How Your Identity Is Preventing Your Success
Louis Massaro says your beliefs about money, leadership, and success create invisible walls that block growth. He shows how owners can raise prices, delegate, and scale by deliberately stepping into new identities instead of staying trapped in limiting self-talk.
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Hey, my friends, it's Luis Massaro, founder of Moving Sales Academy and CEO Moving Mastery. Today I want to talk to you about something that's so, so important and it's how your identity and the beliefs you have about yourself and certain areas are holding you back from reaching that next level of success in your business. You know, this is something that I believe in so deeply because I've witnessed it in myself and I've witnessed it in my coaching clients of, you know, the things that we think about and the beliefs that we have about. These five areas that I'm going to share with you today, you know, will determine where we head in our life and the beliefs that we have and the identity that we've, you know, given ourselves is what's actually led us to where we are today. Right, so you are where you are today because of the beliefs you have and because of the identity that you, you have for yourself. Right. Do you see yourself as a successful person? Do you see yourself as somebody that's worthy of making money? Do you see money as something that is good? Or do you see people that make money as greedy? And how do you view certain things in your life and what is your identity with those areas? And I want to talk about five that I know at least one of these you're going to identify with and say, all right, that's, you know, that's definitely an issue for me. That's a problem for me, that's holding me back from reaching that next level. And I'm a big believer that we're not stuck in any type of mindset or beliefs that we have that maybe we've had since we were, could barely walk. And we just grew up with these beliefs. We grew up in an environment with these beliefs. And those beliefs till this point now have shaped your identity. But that doesn't mean that you can't shift those beliefs because your beliefs and the identity you have, that's what really causes you to think the things that you think right and feel the things that you feel. And that's what's going to cause you to take the actions that you take. And that's what's going to get you the results that you're going to get or that you've gotten so far in your life. Alright? So, you know, for me, I had this belief when I first started that, you know, you got to work 80 hours a week, you've got to just put in the time, you got to hustle, like there's no time to enjoy your life. It's all about work, work, work. And I was working 80 hours a week. I was spending pretty much every waking hour at my business, at my office, working. And, you know, in my mind, my identity when it came to work was like, I'm a hustler. Like, that's, you know, I'm going to put in the work that no one else is willing to do. And that's essentially the results that I got, right? Was that, okay, I'm identifying myself as a hustler. So what do I do? I hustle day in and day out because that's what I believed I needed to be successful, right? But I also had a mindset that I was going to be a millionaire mover, that I already was a millionaire mover, that I was going to make millions of dollars in this business before I had any money, before I had any reason to believe that. So because I had that belief and because I formed that identity for myself, and I stepped into that, it became a reality, right? But then I looked and I said, all right, so, you know, I have this belief in this identity of being a hustler, right? And I also then put that together with I'm going to be a millionaire mover. And then I looked at my results and I said, okay, well, my results must be because of my hustling, because of putting in the eight hours a week. That's how I got to the level where I was at. And it wasn't until later on, you know, in my career, once I already, you know, kind of made all the money that I really never thought I would. Right. That, you know, more than I ever thought I, you know, even dreamed of that. It wasn't all about the hustling, right? That wasn't really what got me there, right. That was part of the momentum. But now I had to shift that belief and I had to shift that identity if I wanted to live a normal life and not work 80 hours a week and not be stressed out and overwhelmed and just feel like, you know, it's never enough. You got to keep going. And it wasn't until I decided that, you know what? I need to change this belief. And the only reason I decided I need to change it was that I first identified it, right? Somebody pointed this out to me, and I'm like, yeah, you know what? You're right. Like, I need to shift the way that I see myself. And in order for me to, you know, do that, I need to shift into a new identity, right? So my new identity was that of, you know, I'm going to be a high level CEO in my business. And a high level CEO doesn't work 80 hours a week. Right. Isn't a hustler, Isn't there like doing everything themselves because nobody else could do it better? No. Right. They've got systems, they've got processes, they've got people to delegate things to. And that's the identity that I started to step into when it came to how I'm going to be as a leader in my business. Right. And so I believe that we all have identities when it comes to. I'm going to share with you five key areas that, that are either, you know, helping you move forward or holding you back. Right? And when we talk about these beliefs, a lot of it's just this self talk that we have. So I want to share with you these five areas to see if you could relate to some of them and tell you what you could do to start shifting them. Because you know what, have you ever felt like you just put in so much time, you put in so much effort, you feel like you're doing all the right things, you're taking all the right steps, but you're just hitting that wall. That wall is the beliefs that you have on how far you could go. That wall is the identity that you've stepped into that's either, you know, helping you reach those levels or holding you back from those levels. So the first one is money identity, right? How do you view money? Right. And I know it might sound like a silly question, like Louis, what do you mean? Money's great. But you know, how many people have a negative association with money? How many people, you know, grew up with the mindset of like, money doesn't grow on trees. If you want to make money, you've got to work hard. That's the only way to get money. Or, you know, people with money are corrupt, people with money are greedy, right? These mindsets, this identity that we all have, right? It's all different. We all have a money identity. It's just that, you know, some have an abundance mindset, right? A feeling of like, you know what, there's enough money for everybody. There's enough to go around where others have this mindset of scarcity. And you know, the way that you feel about money is going to cause you to think differently, it's going to cause you to feel differently, it's going to cause you to act differently and it's going to give you different results. So if you're putting in all this work, but you have this like Negative association with money, right? Or you have it in your mind that money doesn't grow on trees, then you're gonna have a really hard time breaking through to that level of income that you want to achieve, right? So what you want to do with all of these identities is you need to just start listening to those. You know, that voice in your head, right? When you go to look at something or you know, you're at a store and that voice pops up like I can't afford that, or that's ridiculous, like I wouldn't spend the money on that. There's people starving in China, right? Like how many times are you, you know, maybe you eaten dinner as a kid, you didn't finish your food and your parents, like there's kids starving in China, you got to finish your plate. You know, all these good intention things that, you know, have made us into who we are could also really be holding us back. So the first thing you want to do with all of these is start to identify, you know, that self talk and know that that self talk, what you're saying today is going to give you the results of where you are tomorrow. Where you are today is a result of that self talk from yesterday, right? So the second identity is your company identity. How do you view your business, right? Do you, you know, do you view your company as a, as a, as a quality company, as a company that's a money generating machine? Or do you view your company as, you know, a place you go to, kind of run your business and you have a job and you go there each day and it's stressful and it's overwhelming and it's a lot of work for not a lot of results, you know, and what is your, you know, how do you feel your company is, you know, in the eyes of the public, right? Are you like a pillar of the community, right? To where, you know, people know your company, they know your name, or do you feel that, you know, you're a fly by night company? You know, there's companies out there that, you know, you have the self belief and identity after being in business for five, six, seven years that they're still the new guy on the block, right? They might be doing an excellent job, they might be crushing it and have quality moves going on every single day, but they still feel that they're a small company that's not worthy of, you know, higher rates, right? Or they're not worthy of getting those big jobs that other companies might get. So start to think about what your identity is with your company. The next one is what's your leader identity? How do you view yourself as a leader? Right. So you know, are you someone who leads by example, Right. Or are you someone who has a hard time leading because you feel that nobody does what you ask them to do? Right. You know, if you say, you know, yeah, but my employees, they just don't do what I ask them to do. Okay? That's a belief. What does that say about your identity as a leader? Right? In other words, people are people. The people that, you know, I hire and the people that you hire and the people that the next person hires, they're all people. It's your ability to lead. And your ability to lead has a lot to do with how you view yourself as a leader, right? If you're a business owner, if you're a manager, you have to step into and identity of a leader, okay? And if you don't see yourself as someone that people will respect and someone will listen to, then people aren't going to respect you and they're not going to listen to you. Right? So look, we all have these like deep down insecurities and these deep down fears of different things, but you have to be able to bring them to the surface for yourself, right? You don't have to go tell everybody around you like, this is how I view myself as a leader. But you have to identify this because you start, you need to start looking for new identities and new ways of viewing yourself and new beliefs that you want to step into, right? Otherwise you're going to stay stuck there and that's going to be the wall that you keep hitting and you can't figure out how to get around it. The next one is your, let's make sure we don't get two. Here is your capability identity, right? You know, what do you feel you're capable of? Are you somebody that, you know, feels like, hey, I can handle anything, I can figure it out. You know, I might not know how to do it right away, but I could do some research, I could talk to some people, I'll figure it out and I can handle anything, right? Give it to me, I'll handle it. Or are you someone that feels that everything is hard, everything is difficult, right? Everything is, you know, too much to handle and it's overwhelming and you're not quite sure how to figure it out. And you know, you're not good enough to do this or you're not good enough to do that. And you know, before you jump to conclusions and say, yeah, I'm capable It's all about that little voice in your head. It's all about that, you know that, that self doubt that pops up and you know, the voice you listen to the most every single day is your own. So you need to identify, you know, how much, how many times are you trying to do something new. When you do, what are you hearing from yourself, right? That you're capable or that you're not capable. You've got to identify that. And the last one is your success identity, right? And this is different than money. This is your overall success. Do you view yourself as a successful person or do you view yourself as, you know, someone that maybe you have a business or maybe you're a manager, but you don't feel like a success? You don't have the identity of a successful person, right? You don't do the things that, you know. If you looked at it and said if I asked you, I said, you know, what do successful people do? How do successful people handle their day? How do successful people handle their business? How do successful people handle their life? And I asked you that question and you gave me the answer. And you describe successful people. Does that, does that describe you? Right? And if that doesn't describe you, you're seeing success as one thing, but you're not stepping into that. So you don't have a successful identity. And it's not, this isn't something to like beat yourself up over and feel bad about, but it is something to identify and say, okay, well, if this is what I see as success, what do I need to do on a day to day basis that I could start to adopt that identity and step into that successful person identity, right? You know, this is something that, you know, at the last moving Sales academy seminar, right, I had somebody stand up, ask a question. He said, you know, Louis, I really want to charge more money for my moves. But you know, we're not, you know, we're not an established company. We're, you know, we haven't been in business that long and I just don't think customers are going to want to pay us for it. Okay, well, you know, how long have you been in business? He said, three years. So. Okay, well, that's not that new, right? I said in three years, I opened six locations. So don't look at three years as not being enough time. So how many trucks do you have? He said, three. I said, that's a good amount of trucks. I said, do you, you know, how's your quality? Like, do you guys go out there? Do you, do you Know, do a good move. Do you get 5 star reviews? Are your customers happy? It's like, oh, we're the best. He's like, we've got, you know, some of the best guys that have been with me since day one. And you know, I go out there, I make sure things are getting done right and our quality is just really on point. I said, well, so why don't you feel you deserve to charge more money to be able to actually be profitable with your moves and not continue to, you know, struggle? He said, because we're just not, you know, we're not a big company. You know, I don't see why companies, why customers would pay us, you know, top dollar for that. I said, look, that's a belief, you know, that's the identity that you've put on your company is that we're a small company that doesn't deserve top dollar, right? What if you shifted that and what if you said instead of we're a small company, say we're a quality company, right? And we want to get paid for the quality of service that we provide. The customers don't care how big you are. They don't care if you have three trucks or you have 20 trucks. All they want to know is the truck that comes to them is going to do an excellent job. And if you're saying that the customers are going to do an excellent job, then you should get paid for that. There's no reason that you should have the profit margins that aren't where you want them to be when you could raise your price. Use the, you know, we're in the seminar. I'm kind of reliving the moment here. I was talking to them, you know, go through the stuff that we're talking about here to sell more moves at the higher price. You just have to step into that identity. You have to see yourself as someone who runs a company that's a quality company. Stop looking at yourself as a small company. When I first started, I was working out of the truck rental yard, but I didn't, you know, feel that I was just small company not worthy of big moves. You have to identify for yourself the things that are holding you back. For this gentleman, what was holding him back was, you know, he didn't feel that he was. His company was a big enough company to be able to ask for more money, but they were doing the quality work. That's what the customers care about. So, you know, what I want you to do is think about these areas, right? Money, how you feel about money. Right. Your company, you as a leader, your capability and your success. And I want you to start monitoring how you think about yourself in these different areas, right? Maybe keep a note in your phone with these areas, you know, and start to like, listen to the stuff you say to yourself. And what you'll notice is like, you know, you're either saying stuff that's amazing or there's a lot of negative talk. And we all have that. So when you start hearing it, don't freak yourself out. Be like, oh my God, I got voices in my head that are telling me I'm terrible. You just have to realize that if you don't identify them and start asking yourself, okay, that's the belief that got ingrained in me between the time I was born and today by whoever, whenever, wherever and just the environment that I'd be in, that I've been in. That's what's been ingrained in me. However, I could shift the way that I think about things, start consciously thinking about it in a different way and step into a new role, step into a new identity. And that's going to allow you to get past that roadblock that you may have been hitting. Even though you've been trying all the things that you think are going to help you be successful. It's that mindset that's going to keep you there and it's that self sabotage that every time things start going in a good direction, right? It's all that belief and all those identities that are going to grab you and pull you back. So start, monitor them and ask yourself, what do I want to think differently and what new identity do I want to step into? Alright, I hope this was helpful. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it for you. If you did enjoy it, make sure you share it with someone else that would benefit from this. And until I see you next time, go out there every single day. Profit in your business and thrive in your life. I'll see you later. I hope you enjoyed that episode. Make sure you subscribe to the new Moving Mastery Podcast. 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