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.