COVID-19 and Your Moving Business
This content was created by Louis Massaro. This content was uploaded by Louis Massaro. This is a podcast titled "COVID-19 and Your Moving Business" recorded on March 25, 2020, featuring Louis Massaro and Chris. The episode discusses the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on businesses, particularly in the moving industry, and offers strategies for business owners to manage stress, fear, and maintain operations during the crisis. The conversation emphasizes leadership, stress management, and proactive measures to ensure business continuity.
Foreign.
It's Luis Massaro. And welcome to another episode of the Moving Mastery Podcast.
Hey, my friend. Welcome to the Moving Mastery Podcast. My name is Luis 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. I've got my main man Chris here with me today. What's up, Chris?
What's up?
We are six feet apart.
@.
Least. At least. And, you know, 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. There's a lot of. Listen, there's people getting sick, right? There's. There's people dying, there's businesses closing. There's, you know, 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. I just got done with one of my moving mastery coaching groups where we kind of went through a strategy on the steps that they need to take in order to, you know, maximize this time again, to come out on the other side of this knowing that we will get through, will pass. And, you know, that's. That's what we're talking about today. How are you feeling about all this.
Chris? You know, I'm trying to make sure that I'm not buying too much into the. Into the fear, but also, you know, getting the facts and making sure I'm aware and, you know, up to date as to what's happening and taking the proper precautions, making sure I'm washing my hands and, you know, avoiding, you know, being in public and being around people and trying to do my best to create that personal space around myself so I'm not. Not only keeping myself safe, but not freaking anybody else.
Out. Yeah, it's important, you know, right now it's like you might not feel as if, you know, it might not worry you. Right. There might be people. I'm not worried about the coronavirus. It's no big deal. You know, I'm gonna go out in public. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. But you know what? You're putting other people at.
Risk.
Yeah. Because if you catch it, and now somebody, you know, that's in a compromise, you know, compromised immune system category, if they catch it, you know, you're just, you know, putting everybody in harm's way. So do the responsible thing right now. Listen to, you know, your local health officials and government and whatever they're suggest. Please do it. We could all do our part in minimizing the spread. Don't think that you don't have the ability to make a difference. Right. 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 and.
Is the fear. Yeah, the fear is more crippling than the virus can be. You know, I mean, listen, I don't want to downplay the virus. It's a real thing. You know, people are getting sick, people are dying. It's scary, Right. I mean, it's, you know, it. It perpetuates that, you know, that. That kind of evil nightmare that we have that the world's coming to an end. And, you know, we started thinking about all the movies that we've seen that, that, know, remind us of that, and the fear starts to just run rampant. Yeah. And I think that that's what's, you know, 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. Right. Leaders with not only our team and our employees, but also our family. Right. Our kids, our spouse, distant relatives, with people in our community. Right. We need leadership right.
Now.
Yeah. There's, you know, too many people that are just, you know, reading basic headlines of rumors and spreading that information, which just perpetuates the fear. Right. You know, we need people to be calm amidst the.
Chaos.
Right. 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. 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, right? And so, you know, it's tough because there's, you know, 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. And I know we've talked about that. What are you doing right now to help with your.
Stress? You know, I think it's, it's important to, to, you know, first of all educate yourself and then look at everything realistically, right. And.
Find your trusted sources and really like, 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, you know, this, this virus coming to get you. If you, if you understand it, you understand where, you know, you have trusted sources that can, that can guide you, you know, that'll help a lot of it. And then, and then in the meantime, double down on your, your, you know, working out, exercise, make sure you're taking care of yourself. Eat right, don't, don't let the, the diet, you know, slip when you're sitting at home, you know, and, and, and, and make sure that you're also not only staying up to date on what's happening currently out there 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 on that together. Make sure there's a community there. I think that helps a lot with the.
Stress. Yeah. I mean, as a business owner. Cause that's who mostly that we're talking to. I mean, I know there's some people that work for, for another company or they're thinking about starting their company. But you know, let's just say as a leader.
Stress management is always important. You know, for me, that was, you know, 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, you know, kind of one step further because, you know, I don't. I'm not downplaying what's going on. Right. It. Stress can creep up for me just as, you know, just as everybody else. But I put it in its place right away. Like you said, I've got trusted sources. I've, you know, I just. World Health Organization, cdc, local health officials and what the state's saying. And now I'm paying attention as well to what's coming out of the White House. But that's.
It.
Yeah. Right. 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. That's.
Smart. And I won't do it before lunch any.
Day. Oh.
Okay. Because, you know, things aren't developing that quickly that we need to be, you know, tied in to our phones to where we're like, scroll, scroll, scroll. Like 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. Right, Right. So, you know, for me, like, you know, I'm meditate every day. Yeah, right. Yep. Now I've added in a second meditation throughout the.
Day. Twice a day.
Now. You know, twice a day. You know, not that that's going to be a permanent situation, but, you know, you've got to adapt to what's going on. Yeah, Right. And the reality is this, this has been stressful for everybody. You know, we had to. We had to. You know, we had a big event coming up, moving CEO.
Live.
Right. We had, you know, hundreds of people, you know, tickets to come out here and, 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.
Yeah. And you know, that, that wasn't hard. And I found myself for a day or two getting stressed out and kind of watching the news. Cause 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. I think it would have been called, like, 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. And I could feel. I could just feel the negative energy just, like, zapping.
Me.
Yeah. Right. And so I allowed that for, like, a day and a half, and I snapped out of it. Okay. 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. Right. Their business is to keep your.
Attention. Oh, yeah. They're thriving right.
Now. They're thriving right now. And like, these. These devices. Right. Besides our TVs and our computer, but these devices, you know, we get the. You get the alerts. I mean, I don't get them, but you get the alerts. You know, it's just. It's. It's wanting your attention. These companies, social media, the news, they have people on board called attention engineers. Really, their whole job is to make the screen, all of it, to just keep you locked.
In.
Wow. And our primal instincts right now. Right. We're out of this fear. We have this sense of, like, needing to be in.
Control.
Yeah. 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.
Sure. Right. 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. So, you know, the point is that.
You can't be scrolling right now. 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, you know.
Situation. It's a crucial.
Time. It's a crucial.
Time.
Yeah. This is not the time to sit at home and watch the news all day and stress out or say, oh, you know. Yeah, you're right, Louis. I'm not gonna watch the news and stress out. I'm gonna sit at home. I'm just gonna, like, watch Netflix and eat potato.
Chips. No, no. Take advantage of the time. Well, you.
Know. Yeah. Well, nobody wants this to happen right.
Now.
Yeah. And. But the reality is, like, if you're scrolling, what are you really learning every day? That 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. You know? You know, now it's. You know, they're saying it could be spread through the air. Like there's, there's going to be developing information. Mm. Right. So on a daily basis.
You see what's new and you revisit your plan on how you're gonna address it, check in, check in, review what's going on, and revisit your.
Plan. And then leave.
It. And then leave.
It. Yeah.
Yeah. Because if you don't, it will drag you down. And if it drags you down, it will drag your business.
Down.
Yep. Right. And I, and I say this from a place of having gone through the recession at a time where, you know, not only that, I opened my business and that, you know, a few months later, 9, 11 happened, went through that, Right. 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 the time, I was, you know, had.
Five or six offices at the time, Just bought a bunch of long distance trucks. My yellow pages, you know, the, you know, I was paying through the roof for yellow pages and they weren't working as well. So it was like the perfect.
Storm. There's a lot on the.
Line. There was a lot on the line. 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 and it pointed out all the inefficiencies, all the things that, like, you know, I was looking over, right? Because it was like, oh, money's coming in, everything's good. You had to tighten.
Up. Blessing in.
Disguise. It was a disguise. So, you know, you've got to look at this time and say, and believe that it will make you.
Stronger.
Yeah. Anybody going through this right now, all it need take this as an opportunity instead of saying, you know, poor me. Why do, 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. No.
Doubt. We've got to believe that. Take this opportunity right now to say, what can I work on right now? Right now? So I'll give you an example. So instead of scrolling all day, right? There's no doubt that things are messed up. There's no doubt that things are.
Weird.
Yeah. Right. It's just like, like, you know, it's like there's this every day. It's just, it's a new.
Normal. I mean, it's weird for everybody.
So.
Everybody. Yeah, that's kind.
Of. As a.
Human. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's, that's a little bit of some solace. There is, is like, hey, we're all having to deal with this. Everybody has different levels of it. If you're a moving company owner or business owner, you know, you have one way of dealing with it. If you're an employee, you have a whole nother way of dealing with it. So we're all kind of in this together and that's, that's something that, you know, is a bit comforting. At least we can all kind of look at each other and go, wow, isn't this crazy? This is, this is something we haven't seen, you know, before and help each other through it. Yeah. You.
Know. Yeah. I think, you know, right now we've got to be able to identify when we're letting fear take control. We've got to go extra on, on all the steps that we do to, to manage our.
Stress.
Yeah. Right. And to handle that.
And then when you know that that's everybody. That's everybody. You know, because it's, it's like the, the quickest way to compromise your immune system is to be stressed out. Right. Right. You're stressed out and you're not sleeping and you're not eating right. You're not exercising and you're not, you know, practicing some kind of breathing or meditation or something to calm you.
Down.
Yeah. You're putting yourself in a position where you're gonna compromise your immune system. And right now you've got to build your immune.
System.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. So if you think about all the time that you're spending possibly if you're, if 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. Right. I mean, it's, it's, it's, you know, you've got major, major, major, major companies and corporations that are, that are like, know how to keep your attention based on, you know, you know, factory installed human emotions.
Right.
Right. We just all have. And you know, you've got to look at that time and say, how could I be using this time.
Differently?
Yeah. Right. Instead of consuming, maybe I need to be.
Learning.
Right. You know, whether it's, you know, learning Something for your business. Learning how to boost your immune system. Maybe you're like, lewis, 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.
Yeah. Right. You know, we, we were looking at the possibility of a recession. Right. You know, stock markets had a rough time. Right. Maybe you've lost some money. Right. Maybe, you know, it's, you've really taken a hit, but you weren't really aware of where your money even was. Was. You know what I mean? You had somebody managing it. You're like, I don't even know where it was. But I just know, I know my, my portfolio number is a lot lower. Right. And it's not, you know, it's not a laughing matter. But the, but the point is like, now could be the time to learn more about.
That.
Yeah.
Yeah. You have, you have the opportunity to look into it and educate yourself about it and take control of.
It. Yeah. And you know, during the, during the down times, that's when a lot of money could be.
Made.
Yeah. If you know how to go about that. Right. So maybe it's time to learn that. So, you know, maybe shift and say, okay, I'm consuming too much. What could I consume that I'm.
Learning.
Yeah. Right. Where I'm absorbing positivity. Right. Because the fear is just toxic. What could I bring in that is.
Beneficial? Yeah. It can balance that out and, and you know, it'll, it'll open your eyes to how much the outside media and social and everything influences you on a day to day basis. Maybe, you know, before all of this, you're scrolling a lot and you're just picking up little bits of, you know, negativity or drama on Facebook or whatever and it has an effect on you subconsciously. Now you can actually see it happening, you know, and shine the light on that. And you know, maybe in the end be thankful that you discovered that because, you know, we all have that addiction to the phone. You know, if you're, if you're curating your feed with negativity, you're going to have a negative bias. If you're curating your feed with, you know, positive and good inspirational things, you know, it May have a different.
Effect. Yeah. I mean, each moment. We get to choose right.
Now.
Yeah. Right. We could choose the tone of this.
Conversation.
Mm. We get to choose the tone of the conversation with. With our. With our loved ones, with our employees. And is that conversation in. In fear? Right. Or are we, you know, are we. Are we going in faith that it will all work out? Like, whatever your faith is, whatever, you know, whatever you believe in, in God and all that, like, you know, but to look at it and say, it'll. It'll work out, it'll pass. I truly. I hundred percent believe that this will pass. And. And mean, it's. It's going to, of course.
And. But there's times where it doesn't feel like that. There was times when 9, 11 happened, it didn't feel like it was going to pass. It was the end of the world. There was times when the recession came, it didn't feel like it was going to pass, like it was the end of the world. So, you know, 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.
Yeah. 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 if you, you know, the takeaways, like, if something like this.
You know, like the fear of. Impossibility, of recession, a lot of people worry about recession and think that it's like instant death for their.
Business. Not.
Necessarily. That's not the.
Case.
Yeah. Right. What happens is this, in moments like we're going through right now, okay, you've got one person that will, you know, be so overtaken by the fear that they're like a deer in.
Headlights.
Mm. And they're paralyzed to where they don't know what to do. What? Like, they're stuck. They're frozen. I can't even say the words. They're.
Frozen.
Yeah. And then you've got somebody else, which I recommend everybody models this person that says, you know what? I need to charge.
Forward.
Yeah. 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. Right. You've got to control what it is you can control. Right. So during this time, I listen and we, you know, we've talked to people this. This past week, got clients. You know, certain cities are on lockdown. Certain cities look like, they're gonna be going towards lockdown and there's the possibility of not being able to perform moves for, you know, however long it's gonna.
Be.
Yeah. Same thing with other businesses, any business. Right. Everyone. It's, it's tough right now, but if you sit back and either get frozen or feel sorry for yourself and, you know, woe is me, this is terrible. I've got, you know, this going on or that going on.
This isn't a good time, then you might not make it through this business wise. But the people who. My advice is, take this time and keep moving forward. Right, right. Keep pushing on all, you know, everything that you had planned, everything that you were going, keep doing.
It. Keep stepping towards.
It. 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.
Yeah. If you take a hit this month, if you take a hit next month, if this summer is weird and it's like, man, like we're still, maybe we weren't able to do some moves and all those people had to move to the summer and it just, you know, 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.
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.
Right. Really bad spot. So, you know, that's why we talk. You know, 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 like, on the offense instead of back on your heels on the.
Defense.
Proactive. You gotta be.
Proactive.
Yeah. Right. It's so important right.
Now. Yeah. I think a lot of people are, you know.
If you, if you're paying attention to the media, if you're, if you're not managing that fear and you're not managing your stress and you're just high strung and you're, you're sitting there thinking yourself, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? You know, 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 gonna allow this in my life anymore. I'm taking control of Who I am, where I'm gonna go with this business, what I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna let all of that in anymore. Build a force field around yourself, you know, and decide to say, okay, every single day, I'm gonna 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, you know, 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 and your life and your business? I mean, one little step, that's.
It. You'll be much better off than if you didn't do that. Yeah. You'll be much better off than if you just sat on the sidelines. And I'm saying this. I, you know, I look at this, the closest thing that I can think of is the recession or, you know, growing up in Florida, like preparing for hurricanes and then devastation that happens with hurricanes and things like that. And, you know, with. When I've dealt with both of those in my business, you know, and you've just got, you've got to just keep moving.
Forward.
Yeah. Right. So, like, for me, you know, it hit me for a day and a half, two days, where it knocked me off, man. It was like, you know, it did. It was okay. And, and the big part about it was how much I was.
Consuming.
Right. It was how much I was consuming, how much I was consuming, how much I was consuming. And it's like, you know, if you look at your brain and it's a sponge and you're just absorbing all the.
Fear.
Yeah. It's not you. You're not going to be able to take action. It will, you know, it would paralyze.
You. Like an involuntary.
Bias.
Yeah. You know, you just.
Conditioned.
Yeah. You know, I mean, I see it, you know, just going through when I process my email in the mornings, like just my inbox, every email list and every person that I receive emails from. It's all, you know, coronavirus this and coronavirus that. And, and, you know, you have to just kind of realize, like, I need a few trusted sources and then the rest of it I gotta get rid.
Of. I gotta, gotta get rid of all of it. Yeah. You know, and that, that includes anyone that's around that's like when wants to talk to you about how the world's coming to an end. You can't listen to.
That.
No. The world's not coming to an.
End.
Definitely. 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, you know how this is going to affect our, you know, global.
Economy.
Yeah. But it will impact everybody's.
Business.
Everybody.
Everybody.
Yeah. And it will then start to subside, and then we'll all deal with a new.
Normal. A new.
Normal. You know, whatever. Whatever that's going to be. We don't know yet. But you've got a choice. You know, there's. There's the pandemic. Right. There's. There's the coronavirus and then there's the.
Fear.
Mm. You know, you do what you can to avoid the virus, but the fear you can control. You will cripple.
You.
Yeah. You know, and it's. I don't want to make anybody feel like.
You know, 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. And, like, we're just, you know, we've got to be super, super proactive about it. I mean, I caught myself. I caught myself this morning. I told myself I'm not watching the news before noon. Came in, my wife had, you know, president was on talking, got sucked in. I got sucked in for, you know, 20 minutes or so, then realized like, 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. Like, 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. There's part of me, there's. I think we all have that piece of us, you know, we all have that little piece that wants it, that feeds off of.
It. Yeah, right. You enjoy it a little.
Bit. You enjoy it a little bit. Like, give me the goods. 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. Like, how are you? How do you want them to see you responding to this? Right.
Now. Yeah. You got people depending on.
You. You know, 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, 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.
True. Right. That could really use somebody to come in and give them some perspective on everything that's going on from a safe distance. Yeah. I mean, keep your distance. I mean, for real. Like, we went for a walk in the neighborhood yesterday, and, you know, there was somebody coming on the sidewalk this way. We just kind of went out in the.
Street.
Yeah. You know, I'm not. Listen, why take.
Chances? Hey, listen, it's. It's even like you were saying, it's about just making them feel comfortable. Like, you know, you don't know what. What they're. What they've been watching on the news today and how long they've been feeding the fear into their brain. You know, it's. It's. It's.
Respect. It is. It's respect to do the right thing and take it seriously. Have you noticed, though, that, like.
People are.
I mean, I kind of noticed it myself, and I had to catch myself to where I see somebody coming, and it almost. There's like an adversarial, you know.
Like a territorial kind of.
Thing. Yeah. Like, oh, you know, because I'm walk. My wife, the baby, the dog, you know, like. Like, you have this thing. You're coming at me. Like, you know, it feel. And I noticed that everyone's not as.
Friendly. You know what I mean? Like, even, like, going to the store. It's like everybody's in there like this. Like, are you gonna. Are you the one that's gonna give it to me? Are you the one that's gonna.
Give it to me, you know, on the way in this morning? Our office is located near a.
Costco.
Yeah. And you can imagine the lines of people waiting for that place to open up, you know, on my way in. And you see everybody standing in line. Some people are kind of respecting the social distance thing and pulling themselves out of the line a little bit. Some people aren't. But everybody is just sort of looking down at their phone and not really, like, talking to each other or, you know, being social. Like, everybody's kind of in their own little bubble, and it's like the slightest little thing. Like, people are a little jittery. You know, somebody bumps their card into the Other person. Oh, you know, there's a little bit of tension.
There. Yeah. I mean, it's understandable. It's understandable. I mean, I know, like I, you know, I try to. When I catch myself doing something, I try to break down, like, why am I doing that? You know? And I realized, you know, neighbor walked by and wants to talk, and I'm like, real short. I was like, real short with.
Them.
Yeah. And I realized I'm like. I was like, okay. Because in my mind, subconsciously, I'm thinking if I engage him in conversation, he's going to come.
Closer.
Yeah. And I don't want him to come closer anyways. You know, it's crazy times that we're dealing with and it's. It's an opportunity to kind of. It's an opportunity to.
Grow.
Yeah. Period. The end. Learn right now. Right? 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, you know, look, because we deal with a lot of people at a lot of different levels, right. 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.
Yeah. And, you know, it's. You could sit in panic or you could say, you know what? This is the wake up call. This is it. Like, now's the time. All that stuff that I've been saying I needed to do. But there was this and there was that. Like, it kind of 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, if you're. Even if you can't do moves, if you're on a lockdown, be in touch with your customers. Right. 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, you know, because they're dealing with it too. Right. And if you're their company, let them know you're still there. And also, don't lose those.
Moves. Right, right.
Right. Don't. Don't let them call. We don't know what we're doing. They're gonna be like, oh, I'm not. Let me call somebody else because I need to move as soon as this thing is lifted and we're able to. Right. 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 know, you've got salespeople, let them work from home, keep getting the leads, keep booking moves, keep moving forward. You know, 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 your accounting. You gotta stay moving forward with all of that stuff right.
Now. Yeah. Keep the machine going and reassure people, you know, retain them. I mean, that's the name of the game, you know, don't let the fear, you know, clear your calendar.
Yeah. You know, they're gonna, they need to move. If they're not, if they're not allowed, if you're not allowed to go move them, that means they're not allowed to go.
Move.
Yeah. Which means that it'll be postponed. And you want to make sure that you still gather that. Right, Right. So let's say you take a hit right now, it's going to affect.
Everybody.
Yeah. Right. Hopefully, you know, it won't be.
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, you know, if you're listening to this, if you're watching this, like you're not someone that's just sitting back, like, happy with where your business is and like, I'm good, you know, 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 smooth, smoother. Okay? You could be working on all that stuff now, right. And put yourself six months from now. Think about six months from now. What actions do I need to take to where, you know, 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, you know, if I had a couple of bad months because of the coronavirus, I made up for it at the end of the day, a year, we've got a long way till December 31. Don't look at this year and think, oh, it's done. My year is over. I'm not on track to hit my, my targets or hit my numbers. And, you know, there's, there's, we're all dealing with this. So it's, you know, whatever you're going through, if you're having cash flow issues, if you're having problems. People get that. People understand that. Right. It's going to affect everybody. You might have to make hard decisions when it comes to employees. You might have to decide that, you know, maybe you, you want to be extra giving with them, but maybe you can't. Yeah, you know, maybe there's, you know, maybe you can't pay the rent. You know, if it comes to that.
The point is everybody's going through it and I believe it'll all, you know, work itself.
Out.
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, 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, some kind of thing that happens, you're going to be able to weather the storm. Never again. That's. Put your foot.
Down. Yeah, that's it. Like, let this be the wake up.
Call.
Yeah. You know, it's an opportunity. It's an opportunity. And you know what? Again, I'll say it again, going through the recession, right. Lost a ton, was on my heels. Like, 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 as easy and cushy and, you know, all of that. So, you know, look at, you know, look at the long term, right. Don't look at the next week, the next 30 days. That, yeah, like, 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've, you know, I can't, I just can't say it enough. Like, take action every day. That's moving you towards building the business that you want, period, Regardless of what's going on. Otherwise you're going to sit back six months from now and you're like, man, you know what? I let that time go.
By.
Yeah. 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. Worst.
Thing. You don't want to sit there eating a big bowl of regret, you know, a year from now. Yeah, it's. It's. It's a perfect time right now. You know, it's. It's. It's a solemn time, and it's. It's a serious time. So. So, you know, be serious. Be serious about your business, about what kind of life you want, you.
Know, and you don't have to run off of stress and.
Adrenaline.
No. You know what I mean? Like, 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, you know, kind of take a different approach to it and calm yourself a little bit and, you know, charge this thing with. With intention of where you're going. I mean, you know, and it might shift every day. Every single day. You've got to, you know, get out of pen and paper and say, okay, this is my plan. This is where I'm going. This, right now. I just. 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, I. 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.
Right? You could feel the stress melting away just coming up with a.
Plan. And your plan might be shit by the end of the.
Day.
Yeah. I'm just saying, you know, like, you might come up with a plan, and then they're like, hey, no, you know, can't do anything for the next.
Month.
Right? And then you readjust, right? So you, You. You go and review what's new and revisit your plan. Review and.
Revisit. That's it. Yeah.
Right. But. But, but, like, keep moving forward. And, And I. And I'm saying it because.
So many people right now are in a fork in the road with their business, right? 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 it's, you know, the decision you make today and every day, moving forward until we get out of this. This crisis here. It. That's. That's going to predict your future. You know, not what the stock market does, not what the, you know, 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.
Yeah. You're in as close to a recession proof business as you could possibly be in if you're in the moving.
Business.
Yeah. Like when, when the recession hit, it wasn't that there was no move. Right. It's just the whole dynamic of things changed. Right. For me, it was the perfect storm, which is everything that was going on. But people will always need to.
Move.
Yeah. So don't think that, you know, an epidemic or a pandemic comes or recession comes and it's like instant death to your business. It's not the case. It's just, you know, it will, it will.
Filter out the week though. You know, the people that, the people that aren't taking the action, the people that are sitting back, you know, they're not gonna be in a good position if a recession comes or anything like that. So it's, you know, you just got to keep pushing.
Forward. That's the, it's actually the choice you need to make is you need to decide what, you know, what kind of business am I going to have. Am I going to have a business that is, you know, 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.
Yeah. You know, and it's a.
Choice. It's a choice. And it's, you know, and it's, and it's the reason we're moving forward with moving CEO virtual. Right. I mean, we got to do this three day live event virtually because I know that people need this now. You know, we were like, okay, we'll postpone it. We'll, we'll do it in, you know, in the fall, which we're going to do also. But 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. It's.
Possible. Right. And that's, you know, 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 moving seminar.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 come and get focused on, on learning about possibilities and how to get.
There. Yeah, I'm really excited. I, I like, you know, the, this, this opportunity we've had to really focus on, on the, the online virtual seminar and making it as good as we can. And, and, and now that I've seen the framework for it and we're, we're working on ironing out all the details and how we're going to present it, I think it's, it's better than ever. I think it's better than it could have.
Been. It's going to be the best, it's going to be the best event we've ever done. Even, even out of the live in person.
Events. I agree, I.
Agree. And you know, so make sure you are there. I mean there's, there's no reason not to be.
You know, this, this is my mission. My mission is to help people profit in business and thrive in life. And you know what, shit happens and, and stuff comes along and the economy will get rocky and a pandemic will come along and like it's natural disaster. Things happen in the world that could affect your business. Don't let your business be vulnerable and so fragile that, you know, 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. 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.
Period. The people that are like, this sucks, but I'm going to weather this storm in, in the moving business are, 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.
Yeah. And my heart goes out to them. Are there because they didn't take the action or to net, you know, and, and, and doesn't mean they didn't take action. Doesn't mean they didn't work hard. Yeah, we see a lot of people work really hard, but it's not taking the right action to win the game of.
Business.
Yeah. 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.
Yeah. So listen, guys, stay strong, stay safe, you know, stay informed and stay focused and hungry and keep moving forward. Don't let this be a time where you, you know, lose your momentum, you lose what you have going on. Keep pushing in every area that you possibly can and you will come out strong 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. So, yeah, listen, until we, until we see you next time. Chris, you got anything to.
Add? You know, I just a couple of things. I want to also give a shout out to all of our members and community of, of company owners out there who have, you know, taken the initiative to implement a lot of the things that, that you teach and they've either, you know, been a part of your programs or have, have been private clients and stuff like that. Those people who are still crushing it right now and just getting through this, you know, barely sweating, you know.
And, and, and to, to them as well, the amount of.
Love and just camaraderie that they've showed within our community, like within our group. And yeah, I mean, it's like you would think that they're all the same company that they're all like, we're, they're like, we're in this.
Together. Everybody's on the same.
Team. You know, just reading the comments and we were just live with them, you know, a couple hours ago and. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, right now just do what you can to be supportive of anybody and everybody that you've got going on. We appreciate.
It.
Yeah. You know, anything you could do in the community too, you know, if there's, if there's some way you could help do what you could.
Do.
Yeah. You.
Know.
Yeah. So listen, guys, stay strong, stay safe.
Make sure you go and sign up for Moving CEO Live. And I'm, I'm saying that to you. I know you're like, louis, we're going through a lot of stuff. I know we're going through a, 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, right? We can't be on pause. Make sure you get your tickets. Moving CEO go to moving seminar dot com. That's moving seminar dot com. We're doing this virtually. You can watch it from your home. You can watch it with your team. And I'm going to make sure that it is like it's already laid out. I've got it all laid out. And it's, 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, you know, 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. Thrive in your life. Wash your hands, stay away from people, stay safe. My friends, I'll see you next time.