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.