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Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay, hosted by LuAnn Buechler, a seasoned leader with a master’s degree in Hospitality Administration and a recipient of the TLC Award for Leadership. This podcast is designed for business owners who have left toxic environments to create their own thriving workplaces but find themselves struggling with team building and mindset. Join LuAnn as she shares insights and strategies to help you cultivate joy and a positive mindset in your business and personal life. Drawing from her experience working with renowned leaders like Dr. Ivan Misner, LuAnn guides you in building a supportive community and mastering the art of people management. Each episode offers practical advice and inspiring stories to empower you to transform your work environment into one that reflects your values and passions. Tune in to discover how to lead with joy, foster meaningful connections, and truly make your passion pay.
Hi everybody, and welcome to the Make Your Passion Pay podcast, where we talk about the six C's to making your passions pay, and they are clarity, connection—which equates to core values—community, collaboration, creativity, and commitment. Today I have with me a new friend that I've just met, Larry O'Toole with Gentle Giant Moving Company. Super excited to share Larry's business philosophy with you today. Larry is the founder and the president of Gentle Giant Moving Company, which he started in 1980 with a borrowed truck and a seventeen dollar ad in the Boston Phoenix. Under his leadership, Gentle Giant has grown into an award-winning national moving and storage company known for exceptional service, leadership development, and a people-first culture. He is also the author of Heavy Lifting: Building a Business with a Giant Heart, which shares the lessons he has learned about building a successful company without compromising its values. My audience knows how important core values are to me. Welcome, Larry.
(00:03:01.211) LOTOOLE: So happy to be here,
(00:03:02.311) LuAnn Buechler: LuAnn, Larry really started with a borrowed truck and 17 dollars. Tell us your story.
(00:03:14.011) LOTOOLE: Well, actually, it wasn't even 17 dollars because it was my roommate took out the ad without even telling me. So it didn't even cost me a nickel.
(00:03:24.511) LuAnn Buechler: Well, that was kind of your roommate.
(00:03:28.711) LOTOOLE: Well, he had a hidden motive. He wanted to rent me his van so he could collect three dollars for every hour I worked. So, he had an ulterior motive, but no, he's a great friend to this day and I owe him a great amount of gratitude.
(00:03:55.211) LuAnn Buechler: It sounds like it would have been a good collaboration, but as young and back in that day as you were, you probably weren't thinking about it that way, right?
(00:04:05.111) LOTOOLE: No. I was trying to start a different business actually, and I just needed to get money just to pay for my living expenses. So I was looking for a flexible job where I could work when I had the time and didn't have to work when I didn't. So she kept pointing out to me this was perfect because I could just book work whenever I actually was free, and she was right about that. But I ended up falling in love with it.
(00:04:36.511) LuAnn Buechler: So what made you believe you could build something better in the moving industry?
(00:04:42.511) LOTOOLE: Well, honest, one reason was because the standard was so low. At the time, I mean, I think moving has really improved over the years and there's a lot more good moving companies. But as I went around moving people on a casual basis, I was hearing all the horror stories. And of course, eventually people started asking me to do bigger jobs. At that point, I still wasn't going to commit. I didn't want to buy a truck or get a license. So I had a friend in the neighborhood who did have a truck and a license, and I asked him if he'd be willing to do a job if I booked the job, would he be willing to do it and have me on his crew, and he agreed to that. So we matched our calendars. When he booked a job, he would let me know, and when I booked a job, I would let him know. He wanted me to work with him on some of his jobs. The reason I agreed to that was because I had friends that if I couldn't make it, I knew they would meet the standard. So now I was doing bigger jobs and hearing bigger horror stories. I know there were a couple of things that put me over the top of making that final decision. One of them was just telling a customer, you know, sorry, you know, I'm booked that day, I have no availability. As they searched for a day that I would be free, they were not able to find a day that worked. This woman started to cry, and I was absolutely gobsmacked. I couldn't believe that somebody was acting like it was a death in the family when all it was was I couldn't execute the move, but it showed me the fear people had about moving when they had heard the horror stories, experienced horror stories, and were so worried that she actually broke down in tears because she had furniture she'd inherited from her grandmother that she really cared about, but she couldn't really afford to go out and pay one of the best, most established companies at the time. So I was her hope to get the job done affordably, and she started to cry. So that told me something, and I think hearing the horror stories, the final one that put me over the top was customers that told me when I asked about their previous move, that the movers showed up, loaded the truck, but never showed up at the new home, and they had to call the police who found the truck abandoned and all their belongings were gone.
(00:07:52.911) LuAnn Buechler: Oh,
(00:07:53.711) LOTOOLE: That was the worst. That's probably the worst story that anybody's ever going to hear, but it certainly said to me, forget manufacturing. There's an opportunity here because I was sure that I could have a company that guaranteed quality, and this solution was very simple: it was only hire great people. Because when I was thinking about it and I started going around and meeting the owners of these other companies—not the one that stole all the people's furniture, that was a franchise where somebody had bought a franchise, hired people that said they knew how to move anyway—but the local movers, I would knock on the door and I would say, hi, my name is Larry and I'm thinking of starting a moving company. Do you mind if I pick your brain? But guess what? In every single case, they were welcoming and gracious. It was, come in and have a cup of coffee. These were nice people and I wondered why they had such poor quality—not all, but some of them. And when I asked, what is the biggest challenge to running a moving company, everybody had the exact same answer, which was finding good help. And this baffled me because there are great people out there. But you see, once you have people that are the wrong sort and then you hire a potentially great employee, they're not going to stick around. And I knew from seeing these companies work that they had disrespectful people working for them, and you could tell from the way they talk to their crew members.
(00:09:52.211) LuAnn Buechler: Point there.
(00:09:52.711) LOTOOLE: Larry.
(00:09:53.111) LuAnn Buechler: Know. I want to emphasize here that if you have disrespectful, toxic people on your
(00:10:01.911) LOTOOLE: Team,
(00:10:02.611) LuAnn Buechler: Good people are not going to stick.
(00:10:06.211) Larry O'Toole: Around. That's exactly right.
(00:10:07.911) LuAnn Buechler: And stop trying to keep bodies, right? And keep good people.
(00:10:13.411) Larry O'Toole: Right? And, you know, when people start companies, a lot of these people, they're top workers and these small companies were often people that were a cousin or a brother-in-law or a neighbor or someone they grew up with. They got in and helped them get going, but then became the big fish in a little pond and were throwing their weight around and disrespecting, like you say, other people coming in the door. And of course, these people, the owners, wouldn't really realize how bad it was because they'd be nice to them. But I knew because when I see crews working, I would just observe if I was going by on my bicycle. You know, I wouldn't exactly stay on top of them, you only need a few minutes. But when you see somebody standing on the back of a truck barking orders at people and abusing them if they maybe didn't bring the precise thing they wanted out to the truck, I mean, I would think if that was my company, I know what to do. I'd close my doors and get into a different business. That was just so unacceptable. And if you run a business that's that bad, just get into something else because that can't be fixed. You know, once you have bad people, you basically have to start with a clean slate.
(00:11:45.711) LuAnn Buechler: So, yes. You told me from the very beginning that you placed a strong emphasis on hiring good people, and I can't emphasize that enough because I think you hire good people and train them on values and the tools and skillset.
(00:12:06.711) LOTOOLE: Yes, as a matter of fact, when I told a good friend of mine that I was, and he was a prominent business person, that I was going to start a moving company, he offered to help me with a business plan. I told him, look, I have a plan, and he said, well, I'd be happy to look at it. I said, well, I can tell you what it is, and he said, what is it? I said, just hire great people, hire nice people, hire people with a great work ethic, hire the kind of people that you'd like to be shoulder to shoulder with on a hard day's work. That was it, and with that single business plan, after the first five years, we were named to the Inc. 500 fastest-growing companies with that one thing. That's how we ran our company then, and it's how we run our company all these years later—it's just the people coming in the door.
(00:13:05.111) LuAnn Buechler: So I have another question, right? I love that philosophy and that at the very heart you knew exactly what you wanted to do, but we all know who are out there running businesses, there's a lot of other things regarding onboarding people, human resources, legal things, accounting, billing, all of that. Who did all that for you?
(00:13:32.411) LOTOOLE: Well, those are some of those things I want nothing to do with. So I was actually very lucky because I had a young man right at the beginning who was finishing up a master's in business at Boston University, and he was now looking for a job and still working in the meantime. I asked him if he'd be interested in becoming a partner, and to my surprise and delight, he agreed. We agreed on a 70/30 split. Actually, I said, what do you think would be fair? He said that, and I said fine. So I had somebody whose integrity I was absolutely confident in, whose work ethic I was completely confident in, and whose competence I was completely confident in. He did a fantastic job, and I just didn't have to worry about that stuff anymore. I could just concentrate on sales, operations, and the HR part of hiring and training, and those were the things that I focused on. I left all the administrative stuff to him.
(00:14:55.111) LuAnn Buechler: I love that. Alright, so one of my passions for my business is to surround myself with people who are experts in areas where I am not well,
(00:15:06.011) LOTOOLE: This was probably the most extreme you'll ever find because you can take any personality test you like, and we'll be on opposite ends of the
(00:15:15.111) LuAnn Buechler: spectrum.
(00:15:15.811) LOTOOLE: We're very, we're very different.
(00:15:20.811) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, well, I talked a lot about honoring people's strengths.
(00:15:24.411) LOTOOLE: strengths,
(00:15:25.111) LuAnn Buechler: Right? Letting them work in the area of their strengths, and that's just what you did. You know, it isn't necessarily that that's exactly what you were doing, but that indeed is what you were doing. And that's what I encourage my business owners to do today: to really understand the strength of their team members and surround themselves with people that are talented in areas they're not. Right, work in the area of your genius. And Larry, what it sounds like to me, your genius is in working with— I don't even like the word managing in that context, right? It is building a team, that's what it is. It's
(00:16:07.411) LOTOOLE: building. Well, I did run into a bit of trouble with that, because as the company grew, I had this person who was absolutely world-class controller, but didn't really have what it took to be a chief financial officer. When your company is going from five million to 10 million, that becomes a challenge. The reason that was difficult for him was because he was so risk averse. So, here I was willing to take risks trying to work with somebody who was terrified of risk, and I was lucky in a sense because he did ask me to buy him out because he felt he couldn't really be a CFO, and so I bought him out. You know, it's 26 or 7 years ago now, and he wanted, he said, well, is it okay if I stick around for a year? Well, guess what? He's still here. He's worked all these years, and we have a wonderful controller, and of course, I had to go out and get a professional CFO who was fantastic. So that solved that problem, but it would have been an issue if he had not wanted to leave, or if I tried to bring in a CFO and have someone who was actually an owner in the business report to somebody who wasn't, so I avoided that, which could have been a real serious problem.
(00:17:47.711) LuAnn Buechler: I think it's looking for those opportunities and good communication.
(00:17:51.211) LOTOOLE: right? Right.
(00:17:52.611) LuAnn Buechler: And one of the other things that I really love about what you've done is built your culture based on your core values.
(00:18:02.611) LOTOOLE: Well, that's true. However, it should be mentioned that, you know, when I started the company, I was just thinking, will this work if you just hire good people and focus on that and not worry about the bottom line? And, you know, that was really great. I didn't talk at the time about culture at all, but, you know, as the company grew, I know that a lot of the people I hired were people who came in looking for work for a couple of months or a year. You know, they were obviously pursuing other professional careers, but three or four years later, they were still there. And I would say, I thought you were going to be a teacher, or a scientist, or whatever. They'd say, oh yes, that's my plan, but I'm having such a good time that I'm putting it off. And what they would say is, I love the culture here. So, where did this culture come from? Well, it came from the people I was hiring because they were people with integrity. They were people with strong work ethic, they were people who were intrinsically motivated to just go out and do the best job they could every day. And of course, a lot of them are athletes who have displayed these qualities on the playing field or wherever, and so this culture evolved through those people. But I knew if I was going to have to grow the business, I was going to have to define the culture for people walking in the door, and to that end I asked everybody at the time, and I had about 50 movers then, I said, when you're going home this weekend, think about our core values because I want to be able to pinpoint what they are. And so, everybody did that and everybody came in with their list of five, and we put it all together and it was a long list, but, you know, there was a lot of similarity. And so, we knew that this is what was the absolute definition of our culture. We got all those values and we distilled them down to what we thought incorporated most of them. And what it was was what we call the giant heart, where our values, the word heart spells our values: H for honesty, E for enthusiasm, A for going above and beyond, R for respect, and T for teamwork. And those values, for instance, going above and beyond, it's not like anybody wrote that particular thing on their list, but what we could see was that the—I'm sorry, I have a distraction here, sorry—so, but what we could see was that above and beyond incorporated so much of what they had on their
(00:21:30.511) LuAnn Buechler: lists
(00:21:31.111) LOTOOLE: And when we looked at teamwork, the same thing, like a lot of people had put that they really appreciated working for a company where everybody was held accountable. And I thought, well, accountability, that's part of teamwork because when you're on a team, you're accountable to everybody. It's not like in a job where you're accountable just to your boss. And some people go around saying, that's not my job, you know, and stuff like that. When you're on a team, you are accountable to everybody. When somebody in basketball makes that behind the back, no-look pass, you better be there. They don't want to look like an idiot, flinging it into the stands. They know you're coming down, you're going to be there for that. Everybody's accountable for their responsibilities and positions. And that's how we run our jobs. Everybody has their accountability, and the other members of the team know they can rely on them to take care of their responsibilities and not worry about it and don't have to keep checking up on each other. So that was a lot of what went into teamwork, other than other things like good communication and lack of, you know, we really emphasize conflict resolution, for instance.
(00:23:01.211) LuAnn Buechler: So, I love the team analogy, and not all of us will hire athletes who get that commitment to a
(00:23:10.511) LOTOOLE: team,
(00:23:10.611) LuAnn Buechler: right? We can train it because everyone knows Athletics, right?
(00:23:16.311) LOTOOLE: I mean, you,
(00:23:17.611) LuAnn Buechler: That's why in the 60s, to make your passion pay, we call it the playbook.
(00:23:23.211) LOTOOLE: Write the playbook.
(00:23:24.511) LuAnn Buechler: You know, the
(00:23:25.911) LOTOOLE: Playbook right
(00:23:27.211) LuAnn Buechler: play by the rules of the Playbook.
(00:23:29.811) LOTOOLE: Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, the people who basically are talking behind other people's backs and basically complaining, they're not team players,
(00:23:43.711) LuAnn Buechler: But then you can identify that and you base it in, you're not in alignment with our
(00:23:50.111) LOTOOLE: core values.
(00:23:51.111) LuAnn Buechler: Not you're a bad person. We have to let you go for that reason, it's because you're not in alignment with our core values. It's just a gentler way to release people. And I find that when people are out of alignment with core values, they often opt out themselves.
(00:24:09.911) LOTOOLE: They do opt out themselves, but you still have to be very careful because what you just said is true. But it needs to happen as soon as possible. You can't be having that conversation after somebody's been around for a year. Sometimes you hear business owners talking about people that have been around for two or three years, and now they're wondering, what am I going to do? And to tell somebody after that much time that they don't align with your core values is going to make their heads spin. If that's the case, then what's different today than yesterday, right? So you really have to be right on top of that when people, because a lot of times business owners, when they hire people, they sigh with relief. Okay, that's covered. Now I can rely on them to do that and I'll focus somewhere else. The opposite is true. That's when you have to put the most focus into something, when people are new on the job. And also that's when you really need to—it's really an art. When do you step back? Because when you hire somebody and you're showing them the ropes and you're training them, you have to know that there's going to come a point where you don't want to be micromanaging them and looking over their shoulder. There has to become a point where you step back and let them do the job. So you have to be very confident in them at that point. You have to know that this is someone you can rely on, because if they're not, like you say, they're not in line with your values, they need to move on then, because if you walk away from it and leave them, then it's not going to go well.
(00:26:00.011) LuAnn Buechler: you
(00:26:00.411) LOTOOLE: You have to know they fit your values, and you can step back and let them make their own decisions and make their own mistakes. I'm not being on top of them,
(00:26:11.611) LuAnn Buechler: Right? Because one of my core recommendations is that you make every decision based on your core
(00:26:23.411) LOTOOLE: values.
(00:26:24.211) LuAnn Buechler: So if you can tell me that what you did, you were specifically thinking about one of the core values in the company, then even if you made a mistake, let's figure out how to make it better. But if you're completely making mistakes because they're out of alignment, that's a whole different
(00:26:43.711) LOTOOLE: game. But
(00:26:44.611) LuAnn Buechler: Knowing what you know now, and how you built the company and created these core values, would you recommend to other business owners to start earlier in their journey with their core values?
(00:27:02.611) LOTOOLE: Well, yes, I mean, when I started the business, right around the time I had decided I would do that, it turned out to be my grandfather's hundredth birthday, and I went back to Ireland for that. I was very close with him, and I was talking to him about it, and he said, well, you know, he said, just the thing, the most important thing you're going to do is the first person you hire, because that person will set the standard. Everybody that comes after that will have to meet that standard, because he said, it's from the west of Ireland, and he said, yeah, no, if you piss in your soup, you'll not get it
(00:27:59.211) LuAnn Buechler: out.
(00:28:00.111) LOTOOLE: And I'll tell you something. It's it's a weird analogy but I mean because I'm thinking that sounds so weird like because that's no one's ever gonna do that but it doesn't it sound disgusting but yet that's what people do with their
(00:28:15.111) LuAnn Buechler: businesses and did you know
(00:28:16.511) LOTOOLE: you know
(00:28:17.411) LuAnn Buechler: that analogy
(00:28:18.811) LOTOOLE: lyrics? They kind of visitors. Do you know? They
(00:28:22.511) LuAnn Buechler: because they brought in a bad person that's undermining what they're trying to
(00:28:27.711) LOTOOLE: Accomplish. Exactly. And so it has to happen right away from the beginning, because that's when you have control over it. You know,
(00:28:36.811) LuAnn Buechler: I always say if you don't set the standard by establishing the core
(00:28:41.411) LOTOOLE: values,
(00:28:41.811) LuAnn Buechler: They will be created for you and you might not like them.
(00:28:46.611) LOTOOLE: That's exactly right. And yeah yeah you know the
(00:28:52.011) LuAnn Buechler: You hired based on great people right now. It was great people who bubbled up the core values for you.
(00:28:59.811) LOTOOLE: That's right. They because even though they were I mean there were things that people saw like our integrity. You know how, we took care of customers. There was in fact, people would we would do something that I would think is just normal. And they would say God where I worked before that wouldn't have happened. Because they wouldn't want to lose money by saying to the customer. By the way, this went wrong. We're going to have to fix it for you unless they were absolutely. Held, you know, caught red-handed almost
(00:29:37.911) LuAnn Buechler: right.
(00:29:38.511) LOTOOLE: So people saw that and it attracted people to the company. Also, with regard to our payroll and everything else, the fact that we were so honest with our own people and weren't going to be cavalier with the pay or anything. We wanted to make sure that everyone was well taken care of and emphasized to people to be transparent with customers. So, even though today we have honesty in our core values, back then, that was spoken about constantly.
(00:30:19.711) LuAnn Buechler: I think transparency is a word that you just said that is really important today. When you as a leader look like you're trying to hide something, everybody knows it.
(00:30:32.611) LOTOOLE: That's exactly
(00:30:34.211) LuAnn Buechler: Right. And if you teach transparency to your team and they treat your clients with transparency, we all feel stronger about the relationship. Also, hearing Larry, as you care for your employees and all, that should be common, it's
(00:30:56.311) LOTOOLE: not
(00:30:56.711) LuAnn Buechler: good.
(00:30:57.011) LOTOOLE: Well, you know, everybody. It pays lip service everybody says it. It's just you can get into a situation. where, It's just doesn't seem to be in your interest. Well,
(00:31:15.111) LuAnn Buechler: You're just CEOs, business owners, get so focused on the pressure of the bottom
(00:31:21.011) LOTOOLE: line,
(00:31:21.711) LuAnn Buechler: Right? They forget about the importance of their greatest asset, which is their team, their employees. And if you stop caring for them, it's kind of like any relationship, right? If you ignore your spouse and stop having a strong relationship with them, they're gonna leave, right? We got here for all of our
(00:31:45.311) LOTOOLE: relationships,
(00:31:46.211) LuAnn Buechler: Your employees are your greatest asset in a company, and I think that's what you're exemplifying here, Larry, and I love it. So,
(00:31:55.711) LOTOOLE: Because sometimes in our business, a customer will accuse you of scratching or breaking something, and you know darn well you didn't. But people would observe what we would do. We would not fight with the customer; you try to have a good conversation where you listen to them and see their point of view and see if you can bring them around. But at the end of the day, you're going to take care of them. That sets a sense of value for others, you know? We have customers that you might call customers for life, who really appreciate us and keep coming back to us. But if you ran the clock back, you'd see that they put in a claim a long time ago, we took care of it, and they're so appreciative. Nobody—well, I won't say nobody, but it's very, very rare that somebody will put in a claim just to try to take money away from you. I know those people exist, maybe one in a thousand, but most people, when they say, 'Oh, the movers did whatever,' they really believe it's
(00:33:11.511) LuAnn Buechler: true.
(00:33:12.011) LOTOOLE: And you know, it's not because they're trying to put one over on you, so you have to respect that. And if you wind up taking care of them, it comes back to you later. They'll come back to you the next time they're moving, and they'll appreciate being taken care of and not being given a big argument,
(00:33:30.011) LuAnn Buechler: right?
(00:33:30.711) LOTOOLE: Which is what they get from an insurance company.
(00:33:33.511) LuAnn Buechler: One of my current clients, we're working with their team on assuming positive intent.
(00:33:41.311) LOTOOLE: That's
(00:33:42.311) LuAnn Buechler: Exactly right. Positive intent, whether you're talking to a client, a team member, etc., right? People are more often not trying to get something over on you; they just believe it with their heart and soul from their
(00:33:57.411) LOTOOLE: perspective,
(00:33:58.311) LuAnn Buechler: Right? And 360 degrees to any situation of different perspectives.
(00:34:04.811) LOTOOLE: So yeah, it's so gratifying to hear you say that. Positive intent. That was what you said.
(00:34:13.311) LuAnn Buechler: said. Yep.
(00:34:14.311) LOTOOLE: Now, you see there's this thing that people say, you know, the customer is always right and it's such a bunch of nonsense because how could they be right all the time? That's impossible.
(00:34:25.911) LuAnn Buechler: impossible. So
(00:34:27.611) LOTOOLE: You don't worry about whether they're right or wrong. It's irrelevant, what's relevant is the positive
(00:34:35.511) LuAnn Buechler: intent
(00:34:36.311) LOTOOLE: And so we don't say positive intent because we didn't think of it, but what we say is seeing things from their point of view.
(00:34:46.211) LuAnn Buechler: and
(00:34:46.811) LOTOOLE: Seeing things from the customer's point of view, the way you do that is by two things: listening and asking questions. And if there's a third thing, it's simply repeating back what you think you heard just to make sure you got it right. That's how you see things from their point of view, and that's when they'll be willing to listen to you because they see it's demonstrated that you listened to them. We coach that, and we don't say some inane nonsense like 'the customer is always right,' because, you know, I've often seen employees at other businesses go, 'I guess they're all right.'
(00:35:27.311) LuAnn Buechler: You know?
(00:35:27.711) Larry O'Toole: You know, even though that's being ridiculous,
(00:35:31.711) LuAnn Buechler: well
(00:35:32.511) Larry O'Toole: That's not the way to look at it. You have to simply say, okay, what's their point of view? Why do they think what they're thinking? And then you can have a conversation.
(00:35:45.011) LuAnn Buechler: Well, and so giving yourself time to think and take a minute on that is important. So in my book, Exceptional Care for Your Value Clients, we talk about avoiding using the word 'no,' because the minute you say no to someone, their back hairs go up and they're ready for a fight. So instead, say, let me check into that, let me think about it, let me consult my league, and then come back with options for the client of how you can resolve the situation so that they get to choose the resolution.
(00:36:24.211) LOTOOLE: Well, that's true. Actually, we go a step further.
(00:36:29.611) LuAnn Buechler: I love it.
(00:36:32.311) LOTOOLE: We say when we hire people, we hire them because we trust them and we put them out there in the field. After they go to training, etc., we now know we can trust them, and we say, listen, we are always going to do what's in the customer's best interest. So you don't have to check unless you feel the
(00:36:59.011) LuAnn Buechler: need to.
(00:36:59.411) LOTOOLE: If you make a decision that you think is the right one that will make the customer happy, go ahead and make it. Occasionally, you might do something that wouldn't get approved, supposedly, but nobody's going to yell at you. We'll just have a conversation later and say maybe we gave away too much on that, but you do what you feel is in their best interests. Yeah, we will back you up. Yeah, we don't agree with you, Larry. Yeah.
(00:37:34.811) LuAnn Buechler: What I was using those words in exchange for the customer giving employee or team member time to
(00:37:41.911) LOTOOLE: Think, time.
(00:37:43.011) LuAnn Buechler: To think, right? I'm to think and make their own decision in the best interest of the
(00:37:47.711) LOTOOLE: Client relationship. I mean, let me think about it. This is probably a very good thing to say in any situation.
(00:37:53.411) LuAnn Buechler: Wait a minute, take a breath. Think about it.
(00:37:56.511) LOTOOLE: Absolutely right,
(00:37:57.711) LuAnn Buechler: Right, absolutely. So Larry, I know you have, what is it, 28? Is the country
(00:38:05.511) LOTOOLE: 26?
(00:38:07.311) LuAnn Buechler: 26. So how do you maintain culture and those values so that all of those locations are successful? Because you said to me, you're not a franchise, right? Because franchise people buy franchises to make money,
(00:38:23.211) LOTOOLE: right?
(00:38:23.711) LuAnn Buechler: Whereas you're instilling an organization with
(00:38:27.511) LOTOOLE: values and right? Exactly. And I think, first of all, when I first decided that I would grow the business because we were very successful in one place, getting almost up to 10 million dollars, which is just one location. The idea of growth, people discouraged me from it by saying, well, you know your whole thing is the quality of your work. And if you grow this business, that'll be great and you'll do fine. But don't forget, you won't be able to maintain this quality or the culture. And that to me was sort of
(00:39:09.811) LuAnn Buechler: like a
(00:39:10.211) LOTOOLE: challenge. I was saying, oh, okay. Well, watch me. You know? And so what I was committed to was promoting from within and that's because anyone that comes up through your system is steeped in your culture, knows your culture, stuck around because of your culture, and has demonstrated already how much they believe in it and carry it out. So those are the people running our offices. There are people who were hired as entry level people. Very often they didn't at the time have the ambition of staying in the moving industry, but they came in. They fell in love with it, although, you know, this is embarrassing to say it, but maybe they became addicted to it. They were addicted to Gentle Giant. But anyway, they lived it, they breathed the culture. So you knew when they went out and ran an office, they knew what we were all about. And the most gratifying thing for me is visiting these offices and seeing that they're carbon copies of what I had when I first started: the right kind of people with the right attitude doing the right thing. And I think what's great is to get letters from customers who have had us do work for them in different cities and said the experience was identical. You know, one woman that was moving from North Carolina to San Francisco, her mother was getting elderly. And the idea was that she obviously didn't want to, she wanted to move closer to her mother, but you know, her opportunities were in San Francisco and her mother lived in DC. So after loading her things, we have to go to DC and load her mother's things. And she said she was so sad because she wasn't going to see those movers again, other than the driver. But then she found our DC crew equally engaging, you see, and was just equally happy. And so when she had to go up to White Plains, New York and load things from her ex-husband's house, she saw our New York crew, same experience. And she was selling her summer home on the Rhode Island coast, and we went there to get some things from there and she met our Rhode Island crew. And then, when she ended up in San Francisco, she saw our San Francisco crew, and she was probably the best letter I ever got because it talked about the consistency from one place to the other, that she had the identical experience. Everywhere she went, the same approach, the same attitude, and that's very gratifying. But I'm not saying it might be the only way to do it, but the way I did it was by bringing people up through our leadership program, on our training, and knowing when they went out there that they knew exactly what we're all about and duplicated it. Yeah, and I've been very successful.
(00:42:55.511) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. I just love your story, Larry, I love that it started with people and it's still based on core values. And you've created an amazing culture and I believe you have a lot more lessons for my audience too from your book. Remember, the book title is Heavy Lifting: Building a Business with a Giant Heart. You now know, part of the Giant Heart story is their core values and again, grab the book for a lot more great business lessons and hopefully Larry will come back again in the future. That be all right.
(00:43:33.311) LOTOOLE: Oh, I absolutely love to
(00:43:34.911) LuAnn Buechler: Thank you. Well, it's been a pleasure, Larry. We'll make sure links to his social media are in the show notes as well as links to purchase the book to make that easier for you. As our audience, we really appreciate your time today.
(00:43:51.211) LOTOOLE: Larry,
(00:43:51.911) LuAnn Buechler: Everybody go out and live your passion and make your passion pay through creating core
(00:43:59.511) LOTOOLE: values
(00:43:59.811) LuAnn Buechler: and Powerful culture.
(00:44:01.511) LOTOOLE: Yes, I made my passion pay.
(00:44:07.811) LuAnn Buechler: Thanks again, Larry.
(00:44:09.011) LOTOOLE: Have
(00:44:09.511) LuAnn Buechler: A great day, everyone.
(00:44:10.311) LOTOOLE: Thank you so much. Bye, everyone.