build the business you want, you’ve got to have your priorities that you set up as objectives that you’re working towards. And those need to be on your calendar every single week.

Chris:
Okay. You’re making time to chip away at those every week.

Louis Massaro:
Well, so now the next step, we’ve got commitment, organization. The next step is discipline, you made the commitment. You’re like, I’m committed to do this. Okay, I’m organized and organization’s not a onetime thing. You could learn how to organize. You could learn a system one time. You could bring an organizer into your house or into your business one time, but it needs to be kept up with. It’s a system that you just need to have steps. After we do this, we do that. After we do this, we do that.

Chris:
It’s ongoing.

Louis Massaro:
It’s ongoing. But then you need the discipline to take the action. You could put stuff in your phone, in a project management app, but then not be disciplined when you told yourself, I’m going to check that every day at this time and process it. You could be organized and say, I’m going to put blocks of time on my calendar. I’m going to schedule things in. But then when that time comes, you’re like, eh, this other thing is more important. Or I don’t really feel like doing it, today’s not the day. You’ve got to be disciplined and there’s a lot of people that resist discipline. They feel it’s very rigid, it’s very militant. But even people that are happy, go lucky, free flowing, no cares in the world without certain disciplines, it’s going to create turmoil inside. Discipline will set you free. What seems hard will set you free.

Louis Massaro:
The easy life is hard and the hard life is easy. And what that means is if you have the discipline to do what’s hard, you’re going to live a good, easy life. You’re going to have money, you’re going to have freedom. You’re going to do this stuff you want to do because you did what was hard in the moment. But if you do what’s easy in the moment, you’re going to have bills you can’t pay. You’re going to have stress. You’re going to have problems. Meaning if you choose to go watch Netflix over review your profit and loss, which is on your calendar and you needed to do right. You’re choosing what’s easy. And if you choose what’s easy, it’s going to lead to a hard life. Financial struggle, self doubt is just a never ending cycle. But if you’re, you know what, I don’t want to do it right now, but I committed to it now let me have the discipline to do it. Let me do what’s hard. Then you’re going to live the easy life. You’re going to make the money, you’ll have the time. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah. No. It sort of feels like it’s the same as being organized where it’s not really a natural state of mind to be disciplined. What’s something somebody could do to maybe increase their ability to be disciplined?

Louis Massaro:
Start chipping away at it because it’s all belief system. It’s all, I’m just not disciplined. I’m just not disciplined. And that’s from years of making loose commitments, probably being unorganized and then not following through with what you were supposed to do. And part of that, going back to the last episode is you didn’t find your fire. You didn’t find something, you didn’t paint the picture for yourself of a life that you really want. And so you consistently let yourself down and you didn’t have the discipline, I am going to wake up at five and then the alarm went off. You’re like, ah, just easier right now in the moment it’s easier to just hit the snooze. So start with something small, like waking up at a certain time that you want to wake up at, that’s earlier than you want to wake up and have the discipline to do it.

Louis Massaro:
And discipline is really just feeling your way through a difficult moment to get to the other side, to get something better. Doing what’s hard to get, what’s easy. Instead of doing what’s easy, realizing that it’s going to end up being hard. If you like, all right, I’m going to stop having dessert every night after dinner, I need to stop. And then after dinner you’ve got the feeling in your mouth, you just want some sugar. You want it, it’s right now you got to do what’s hard. You got to have the discipline to just not give in to that, that easy action. Do what’s hard because then you’ll break free of it and you’ll be living the easy life and still pick small stuff and start rebuilding your self confidence and your self belief in yourself.

Louis Massaro:
I’s like wherever it came from, whether you were told as a kid, you don’t have any discipline, you’re just not disciplined. You need some structure, you need some discipline, you need some structure, you need some discipline. And I know I didn’t want to hear that stuff as a kid, I don’t know. I got enough structure and discipline. And so as a teenager, it wasn’t till I got in business, I’m like, man, I need structure and discipline because otherwise it’s chaos. And when I see chaos, I’m losing money. And when I see chaos, I’m spending time putting out fires. I shouldn’t be spending time putting out fires. I should be spending time building my business. And it just clicked for me that, if I was committed, organized, and had the discipline to just do what I needed to do and stop thinking about it, then it was only going to benefit me. It’s really just start with some minor stuff, but attach yourself to what’s on the other side of that hard thing.

Chris:
See the outcome and…

Louis Massaro:
See the outcome. If you’re like, man, I really want to get up at five o’clock okay, then start getting up at five o’clock and realize that it’s going to be hard. You’re going to want to hit the snooze. For a long time, you’re going to feel really tired. And you’re going to probably have to change the time you go to bed and have that discipline to do that. But you won’t do that if number one, you don’t accept the CEO mindset. One of the CEO mindsets is I’m responsible for my results. If you don’t like the results you’re getting and you want a different result and listen, if this podcast makes you even go, yeah, you know what, he might be on to something. Let me just try to just do it and have the discipline to push myself through it. Because I do see how on the other side of this thing that I’ve been putting off or this thing that I always say I’m going to do that I don’t do, where it could really help me break through and get that freedom that I’m looking for.

Louis Massaro:
That’s enough to kind of get you started. And if you fall off track, get back up. So many people give themselves a hard time that they tried something and they fell off, so then they stop trying because they don’t believe in themselves and just get back up. Not to sound cliche, but get back up, get back up and all you have to do is if you try something, let’s say every new year’s you try something, you’re going to go on a diet or you’re going to get disciplined with things you’re going to do at work. And then you fall off by February. Don’t wait till January again, just close the gap of time between the time you fall off and the time you get back up.

Louis Massaro:
If you could do that, whether it’s you let yourself get on organized, okay, recognize it. Don’t give yourself a hard time. Close the gap, get organized again. You told yourself you were going to get up at a certain, 5:00 in the morning, you haven’t done it for a week, you recognize it, close the gap start again. If you just keep closing the gap of time and don’t let it go so long it becomes you and then it doesn’t feel rigid and hard and discipline. It’s just like, I know the… for me it becomes, if I don’t do this I don’t like the outcome of that. I don’t like how I feel and I don’t like the results. But I’d rather do this thing that seems hard right now to get the results that I want.

Chris:
Over time it becomes a habit and then you don’t even think about it.

Louis Massaro:
It becomes a habit and you shift your mindset from giving into your lower, in the moment what you want is easy and you shift to going, no, no. In my life this is where I’m going and in order to get there, these are the things I need to do right now. And once you start realizing that you’re not really, it’s not a suffering thing to do it, you actually feel better later. Anybody could tell you that works out hard. There are probably some people that enjoy the during, but I don’t enjoy during, I enjoy the after. I don’t enjoy when the alarm goes off at five o’clock. It takes me a minute, I don’t enjoy it. But I enjoy the way I feel and the results that I get from doing that. What’s hard makes my life easy.

Chris:
Now we’ve got commitment, organization, discipline. It seems that’s a natural progression. Is that the order?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Okay. So one builds on the next.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Because you won’t get organized if you’re not committed. You just won’t because it’s just like, Oh man, I’m never going to and it might take you a month to get yourself organized just to chip away at certain things. I’m going to organize this drawer, I’m going to organize all this stuff that’s all over my desktop on my computer. And I don’t know where anything, little things. You can start chipping away small. I’m going to make sure my socks are all in the right place. Whatever it might be. But if you don’t have the commitment, you’re just not going to get organized. And if you’re not organized, you can have all the discipline in the world. But what are you being disciplined with? You got no structure of discipline. It goes in order, commitment, organization and discipline.

Chris:
Cool. Okay. And the ultimate goal is freedom. So how do having those things help you attain freedom? And then what happens if you don’t do those things?

Louis Massaro:
If you don’t do those things, basically if you don’t set yourself up and you’re not committed and you’re not organized and you don’t have the discipline, you’re going to live a really, really tough life. When I say that, you might still be successful, you might still have a great business, you might still from the outside everything looks good, but it’s going to be much harder than it needs to be. Whereas if you make that commitment, you get disciplined, you get organized and then you get disciplined to do what you need to do. You’re going to make more money in your business. You’re going to be able to live a better quality of life because now when you’re organized, it’s like, listen, everybody’s felt chaos in their mind before overwhelm, let’s just say overwhelm.

Louis Massaro:
When you feel overwhelmed, it kind of puts you in a straight jacket, you know what I mean? Like you’re, you’re not able to do the things you need to do, but when you are the opposite of overwhelmed and you’ve got clarity and everything’s in place and everything’s working the way that it is, and you’ve thought things through in advance and set up certain systems in your business to where things run the right way because you slowed down a little bit instead of just rushing through it and you set up a way to organize it. Your ability as a leader just multiplies tremendously. Your ability of what you’re able to accomplish and what you’re able to do.

Louis Massaro:
If somebody is like, man, I just don’t feel confident in being able to get to a certain level. Listen, figure out what you want, go to the past, that last episode. Figure out what you want in your life, commit to it. Commit to getting organized, realizing that’s a big part of the business. Start wherever it could be something totally simple and then just whatever you say you’re going to do, have the discipline to just get it done and you’ll see your business transform. You’ll see your life transform and you’ll see your stress start to dissolve.

Chris:
Wow. And then let me ask you this. This is kind of taking it after the fact you apply all of these techniques, you achieve that freedom that you’re looking for. You have that kind of freedom. Do you still apply these techniques to your freedom? Is your freedom organized? Is your life still disciplined?

Louis Massaro:
My stuff is so organized that I’m able to be spontaneous. It’s like people that want to be spontaneous. Like, man, if you’re that rigid, that takes away all the zest of life. I’m like, no, it’s actually the opposite because when you could have the zest. I could walk out right now and be okay with knowing everything’s got its place, you know what I’m saying?

Chris:
Yeah, the business will run.

Louis Massaro:
The business will run and I could step away, go on vacation, do what I need to do, and then I have my way of keeping up on things to where it doesn’t become this big burden that I have to dig myself out of. And then you plan your free time. You still have that, you could dab your phone whenever you want and feel that spontaneous adventure if you will, whenever you want, because everything’s got its place and you’re not trying to constantly hold on to everything in your head. There’s order, there’s structure. I mean, I’m so free that I look back and I can’t say it to younger me, in my 20s me. But I could share this with other people and I look at my life then, and I look at my life now and it’s a whole different. I want to try to explain it in a way where everybody gets the vision. But imagine just all the burden and all the stress that you feel just being lifted off your shoulders.

Louis Massaro:
Imagine all the things that you worry about, you don’t worry about because it has its place. It has order, it has structure. Imagine knowing that you’ve got these big life goals that you want to achieve but not feeling unsatisfied with where you are because you know that you’re taking the actions. Because of your discipline that are leading you there so you’re totally comfortable and content with where you are today because things are as they are supposed to be and you’re on track to go where you decided you want to go and you’re not just stuck, blown in the wind.

Chris:
That’s cool.

Louis Massaro:
This is a big episode, I’m glad that you brought this up because this is Moving Mastery Podcast. We talk about how to help moving company owners profit in their business and thrive in their life, it’s not one or the other. You become a better leader after all of this, you become a better business person after this. It all comes together, your confidence builds, your ability to organize and put together bigger business plans. If you’re struggling with however many trucks and however many offices and however many movers you have now imagine being able to do double that or triple that or 10 times that with a fraction of the stress and worry.

Louis Massaro:
It’s really the missing stuff. It’s not about the quick little hacks of which marketing source and all that which we have and all other episodes. But it’s about getting your stuff in order and structuring things to prepare yourself to rise up to another level. You can’t imagine that, you can’t just think that working hard is going to get you to where you want to go. You’ve got to restructure a little bit and do some of the things that might seem hard right now that at some point they just seem like total routine and set you free and set you on that path to build that life that you want to build.

Chris:
Awesome.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, I think we could end on that one.

Chris:
I think that’s it right there. That’s good.

Louis Massaro:
All right. So listen, take this don’t get overwhelmed by this stuff. This is years of me putting this stuff together and applying it to my life. All you’ve got to do is have the commitment to say, you know what, I want to work on this. I want to work on building my life. I want to clear out all the confusion and all the chaos and I want to have clarity. I want to know where I’m going. I want to have my systems and my reports and my business to where I could see exactly what’s going on, to where I could be away with my family, to where I could be spending time with whoever I want, wherever I want, without that stress and that burden.

Louis Massaro:
Just make that commitment to want to start doing that. And you’ll get there. Keep getting after it. Keep making it happen. Go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. And do me a favor. Let me know what you think about this episode, this specific episode, what you like about it, what you didn’t like about it. Leave me a comment down below or over on iTunes, Apple podcasts. Just leave a rating or send me a DM on Instagram. If you’ve got any questions at all, anything that you want me to address specifically on the podcast. We do take a lot of these episodes. This one today came from a question, right, Chris?

Chris:
That’s right. It was on Instagram.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. So it’s @Louismassaro on Instagram, L-O-U-I-S-M-A-S-S-A-R-O. Send me a message, send me a DM. Send me a picture of you listening to this. I’d love to connect and until I see you next time again, go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thriving your life, Chris. I’ll see you later.

Chris:
Take care.

Louis Massaro:
All right.

Posted on Sunday, 05-17-2020

Don’t Just Build a Business, Build a Life

SUMMARY

In this episode, Louis Massaro shares how to not just build a moving business, but to also build a life.

“People think that they can’t have it all, but you can have it all and you shouldn’t be afraid to go after it all. But the first thing you need to do is sit down and ask yourself, ‘What exactly do I want in my life?’”
“One of the biggest problems is thinking short-term. “This month, next month, this year I’m going to accomplish this or I’m going to do that.” It’s good to have those goals, but you want to start with the long-term plan. ‘All right, what do I want 20 years from now?'”
“I think people don’t believe in themselves enough to sit down and think it through, realizing that they have the power to shift and make adjustments in their actions on a day to day basis to lead them towards what they want.”
“In this modern-day that we live in, in this Instagram world that we live in, there’s so much comparison. There’s so much, ‘I see that person has that, I want to have that. I want to be able to show that.’ Once you could get past that and establish what you really want for you and your family, then it’s like, ‘Okay.’ Then design the plan in your business, set your objectives in your business to go get that.”
Watch the video to get full training.

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Moving CEO Mindset – Part 2

TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey, what’s up my friend. It’s Louis Massaro, and welcome to another episode of the Moving Mastery podcast. We are still here on lockdown. Chris and I are at home. What’s going on, Chris?

Chris:
Hey, hey, hey. Nice to be here. Yeah, we’re holding it down. Still on lockdown, but making the best of it.

Louis Massaro:
We’re getting close to. I think we’re going to be allowed back out and get back to the office here soon. I’m looking forward to that.

Chris:
Yeah, I’m excited to get back to normal life.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, I don’t know how normal it’s going to be, but it’ll be … At least we’ll go to the office and work a little bit and not be at home all day, which is great. It’s been great. I got to tell you, I’ve actually really enjoyed this time to just be at home and be with the family, reflect, work, help clients navigate these times. But let’s start inching our way back towards some kind of normal life, right?

Chris:
Right, exactly. For this week, I feel like the last episode of Moving CEO mindset was really powerful. I figured, for this week we should maybe dive in a little bit deeper to one particular thing you had mentioned in the last episode. In that last episode, Moving CEO mindset you had talked about the importance of knowing what you want in your life. I thought it would be powerful for you to talk about how you actually figure that out and why that’s so important. How does somebody go about figuring out exactly what they want in their life and then how does that play into building their moving company?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Good. I’m glad you brought that up. Yes. If you guys haven’t listening to … We did two parts to that, Moving CEO mindset. Yeah. Go listen to that for sure, part one and part two. But let’s dive into the importance of that because, yeah, a great topic, Chris.

Chris:
Thanks.

Louis Massaro:
When we talk about business, sometimes we separate it from our life and we think that it’s this other thing. We go to work, it’s that other thing. But in reality, it’s a big part of our life. The direction that we go in, in our business and what we decide to do, what risks we take, what model of a business we set up, how hard we push, what our overall strategy is on how big we want to grow, really needs to be dictated on your life. What I mean is, why do we work? I mean, owning a moving company, it’s a means to financial freedom. It’s a way to set up your life in a way where you could have a good quality of life. That doesn’t just mean money, that means freedom as well. That means profit in your business and thrive in your life and tie it all together. If you’re listening and you’re like, “Yeah, Louis, if you’re going to talk to me about life balance and all that, I don’t think that’s possible.” I’m not talking to you about life balance.

Louis Massaro:
I’m talking to you about figuring out what you want in order to make yourself happy. It’s like when we’re going after the money and we’re building the business, we think that that’s what’s going to bring us the fulfillment, that’s what’s going to make us happy. For me, that was me. All I did was work at the beginning. I was 19, I moved to a new city. I didn’t have any friends there until I started recruiting friends to come out. All I did was work, focus, focus, work, work, work. Feeling that, “Hey, when I get to a certain level, everything else will work itself out.” I’ve talked before about the stress that I had in those early years and having an ulcer in my stomach and just being hunched over on the floor in my office dispatching trucks. Sitting there on the walkie-talkie with them in excruciating pain, all from the stress. It really went on that way for a while until I got my first coach. She kind of introduced this idea of a complete life. I was so off balance in the sense that everything was about work, everything was about work.

Louis Massaro:
I resisted this idea of filling in these other categories. I’ll talk about the seven categories of your life that you’ve got to be able to pay attention to and fulfill your desires in all those areas for you to be truly happy and live the life you want. Because at the end of the day, what do we all really want? We just want to feel good. We just want to be happy. We want to feel secure. We want to feel free. We want to know we could do what we want to do when we want to do it. There’s no restrictions holding us back. We’re able to kind of make certain moves. But when you start a business, that business has a tremendous hold on you. It’s like a whole other responsibility. It’s like when you have kids, that’s a responsibility. When you have a business, it’s a whole other big moving piece that is in your life that you’re now responsible for. In order to make sure you’re setting that up correctly, in other words … We’ll talk about that in a second.

Louis Massaro:
In order to make sure you’re setting it up correctly to reach your life goals, you have to know what those are. It took me, I don’t know, seven years after being in the business to finally sit down and go, “What do I really want besides a lot of money, besides a house, besides a second house, besides cars, besides … What do I really want in my life?” It’s the exercise that really helped just make me feel like a whole person and enjoy a quality of life and realize that there is a sense of balance that needs to be there. It doesn’t mean that it has to be equal across all areas of your life. Your free time and your fun and your health and your relationships and your financial and business, it doesn’t have to all be equal time that you spend across the board, but you have to acknowledge what you want in those areas. Because one of the biggest secrets really, I mean in success in life, it’s just what do you want first and foremost?

Louis Massaro:
When I sit down with clients that I work with one-on-one, the first question is like, “What do you want in life?” I mean, I take them through a whole exercise to figure it out, but that should be the driving force. Not, “I want to get three trucks, I want to get five locations, I want to get to 10 million a year in revenue.” That’s part of it. But you want to build a life, not just the business. Don’t go out there and try to build a business, focus on building a life and let the business just be a part of it that fuels the life. That gives you the money and the freedom to do all the other stuff you want to do.

Chris:
Okay. That’s an interesting-

Louis Massaro:
It makes-

Chris:
… perspective. It seems … So you’re not saying, don’t set objectives for the business and try to grow and improve the business? But you’re saying, balance that out with goals and objectives for your personal self as well. Is that kind of what you’re saying?

Louis Massaro:
What I’m saying is, set your business objectives based on what you want in your life.

Chris:
I see. Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Right. It’s like, take a step back. There’s seven key areas that you want to look at it in your life. You’ve got financial, how much money do you want to make? You’ve got business, what do you want your business to look like? You’ve got free time and fun. What do you want to do with your free time and how much free time do you want? Your personal growth, what areas of your life do you want to work on personally? You’ve got relationships with yourself, with your spouse, with your family, with God. You’ve got health, you’ve got contribution. These seven areas make up your entire life. If you don’t identify what you in all those areas, you’re always going to miss the mark. It’s like, if you’re going to work hard, which you’re in the moving business, you’re working hard. Because if you’re not working hard and you’re not at least up front setting up the things that will allow you to have the money and the freedom, if you don’t put that effort in upfront, you’re not going to get there.

Louis Massaro:
But it’s like, don’t you want to know that you’ve set the coordinates to the right destination? We go in and we’re like, “I just want to get to two trucks. I want to get to 10 trucks. I want five locations. I want to get the 5 million. I just want to make 400 grand a year.” Whatever the case might be. But you’re not really setting the coordinates. You’re basically saying, “I want to head North.” Well, there’s a lot of ways you could go that are all North. If you think about if you’re climbing a wall and you put the ladder on the wall to climb it. If you spend all these years and all this time and energy climbing that wall and realize that when you get to the top that it’s the wrong wall you’ve been climbing, you just wasted a lot of time and energy. The idea is, how somebody does this, is you sit down and you figure out, “Okay, what do I want in my life?” See, I’m a big believer that you design your life. You design it how you want to be.

Louis Massaro:
If you don’t like it the way that it is, you change it. But in order to change it, you’ve got to be able to identify what is it that I want. The question that you should be asking all the time is, “What do I want and how do I get it? What do I want and how do I get it?” That continuing dialogue. It’s not an obsessive, “I’m not happy right now until I get it.” It’s like, “No, I’m the creator here. I’m the designer of my life. If I don’t like the direction it’s going, let me change direction. But let me also recognize that if I don’t like the direction it’s going, chances are it’s not because it just led me that way.” It’s because you either made a choice to go in the direction that you’re going now or you made no choice and you just kind of floated in the wind and just decided on one area and so that’s why all these other areas aren’t coming together for you as well.

Louis Massaro:
People think that they can’t have it all, and you can have it all and you shouldn’t be afraid to go after it all. But the first, first, first, first thing you need to do, is sit down and say, “What do I want?” Not many people do that. I mean, I never did it until I was in business seven years. My idea of what I wanted was like, “I want that house. Okay, I want that other house. I want some cars. I want to take these trips. I want this much money in the bank.” That was the extent of it.

Chris:
You’re saying, get really specific in each one of those seven areas you were talking about? Literally dive in as deep as you can go into each one of those and figure out exactly … Do you write it down? Are you making lists of all of that stuff? How does that work?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, what I would do is, I would set aside some time where you’re not rushed, where you could sit down and kind of really think through what it is. Or keep a journal on it, keep a note on your computer and piece of paper, notebook, whatever. It’s keep writing down, what do I want? What do I want? How do I get it? It helps to break it down into the categories. You’ve got financial, you’ve got business. Financial for example, in that category you’ve got how much money do I want to earn every year? What do I want my yearly income to be or my monthly income to be personally? Not the business, personally. At what age do I want to retire and how much do I want to have in income yearly to support me at that age. If you want to retire at age 60 and you’re living a let’s say three, $400,000 a year lifestyle or 100 … Whatever it might be. There’s people at many different levels listening. You’ve got to be able to maintain that lifestyle for your next 30 plus years after retirement.

Louis Massaro:
How do you want to live then? How much money do you want in cash reserves? You might have money in stocks, you might have money in real estate investments, but then how much money do you want to have in cash reserves as well? How much is it going to cost you to send your kids to the schools that you want or they want to go to? Other investments. It’s a matter of sitting down and figuring out what that is. A lot of people are like, “Louis, I don’t know how much money I want.” Most of the times what happens is, people say a number that is actually more than they actually need. They think they need a million dollars a year to live a certain way, but when they really do the math of what everything’s going to cost them, and they find out it doesn’t really take that much. Or you find out you’re way off. Because when you start thinking about retirement, when you start thinking about the future, we’ve got to be thinking far out. We’ve got to be thinking at least 20 years out.

Louis Massaro:
One of the biggest problems is thinking short-term. “This month, next month, this year I’m going to accomplish this or I’m going to do that.” It’s good to have those goals, but you want to start with the long-term plan. “All right, what do I want 20 years from now?” Because what happens is, the mind when you start saying, “I’m going to get this accomplished this year.” The mind’s like, “Yeah, that seems like a lot.” What you do is, you shrink your ambitions, you shrink what it is you want, you bring it down. But if I’m like, “Hey, look, if you had 20 years and you knew you couldn’t fail, what do you really want? In your heart, what do you really want?” To me, that’s life. It doesn’t have to be financial. You could be like, “I need X amount to live this way.” And that’s it. It’s not about flash. It’s not about cash. It’s not about … You know what I mean? It’s not about stuff. It’s about the quality of life.

Louis Massaro:
If you want stuff as part of your quality of life, cool. You know what I mean? Like, “I like living in a nice house. I like driving nice cars. It’s not for anybody else. It’s for me because I just like nice stuff.” I build that into my plan of what I want to do and where I want to be. When you look at it 20 years out, your mind’s like, “Hmm, okay, well maybe I could do more if I got 20 years.” The mind starts to say, “Wow, I was talking about, maybe I could make …” I don’t know. Somebody wants to make 500,000 a year and then you’re like, 20,000 … I’m sorry, 20 years later you’re thinking 20 years out. Like, “If I had 20 years, who knows what I could accomplish in that time? Man, I’m going to raise that goal. I want to make 2 million a year for myself personally.” Does that makes sense?

Chris:
Yeah. It’s not just about materialistic, it’s about figuring out … You can literally do the numbers. I mean, it’s almost like an accounting thing. It’s budgeting. You’re like, “How much do I want to set aside for this particular aspect of my life?” That’s interesting. I’ve never really thought about it that way. I think that’s a different perspective rather than just you think about your future and you just think about, “Oh, I would like to have X amount of dollars and have this kind of lifestyle.” But you don’t really do the numbers and figure out exactly how much that’s going to cost. It’s probably not as much as you think, like you said.

Louis Massaro:
Or much more. It’s like, you’re usually way off. But the idea here is, we talk about how does this come back to business? It comes back to business, every day you’re taking action, make sure your actions are leading you towards what you want. Otherwise, five, 10, 20 years goes by and you’re not doing this stuff. The big, big thing that makes this really important and we’ll go through the other categories too, is that building a successful life, which means profiting in business, thriving in life, it takes work, it takes effort, it takes discipline, it takes commitment. If you don’t have that why … You know what I mean? If you don’t have something, some idea of, “This is the life that I’m after.” That is your fire …

Louis Massaro:
Like I say, find your fire and the thing that lights a fire under you. It’s going to, “Ah, it could wait. Ah, it’s not that big a deal. Ah, this is okay.” But if you can really write out like, “Man, if I knew I couldn’t fail 20 years from now, where would I want to be?” Then you hold onto that and start to make your decisions in business based on that information, now you have that guiding light. You have that North Star, you have that destination that you’re heading for. You and your family, you could get around that and you could rest easy knowing … What it does is, it calms you down because you’re like, “Oh, I don’t have to get everything done today. But I also feel and I know that the actions that I’m taking today, even though they’re chipping away at that big, big goal, they are leading me in that direction.”

Chris:
Yeah. You have a clear path to where you want to get to. Now even if you do the numbers though, like you were saying, you still have to do the work.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, absolutely. You still have to do the work. But the work that you do won’t inch to … I don’t know. I’ve experienced it where I’m like, “I don’t know. Am I doing the right thing or what is the right thing?” There is no right thing. The right thing is, once … It’s like, you can’t establish what the right thing is until you know well, what are you trying to accomplish? What’s the outcome? If you have this outcome of where you want to be, then we could look at it and go, “Yeah, you’re not on track for that. Here’s the adjustments you need to make to get to that.” I think people don’t believe in themselves enough to sit down and think it through, realizing that they have the power to shift and make adjustments in their actions on a day to day basis to lead them towards what they want. But the first, first, first step is just establishing what you want.

Louis Massaro:
Even if at first that list adjusts a little bit. Once a year, December, sometimes it’ll end up being January if December gets away from me, for a week, 10 days, I’m constantly journaling. What do I want? How do I get it? What do I want? How do I get it? Year after year, it starts to be that more of those items are consistent because they’re true. They’re what I really want. It wasn’t just a passing thing, it was something that my heart really wants as part of my life. Then we talked about it in the past, visualizing. We talked about visualizing your future as it’s already done. Well you can’t visualize something that you don’t have a clear picture of.

Chris:
That’s the benefit of kind of asking the same question over and over again? It’s helping clarify what it is that you want. Is that it?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean maybe some people could sit down in one sitting right and have the seven categories and write it all out. But for me, one day you’re feeling one way another day you’re … As humans, we go up and we go down. I want to make sure it’s consistent across whatever I’m feeling for the day. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
I want to-

Chris:
What-

Louis Massaro:
… know it’s really true to me and it’s not just an outside influence or something like that.

Chris:
Yeah, right.

Louis Massaro:
The biggest part of this whole thing, is connecting with your truth. In this modern day that we live in, in this Instagram world that we live in, there’s so much comparison. There’s so much, “I see that person has that, I want to have that. I want to be able to show that.” Once you could get past that and establish what you really want for you and your family, then it’s like, “Okay.” Then design the plan in your business, set your objectives in your business to go get that. From financial, we’re still on the first one which is financial, go virtually shopping. Once you establish, “Okay, I want this type of house. I want this type of cars. I want to retire at this age. I want …” Figure out what all that is going to cost. Go calculate what that mortgage is going to be. Go calculate what those car payments are going to be.

Louis Massaro:
Get yourself a financial advisor and say, “These are all the things that I want. How much money do I need to make, to make all that happen? Including the retirement piece, including the savings piece, including being able to leave this for my children.” Let them do the math and that’s how you kind of figure out your financial aspect of it. Then the second one is business.

Chris:
Okay. How does that work?

Louis Massaro:
Now you’re like, “Okay, what type of business do I want? What do I want to be doing for my business?” If you’re listening to this, chances are you’re in the moving business. Maybe you still want to be in the moving business or maybe you don’t. I mean, it’s like that now’s your time to really think it through on what you want. If you do, it’s like, “Okay, well what do I want? Okay, well I want to be in the moving business. I really just want to do local moves. I’d like to open a couple of offices. I’d like to be able to do this much a year. I’d like for my business to be able to run by itself so that I could take trips whenever I want. I’d love to a main operations manager or a COO that runs everything to where I’m only working a couple hours a day, four hours a day, four hours a week.” Whatever it might be, design that. It’s all possible.

Louis Massaro:
But the thing is, if we just let our default settings roll us into our business, we just get caught up in reaction and we get caught up in what we see and think is possible. This isn’t just me, I mean, you’ve seen, we’ve done these exercises with clients. You’ve seen we’ve done them with masterminds. We’ve even done them at the seminars, and it helps people get that clarity. Once you have that clarity, you become a weapon because now you know what you want. It’s got you fired up. You’re like, “Yup, okay. What do I need to do now? What are the steps in my business?” Now you could start designing your business objectives, which is separate. You don’t really put that …

Louis Massaro:
Because the objectives you start looking at, “Okay, if I want to make that kind of money 20 years from now and I want to have that kind of free time 20 years from now and I want to have these type of relationships and this type of health, what are my days right now need to look like? What do I need to be doing on a day to day basis to get there?”

Chris:
Yeah. I’ve seen it in a lot of our clients. When they make that change, it’s almost like there’s a lot of stress off of their shoulders too because it’s almost … I don’t know if it’s just because they know where they’re going now, they have a clear goal and it’s easy because they show up every day and they’re just working towards that. But it seems like they’re less stressed as well.

Louis Massaro:
Well, because there’s … I mean, what’s better than clarity?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
I mean, when you go on your mission and do what it is you’re doing and you know the reason behind it and you hit that fatigue in the day or you hit challenge, which you’ll always hit challenge in business … Just right now, I mean, look at right now. I mean, there’s a lot of people losing motivation right now because of everything that’s happening with the negativity and the reality of what’s going on with COVID and all that. If you don’t have a reason why you’re doing it that actually excites you and lights a fire under you, it’s easy to hit a little obstacle and be like, “Ah, maybe I’ll just settle. I really want that, but you know what, I tried, I failed. Maybe I’ll just settle.” It’s like, no, don’t …

Louis Massaro:
That’s like, if you have something that’s really lighting you up and you believe, “Hey, I can get there and I can design my life. I live one life right now as me, let me make this part of the game. Let me make this part of the font. I’m going to design it and I’m going to go get it. I’m going to design it and then I’m going to go get it.”

Chris:
Okay. As far as the business goes, now you had mentioned earlier that one of the things you want in your business could be that you want out of it.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
I mean, and that’s okay. I mean, it’s part of your evolution now. Should you set a goal about how to get out of the business? I mean, I guess you should, right? That’s why you [crosstalk 00:27:05]-

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s like, “What do you want?” I really encourage everybody that’s married or has a significant other, to do this together. Because when you’re moving as a unit and you have a unified goal, it’s so much easier to get there. But if getting out of the business is part of what you want to do, yeah. Like, “I want to sell the business for X amount of dollars in the next five years.” Well now you know, “Okay, I need to go to work. I need to make sure that my business is looking good, I need to create that model business. I need to make sure it’s profitable.” You want to get it very, very appealing to an outside buyer. All the stuff that I’ll teach is, it takes work to get it in place. The processes, delegating, making sure everybody understands their roles and descriptions, making sure that you’ve got your sales machine set up. But if you’ve got like, “Okay, I’m going to sell this thing in five years.” Now you go and do the work because it doesn’t just seem like day after day, I don’t …

Louis Massaro:
It’s like walking through the desert just to walk through the desert and you’re not like, “Where’s the promised land?” Why are you even walking? Where are you going? If you know where you’re going, it makes the hard times much easier to deal with.

Chris:
I see that. Yeah, I see that in our clients. Part of that is stress I was talking about. They just seem lighter as they go about their day and they’re chipping away at where they want to get to and it just seems easier.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. It’s, you’re not just wandering around. Hard work for the sake of hard work is insane. Just working and spinning yourself in circles with no real destination, it’s not what you want to do. But it’s okay. You got to understand, I built a … I may have been at eight figures already by the time I realized this. But I had six locations open. Yeah, I was probably around the eight figure mark. When I finally learned this and understood this and just tried it on for size … For me, I always say, try something on for size. You don’t have to listen to this and go, “Okay, that’s what I’m going to do.” Try it, see if it for you. I read so much. I get so much information from quality sources that you’ve got to be able to try it on for size, see if it works for you. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, then you move on. You can’t take every piece of information.

Louis Massaro:
But, I tried it on for size and I’m like, “Okay, I could see this. Wow, if I put a fraction of the effort that I put into building my business into bringing these other areas up as well, man, that’s a life.” That makes all the stuff in the business worth it.

Chris:
Wow, okay. We’ve talked about the financial and the business aspect. What’s next?

Louis Massaro:
Next is free time and fun.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Free time and fun.

Chris:
You want-

Louis Massaro:
For me, I didn’t have this for a long time. I started my office, my main office, my first office for six months. It didn’t last, it didn’t make it. I went to Denver, started there. I lived there three and a half years before I left. That office stayed open when I left and opened up the call center. In three and a half years, I lived in Denver, close to some of the best mountains in the world and went skiing three times. It was all in the last six months that I lived there.

Chris:
Okay. You were all work and no play?

Louis Massaro:
That was it. It doesn’t lead to a fulfilling life. Now I look at it, I’m like, I think about each day, I think about when I’m setting up my block time, when I’m sitting on my schedule and my calendar, how do I want my daily experience in life to be? It’s not just about like, “Okay, I’m going to have a hobby or I’m going to do these adventurous things.” It’s like, “Daily, how could I have some free time for myself and with the family? How can I incorporate some fun into the day and make it to where … Even if I’m working, how can I …” If I need to write something or read something or do something on the computer, I’m like, “Okay, well where could I go sit that’s a nice environment?” Maybe I’ll make myself a tea or get … You now what I’m saying? Sit and make it nice, the daily life experience. Every morning, I’m going on a walk with the family. I build that in because that’s part of what I know is creating the life that I want.

Louis Massaro:
As opposed to like, “If I have time, I’ll get to that.” It’s like, no, you’ve got to be able to incorporate all of it together.

Chris:
Okay. So it’s not about just going skiing every so often-

Louis Massaro:
No, it is.

Chris:
… or whatever?

Louis Massaro:
It’s that too. In that bucket, you could have, “Okay, what do I want in my daily life? How can I incorporate some fun and free time into that?” Then it’s, “What kind of trips do I want to take?” It’s usually, I think about it like, how many long extended trips do you want to take a year? Two weeks or longer. How many of those do you want to take? How many weekend trips do you want to take or staycations do you want to take?

Chris:
Are you’re putting dates on these? I mean, are you literally putting them on the calendar?

Louis Massaro:
At first you’re not. At first, it’s just … From this list, once you establish what you want ultimately, then you start reverse engineering it into now a 10 year, five year, one year, quarterly goals.

Chris:
I see, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. You start thinking about what hobbies do you want to do? Like, “What do I want to do in my free time? Do I want to go golfing? Do I want to go fishing? Do I want to learn how to play the piano? Do I want to sit out outback and paint something?” Whatever it is. We don’t give ourselves permission. I didn’t give myself permission to have fun. I felt like if I was having fun, I was slacking. If I was doing stuff, it just felt like, “Ah, you haven’t made it yet to have fun.” Which was crazy because I mean, by the time I was three years in the business, three and a half years, I was a millionaire. It wasn’t like, I didn’t earn it yet. It was just that programming until I saw the other perspective of looking at it. My hope is that I’m helping somebody see that other perspective right now because we live one life. We don’t want to go through it with just our only thing we’re dealing with is trucks and movers and customers and claims.

Louis Massaro:
That’s not what we want to consume everything. Deciding what you want and then using the business as your means to get it, is really what it’s all about. But I-

Chris:
You’re saying fun and that whole thing is an important part of it?. Like, don’t put that off.

Louis Massaro:
You’ve got to have fun. When you go have some fun … Listen, it doesn’t have to be extreme. You could have fun doing something simple. Don’t think you’ve got to go on a Safari in Africa or you jump out of a plane or … That’s all cool stuff. If that’s on your list, great. Put it down there. But if you’re ever just stressed out and so focused on work, try breaking away for a minute and just doing something fun even if it’s for a half hour and see how your whole mindset shifts. When you find your personal balance … I call it an elevated balance because it’s not just about across the board everything’s the same. It’s like, work might still take 80% of your time. Okay. But there’s that other 20%, make it count. You don’t need 10 hobbies. Maybe you have one hobby. Maybe you like to golf. You go golfing once a week and that’s the end of it.

Chris:
What kind of changes did you experience when … Because I know you were all hustle for a long time. When you started balancing things out, what was it like? What did you experience going through that?

Louis Massaro:
Man, it was like … I don’t know. I saw life differently. It was as if like there had been a film over my eyes the whole time and I was seeing things through a blurry lens. Now I was like, “Man, life is great.” Because when you start off with a mission and you complete that mission and you’re in a position where you could really do whatever you want to do financially and it’s not bringing you the joy and it’s not bringing you the fulfillment that you hoped it would, you don’t always realize it. Because if you’ve never experienced the feeling, you can’t know that you’re missing that feeling. It wasn’t until I tried this on for size and started to get little micro doses of the feeling. Like, “Okay, wow, that felt good. Okay, this feels good. Okay. Wow, man, if I’m going to incorporate this other stuff in my life, then I better get my business on point so I don’t have to worry.”

Louis Massaro:
It just forces you to make everything better because now you want the complete picture, you want a life. You don’t just want to build a business, you want a life.

Chris:
Yeah. Now, did you experience an improvement in the business because of having a more of a balanced life like that?

Louis Massaro:
Absolutely. It’s like, when you’re stressed out and you’re [inaudible 00:37:35] and you go, go, go grind, it works for you to a certain extent, but then it stops. It’s either going to stop working for you or it’ll continue to work for you, but you’re going to have a miserable life of just chasing down the money.

Chris:
Well, and you were talking about having even physical problems, health problems and stuff because of it just from the hustle.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. All kinds. I mean, that kind of … This is an important episode. If somebody is like, “Oh, Louis, why aren’t we talking about moving stuff?” It’s like, look, you can go listen to this entire podcast that’s filled with moving stuff. This is life. You know what I mean? This is, why are you in this business? What are you trying to accomplish? Take a minute, take a half a Saturday and sit down and write this stuff out and start thinking about it and then believe that you can make it happen. Figure out how much money you need to make. Figure out what your days need to start looking like. You’re not going to jump into it right away, but you start taking the actions towards getting there. It’s huge. I mean, the next one is personal growth. All right, personal growth. We’ve talked about how important personal development is and growing as an individual. People will say, “Louis, what business books should I be reading?”

Louis Massaro:
I’m like, “Look, you need to read personal development books. You need to understand why you do the things you do. What goes on in your mind? Understand the psychology of how you work, how you operate? You might know how your trucks work, you might know how your CRM works, you might know all the different functionalities of things in your business. But do you know how your own mind works? When you start to understand what we really need to operate at a high level, with energy, with clarity, with feeling joy, with feeling passion for what we’re doing. When you start to understand that and apply habits and apply practices into your life, your life changes, everything changes. Because it’s really all about perspective. It’s all about perspective. If you’re not working on growing as an individual … When I say growing as an individual, it’s like, what do you struggle with personally? Are you always stressed out? Do you have anger issues? Do you feel like you’re not good enough to accomplish what somebody else accomplished?

Louis Massaro:
Do you feel like you don’t deserve the success? Do you struggle to delegate because you feel like your team is judging you? These aren’t based on facts, these are based on your perception of how you see things. When you start to be able to develop and understand that, your life changes, your business changes, your finance changes. Right now, this is personal growth. Taking the steps to make this list is personal growth. Taking the steps and applying new habits into your life, that’s personal growth. A few episodes back, we talked about wellness, maintaining wellness during COVID. The stuff we talked about there, that’s personal growth. Your business is your business, it’s outside of you, but you are you. You’re with you forever. Why not get the owner’s manual and understand how you operate?

Chris:
I mean, that could get a little heavy. I mean, but it’s worth it. You figure out where you want to go in your life. You just go pick any random book off the shelf. Is that what you’re saying?

Louis Massaro:
I mean, you got to start somewhere. I don’t believe that there’s a correct path for anyone. I think that everyone has their path. Maybe this video helps, this podcast helps set somebody up on the path. Maybe they see a book, maybe someone says something to them, maybe they go to a seminar. Maybe they are having such depression and turmoil in their life they go see a therapist and that’s their first step. Which is nothing wrong with that. Do what you need to do to work out your stuff and be okay bringing it to the surface. Because whatever you got going on, you can’t heal what you don’t reveal. Unless you bring it to the surface, you can’t heal it. You can’t move on. You can’t deal with whatever you went through in your life. You could overcome all that and stop letting it be a story and a reason and a hindrance to you designing and fulfilling a life that you really want. Yeah, go look at the bookstore and look at something. It’s like, whatever title represents … Just be on that path and set the intention.

Louis Massaro:
Like, “Look, I want to get rid of this. I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t want to feel this way anymore.” Right.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
If somebody is like, “Man, I feel great all the time.” Great. But make sure you’re not deceiving yourself. Make sure you acknowledge. For me, anything that pops up as a fear, anything that pops up as a worry, I’m like, “Okay, that’s going on my growth plan.” Whatever’s popping up for you that you don’t feel good about, your feelings are an indicator of something that’s going on. When you feel good, chances are you’re doing something right. When you don’t feel good, it’s because you don’t like that situation. You don’t like how you reacted to that situation. You don’t like how you’re being perceived in that situation. Use that as your checklist. You’re struggling with something, great. Go figure out how to address it. I say that because, it’s a personal pathway. It’s not like these are the steps to go from not feeling your best to feeling your best. It’s, start to unravel stuff and go at it with a vengeance. For me, I’m like, “Man …”

Louis Massaro:
I look at all stuff that you can overcome in business, in life, in finances, personal growth. If there’s a challenge and you could learn how to overcome that challenge and put that behind you and that thing is no longer an issue for you, I mean, then you become capable of a lot more than you feel capable of now.

Chris:
Was there a moment that sort of kicked that all off for you? The door opened and you were sent down that path?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, it was when that great recession came and really opened my eyes to, I was doing great, businesses were making money, I just kind of expanded right then and there. All of a sudden I had to come face to face with all the inefficiencies in my business, all the gaps in my business. The business was so big that it took so much out of me to get it all reigned back in during that time. That’s the time where I got myself my first coach. She taught me a lot of this stuff or set me on the path of all of this stuff. Because, listen, I can give you 10 steps right now for personal growth, but it’s like, you’ve got to want it, you’ve got to be into it. If you want it, you’re going to find a way. The only reason people want something and are willing to do the work, if somebody is willing to do the work, it’s because they see the result on the other end of the challenge. They see the result on the other end of the hardship.

Louis Massaro:
The reason you go to work every day and the reason you build your business is because you see some results on the other end that you’re going for. When you start to believe that like, “Man, I could really get whatever result I want, and if I could deal with these inner struggles, how much easier is it going to be?” Think about it. I mean, I remember dealing with leadership stuff like, “Why can’t I get people to do what I want them to do?” Dealing with relationship stuff. All these different struggles, the stress, the, “Why is my mind constantly thinking about, I wake up and I’m like, I’m thinking about this. I’m thinking about that. What about this? What about that?” That’s not normal, and I had that. Once you start to put things in place … In that wellness episode we talked about meditation, for example. We talked about the connection, the mind-body connection between exercise and getting focus. All of these things, for someone, personal growth might start with a book, personal growth might start with this episode, personal growth might start with meditating.

Louis Massaro:
It might just start with exercising and feeding your mind. Just making the shift of like, “You know what, I can see how scrolling social media and the news all days is making an impact. Because when I’m not scrolling it, I’m still thinking about other people’s stuff.” Getting that under control and say, “You know what, instead, I’m going to fill my mind with good, positive stuff to help build me.” Personal growth is saying, “Man, these people that I’m around all the time are just bringing me down.” Personal growth is going in another direction and finding other people to be around. I don’t think there’s any set path, but I could tell you that’s the one thing … Because you’ve got your mind, you’ve got your hands, you’ve got your eyes, you’ve got you. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, it doesn’t matter where you live, it doesn’t matter any of that stuff. The stronger you can make you and the more weaknesses you can overcome and the more challenges that become no longer issues, the better life you have, the better quality of life you have.

Chris:
That all goes back to growing the business too. I mean [crosstalk 00:49:01]-

Louis Massaro:
Tremendously. I mean, I deal with a lot of people. The people who are on a path of self development and personal growth, it’s easy to recognize like, “Oh, I’m struggling with this. Okay, let me work on that as opposed to just blaming everybody else in the business and blaming the market and blame …” We talked about CEO mindset. I’m responsible for the results I get. That’s personal growth. Just accepting that alone is personal growth.

Chris:
That’s powerful. Wow. Yeah. Okay. That part is huge. That one, it was hitting home for me. Thanks for sharing that. What’s next after you’re diving into your personal growth?

Louis Massaro:
Then you’ve got health. Now it’s like, how do you want your health to be? For some people, this might get really specific. They might be like, “Well, I want to weigh this much. I want to have this much body fat.” For me, I’m like, “Look, I want to have energy first and foremost. I want to have an unbreakable immune system. I want to be lean. I want to be muscular. I want to be strong and flexible. I don’t want to have aches and pains in my body.” It’s like, when I know that, it’s like, “Okay, are my daily actions leading me towards that or are they not?” If I’m trying to live this complete life, I’ve got to fit everything in. Then when you start to see, again, the results of all this stuff and maybe before you’re like, “I wasn’t really that organized. I didn’t really know how to schedule my time.” It’s like, now you better learn how to schedule your time because you’re going to build all this stuff in and really build out a complete life. I mean, if you’ve ever been sick, you know …

Louis Massaro:
I mean, [inaudible 00:50:57] everybody’s been sick. It’s like, you know without … What do they say? If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything? Is that what-

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. It’s so true though. But the foods we eat, the exercise, managing our stress, stretching and flexibility, all of that stuff leads to you feeling good. When you feel good, you do good in your business. Forget about being out sick, if you just have low energy, if you’re just dragging through the day, how are you going to be … You’re the driver of your business. You want to be in optimal shape. If your business is being a pro athlete, you’re training, you’re working, you’re doing the things you need to do. If your business is to think, which is what it is, I mean, your business as a business owner is to use your mind before anything else. You need that thing firing on all cylinders, man. Health’s a big part of getting there.

Chris:
Now, are you going to sit down and make a list of exactly what you want as far as health the same way you’re making your financial list or-

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, exactly. I was explaining before, my list is like, “I want unbreakable immune system. I want energy, vitality, energy. I want to be lean. I want to be muscular. I want to be just …” What else is on my list? Hold on. Anyways, you get the idea, you make the list of what you want and you make sure that you’re taking steps towards getting there.

Chris:
Okay. Now I always like to go back to your journey. Was there a turning point in your health for you, for your diet and stuff like that? When did that happen?

Louis Massaro:
Chris, it was all this. When I learned this, when I learned you’ve got to get your life as a complete unit, that was it. It was all that time. It was all that. I was having major breakthroughs personally which I mean transcended into my business.

Chris:
Okay. So it all kind of happened-

Louis Massaro:
It was time where I was able to get through that recession. I was able to go from around 10 to 20 million. It wasn’t because … It was all of this. But it was having an idea of where you want to go, taking care of your health, taking care of your personal growth, put in some free time and fun. Just calibrating yourself for success.

Chris:
I like that. Calibrating yourself. That’s good. Nice. Okay. How many is that? Is that five?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Then we’ve got relationships. People are a big part of our life. You’ve got to think through … Some people are just naturally good with people and others need to be more intentional on their relationships and cultivating those relationships. You’ve got employ, how do I want to be remembered by people that I love? If it’s my funeral, how do I want people to remember me? What do I want to be? Do I want to be generous with people? Do I want to be caring? Do I want to be known as someone that’s always there for somebody that I’m guiding people? Then who did you want to have the relationships with and specifically what type of relationship do you want to have. Like your employees, what do I want my relationship to be like with my employees? What do I want my relationship to be like with my spouse? What do I need to do in order to make that happen? If you want a loving, spontaneous, whatever it might be like, “Well, okay, well what are you doing on a weekly basis to make that happen?”

Louis Massaro:
If you’ve got kids, you’ve got parents, you’ve got a relationship with God, how do you want your relationships to be with all the people in your life?

Chris:
How do you … I can think about people in my life and relationships that I have that I would love to improve, but I just don’t know how I go about improving it with that person. Would you recommend asking them like, “Hey, how could I be a better friend to you? Or how could I be a better father, son, whatever?”

Louis Massaro:
You could. I think, here’s the thing, sometimes you got to realize that the relationship is what the relationship is. You have to be the best you you could be and do your part, and sometimes you’ve got to really do your part over and over and over and over and over until the person … If you’ve been a certain way with somebody for so long and you started kind of changing your ways, you’re like, “Oh, you know what, I can do this and I could do that.” Don’t think that right away they’re going be like, “Oh my God, you’re the greatest.” It’s going to take some time for them to adapt and kind of see this new you. That’s part of personal growth too. Your friends, your family, they still have this vision of you as you used to be. It takes them some time to realize that you’re not that person anymore and that you’re growing and evolving. Growing and evolving, people don’t come with you. Some will, but not everyone’s going to come with you. Don’t force that on others. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Sometimes it’s, if you’re … You have your core set of people and it could be friends, it could be family, it could be employees. If you finally realized like, “Wow, I’ve got to kind of change my ways a little bit.” It doesn’t mean they’re going to change their ways. It might come to a point where you have to either set up some boundaries between you and those people. If they’re family or people you want that are just part of your life, or seek new relationships. Maybe you’re in a relationship and you’re like, “This is not what I want. I want something totally different.” Okay, great. At least you know now.

Chris:
Yeah. I was going to ask you about that. What about toxic relationships? I mean sometimes … I think a family for instance, sometimes there’s people in your family that maybe it’s not a healthy connection you have with them. How do you deal with that?

Louis Massaro:
Boundaries. Just kind of understand it and accept it for what it is. One of the things, when you start to grow and you start to experience what I’m talking about now, it’s like you want everyone that you love to experience it too. You start kind of preaching to people around you and not everybody’s ready to hear that. It’s like, “Oh, come on, I made all these changes and I’m feeling great. I think if you made the changes too, we could connect better.” Yeah. I think the first step, listen, read books on relationships. You want a great marriage, read books on a great marriage. It doesn’t mean your marriage is falling apart. It just means, if you’re going to go on business, why not read books about business you can understand? If you want a personal growth, why not read books about that? You’re going to be married, you’re going to be in a relationship or with a significant other, read books about it. Don’t worry about someone’s going to see you reading the book and think, “Oh, their marriages is in a disaster.”

Louis Massaro:
Nobody taught us how to be in a relationship. We’ve got to learn-

Chris:
Yeah, there’s no shame in digging in and finding answers to questions you don’t know the answers to. I mean-

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. There’s a couple of books. There’s John Gottman, I think it’s seven principles. I forget how many principles of Making Marriage Work. Then there’s another one, Five Love Languages. Those are really good books. Again, it’s one of those things, you’re having some … You’re not even having issues, but things could be better and you know that relationships are tough as it is with finances, with kids, with life, with everything. It’s like, why not read that stuff together and be like, “Okay, let’s try this and let’s try that before it ends up becoming a big issue?”

Chris:
Yeah. I think that’s huge in a lot of … Do you think that the business could be part of that? I mean, a lot of times people are spending so much time working that they’re not spending the same amount of time or the same effort in their relationship.

Louis Massaro:
I think you could go to work and work 12 hours a day and still have an amazing relationship. I don’t think it’s about the quantity of time that you’re spending. I think it’s about the quality of time that you’re spending. You got to go grind it out, you got to work every day, cool. When you come home and you’ve got an hour, two hours, make it quality time. You’ve got kids, you’ve got your spouse, make that quality time. Orchestrate that and have that discussion. Lead your family, get everybody off their devices. Don’t come home and plop on the TV and sit next to each other and think that that’s hanging. It’s not like people will say, “Oh, he’s always working. It’s he’s always …” Or, “She’s always working.” Listen, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for your business and just a small amount of quality time will make a major impact.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay. What’s the last part?

Louis Massaro:
The last part is contribution, giving back in some way, shape or form. You’ve got to be selfless, you’ve got to think about other people other than yourself. That comes in different ways. It comes in donating money to people in need, it comes through volunteering, mentoring. I mean, I do this for contribution. For me, this is my way of giving back amongst other ways too. But this is a big contribution piece for me. It doesn’t have to be anything extreme. You could pick a few charities that you like and send them money every month. Go volunteer once in a while. Find someone who’s having a hard time at something and just kind of talk to them and put yourself aside for a minute and help them get through some challenges or some difficulty. You’ve got parents that you want to take care of and help them either retire or be able to take care of them financially, that’s contribution too. How can you contribute? I mean, I literally do all that stuff.

Louis Massaro:
From donating, to volunteering, to mentoring, to taking care of family, to kind of just helping somebody that’s going through a tough time and being there for them. That piece right there, if you want something in your life, help other people get what you want in your life. You know what I mean?

Chris:
Okay. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Instead of focusing on me, me, me, me, me. It’s like, you know what, if there’s somebody around you that could use some help, that’s what … I mean, what are we doing right here? We’re recording this podcast to contribute, to help guide somebody like, “Look, don’t go through life without feeling the richness and the fullness of a complete life that you can design.” That’s contribution. That’s like we’re putting something out there for people to take and run with. Because it’s not going to only make their life better, it’s going to make their team’s life better. People that work for them. It’s going to make their family’s life better. It’s a trickle down effect. Then somebody else could pass that same information along to someone else.

Chris:
This is seven areas. This makes a complete whole life. I mean-

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
… there’s nothing missing after all of this. I see it now. What are the potential downfalls if you’re not doing these things?

Louis Massaro:
You just kind of coast through life and leave your destination and quality of life up to chance. By the way, just because you have a plan of where you want to go, it doesn’t mean that that’s where you go and it doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with that. You might-

Chris:
It can change.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, it should change. It should change. Because where you are today, where we all are currently today as we start to grow personally, as we start to have more success in business and gain more confidence in what we’re capable of, it all changes. The only reason people set their sights low on what they want, is because they believe that it’s going to be hard. They believe they’re going to fail. They believe they’re not good enough to make it happen. As you start build up yourself through personal growth and as you start to have more success in your business and as you start to see like, “Wow, I really can design and create the life I want.” You’re like, “Okay. Well, I mean if I’m really being honest. I want this. I really wanted this.” Then it starts to become less of a stressful situation. The one thing I would warn against is, don’t be attached to outcomes. This is especially big with setting goals.

Louis Massaro:
Because what you want to do with this, is you want to kind of think about what you want ultimately in your life, reverse engineer it down into 10, five, one year goals, quarterly goals, and start to build towards that. But never let your goals stress you out for not hitting them. You want a little bit of positive tension that causes you to do some work when you don’t feel like doing the work and you’re like, “Ah, I’d rather just go chill.” You’re like, “Nope, but that’s going to take me off track for where I want to go. All right, let me do the work.” What will happen is, you’ll feel better about yourself. You’ll be congruent with who you say you want to be. You want to be this person and then you actually take the actions to be that person, you’re being congruent with your word. A lot of times, self doubt is because you said you were going to do something and you didn’t do it.

Chris:
You beat yourself up.

Louis Massaro:
Don’t beat yourself up. Set goals that are high. People are like, “I like to set goals that are achievable.” It doesn’t matter if you hit your goals or not, you know we set goals for the seminar on how many people we want to be there, we’ve never once hit it. Because every time I’m raising it and I’m raising it and I’m raising it. It’s not about setting goals and deciding what you want, it’s not about reaching it, it’s about the person you become by stretching for it to get [crosstalk 01:06:41]-

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
Even if you never hit them, you’re going to be an incredible version of yourself just by [crosstalk 01:06:48]-

Chris:
Yeah. All of these seven things will evolve because of that over time?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I’m working on it constantly. It’s not like you set it once and then that’s it. But when you’re aware of it, like my seven categories, I’m reviewing this weekly as part of my weekly review when I’m planning my week. Because it’s like, listen, what am I doing with my time? If this isn’t in line with one area here, then why is it on my calendar? Why am I doing it?

Chris:
You’re saving yourself wasted effort.

Louis Massaro:
You’re pre-planning your life a little bit. You’re taking a minute to say, where do I want to go? Then make sure your actions are taking you there. Otherwise, you’re just taking action for the sake of taking action. You can still get far that way. I mean, I got really far that way. But the quality of life, it’s all about the quality of life.

Chris:
Man, this was a good episode.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I got to go-

Chris:
I’m pumped up.

Louis Massaro:
… check my list.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay. Wait, review the list again, all seven.

Louis Massaro:
All right. You’ve got a financial, money. How much money do you want? How much money do you want to make a year? How much money do you want to save? What do you want in cash reserves, all of that. Business, what do you want your business to look like? How big do you want it? How many locations? How much time you want to spend working there? Free time and fun, what do you want your daily experiences to be like so that you feel good daily? Then what kind of hobbies do you want? What kind of trips do you want to take? Long-term trips, short-term trips, whatever. Whatever free time and fun. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. You could be like, “Look, I just want some time to sit on the porch and read a good book.” It could be anything. You’ve got personal growth. That’s like, “Okay, how do I deconstruct this mind and this body so that I could optimize it and get over all the stuff and all the struggles that I deal with and all the inner turmoil that I have going on?”

Louis Massaro:
Recognize that you can overcome all of that and start to little by little, unravel the knot, if you will. Then you’ve got health, that could mean different things to different people. What do you want your health to be like? Relationships across the board with whoever you’re in a relationship with. It could even be, “How do I want to be with strangers that I meet?” It could even be that, relationships with anyone or anything. Then contribution, what am I going to do to not make it all about me and to give back? Take care of those seven. Listen, spend some time, listen to this again if you need to, but spend some time and think through this. Right now, put a block of time on your calendar at some point in the next month. If you’re like, “Hey, I’m busy right now, Louis, I can’t do it.” Okay. Pull up the calendar for the next month. Find some time in the future, in the next month, and just put a block of time there to sit down and think through this stuff.

Louis Massaro:
Or just start thinking about it daily. What do I want in my life? How do I get it? What do I want in my life? How do I get it? Anything else?

Chris:
No, this was really good. I think it’s going to help a lot of people, that makes me feel good. I’m going to be listening to this episode for sure.

Louis Massaro:
All right, good.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
All right, guys. Well listen, thanks for tuning in so much. I really appreciate all the comments and all the reviews, all the thumbs up. As you know, we take questions that are coming in. This episode, we kind of carried over from the last. But if you’ve got any questions or any topics that you want me to address, just send me a DM on Instagram. It’s @louismassaro, @L-O-U-I-S M-A-S-S-A-R-O. Thanks again for tuning in to the Moving Mastery podcast. We will see you next time, my friend. Go out there every single day, profit in your business and make sure you take these seven key areas and thrive in your life. We’ll see you next time.

Posted on Saturday, 05-09-2020

Moving CEO Mindset – Part 2

SUMMARY

In this episode, Louis Massaro continues the discussion about adopting a Moving CEO mindset for your moving business.

“Every single time you hit any type of roadblock, any type of challenge, any type of issue, anything you just don’t feel good about, look at it and say, ‘There’s got to be a better way.'”
“You don’t have to want to be in this business forever. But if you look at it and you say, “You know what? This is my vehicle for financial freedom. This is what I’m going to use to set myself and my family up for the longterm,” it changes everything for you.”
“Anytime you make any change at all, you have to have buy-in to what the result is. You have to believe in that end result.”
“Anything that you know you need to skill up on, anything you know you need to become better at, go get at it and do it and be okay with sucking at it.”
Watch the video to get full training.

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TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey, my friend, it’s Louis Massaro, and welcome back to another episode of the Moving Mastery Podcast. We are diving in to part two of the Moving CEO Mindset. I’ve got my man Chris here with me today. What’s happening?

Chris:
Hey, hey, hey. I’m ready to dive into part two. Part one was really good. So, I’m excited about part two here.

Louis Massaro:
All right. Well, we literally just finished, and we’re going back to back recording these, because we just didn’t want to go too long with the episode, but wanted to really finish on this, because I think it’s so important. I know most of these episodes I’m talking about strategies and different processes and specific tactics in the business, but if you don’t get this one right, you’re going to not reach your full potential. So, if you didn’t already catch part one, Moving CEO Mindset part one, go and listen to that so you’re not lost in this one. It’s the episode right before this. Then come back and join us here. If you’ve already listened to us, welcome back. This is part two. We’ve kind of covered a few things here. Chris, what’d we cover in the first one?

Chris:
In part one, we talked about the first real step towards adapting that Moving CEO mindset, which is taking responsibility for all of your results, for everything that you’ve achieved and everything that you haven’t achieved so far, being able to say, “Hey, this is all my doing. It wasn’t anybody else’s fault or anybody else’s doing. This was all on me.” And that’s literally the first step. Then the second one was, if they can, I can, which-

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. If they can do it, I can do it.

Chris:
We’re all human, and we’re all capable of the same level of achievement. So, if you see somebody out there doing something that you feel you would want to be doing, then emulate them, do what they did, and you can. I mean, it’s literally that simple, right?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
And then the third part was-

Louis Massaro:
If I built a $20 million business and moving business, you could do that. Only if you want that, right? If there’s someone that’s out there that built a successful company in your market, they’re doing a couple million a year, and that’s what you want, you can do it if they could do it.

Chris:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Then the third part was adopting the ideal of there’s got to be a better way, taking a look at everything you have going on and, even if it’s working well, looking at it and saying, “How can it be better?”

Louis Massaro:
Every single time you hit any type of roadblock, any type of challenge, any type of issue, anything you just don’t feel good about, look at it and say, “There’s got to be a better way.” We talked about in the last episode that I believe single-handedly is what has been my guiding principle to be able to get me to where I am today and be able to develop all of these different processes and all of these different strategies that I teach.

Louis Massaro
I know in the last episode I mentioned two books. I just grabbed them off the shelf real quick. During the time where I was going through the transition from just moving company owner to that Moving CEO mindset and that identity that I had to adopt, there was two books that I remember. There was a bunch more that I read that stood out to me. One was Jack Welch, Winning. Jack was the CEO of GE. A great book on strategy and management and what it takes to really step as the leader and CEO. The other one was Jim Collins’ Good to Great. Classic book, explores a lot of different CEOs and why some companies make that leap and some don’t. It has a lot to do with what we’re talking about.

Louis Massaro:
So, those are the things that are … Those two books were way beyond kind of what I was doing in moving, and a lot of those principles seem so far out there, but, again, we talked about in the last episode I kind of picked … When I got information from places, I took a little bit and said, “Oh, I could use that,” and I applied it. And “That’s not for me,” and I left it. So, I just wanted to share those with you, because I had them right here behind me. Yeah. Let’s get into this. Part two, Moving CEO Mindset.

Chris:
That’s awesome. Those books are good positive input, by the way. We’re all sitting in lockdown right now, and we have a few extra minutes. Rather than scrolling the news and keeping up on the latest COVID headlines, maybe pick up a good book and get some positive input coming in.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. You can’t go to the bookstore. You don’t want to wait for Amazon to deliver it. Get the Kindle app on your phone. You don’t even need a Kindle. And just download it, and you could have it right now.

Chris:
Instant.

Louis Massaro:
Instant.

Chris:
All right. So, let’s get back to this Moving CEO mindset. As we said, we had the “I’m responsible for my own results,” “If they can, I can,” and “There’s got to be a better way.” So, what’s next in the evolution of becoming a Moving CEO?

Louis Massaro:
And this conversation started … Let me just go back here. It started because you were asking, “What’s the difference between yourself and other people that have succeeded and are succeeding at high levels at moving business and the people that are struggling?” I started by saying it starts with the mindset. These are the things that I’ve noticed that were traits of mine that I also see those same traits in others that either we work with or I see out there that are performing at high levels.

Louis Massaro:
The next one is the understanding that moving is my vehicle to financial freedom. What I mean by that is you don’t have to be passionate about this business. You don’t have to want to be in this business forever. But if you look at it and you say, “You know what? This is my vehicle for financial freedom. This is what I’m going to use to set myself and my family up for the longterm,” it changes everything for you. Because there’s so much talk out there now about finding your purpose or finding something you love to do and you’ll never work another day in your life, and you might not love the moving process.

Louis Massaro:
For me, it wasn’t that I loved moving, but I did love the business of moving. I did love all the moving pieces, if you will, of moving, from having to book to move first to then you’ve got to find enough quality movers to get them out there, and then you’ve got to be able to logistically juggle everything and dispatch to get everything serviced. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to have more money that came in than you spent to make it all happen. So, for me, the game of it all, the business of it, is what I really love.

Louis Massaro:
But instead of saying, “Oh, I want to do something that …” A lot of people are waiting right now to find something they love or find their passion, or they might be in the business, and they’re constantly looking for something else to do. The people that are succeeding at high levels look at it and say, “You know what? This business is really just my vehicle to financial freedom.” Doesn’t mean it’s all about the money, because you’ve got to be able to do a great job for your customers. You’ve got to be able to take care of your employees in order for it to be lucrative and successful and sustainable over the long term. That’s huge.

Louis Massaro:
That’s huge, because it’s a tough business to be in day to day. And if you’re not looking at where is this taking me, what life is this going to let me live, then you’re going to have a really hard time finding the reason why you put up with the stuff that you put up with; the reason why you say, “I’m responsible for my results”; the reason why you’re looking at it saying, “If they can do it, I can do it”; the reason why you sit there and say to yourself, “There’s got to be a better way” and then seek that way out.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you’ve got to know where you’re going.

Louis Massaro:
You’ve got to know where you’re going. Yeah. The thing is this … And I’m surprised at how many people don’t really know where they want to go. You don’t have to know the exact number immediately, but you have a general idea of the life you want to live, when you want to be done doing all this, but you can’t just dive in without realizing that this is how you’re going to do all the things you want to do for yourself, for your family, buy all the stuff, have all the experiences, take care of all the people you need to take care of, be able to retire and live a good quality of life when you’re all done. It’s huge. One of the first things that we do in some of the workshops that we do or at the seminars is kind of take people through a process of figuring out what it is you want in your life. Right? What do you want?

Chris:
It’s a big question. It’s really the key to creating the map on where you want to go. I think another question that sort of goes alongside of that that maybe … You tell me, but it could be helpful in a Moving CEO mindset. But also to question your current beliefs. I don’t mean religious or spiritual. I just mean who you believe you are, rather than who you actually are or who you want to become. Like you saying in the last episode, you had that switch in your mind where you went from being a moving company owner to being a Moving CEO. You had to-

Louis Massaro:
It was an identity shift. I had to see myself … I had to look in the mirror and see a different person.

Chris:
Yes. Exactly.

Louis Massaro:
And it wasn’t being … There was still an authenticity. It was still me, but it was me calling out a higher level of me that I needed to show up and step up at that time.

Chris:
Exactly. Exactly. And who you were as opposed to who you became, they’re different people. So, how you were able to accept that about yourself, believe that you could be a Moving CEO and question that.

Louis Massaro:
Well, and it wasn’t that I just believed it and I walked out super … I mean, I had doubts. Anytime you step outside of that comfort zone. We all have that comfort zone. No matter where you go, there’s always that next level, and you have doubts. For me, that was probably the second big shift for myself, because just starting the business alone, going from being just a year before I was a high school kid, and then I’m a business owner. That was one identity shift. Then seven, eight years later to be able to see myself differently was huge, but there was times where you doubted it and you didn’t believe it, and you’re like, “Who are you fooling?” And you keep pushing past that to the point where you’re like, “Yeah, that’s me now.”

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. You accept that as your new identity, who you are, and then I decide where you want to go as that person.

Louis Massaro:
Well, yeah. You have to understand the importance of that first. You’re not just like, “I’m going to be a moving … I’m Moving CEO now.” Anytime you make any change at all, you’ve always got to be … You have to have buy-in to what the result is. You have to believe in that result. For me, I knew that I had to make a shift in my mind. CEO is just the label that I put on it for myself. Right? And maybe for you, it’s something different, but I had to put some label for me to step up to. You know what I mean? It’s like you go from being a college ballplayer to a pro ballplayer. It’s like, “Hey, I’m a pro now.” You know what I mean? You’ve got to act differently, and you’ve got to conduct yourself differently. It’s just a shift in your identity.

Louis Massaro:
So, when we talk about financial freedom, what’s it really all about? I mean, I don’t really know anybody that would want to just move people for a living if there was no financial reward for it. You want to volunteer and help somebody that can’t afford to move, and you want to do it as a goodwill gesture and help somebody? Great. But other than that, you’re doing it to make money. So, don’t shortchange yourself and just make a living. This is a business where you can make a fortune. If you look at it that way, it will inspire you to do the things that might seem challenging or outside of your comfort zone, knowing of where it’s going to lead you.

Louis Massaro:
If you really sit down and identify what do I want in my life, what things do I want, what experiences do I want to have, who do I want to share this stuff with, who do I want to be able to take care of, how do I want to be in the world, it starts to crystallize like, “Okay, what’s that going to take?” A powerful exercise for me was to sit down at some point … It really took a financial planner to really kind of sit and do it for me of like, “Okay, what do you want? What do you want in your life?” “Okay, I want this. I want that. I want this.” “Okay. What’s it all going to cost you to get it?”

Louis Massaro:
So, figure out everything you want. Okay, I want this house. I want this car. I want to send my kids to these schools. I want to retire by this age. I want to be able to take four short trips every year, and then I want to take two long, two-week trips, or I want to take the whole summer and go spend it somewhere else. Whatever you want, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s another limiting belief that a lot of people have. I think most people grow up with a skewed outlook on money. The money’s bad. Money doesn’t grow on trees. You can’t just have everything you want. People that have money, they must be doing something wrong. The more money you make, the more taxes you’ve got to make. More money, more problems. There’s this stigma behind it.

Louis Massaro:
But I believe that, if you’re going to go out there and you provide a great service, and you build a business that allows you to provide that great service to a lot of people, you’re providing … You go out there, and you do a move for 10 people a month. Well, then, you should be compensated for that. But you go out there, and you do moves for 1,000 people a month, then you should be compensated for that. And you have the ability to run that business well, and you have the responsibility of all those employees and all those customers and all that liability. Then you should be compensated for that.

Louis Massaro:
I believe that if there’s desires in your heart for things that you want in life, that that’s your truth, that’s who you are, and you should go after those things. Whether they’re just time off, whether you want to spend half the year just chilling, or whether it’s just financial stuff, you should go after that, once you get past the point where you know it’s really what you want and it’s not ego, it’s not like, “Oh, I should have this car. I should have this,” or “I need to keep up with this,” and you’re able to get to a place, which I believe that comes with time and maturity. I feel like I’m much more grounded and simpler in what it is I want from a material standpoint than I was in my twenties. But you’ve got to know that, and you’ve got to know that this business is your way to get it.

Louis Massaro:
I had a good friend of mine in the business that was … He was like, “I don’t want to do this. I want to go start something else.” He wanted to go start a vineyard. He was passionate about making wine and wanted to start a vineyard. I’m like, “All right. So, get it up and running, get it going, and then either sell it or keep it running as a passive means. Get your systems in place. Get your processes in place and keep it running as a passive means of income. And then go do whatever you want.” Within a few years, he built a successful business. This was actually a partner of mine in one of my locations. Built a very successful business, made himself a ton of money. Now he was like, “Okay, you’re right. I’m looking at it differently now.”

Louis Massaro:
Because at first you’re dealing with all the stress, the problems. You don’t really have everything smooth. You don’t have your rhythm of how you handle things. There’s more burden than there is reward. You’re dealing with more stuff, and you’re making less money. Then as you build the business, a model business, you start to make more money, and you start to deal with less stuff. So, now you’re looking at it from a different vantage point, and now you’re like, “Okay. Even though I’m not passionate about this, if I want to go start a vineyard, I’ve got the money now. I’ll go do that. I’ve got the people in place, the systems in place, the processes in place. I don’t have to be there every day. I could go do it and still keep the business going.”

Louis Massaro:
That’s why I say moving is a vehicle to your financial freedom, and that’s part of the mindset. Instead of looking at it as like “This is me. This is who I am. This is what I’m about,” it’s like, “Look, this is what I do every day in order to take care of living in this room.” I mean, we need money to live in this world, and we need money to have the freedom that we want. That’s really, ultimately what it’s all about. It’s not like moving’s my vehicle to get rich, because you could get rich and not have the freedom. But you could also set up a business that generates predictably the money that you wanted to make and go and enjoy your life.

Louis Massaro:
This business set me up for life. I mean, this business put me in a position that I’m so grateful for it. You know what I mean? And I want to see that happen for so many other people, because the flip side of that is torture. The flip side is all the burden, all the stress, all the worry without the money. No. You can’t do that. You don’t want to do that. But you don’t need to go get in a different business. You don’t need to go find a passion and do all that. If you want to find a passion, great, but it doesn’t have to be your business. It doesn’t have to be your job. Be passionate about something you just do because you love doing it.

Louis Massaro:
Then when it switches from a lot of burden, a lot of stress, a lot of worry and a little money, and it switches to, okay, the burden, the stress, the worry’s going down, because all my systems, processes, everything’s in order, but the money starts to rise. You’re like, “Oh. Doing business is my vehicle for financial freedom. I see that now. I can now take part of that money, live the live I want to live; take part of that money, give it to charity; take part of that money, invest for the future; take part of that money, start another business if I want to start another business.” That’s part of the mindset.

Chris:
Yeah. I think for anybody that may be struggling right now with a business and it feels like it’s a big beast weighing down on them, it can only get better. You’ll find the more you put into it, the more work you sink into it and the more effort you put into it, the more you give to it, the more it gives back. You’ll probably change your attitude about it after a while when that money starts coming in, right?

Louis Massaro:
It’s funny. I see it happen. You know. We hear from people. We get the testimonials. I could think of several right now of people who were like, “I was thinking about closing my business. Then we started working with you, or we started going to seminars and your programs or whatever and totally …” It was that scenario, right? A lot of burden, a lot of stress, a lot of worry, uncertainty, very little money, and then it’s like the whole thing just shifted like a seesaw and went the other direction. Now it’s like, “Oh, no, no. This business is great.” That love/hate starts to become more love than it does hate.

Chris:
Yeah. And you love what you give your energy to. So, it’s worth the investment.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. And it’s important that … A lot of people feel uncomfortable talking about money. They’re like, “I don’t really know what I want. I want to live a simple life.” Okay. Well, what is that? Now, the best thing you could do is get clear on it. The best thing you could do is just take a day on the weekend and just start looking at it and say, “Okay, what do I want? What do I want to have, and what do I want to experience? And who do I want to become?” Because that’s another really big part of this. If you set big goals for yourself on what you want to achieve, even if you don’t hit those goals, you’re going to become a better, stronger, more grounded, wiser, happier person. Period.

Chris:
It’s only going to help. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. It’s just like building muscle. If you have a goal, a physical goal, a health goal, and you go and you start working out and you start eating good, you might not hit that goal if you’ve set it really high, but you’re still going to be a healthier, stronger, more energetic person because of it. Well, you set yourself high financial goals, you’re going to end up with more money. You’re going to end up just … Even if just ended up being able to manage your business in a way that didn’t stress you out the way that it does now, right?

Chris:
It’s step by step, right? So, the burden lightens incrementally, and it gets easier as you go.

Louis Massaro:
It gets easier. I mean, you’ve worked with one of our groups for a year, it’s just kind of wrapping up, and see the progression that people make when they adopt this mindset, this whole Moving CEO mindset, and they start to look at their business differently. Honestly, I love watching it. I love seeing it.

Chris:
Me too.

Louis Massaro:
For me, that’s why I do this. I love that more than I love doing it for myself now. Was it 20 years ago I started the business, and now I could never get as much … Having already done it, I couldn’t get the joy anymore from doing it for me. You know what I mean? But to see other people do it and just to kind of help in whatever way I can. They’re the ones doing the work. They’re the ones putting in the time. They’re the ones shifting their mindset, and they’re the ones making it happen. But it’s amazing to watch.

Chris:
It is. And it’s about the journey, the destination. Once you get there, it can get boring real quick, but it’s about building it. That’s the fun part. Seeing these things you put in place, and you see them start working and become successful, and you just see the companies start running smoother, that’s rewarding. It’s exciting when that happens.

Louis Massaro:
Well, and there’s so much you’ve got to deal with along the way. And I try to say it as much as possible. This is not a get-rich-quick business. I’m not out there saying to people, “Hey, you want to make money? Get in the moving business.” I’m really talking to people that are in the business.” You’re already in it. You’re in? You’ve decided to do it? Okay, great. Now, let’s step this up, because you’ve got to start looking at it differently. Embrace this mindset here, because day to day you’re going to be tested. Day-to-day, you’re going to be challenged. Day-to-day, you’re going to have difficult situations with customers, difficult situations with your employees, difficult situations with your trucks. Listen, it is what it is.

Louis Massaro:
But when you adopt this mindset and you say, “I’m responsible for the results. If they can do it, I can do it. There’s got to be a better way,” and you’re like, “You know what? I’m doing this, because this is the vehicle. This is what I’m choosing to go out there in the world, provide service …” So, you’re doing something of value to your community. And because I’m going to do a good job, this is what’s going to give me that financial freedom to do whatever I want, because that’s … I mean, what do we really want? We want freedom. We want the money, because we feel that it’s going to give us the freedom that we need.

Chris:
Somebody has accepted that the moving business, that’s it for them. That’s what they’re going to create their freedom with. That’s what they’re going to create their life with. And they’ve decided where they want to go. What’s next? What else can they have in their mindset to help them get there?

Louis Massaro:
One of the other pieces that for me was very big, again … And there’s a lot of stuff that I believe is helpful for success, but these are the things that I saw in myself, and I also see them in other high-achieving moving company owners that have stepped into that Moving CEO mindset. When I improve, my business improves. When I improve, my business improves. And what that means is a lot of times people will say, “Louis, what are the best business books?”, and things like that, and I’m like, “You know what? You’ve got to first start with you. You’ve got to dive into the personal development books. You’ve got to figure out how your mind works and be able to improve that. Then, also, on top of that, learn about business. Develop new skills. Look at it constantly and say, ‘What do I need to learn how to do in order for my business to grow?'” What skills do you need to develop?

Louis Massaro:
So, it’s just that mindset of understanding that … I think it’s like some people look at everything as … It’s the opposite of not taking responsibility for your results. They look at it, and they’re like, “Everything is outside of me.” Coming back to the first point, once you’ve realized that you’re responsible for your own results, it’s like, “Okay. So, when I improve, my business improves. When I get better, when I absorb knowledge, when I take courses, when I read books, when I go to seminars, when I get coaching, when I take care of my health and take care of my energy, when I learn new skills in my business, my business is going to improve.” Adopting that is part of the Moving CEO mindset.

Chris:
I see. Okay. So, now when you were coming up, how did you get into that side of it? Did you find some books? Give us an example.

Louis Massaro:
It all stems from there’s got to be a better way. It all stems from that little black book of me writing down what all the issues were and looking for that better way and going to the bookstore and grabbing … I mean, you can see all … You can’t even see them all up there, but it’s searching for knowledge. Once I realized, “Oh my god …” By the way, I hated to read in high school. I didn’t do my book reports. I would get a girl that I … I’d get somebody to do them for me. I hated, hated reading.

Chris:
You delegated your homework.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. That’s funny. Even when I started to read, and I was a very slow reader … I’d say even today I’m slower than average when I read. But once you start to realize that there’s answers out there, that you’re not the first person to have gone through what it is that you’re going through, even if there was … At the time for me, there was no answers in moving specifically. It’s like, okay, I saw that business is business. So, I just gathered what I could from wherever I could. Back then, if there was some kind of tape on a course, I would take it. Read a lot of books. If there was seminars … I started the call center, for example, and I didn’t know anything about call centers. Okay. So, I started going to the call center conventions to learn and understand how that whole thing works.

Louis Massaro:
I realized that the marketing was shifting away from yellow pages, and it was moving towards online marketing. Okay, I had to dive into that. I had to learn SEO. I had to learn pay-per-click. I had to learn digital marketing and how all of that started to work. Now, whether it’s what we’re doing here today … I started doing all this with a camera, learned how to do it, learned how to edit the videos, not because I couldn’t afford to hire somebody to do it, but because I knew, when I improved, the business improves. When I skill up, when I get more skills, then the business improves. When someone learns how to understand and manage their profit and loss statement and their cashflow, their business is going to improve.

Louis Massaro:
Once you accept the fact that, wow, the more skill I develop, the better I’m going to get; and when I get better, my business gets better.

Chris:
Yeah. Do you remember a particular skill that was the most challenging for you that you struggled with the most coming up?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Learning how to estimate moves.

Chris:
Oh really?

Louis Massaro:
That was one of the first ones. We talked about that in the last episode how I just … I was “Yeah, okay, sure. Three men, 75 and …” It didn’t matter what size move you got. It was very intimidating to me, and it was one of those things that was like, “How do I … Cube sheet? What? I’ve got to add this. There’s weight. And translate it from cube to weight.” But I knew it was something that I had to get good at.

Louis Massaro:
Same thing with the call center stuff. We started getting leads, and it was like, okay, we were getting leads and printing them off on the printer and handing them out to people. Here, here, here. It’s like, “Call them.” It’s like, “Now what?” “I don’t know. Call them back again.” “Well, what do we do now?” “I don’t know. Write on the sheet of paper when you last time you called them was and just keep up with it.” So, that was the start. A lot of our listeners, they’re in Moving Sales Academy or in our programs, and they know the followup system. They know the scripts. They know the rebuttals. They know all the processes. Now I teach how to estimate moves in one of our programs.

Louis Massaro:
It’s just a constant … You can never stop. You never want to stop improving. You want to constantly improve, and when you do, your business will improve. It’s simple as that.

Chris:
What’s the skill that you’ve acquired over the years that’s made the biggest difference for you?

Louis Massaro:
Oh, man. Wow. Let me just spit out some. I don’t know which one would be the biggest. Just ability to talk to people, ability to deal with customer service, to deal with any issues that come up. Reading, understanding, and managing my business off a profit and loss statement. Understanding online marketing. I mean, that was big, because I was spending … The first time I did SEO, the company charged me $30 grand up front. I was like, “Okay.” But I got a really … Luckily, I learned a lot from them. I spent time in there and made them teach me as they were doing it. Yeah. There’s so many, so many.

Louis Massaro:
Just the sales. Sales. To be able to learn … I learned that before I really need it. I learned the sales before I got into the business, working at a call center selling vacation packages, and the importance of scripts and rebuttals and overcoming objections, and then being able to translate that and refine that with moving, understanding … Man, CRMs. Everything that we did, I wanted to learn, because it was just … I don’t know. Some people argue, “Just hire somebody that knows it.” And I just don’t believe that. I believe that you first need to learn it yourself. Then you hire somebody that knows it, or you hire somebody that knows it, and you learn it with them once you hire them. It kind of depends on the level.

Louis Massaro:
Some people could argue that fact, but that’s just how I like to do it, because that’s how I started the business. When I started the moving business, I dispatched the trucks. I called to confirm. I dealt with storage billing. I was in the warehouse moving vaults, checking off stuff that was coming in, doing the sales, doing the bookkeeping. So, it just puts you in a position to where, later on, you could do everything, and you don’t have somebody coming in telling you how things are done.

Louis Massaro:
You came in. You kind of took over the whole, the camera, the editing, all that stuff. Now we’ve got other people that do the editing and everything. But if I had to at some point, I could jump back in it and do it. I don’t want to, but I know that I can. I knew that I could jump back in at any point and dispatch trucks if I needed to dispatch trucks. I could jump back in and book moves if I needed to book moves. And for me, I like that feeling of knowing that I don’t have someone in my business that can do something that I can’t do. That’s just me. So, you’ve got to be able to develop different skills.

Louis Massaro:
I think right now some of the skills Moving CEOs need are delegating … Delegating’s a skill. It’s not something that you’re just born with the ability to do. Creating processes. Be able to actually create formalized processes for your business and role descriptions so that you can start to really build a model business. Running your business off of numbers. Right? Certain KPIs, certain key performance indicators, and certain metrics that will allow you to view your business and run it differently. Marketing. Understanding how marketing works and understanding how to manage marketing by testing, tracking, tweaking. And sales process. They don’t necessarily need to be the best salesperson, but they need the skill of learning how to develop the sales process for their business. These are skills that they should develop.

Louis Massaro:
And investing as well, because once you get this money … Remember, moving is the vehicle to financial freedom. I’m not saying to manage all your own money and go invest it, but you should have some idea what’s happening with your money if you’re turning it over to someone to manage for you. Or, if you’re going to invest in real estate, understand that and know that.

Louis Massaro:
It’s just looking at, what don’t I feel confident with? What do I do when my … Because what happens is, without the awareness of realizing that you have skills that you need to develop, what’s hard in your business is only hard because you haven’t developed that skill. So, as you start to run into certain things and they’re a challenge to you, then you’re like, “You know what? I’ve got to work on this. I’ve got to develop this skill. I’ve got to get better at this.” Right now, I’m actually writing a book.

Chris:
Yeah. Cool.

Louis Massaro:
It slipped out. I wasn’t going to say anything, but it came out.

Chris:
That’s cool.

Louis Massaro:
So, I’m learning. I’ve got a coach specifically for that. I’m diving in. I’m reading about it. I’m learning about it. I’m developing the skill. And anytime you’re developing a skill, when you start, you suck. That’s where most people give up, especially people that are just kind of naturally talented at certain things. They try stuff, and if it’s outside of their comfort zone, they’re not comfortable being outside of the comfort zone, because they’re so used to just being good at everything. That’s one of the biggest things that you can overcome is saying, “You know what? That’s keeping me in a fixed mindset. I need to be in a growth mindset, and I need to be okay being an amateur again. I need to be okay being a beginner again. I need to be okay learning something and not being good at it so that I could suck my way through it and then become overly competent with that and become skillful with that.”

Louis Massaro:
Because, and I talk about it before, in psychology there’s the competence-confidence loop. The more competent you get in something, the more confident you get in doing it. So, let’s say we’re talking about managing your business off of numbers. At first, you’re going to be like, “Oh my god. I feel stupid. I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing.” And I remember. I went through this. You just have to push through that and realize it’s because I’m a beginner. Of course. Why would I be good at this? I’ve never done this before. But as you get better at it, you become more confident. As you become more confident, you’re less hesitant to go towards it, and so you do it more. As you do it more, you become more competent. Mastery takes time. It takes 10,000 hours of something to become a master at doing it. You’ve got to do it over and over. So, as you do it over and over, your confidence is going to grow, and that’s how you get that confidence-competence loop going.

Louis Massaro:
Whoever’s listening, anything that you know you need to skill up on, anything you know you need to become better at, go get at it and do it and be okay sucking at it. I’m dealing with it. I’m going through my own private struggles right now, learning how to write a book. I’ll figure it out, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. But I’ll figure it out.

Chris:
That’s cool. What’s the best part about being a Moving CEO?

Louis Massaro:
Man, it’s like a whole different place. I don’t know. It’s like you live in a different place. Normally just as a moving company owner, you live here, and all your problems are here. They’re here.

Chris:
On your shoulders. Yeah, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
They’re here. They’re here. Right? Once you step up … And I say this because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it and felt it with me, and I’ve seen it and felt it with others. Instead of all that stuff being on top of you, it’s like you rise above all of it, and you’re standing on the top, planting your flag like, “I’m here.” Everything you see becomes different. All the possibilities of what is truly possible become different to you. All the little problems that used to consume you day and night are just, listen, parts of the business.

Louis Massaro:
There are certain things that you’re resolved, and there’s other parts that you’ve just accepted and just made sure that … Claims, for example, you’re going to have some claims. But in the role of Moving CEO, you’ve established what’s an acceptable threshold, what’s the acceptable percentage of claims. You’re managing the numbers. You’re looking at things. It just becomes a much simpler way to run you’re business, where right now it feels like you’ve got so much coming at you, so much flying at you. You’re just in, I don’t know, like a rave or a crazy nightclub where it’s just loud, and there’s people, and there’s this craziness going on. Right? You’re trying to concentrate, and all this is happening.

Louis Massaro:
Then all of a sudden, now you’re in this slow dance of this everything is just moving, and you can see everything happening kind of before it’s happening. It’s hard to describe unless you’ve been there. All of a sudden, the business goes from “Man, this used to be hard, and it used to suck” to “Man, I could open up … I could just keep doing this.” Or, “Great, I could go live my life now. I don’t need to …”

Louis Massaro:
Most people aren’t looking to be billionaires in this business. To be able to make the money and enjoy the life that you want to live and look at moving as what these people on the internet are selling like, oh, just passive incomes or side hustles, and all that … When you get to a place where you’re just controlling the dials, you’re just looking at your business, you’re watching the numbers, you’re meeting with your key people, you have clarity to see what’s going on, and you just make some adjustments here and there and then watch how that impacts the business, it’s a beautiful thing.

Louis Massaro:
To be able to go away, to be able to spend time for weeks or months on end out of town, away from your business, and be able to afford it, be able to know that your business is running smoothly, because it’s like it’s on tracks. Imagine a train just running through the desert, and it’s not on tracks. I mean, what’s going to happen to that train? There’s no tracks. It’s not going to get far. It’s going to flip, or it’s going to be a really bumpy, miserable road. Right? But now imagine you’ve got tracks, and those tracks are leading you … The destination is where you want to go that you’ve already decided you want to go there. And once you get there, if you want to go further, you know the process now of just laying down more tracks to get you where you want to go. Does that make sense?

Chris:
That is cool. I like that analogy. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
I know you’re a big proponent of personal development. How much of that plays a part in being a Moving CEO?

Louis Massaro:
A big part. I mean, what we’re talking about right now is we’re talking about mindset. Mindset is personal development. Business is out here. Mindset is here. So, you could work on this; but if you’re not working on this, you’re just going to make a mess out of that. Just being able to kind of understand how your mind works, understand why you do the things you do, and there’s so much to that. We did a couple episodes, a few episodes back, of just wellness, talking about morning routine and meditation and visualization and gratitude and just how you fire off certain neurons in the brain and certain chemicals are released with exercise that help you maintain energy. It all goes back to, when I improve, my business improves. It all goes back to that.

Louis Massaro:
People are like, “Where do I start?” You start by just starting. You start by saying, “There’s got to be a better way.” You start by saying, “You know what? Maybe there’s some things that I need to understand about me. There’s some things I need to understand about my mindset and why I do the things I do, and I’ll be able to make some adjustments and make some shifts.” Listen to good people that have good, positive input for you. You’re not a good book reader? Fine. Find someone that’s got a great podcast or some great videos or a great audiobook that you could listen to and start to just kind of explore different possibilities of what’s out there. And be open. Be open to realizing that you can improve. You can get better. And when you improve, when you get better, your business is going to get better. When your business gets better, your life gets better.

Chris:
That sounds good. Are there any obstacles that could prevent somebody from adopting this mindset of being a CEO? I don’t know. Is it easy to do? What’s the journey of it?

Louis Massaro:
The journey of it is, first, you’ve got to … Anything you want to do, you’ve got to first believe in the outcome. So, my goal of this podcast, these two episodes that we’ve done, is to paint the picture of the outcome to shed light on something that maybe someone listening wasn’t looking at before. They’re looking for, okay, maybe it’s this marketing source or that marketing source. Maybe I need this kind of truck or that kind of stuff, or maybe I should pay my guys this way or that way. And they’re not even looking over here to the mindset piece. So, I want to show, look, there’s this piece here, and some people will go, “Nah, I’m not into that.” But someone that’s like, “Man, that totally makes sense. I could see how that could make a major impact in my business,” they buy in to the outcome.

Louis Massaro:
We listen to all kinds of stuff. We watch TV. We read books. We listen to people on podcasts. We listen to people on social media. It’s a matter of having your own filter to take it in and go, “Yeah, that makes sense,” or “Yeah, that guy’s full of shit.” You’ve got to be able to have that filter. But once you do, and you buy into something, you say, “Yeah, I could see that. I could see, if I eat better and I work out, that I’ll be healthier, and I’ll be in better shape,” but that alone might not motivate somebody. You’ve got to really want something, or you’ve got to really be afraid of something else. And that’s what I believe this COVID opportunity … Let’s call this a COVID opportunity.

Chris:
I like that. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Has done for us is it’s shown us what we don’t want and what we’re afraid of. Every single person listening had either a moment or has had a couple months of feeling like the worst is going to happen. They’re going to go out of business, and it’s going to be the end, and it’s going to be over. Good. Feel that feeling. Then think about what you want. Think about what you want in your life. So, now you’ve got two ends of the spectrum. You’ve got what you want in your life. If I had everything the way I want it, what would I have? If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I want? And then there’s this possibility like, “Oh my god, I could go out of business.” Because sometimes people aren’t motivated by what they want, but they’re motivated to get away from the bad thing.

Chris:
Yeah, I see.

Louis Massaro:
You see what I’m saying?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
If you put yourself in between the worst case and the best case, and then every day you just go, “What steps do I need to take to go that way?” Because this is what’s over here, right? What happens is people make good effort, but they don’t have this. They don’t have these two extremes. So, they kind of take a few steps … You hear it all the time. They’re like, “Louis, I feel like I just take a few steps forward and a few steps back, a few steps forward and a few steps back.” It’s because this, what you want, isn’t compelling enough and it’s not pulling you to go do what you need to do, and this isn’t scaring you enough to say, “I’m not taking a step back. I need to keep marching in that direction.”

Louis Massaro:
So, I feel like this is a great thing that’s happening right now. Of course, not … My heart goes out to people that are suffering with COVID and people that are losing people. I know there’s a lot of bad stuff happening in the world, and I know business, especially outside of moving, are closing or are already closed. But even for those people that their business doesn’t make it, I hope that they take it as an opportunity to look at this what they don’t want and move away from it. I always say, even when we talk about … I talk about putting money away in the summer, a cash reserve fund, to get through the offseason. That’s kind of what was really bad about this virus is this whole pandemic happened coming out of the slow season, too, so it just kind of makes it worse. But, again, if you’re a Moving CEO, it’s like, look. I’m responsible for my results. This is happening, but what can I do about it?

Louis Massaro:
But when we talk about the cash reserve, if you ever are in a position where things are so bad, feel that pain. Remember that pain. If things are bad for you right now, things are slow for you right now, even though it’s because of COVID, even though it’s because of all that that’s happening, remember that pain and use it as a tool to pop up here when you’re like, “Hey, I’ve got a decision every moment of every day of which way I’m going to go and what I’m going to do. And I’m either going towards that life …” So, having this vision of the life you want and saying, “I’m going to go towards that. Yeah. I can’t go that way.” Sometimes you’re like, “Eh, I don’t need to have all of this. I’m good where I’m at.” No. You’re never staying still. You’re moving one way, or you’re moving the other way. So, to have that reminder there of where you don’t want to go, it’s powerful. It’s powerful.

Chris:
If someone maybe that fear is too much, what’s something they can do to kind of overcome and get the momentum moving right now?

Louis Massaro:
The fear of what’s going on with their business?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. It’s like, look, what’s your fear? You’re going to go out of business? Okay. All right. So, what are you going to do? If you do go out of business, then what? Then what do you do? You’re either going to have to go start new business, whether it’s a moving business or whether it’s something different, or you’re going to have to go get a job. So, why not take the action right now to head in this direction?

Louis Massaro:
Use the acronym for FEAR of face everything and rise. Not forget everything and run. Face everything and rise. When you’re feeling that fear, know it’s time to rise up and go towards what you want. That’s it. Now is the time.

Louis Massaro:
I see people putting in the work now. We see the progress in the courses. People are diving in, doing the work, going through. The people we had at the seminar … Not everybody, but the people that are going to be good through this. Any business that’s lost in this springtime here, I feel confident will be made up later in the year. You know what I mean?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
I feel confident that it’ll be made up later in the year by the people that take the action to actually go forth and make that happen. I just released the Moving CEO Business Program as my way of saying, “Hey, this is something that can …” When I improve, my business improves. I’m responsible for my results. If they can, I can. There’s go to be a better way. I’m putting it out there, the Moving CEO Business Program, which is basically everything that I’ve got. It’s such a reduced price. The price of one of my courses, you get …

Louis Massaro:
I’m saying this. I don’t like to plug stuff in the podcast, but it’s value. Yeah, it’s something to buy, but I’ve created a program that’s such value and gives someone everything they need to go from that place where they are to that next level, to step into that Moving CEO. I mean, there’s my Moving Sales Academy Program in there, the New Moving CEO Blueprint, the New Movers Marketing Accelerator’s in there, plus, working with me every single month for the next year is part of it, all for the price of what one of those courses are. So, if somebody’s interested in that, just go to movingceo.com, movingceo.com. That’s the Moving CEO Business Program. That’s my plug for it. That’s all I’m going to do.

Louis Massaro:
My concern is I want to see as many people through this as possible. You can’t get stuck right now. You’ve got to do the work. You’ve got to work. Even me, I know that right now it’s so … I mean, I spent the last two days, you know, back to back to back to back to back on calls with private clients strategizing, going through all this. Not fear, not “Oh my god. What are we going to do?” No. Taking action. So, anyone that’s got fear right now, it’s like, look, take action. Run towards the fear, and look at it like, “Okay, what’s the worst that could happen?” You go out of business? I’d rather go out of business trying and developing new skills than just sitting there waiting for it to happen.

Louis Massaro:
What I’ve seen in the past is most people that are in the moving business, even if they have a rough time and end up having to close down, they end up opening another moving company … It’s like, skill up right now. Learn how to do it the right way. Use this COVID opportunity to say, “All right. No, no, no.” That’s what happened to me when the recession came. The recession came and pointed out all my inefficiencies. I was good, la de da, making money until then, and then it was like, “Oh, wait.” It’s different. There’s an opportunity right now to learn how to surf.

Louis Massaro:
So, let me explain. Right now, there are giant waves crashing. There’s giant waves. It’s like if somebody called you like, “Chris, there’s giant surf out there, man. You’ve got to go out there.” And you’re like, “Oh my god. I can’t handle that.” That’s what operating in a recession or something like this feels like. It feels like it’s so much more intense. It’s so much harder. But, the people that learn how to surf, the people that learn how to ride that wave right now, that wave is going to take them so far that they’re going to be so far beyond the competition, so far beyond the fear and the problems. Now’s the time to really learn whatever skills you need to learn.

Louis Massaro:
Let this be the thing that points out to you the things that it’s time to sharpen. It’s time to sharpen to not only help you thrive through this, but then when you come out on the other side you’re even better. When I came out on the other side of the recession, I was better, stronger, making more money. Things were smoother. I was really fully embracing and living and being that Moving CEO, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chris:
Wow. That’s cool. Let’s recap. We’ve got “I’m responsible for my own results,” “If they can, I can,” “There’s got to be a better way,” “Moving is my vehicle to financial freedom,” and “When I improve, my business improves.” Now, is that the order? I mean, is there a beginning and an end to becoming-

Louis Massaro:
No. And listen, there’s more to it, but these are the things that were clear to me when I sat down and I was like, “Look, what is it that … I feel like I know what made me successful, but what can I match between … What are the same characteristics, what are the same mindsets, that I had and that the people that I see that are achieving at high levels in the business?” And these were the ones that were clear. Okay, we all share these values. We all share this mindset. So, you started the question of, are there certain … I think it was certain personality traits or something like that.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
It’s really the mindset stuff that is the common denominator.

Chris:
Okay. Okay. Well, if you adopt these philosophies and become that Moving CEO, you’re in good company, right? There’s lots of very successful and innovative people that all think this way.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it. Take those. Listen, if you didn’t listen to part one, go listen to part one. If you’re new to the Moving Mastery Podcast, if this is maybe one of the first episodes you’re catching, go back and listen. There is so much content there, so much training, so much information, so much perspective on just different ways to look at this business. If you want to take it to that next level, join the Moving CEO Business Program. Let’s do this together for the next year. Just go to www.movingceo.com.

Louis Massaro:
Just go out there. Believe you can do it. Know you’re responsible for your results. Say to yourself every day “There’s got to be a better way.” Know that moving is your vehicle to financial freedom, and believe that, when you improve, your business improves. Adopt that mindset, and I promise you things will start to unfold for you the way that you want them to. Until we see you next time, my friend, go out there every single day. Profit in your business. Thrive in your life. We’ll see you next time.

Posted on Sunday, 04-26-2020

Moving CEO Mindset – Part 1

SUMMARY

In this episode, Louis Massaro shares how to adopt a Moving CEO mindset for your moving business.

“The difference between a moving company owner and a moving CEO is mindset. That to me is the differentiator. That’s what helped separate myself to be able to get to the levels I did.”
“I think the hard times make you ask the questions. There’s got to be a better way. Like how do I do this? How do I run all of this and then keep growing?”
“If you’re stuck at a certain level and you feel like I don’t know what to do and maybe you’re trying some different strategies, you’re trying some different approaches, you’re doing a lot of trial and error, your mindset could very, very well be the thing that’s stopping you.”
“Mindset is the one obvious quality that I see not only in the people that I work with, but in all the other moving company owners who are succeeding at high levels in the industry.”
Watch the video to get full training.

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COVID-19 and Your Moving Business

TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hi my friend, welcome back to another episode of The Moving Mastery Podcast. My name is Louis Massaro. I’ve got my main man, Chris, with me today. And we’re going to be diving into strategies on how you could take your moving company to that next level. What’s up Chris?

Chris:
Hey, hey, hey. Here we are. What is this, day 22 of quarantine?

Louis Massaro:
Oh, it’s got to be longer than that. It’s got to be longer than that. It feels like we’re on lockdown for quite a while now, but we’re in the house. I see you there. I miss you, man. I haven’t seen you in a while. It’s been a while since we’ve been together. It’s probably been what, three weeks at least?

Chris:
At least, yeah. You know what though, it’s an amazing time we live in. We get to still do this. We get to share the podcast with these people and it’s still an amazing time to be alive. It’s different, but we’re making the best out of it.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it. It’s different. And you know what? Fortunately we all have access to tools, the internet, video conferencing that we could still operate and manage our day to day. Hopefully we’ll be past this soon, but we got to keep it going because you know what, business doesn’t stop. This will end, COVID will be over. We’ve got to make sure that you’re still marching forward with your plans, executing on your priorities and building your moving company and taking it to the next level. So in these episodes we’ve been letting Chris take the lead, either with some questions or pulling stuff from different areas. What do you got today, Chris?

Chris:
This one, I think we’ll do a little differently. I just had a general question. I’ve heard a few people ask about this and talk about this. For me, I think it’s something that I’m curious about and I think it’ll be something that you’ll bite into and enjoy talking about. What I’ve noticed is, obviously I think everyone in the audience knows that you were a very successful fixture in the moving industry. I feel like it’s important to figure out why, why that is. So my question to you and I wrote it down, so I’m just going to read it to you here. My question to you is, what is the main difference that you see in yourself and other people that have succeeded at high levels in the moving industry? Is there any common personality traits or skills that you all have?

Louis Massaro:
Okay. All right. No, I like this one a lot. You’re good, man. You’ve been picking the good questions. What happened? You want to go with your own this time, you didn’t find anything that excited you or what?

Chris:
No, I think I’m I am personally curious about this one. I know just from my perspective, I get a chance to work with you closely, so I observe a lot and I can definitely say that there are some big differences that I see in you as a company owner and a leader and something that I feel like should be shared with the rest of the world. It’s maybe a little bit of a selfish thing on my part to ask this question, but I think [crosstalk 00:03:13].

Louis Massaro:
No, I think it’s good. I think it’s good. Really what it all boils down to, there’s of course the process, there’s strategy, there’s leadership, but it all really starts with mindset. And I think you’ve heard me talk about the moving CEO mindset.

Chris:
Sure, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
The difference between a moving company owner and a moving CEO. That to me is the differentiator. That’s what helped separate myself to be able to get to the levels I did. That’s what I see those same qualities in people that I work with and other people succeeding at very high levels in the moving industry. And it’s really that mindset. It all starts with the mindset and the mindset you could have before you even get started. For me when I first got started, it was, I’m going to make a million dollars in this business. I’m going to become a millionaire in this business. That was my mindset at 19 years old. That’s what I thought about. You can have some strategies. You could have some processes, you could have some things in place, but if you don’t have the right mindset going into it, then it’s going to be hard to sustain that because it’s not an easy business.

Louis Massaro:
This is by no way a get rich quick business, but it is a solid business. It is a business that if you do it the right way, can take care of you for your life. So to answer your question, I’m thinking through it as you’re saying it, but it’s definitely mindset. There are certain things… Let me first, before I get into the mindset of it, talk about when I say moving company owner and I say moving CEO, for me, I ran my business. I started in 2000. It wasn’t until I hit the recession period about 2008 that I had to completely shift the way that I handled and ran my business. The first shift basically was when I opened up multiple offices, I needed to find a way to manage those differently than I managed the one office.

Louis Massaro:
That was a little bit of an adjustment. I changed the way I looked at things a little bit. But I was still operating from that original mindset, that moving company owner mindset. I don’t in any way, shape or form say that as a derogatory, it’s a progression. It’s a progression from going from moving company owner to moving CEO. You I know what I mean?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
So I’m not saying moving company owners like a bad term by any means. But for me that was the mindset that I had for eight years until I was forced to come face to face with the recession, come face to face with my business being bigger than it had ever been at that point and just went under a major expansion period. Then all of a sudden things shift in the economy, things shift in the way marketing happens. It really required me to look at things differently. That’s when I started looking at, I said, you know what? I need to handle my business like a CEO. I need to look at this differently. Because even though at that point I was, I think I hit the eight figure mark already at that point. I could look at that success and say, okay, I’m already where I want to be, but I knew I wanted to go further. But what got me to that level, I knew I needed a different mindset. I needed a different set of tools. I needed a different strategy. I needed a different approach to be able to go further.

Chris:
Did you know that or were you forced into that because of the recession and all of that? Do you think you would have found that mindset otherwise?

Louis Massaro:
I don’t know that I would have. I think the hard times bring out, they make you ask the questions. There’s got to be a better way. Like how do I do this? How do I run all of this and then keep growing? So it was more of looking at it and saying, okay, the way that I run my day to day has to change. It has to be different. In order for me to grow, I need new systems, I need new meetings, I need new reports that I’m going to look at. I need a new way to be able to essentially manage my business. My day needs to be different and so-

Chris:
It has to be.

Louis Massaro:
Has to be. Has to be.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Anybody, if you’re stuck at a certain level and you feel like I don’t know what to do and maybe you’re trying some different strategies, you’re trying some different approaches, you’re doing a lot of trial and error, your mindset could very, very well be the thing that’s stopping you. It doesn’t mean that when I say your mindset, that that’s something that’s fixed, that that’s something that is just part of who you are. That’s just where you are right there in your evolution as a business owner, as a leader.

Louis Massaro:
So it’s taking a step back and saying, okay, who do I need to be today? Because here I was seven, eight years into the business, I started as a 19-year-old kid and sure, I am matured a little bit and my business acumen got better along the way, but I was still operating from that place. That initial place. I needed to really have a mindset shift and an identity shift to be able to view myself differently, to be able to step up into the role that was necessary at that time. Not even to grow, but where my business currently was, I needed to adjust and think about things differently. Does that make sense?

Chris:
Now, you say mindset, is it about your attitude or your discipline? What’s really the foundation of it?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. With myself, I look back and I’m like, okay, what was it that allowed me to get to the level that I got to and what is allowing the companies that I see or the companies I work with that are performing at high levels, what’s allowing them to get there? One of the first things that stood out to me the most was essentially them saying, I’m responsible for my results. I am responsible for my results. The reason that’s so important is because, again, I talk to a lot of people. It’s great because my experience now of the moving business has been broadened so much because it’s not just my experience that I had in the year, was it 20 years since I started? It’s not just that now, it’s all the companies I’ve been working with. I get to see so many different perspectives, so many different personality types, so many different skill levels, so many different mindsets.

Louis Massaro:
The thing that I could say that everyone has that’s succeeding at a high level is that they take responsibility for the results they’re getting. Meaning, they know first and foremost, everything is on them. Their employees mess up, it’s on them. Their marketing’s not working, it’s on them. Their sales people aren’t closing at the rate they want them to close, it’s on them. If they pick the web marketing company to handle their web marketing and they’re not doing a good job, it’s on them. It’s a trait that I had. It’s a trait that I see that they have. It’s like, look, ultimately, I can’t blame anyone for anything. I need to take ultimate responsibility for everything that happens. Not only in my business, but in my life.

Chris:
What about a situation we’re in now where, God forbid, the economy is so bad or whatever? How do you take that on?

Louis Massaro:
When I went through the recession, it’s like I had to tell myself, look, you got yourself here. In other words, I could have said, Oh, the recession, it’s not my fault. I was running my business great. Everything was good. It’s the recession. That’s what messed me up. But in reality, had I been looking, it’s easy to look back and say, I should have been doing all this stuff. But the only thing you could do is change it moving forward. But I looked at it and said, listen, I’m in the position I’m in today because of the decisions that I made.

Louis Massaro:
For me, I was in a tough spot when the recession hit because I’ve just bought a whole fleet of long distance trucks, brand new. Financed a million too in trucks. My yellow page bill was 250,000 a month and it was starting to not work anymore. I had all these offices I was running. At that point I was over committed, over extended. I took a big leap in a big reach at a time when then all of a sudden the recession came. Like you’re asking right now, we’ve got the COVID thing going on. The difference is the people that understand that they’re responsible for all their results, they know that where they are today is a result of the actions they’ve been taking for the last six months, the actions they’ve been taking for the last year. And they know that if they’re in a bad position right now, they’re able to totally look and go, yup. It’s because I didn’t do the stuff that I knew I needed to do six months ago.

Louis Massaro:
My focus wasn’t where it needed to be. My priorities weren’t where they needed to be. That’s why I’m in this position now. The people that are responsible, the people that look at it and say, I’m responsible for my results are going, okay, what can I do now? I can’t control whether they open up, what stages they’re going to open up the economy back up and let people get back, when restaurants are going to open. I can’t control that. What can I control? I am responsible for my results. I am responsible for what my company’s producing, my employees, how I get them to contribute to my business in these times. A lot of people were like, Hey, I’ve got people there at home. Okay, what can they be doing to help you in your business right now? You’re responsible for that, not them.

Chris:
So whether you’re owning up, whether it was actual result of your actions, or even if it wasn’t, it’s like humility, you’re just accepting what it is as it is. And you’re saying, okay, rather than dwelling on whatever is wrong or whatever’s happening, you’re saying, all right, let’s fix this. What can I do? Where am I going to go? Where do I want to go and how do I get there?

Louis Massaro:
Listen, you’ve got to accept the fact that in business stuff’s going to happen. A downturn in the economy is going to happen. You’re going to hire a mover who’s going to end up causing you a lawsuit. There’s going to be a bad review because of something that happened or there’s going to be great reviews and those reviews get taken down. There’s going to be things that are outside of your control, but if you start to blame them for anything, it takes away from your personal power of what you could really do to move forward. Because all that mental energy that you’re wasting going, Oh, they did this, or it should have been that way, or poor me, this happened to me right now. Instead of saying, what can I do to determine what my results are going to be right now?

Louis Massaro:
We’ve talked about this before, the people that are going to thrive through this COVID situation are the people that are looking beyond it. That are taking action every single day today and looking and saying, where am I going to be six months from now? I’m looking past this. I’m doing what I need to do today. I’m making sure my crews, we’re practicing safety, we’re communicating it to the customers, but I’m looking past it. I’m implementing the processes that I know I need to implement. If they’re listening to this podcast, they’re somehow in our world of either just listening to this podcast or they’ve been to events or they’re in programs of ours and there’s a lot there. You could dissect this whole podcast alone and make yourself a checklist of things to go start implementing. It’s a way to look at it and not say I’m to blame, but it’s to say, I’m responsible.

Louis Massaro:
I’m responsible for the results that I get in my business. I’m responsible for the life that me and my family get to live. I’m responsible for the employees that I hire on with the expectation of, this is the type of position and this is the job that I’m offering you and this is where you can go. I’m responsible for supplying them leads so that my salespeople could book moves. I’m responsible for supplying my movers with the proper equipment so that they could go out there and safely do a good job and not hurt themselves and not damage any furniture. Listen, this business, there is so much responsibility and so much liability that if you don’t have that mindset that you just come in and say, I’m accepting it all, then you’re going to waste a tremendous amount of energy on, poor me, this happened to me. There’s countless scenarios and situations. And not to say that you don’t feel it and it doesn’t suck when it happens, but it’s just like, okay, great. What do I do about it now? How could I change this?

Chris:
Yeah, yeah. It can’t be just the mindset though. What are the other elements of that CEO position?

Louis Massaro:
There’s still more to the mindset.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
It’s not just about responsibility. One of the other things is a lot of people don’t have the belief in themselves. I’ll hear from people in different formats, whether it’s social media, whether they come to an event, whether they come in a program, whether I get to speak to them personally, whatever it might be, were asking, what separates the people that are succeeding at a high level versus the people that are struggling? Another thing is that the people that are struggling don’t believe that they could get to that level. They look at it and say, they’re at that level, they built that big company. But that’s not something that I could do. So the difference in the people that do for myself and for the people that are succeeding at high levels, and when we talk about succeeding at high levels, it doesn’t mean they’ve got offices all around the country. There’s people that have, they’re like a hometown dominator. They’re just in one city, but they’re just crushing it and they’re profitable.

Louis Massaro:
To me, that’s succeeding at a high level. You don’t have to have 10 offices to be succeeding at a high level. You’ve got to have your one business and that business runs smoothly. It runs efficiently. It takes care of your customers, you get good reviews and it generates the money that you want for yourself and for your family. To me, that’s succeeding at a high level.

Chris:
Yes, sounds great.

Louis Massaro:
The people that are doing that, they look at it and they say, you know what? If they could do it, I could do it. If Louis could do it, I could do it. If that company can do it, I could do it. And that’s something that was in line with my thinking early on. I started to two rental trucks out of a truck rental yard. I just, I don’t know, maybe it came naturally, but I think it’s something that can be learned. Not even learned, it’s more of having an awareness of it. Like, Oh man, yeah, I see the way that I think about this and if I think about it differently, it could allow me to really unblock some of the stuff that’s holding me back.

Louis Massaro:
From that truck rental yard, I’m like, I’m seeing these big companies and I’m like, you know what? If they could do it, I could do it. They started somewhere small too. They didn’t just start where they’re at. I might not get there tomorrow. I might not get there next year. But what why is it that that company can do it and I can’t? There’s no college degree necessary to build a successful moving company.

Chris:
Yeah. Put your pants on just like everybody else.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it. I think that’s another one. Either you take responsibility, and you just have to believe at each and every step of the way that you can do it. Know that the people you see with the big companies, it didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen without struggle. It didn’t happen without hardship. It didn’t happen without all the same problems that you’re facing today that they overcame, found a better way and were able to reach that higher level.

Chris:
What is it that would make someone believe that they couldn’t do it? Or why do you think somebody would feel like they can’t do what those big companies were doing?

Louis Massaro:
It’s was a few things. I think number one is just programming. Childhood programming and just the way that each and every single one of us was brought up differently and dealt with things differently. I’m not an expert on parenting and how those mindsets were formed and how they were developed, but it could be that first failure in the business. You tried something and you fail. And then that self-talk starts to tell you, you’re not good enough for this. You can’t do this. You don’t have the education, you don’t have the background, you don’t have the experience. You’re also at your, just how you view yourself. If you view yourself as a mover who starts their own business just so they could work for themselves, if that’s your mindset, if you’re just looking at it and saying, Hey, I just want to work for myself and start my own business and if I could make a living, great. Versus, no, I’m going to build a company to where the business and the company runs without me and pays me, it’s just a different mindset.

Louis Massaro:
In other words, some people believe in themselves and some people don’t. It doesn’t mean that you can’t believe in yourself. What it means is you’ve got a first see it and you’ve got to first be able to see somebody doing it and then also have it somehow demystify it for you. Meaning, that’s what I’m hoping to do right now. I’m hoping to say, look, it’s not that big of a mystery. You can do it. The level that you want to get to, you can do it. I barely graduated high school. I threw a yellow page ad into rental trucks and just went at it. What really allowed me to keep moving forward was this constantly looking for the things that were wrong and then looking for the solutions.

Chris:
Yeah, you want it to get better. You wanted to be better.

Louis Massaro:
I wanted to get better and it was just because I felt so lost, because I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, I knew that I had to work extra hard to figure it out. And because I believed that number one, I was responsible for my results, but number two, if they could do it, I could do it. I started, I had this little black book, I talk about it sometimes, I kept in my back pocket that I just kept notes in. And every time I ran across a problem, that’s an issue. I’ve got to fix that. I don’t know how to fix it right now, but let me write it down so I could figure out how to fix it later on. I didn’t allow problems to just happen and happen and happen and happen. I stopped, I identified what the problem was. I wrote it down and then I obsessed about fixing that issue so that it no longer happened because at first it was just everything was an issue. Every day there was this massive issues.

Louis Massaro:
The difference between being able to scale your business and just struggling is getting the problems sorted out so that you could just figure out the right way to do it and do it over and over and over the right way. Instead of every day struggling doing the same thing and trying to figure out the same problem, is taking a step back to figure out what that is. For me, there was nobody in moving, showing you how to do it. So I studied other businesses. I talked to other successful business owners that I knew, figured out what they were doing. I’m like, okay, how could I apply this here?

Louis Massaro:
I would take bits and pieces and just start putting it all together. And I didn’t take everything. I listened, I absorbed, but some stuff made sense for me and for my business and some stuff didn’t make sense for me and my business. I just knew that it was not possible. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. It shouldn’t have been that hard. I’m like, it was a rude awakening because I didn’t think it was going to be that hard. But then I’m like, okay, it is that hard. But then I just went back to, okay, if they did it, I could do it.

Chris:
Did you start with problems that just happened over and over again, the obvious ones, you start with that and then start whittling it down from there or did you do it all at once? What’s the process there?

Louis Massaro:
It was just every day, whatever the problem was, I just added it to the list and then would start to see a pattern of problems that stemmed from the same place. So you’re like, okay, if you’ve got five problems written down that you’re trying to deal with and you could identify a common theme across them and then you’re like, okay, well, what can I do that will help all of these? That’s compound problem solving right there. You come up with a solution that doesn’t just solve one problem, it solves multiple problems and then you make sure that that stays in place and it continues to happen that way. That’s how you start to get out of the hole. That’s how you start to get out of that place where you just feel like, man, this is never going to end.

Chris:
That’s what the bigger companies were good at. Right?

Louis Massaro:
I don’t know what they were good at. I just know this stuff that they didn’t accept. I think that when you don’t know any better, I didn’t know any better. It’s like, it’s easy to accept things. And I don’t mean accept them like I’m responsible because it’s the opposite. If you’re going, Oh, that’s just the way it is. People don’t want to book with me. I’m like, no, I’m responsible for my results. Why is it that they don’t want to book with me? What could I say to them to make them want to book with me? When I first started, every single person that called up for a quote was like, yeah, sure, we’ll send you a three men a truck and all the equipment, $75 an hour. That was it. Didn’t matter if it was a studio apartment, didn’t matter if it was 12,000 square foot house, it was a mansion, it was three men at 75 bucks. Because I had no idea what I was doing. So it was like, okay, this seems to be working. This is great. People are booking, people are booking.

Louis Massaro:
Then all of a sudden, you get the chirp chirp on the Nextel walkie talkie and it’s one of your movers. And he’s like, “Hey, I think one of my helpers is drunk and I just confronted him and he blew up me and he walked away and I don’t know where he’s at.” So you’ve got to deal with the problem at hand, you’ve got to deal with the problem at hand, but then you’ve got to be able to go, okay, how do I make sure this doesn’t happen again? And that scenario was like, okay, now I’ve got to go out to this job. I’ve got to get on this particular job, the one I’m thinking about was, I went out there, first of all, it was three and a half truck loads-

Chris:
Wow, that’s a big [crosstalk 00:30:12].

Louis Massaro:
… and I sent three guys at 75 bucks. I had no idea how to estimate. I had no idea how long something should take. I had no idea how much fits on a truck. So I’d go out there and come to find out it’s an NBA player, highly known Olympic, all star champion, world champion. I’m not going to say his name because I don’t want to get involved with that. But-

Chris:
What happened? Was he so mad?

Louis Massaro:
He wasn’t there, his dad was there.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
His dad was fortunately a cool guy. Was just being cool about it. So now I jump in as a mover, his dad jumps in as a mover. I’ve got my two guys there and then me and the dad are moving for two days. Just moving stuff, getting through it. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I didn’t know how to resolve it. I didn’t know how to fix it. I just tried to make it right. That problem presents opportunity to create better processes and create better systems to say, okay, how do we make sure this doesn’t happen? Because what was the problem there? The problem was number one, didn’t do a great job of hiring. Because I was just, Hey, you want to work? Sure. Here’s a shirt, get on the truck. No problem. This is very early on, this is when in the first few months and had no idea how to estimate a move.

Louis Massaro:
I realized very quickly that day and I think the pain of having to go out there and face the customer. Especially his son was someone that I looked up to, and having to be there, it’s like the guy who just ruined their move. It just made the pain of it. That’s why I always say when bad stuff happens, feel the pain, take care of the customer, feel the pain. But then go fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s actually pretty funny. A couple of years later I ran into the father at a car wash and he came up and I had a nice car at the time and he walked up. He’s like, “Man, that’s nice.” I turned around and I was like, I saw him and I’m like, Oh.

Chris:
You knew who he was right away.

Louis Massaro:
Right away I knew who he was. I didn’t know what to say. I was like, “You remember me by any chance?” He’s like, “Yeah, that’s why I came up to you.” I’m like, “Man, I still feel so bad about that. If you ever need anything, I was just getting started.” He’s like, “I know, I see your trucks all the time now.” Ended up hitting it off with him, ended up meeting his son. So it all worked out. But the point was that things sometimes have to go wrong for you to realize that it’s not right. Sometimes you don’t know what’s right until you know what’s wrong.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
I knew just blanketly, just sending out three men at 75 bucks an hour to anybody that called was not right.

Chris:
You figured that out. Really, what you realize is that CEO mindset is about not just accepting, living with that like, Oh well, stuff like that’s going to happen. It’s like taking the initiative to say, okay, what can I do to make sure this will not happen again?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. One of the things that just stuck in my head and really became the prompting point for what I wrote down in that little black book was saying to myself, there’s got to be a better way. And it was like sitting there on that job just dealing with all that, I’m like, there’s gotta be a better way. Because I don’t believe that the owner’s position is to be out on the move. You know what I mean? You can’t run your business and you can’t grow your business if you’re out on the truck. If that’s the way you start, great. But you got to get off that truck as soon as possible because you’ll never be able to work on the business. You’ll never be able to grow the business.

Louis Massaro:
There’s got to be a better way. That was another major point that I saw that with myself. That was my main theme. I could credit that statement to helping me build everything that I’ve ever built. Just looking at it and saying, all right, there’s got to be a better way than this. Even if there’s not, you’re going to go on a search for it. You’ll go on a search, you’ll try to find what that better way is, and then if you can’t find it, it’s like, okay, I guess there’s not a better way, but at least I went. And then you accept it, you accept responsibility for your results, but you went and you looked for that better way. You go and you learn, okay, how do I learn how to estimate? You go and you learn, okay, how do I screen movers to make sure that they’re not showing up drunk and walking off the job and all of that?

Louis Massaro:
I noticed that with the people that are succeeding in high levels, especially the people that I work with. The people that either are at the seminars, people that are in our courses, private clients that I work with one-on-one, it’s like they’re looking for the better way. That’s all I hope to shed light on. That’s why we’re doing this podcast. There is a better way. You know what I mean? It doesn’t have to be so challenging. It doesn’t have to be so hard. And that’s why it’s mindset. We’re only talking about mindset right now.

Louis Massaro:
Take responsibility for it and know that you’re strong enough to bear that burden and know that Hey, if somebody else out there did it, so can you. Doesn’t mean you want that. Just because someone opened up 50 franchises doesn’t mean that’s what you want. Because if it’s not something that you want, if it’s not something that is truly in line with what you and your heart desires, then you’re not going to have that sustained momentum to go after. But if it is something you want and it’s in line with your life goals and your vision and everything you want for yourself, you’ve got to know that you can do it.

Chris:
Even if it’s a process or something you’ve been doing for years a certain way and it works, you should still look at it and say, okay, how can we make this better? Even though it’s working, it’s not causing us any trouble, there still could be a better way to do.

Louis Massaro:
Unless you’re 100% where you want to be. In other words, you’re enjoying the quality of life from a financial standpoint, you’re good, you’re not worried about money, you’re taking time to spend however you choose. You’re not stuck at your office. You’re not dealing with stress and losing sleep over the business. Unless that’s your scenario. You should look at every single thing that you’re doing and say, there’s got to be a better way. How could this be done better? That starts to just open up the… That gets the wheels turning. That gets the wheels turning it. Once you start to discover those things and once you start to implement those things, then you start to build that confidence like, okay, all right. Well, maybe Louis is right. If they can, I can.

Louis Massaro:
I took responsibility and I started to look at it all and say, okay, if something’s happening I’m responsible for those results. I looked for a better way, I found a better way, implemented the better way, maybe I can do it. And what happens there is that your perception of who you are and what you’re capable of opens up. That for me was the metamorphosis from moving company owner to moving CEO.

Chris:
That’s cool.

Louis Massaro:
It took me seven, eight years to be able to have enough confidence in myself and feel that I had enough experience in myself to say, you know what, I’m going to shift this and I’m going to take a whole new approach and I’m going to, to me, it was a CEO thing, not because that’s what was on my business card. It wasn’t about that. It was like, what identity can I give myself that’s going to allow me to see myself differently than that 19-year-old kid that started and didn’t know anything except I’ve been working hard for a few years?

Louis Massaro:
I needed to shift. I changed the way I was dressing going to the office. I started wearing slacks and dress shirts. I had my office and my team, at that point I had a call center and corporate office. I had them do the same and I started to shift the way that my day to day was run. I had a whole new set of reports that I was looking at because I would sit back, there’s got to be a better way. That was the start of all the conversations, was looking for that better way. And I’m like, okay, what am I trying to accomplish here? What do I need to see? What do I need to know? What is the ultimate goal of what we’re trying to do with this company and how can I feel a sense of control over all of that? Because I think that’s what happens for a lot of people is that as it grows, it just feels like a wild beast that needs to be tamed.

Louis Massaro:
That’s what happens when your ambition too is moving faster than your, I don’t know, you got your foot too much on the gas and not enough on the brake. You know what I mean? You’re going way too fast because you’re thinking about stuff. Then there’s the opposite. You’ve got this vision. I started and I’m like, Hey, I’m going to be a millionaire in his business. So it was like, put the gas down and go for it. But then you find yourself in a position where you’ve got to backtrack to get things in place.

Louis Massaro:
At that point, I didn’t feel that I had the ultimate control over all my locations. I didn’t feel like everything was running exactly the way that it needed to be in each office. I didn’t feel like I had the clarity to be able to see what was going on, to be able to see the numbers and be able to run my business off of those numbers. I didn’t have the structure to be able to have certain meetings with my team so that they could fill me in with what was happening because I was in a different place. It’s like I got promoted. It was my business, but I got promoted. It was like the job that I had at the beginning was essentially a dispatcher. Then I got promoted to an operations manager. Then maybe a vice president of some sort. And then it was like, no man, I need to promote myself here to CEO.

Chris:
Yeah. It’s that mentality. You have to have that CEO mentally, it’s the only place you can… You had to go through all of that to get there.

Louis Massaro:
Unless somebody came along and told me this sooner.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
That’s what I’m hoping to share is, look, I don’t care where you are. I don’t care if you’re that 19-year-old kid like I was in the truck rental yard, adopt that CEO mindset.

Chris:
From the get go.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, right off the bat. You’ll still have to do what you need to do. You might be wearing the CEO hat and also wearing the dispatcher hat and also wearing a moving consultant hat and also wearing all the hats, but you’ve got to be able to get that as soon as possible because it’ll save you so much just torture. And it’s different. I remember having people in my office, caught somebody talking behind my back. Like, Oh, he thinks he’s running a Fortune 500 company. This is a moving company. Somebody that had experience in the business that I brought in to help run long distance.

Louis Massaro:
It didn’t bother me because not everybody’s going to get it. Not everybody’s going to understand, but if you’ve got the vision of what you want to do with your company, you’ve got to be able to just step into that different way of looking at it and embrace that CEO and say, okay, I’m a moving CEO. What do I need to do to be able to run that business from that place? Because it’s a whole different, if we split the screen down in the middle right now, we did a little documentary of like, okay, here’s somebody that’s been in business 10 years, that’s just been with the moving company owner mindset and these characteristics and here’s somebody that made the shift to moving CEO, you’d see a totally different story.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
You know what I mean? A totally different outcome. Totally different quality of life. Totally different quality of business. It’s just night and day.

Chris:
It’s a different life. A different reality.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Wow. Did you literally make this decision to become the moving CEO in a day? Is it just you had a problem and you said, okay, this is it. Now I need to change and it was just like that?

Louis Massaro:
No, it was a lot of different things happened. It was having to dig myself out of the mess in the recession. Realize that I started, I was like, okay, I didn’t do long distance for eight years and all of a sudden I’m like, okay, get 12 trucks and let’s haul everything we could book from all the locations. And it was a whole different… Then I went back, it was basically I put myself back in the position of a long distance dispatcher, if you will, to learn that whole thing because it was a totally new business. Then just realizing, Oh my God, you don’t realize when you can’t see it and you haven’t been there before and you haven’t tested your own bandwidth and your own capabilities, sometimes it seems like, you know what? Yeah, that’s okay. No problem. We’ll get some trucks and we’ll just haul the furniture. We’ll haul the shipments and it’ll be no problem. I didn’t see everything else that was going to come with that at the time.

Louis Massaro:
It was like I was running all the offices, the call center, the long distance piece, bringing on a team to help run the long distance stuff. Looking at it like, I can’t be in the business again trying to run all of this right. Not because I didn’t want to, it’s not that it bothered me, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, it’s that I knew there was nobody at the helm. There was nobody running the whole thing. If I’m sitting there worried about long distance shipments and this and that and the call center, I knew that I needed to step back and take a different approach.

Louis Massaro:
It wasn’t about the micro, it was about the macro. Wasn’t about every little thing that was happening day to day. That was the part that I had to start unwinding. I had to start looking at it and going, okay, look, I’ve got to simplify this and put myself back in a position where I could be at the helm, back in a position where I could lead the company, the whole company, not just little sections of the company. There’s always got to be somebody at the helm.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay. So it’s about deciding to take charge, to take control?

Louis Massaro:
In a different way. Yeah. It’s playing a different position. You’re giving yourself a promotion or you’re on a basketball team and you’re like, okay, I’m much better off as the point guard than I am playing forward or you’re playing far much better off being the quarterback. In other words, you have to decide where you are better off. Again, it all comes down to mindset. Somebody could come in and go, Hey, you should be in this position. But it’s really just the mindset of first understanding that’s where I need to be, that’s where I need to go.

Louis Massaro:
At the time I’m reading books on great CEOs Jack Welch from GE and different business books. Good to Great, talking about different businesses and what it took for those leaders. Businesses that were much bigger then moving. It put me in a mindset that was like, okay, that seems so far beyond where I’m at, but I think I could take a lot of this and shrink it down into this moving business and still apply it to here. So to answer your question, this is the type of stuff that was going on. Another part of it, if you look at how it all came together, my CPA, sitting down and had a mentor relationship with him where he was just telling me straight up, look, you’ve got to run this thing differently. You’ve got to know these numbers. Well, years prior before that time period I was like, yeah, okay, whatever, whatever. I’m making money, no problem. Yeah, I will, I will. It finally just clicked one day with all of that coming together.

Chris:
Okay. Let me see if I can remember where we’re at here. You’ve got, there’s got to be a better way.

Louis Massaro:
There’s got to be a better way. That’s one of them.

Chris:
And then, if they can, I can.

Louis Massaro:
Yup. If they can, I can.

Chris:
Then what was the first part? You take responsibility?

Louis Massaro:
I am responsible for my results.

Chris:
Yeah, okay.

Louis Massaro:
I’m responsible for my results. And that’s in life. You know what I mean? That’s an all around mindset because I truly believe that how you do anything is how you do everything. So it’s like, look, if you’re going to be on point in your business, be on point in your personal life. If you’re going to be on point in your personal life, be on point in your business. Just easier to just be on point. Now you’re responsible for all your results. You might go make a bunch of money and you might say, Hey, I’m going to make a ton of money in my business because I’m responsible for that. But then you go and you blow it and you don’t set up your financial security for the future. You’re responsible for that too.

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
Listen, there’s a lot of responsibility in owning a business in general. There’s a lot of responsibilities just in operating as an adult in society. Now you take on owning a business, you’ve got yourself, you’ve got your family, you’ve got your customers, you’ve got your employees, you’ve got to take care of all of that and you’re responsible for it.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And the results that each and every one of them get.

Chris:
Yeah, that’s a different attitude. That’s a lot of humility and humbleness going on there to get to that place. Like you were saying before, you didn’t have anybody to tell you about this or show you this, but do you feel like, do you have to go through all of those experiences though? It feels like there’s part of it that hardship is good sometimes.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Listen, put it this way. If you aren’t feeling any hardship at all, you’re not going to seek out the answers. In other words, if you’re listening to this right now, it’s because there’s something in your business that you feel can be improved upon or you feel like there’s got to be a better way. So you don’t have to go through massive hardships to be able to do it. Everybody gets on their path in a different way. Everybody gets there in a different way. Like things now, I’ve shifted in certain areas where it’s like all I did was hear somebody say something on a podcast or whatever and I’m like, click. I just clicked.

Louis Massaro:
My hope is that this helps it click for somebody. This helps it like, okay, yeah. Maybe instead of just looking at how everything’s wrong with all of that, let me just shift the way. Let me look at it from this way. I’ve been looking at it like this, let me try on for size how Louis is looking at it and see, okay, I could see how that might impact my business and my life.

Chris:
Being open to that.

Louis Massaro:
Well, yeah, you got to be open. You’ve got to always be open to new ideas but with a filter. You’ve got to be open with a filter. Don’t just take anything I say and run with it. You’ve got to put it through your own filter of like, do I see that that can make sense? Because otherwise, there’s so many people given so much information talking about so much stuff out there. These days that you could end up going down so many different rabbit holes trying to find a solution. Like I said earlier, when I was taking bits and pieces of information from mentors and different business owners that I knew and books, I would take some and leave some. It wasn’t all for me. The same way if you get one thing out of this episode, great. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to take all of it and adopt all of it. I think that’s important to distinguish there.

Chris:
It’s important to take chances too. You got to gamble a little bit, see what works for you and what doesn’t. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.

Louis Massaro:
That’s all about entrepreneurship.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Another thing is, you look at it and you say, what’s the worst that could happen? Anything you were ever afraid of doing, say what’s the worst that could happen? Can I live with that if that were to happen? A lot of times when I’m teaching people delegation it’s like, okay, well you’re afraid, you’re fearful of giving that over to that person. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe you’re handing over the reigns for dispatch. Well, they could put a guy in the truck that doesn’t have a license and, okay, well what could happen? I don’t know, he could run right through a school. That could happen with a guy with a license too. You’ve got to just be able to go to the worst case, see how likely that is and then bring it back and be like, okay, now let’s look at what’s the best case scenario.

Louis Massaro:
The best case scenario is now you’ve removed yourself from this batch. You’ve put somebody in that position, you’ve given them the processes, you’ve given them the role description, they know exactly what to do. You’ve done the best you can to train them and now you freed yourself up to work on your business and enjoy your life and not be stuck there all day dealing with it. Getting out of your comfort zone, I think is exploring the worst case and the best case scenario. And it’s all about your actions, the actions that you take. Every single day, if you know where you want to go, you know where you want… It’s like, what I’m doing today, is that taking me towards where I want to go or is it not taking me towards where I want to go? You’ve got to make the decision to go towards where you want to go and you’ve got to make the decision to…

Louis Massaro:
Obviously when you think about worst case scenario, we were talking about the dispatcher and delegating that roll out to somebody. You think through obviously what the worst case scenarios are and you put checks and balances in place to do your best to ensure that those things don’t happen and then move forward. When we talk about getting out of your comfort zone, you’re going to have to go towards that imaginary wall and step outside of it and see how that feels and then take another step outside. You might feel a little nervous, but you’ve got to just keep going. Whatever you’re afraid of, you really need to go at that. What you’re afraid of, you need to go towards because as humans we were afraid of so much stuff that’s just not necessary to be afraid of.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And it’s really that wall, that invisible wall, that comfort zone. So if you start taking some of these principles, and we’ve got, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to even get through all of the moving CEO mindset today, but we might have to do-

Chris:
Oh, there’s more?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. We’ve expanded upon this, so we might have to do a part two of this.

Chris:
Oh, okay. I’m up for that.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
That’d be great.

Louis Massaro:
I don’t want to make the episode too long. But if you’re taking on the responsibility, I’m responsible for my results. I realize how many times I’ve said that, it’s just so important to adopt this mindset. That you’re responsible for it because so many people want to blame other people and you’ll never get what you want by doing that.

Chris:
No.

Louis Massaro:
You’ll never get it. Where you are today is because of everything you’ve done up until this point. That’s it. That’s it. The decisions you’ve made, the actions you took or did not take, that’s why you are where you are today. And there’s nothing to be overly excited about. There’s nothing to be upset about it. It’s like, okay, here’s where I’m at. I’m responsible for these results. Good or bad. Okay, well where do I want to go next? Okay, well I’m responsible for those results, let me start taking the actions and implementing the things that I need to do to get there. And then believe in yourself.

Louis Massaro:
To me, the easiest way to believe in yourself is to look at it and say, if they did it, I can do it. I’m not talking about if you’re five foot two, and you’re looking at LeBron James like, if he could do it, I could do it. You might have a difficult time doing that. But if we’re talking about building a very successful moving business, if they did it, you could do it. If I did it, you could do it. And if you just make it your daily mantra, if you will, there’s got to be a better way, there’s got to be a better way. And it doesn’t mean you’re dissatisfied with each and everything. You’re just exploring, how could I make it better? Then it becomes a game. Then you start to have fun with that game, and then you just start to tweak and modify. With that, you gain confidence, which helps you break out of the comfort zone you were talking about. And then you start crushing it.

Chris:
Yeah. Wow. Cool. Well, I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation, but that’s powerful stuff. And really, it’s just a slight shift in your mind, your attitude, whatever it is. It’s this much, you’re just turning the dial that much in and it can make all the difference.

Louis Massaro:
How you look at things. If you shift that, it’ll shift your whole world for you.

Chris:
Yeah. Cool.

Louis Massaro:
So let’s do this. I think we’re getting close on time here?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Let’s keep going, but let’s do it as a part two.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Because I want to finish this because this is strong and this is like, I could teach all the strategies and all the tools and processes. All that stuff, but if the mindset is not there and cultivated, it’s going to be a hard time. You’re going to have a hard time really implementing it all. Because there are so many roadblocks, there are so many challenges. But most of the challenges are all mental challenges.

Chris:
Right. That’s the foundation.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Most of the obstacles that you run into are all mental. You take two people and put them in the same problem, the same predicament. It’s the mindset of how they deal with it, how they approach it, that’s going to get them out of it. You think about one moving company owner gets a bad review online, or has a good review that’s filtered and you get another one that had the same scenario. One person could sit there for two days obsessing about it while the other one dealt with it, accepted it as part of the business, understands that they’re responsible for their results and moves on and says, there’s got to be a better way. What could I do to fix it and uses that time productively to come up with solutions to fix whatever the problem was.

Chris:
That’s the difference.

Louis Massaro:
That’s the difference.

Chris:
Cool.

Louis Massaro:
Listen, if you’re out there, you’re listening to this right now and you feel like that’s not your current mindset, just know you could adjust that. Just know that you’re not stuck, you’re not fixed where you are. Every mindset, every view of the world can all be shifted. It could all be changed. And if you heard anything today that you feel would serve you in your life and your business, allow yourself the opportunity to start looking at it differently. Allow yourself the opportunity to say every morning, I am responsible for the results that I get today. I know that if they did it, I could do it too. It might be hard work, I might hit a lot of roadblocks along the way, but if I keep saying every day there’s got to be a better way, then I will find that better way. I’ll find a way around those roadblocks and I’ll get to that level that I want to get at.

Louis Massaro:
Hope this helped you. We’re going to do a part two of this. We’ll put it up there soon. Until then, go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. If you like this podcast, if you like this episode, if you want to keep hearing stuff like this, do me a favor. Head over to iTunes or Apple Podcasts. Leave me a review, let me know what you think. If you’ve got any questions or anything that you want me to address directly, send me a DM on Instagram. Just go to @LouisMassaro on Instagram. Send me a DM, we’ll go through them. We’ll check them out and then we’ll possibly bring it on The Moving Mastery podcast to do an episode. And listen, keep going, keep pushing.

Louis Massaro:
I know we’re in uncertain times right now, but just know the COVID stuff’s going to pass. Even if we go into a recession, this business, this moving business is as close to a recession-proof business as it gets. People need to move. They always need the move, whether they’re moving from their big mansion because maybe their restaurant didn’t make it and now they need to move into a townhouse. Either way, you’re there to help them. You’re there to serve them. People will continue to move. Don’t let the news, don’t let the media, don’t let all the doomsday stuff gets you down and think that there’s no future here. Keep pushing, my friend. We’ll see you at the next episode.

Posted on Sunday, 04-19-2020

Maintain Wellness During COVID-19 Lockdown

SUMMARY

In this video, Louis Massaro shares how to maintain your wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I wouldn’t say that I am a health nut, but what I am is someone who takes life and their business and their daily experience seriously, so I want to experience it in the best way that I possibly can.”
“For me, the motivating factor was really when I realized the impact of my personal wellbeing, mind, body, spirit, all of that, and how much impact that had on my business.”
“Once I started to see the impact of small things that I was doing, I was like, “Man, I need to go all in.” And I’ve since become a student of how the mind works, how the body works. Being a whole human and how that helps my business and helps my quality of life.”
“Ask yourself, ‘What can I do to feel more energy, have more clarity, have more stamina to be able to go longer when I need to work hard and do what needs to get done?’”
Watch the video to get full training.

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TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey, my friends. Welcome to The Moving Mastery Podcast. My name is Louis Massaro. I got my main man, Chris. We are virtual in quarantine lockdown. Chris is at home. I’m at home. I’m looking at him I’m right now. We’re on Zoom, just kind of hanging out, doing the podcast as we normally would, but doing it virtually. What’s up, Chris?

Chris:
Hey, how’s it going? I’m here. I’m holding it down. It’s a pleasure we still get to do this.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, we got to keep it moving. We can’t let this thing stop us. You guys shouldn’t be letting this stop you as well. We’ve been doing a new format with the podcast to where we’re taking questions from either the audience, people on social media, emails that come in, maybe clients that we have that have something they’ve asked that we could use. I’m letting Chris pick the questions, surprise me with them, and we go from there. So, what do we got today, Chris?

Chris:
So, today I had a question come in on Instagram recently, and I think it’s appropriate just because of the last episode we did about the COVID-19 pandemic and how that affects your moving business. A lot of that message in that episode was you telling people, “Hey, listen, the fear can, you can lock up, you can freeze up because of all the fear that’s going on out there.” And it’s important to mitigate that fear and make sure you’re still pressing forward with your business. I think that’s been very helpful, but I also realized that maybe there’s more to it. And when this question came in, it was the perfect question and it made me realize, yes, we got to continue sort of a part two of the COVID-19 episodes here.

Chris:
So, this question came in on Instagram and I’ll just read it to you here and then we can go from there. The question is, I’ve seen a lot of your videos and listen to your COVID-19 podcast and I really appreciate your insight on not letting the stress and the fear of this pandemic bring our businesses down. I’d like to ask you specifically what you are doing in your daily health and wellness routines to help mitigate that stress.

Louis Massaro:
Okay. That’s a good one.

Chris:
Yeah, and I know for you that’s something you take very seriously. So, I think we’ll be able to help a lot of people.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, definitely. So, if you haven’t already listened to, I believe it’s called COVID-19 and Your Moving Business, it’s the previous episode. Go listen to that. Some powerful stuff in there. You got to listen to that one. But yeah, as far as my routine, I do take it seriously. There was a point where I made a decision that after learning and understanding, right? First, you’ve got to be able to get things in perspective. So, it wasn’t that I’ve just always been a health nut. I’m not. I wouldn’t say that I am a health nut, but what I am is someone who takes life and their business and their daily experience in life seriously, that I want to experience it in the best way that I possibly can.

Louis Massaro:
For me, the motivating factor was really when I realized the impact of my personal wellbeing, mind, body, spirit, all of that, and how much impact that had on my business, right? That’s how it became a motivating factor for me. So, I started dabbling with a little bit of this routine and a little bit of that routine, and once I started to see the impact of small things that I was doing, I was like, “Man, I need to go all in.” And I’ve since become a student of the mind, right? How the mind works, how the body works, spirit and connection, and just overall, right? Being a whole human and how that helps my business, right? And helps my quality of life.

Louis Massaro:
So, I’ll share with you what I do and it’s kind of years of just trying stuff, seeing what works for me, seeing what fits, right? It’s all about you got to be able to try stuff on for size, right? When you hear something, like you read something in a book or you hear something on a podcast or wherever you get it from, right? You have a mentor that tells you something, you got to be able to try it on for size. See if it works for you, and then make adjustments from there. Right? Does that make sense?

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah, it’s got to be your own thing. You’re not living somebody else’s life. This is your life, so however you can make it fit for you that’s really the key. Right?

Louis Massaro:
That’s the key. And so, I’ll share kind of my routines, but know that this is … I spend a lot of time in the morning. My morning routines really long. We’ll talk about that. But it became as long as it did, over three hours in the morning, a morning routine because I saw the value in first taking 20 minutes, and then 30 minutes, and then an hour. Right? And I started to see the effectiveness of what it did for me as a businessperson. Right? It all came around this time where I opened in 2000. I’m just giving you a little backstory here so you could kind of understand where this came from and it didn’t just start [crosstalk 00:05:48]

Chris:
It developed over time, right? This isn’t-

Louis Massaro:
It developed over time out of a need and the need was really first and foremost for my business and to mitigate the stress that I was allowing the business to cause me. I shouldn’t say that the business was causing me, but I was allowing the business to cause me. And so, it really came to a head when the recession came and that’s the time where I decided to get a coach. That’s the time where I started to, in that couple year period, shift my mindset from, “Hey, I’m a moving company owner,” to like, “No, I need to conduct myself as a CEO. I need to be at a different level.” Right? We’ve got to be able to solve problems from a different place. I think it was Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems with the same way of thinking about things as when we created them.” That’s not the exact quote. I’m butchering it, but the point is that you’ve got to shift your perspective.

Louis Massaro:
So, that’s when it started for me. And then again, as I started to see the results in my performance, in my business, and my quality of life, it was like, “All right, I’m all in.” Tell me what I need to do. What can I do to feel more energy, have more clarity, have more stamina to be able to go longer when I need to work hard and do what needs to get done? How do I manage my emotions, so I’m not losing control and flipping out? Somebody pisses me off in the office and I’m not like flying off the handle like I did in the early days. Right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And so, when you start to see all this come together, it was like, “Wow, okay.” I put this correlation in my mind of pro athletes. What separates a pro athlete from somebody playing a pickup game at the park, right? A NBA player versus somebody who just shoots some hoops on the weekends? And it’s that they’re professional and they treat themselves as professionals. They take care of themselves as professionals. And so, I think it’s the same thing as a business owner. If you want a high performing business, you’ve got to look at yourself like you are the prize racehorse. You know what I mean?

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
You are your business. When you’re on, your business goes, right? I mean, everybody’s had the days. We all have the days where we feel super on it, right? And we’re just dialed in and we’re focused, and we’re just getting things done that matter. And then we’ve had the days where we’re like, “Ugh.” Physically you’re just depleted and physically you’re just exhausted. And so, when you start to see that you can have some control over that, you could feel better, perform better, and also not be exhausted and worn out when it comes time to enjoy your life, you go all in and you commit to being that professional and that’s basically what I did.

Louis Massaro:
It was just like this has to be a part of my life. Because when you start a new routine, what happens is you fall. We’re going to get to it in a minute. I just want to give a little context here. When you start a new routine, you could start something and stop. I’ll talk to people and they’ll be like, “Yeah, I used to do that, but I fell off.” And, “I used to do that, and I fell off.” And what I say is, “Well, okay, but keep getting back on.” Right? You used to work out, cool. You used to eat healthy, you used to meditate, you used to do these things, start doing them again. But what happens is people lose confidence in themselves because they tried something, and they failed. In their mind they failed, right? But they just fell off is what happened.

Louis Massaro:
And so, if you could just close the gap between the time that you fall off and the time that you get back on, and just keep going and keep going. If you believe in the outcome, right? You have to first believe in the outcome, then it just becomes a new habit. Then it’s part of your life. Then you start to feel the results and then when you fall off, you feel the negative consequences of falling off from whatever that positive habit or that positive routine is. Does that make sense?

Chris:
So, it’s not about not falling off. It’s about once you do, you need to be able to get back on the horse as soon as possible.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Okay, because that’s probably a lot of the battle right there. Because a lot of times, you start a new routine, let’s say you start a new diet or you start a new exercise program or whatever, and if you don’t stick with it, if it doesn’t stick, you end up beating yourself up saying, “Oh my God, I can’t even make this work. How am I going to have a successful business? I can’t even work out every day or whatever.” But it’s not about that. It’s about being able to, once you do fall off, because you’re going to fall off, right? Everybody falls off.

Louis Massaro:
You’re going to fall off, because what you’re doing is you’re going against your natural tendencies. Right? My natural tendency is to be lazy. I say that to people, and they laugh, but I’m like, “No, for real.” If I didn’t have the will and the discipline to do the things that I know are going to make me and my life better, it’s so easy to just be like, “Man, I just want to chill.” Right? I just want to hang out, go by the pool, whatever. But lay on the couch, watch TV, that’s our default, so anytime we go against what our natural tendencies are, and we try something new, you can’t just expect to stay on track. You’ve got to first have that vision of what you hope to gain from doing it.

Louis Massaro:
For me, anytime that I’m willing to try something, it’s because someone or some circumstance convinced me that the result I’m looking for is on the other end of that new habit or it’s on the other end of that new routine. So, you’re willing to suffer through it to get to the other side. Right? Who wants to eat-

Chris:
You have a reason why.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Who wants to eat vegetables when you could eat a cheeseburger, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
But you have to believe in the results on the other end and you have to kind of integrate that feeling of what it’s going to feel like. And so, yeah, the whole falling off and getting back on, anything you do … Everybody listen. Anything you do in your business because same thing with the business. People are like, “I used to look at my P&L’s and I used to look at my numbers, but then I kind of fell off. I started doing follow ups and then we kind of stopped doing that.” Okay, start again. Start again. Start again. Never be afraid to start again. Right?

Louis Massaro:
Just think about like, okay, the last time you went for a run was two years ago. Okay, well, start today. All right, or whatever it might be. And if you fall off after a few weeks, okay. And you realize like, “Man, it’s been a week and I haven’t got to it.” Good. Get back on it. Close the gap of time from when you fell off to when you get back on and all of a sudden you just, there’s a lot of physical and mental and emotional muscles that get built with all of that, that just make you stronger as a person.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s a lot of it too, is that boost you get from when you do go back to it. Even though it’s been two years, or it’s been two weeks, whatever, when you go back to it, there’s that little extra boost of self-confidence that says, “Yeah, I did it. I got back on the horse.” That’s valuable. Okay.

Louis Massaro:
All right, so let’s talk about the routines. Let’s see what’s helpful. I mean, for me, my morning is everything, right? The way that I set up my morning is just from my own experience makes the difference of my day, makes the difference of my week, makes a difference of my month, makes a difference in my year, basically it makes the difference in my life, how my day starts.

Chris:
Wow.

Louis Massaro:
So, to start the day, everybody’s heard of morning routine, and it’s important to have one, have some consistency. Just having consistency alone in the way that you start each and every day, right? Or at least each and every weekday, right? You want to take the weekends off? Fine. But the way you start those days to have consistency, it creates a place for your ever-racing mind to settle around. Right? And have that place of kind of certainty to start the morning. Right? I used to wake up and it was like the minute I woke up it was like the mind was just causing havoc. Right? Just you go into the kitchen to get a drink, and the minds just like, “Oh my God, Oh my God, what about this? What about that? Oh my God, what about this? What about that? What about this? What about that?” And so, the way you start off is so important.

Louis Massaro:
Basically, I get up at 5:00 AM and not because I necessarily enjoy being up so early, but because there’s a lot that I want to get done in the morning before I start my day. Right? And so, the waking up part has to do with the going to sleep part. People think that the waking up part, and this is something I know you recently started. I kind of got on you about this because your whole lifestyle used to be different. You used to be more nightlife and night scene and music. And so, now you’re getting up at 5:00 and it’s a whole different ballgame, right?

Chris:
It is completely different. It’s a completely different reality, but I can definitely vouch and say those hours in the morning, you’re more creative, you’re more productive, you’re more present and conscious, and it’s been a game changer. It really has been, and I never thought I would be that kind of person. I was always a nighttime person. I always worked at night. I always was a night owl. The last few weeks of changing it up, it’s been amazing. It’s really been life changing. It has.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Yeah. So, that’s awesome. But the part of that, that people don’t think about is it’s not okay, waking up. It’s when you go to sleep.

Chris:
That’s the key.

Louis Massaro:
Right? That’s the key. So, people are like, “I have a hard time.” “What time you going to bed?” “Oh, sometimes 9:00, sometimes 11:00, sometimes midnight.” I’m very strict during the week on when I go to bed. You know what I mean? Even if I am watching very little TV, I’ll talk to you about that, very little TV. But even if I am watching something, it’s like, “All right, it’s time. I’m going to bed.” The TV’s off. I’m going to bed. Right? Almost like a child has a bedtime, I’ve given myself that bedtime.

Louis Massaro:
Because if I don’t and I allow my lower self, I look at it all like there’s my lower self that’s like, “Hey, man. I just want to hang out. I just want to lay on the couch. Let’s just watch some stuff. Let’s watch another episode.” Right? If I let that person, that version of me, win the conversation, then guess what happens when I get up at five o’clock? I’m going to be miserable because I didn’t get any sleep. Right? Or I’m going to be tempted to hit the snooze.

Louis Massaro:
So, I go to bed by nine o’clock so that I get my seven or eight hours in there, and that’s been scientifically proven to raise your cognitive function and ability. I know a lot of people that are like, “Man, I’m good. Louis, I get five hours of sleep. I’m good.” Right? And yeah, okay, you’re good. You can function absolutely, and I know that’s what you’ve been doing all the years, but if you were to get seven hours, I bet you’d be like a whole new person and all. Because listen, as a business owner, your job is to think, strategize, implement.

Louis Massaro:
Listen, if you’re a mover and you’re on the trucks, it’s like, “Okay, if I’m tired can I still do the job?” Sure, right? But if your job is to really strategically guide the business, you need that cognitive function, and so very important. So, I would say you’ve got to try to get your seven to eight hours of sleep and that doesn’t mean what time do I … When I first learned that, I remember back in the day I was like, okay, whatever time I was going to bed, right? Whatever time I went to bed, I just looked at the clock. I was like, “All right, what’s eight hours from now?” So, if it was 11:00, I’d be like, “All right, seven o’clock.” And I got up at seven, so that was like I first learned to get to sleep. Now I’m like, “Wait, wait. No, no. I got to get to sleep, but I also got to be up at 5:00 because I got a lot of stuff I need to do before I start my day.”

Chris:
Yeah, so that bedtime is more important than what time you wake up really, to get that full eight hours. Another thing for me that I’ve noticed is the consistency, because this new routine I’m doing, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Saturday morning, Sunday morning, Wednesday morning, I’m getting up at 5:00 every day. And that consistency and that regular schedule makes all the difference too. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Absolutely because it’s just easier. It just doesn’t become anything you think about when you’re just used to it. Right?

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
So, wake up at 5:00 for years I’ve been. I’ve learned that I had flexibility issues years ago, right? So, I’m like, “Okay, stretching is [crosstalk 00:19:50] just I wasn’t very flexible. Right?

Chris:
Like physically?

Louis Massaro:
Like physically, right? There was certain workouts that I’d struggle with. I would go get a massage and they’d be like, “Ah, you need to really, you need to stretch.” So, I became committed to that, so I started doing that first thing in the morning. So, right now what I’m doing currently, in general, right? I think massages are a very important part of your health, your wellbeing, and your stress. Like deep tissue, myofascial release massages? The ones that hurt.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Right. So, on a regular basis when we’re out of quarantine, if you could be getting massages once a week, once every other week, it’s so worth the money to do it, right? Because it just opens your whole body up, and we start to learn and see how the physical body connects with the mental mind, right? And that’s not just like, “Oh, I get a massage. I’m getting pampered.” It’s like, “No, I’m taking care of myself like a pro athlete would take care of themselves.” And when you treat yourself with that level of respect for yourself and your body, it’s going to show in your business. So, now in the morning-

Louis Massaro:
It’s going to show in your business. So now in the mornings what I’m doing is I’m waking up and I’m doing the foam roller. You’ve seen those like little?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
So it’s basically got some kind of like little knobs on it and stuff and it’s not fun to do.

Chris:
It hurts.

Louis Massaro:
And then you kind of roll on it. Yeah. If you look up trigger release foam roller, you guys will see what I’m talking about. If you don’t know, but I roll out for probably 15 minutes, like my IT bands, my quads, the inside of my… The hamstring, my back. Right. And starts to break down all those knots. So I’m kind of like giving myself a massage with that. And later in the day, I don’t do it in the morning, but later in the day I’ll get a lacrosse ball or something and I’ll put it on my back where I’ve got those knots and I’ll kind of get them out, I’ll roll it on the wall.

Chris:
Oh, just dig in there, man, that hurts so bad. But it’s worth it.

Louis Massaro:
It hurts so bad. But you get that knot and you’re like, “Oh my God. That’s why I felt so tense this whole time.” You feel loose, right?

Chris:
You feel a release.

Louis Massaro:
You feel a released. And so these are the types of things that at first you’re like, this sucks. But then when you start to see the results, you’re like, “Man, I can’t imagine not feeling loose and mobile.” So anyways, I roll out, then I stretch for like 20 minutes. Just stretch out. So then my body’s open that just allows more blood flow and you need the blood flow to get oxygen to the brain.

Louis Massaro:
You need oxygen to the brain, to feel energy throughout the day. This is all stuff that’s going to make you a better anything you’re doing. I don’t care what it is. You’re a business owner, you’re a mover, you’re a housewife, you’re an employee somewhere. You are a person. The better you feel physically. And it’s not just about working out, it’s about these other things too. You’re just going to perform better day to day. You’re going to have more energy. You’re going to feel better. You’ll be a better person.

Chris:
Sure. Who doesn’t feel better after a good massage?

Louis Massaro:
Exactly.

Chris:
And life just seems better if you get done with that massage. I’m like, “Wow, things were okay.”

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. So definitely when you could get back out there, schedule some deep tissue massages. And then from there I meditate. I’ll sit and I’ll meditate for 20 to 25 minutes. I’ll start off really by just sitting there for a few minutes and just thinking about everything that I’m grateful for my in life and I’ll allow myself to feel that. Right? So instead of and this is something, again, that developed over time, people are like, “You need a gratitude and you need a gratitude journal and you need all this stuff.” And it’s like, okay, you try it. And what I’ve found that what works best is when you actually can feel it, right? So if you think about you’re grateful for where you live, right? You’re grateful for the safety of your home, you’re grateful for your wife, you’re grateful for the joy that your baby brings to you. And you think about that and you kind of allow yourself to just feel what it is, right?

Louis Massaro:
You’re grateful for the business you have, whether it’s where you want it to be or where you’re still growing in it or whatever. Chances are no matter where you’re at, like even if you just started be grateful that you just started, like, “Wow, I’m so glad that I found this business, this moving business that I could be in that’s going to be able to provide a future for myself and a future for my family and be able to take care of all my financial responsibilities and my financial freedom.” I’ll get into being grateful for mentors and people, my coaches and people that have guided me along the way. And I just allow myself to feel that gratitude because otherwise, especially that early in the morning, it’s so easy to just start thinking about all this stuff that sucks.

Louis Massaro:
It’s like again, by default your mind doesn’t want to think… I mean, maybe some people do. I don’t have that default where I wake up and I skip around the house. I’ve got to intentionally get myself into that place.

Chris:
That’s interesting. I never thought about it that way. I used to say that a lot, like I’m just not a morning person.

Louis Massaro:
Well, anybody that says I’m just not a whatever person It’s really the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset, which can be changed from fixed to growth. Because you can become any type of person you want to be.

Louis Massaro:
It wasn’t that you weren’t a morning person, it’s just that you didn’t set up everything around you to be a morning person and you had no interest in becoming a morning person because you didn’t see any value in it. It probably wasn’t until… I’m not taking credit, but it probably wasn’t until I came along was like, chris, talk to me about it, and talking to you about and talking to you about it and finally gave you, kind of challenged you a little bit and kind of pushed you to where you tried it. Probably like, “Hey, [inaudible 00:26:18] I have faith that he’s on this something.” And I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but that’s how it happens. Like you’ve got to hear it from somebody and go, “You know what, let me try that. Let me see if he’s on to something.”

Chris:
Well, like you were saying earlier, I saw the why, I saw the end goal and I realized, oh, that’s the benefit that’s on the other side of this is worth the pain of changing my constitution, Who I thought I was.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, exactly.

Chris:
But if I didn’t see that, if I didn’t see the benefit and that is so much easier to just got to, “Screw it, I’m not going to do it.”

Louis Massaro:
You could become any type of person you want to become. I mean, I believe that with all my heart. I believe it with anybody. I think it’s just a matter of being able to remove some of the things in your life that are causing you to stay stuck in that position. Build up some new things in your life that will help you to move forward. So if you ever find yourself saying, “I’m just not that type of person.” You should know that you can become that type of person if you want to, right?

Chris:
And it’s important to question those beliefs, right? Like you find yourself saying things that like, “I’ve always been this way, or I’m like this, or I’m like that.” You’re the only person who believes that. So why not look at it and challenge yourself. And this I feel like is the beginning for me of a whole new reality for me because it made me confident in the fact that, “Hey, I can do this. What else can I do?”

Louis Massaro:
And that’s the thing, right? You start building that. And so what happens is we’ll continue with the routines. But what happens is as you start to do this stuff, and as you start to see the results, you become a better person. You become more skilled, you have the energy, you experience the confidence, competence loop, right? In psychology it’s like if you can gain confidence in something, become better at it, then you will become more confident at doing it. And if you become more confident in doing it, you’ll want to do it more so you’ll get more competence, which will give you more confidence. And it’s just like that cycle that just keeps going. But if you stop and go, “I’m not good at that, so I’m not going to do it.” Then you’re never going to be able to pass that uncomfortable zone.

Louis Massaro:
You just have to know that as you get better at it, you’ll get more confident at it, all right? But a lot of people become so good at one thing, right? And or they’re good to a certain level in certain areas of their life that they’re afraid to be a beginner again at something. That’s what holds a lot of people back is that they become successful in business or in certain areas of their life. And they have this certain image of themselves and they say, “I’m not that type of person.” You could become that type of person if you want to be. The thing is what people fear is they fear being a beginner again, sucking at it, not being good at it. And so with all this stuff, if you don’t do it, you’re going to have to learn how to do it. I mean, you recently started working out, you really never worked out. It was something you had to learn to do, right?

Chris:
Yeah. I mean in this structured way I always was athletic and I played sports and stuff, but I never took it seriously as like, “I’m going to go to the gym and I’m going to get a routine down and I’m going to do sets and reps of this or that.” And yeah, that’s been one of the benefits. And one of the results of just sort of taking control of my myself. That morning routine is part of it, getting up in the morning and I know you do this too, like meditating and just taking that extra time to take care of yourself and getting yourself in the right state of mind, in the right physical place to be ready for your day.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. So, all right, so back to routine. So I’m waking up, I’m rolling out, I’m stretching, doing some gratitude before I get into meditation and then I meditate for 20, 25 minutes. I started, I’ve learned many different techniques over time because I just see the value in being able to slow the mind, calm the mind. Because I think a lot of people deal with this, but my mind naturally will kind of be thinking about a lot that I have going on. And as you have more going on in your life and you have more responsibilities like a business, you’re kind of consistently thinking about different scenarios and what’s going on. So to be able to hit that reset button and quiet the mind it’s kind of like if you think about your mind like it’s the ocean, right?

Louis Massaro:
As it’s wavy, there’s waves, you see the white caps, all that and then meditation then turns it into more of like a lake that nobody’s touched or been in and it’s just super flat and super clear. Right. Does that makes sense? It takes all of that noise and just quiets it, and there’s so much that comes from that. I mean it just your ability to just have more clarity and to just be able to react in your day better with everything. Whether it’s a reaction to a customer that’s giving you a hard time or a reaction to an employee that’s not doing what they’re supposed to do or decisions on what to eat. Right? You’re not coming from a place of so much turbulence going on.

Louis Massaro:
And so I would say, to learn. If you haven’t learned how to meditate first Google it, right? Start by Googling it. Right? But there’s all kinds of in with guided meditation on an app then I learned meditation from an expert meditation person and I’ve tried some other stuff. I recently even started a new how to meditate course. Just because I like to learn different ways of doing it. And I’ve started to introduce dirt break, like straight up during this whole COVID thing. It increased my stress too. It’s not like I don’t get stressed at all. So I added another meditation later in the day, right? So I wanted to kind of change it up so I learn like a new way of doing it. So meditation is huge. It doesn’t have any type of anything you want to add to it. You want to add some prayer, you want to add some chance, you want to add like, that’s all on you. It has no religious or any specific type of relation like that. It’s really just to help you quiet the mind.

Chris:
Okay. Now, I know recently we did our virtual seminar and during the virtual seminar you had walked three people through what you called a visualization. So what’s the difference? Is that like a meditation or is that something different and maybe talk a little bit about that. What was the visualization?

Louis Massaro:
Sure. So my set that I do is kind of like, I start with a gratitude, right? All in the sitting down in the same spot. Start with the gratitude, going to the meditation, the meditation is to quiet the mind, to not think, right. To allow thoughts. They’re going to come no matter what. Everybody thinks like if they have thoughts, they’re not doing it right. The thoughts come, you just don’t want to attach to them and you want to let them just kind of drift away.

Louis Massaro:
And just kind of focus on your breath or some people will use a mantra and just focus on that centering point and just try to let your thought attach yourself to any of the thoughts. They’re going to come, but let them be. And one of the things that really helped me over the years was, if it’s important, I’ll think of it later again. You feel like, “Oh, I got to write that down. I got to write that down. I got to write that down. Oh, I got to do this. I got to do that.” Because all this stuff’s popping in your head. So I let that go.

Louis Massaro:
So anyways, the meditation is just to quiet the mind. Then I go into visualization and we do this always at the seminars, right? Like when we do it, we did it-

Chris:
It’s always a big hit. Yeah. People really like it.

Louis Massaro:
And so what it is, is it’s like it’s visualizing your future as if it’s a reality. So it’s meditative. It’s not meditation. It’s meditative, but it’s more of an act of now you’re wanting to think, right? So now you’re thinking about your future results. So you can be thinking 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you can be thinking for the day ahead. And so I’ll actually think about future results of goals that I have and where I want to go. And having already achieved them, right? Like I run through a scenario in my mind like kind of take myself through visualizing like waking up in this new place that I want to be living in and going on this new trip in the way.

Louis Massaro:
And just everything that I want in my life that it’s already done. And I go there. I imagine that I’m there. I allow myself to feel it again like it’s not just in the mind, it’s in the body. Like, “Wow, this feels great.” Like imagine-

Chris:
Like it already happened, it’s in the past?

Louis Massaro:
I know for certain that it’s coming and that I’m just visiting there at the moment. You know what I mean? In other words, it’s like you’ve got to be able to visualize what you want. Again, this is a lot of athletes do this. You talk about, you look at LeBron sitting on the sidelines or you look at a top golfer and they’ve kind of visualized that shot. They’ve visualized that happening. They’ve played it over and over and over in their head so that when the time comes, they’re prepared for it. So for me, and I’ve done this and it’s worked for me to where… And I didn’t realize that I was doing this early on. When I first started I was visualizing all my trucks and my locations in the houses and the cars.

Louis Massaro:
I wasn’t doing it. I wasn’t sitting down and making it formal. I was just kind of like what was playing in my head as I was doing whatever it is I was doing. Right? And so you kind of, first, what’s important is you first have to know what you want, right? Knowing what you want in your life is huge. And it will reduce your stress tremendously. But I have no attachment to it. So I’m thinking about this future scenario, right? I’m imagining the people that I love are with me. I’m imagining that I’m doing all that I want to do. I’m imagining that it’s not, there’s zero stress, zero burden, zero like, “Oh my God, what’s that going to cost me?” It’s just everything’s flowing perfectly, right?

Louis Massaro:
I mean, you’ve heard me kind of guide people through it at the seminars. And so what that does is it starts to feel real, right? And so people will talk about the law of attraction, and that is essentially what it is, right? You can’t just sit and visualize. You’ve got to do the work, right? So if you could visualize what you want, when you come out of that you’re like, “All right.” You feel like you just experienced it. And so now you’re like, “I want that. What do I do to get that?” And now your actions, your day to day becomes more purposeful because you’ve got this vision of where you want to with your life. And when I say vision, it doesn’t have to be all materialistic stuff. I mean it could totally be you’re sitting on a rocking chair with your spouse looking at it whatever grass field and just feeling zero kind of stress or burden actually because you know everything’s all good.

Louis Massaro:
Your family’s all good. You’ve donated a bunch of money to your church or you built some schools. So it’s not all about like, “I want this car, I want this thing.” And so when you experience it in a way where it feels real, now you want to go do the work. And so, does that make sense so far?

Chris:
Yeah. It’s almost like I heard somebody say this once too, that the law of attraction would be better suited if it was called the law of creation because it’s about, like you said, doing the work, because it’s one thing to visualize it and see it, but it’s another thing to actually make it happen.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean there’s like, I’m not just doing that, I’ve got maybe another episode we’ll talk about like planning out your life and planning out your decade and planning out your year and planning out your quarters to lead you to that place. But yeah, it is, and it’s true. You could create and you could be calm and you could craft your life the way you want to craft your life, period. And so and as you start to see it develop, I have the confidence to teach it now. I’m like, “Oh some people might think I’m crazy.” I do it right at the seminar. Hundreds of people are sitting there, I’m like, “Close your eyes. Let’s go through this visualization.”

Louis Massaro:
And I have the confidence because I’ve done it so long and I’ve seen it come to fruition so many times. And so you start to believe in it. And so what I’ll do is I’ll kind of go to this future and then I’ll bring it back to the day and I’ll visualize my day. I’ll start to think about kind of like what I’ve got coming up for the day and just imagine everything going well. Just go in the way that I wanted to go. And yeah, I mean that’s the visualization part.

Chris:
Now, aside from the obvious benefits of you using those tools, the meditation, the visualization of being able to… It sort of forces you to ask yourself, what do I want? Right? So you decide what you want. You use those tools to sort of bring yourself there. But what other kind of benefit does that have? I mean, to me it feels like I’ve meditated for a long time too, but I feel like the biggest benefit for it is just learning how to calm yourself down and just stop all the madness. And in this time that we’re in right now with this pandemic and everything, the stress levels are high and it’s even if you’re not sitting there visualizing your future and trying to create this great reality for yourself, if you’re taking time to be quiet and just sit there and allow yourself to be calm and let the stress kind of roll away. That’s a huge benefit in and of itself.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, absolutely. But I do think that now it actually is important to think about the future…

Louis Massaro:
I think that [inaudible 00:42:01] now it actually is important to think about the future. And I think it’s really important to get connected to that, right? Because the immediate, right now today, there’s so much uncertainty that you’ve got to be able to look past that. And you’ve got to be able to, because you need to be working hard right now. Now’s the time. The people that are going at it right now and staying focused and staying on top of their business, they’re going to come out stronger and better than they possibly would have ever been had they not gone through this. And the people that aren’t paying attention, the people that are like deer in a headlight and they’re just kind of, I don’t know what to do. I’m going to sit at home and I’m going to have a virtual happy hour with people and just kind of mess around. They’re going to be in a bad shape after all this.

Louis Massaro:
Because we’re heading into a place where it’s most, we’re heading into a recession, right? Which is okay as a moving company. People still need to move. That’s what you got to remember. But you’ve got to rise to the occasion. And the important part, let me just, I want to make sure I get to the proper context on the visualization. I’ve been able to look at, and I think this is the key to setting goals, because a lot of times people will set big goals or they’ll visualize stuff and then they’re just so stressed out because they want that. Give me that, right? They’re not there yet, so they’re stressed until they get there. You’ve got to be able to accept and appreciate where you are now.

Louis Massaro:
Right?

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
When I’m coming back from the visualization, I’ll just look around a room and just start to feel gratitude again for where I am, knowing that it’s just part of the journey, knowing that, Hey, I’m going to get to that place. I might not know exactly how. I might not know exactly when. But I’m going to get to that place. But I’m also going to live fully today and be present today. And I look at everything now like, I’m good. I could be, and I don’t mean that like I’m good financially for life. I mean most people, they’re afraid to let… it’s like there’s that balance between being satisfied and having ambition. Right? And you want to be able to strive but strive while you’re satisfied.

Louis Massaro:
So to me, I look at it and I’m like, I’m good today. If somebody was to say, Hey look, you’re good, you’re done, you can’t do any more. This is what it is. I could be like, okay, I could settle into this. And I could do that even if I had less money, if I lived in a different place. It’s not about that. It’s about, you’ve got to be able to appreciate, except, and enjoy where you are today and then know, hey, this is just part of my journey that I’m going to get there. I say it all the time, I’m good. Everything else from here is a bonus in life. And you want to be able to get to that place where you could have complete satisfaction for where you are. Right?

Louis Massaro:
And it’s hard when you’re someone who’s like, my whole thing forever was there’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a better way. And always looking for a better way to grow the business, but then balancing that with like, hey, but I could also be happy today knowing that I’m also working on ways to make the business better, knowing that I’m also shooting for this high goal and I’m going to get there at some point. But being able to be satisfied today. Like, look, I’m good. Everything else from here on out is a bonus.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Does that make sense?

Chris:
How can you expect yourself to be happy in the future if you’re not happy now or at least content, right?

Louis Massaro:
It’s the same with everything, right? How could you expect like, I’m going to work on this and my business in the future. When I get bigger I’m going to do this or I’m going to do… You’ve got to do all the stuff now. Get everything in order now. Right?

Chris:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Louis Massaro:
And then carry that with you.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay.

Louis Massaro:
So yeah, that’s essentially the visualization part.

Chris:
That’s pretty good stuff. So this is still part of your routine. You’ve done your meditation, you’ve worked out, you’ve stretched. What else goes on in the mornings before you even start your work day?

Louis Massaro:
Oh man. So from there what I’ll do then is I’ll drink some powdered greens. They’re just powder organic, basically a green juice, but in a powder. I just mix it with some water. Helps the alkalinity in your body. I won’t get into all this scientific stuff about that if you want to look it up. But just it helps a lot with your body, your energy levels, everything else. And then now I’m feeding my daughter, right? So make her a bottle and I’ll go wake her up, which is one of my favorite things to do now in the morning. Spend a little time with her. Get her up, get her going. And then from there I’ll make myself a cup of coffee.

Louis Massaro:
Now one of my favorite 10 minutes that I have is just kind of sitting with my wife and the dog and our daughter in the living room drinking coffee. Just because she’s at her happiest at that point. She’s lit up. She’s excited. She’s playing every day, she’s new. You guys have kids you know. She’s going to be nine months. And so that’s one of my favorite 10 minutes. So I take that 10 minutes and kind of slow it down and I just sit there. And then from there I’m either going to read or I’m going to journal.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And it used to be both, right? It used to be both, but based on your circumstances. So now I’m spending time with my daughter in the morning, so I’ve kind of made it a one or the other thing.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And so, I’ll go sit in my office here. We’ve got some chairs. I’ll either come sit in here and journal or read or I’ll sit out back. It’s very peaceful out there and just do that. And so I’ll read anything that’s going to help make me better as a person, as a business person. So it’s all nonfiction either business, self-help, spiritual, anything that’s going to help mind, body, spirit, anything that’s going to help that and learn that.

Louis Massaro:
And I’ll literally set the timer on my phone for 30 minutes and just start reading. And when it goes off, I’m done. And this way, I know I got that in for the day. And journaling is something that I learned that years ago and people when you say it are like, oh, what do you got a diary or something?

Chris:
Yeah, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
But it’s Chris, it’s one of the most powerful things that I’ve ever learned to do because it becomes a way to record what’s good, what’s bad and self-diagnose things that you’re trying to improve upon, right? My whole thing has always been from early on, there’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a better way. So every time I come across something in business or personal or just an inner personal struggle that I might be dealing with, I want to overcome that. I want to learn about it.

Louis Massaro:
And we’ve got so much information inside of us in our own mind and a lot of our own answers, if we allow ourselves a platform to be able to get that stuff out. And so for me, that’s my thinking time is my journaling time. I’m not describing my day and what I had to eat and all that. If that’s what somebody does, fine. But what I’m doing is I’m diving into either challenges that I’m trying to overcome or things that are working really well. I want to kind of plant those deeper, right?

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
So it becomes a self-coaching session. It becomes where I’m just going through and I’m figuring stuff out. And that too, I’ll set the timer and I’ll go for 30 minutes and just write and write and write. And the key is to not filter anything that you are thinking. You know what I mean? Just kind of let your intuition flow, because there’s no wrong answer. Nobody’s reading this. It’s not going to be in some memoir one day. They’re not going to publish it. And if they do, it’s because you are a genius and the stuff you wrote in there was a genius. So don’t worry about it. Right?

Chris:
Yeah, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Otherwise, make sure you either have an app that you use that is safe and nobody else could get into it. If that’s what your concern is. Or you’re writing it and putting it somewhere where nobody could get to it. But you want to just let the ideas and the thoughts flow without concern of like, “hmm, should I write that down?” My hand can’t keep up with my mind. And this is everybody if they really do it. If you just let all those thoughts that are going and going and going, if you just try to keep up and just write all that stuff, but what about this? What about that? Right? Okay, so how do I solve that? Okay, there’s this option, and this option, and this option. Okay, but what about if I… And it’s just-

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
… you’re getting it all out of your head on paper and the worst result you’re going to have is at the end of it, you’re like, okay, at least I vented. But for me, more times than not, I’ve got a solution or I’ve got a next step that I need to take in figuring out whatever it is.

Chris:
Wow.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
That’s very powerful. So how do you recommend somebody go about it? They should just download one of these apps and just started writing? And I mean, because for me, I sit down and I think, okay, if I’m going to write, what would I even write about? How do you get started? To me, I go, “I feel stupid.” I don’t want-

Louis Massaro:
Oh, yeah.

Chris:
You know what I mean?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. So you know what, if that’s the case, that’s the case.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Sometimes you’ve got something where I’m already thinking about it as I’m having my coffee, I’m already like, all right, I got to figure this out.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And you can’t figure things out. The same way people are like, Hey, I could, I could get away with five hours of sleep. Yeah, but you’d be better with seven or eight hours of sleep. The same way people say, I could figure it all out while I’m driving or while I’m in the shower. Yeah, but can you really sort out complex ideas all in your mind? If you can, you’re blessed, you’re a genius and that’s amazing. But for me, I’ve got to be able to put it on paper. Paper or literally I could write it in the notes in my phone or in an app on my phone. It doesn’t matter, whatever platform works best. You’ve got a… Maybe there’s something powerful about pen to paper, but if it’s typing, if it’s on your phone, it doesn’t matter. But it could literally be, you could start off like, I feel stupid. This is dumb. Why am I doing this?

Louis Massaro:
I can’t [inaudible 00:53:24]. I feel ridiculous, but maybe this could be something that helps me. So why not give it a shot? Every little thought that’s coming to your mind, you put it on paper. And what happens is, and I’ve been doing this a long time, still to this day, sometimes that’s how it starts for me.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
What’s up buddy? How you feeling today? I’m talking to myself. Right?

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
That’s not how I start all of them, but you could start some of them with a problem that you’re trying to solve. What do I do about this? You could start some of it with like, man, I feel so grateful for this, this, this, this, this, and this. And it’s almost like you’re just warming yourself up, right?

Louis Massaro:
And a lot of times the first few paragraphs will be total nonsense and then all of a sudden it starts flowing.

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
I’ll come to you with ideas all the time and I’ll say, Chris, I was writing about this, this morning.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, it’s powerful.

Chris:
Okay. So at this point in your morning, how many hours are we into the day?

Louis Massaro:
We’re at about 7:30 AM at this point.

Chris:
Okay. You’re up at 5:00 AM. You’re at 7:30 AM at this point.

Louis Massaro:
At this point.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And so now I work out.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
Physically workout for an hour. And right now we’re talking about how to do this during co… I mean I have an elliptical machine in the house. And then I have just basic stuff that I’m using, some bands, some dumbbells, and just making use of what I have. Before I would go to a gym and workout at a gym, but now I’m just making use of whatever I could do, right? And since we don’t have a bench I’m doing push ups, just a mix of cardio and some weights. The key is you’ve got to break a sweat. It’s so important to break a sweat. And if that means that you’re doing some circuit training and it’s all weights, but you’re just going high intensity and you’re able to break that sweat. Okay. For me, I need to get a little cardio going first. If you’re weight lifting, a lot of people say you got to do your cardio after. And I’m not a fitness expert by any means, but I’m not so concerned about building mass.

Louis Massaro:
I like to get the blood flowing and the sweat going first and then keep it going during the workout. So it’s like the whole time. Because what that does, number one, it’s great for your physical body. But it’s amazing for your mind. It releases chemicals in your mind. Neurotransmitters start to fire off. You’ve got BDNF, you’ve got dopamine, you’ve got your cortisol, which is your stress hormone starts to go down. That stuff doesn’t happen if you’re just going and doing a few sets and not really breaking a sweat, not really get into the heart rate up. Right?

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
So you want to get a good sweat going.

Chris:
Okay. So how long do you work out? An hour?

Louis Massaro:
At the most.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
At the most.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
You know what I mean? 40 minutes to an hour. I’ve definitely cut it short and more like maintain. But yeah, that’s it. So now we’re 8:30 AM. 8:30 AM, my breakfast every day is a shake. It’s a protein shake every day.

Chris:
Every day?

Louis Massaro:
Every day. Maybe every once in a while on the weekends we’ll go to breakfast or make breakfast at home or something. But it’s just the routine of the consistency, right? It makes it easy. Instead of thinking about, okay, what do I eat today? Or what do I do? It’s just it’s the same thing. It’s not even a question. And I know it’s giving me everything I need to fuel my body. So I’m using it in a, I’m not vegan, but I use a vegan protein. Some avocados, some blueberries, a bunch of spinach, some coconut milk, some flax seed, just, stuff that’s really giving me the nutrients for my body and for my mind that I need that’s also not going to weigh me down. It’s not going to give me any digestive issues.

Louis Massaro:
And so I’ll take the shake and then I’ll sit down and I’ll plan my day for 20 minutes. I set the timer again and I’ll just start thinking through my day. What projects I’ve got going on. What people I need to talk to or I’m waiting to hear from. What my priorities are. And I also plan my week, once a week. So it’s not like I’m just… I’m kind of going into it with a little bit of, I already know what I’m doing for the day, but I’m thinking through it. What could I do to make this day excellent? What could I do to make this day better? Oh wow, I’ve got to do that?

Louis Massaro:
You know what? I’m going to do that sitting out here by the pool. Because if it’s nice out, I’ll go out back and I’ll plan my day with the shake and kind of look and see the mountains and just have just the peacefulness out there.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And if there’s something I can do in my day to make it part of that or sometimes you don’t even realize, but I’ll be like, all right, well I got to meet with Chris today or I got to meet with whoever, you know what, I’m going to do that over lunch. We’ll go to this place. And I’m kind of thinking through how we could just execute the day in a way that is enjoyable and is impactful.

Chris:
Now are you physically or actually writing out, blocking time on your calendar or are you just kind of saying loosely, yeah, I’ll do that at lunch? Are you literally going into your calendar and saying, meeting with Chris 12:00?

Louis Massaro:
My block time that I do Sunday nights where I kind of put blocks of time on the calendar for what I’m going to do for that upcoming week is already set. It’s kind of like I set the trajectory at the beginning of the week, but each day brings new stuff. Each day new things happen and you might have to slightly recalibrate a little bit.

Chris:
Yeah. Okay.

Louis Massaro:
And a lot of times I’m just, again, I’m writing through stuff and thinking through things that I have going on so that when it’s time to do it I’ve kind of thought through the best way to do it. So I might write the same stuff over and over. Or I might’ve already really planned it out, but I just kind of want to think through it again.

Chris:
Okay. So this is every morning.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Is there-

Louis Massaro:
I’ll take a weekend day off.

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
But yeah.

Chris:
And are we through the morning? Are you off to work now at this point? Or are you, where are we?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, now I’m getting ready and-

Chris:
Okay.

Louis Massaro:
… going to work. Yeah. I’m getting ready and going to work. And by the way, another thing is that my phone has been on do not disturb until this point. So now we’re approaching 9:00 AM. And by the way, this wasn’t always this way. So I started off with 20 minutes in the morning and I went to 30. It just as I started to see the value in my effectiveness and what… Because I had it ingrained in my head that I got to be at work. I got to stay at work. I got to stay work. I got to be there seven days a week. That was my early programming and I had to reprogram myself to see it differently. And when I started to realize that the more I took care of me and the more I structured things, even if I took all that time in the morning to do it, my impact is bigger. Right?

Chris:
I see.

Louis Massaro:
So if you’re like, wow, that’s a lot of time. I don’t have that kind of time. Start with an hour in the morning, your first hour. But the key is during that time, you’re not checking in on anything. You’re checking in with yourself. So if you notice the pattern, right, it’s I kind of start off with the gratitude and the meditation, the visualization. Right? Then I’m either absorbing good information that I had advanced. A book that I’ve already chose in advance that I want that knowledge, or I’m putting my thoughts on the paper and getting that out. And then I’ll take [inaudible 01:01:50], my body. And by the way, when I’m working out, I’m listening to an audio book at that point too. And so it’s kind of almost double reading.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And so, but the key is you keep your phone in do not disturb. And it depends on what your situation is and what you have going on at your business. But you can’t start your day off reacting. And a lot of people start it off, they pull this up, but it’s like…

Chris:
Right. Right. And how does that set the proper mood for your day?

Louis Massaro:
Hey, you know what, some days it’s good, some days it’s bad, right? But who knows? But it’s not under your control. Right? And so once you start to realize that you know what, if once a week you’re getting a text first thing in the morning or you’re seeing an email first thing in the morning, that’s just pissing you off and setting you off in a bad direction for the day.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Why let that ruin your day? Take care of you. Decide before I check in on the world, before I check in on emails, social media, texts, missed phone calls, any of that, I’m checking in on me. I’m checking in on what I want to do, what my plan is for the-

Louis:
Checking in on me. I’m checking in on what I want to do, what my plan is for the day. Right? Then when I do start working, before I even look at any emails, I’m already decided who I need to reach out to and I’m doing that outbound first, right? Before I start to go, “Okay, who wants something from me,” I’m like, “What do I need to do first?” Then the work day starts. Then I literally only spot check the email at that point, just to make sure there’s nothing that I could forward on or that needs immediate attention. Then I really don’t process or check email until after lunch. Which is a game changer. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris:
I’ve heard you say that before. What did you say? The inbox is a nice place for other people’s priorities. Something like that?

Louis:
Yeah. Yeah. It becomes the business owner’s and the business person’s … like a lot of people have got social media addiction or they have a problem putting it down and for … if you’re like, “Oh no, but this is business. It’s email, it’s email, it’s email.” But it’s like, “Yeah, but are you moving towards really building your business? Are you moving towards …” You want to have blocks of time on your calendar that as much time as you can in the week, you want to be working on your objectives that are leading you towards the life you want. Right? We’ll do another episode on that, but figuring out what you want in your life and then reverse engineering that into a weekly plan, you want to make sure you have as much time on objectives as possible. If you’re just constantly reacting, reacting, reacting, right? Ding, ding, ding, and you’re like, email, text, this, that, this, that, there’s no way you could have the proper focus to be able to work on what really matters.

Chris:
Yeah, yeah, I see that. That’s your morning routine now. Is there anything else you do the rest of the day that helps mitigate any stress, or keep you sane in this crazy time we’re living in?

Louis:
Yeah, I think a lot of it’s perspective, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
How you choose to handle information as it comes your way, and how you choose to look at it. I think one of the things that’s just really simple and it’s helped me a lot over the years is, is there anything I could do about it? If there is, what is it? let me start doing it. If there’s not, then I just accept it as what it is. You know what I mean? I’m not getting outraged over stuff I have no control over.

Chris:
I see, yeah.

Louis:
Or fearing things and worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. It’s like, okay, it’s smart to anticipate what might happen, right? But there’s always the what-ifs, the what-ifs, the what-ifs. It’s like, “What if I get an accident in my car?” Okay, what could I do about that? Ensure you have proper insurance, right? Go check your insurance, make sure you have proper … If you’re good there, then you’re good, but you can’t allow yourself to get caught up in the fear and the what-ifs. Ask yourself two questions. Is there something I could do about it? If there is, what is it? Then if there’s nothing you can do about it, just accept it. Just accept it. I don’t get outraged at stuff that goes on in the world, whether I agree or disagree, because it’s not productive to me and it’s not productive to my life, and it’s not productive to my business and it’s not productive to my family.

Chris:
Yeah, you’re either dealing with it or are you accept it? Really, I think that’s the point, is if you’re standing still, you’re not taking action or you’re not accepting it, that’s what’s stressful, is you’re not doing anything.

Louis:
Yeah, exactly.

Chris:
Right?

Louis:
Exactly. Exactly. So a lot of people take the information from the news and wherever else and they just … it builds on them. Right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
I had a family member that’s over the weekend was telling [inaudible 01:07:06] conspiracy theories going on. I’m like, “Okay, so?” “That doesn’t piss you off?” I’m like, “Listen. If it’s true, then what could I do about it? I can’t think of anything at the moment. Do you know something I could do about it?” “Well, no, but like what if the …” “Okay, then that’s the way it’s going to be.” Right? Then that’s what it is. If there’s nothing I could do about it, why resist it? You know? It’s so much easier to just kind of flow with things that you can’t change. Right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
But if you could change it, great. Do something about it.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
Do something about it. So, yeah. If I get stressed throughout the day, I’ll stop, I’ll take some breaths. Just like that one breath, I just felt kind of-

Chris:
There’s a lot of relief in that.

Louis:
Yeah, there’s a lot of relief in that.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
You take a few minutes and just breathe. We’re talking about meditation. Even if you’re like, “Oh, I don’t know how to meditate. I feel funny.” Just breathe. You don’t have to close your eyes. Just …

Chris:
Yeah, be still for a minute.

Louis:
Be still. If I get stressed out, I’ll go for a walk. Right? Go for a quick walk. If I get stuck. I kind of set my time in one hour blocks, I’ll take one hour, I’ll work for a little bit. I’ll work for one hour, because I know I could go for three or four hours, but I’ll step away. I’ll do a little routine where I kind of pat my back and do some deep breaths just to get the blood flowing. People that have been at a seminar-

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
… know what I’m talking about. I’m not going to [crosstalk 01:08:45]-

Chris:
The seminar people know what’s up with that.

Louis:
Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
I’m not going to try to demonstrate it now, but just maintain that, maintain that focus. Right? If I’m working on something important, I’ll put my phone on ‘do not disturb’. Eat a good lunch, right? Eat a healthy launch that’s not going to weigh me down. Take breaks, make sure those breaks are powerful. Even if you’re working on one thing and then you move to something else. You’re working on your numbers, right? You’re deep into spreadsheets, you’re doing this, you’re doing that. Then it’s like the next thing you need to do is work on the design of your website. Give yourself five minutes to just step away and re-focus on what you’re working on new. Otherwise, you’re just frantic all day working through stuff.

Chris:
Yeah. Sometimes it’s tough to change directions, after you’ve been working on something for an extended period of time and then all of a sudden there’s a new thing that you’ve got to do. It takes a minute to shift your mindset, to be able to think of it in a different way. Right?

Louis:
Yeah, I call it switching gears, right?

Chris:
Switching gears. Right.

Louis:
Yeah, it’s like I’ve started to realize over the years, I think everybody does it, but they don’t realize the impact. I think meditation helps with this a lot. Once you become more self-aware, you start to see how things impact you. So if I’m going in one direction and then somebody wants to come knock on my door or my office, or call me and bring me in another direction, I could do it but it’s like shifting gears, right? You want to put the clutch down, you want to shift properly. Sometimes it’s just too abrupt. There’s like no clutch. It’s like krg-krg-krg-krg!

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
That transition from one thing to another. Give yourself a couple of minutes to just allow yourself to mentally shift, right? Because it’s a whole different energy, mindset, skillset that you bring to the table if you need to sit and confirm all your moves for tomorrow, and then work on the design of your new postcard. It’s different and you’ve got to allow your mind to shift gears. That’s what happens, is people get … all the cylinders get like krg-krg-krg and they get caught, and then you’re like, “Argh, I’m just done for the day.”

Chris:
You locked up the engine. Yeah.

Louis:
Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
Kind of sticking to the routines here … Am I going too deep into this, or is this good?

Chris:
I think it’s great. I think a lot of people will like it. You take it to a whole another level. I feel like if people out there can do one-tenth of this, you’re going to breathe easier and sleep better at night, you know?

Louis:
Yeah. if you just make it a goal to say, “You know what, the first hour of my day, right, I’m going to get some exercise in, I’m going to get some positive input into my mind.”

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
Right?

Chris:
That’s a big part of it.

Louis:
If you’re not a reader, get an audio book or listen to a podcast, or something that’s positive into your mind, and meditate during that time. If you could just start with that, that’s huge. Take bits and pieces of this, and realize you got to try it on. You got to see what works for you and adjust it. But just adopting the mindset of, “Man, I could … there’s things I could do to make life flow better?” If you’re a hardcore like, “I’m out to make money in business and that’s what it’s all about for me,” just know you’ll make more money that way and you’ll be less stressed. If you’re just like, “Hey, I just want to live a good quality of life,” you’ll be able to get super-clear on what that is for you, and decide the path on how to get there.

Chris:
That’s powerful.

Louis:
Yeah. that’s it. The end of the day now, end of my work day, I’m just doing a quick like 10-minute meditation just to kind of transition. We talked about the shifting of the gears.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
If I’m in work mode all day, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
For me, work mode could be this or I could be on the phone all day with private clients. All the stuff you guys are dealing with, from your trucks to your movers, to your expansion of new locations, to rebranding, to lawsuits, payroll issues, what to do now, I’m dealing with all that same stuff.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
It’s not like, “Oh, I used to be in the moving business and now I do a podcast.” No, I’m actively every day working with moving companies. Almost partnering with them, if you will, and helping them navigate through issues. I only get the call with the issues, right? So you’ve got to be able to … Imagine at the end of a day where I might talk to a handful of clients, working through their issues with them, or opportunities. It’s not always the issues. I need to kind of … I want to release that, right? Before I go into family mode. Right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
Before I go into husband and father mode. Now, during this pandemic, we’ve been trying to get out for a walk at the end of the day. My wife, my daughter, the dog, and just take a stroll around the neighborhood, and just allow that to kind of decompress and settle into the family time. Yeah. That’s kind of very, very … I’m not a big social media consumer. We use it for the business, to communicate. Obviously, I respond to people that are communicating with me, but I’m not really consuming, or news either.

Louis:
We talked about, in the last episode I talked about I was checking the news twice today. I’ve reduced that back now to like once every other day. I know that that, for some people that are like, “Whoa, there’s so much going on, there’s so much can change,” I’ve got people that are letting me know if there’s anything super-important, but I’ve gone back to once every other day. That’s only because where we’re at with COVID and everything that’s going on. Before that, very seldom am I watching like the news and absorbing that information.

Chris:
I think this has been very helpful. Is there anything else you can think of?

Louis:
As far as the food stuff, I’m eating healthy, right? I really just try to cut out the carbs, cut out the sugar, cut out the dairy, and try to eat some real whole foods, organic, most of the time. Then I give myself that cheat day on the weekend to just go get whatever I want. That’s what allows me the discipline. Right? I know some people get to just be like, “Nope, I’m fully on all the time. No issues for me.” It makes it harder to stay on there because I love pasta, pizza, burgers, all of that type of stuff. If I know I’ve got a day where I could go have one of those meals, it just makes trying to stay on track so much easier.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
That helps a lot. I would just say that you got to get in the habit of just treat yourself like you’re worth being treated, like you’re that prize racehorse. You know what I mean? Because your business will be as successful as you are. If you say, “Well, Louis, I’m out of shape, I never [inaudible 01:17:49] took care of myself and my business is doing great,” it can do a lot better. It can do a lot better.

Chris:
[crosstalk 00:01:17:54].

Louis:
Just know that through this whole thing, you’re in a business right now that is as close to recession-proof as you can get. There’s a lot of people in the restaurant business right now having a really hard time, and other businesses, right? The recession is not by any means a death sentence for a moving company. People still need to move. Now’s the time for you to really step up in all areas, personal, business. All this stuff that you’ve been needing to do in your business, start doing it now.

Louis:
Because the people that aren’t taking action, the people that are allowing themselves to fall into a slump, the people that are turning to alcohol or other bad habits during this time and aren’t focusing in on their business and what’s important, they’re going to have a really hard time as things get a little shaky. So the people that are focused, the people that are on it, the people that are implementing the things that matter, they are going to get through this, they’re going to be stronger, have a better business and might see some of their competition drop off completely. So take this as an opportunity to build that [inaudible 01:19:05] as a leader, as a business owner, as a moving CEO, and go out there and just make it happen.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis:
That’s it. That’s all I got. Chris, you got anything?

Chris:
I got nothing else. Thanks a lot for sharing all of that. I think if people have any questions, feel free to write us in and ask ask away.

Louis:
Yeah, definitely. So guys, thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, do me a favor. If you’re watching this, leave me a comment down below. Let me know what you thought. If you’re listening on iTunes, leave me a comment. Leave me a review. thumbs up, thumbs down, whatever you think. If you’ve got any questions at all that you want me to address on this podcast, just go to Instagram and DM me. It’s at louismassaro dot com so it’s at L-O-U-I-S-M-A-S-S-A-R-O dot … no, not dot com. Just Louis Massaro.

Chris:
@louismassaro, yeah.

Louis:
@louismassaro. The website’s louismassaro.com. We’re here to help you. We want to help you get through this situation. Just know, be on top of your game and you’ve got nothing to worry about. Keep pushing forward. Keep moving forward. Go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. I’ll see you guys next time.

Posted on Wednesday, 03-25-2020

COVID-19 and Your Moving Business

SUMMARY

In this video, Louis Massaro shares how the coronavirus pandemic will affect your moving business.

“Use this as a time to get stronger. Use this as a time to build your ability as a leader, as a CEO to do the things in your business that before maybe you were putting off.”
“You are where you are today based on the decisions you made in the past, period.”
“Things happen in the world that could affect your business. Don’t let your business be vulnerable and so fragile that one little tick in the stock market puts you under. You’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to have that long-term plan. And if you’ve got that long-term plan and you’ve got that vision for your business of where you’re going to go, just know, we will get past this, you will still be able to do that.”
“You’re in as close to a recession-proof business as you could possibly be in if you’re in the moving business.”
Watch the video to get full training.

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TRANSCRIPTION

Louis Massaro:
Hey, my friend. Welcome to the Moving Mastery podcast. My name is Louis Massaro and today, we’ve got a special episode talking about the coronavirus and how it’s going to impact your business and what you need to be doing moving forward. This is something that we’re all dealing with as a global community, but as business owners, it’s really important that right now, we really focus in on what’s important and take care of certain things to make sure that we are in the best position that we could possibly be in when this thing passes because it will pass. We will get through this and the decisions you make today and the actions you take today will determine where you end up on the other side of this coronavirus.

Louis Massaro:
I’ve got my main man Chris here with me today. What’s up, Chris?

Chris:
What’s up?

Louis Massaro:
We are six feet apart.

Chris:
At least.

Chris:
At least, and against my wife’s recommendation, I’m here at the office recording this for you guys, because I felt that it’s really important to get this out there because there’s a lot of fear going on out there right now. There’s a lot of uncertainty. Listen, there’s people getting sick. There’s people dying. There’s businesses closing. I don’t have to tell you everything that’s going on. You know what’s going on, you see what’s going on out there, and everybody’s dealing with it in their own way.

Chris:
I just got done with one of my Moving Mastery coaching groups where we went through a strategy on the steps that they need to take in order to maximize this time, again, to come out on the other side of this, knowing that we will get through it, it will pass and that’s what we’re talking about today. How are you feeling about all this, Chris?

Chris:
I’m trying to make sure that I’m not buying too much into the fear, but also getting the facts and making sure I’m aware and up to date as to what’s happening and taking the proper precautions. Making sure I’m washing my hands and avoiding being in public and being around people and trying to do my best to create that personal space around myself, so I’m not only keeping myself safe, but not freaking anybody else out. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, it’s important. Right now, it’s like you might not feel as if it might not worry you. There might be people, “I’m not worried about the coronavirus. It’s no big deal. I’m going to go out in public. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that.” But you know what? You’re putting other people at risk.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Because if you catch it, and now somebody that’s in a compromised immune system category if they catch it, you’re just putting everybody in harm’s way, so do the responsible thing right now. Listen to your local health officials and government and whatever they’re suggesting you do, please do it. We could all do our part in minimizing the spread.

Louis Massaro:
Don’t think that you don’t have the ability to make a difference. Just by, again, washing your hands taking those actions, you could help the spread. But I think one of the biggest things right now that I’m concerned about when I look out and I see the public and I see everybody how they’re reacting and I hear from clients and members of our programs, is the fear.

Louis Massaro:
The fear is more crippling than the virus can be. I mean, listen, I don’t want to downplay the virus. It’s a real thing. People are getting sick people are dying. It’s scary, right?

Chris:
Sure.

Louis Massaro:
I mean, it perpetuates that evil nightmare that we have that the world’s coming to an end and we start thinking about all the movies that we’ve seen that remind us of that and the fear starts to just run rampant.

Louis Massaro:
And I think that what’s causing a lot of the hysteria and all of that. And as a business owner, it’s really important right now that we step up as leaders. Leaders with not only our team and our employees, but also our family, our kids, our spouse, distant relatives, with people in our community. We need leadership right now.

Louis Massaro:
There’s too many people that are just reading basic headlines of rumors and spreading that information, which just perpetuates the fear. We need people to be calm amidst the chaos.

Louis Massaro:
And as a business owner, you’re naturally a leader. You’re naturally somebody or at least you’ve elected to be in that position. You’ve stepped up and said, “I want to be a leader.” Even if you might look in the mirror and say, “I’m not a leader. I don’t demonstrate the qualities of a leader.” But you know what? As a business owner, you’ve stepped up and you’ve said, “I’m going to elect to be a leader.” Now’s, the time where you need to lead.

Louis Massaro:
And so, it’s tough because we’re going to talk about what you could be doing in your business right now, what you need to be doing in your business right now to make sure that you thrive and you get through this and you come out on the other side of it in good shape. But the best thing that you could be doing right now is managing your stress, managing your fear, and being very, very, very proactive about that.

Louis Massaro:
And I know we’ve talked about that. What are you doing right now to help with your stress?

Chris:
I think it’s important to, first of all, educate yourself and then look at everything realistically and find your trusted sources and really, if you know the proper precautions to take and you know how to handle this just within your day-to-day that helps alleviate some of the stress because you’re not going to sit there and be worried and fearful about this virus coming to get you. If you understand it, you have trusted sources that can guide you that will help a lot of it.

Chris:
And then in the meantime, double down on your working out, exercise, make sure you’re taking care of yourself, eat right, don’t let the diet slip when you’re sitting at home, and make sure that you’re also not only staying up-to-date on what’s happening currently out there with it with the virus, but also, surround yourself with some positive input as well. Read a good book, make sure you’re spending time with the people in your house, your family. You’re all in that together, make sure there’s a community there. I think that helps a lot with stress.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, I mean, as a business owner because that’s who mostly that we’re talking to.

Louis Massaro:
I mean, I know there’s some people that work for another company or they’re thinking about starting a company, but let’s just say as a leader, stress management is always important. For me, that was one of the things that really helped me perpetuate my business and really helped me grow was once I learned how to start managing stress. And right now I’m going one step further because I’m not downplaying what’s going on. Stress can creep up for me, just as everybody else, but I put it in its place right away.

Louis Massaro:
Like you said, I’ve got trusted sources. World Health Organization, CDC, local health officials and what the State is saying and now I’m paying attention as well to what’s coming out of the White House, but that’s it, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And I’m only allowing myself two times max per day, max, okay, to check in on the news to see what’s going on.

Chris:
That’s smart.

Louis Massaro:
And I won’t do before lunch any day.

Chris:
Oh, okay?

Louis Massaro:
Because things aren’t developing that quickly that we need to be tied-into our phones to where we’re like scroll, scroll, scroll. Right now, the last thing you should be doing is scrolling the news all day long, scrolling social media all day long, going back and forth with people talking about how it’s the end of the world all day long. All this stuff, all it’s going to do is just breed more fear, and when you’ve got that fear, it just cripples you to be able to actually take positive actions towards building your business.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Right? So for me… Meditate every day.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Right?

Chris:
Yep.

Louis Massaro:
Now, I’ve added in a second meditation throughout the day.

Chris:
Twice a day now?

Louis Massaro:
Twice a day.

Louis Massaro:
Not that that’s going to be a permanent situation, but you’ve got to adapt to what’s going on, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And the reality is this has been stressful for everybody.

Louis Massaro:
We had a big event coming up, moving CEO Live, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
We had hundreds of people, tickets to come out here and be with us in Phoenix and had to make the decision to call that off. Not call it off, but switch it to a virtual event.

Louis Massaro:
And that wasn’t hard. And I found myself for a day or two getting stressed out and watching the news because I needed to understand exactly what was going on, so I could make the decision. Now, I don’t think we’d even have a choice.

Chris:
Yeah, no.

Louis Massaro:
I think, they wouldn’t have allowed us to have it now, but when we made the decision last week, I was heavily into watching the news, seeing what’s going on, reading everything. I want to make sure I was educated before I pulled the trigger and made the call to move it online.

Chris:
Sure.

Louis Massaro:
And I could just feel the negative energy just zapping me.

Louis Massaro:
And so I allowed that for a day and a half and I snapped out of it.

Louis Massaro:
Because you have to be able to snap yourself out of it because what happens is the media, whether it’s traditional or social media, their business is to keep your attention.

Chris:
Oh, yeah. They’re thriving right now, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
They’re thriving right now. Besides our TVs and our computers, but these devices, you get the alerts. I mean, I don’t get them, but you get the alerts. It’s wanting your attention. These companies, social media, the news, they have people on board called Attention Engineers.

Chris:
Really?

Louis Massaro:
Their whole job is to make the screen, all of it to just keep you locked in.

Chris:
Wow.

Louis Massaro:
And our primal instincts right now were out of this fear, we have this sense of needing to be in control.

Louis Massaro:
So when we watch the news, it helps us to feel a little bit in control, but at the same time, it’s feeding the fear and feeding the anxiety.

Louis Massaro:
When we go stock up on food and when we go stock up on toilet paper. It helps give us a little bit of a sense of control, right?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
So, the point is that you can’t be scrolling right now.

Louis Massaro:
You can’t be on the news all day right now. If you’ve got a business right now, the way you show up today will predict how you make it through this situation.

Chris:
It’s a crucial time.

Louis Massaro:
It’s a crucial time.

Louis Massaro:
This is not the time to sit at home and watch the news all day and stress out or say, “Oh, yeah, you’re right, Louis, I’m not going to watch the news and stress out. I’m going to sit at home. I’m just going to watch Netflix and eat potato chips.”

Chris:
No, take advantage of the time.

Louis Massaro:
Well-

Chris:
You know?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Well, nobody wants this to happen right now.

Louis Massaro:
But the reality is if you’re scrolling, what are you really learning every day that relates to you? Yes, there’s bad stuff going on in the world. Yes, there’s another story of this. There’s another case here. There’s another case there. Now, they’re saying it could be spread through the air. There’s going to be developing information. So on a daily basis, you see what’s new and you revisit your plan on how you’re going to address it.

Chris:
Check-in.

Louis Massaro:
Check-in, review what’s going on and revisit your plan.

Chris:
And then leave it.

Louis Massaro:
And then leave it.

Louis Massaro:
Because if you don’t, it will drag you down and if it drags you down, it will drag your business down.

Louis Massaro:
And I say this from a place of having gone through the recession at a time where, not only that, I opened my business and a few months later 9/11 happened.

Louis Massaro:
Went through that. Felt like the end of the world, made it through. Recession came, one of the hardest things I had to do, not only because it was the recession, but at that time, I had five or six offices at that time, just bought a bunch of long-distance trucks, buy yellow pages. I was paying through the roof for yellow pages and they weren’t working as well, so it was like the perfect storm.

Chris:
There was a lot on the line.

Louis Massaro:
There was a lot on the line.

Louis Massaro:
And you know what? That time was one of the hardest times I went through, however, it made me the person I am today and it made my business what it actually was, because when the recession came, it pointed out all the flaws. It pointed out all the inefficiencies, all the things that I was looking over, because it was like, “Oh, money’s coming in, everything’s good.” You had to tighten up.

Chris:
Blessing in disguise.

Louis Massaro:
It was a disguise. So, you’ve got to look at this time and say, and believe, that it will make you stronger.

Louis Massaro:
Anybody going through this right now, take this as an opportunity instead of saying, “Poor me. Why does this have to be going on right now? I just started my business or I just got to a level where I’m where I want to be or I just opened that additional office or I just opened 10 franchises.” Wherever you’re at, you’ve got to look at it and say, “This will make me stronger.” It will.

Chris:
No doubt.

Louis Massaro:
We’ve got to believe that.

Louis Massaro:
Just take this opportunity right now to say, “What can I work on right now?” So, I’ll give you an example. So instead of scrolling all day, there’s no doubt that things are messed up, there’s no doubt that things are weird.

Louis Massaro:
Every day, it’s a new normal.

Chris:
I mean, it’s weird for everybody.

Louis Massaro:
Everybody.

Louis Massaro:
As a human.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
Yeah. So that’s a little bit of some solace there is, hey, we’re all having to deal with this. Everybody has different levels of it. If you’re a moving company owner or a business owner, you have one way of dealing with it. If you’re an employee, you have a whole another way of dealing with it, so we’re all in this together and that’s something, it’s a bit comforting. At least we can all look at each other and go, “Wow, isn’t this crazy?” This is something we haven’t seen before and help each other through it.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah, I think right now we’ve got to be able to identify when we’re letting fear take control. We’ve got to go extra on all of the steps that we do to manage our stress.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And to handle that. That’s everybody. That’s everybody because it’s like, the quickest way to compromise your immune system is to be stressed out.

Chris:
Right. That has a huge effect.

Louis Massaro:
So if you’re stressed out and you’re not sleeping, and you’re not eating right, you’re not exercising and you’re not practicing some breathing or meditation or something to calm you down, you’re putting yourself in a position where you’re going to compromise your immune system. Right now, you’ve got to build your immune system.

Louis Massaro:
So if you think about all the time that you’re spending possibly, listen, if you’re sitting there and you’re scrolling and you’re scrolling and you’re looking for new news articles and you’re saying coronavirus, update, refresh, refresh, refresh. It’s understandable. I mean, you’ve got major, major, major, major companies and corporations that know how to keep your attention based on factory-installed human emotions.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
That we just all have. And you’ve got to look at that time and say, “How could I be using this time differently?”

Louis Massaro:
Instead of consuming, maybe I need to be learning.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Whether it’s learning something for your business, learning how to boost your immune system, maybe. Look, I don’t know how to boost my immune system. I don’t know how to exercise. I don’t know how to meditate. Well, you know what? Get your news once or twice a day. Check-in on what new updates there are. Put that down and then pick up a book, pick up a course, pick up a video, pick up something that’s going to teach you how to do something to not only handle this situation, but then grow moving forward.

Louis Massaro:
We were looking at the possibility of a recession. Stock markets had a rough time. Maybe you’ve lost some money and you’ve really taken a hit, but you weren’t really aware of where your money even was. You know what I mean?

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
You had somebody managing it, “I don’t even know where it was, but I know my portfolio number is a lot lower.” And it’s not a laughing matter, but the point is now could be the time to learn more about that.

Chris:
Yeah. You have the opportunity to look into it and educate yourself about it and take control of it. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. And during the downtimes, that’s when a lot of money could be made.

Louis Massaro:
If you know how to go about that, so maybe it’s time to learn that. So, maybe shift and say, “Okay, I’m consuming too much, what could I consume that I’m learning?”

Louis Massaro:
Where I’m absorbing positivity.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Because the fear is just toxic. What could I bring in that is beneficial.

Chris:
Yeah. You can balance that out and it will open your eyes to how much the outside media and social and everything influences you on a day-to-day basis. Maybe before all of this, you’re scrolling a lot and you’re just picking up little bits of negativity or drama on Facebook or whatever and it has an effect on you, subconsciously.

Chris:
Now, you can actually see it happening and shine the light on that and maybe in the end, be thankful that you discovered that because we all have that addiction to the phone. If you’re curating your feed with negativity, you’re going to have a negative bias. If you’re curating your feed with positive and good inspirational things, it may have a different effect.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, each moment we get to choose right now.

Louis Massaro:
We could choose the tone of this conversation. We get to choose the tone of the conversation with our loved ones, with our employees and is that conversation in fear or are we going in faith that it will all work out. Whatever your faith is, whatever you believe in, in God and all that.

Chris:
Sure.

Louis Massaro:
But to look at it and say, “It will work out. It will pass.” I truly, 100%, believe that this will pass and I mean, it’s going to, right?

Chris:
Of course.

Louis Massaro:
But there’s times where it doesn’t feel. There were times when 9/11 happened, it didn’t feel like it was going to pass, it was the end of the world. There were times when the recession came, it didn’t feel like it was going to pass like it was the end of the world.

Louis Massaro:
So, maybe for me, being able to look back and having gone through all that in business like I know a lot of our listeners have, it gives you a little assurance that, “Man, this sucks. It’s inconvenient. People are dying. It’s scary, but we will get through it and my business will get through it.” And the takeaway is like if something like this, like the fear and possibility of recession, a lot of people worry about recession and think that it’s like instant death for their business.

Chris:
Not necessarily.

Louis Massaro:
It’s not. That’s not the case.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
What happens is this, in moments like we’re going through right now, okay? You’ve got one person that will be so overtaken by the fear that they’re like a deer in headlights and they’re paralyzed to where they don’t know what to do. They’re stuck.

Chris:
They’re frozen.

Louis Massaro:
I can’t even say the words. They’re frozen.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Then you’ve got somebody else, which I recommend everybody models this person, that says, “You know what? I need to charge forward.”

Louis Massaro:
I need to realize that every action that I’m taking today is what will predict my future, not the stock market, not a virus, not any of that because none of that is in your control. You’ve got to control what it is you can control.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
So, during this time, hey, listen, and we’ve talked to people this past week. We’ve clients in certain cities that are on lockdown, certain cities look like they’re going to be going towards lockdown and there’s the possibility of not being able to perform moves for however long it’s going to be.

Chris:
Who knows, yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Same thing with other businesses, any business. Everyone, it’s tough right now, but if you sit back and either get frozen or feel sorry for yourself and what was me, “This is terrible. I’ve got this going on or that going on. This isn’t a good time.” Then you might not make it through this business-wise. My advice is take this time and keep moving forward.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Keep pushing on everything that you had planned, everything that you were going, keep doing it.

Chris:
Keep stepping towards it.

Louis Massaro:
Keep stepping towards it. Don’t take a step back because you know what? This will pass and think about where you want to be six months from now.

Louis Massaro:
If you take a hit this month, if you take a hit next month, if this summer is weird, and it’s like, man, maybe we weren’t able to do some moves and all those people had to move to the summer and it’s going to be different. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out, but it’s going to be different.

Louis Massaro:
But it will pass. And if today, you’re not taking actions that move the needle forward in your business, you’re going to be sitting here in October in a really, really bad spot.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Really bad spot.

Louis Massaro:
So, that’s why we’re talking you got to manage the stress, you’ve got to manage the fear and then you’ve got to step up and be a leader and take the actions that you need to take right now. You need to be on the offense, instead of back on your heels on the defense.

Chris:
Proactive.

Louis Massaro:
You’ve got to be proactive.

Louis Massaro:
It’s so important right now.

Chris:
Yeah. If you’re paying attention to the media, if you’re managing that fear, and you’re not managing your stress, and you’re just high strung, and you’re sitting there thinking to yourself, “Oh, my gosh, what am I going to do?” Now’s the time to just recognize that and realize how susceptible you are to that outside influence that’s coming in, that you’re allowing in, get pissed off, take advantage of it, say, “Hey, listen, I’m not going to allow this in my life anymore. I’m taking control of who I am, where I’m going to go with this business, what I’m going to do. I’m not going to let all of that in anymore.”

Chris:
Build a force field around yourself and decide to say, “Okay, every single day, I’m going to take one little step forward.” It doesn’t have to be a big company changing step, it could be just one little personal thing or one little process you implement into the company, but one little incremental step every single day, so that every day, you’re making a little bit of an increase. By the time you’re saying October rolls around, if you did that every day, what kind of difference would it make in your company, in your life, in your business? I mean, one little step. That’s it.

Louis Massaro:
You’ll be much better off than if you didn’t do that.

Louis Massaro:
You’ll be much better off than if you just sat on the sidelines. And I’m saying this, I look at this, the closest thing that I could think of is the recession or growing up in Florida, preparing for hurricanes and the devastation that happens with hurricanes and things like that and when I’ve dealt with both of those in my business. And you’ve got to just keep moving forward.

Louis Massaro:
So for me, it hit me for a day and a half, two days, where it knocked me off, man. It did.

Chris:
Okay. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And the big part about it was how much I was consuming.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
It was how much I was consuming, how much I was consuming, how much I was consuming. And it’s like, if you look at your brain and it’s a sponge, and you’re just absorbing all the fear, you’re not going to be able to take action, so it would paralyze you.

Chris:
It would be like an involuntary bias.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
You’re conditioned.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
I mean, I see it just going through when I process my email in the mornings, my inbox. Every email list and every person that I receive emails from, it’s all coronavirus this and coronavirus that and you have to just realize like I need a few trusted sources, and then the rest of it, I got to get rid of.

Louis Massaro:
You got to get rid of all of it.

Louis Massaro:
And that includes anyone that’s around wants to talk to you about how the world’s coming to an end.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
You can’t listen to that.

Chris:
No.

Louis Massaro:
The world’s not coming to an end.

Chris:
Definitely not.

Louis Massaro:
This is tough. I’m not going to pretend to be a medical expert. I’m not going to pretend to have predictions and be an economist and how this is going to affect our global economy, but it will impact everybody’s business.

Chris:
Everybody.

Louis Massaro:
Everybody.

Louis Massaro:
And it will then start to subside and then we’ll all deal with a new normal.

Chris:
A new normal.

Louis Massaro:
Whatever that’s going to be, we don’t know yet, but you’ve got a choice. There’s the pandemic, there’s the coronavirus, and then there’s the fear. You do what you can to avoid the virus, but the fear-

Chris:
You can control…

Louis Massaro:
Will cripple you.

Louis Massaro:
I don’t want to make anybody feel like they’re doing something wrong if they’ve been watching the news or if they’ve been scrolling social media or if they’ve been staying in touch with people talking about how things are, because that’s just the majority of what everybody is doing and it’s what major media is pushing on us.

Louis Massaro:
We’ve got to be super, super proactive about it. I mean, I caught myself this morning. I told myself I’m not watching the news before noon, came in, my wife had President was on talking.

Chris:
You got sucked in.

Louis Massaro:
And I got sucked in for 20 minutes or so, then realized, okay, the main points are done. They’re saying the same stuff. I got it. I got my update a little earlier than I wanted to today, but I’m out. I need to detach and break myself away from this and I don’t want to look at it again the rest of the day.

Louis Massaro:
I think we all have that piece of us, we all have that little piece that wants it, that feeds off of it.

Chris:
Yeah. You enjoy it a little bit.

Louis Massaro:
You enjoy it a little bit. “Oh, yeah. Give me the goods of what’s going on.” But you’ve got to fight that because you got to know that that’s damaging for you, it’s damaging for your immune system. It’s damaging for your health. And guess what? You’ve got kids at home, you’ve got family at home, how do you want them to see you responding to this right now?

Chris:
Yeah. You got people dependent on you.

Louis Massaro:
There’s people looking at you. You need to be a role model. You need to be a leader. You need to be calm in these situations and guide people.

Louis Massaro:
Because you might have people in your household, you might have people in your family, you might have people in your neighborhood that aren’t calm, that are freaking out.

Chris:
Sure.

Louis Massaro:
They could really use somebody to come in and give them some perspective on everything that’s going on-

Chris:
From a safe distance.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, keep your distance. I mean, for real.

Chris:
For real.

Louis Massaro:
We went for a walk in the neighborhood yesterday and there was somebody coming on the sidewalk this way, we just went out in the street.

Louis Massaro:
Listen, why take chances?

Chris:
Hey, listen. Like you were saying, it’s about just making them feel comfortable, like yeah, you don’t know what they’ve been watching on the news today and how long they’ve been feeding the fear into their brain. It’s respect.

Louis Massaro:
It is. It’s respect to do the right thing and take it seriously. Have you noticed though, I mean, I noticed it myself and I had to catch myself to where I see somebody coming and there’s like an adversarial-

Chris:
Oh, like a territorial kind of thing?

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. Because I’m walking with my wife, the baby, the dog.

Louis Massaro:
You have this thing. You’re coming at me. And I noticed that everyone’s not as friendly. You know what I mean? Like even going to the store, it’s like, everybody’s in there like this. “Are you the one that’s going to give it to me? Are you the one that’s going to give it to me?”

Chris:
On the way in this morning, our office is located near Costco.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
And you can imagine the lines of people waiting for that place to open up, on my way in and you see everybody standing in line. Some people are respecting the social distance thing and pulling themselves out of the line a little bit, some people aren’t, but everybody is just looking down at their phone and not really talking to each other or being social. Everybody is in their own little bubble and it’s the slightest little thing, people are a little jittery. If somebody bumps their cart into the other person, “Oh.” There’s a little bit of tension there.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. I mean, it’s understandable.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
It’s understandable. I mean, I know. When I catch myself doing something, I try to break down why am I doing that.

Louis Massaro:
And I realized, a neighbor walked by and wants to talk and I was like real short with him.

Louis Massaro:
And I realized, I was like, okay, because in my mind, subconsciously, I’m thinking if I engage them in conversation, he’s going to come closer.

Louis Massaro:
And I don’t want him to come closer.

Louis Massaro:
Anyways, it’s crazy times that we’re dealing with and it’s an opportunity to grow.

Louis Massaro:
Period, the end. Learn right now. Learn better hygiene. Learn how to take care of your immune system. Learn how to manage stress. Learn how to make your business unbreakable so that when something like this happens… look, because we deal with a lot of people at a lot of different levels in business and some, they’re in good shape. They’re like, “You know what? This sucks,” but they’ve got the money to weather the storm and some people don’t.

Louis Massaro:
And you could sit and panic or you could say, “You know what? This is the wakeup call. This is it.” Now’s the time. All that stuff that I’ve been saying I needed to do, but there was this and there was that. It cuts through all the BS and it’s like, let me move forward. And that’s what I suggest everybody does right now. I mean, even if you can’t do moves, if you’re on a lockdown, be in touch with your customers.

Louis Massaro:
Manage that process of rescheduling them, getting them on the books for a later date, keeping in constant contact with them to make sure that they are… because they’re dealing with it, too and if you’re their company, let them know you’re still there. And also don’t lose those moves.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
Don’t let them call. We don’t know what we’re doing. They’re going to be like, “Oh, let me call somebody else because I need to move as soon as this thing is lifted and we’re able to.” I know, that’s not the case right now, still people moving right now today, but if that’s where it goes, you’ve just got to be on top of managing that. You’ve got salespeople, let them work from home, keep getting the leads, keep booking moves, keep moving forward.

Louis Massaro:
You’ve got to stay on point with your five fundamentals of the business, which are lead generation, booking moves, servicing moves, making sure you have happy customers and you’re reporting and you’re accounting. You’ve got to stay moving forward with all of that stuff right now.

Chris:
Yeah. Keep the machine going and reassure people. Retain them. I mean, that’s the name of the game. Don’t let the fear clear your calendar.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah. They need to move. If you’re not allowed to go move them that means they’re not allowed to go move.

Louis Massaro:
Which means that it will be postponed and you want to make sure that you still gather that.

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
So, let’s say you take a hit right now. It’s going to affect everybody.

Louis Massaro:
Hopefully less than more, but right now is the time where you’ve got to say, “All right, every single day, I need to be taking action towards moving my business forward.” Because, if you’re listening to this, if you’re watching this, you’re not someone that’s just sitting back, happy with where your business is and like, “I’m good.” You’re trying to make it better, you’re trying to improve, you’re trying to make more money, you’re trying to grow, you’re trying to make it run smoother. Okay. You could be working on all that stuff now.

Louis Massaro:
And put yourself six months from now. Think about six months from now, what actions do I need to take, to where the end of the year where maybe it’s normally slow, I’m able to double business. I’m able to really increase my business, so that if I had a couple of bad months because of the coronavirus, I made up for it at the end of the year.

Louis Massaro:
We’ve got a long way until December 31st. Don’t look at this year and think, “Oh, it’s done. My year is over. I’m not on track to hit my targets or hit my numbers.” We’re all dealing with this. Whatever you’re going through if you’re having cash flow issues, if you’re having problems, people get that. People understand that. It’s going to affect everybody. You might have to make hard decisions when it comes to employees. You might have to decide that maybe you want to be extra giving with them, but maybe you can’t.

Louis Massaro:
Maybe you can’t pay the rent if it comes to that. The point is everybody’s going through it and I believe it will all work itself out.

Chris:
It is. If that’s the situation for you and you’re having to make those kind of difficult decisions, now’s the time to put your foot down and say, “I’m never going to want to make these decisions again. I’m not going to have to worry about this ever again. I’m going to change the company. I’m going to put things in place. I’m going to make sure that whether it’s a virus, whether it’s a recession, whether it’s a natural disaster, or some kind of thing that happens, you’re going to be able to weather the storm. Never again.” That’s, put your foot down.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it, like let this be a wakeup call.

Chris:
Yea. It’s an opportunity.

Louis Massaro:
It’s an opportunity. And you know what? Again, I’ll say it again, going through the recession, lost a ton.

Louis Massaro:
Was on my heels, it was tough, but every day I kept moving forward, every day I kept taking action. And you know what? The setback that I had at that time, the person that I became from that and the lessons that I learned, and the action that I took, propelled me way further than I would have had I not gone through that and everything was just easy and cushy and all of that. So, look at the long term. Don’t look at the next week, the next 30 days. Yes, there’s real stuff happening and you have to address it, you’ve got to minimize your downside, but at the same time, you’ve got to say, I just can’t say it enough, take action every day that’s moving you towards building the business that you want, period, regardless of what’s going on.

Louis Massaro:
Otherwise, you’re going to sit back six months from now and you’d be like, “Man, you know what? I let that time go by. I sat at home. I sat on the sidelines, waiting to see what was going to happen.” And it’s the worst thing you could be doing for your business right now, the worst thing.

Chris:
You don’t want to sit there eating a big bowl of regret a year from now.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
It’s a perfect time right now. It’s a solemn time and it’s a serious time, so be serious. Be serious about your business, about what kind life you want.

Louis Massaro:
And you don’t have to run off of stress and adrenaline.

Chris:
No.

Louis Massaro:
You know what I mean? A lot of people resist stress management because they feel that stress is what helps fuel them to take action in their business and I just challenge you, if that’s you to take a different approach to it, and calm yourself a little bit. And charge this thing with intention of where you’re going. And it might shift every day.

Louis Massaro:
If everything single day, you’ve got to get a pen and paper and say, “Okay, this is my plan. This is where I’m going. This right now, is there any way I could keep moving this forward? I could do that. I could do that. Okay, I’ll keep those things moving. All right. This, that I can’t move that project forward, but I can move this forward, I can move that forward. I could have this person working from home on this, that person working from home on that.”

Chris:
You could feel the stress melting away, just come up with a plan.

Louis Massaro:
And your plan might be shit by the end of the day. I’m just saying.

Chris:
Yeah, true.

Louis Massaro:
You might come up with a plan and then they’re like, “Hey, no. Can’t do anything for the next month.”

Chris:
Right.

Louis Massaro:
And then you readjust.

Chris:
Just keep…

Louis Massaro:
So, you go and review what’s new and revisit your plan. Review and revisit.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
That’s it.

Louis Massaro:
But keep moving forward and I’m saying it because so many people right now are in a fork in the road with their business and I’m speaking to business owners because that’s who I could relate to the most, that’s who we work with the most and the decision you make today and every day moving forward until we get out of this crisis here, that’s going to predict your future. Not what the stock market does, not what the coronavirus does. It’s the actions that you take every day because we will make it out of this. And no matter what, people always need to move. Remember that.

Louis Massaro:
You’re in as close to a recession-proof business as you could possibly be in if you’re in the moving business.

Louis Massaro:
When the recession hit, it wasn’t that there were no moves, it’s just the whole dynamic of things changed. For me, it was the perfect storm, which is everything that was going on, but people will always need to move.

Louis Massaro:
So don’t think that an epidemic or a pandemic comes or recession comes and it’s like instant death to your business. It’s not the case. It will filter out the weak though, the people that aren’t taking the action, the people that are sitting back, they’re not going to be in a good position if a recession comes or anything like that. So, you just got to keep pushing forward.

Chris:
It’s actually the choice you need to make is you need to decide what kind of business am I going to have? Am I going to have a business that gets tossed and turned with every little wave and storm that comes along or am I going to have a business that’s adaptable, that I can easily change because I’ve got all of my fundamentals and foundation in place? I’ve got all my processes in place. I’m able to just turn on a dime if I need to.

Louis Massaro:
Yeah.

Chris:
And it’s a choice.

Louis Massaro:
It’s a choice and it’s the reason we’re moving forward with moving CEO virtual.

Chris:
We’ve got to keep the company…

Louis Massaro:
I mean, we’ve got to do this three-day live event virtually because I know that people need this now. We were like, “Okay, we’ll postpone it.” We’ll do it in the fall, which we’re going to do also. I’m like, I’m not going to hold back. I know, people need this information now regardless of what’s going on how to safeguard your business, so that it will thrive in any economy.

Chris:
It’s possible.

Louis Massaro:
And that’s what we’re doing. I mean, those of you, by the way, if you haven’t already gotten your virtual ticket for Moving CEO, we’re doing the event, we’re still doing it. We’re going to be broadcasting the event live for three full days, April 2nd through the 4th, go to movingseminar.com, movingseminar.com. Get your seat. I’m going to be laying out a plan for you to get through this, thrive in any economy, build the business that you’ve always wanted to build and comments and get focused on learning about possibilities and how to get there.

Chris:
Yeah, I’m really excited. I like this opportunity we’ve had to really focus on the online virtual seminar and making it as good as we can and now that I’ve seen the framework for it and we’re working on ironing out all the details on how we’re going to present it, I think it’s better than ever. I think it’s better than it could have been.

Louis Massaro:
It’s going to be the best event we’ve ever done and even out of the live in-person events.

Chris:
I agree.

Louis Massaro:
And so, make sure you are there. I mean, there’s no reason not to be. This is my mission. My mission is to help people profit in business and thrive in life and you know what? Shit happens.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
And stuff comes along and the economy will get rocky and a pandemic will come along and like you said, natural disaster. Things happen in the world that could affect your business. Don’t let your business be vulnerable and so fragile that one little tick in the stock market puts you under. You’ve got to be strong and you’ve got to have that long-term plan. And if you’ve got that long-term plan and you’ve got that vision for your business of where you’re going to go, just know, we will get past this, you will still be able to do that.

Louis Massaro:
Use this as a time to get stronger. Use this as a time to build your ability as a leader, as a CEO to do the things in your business that before maybe you were putting off, but now you’re like, “You know what? Had I been in a position where I did these things previously and I set myself up, I’d be in a much better position right now.” Well, you know what? You are where you are today based on decisions you made in the past, period.

Chris:
Period.

Louis Massaro:
The people that are like, “This sucks, but I’m going to weather this storm in the moving business,” are able to say that because of the decisions they made previously and the actions that they took and the people that are in a very, very, very vulnerable position right now.

Louis Massaro:
And my heart goes out to them, are there because they didn’t take the action and it doesn’t mean they didn’t take action, I mean, they didn’t work hard. So, we see a lot of people work really hard, but have not taken the right action to win the game of business. So think about that today and say, “You know what? Where do I want to be six months from now? Where do I want to be six years from now?” All that we could predict where you’re going to be six years, six months, all based on the actions you’re taking every day, moving forward.

Louis Massaro:
So listen, guys, stay strong, stay safe, stay informed, and stay focused and hungry and keep moving forward. Don’t let this be a time where you lose your momentum, you lose what you have going on, keep pushing in every area that you possibly can, and you will come out stronger on the other end of this. You will make it through, you will be stronger for it and you will build a bigger business becoming the person that you will become having gone through something like this.

Chris:
Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Listen, until we see you next time. Chris, you got anything to add?

Chris:
Just a couple of things I want to also give a shout out to all of our members and community of company owners out there who have taken the initiative to implement a lot of the things that you teach and they’ve either been a part of your programs or have been private clients and stuff like that, those people who are still crushing it right now and just getting through this, barely sweating.

Louis Massaro:
And to them as well, the amount of love and just camaraderie that they’ve shown within our community, within our group and I mean, it’s like you would think that they’re all the same company, that they’re like we’re in this together.

Chris:
Everybody’s on the same team.

Louis Massaro:
Just reading the comments and we were just live with them a couple of hours ago, and yeah. So, right now just do what you can to be supportive of anybody and everybody that you’ve got going on.

Chris:
We appreciate it. Yeah.

Louis Massaro:
Anything you could do in the community, too. If there’s some way you could help, do what you could do.

Louis Massaro:
So listen, guys, stay strong, stay safe. Make sure you go and sign up for Moving CEO Live and I’m saying that to you and I know you’re like, “Louis, we’re going through a lot of stuff.” I know we’re going through a lot of stuff. I’m here at the office right now for you guys to put this message out there because we still need to move forward. We can’t be on pause. Make sure you get your tickets Moving CEO. Go to moving seminar.com. That’s movingseminar.com. We’re doing this virtually. You could watch it from your home. You could watch it with your team.

Louis Massaro:
It’s already laid out. I’ve got it all laid out and you don’t want to miss this. If you’ve been to one of my past events, this is going to be totally different, totally new, and we’re coming straight at all the big obstacles that you face in order to set up a smooth-running business and then to scale that smooth-running business, we’re going to knock down all those obstacles and give you a plan on how to do it. And until I see you then, go out there every single day, profit in your business, thrive in your life, wash your hands, stay away from people. Stay safe, my friends. I’ll see you next time.

Posted on Tuesday, 03-17-2020

How to Win in the Moving Business

SUMMARY

In this video, Louis Massaro shares how to win big in the moving business in 2020.

“With internet marketing, you’re able to tweak, you’re able to modify, you’re able to really track everything, and you could make changes quickly. You’re not stuck with something for an entire year. You want to open a new market? You don’t have to wait for the yellow pages to come out. You go open whenever you want to go open and start your marketing.”
“ I would say, over the course of 11 years, I feel like I came pretty close to perfecting a system for what I call a sales machine for the moving business.”
“There’s no doubt that there is a shortage of drivers, that there is a challenge in getting movers nowadays. However, the people that have this process down for hiring are winning and they’re winning big.”
“I’m not saying that the moving business is easy, but it can be easy to make changes… Take the steps, and believe that it’s possible.”
Watch the video to get full training.

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