Moving Business Stress… How To Deal With It

Hey, my friends, it's Louis Massaro, and welcome to another episode of the Moving Mastery Podcast.

Have you ever been, like, totally stressed out or overwhelmed with work, with your business? Do you feel that way? Maybe every day, you know, is it something that continues to be a problem for you? You know, it's a stressful business. Any business is stressful. But the moving business is definitely a stressful business. I know that, right? I've been there. I used to, when I started, I was so stressed out, I would. I had ulcers, I was sick to my stomach. You know, it was just. I allowed myself to just be stressed all the time. You know, I allowed every circumstance that would happen and every problem that would pop up to affect me. And you know what? I dec. To change that, all right? Because it's a decision. When you stress out, when you get overwhelmed, you may not realize it, but you're making a decision at that point to allow yourself to get stressed out and to allow yourself to get overwhelmed. All right? You know, as entrepreneurs, as business owners, we talk about, you know, I'm stressed. I got, I got everything, all this stuff to deal with. I got all these employees and trucks and, you know, it's stressful. And in reality, you know, stress is just a code word for fear. You know, if you really break down stress, if you really take a look at what stress is, it's all fear. It's all, you know, if we don't cover all these jobs, what's gonna happen, right? Customers are gonna be upset, so you're fearful the customer's gonna be upset. You're not gonna make the money that you want to make for that day, right? What's gonna happen if movers don't show up on a busy day? We're not gonna cover the work, right? You get stressed out, but you're fearful of what's gonna happen, alright? So it's important to first take a step back and look at what it is and realize that, you know what, that doesn't have to be you, right? Maybe you're stressed out because that's the way you learned whether, you know, you did it consciously or unconsciously to run your business, right? Maybe, you know, as a kid, you saw somebody running a business and they were always yelling and screaming and they were stressed out and just came home and, you know, were pissed off or you saw it in a movie or a TV show and just that was the stigma of, you know, how a businessman should be or a businesswoman should be. But it doesn't have to Be that way. And it's not effective to be that way. You know, if you want to be effective leader, you can't be stressed out all the time. You know, the general of an army isn't like, stressed out throwing fits and getting pissed off at people. Like, you got to keep your composure, right? And if you're stressed out, your decisions aren't going to be as good as they could be and should be, right? Listen, I know it's tough and there's no magic bullet to deal with stress, but I want to give you five things that you can do to help manage the stress of running your business, alright? So the first thing is, and this was, you know how it all started for me was decide not to be a stress case. Make the decision right now that, you know what, I don't want to run my business as a stress case, alright? Because. And you know what? A lot of people will fight me on this. You know, a lot of people watching this are going to say, yeah, but you know what, Louis? You don't know my circumstance. You don't know what I have to deal with in my business. You don't know that it's only me and the employees I have. They don't do what they're supposed to do. And I barely have enough money to pay the bills every month. Listen, I've been there. I know it. And someone who wants to argue for this and say that, you don't know my circumstance, they're gonna keep looking for drama. They're gonna keep looking for something to be stressed out about. And if you keep looking for something to be stressed out about, you're going to be stressed out, all right? So the first thing is just decide right now, in this moment, you don't want to be a stress case anymore, all right? You want to lead your business with a clear head and a clear focus and, and be there when you get home for your family and not be all stressed out. It's a better quality of life. And you don't have to be a business owner. You don't have to go in and run your business and let stress dictate how you do things, all right? Number two.

This will alleviate a lot of stress for you. Get organized, all right? I talked to a lot of moving company owners, and I talked to them about, you know, talk to me about your, you know, your time management. Talk to me about how you organize things. You know, I ask them certain questions that lead to me finding out if they're organized or not, all right? Because if you're unorganized, you're going to be stressed out, you're going to be overwhelmed, you're going to feel like there's not enough time in the day. There's plenty of time in the day, there's plenty of time in the week, there's plenty of time in the month, there's plenty of time in the year. But when you're not organized, you're acting in a reactive state. You're not being proactive. You don't have stuff on your calendar, right, Laid out in order of priority, of what needs to get done and what needs to get accomplished. You know, it's a whole different ballgame when you have everything in your mind and you know all these things you need to do. I'm sure you have a ton of stuff you need to get done and a lot that you're responsible for. Don't I know this? Believe me, I've been there, right? But when you have it organized, when you know what your priorities are and then you put them on your calendar and let's say you have something that you know needs to get done, and now it's on the calendar for two days from now or two weeks from now, whatever it is, wherever it lies within your priorities, you can be focused and calm and in the moment and deal with what's in front of you instead of worrying about all the stuff that you know. You can't get it all done right now. So get organized, put it on the calendar and. And do it in order of priority. Organize and execute around priorities always. All right? Number three, own your role as a leader, all right? You know, you've chosen to be a business owner, all right? For better or for worse, there's a lot of good things that come with it, and there's also things that can be looked at as bad things that come with it or stressful things or over overwhelm or responsibility. If this is what you're choosing, if you want to own a business, you need to own that role and understand that things are going to happen, understand that people are going to disappoint you. Somebody's not going to do their job correctly, all right? You're going to have a customer that just is difficult to deal with, all right? Things are going to happen, and that's your responsibility. If you want to take home the big bucks, if you want to be the one that's not punching the clock, that's not working for an hourly rate, a wage for somebody else, and you want to own your own business, then own that role and know that there's going to be some things that could cause stress that go with that. Not stress, things that could cause stress if you let them cause stress, all right? Own the role. Listen, it's a penalty of leadership, all right? It's not all good. There's other stuff that comes with it. Own it, all right? Next, accept that things are going to go wrong, all right? Accept this fact. This was one of the best things I ever did, all right? Because you know what? I had cities, I had offices in cities throughout the country, all right? So every day something was happening, all right? Whether a truck flipped over, right? Whether a mover was injured on a job and then wanted to sue for workers comp. All these things, if they happen to you, guess what? Chances are they'll happen again. Chances are something worse could happen that hasn't already happened. And if you allow that to throw you off completely, if you allow that to completely, you know, ruin your day, your week, your year, whatever, you're not going to be in a centered place to be able to run your business as a leader, alright? Accept that things are gonna happen and when they happen, just say, you know what? That's just part of being in business, all right? You could then ask yourself, what could we do to make sure this doesn't happen again, right? What can I do to fix this? But don't get whatever it is, think of the worst case scenario, you know, think of the worst case scenario. I mean, whatever it is, it could happen, right? But it's not the end of the world. And if you think about every moment you're stressed out, every moment you're overwhelmed, you're not making good decisions as a leader, all right? So you need to get away from that as quick as possible. Doesn't matter what happens, right? Doesn't matter. It could be the worst thing. You need to, you know, allow yourself to process it, all right? Deal with the situation at hand like a leader, then move on. You know, don't be a victim and say, oh, this happened to me. You know, everything was going smooth and then, you know, the truck got, you know, blown with wind off the highway. That happened to me before. Totally tipped over the whole box of the truck with the customer shipment in it, all right? And many other things, but they're going to happen. Accept that, all right? Last one is release the stress when it happens, all right?

I'm not under some false conception here. That stress is going to go away based on what I'm sharing with you today, all right? But what I do know is that you can manage that stress better. What I do know is when these things happen, right? When that whatever it is happens, that customer calls and yells, that mover that was your lead guy quits and goes and works for somebody else, whatever it is that pisses you off, that stresses you out. You know, if you sit at your computer and you're going through emails and all of a sudden you just feel totally overwhelmed, like, I have so much to do and I can't get to it all, take a step back and tell yourself, you know what, in this state of mind, I can't be a leader, right? I can't steer the ship of this company in the right direction if I'm stressed out and overwhelmed and frazzled. All right? So release it right away. Do whatever you need to do to release that stress. Whether that's, you know, sit in your office, close the door and breathe.

Just take some deep breaths, right? Go for a walk, right? Go for a 20 minute walk. Just literally walk outside your office and just go for a stroll and tell yourself, you know what, I'm in no position to be a leader right now. I need to go and get my mind right because my mind controls everything that happens in my business. And if my mind's not right, my business isn't going to be right, alright? So the quicker that you can like take care of that and release it, the more productive you're going to be. Listen, we've all had those days where you're just stressed out and you're overwhelmed and you let something that happens early in the day ruin your whole day, right? Think about how much time you wasted that day. Think about all the productive things you could have been doing to move your business forward with that time, but you couldn't because you were so stressed and overwhelmed with that situation. Release it quick. All right, listen, I know it's tough, I know it's a stressful business, but if you decide that, you know what, I don't want to be a stress case. I'm going to start taking steps and taking action that is going to allow me to alleviate stress. You'll find your own ways to do that. All right? I hope this was helpful. Don't stress about not being stressed. I'll see you next week. Go out there. Profit in business, thrive in life. I'll see you later.

And if you're ready to take your moving company to the next level, make sure you check out my brand new on demand training on how to consistently book more high paying moves all year long. It's called the six Stages of a Moving Company Sales Machine and you can access it right now for free@lewismassaro.com.

Six stages in this training, you'll learn the steps you need to take to increase your sales with a smooth running, consistent process. This is the same process I use in my moving companies to book 12,000.

Moves a year, and now I'm training.

You on how to implement it in.

Your moving company for free.

It's available now@lewismassaro.com Six stages.

Sam.