Moving CEO Mindset - Part 1

Foreign.

S. It's Luis Massaro. And welcome to another episode of the Moving Mastery Podcast.

All right, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Moving Mastery podcast. My name is Louis Massaro. I've got my main man Chris with me today, and we're going to be diving in into strategies on how you could take your moving company to that next level. What's up, Chris?

Hey, hey, hey. Here we are. What is this? Day 22 of. Of quarantine?

Ah, it's got to be longer than that. It's got to be longer than that. But feels like, feels like we're on lockdown for quite a while now, but we're in the house. I see you there. It's. I miss you, man. I haven't seen you in a while. It's been, you know, it's been a while since we've been together. It's probably been what, three, three weeks? At least.

At least. And yeah, you know what, though? It's an amazing time we live in. We get to still do this. We get to, you know, share, share the podcast with these people and, and, you know, it's still an amazing time to be alive. It's different, but we're making the best out of it.

That's it. It's different. And you know what? Fortunately, we all have access to tools, you know, the Internet, video conferencing that we could still operate and manage our day to day and, and hopefully we'll be past this soon, but we gotta keep it going because, you know, what? Business doesn't stop, this will end, Covid will be over, and we gotta make sure that you're still marching forward with your plans, executing on your priorities and building your moving company and taking it to the next level. So in these episodes, we've been kinda letting Chris take the lead, either with some questions or, you know, pulling stuff from different areas. What do you got today, Chris?

You know, this one I think we'll do a little differently. I just had a sort of a general question. I've heard a few people ask about this and talk about this, and for me, I think it's something that I'm curious about and I think it'll be something that you'll bite into and enjoy talking about.

So what I've noticed is obviously, I think everyone in the audience knows that you were, you know, a very successful fixture in the moving industry. And I feel like it's important to kind of figure out, you know, what, why, why that is. So my question to you, and I wrote it down so I'm just going to read it to you here. My question to you is, is what is the main difference that you see in yourself and other people that have succeeded at high levels in the moving industry? And is there any common personality traits or skills that you all have?

Okay. All right. Yeah. No, I like this one a lot. You're good, man. You've been picking the good questions. What happened? You wanted to go with your own this time? You didn't find anything that excited you or what?

No, I think. Yeah. I am personally curious about this one. I know just from my perspective, I get a chance to work with you closely, so I observe a lot. And I can definitely say that there are some big differences that I see in you as.

Company owner and a leader and something that I feel like, you know, should be shared with, with the rest of the world. So, you know, it's maybe a little bit of a selfish thing on my part to ask this question, but I think.

No, I think it's good. I think. I think it's good. And, you know, really what it all boils down to. I mean, you know, there's. There's, of course, the process. You know, there's strategy, there's, you know, leadership, but it all really starts with mindset, right? And I think you've heard me talk about, you know, the moving CEO mindset, like the difference between a moving company owner and a moving CEO. And that to me is. Is the differentiator. That's. That's what helped separate myself to be able to get to the levels I did. That's what I see those same qualities in, you know, people that I work with and other people succeeding at very high levels in the moving industry. And it's really that mindset, right? It all starts with the mindset and the mindset you could have before you even get started. Right?

Okay.

For me, when I. When I first got started, it was, I'm gonna make a million. You know, I'm gonna make a million dollars in this business. I'm gonna become a millionaire in this business. That was my mindset at 19 years old. And that's what I thought about, right? And so, you know, you can have some strategies, you can have some processes, you could have some things in place, but if you don't have the right mindset going into it, then it's going to be hard to sustain that because it's not an easy business, right? This isn't a. This is by no way a get rich quick business, but it is a solid business. It is a business that, if you do it the right way, can take care of you for your life. And so to answer your question, I'm thinking through it as you're saying it, but it's definitely mindset, you know, and there's certain things. Let me first, before I get into like the mindset of it, talk about.

You know, when I say moving company owner and I say moving CEO, for me, you know, I ran my business. I started in 2000, right? It wasn't until I hit the recession, period, right, about 2008, that I had to completely shift the way that I handled and ran my business. The first shift, you know, basically was when I opened up multiple offices. I needed to kind of find a way to manage those differently than I managed the one office, right? And that was like a little bit of an adjustment. You know, I changed the way I looked at things a little bit, but I was still kind of operating from that original mindset, you know, that, that moving company owner mindset. And I don't in any way, shape or form say that as a derogatory. You know, it's just, it's a progression, right? It's, it's a level, it's a progression from going from moving company owner to moving CEO. And so, you know what I mean? So I'm not saying like moving, moving company owners like a bad term by any means, but for me, that was the mindset that I had for, you know, eight years until I was forced to, you know, come face to face with the recession, come face to face with, you know, my business being, you know, bigger than it had ever been at that point, and just went under major expansion period, right? And then all of a sudden, things shift in the economy, things shift in the way marketing happens. And it really required me to look at things differently. And that's when I started looking. I said, you know what? I need to handle my business like a CEO, right? I need to look at this differently. Because even though at that point I was, I think I hit the eight figure mark already at that point. And, you know, I could look at that success and say, okay, I'm already where I want to be, but I knew I wanted to go further. But what got me to the, to that level, I knew I needed a different mindset, I needed a different set of tools, I needed a different strategy, I needed a different approach to be able to go further.

Did you know that or were you sort of like forced into that because of the recession and all of that? I mean, do you think you would have found that mindset.

Otherwise, I don't know that I would have. You know, I think, I think the hard times bring out, you know, they make you ask the questions, right? Like, how do I, you know, there's got to be a better way. Like how do I, how do I do this? How do I run all of this and then keep growing? So it was, it was more of looking at it and saying, okay, the way that I run my day to day has to change. It has to be different, right? In order for me to grow, like, I need new systems, I need new meetings, I need new reports that I'm gonna look at. I need a new way to be able to essentially manage my business. My day needs to be different. And so has to be. Has to be.

Has to be. Yeah.

So like anybody, if you're, if you're stuck at a certain level and you feel like, you know, I don't know what to do, and maybe you're trying some different strategies, you're trying some different approaches, you're, you know, doing a lot of trial and error.

Your mindset could very, very well be the thing that's stopping you. And it doesn't mean that when I say your mindset, that that's something that's fixed, that that's something that is just part of who you are. That's just, you know, where you are right there in your evolution as a business owner, as a leader. So, you know, it's, it's taking a step back and saying, okay, who do I need to be today? Right? Because here I was, you know, seven, eight years into the business. I started as a 19 year old kid and you know, sure, I matured a little bit and my business acumen got better along the way, but I was still operating from that place, right, that initial place. And I needed to really have like a, like a, like a mindset shift and an identity shift to be able to view myself differently, to be able to step up into the role that was necessary at that time. Like not even to grow, but where my business currently was, I needed to adjust and think about things differently. Does that make sense?

Okay, now is it, is it you say mindset, like, is it, is it about your, your attitude or like your, your discipline? Like what, what's, what's really the, the foundation of it?

Yeah. So, you know, with, with myself, so I look back and I'm like, okay, what, what was it, right, that that allowed me to, you know, get to the level that I got to and what is allowing the companies that I see or the companies I work with that are performing at high levels, what's allowing them to get there? And one of the, you know, first things that stood out to me the most was, you know, essentially them, you know, saying, I'm responsible for my results, right? I am responsible for my results. And the reason that's so important is because, you know, again, I talk to a lot of people I look at, you know, it's great because my experience now of the moving business has been broadened so much because it's not just my experience that I had, you know, in the year, you know, was it 20 years since I started. It's not just that now, it's all the companies I've been working with. So I get to see so many different perspectives, so many different personality types, so many different skill levels, so many different mindsets. And the thing that I could say that everyone has that's succeeding at a high levels, they take responsibility for the results they're getting, meaning they know, first and foremost, everything is on them. Their employees mess up, it's on them. Right? Their marketing is not working, it's on them. Their sales people aren't closing at the rate they want them to close. It's on them. If they pick the web marketing company to handle their web marketing and they're not doing a good job, it's on them. You know, it's a trait that I had. It's a trait that I see that they have. It's like, look, ultimately, like, I can't blame anyone for anything. I need to take all. I need to take ultimate responsibility for everything that happens, not only my business, but in my life.

What.

What about, like, you know, a situation we're in now where, God forbid, the economy is so bad or whatever, like, is there? How do you take. Take that on?

You know, when I went through the recession, it's like I had to tell myself, like, look, you. You got yourself here, right? You didn't. In other words, I could have said, oh, the recession, it's not my fault. I was running my business great. Everything was good. It's the recession. That's what messed me up. But in reality, had I been doing, you know, looking, it's easy to look back and say, you know, I should have been doing all this stuff, right? But the only thing you could do is change it moving. But I looked at it and said, listen, I'm in the position I'm in today because of the decisions that I made, right? So for me, I was in a tough spot. When the recession hit, because I just bought, you know, 1212, a whole fleet of long distance trucks, brand new, right? Financed a million two in trucks. My yellow page bill was 250,000amonth. And it was starting to not work anymore, right? I had all these offices I was running. So, you know, at that point, I was over, over committed, overextended, right? I took a big leap and a big reach at a time when. Then all of a sudden.

You know, the recession came. So, like you're asking right now, right? We got the COVID thing going on. And the difference is the people that understand that they're responsible for all their results.

They know that where they are today is a result of the actions they've been taking for the last six months, the actions they've been taking for the last year. And they know that if they're in a bad position right now, they're able to totally look and go, yep, it's because I didn't do the stuff that I knew I needed to do six months ago. My focus wasn't where it needed to be. My priorities weren't where they needed to be. And that's why I'm in this position now. Right?

Okay.

And the people that are responsible, the people that look at it and say, I'm responsible for my results are going, okay, what can I do now? I can't control whether they open up, what stages they're gonna open up, the economy back up and let people get back, and when restaurants are gonna open and when. I can't control that, what can I control? I am responsible for my results. I am responsible for what my company's producing, my employees, whether I, you know, how I get them to contribute to my business. In these times, right? A lot of people are like, hey, you know, I've got people there at home, okay, what can they be doing to help you in your business right now? You're responsible for that, not them.

So whether.

You'Re owning up, whether it was actual, you know, a result of your actions or even if it wasn't, you're just, you're just. It's like humility. You're just, like, accepting what it is as it is. And you're. You're saying, okay, rather than dwelling on whatever is wrong or whatever's happening, you're saying, all right, let's fix this. What can I do? Where am I going to go, where do I want to go and how do I get there?

Listen, you've got to accept the fact that in business, stuff's going to happen, Right?

Yeah.

You know, you're a downturn in the economy. It's gonna happen, right? You're gonna hire a mover. He's gonna, you know, end up causing you a lawsuit, right? You're going to, you know, there's going to be a bad review because of something that happened, or there's going to be great reviews and those reviews get taken down. There's going to be things that are outside of your control, but if you start to blame them for anything, it takes away from your personal power of what you could really do to move forward. Because all that mental energy that you're wasting going, oh, they did this, or it should have been that way, or, poor me, this happened to me right now, instead of saying, what can I do to determine what my results are going to be right now? And we've talked about this before, like, the people that are going to thrive through this Covid situation are the people that are looking beyond it, right? That are taking action every single day today and looking and saying, where am I gonna be six months from now? Like, I'm looking past this. Like, I'm doing what I need to do today. I'm making sure my crews, you know, we're practicing safety. We're communicating it to the customers, but I'm looking past it. I'm doing the things, you know, I'm implementing the processes that I know I need to implement. Right. I'm taking. If they're listening to this podcast, they're somehow in, you know, in. In our world of. Of either just listening to this podcast or they've been to events, or they're in programs of ours, and there's a lot there. You know, you could dissect this whole podcast alone and make yourself a checklist of things to go start implementing. Yeah, Right. So, you know, and it's. It's. It's just. It's a way to look at it and not say I'm to blame, but it's to say I'm responsible. Right?

Yeah.

I'm responsible for the results that I get in my business. I'm responsible for the life that me and my family get to live. Right. I'm responsible for the employees that I hire on. Right. With the expectation of, you know, this is the type of position and this is the job that I'm offering you, and this is where you can go. I'm responsible for supplying them leads so that my salespeople could book moves. I'm responsible for supplying my movers with the proper equipment so that they could go out there and safely do a good job and not hurt themselves and not damage any furniture. Right? Wow. There's. Listen, this business, there's so much responsibility and so much liability that if you don't have that mindset that you just come in and say, I'm accepting it, all right, then you're gonna waste a tremendous amount of energy on, you know, poor me, this happened to me. You know, there's. There's countless scenarios and situations and. And not to say that, like, you don't. You don't feel it, and it doesn't suck when it happens, but it's just like, okay, great. What do I do about it now? How could I change this?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is there.

I mean, it. It can't be just a mindset, though, right? Is there something more? Like, what are the other elements of. Of that CEO, you know, position like?

Well, there's. You know, there's. There's still more to the mindset, right? So it's not just about. It's not just about responsibility. You know, one of the. One of the other things is, you know, a lot of people don't have the belief in themselves. You know, I'll hear from people in different formats, you know, whether it's social media, whether they come to an event, whether they come in a program, whether I get to speak to them personally, whatever it might be. And, you know, we're asking, like, what separates the.

You know, the people that are succeeding at a high level versus the people that are struggling? And, you know, another thing is that the people that are struggling don't believe.

That they could get to that level. They look at it and say, you know, they're at that level. They built that big company. But that's, you know, that's not something that I could do. So the difference in the people that do for myself and for the people that are succeeding at high levels. And when we talk about succeeding at high levels, it's like. Doesn't mean they've got offices all around the country. Right? I mean, we've got. You know, there's people that have. They're like a hometown dominator. They're just in one city, but they're just crushing it, and they're profitable. Right. To me, that's succeeding at a high level. You don't have to have 10 offices to be succeeding at a high level. You know, you gotta have your one business, and that business runs smoothly. It runs efficiently. It takes care of your customers, you get good reviews, and it generates the money that you want. For yourself and for your family. To me, that's succeeding at a high level. Right?

Sounds like. Yeah, sounds great.

And so the people that are doing that, they look at it and they say, you know what? If they could do it, I could do it. If Lewis could do it, I could do it. If that company can do it, I could do it. And that's, you know, something that I saw very, you know, that was in line with my thinking early on. You know, I looked at it and yeah, I started two rental trucks out of a truck rental yard. I wasn't allowing. I just. I don't know, it just. Maybe it came naturally, but I think it's something that. That can be learned. Right. Once not even learned, it's more of having an awareness of it. Like, oh, man. Yeah, I see the way that I think about this. And if I think about it differently. Right. It could allow me to really unblock some of the stuff that's holding me back. And, you know, from that truck rental yard, I'm like, I'm seeing these big companies and I'm like, you know what? If they could do it, I could do it. They started somewhere small too, Right. They didn't just start where they're at. I might not get there tomorrow, I might not get there next year. But why is it that that company can do it and I can't? There's no college degree necessary to, you know, build a successful moving company.

Yeah, you put your pants on just like everybody else.

That's it. So I think that's another one, you know, that you take responsibility. Right. And you just have to believe at each and every step of the way that you can do it. Know that the people you see with the big companies, it didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen without struggle, it didn't happen without hardship. Right. It didn't happen without all the same problems that you're facing today.

That they overcame, found a better way and were able to, you know, reach. Reach that higher level.

So what is it that would make someone believe that they. They couldn't do it or why. Why do you think somebody would. Would feel like they can't do what those big companies were doing?

You know, there's a few things I think number one is just, just, you know, programming. Right. Childhood programming. And just the way that each and every single one of us was brought up differently and dealt with things differently. And I don't, you know, I'm not a expert on. On parenting and, and, you know, like, how those mindsets were formed and how they were developed, but they just, you know, it could be that first failure in the business. You know, you tried something and you're like, you fail. And then that self talk starts to tell you, like, you're not good enough for this. You. You can't do this. You know, you don't have the education, you don't have the background, you don't have the experience, right?

And you know, you're also like at your per. Just how you view yourself, right? If you view yourself as.

A mover who starts their own business.

You know, just so they could work for themselves. Like if that's, you know, your.

Your mindset, right? If you're just looking at it and saying, hey, I just want to work for myself and start my own business and you know, if I can make a living, great, versus no, I'm going to build a company, right? To where the business and the company runs without me and pays me. It's just, it's just a different mindset. In other words, some people believe in themselves and some people don't. It doesn't mean that you can't believe in them, believe in yourself. What it means is like, you've got to first. You've got to first see it and you've got to. You've got to first be able to see somebody doing it and then also have it somehow demystified for you, right? Meaning, like, that's what I'm hoping to do right now. I'm hoping to like, say, like, look, it's not that big of a mystery. Like, you can do it, right? The level that you want to get to, you can do it. You know, I'm just, I mean, I barely graduated high school. I threw a yellow page ad in two rental trucks and just, you know, went at it. What really, you know, allowed me to keep moving forward was just, you know, constantly looking for the things that were wrong and then looking for the solutions.

Yeah, you wanted to get better. You wanted.

I wanted to get better. And it was just, you know, I felt I. Because I felt so lost because I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I knew that I had to work extra hard to figure it out. And because I believe that, number one, I was responsible for my results. But number two, if they could do it, I could do it. You know, that's. I started. I had this little black book I talk about it sometimes I kept in my back pocket that I just kept notes in. And every time I ran across a problem, like, okay, that's an issue I've got to fix that. I don't know how to fix it right now, but let me write it down so I could figure out how to fix it later on and that, you know, like, I didn't allow problems to just happen and happen and happen and happen. I stopped, I identified what the problem was, I wrote it down, and then I obsessed about fixing that issue so that it no longer happened. Because at first it was just, you know, everything was an issue, right? Like, every day there was just massive issues. And the difference between, you know, being able to scale your business and just struggling is.

You know, getting the problems sorted out so that you could just figure out the right way to do it and do it over and over and over the right way. Instead of every day struggling, doing the same thing and trying to figure out the same problem is taking a step back to figure out what that is. So for me, I went. And, you know, there was nobody in moving, showing you how to do it. So I studied other businesses. I talked to other successful business owners that I knew, figured out what they were doing. I'm like, okay, how could I apply this here? Right? I would take, you know, bits and pieces and just kind of start putting it all together, like, okay, that, you know, and I didn't take everything, right? I listened, I absorbed. But some stuff made sense for me and for my business, and some stuff didn't make sense for me and my business. But I. You know, it was just that, like, I just knew that there was. It was not possible.

It wasn't supposed to be that way. It shouldn't. It shouldn't have been that hard, right? I'm like, it was a rude awakening because I didn't think it was gonna be that hard. But then I'm like, okay, it is that hard. But then I just went back to like, okay, if they did it, I could do it.

Yeah. Did you start, like, with. With problems that just happened over and over again? Like, the obvious ones? Like, you start with that and then start whittling it down from there. Or, I mean, did you do it all at once? Like, how. What's the process there?

It was just every day, whatever the problem was, I just added it, you know, added it to the list and then would start to see, you know, a pattern of problems that stemmed from the same place, right? So you're like, okay, you know. You know, if you're. If you have. If you've got five problems written down that you're trying to deal with, right? And you could identify a common theme across them. And then you're like, okay, well, like, what can I do that will help all of these? Right. It's like that's, you know, that's like compound problem solving right there. Like, you. You come up with a solution that doesn't just solve one problem. It solves multiple problems. And then you make sure that that stays in place and it continues to happen that way. That's how you start to get out of the hole. That's how you start to get out of that place where you just feel like, man, this is never gonna end. Right?

Yeah. That's what the, the bigger companies were good at.

Right? I. I don't know what they were good at.

Right.

I just know the stuff that they didn't accept. Yeah. And I think that when you don't know any better. I didn't know any better. It's like, it's easy to accept things, and I don't mean accept them like I'm responsible because it's the opposite if you're. If you're going, oh, that's just the way it is. Like, you know, the, you know, people don't want to book with me. I'm like, no, I'm responsible for my results. Why is it that they don't want to book with me? What could I say to them to make them want to book with me? Right. You know, why is it that, you know, like, when I first started. When I first started. When I first started, every single person that called up for a quote got. I was like, yeah, sure, we'll send you three men, a truck, and all the equipment, $75 an hour. That was. It didn't matter if it was a studio apartment. Didn't matter if it was 12,000 square foot house. It was a mansion. It was. It was, you know, three men at 75 bucks. Because I had no idea what I was doing. So it was like, okay, this seems to be working. This is great. People are booking, People are booking. And then all of a sudden, you know, you get the. You get the chirp chirp on the, on the, on the next walkie talkie. And, you know, it's one of your movers, and he's like, hey, you know, I think one of my helpers is drunk. And I just confronted him, and he blew up on me and he walked away, and I don't know where he's at. Right. And so you've got to deal with the problem at hand, right? You've got to deal with the problem at hand. But then you've Got to be able to go, okay, how do I make sure this doesn't happen again? Right? In that scenario was like, okay, now I've got to go out to this job. I've got to, you know, get on this. This particular job. Like, when this. The one I'm thinking about was, I went out there, first of all, it was three and a half truckloads.

Wow.

That I sent three guys at 75 bucks, right? Like. Like, I had no idea how to estimate. I had no idea, like, how. How long something should take. I had no idea, you know, how much fits on a truck, right. So I go out there and come to find out it's an NBA player, highly known Olympic, you know, all star champion. Yeah. World champion. I'm not gonna say his name because I don't know, you know, I don't want to.

Yeah.

Get involved with that. But what happened?

Was he so mad?

So he. He wasn't there. His dad was there.

Okay.

And his dad was, fortunately, a cool guy was just like, you know, being cool about it. So now I jump in as a mover. His dad jumps in as a mover. So, like, I've got my two guys there, and then me and the dad are moving for two days, right? Moving stuff, getting through it. It was. I didn't know how to deal with it. I didn't know how to resolve it. I didn't know how to fix it. Right. I just tried to make it right. And from the, like, that rate, that problem presents opportunity to create better processes and create better systems, to say, okay, how do we make sure this doesn't happen? What. Because what was the problem there? The problem was, number one, didn't do a great job of hiring, Right. Because I was just, you know, just, hey, you want to work? Sure. Here's a shirt. Get on the truck. Like, no problem, Right. This is very early on. Like, this is within the first few months. And had no idea how to estimate a move, right. So I realized very quickly that day, and. And I think the, The. The. The pain of, like, having to go out there and face the. The customer and, and, you know, especially, like, his son was. Was someone that I looked up to.

And having to be there is, like, the guy who just, like, ruined their move. You know, it just made the pain of it. That's why I always say, like, when bad stuff happens, feel the pain. You know, take care of the customer. Feel the pain, but then go fix it and make sure it doesn't happen again. Right. And so it's actually pretty funny. A couple years later, I ran into the father at a car wash, and he came up, and I had a nice car at the time. And he walked up, he's like, man, that's nice. And I like, turn around. And I was like, I saw him.

And I'm like, oh, you knew he was. Right away.

Right away I knew he was. I was like, you know, I didn't know what to say. I was like, you remember me by any chance? He's like. He's like, yeah, that's why I came up to you. I'm like, man, I still. I still feel so bad about that. If you ever need anything, you know, where I was just getting started, you know, he's like, I know. I see your trucks all the time now, and, you know, ended up hitting it off with them, ended up meeting his son, and, you know, so it all worked out. But the point was that, you know, things sometimes have to go wrong for them to. For you to realize that it's not right. Like, sometimes you don't know what's right until you know what's wrong.

Yeah.

And I then knew, like, just blanketly, you know, just. Just sending out three men at 75 bucks an hour to anybody that called was not right.

You figured that out, and really what you realized is.

That CEO mindset is about not just accepting, like, living with that. Like, oh, well, stuff like that's going to happen. It's like taking the initiative to say, okay, what can I do to make sure this will not happen again?

Yeah. Yeah. Which. One of the things that just kind of stuck in my head and really became, like, the prompting point for what I wrote down in that little. That little black book was saying to myself, there's got to be a better way. You know, and it was like, sitting there on that job, like, you know, just dealing with all. I'm like, there's got to be a better way. Because I don't believe that. That the owner's position is to be out on. On the move. You know what I mean? Like, you can't run your business, and you can't grow your business if you're. You're out on the truck. If that's the way you start, great. But you've got to get off that truck as soon as possible because you'll never be able to work on the business. You'll never be able to grow the business. And so, you know, it just. There's got to be a better way. That was another major point that I see.

I saw that with. With myself that was kind of my main theme, right? That's. That's really. I could credit that statement to helping me build everything that I've ever built. You know, just. Just looking at it and saying, like, all right, this is. You know, there's got to be a better way than this. Even if. Even if there's not, you're. You're gonna go on a search for it, right? And you'll go on a search, you'll try to find what that better way is. And then if you can't find it, it's like, okay, I guess there's not a better way. But at least I went, you know, I just. And then you accept it. You accept responsibility for your results, but you went and you looked for that better way. Like, you go and you learn. Like, okay, how do I learn how to estimate, Right? You go and you learn, okay, how do I screen movers to make sure that, you know, they're not showing up drunk and walking off the job and, you know, all of that, right? So. And I noticed that with. With the people that are succeeding at high levels, you know, they're. They're, you know, especially the people that I work with, right? The people that, you know, either are at the seminars, people that are in our courses, private clients that I work with, you know, one on one, it's like they're looking for the better way, right? And, like, that's all. That's all I hope to. To shed light on is like, that's why we're doing this podcast. Like, I want to. Like, there is a better way. You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't have to be so challenging. It doesn't have to be so hard. And that's just. Just. And that's why it's mindset. Like, we're only talking about mindset right now, right? It's like, take responsibility for it, all, right? And know that you're strong enough to bear that burden and know that, hey, if somebody else out there did it, so can you. Doesn't mean you want that. Just because someone opened up, you know, 50 franchises doesn't mean that's what you want, right? Because if it's not something that you want, if it's not something that is truly in line with, like, what you and your heart desires, then you're not going to have that sustained momentum to go after. But if it is something you want, right, and it's in line with your life goals and your vision and everything you want for yourself, you've got to know that you can do it, right?

So even if it's. Even if it's a process or something you've been doing for years a certain way, and it works, you should still look at it and say, okay, how can we make this better? Even though it's working, it's not causing us any trouble.

There still could be.

A better way to do it. Unless you're 100% where you want to be. Like, in other words, you're enjoying the quality of life.

From a financial standpoint, you're good, right? You're not worried about money. You're taking time to spend however you choose. You're not stuck at your office. You're not dealing with stress and losing sleep over the business. Unless that's, like, your scenario, you should look at every single thing that you're doing and say, there's got to be a better way, right? How could this be done better? Right? And so that starts to just open up the. You know, that gets the wheels turning, right? That gets the wheels turning. And once you start to discover those things and once you start to implement those things, then you start to build that confidence, like, okay, all right, well, maybe. Maybe Louis is right. If they can, I can, right? Like, I took responsibility and I started to look at it all and say, okay, if there's. If there's, you know, if something's happening, I'm responsible for those results. You know, I looked for a better way. I found a better way, implemented the better way. Maybe I can do it, you know, maybe I can. And what happens there is that you. Your. Your perception of who you are and what you're capable of opens up. And that's. That for me was like the metamorphosis to, To. From. From. From moving company owner to moving CEO.

That's cool, right?

Is, Is. Is like you start to, you know, it took me, you know, seven, eight years to be able to have enough confidence in myself and feel that I had enough experience in myself to say, you know what? I'm gonna shift this and I'm gonna take a whole new approach and I'm gonna. Like, to me, I had to. It was a CEO thing. Not because that's what was on my business card, or it wasn't about that. It was like, what identity can I give myself that's gonna allow me to see myself differently than that 19 year old kid that started that didn't know anything except I've been working hard for a few years. I needed to shift. I changed the way I was dressing, going to the office. I started Wearing slacks and dress shirts, right? I had my office and my team at that point. I had a call center and corporate office. I had them do the same. And I started to shift the way that my day to day was run, right? I had a whole new set of reports that I was looking at because I would sit back, okay, there's gotta be a better way, right? That's. That was the start of. Of all the conversations, was looking for that better way. And I'm like, okay, what am I trying. What am I trying to accomplish here? What do I need to see? What do I need to know? What is the ultimate goal, right, of what we're trying to do with this company? And how can I feel a sense of control over all of that? Because I think that's what happens for a lot of people is that as it grows, it just feels like a wild beast that needs to be tamed, you know? And so. And that's what happens when your ambition, too, is moving faster than your.

You know, your. I don't know, you've got. You got your foot too much on the. On the. On the gas and not enough on the brake. You know what I mean? You're going way too fast because you're thinking about stuff. Because then there's the opposite. Like, you've got this vision, right? Like, I started, and I'm like, hey, I'm gonna be a millionaire in his business. And so it was like, you know, put the, Put the gas down and go for it. But then you find yourself in a position where you've got to kind of backtrack, right, to get things in place. So, like, at that point, I didn't feel that I had the ultimate control over all my locations. I didn't feel like everything was running exactly the way that it needed to be in each office. I didn't feel like I had the clarity to be able to see what was going on, to be able to see the numbers and be able to run my business off of those numbers. I didn't have the structure to be able to have certain meetings with my team so that they could fill me in with what was happening, because I was in a different place. It's like, I got promoted, right? It was my business, but I got promoted. It was like the job that I had at the beginning was essentially a dispatcher. Then I got promoted to, like, an operations manager, right? Then, you know, maybe a vice president of some sort. And then I was like, no, man. Like, I need to. I. I need to promote myself here to CEO. Yeah, right.

And what's the only. It's that mentality. You have to have that CEO mentality. It's the only place you can. It's like you had to go through all of that to get there, you.

Know, unless somebody came along and told me this sooner. Right. That's what I'm hoping to share is like, look, I don't care where you are. I don't care if you're that 19 year old kid like I was in the truck rental yard. Adopt that CEO mindset right from the get go. From the right. Yeah. Right off the bat. Right. Doesn't mean, you know, you'll still have to do what you need to do. You might be wearing the CEO hat and also wearing a dispatcher hat and also wearing a, you know, moving consultant hat and also, you know, wearing all the hats. But you've got to be able to get that as soon as possible because it'll save you so much. Just torture, right? Yeah. And, you know, and, and, and it's, it's, it's different. And you know, I had, I remember having people in my office, you know, caught somebody, you know, talking behind my back, like, oh, he thinks he's running a Fortune 500 company. This is a, this is a moving company. Right. Somebody that had experience in the business that I brought in to help run long distance. And you know, it's, it didn't bother me because not everybody's gonna get it, not everybody's gonna understand. But if you've got the vision of what you want to do with your company, you've got to be able to just step into that different way of looking at it and embrace that CEO and say, okay, I'm a moving CEO, like, what do I need to do to be able to run that business from that place? Because it's a whole different. If we split the screen down the middle right now, we did like a little documentary of like, okay, here's somebody that's been in business 10 years, that's just been with the moving company owner mindset and these characteristics. And here's somebody that made the shift to moving CEO. You'd see a totally different story. You know what I mean? That totally different outcome, totally different quality of life, totally different quality of business. It's just night and day.

It's a different life, a different reality.

Yeah.

Wow. So you said, I mean, did you literally make this decision to become the moving CEO in, in, in like a day? Like, is it just. You had a problem and you said, okay, this is it now I need to change. And it was just like that. Like.

No, it was, it was. A lot of different things happened, right? It was.

You know, having to kind of dig myself out of the mess in, in, in the recession. Right. You know, realize that I start. I was like, okay, I didn't do long distance for, for eight years. And all of a sudden I'm like, okay, get 12 trucks and let's haul everything we could book from all the locations. And it was like a whole different, you know, then I went back and it was basically like I put myself back in the position of like a long distance dispatcher, if you will, to learn that whole thing because it was a totally new business. Right? And then just realizing, like, oh my God, like, like I didn't. Like, you don't realize when you, when you can't see it.

And you haven't been there before and you haven't tested your own bandwidth and your own capabilities. Sometimes it seems like, you know, what, yeah, that's okay, no problem. We'll get some trucks and we'll just haul the furniture, you know, we'll haul the sh. And it'll, it'll be no problem. I didn't see everything else that was going to come with that at the time. So it was like I was running all the offices, the call center, the long distance piece, you know, bringing on a team to help run the long distance stuff. And, you know, looking at it like, I can't be, I can't be in the business again trying to run all of this, right? I need to be. Not because I didn't want to. You know, it's not that it bothered me. It's not that I didn't enjoy it. It's that I knew there was nobody at the helm. There was nobody like running the whole thing. If I'm sitting there worried about long distance shipments and this and that in the call center. And I knew that I needed to step back, you know, and take a different approach. And like I, it wasn't about the micro, it was about the macro. Wasn't about like every little thing that was happening day to day. And that was the part that I had to start unwinding, right? I had to start looking at it and going, okay, look, I've got to simplify this and put myself back in a position where I could be at the helm. Back in a position where I could lead the company that the whole company, not just little sections of the company. Company. Right. There's always got to be somebody at the helm.

Yeah. Yeah, okay. So it's about deciding to take charge.

Like, to take control in it in a different way. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's. It's. It's playing a different position. Right. You're giving yourself a promotion or, you know, you're. You're, you know, on a basketball team, and you're like, okay, I'm. I'm much better off as the point guard than I am, you know, playing forward or, you know, you're playing for. I'm much better off being the quarterback. You know, in other words, you have to decide, like, where you are better off. And again, that all. It all comes down to mindset. Like, somebody could come in and go, hey, you should be in this position. But it's really just the mindset of first understanding. Like, that's where I need to be. That's where I need to go, you know, and at the time, I'm reading books on, you know, great CEO of, like, you know, Jack Welch from GE and, you know, different. Different business books. Good to great. Talking about, like, you know, different businesses and what it took for those leaders, you know, businesses that were much bigger than moving. Right. And it's like, it put me in a mindset that was like, okay, that seems so far beyond where I'm at, but I think I could take a lot of this and shrink it down into, like, this moving business and still apply it to here. Right? So to answer your question, like, this is the type of stuff that was going on, right? Another. Another part of it, you know, if you kind of look at how it all came together, my cpa, like, sitting down and kind of had a mentor relationship with him where he was just kind of, like, telling me straight up, like, look, you've got to run this thing differently, you know, like, you've got to know these numbers. Right? Where years prior.

Before that time period, it was like, yeah, okay, whatever. Whatever. I'm making money. Yeah, no problem. Okay. Yeah, I will. I will. You know, so it finally just clicked one day with all of that coming together.

Okay. Okay, so let me. Let me see if I can remember the. Where we're at here. You've got, you know, there's got to be a better way.

There's got to be a better way.

And then. And then if. If. You know, if. If they can, I can.

Yep. If they can, I can.

And then. What was the first part?

You.

You're. You take. Take responsibility.

I'm. I am responsible for my results.

Yeah.

I'm responsible for my result. And that's in life, you know what I mean? That's, that's an all around mindset. Because I truly believe that how you do anything is how you do everything.

Mm.

Right. So it's like, look, you could very, you know, you, if you're gonna be on point in your business, be on point. Your personal life. You're gonna be on point in your personal life, be on point your business. Just easier to just be on point. Right. And so now you're responsible for all your results, right? Like, you might go make a bunch of money and you might say, hey, I'm. I'm gonna make a ton of money in my business because I'm responsible for that. But then you go and you blow it and you don't set up your financial security for the future. You're responsible for that too.

Right?

So, you know, listen, it's, it's, it. There's a lot of responsibility in owning a business in general. Right? There's a lot of responsibility just in operating in, you know, as an adult in society. Right. And, and then you take on, you know, that now you take on owning a business. You've got yourself, you've got your family, you've got your customers, you've got your employees. You've got to take care of all of that and you're responsible for it. Yeah. And the, and the results that each and every one of them get.

Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a, a different attitude. I mean, that's, that's a lot of humility and, you know, humbleness going on there to kind of get to that place. Does, do you have to. I mean, like you were saying before, you didn't have anybody to tell you about this or show you this, but like, do you feel like, like, do you have to go through all of those experiences, though? It feels like there's part of it that kind of, you know, hardship is, is good sometimes. Yeah.

Well, listen, put it this way. If you aren't feeling any hardship at all or you're not going to seek out the answers, like if I didn't. In other words, if you're listening to this right now, it's because there's something in your business that you feel can be improved upon or you feel like there's got to be a better way. Yeah. Right. So you don't have to go through massive hardships to be able to do it. You know, everybody, everybody gets on their path in a different way. Right. Everybody gets there in a different way. Like, you know, some. Somebody could you know, like, things now, like, I've shifted in certain areas where it's like, all I did was hear somebody say something on a podcast or whatever, and I'm like, click it. Just click. Yeah, yeah, right. And so, you know, my hope is that this helps it click for somebody, right? This helps it, like, okay, yeah, like, maybe. Maybe instead of, like, just looking at how everything's wrong with all of that, let me just shift the way. Let me look at it from this way. Right? I've been looking at it like this. Let me try on for size how Lewis is looking at it and see. Okay, I. You know, I could. Yeah, I could see how that. That. That might impact, you know, my business and my life.

Like, being open.

Yeah, you got to be open. I mean, you got to always be open to new ideas. But with a filter, right? You got to be open with a filter. Like, don't just take anything I say and run with it. You know, you've got to. You've got to put it through your own filter of like, do I see that? That's. That. That can make sense, you know, Do I see that? Because otherwise, there's so many people giving so much information, talking about so much stuff out there these days that if you're like, you could end up going down so many different rabbit holes trying to find a solution.

So, like I said earlier when I was taking bits and pieces of information from, you know, mentors and different business owners that I knew and books, I would take some and leave some. Like, it wasn't all for me, right? The same way, like, you know, if you get one thing out of this, this episode, great, right. It doesn't mean you've got to take all of it and adopt all of it. Right. I think that's important to distinguish there.

And if you're not, like, it's important to take chances, too, right? Like, you got to kind of.

You know, gamble a little bit, like, see what works for you and what doesn't. Like, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.

That's. That's all about entrepreneurship, right? Yeah. And, you know, it's. It's another thing is, like, you look at it and you say, what. What's the worst that could happen? You know, anything you're ever afraid of doing, say, what's the worst that could happen? Can I live with that? Like, if that. If that were to happen, you know, a lot of times when I'm teaching people delegation, right? It's like, okay, well, you're. You're afraid. You're, you're, you're fearful of giving that over to that person. Right? What's the worst that could happen? Right? Maybe you're, you're handing over the reins for dispatch. Well, they could put a guy in the truck that doesn't have a license and. Okay, well, what could happen? You know, we could, he could, you know, I don't know, he could like run right through a school. Okay, that could happen with a guy with a license too. You know, like I'm just, you know, you've got to just be able to go to the worst case, see how likely that is and then bring it back and be like, okay, well now let's look at what's the best case scenario. The best case scenario is now you've removed yourself from dispatch, you've put somebody in that position, you've given them the processes, you've given them the role description, they know exactly what to do, you've done the best you can to train them and, and now you freed yourself up to work on your business and enjoy your life and not be stuck there all day dealing with it, you know, so, you know, I think getting out of your comfort zone, I think is exploring the worst case and the best case scenario. And if you just think about, you know, you know, you look at, okay, and it's all about your actions, the actions that you take. Right. Every single day. If you know where you want to go, right. You know where you want to. It's like what I'm doing today, is that taking me towards where I want to go or is it not taking me towards where I want to go? You know, and you've got to make the decision to go towards where you want to go. And you've got to make the decision to, you know, obviously when you think about worst case scenario.

You know, we were talking about the dispatcher and delegating that role out to somebody. You know, you think through obviously what the worst case scenarios are and you put checks and balances in place to do your best to ensure that those things don't happen and then move forward. Right. But that's a, you know, when we talk about getting out of your comfort zone, you just, you're gonna have to go towards that imaginary wall and, and step outside of it and see how that feels and then take another step outside. And you might feel a little nervous, but you've gotta just keep going, you know, like whatever your afraid of, you, you really need to go at that. Like, you know what you're afraid of you need to go towards. Because there's. We're, you know, as humans, we're afraid of so much stuff that is not necessary to be afraid of. Yeah, it's really that. That wall. Right. That invisible wall, that comfort zone.

You know, so if you start taking some of these principles and we've got. I don't know if we're going to be able to even get through all of the moving CEO mindset today, but.

Oh, there's more.

Yeah. We've kind of expanded upon this, so we might have to do a part two of this.

Oh, okay. I'm up for that.

Yeah. I don't want to make the episode too long, but, you know, if you're taking on the responsibility, I'm responsible for my results. Right. And I realize how many times I've said that it's just so important to adopt this mindset. Right. That you're responsible for it because so many people want to blame other people out other people. And you'll never get what you want by doing that. Nah, you'll never get all the reason where you are today is because of everything you've done up until this point. That's it. Yeah, yeah, that's it. The decisions you've made, the actions you took or did not take. That's why you are where you are today. And there's nothing to be overly excited about and there's nothing to be upset about. It's like, except, okay, here's where I'm at. Responsible for these results, good or bad. Okay, well, where do I want to go next? Okay, well, I'm responsible for those results, and let me start taking the actions and implementing the things that I need to do to get there. And then believe in yourself. And it's like, to me, the easiest way to believe in yourself is to look at it and say, if they did it, I can do it. You know, And I'm not talking about, like, if you're 5 foot 2 and you're looking at LeBron James like, hey, if he could do it, I could do it. You might have a difficult time doing that. Right. But if we're talking about, you know, building a very successful moving business, if they did it, you could do it. If I did it, you could do it. And if you just make it, like your daily mantra, if you will, like, there's gotta be a better way. There's gotta be a better way. Right. And it doesn't mean you're dissatisfied with each and everything. You're just exploring, how could I make it Better. And then it becomes a game, and then you start to have fun with that game, and then you just start to tweak and modify, and, you know, with that, you gain confidence, which helps you break out of the comfort zone you were talking about. And then you start crushing it. Yeah. You know.

Yeah. Wow. Cool. Well, you know, I'm looking forward to continuing this conversation, but that's. That's powerful stuff. And really, it's just a slight shift in your mind's, you know, your attitude, whatever it is. It's. It's. It's this much. You're just turning. Turning the dial that much. And it can make all the difference.

You know, how you look at things. If you shift that, it'll shift your whole world for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cool.

Cool. So let's. Let's do this. Let's. I think we're, you know, we're getting close on time here.

Yeah, let's.

Let's. Let's. Let's keep going, but let's do it as a part two. Okay. I want to finish this because this is strong, and this is like, you know, we. I could teach all the. All the strategies and all the tools and processes. I get all that stuff. But if the mindset is not there and cultivated, it's. It's gonna be a hard time. You're gonna have a hard time, you know, really implementing it all because there's so many roadblocks, there's so many challenges. But most of the challenges are all mental challenges.

Most of the foundation.

Yeah. Most of the obstacles that you run into are all mental. Right. You take two people and put them in the same problem, the same predicament. It's the mindset of how they deal with it, how they approach it that's gonna get them out of it. You know, you think about, you know, one. One. You know, one moving company owner gets a bad review online, right. Or has a. Has a good review that's filtered, and you get another one that had the same scenario. One person could sit there for two days, like, obsessing about it while the other one dealt with it, accepted it as part of the business, understands that they're responsible for their results, and moves on and says, there's got to be a better way. What could I do to fix it, and uses that time productively to come up with solutions to fix whatever the problem was.

That's the difference.

That's the difference. So listen, if you're out there, you're listening to this right now, and you feel like.

You know, that's not your current mindset. Just know you could adjust that, right? Just know that you're not stuck, you're not fixed where you are, right? Every mindset, every view of the world can all be shifted. It could all be changed. And if you heard anything today that you feel would serve you in your life and your business, allow yourself the opportunity to start looking at it different. Allow yourself the opportunity to say every morning like, I am responsible for the results that I get today. I know that if they did it, I could do it too. It might be hard work. It might, you know, I might hit a lot of roadblocks along the way, but if I keep saying every day there's got to be a better way, then I will find that better way. I'll find the way around those roadblocks and I'll get to that level that I want to get at. So hope this helped you. We're gonna do a part two of this. We'll put it up there soon. Until then, go out there every single day. Profit in your business, thrive in your life. If you like this podcast, if you like this episode, if you wanna keep hearing stuff like this, do me a favor, head over to itunes or Apple Podcasts, leave me a review, let me know what you think. If you've got any questions or anything that you want me to address directly, send me a DM on Instagram. Just go toismissaro on Instagram, send me a dm. We'll go through them, we'll kind of, you know, check them out and then we'll possibly bring it on the Moving Mastery podcast to do an episode. And listen, keep going, keep pushing. I know we're in certain uncertain times right now, but just know the COVID stuff's gonna pass. Even if we go into a recession. This business, this moving business is as close to a recession proof business as it gets. People need to move. They always need to move. Whether they're moving from their big mansion because, you know, maybe their restaurant didn't make it and now they need to move into a townhouse. Either way, you know, you're there to help them. You're there, you're there to serve them. People will continue to move. Don't let the news, don't let the media, don't let all the doomsday stuff get you down and think that there's no future here. Keep pushing, my friend. We'll see you at the next episode. It.