Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Mark's Moving and Storage

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four CY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena.

0:51 Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I am Kevin Halenan, and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot streaming live on talkfour tv dot com, and we're on Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio. We're live there, and we're live on YouTube, and of course we're on every platform imaginable After the show in podcasts, that's YouTube iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, etc. Et cetera. The mission of Winning Business radio and TV, as regular listeners and viewers know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices, the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos, to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. Those consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners and entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, as I say every week, virtually every successful person I've ever talked to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So while we all have to get our knees skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the way up to the Fortune fifty. I've seen some of those companies win into varying degrees. I've seen some fail.

2:08 I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around to hand with some who probably should have found other professions. And my own businesses. I've had lots of success, but some failures too, and I'd like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So yeah, you'll hear a little bit from me, but mostly you're going to hear from our guests. Those experts, consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners and entrepreneurs. And today my guest is Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage. Here's his bio. In nineteen seventy nine, Mark Silverman was a student at Northeastern University in Boston, and while many college students were spending money on their social lives, he needed to spend money on school, but he first had to earn it. Students needed moving help every semester, so he decided to become a mover. The problem was he'd never been a mover, so we just purchased a small van, believe it or not, with a credit card, hoping to make a few extra dollars to pay tuition. Eventually, the business became Mark's sole focus. One man in a van becames Mark became Marx Moving in Storage. Over the years, he recognized the need for a steadfast philosophy, so he built the business around guaranteeing one hundred percent customer satisfaction.

3:15 Nearly forty six years later, Mark is still looking for opportunities to help people. He created Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation and collects over twelve trailer loads of lightly used and new goods each year and works with Greater Boston nonprofits to share those treasures with local families in need. Mark also founded the storage company dot com, a premier resource for warehousing and transportation of medical equipment, machinery, fixtures, and high value products. Additionally, he invested in and manages Massachusetts Portable Storage, a company that offers convenient and flexible portable storage options options excuse me for short term and long term needs. The company has grown from a small local business to a regional leader, serving residential, commercial, inns, industrial customers across Massachusetts and beyond. Mark and his companies have earned the following awards quite the list National Multiple Sclerosis MS Shining Star Award, Green Initiative Award from the Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce, Westboro Economic Development Committee, Best Sustainable Business Award, Northeastern University's Center for Family Business Winner twenty fourteen for top honors, the Gold Quality Award from arpin Van Lines and the ARP and Charitable Fund Charity Contest.

4:30 And Mark's a past president of the Needham Business Association for the two thousand and six and seven years and as a past president of the Massachusetts Movers Association the two years of one two three. He holds a Bachelor's a Business in a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern. He resides in Needham with his wife Lisa. They have four children and get ready eleven grandchildren, ages one through thirteen. Mark, Welcome to Winning Business Radio. Thank you for having me on the show. My pleasure. What's the best part of being a granddad? Ah, that when you're done playing with the kids, you can give. Them back same. I've only got two, but wow, eleven a lot of incredible. Yeah, very blessed for sure. Tell us a little bit about your wife, Lisa.

5:17 My wife, Lisa I met forty two years ago. Forty two years ago in Florida. Actually neither one of us lived in Florida. We happened to be there at the same time. Funny we met and not too long after that we get married. Lisa owned a woman's clothing boutique for a couple of decades right here in need M. A couple of years ago, after COVID struck, it was time to give up the store and go have some fun. So that's what she's doing. Good for her. So tell us, I want to. I always like a little bit about a guest's background. So where did you grow up? Mark? I grew up in Brookline, Okay, right suburb of Boston, pretty close to Boston. What was it like to grow up there?

6:05 Well, uh, we lived, Uh, you know, it was an interesting area. It was a working class area, Brookline, and you know, everybody around us they were very hard workers. So you you would you go to school. In the morning and you you would get home and normally you wouldn't see your you know, your parents. Still in my case, my father till you know, very late afternoon or early evening. But there was a great work ethic, both in my home as well as my neighborhood. So learned very early that if you want to, if you want to make it in life, get up early and get something accomplished. What'd your dad do? My my dad worked as a civilian for the Air Force.

6:46 He was an electrical engineer at Hanscom, perhaps at Hanscomb. Yeah, okay, yeah, all right, what was what was your excuse me, what was behind your decision to go to Northeastern. Well, you know, now, if you want to get into Northeastern, you really want to be a smart guy, much smorrow than I am. Back then, it was a long time ago, and back then it was more of a commuter school. And quite frankly, I was never a great student. I've always worked. I was shining shoes when I was nine or ten years old, streets up and down Cornwolf Avenue. You're yelling shoe shine, shoe shine, strolling newspapers, you know, a little older than that, and you know, always work.

7:29 Was really never that interested in school. Almost dropped out of high school. Actually, and there was a fellow by the name of Mead Reynolds, still in touch with him today, a teacher at Brookline High and said, you know, Mark, you know, don't drop out. Go check out this other place, this other school. And he knew what he was doing. He sent me to this school where it looked like pretty much everybody that was at that school their next stop was going. To be a prison oh man. Yeah, you know, and a bunch of tough guys. Yes, why do you just stay in school, take a course or two, don't drop out. And he was a smart man, because that's exactly what I did, and then I got into it full scale. However, that doesn't get you into a lot of good colleges. Again, more interested in working. So Northeastern was a commuter school at the top, and you pretty much could get into the Austic. But it leads into a really good story. So back then, get into Northeast and no problem. He's there for a year or two or three and had you this moving business going. I said, you know, starting a family, and I need more money, and you know, I'm going to drop out of Northeast and drop out of college against everyone's wishes, but I'm going to try and build a business.

8:45 So again I'll. Often say I'm not the brightest guy or author. Took me thirty nine years to graduate college. But when all my kids were done with school, I went right back to Northeastern because I knew it wasn't going anywhere, and I enrolled again Northeast, and in twenty fifteen I received my bachelor's degree in business from the Moora McKim School of Business there. And the beauty of that was when I went back the second time, I actually cared about what the professor had to say. I actually cared about the lessons to be taught. As a young kid. You're more interested in working or whatever, not necessarily what the professor has to say. So that second vote at Northeastern taught me a lot. And in fact, it was there that I met Professor Ted Clark. Professor Clark is the gentleman who sort of took me under his wing and helped me start Mark's Northeastern Furniture Foundation.

9:41 So when I was. Getting ready to graduate, you had to write your final paper, and I talked all about this furniture foundation I'd like to start, and I was donating furniture, and Professor Clark said, well, you know what, you can make something big out of this. It doesn't have to be just collecting a couple of pieces of friend You can start a you know, a nonprofit. You can really make something big out of this. And today I'm fortunate that Ted is still on my board of directors of the nonprofit and we collect a whole bunch of furniture for those in need. But Northeastern all thirty nine years treated me very well. Yeah, I understand. It's like twelve to trailer loads a year.

10:23 So at first we would we would get a piece of tool furniture that someone was disposing they had no need for it. We would take it to the dump. And again early on I had a tenant in one of our warehouses, United Way of tri County, and they don't throw that stuff away. You can get this recycle someone needs us. That was sort of the beginning, along with the help of Ted formalizing everything and so now with Mark moving and storage. If we're moving somebody and they have furniture they don't need, and in many cases they're downsizing or in the case of a. You know, a a divorce, some people consider the same. Thing that this furniture now gets collected while we're moving people.

11:08 We put it onto a fifty three foot trailer at our warehouse, and when the trailer is full, we bring it to Household Goods and Acting who distributed it piece by piece to those in need. However, we found that there were people that wanted to contribute furniture, but we weren't moving them. Maybe they just were getting a new bedroom set match, whatever it may be. And it's very expensive. Labor is very expensive, so to. Go get a piece of furniture from somebody when you don't have a truck already there, it's cost prohibitive. So we sit at another company. It's called Remarkable Donations dot org. So this is for people we're not moving. They can go to Remarkable Donations dot Org. They go on the site and for a very nominal fee, way less than anybody charges for moving, they can pay to have us pick up the pieces so that the quantity of goods were able to keep out of the landfills and get into the hands of those in need. And then we top it off just a good measure by raising a minimum of twenty five thousand dollars each year, and we go out and we buy a trail load of brand new mattresses. Yeah, I number that item that they need and we donate those as well. So we're very fortunate.

12:24 I've been very fortunate. But I understand what altruism is all about. I understand what giving back is all about. And my team people that work with me, we all do a very good job at accomplishing that. Well, that seems evident. Why don't we do this? Let me ask you a couple more questions. Let me go back to Northeastern to the early days. How did you find students that needed moving? I mean, were they just falling in your lap or did you have to hustle for them or what did that look like? Yeah, so it wasn't just students. Maybe anach update my I. Oh, but well that was the genesis, right, It wasn't just students. It started, I'm sure with students, but it was really anybody.

13:08 And it didn't matter what we were moving, whether it was a mattress or a coach. And there's another good lesson with this, by the way, is when I tried to be a mover in the beginning, there were a couple of people, a couple of companies in Brookline, as it turned out, that said, hey, you know, you can't be a mover and you need a license, you need to do this, you need to do that. And I'm like, I'm just trying to earn intuition money. You know, it's spending. I just need a little money. Well, you can't be a mover without doing this that and the other thing. That's the best thing anyone could ever do to you, tell you that you can't do something. There you go. What that did was that gave me the incentive to prove that I could. So I found out what needed to be done, how you obtained a license, how you buy insurance, how you prove that you fit everything you need to do, And I can think them because maybe what was just going to be called a side hustle turned into a forty six year run here. So when you're challenged, it's amazing what you can do.

14:05 I love it. You're so right. So you knew you needed to grow it? When did you know it was going to take off? Well again, you talk about failures and successes and how you should identify them. So remember I didn't spend a lot of time at Northeastern. Originally it was more about just making money at the beginning, and for many many years, this was really just a lifestyle type business. It was just to support myself. I didn't understand about scale, and I didn't understand that you need to grow a business. To me, it was just you earn money, you pay. Your bills, and you do it all over again, and it all works so the real businessman part of it probably didn't come till ten or fifteen years ago, when I believe that the people that you run with, the people that you have friendships with, the people that you hang with, the associations that you're involved with, you need to learn all the time, hang out with people that are more successful than your people that can teach you things.

15:04 So I must say that I always knew growth was good. I always knew you wanted to have more trucks, more money, more businesses, But I really never had a plan till maybe you know, ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years ago, but late in my career actually, And so I think that's an important lesson to a lot of entrepreneurs that maybe don't have a formal education. Formal training is you. Know, it's great that everything's working, but you know, get a plan together and learn how to scale and do whatever is necessary to keep growing, because if you don't keep growing, then obviously everyone around you keeps growing and you lose market share sooner or later. You know, that's right, that's right. All right, We're going to pause right there. I'll come back to that plan question right after this first commercial. We'll be back in just a minute with Mark Silverman.

15:58 You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now it's your chance. Be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard. It, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com. Call five six one five zero six four zero three one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now.

16:48 And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin helenan presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helena. We're barked back with Mark. Yeah I can talk, I really can. Mark, Just give me a minute. We're back with Mark Silverman, President and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage. So tell us what that plan started to look like, Mark, Well, the. Plan, as everybody knows, the plans always they change and again I think that's an important lesson. You can have a plan. It was a fellow that was involved with stables, tom Stenberg and you rest in peace. But I remember reading a story once about all these robotics, the system that he put in, and he spent millions and millions and millions of dollars on it, and as the story goes, it's I believe it's true, but it's a good story anyways.

17:44 Is that you know it wasn't working out perfectly exactly how we wanted it. Instead of sticking to it because he had spent millions of dollars on it, he pivoted. He changed to do whatever was necessary to make it work. So one of the big lessons is you keep trying different things. You know, go never quit. Keep trying different. Things and those things at work, keep repeating those things that don't work, get rid of them. Don't stick with them just because you thought it was a good idea to begin with. But within that plan of what we did and how we decide to keep or how we plan to keep scaling, is you know, one you want to hire winners. You know you want to hire people that are successful. You want to hire people that you fail.

18:24 You can see, uh, are you know, have the right values, that aren't afraid of hard work and understand that you're going to miss a dinner with your girlfriend, your wife or your husband or whatever, that understand that you might have to work on a Sunday, that you know this isn't just you know, a convenient job, and that actually is a I don't only get off track, but that's actually I find the problem nowadays is that people actually believe that the such thing as a work balance, a work home balance, and there isn't that You're always going to be stronger at one time at home or at work, and it's very difficult to find that bounce. You have to be willing to make sacrifices anyway. So you find people that are willing to do that, people that are willing to work out, people that are nice people and very important, people that want to have fun.

19:10 As they say, if you find something that's fun, if you find something that you're passionate about, then you never work another day in your life. I don't get up in the morning and go, oh, I'm going to work. I might say I'm going to the warehouse, I'm going to a client, or I'm going to go make a presentation. But I don't think anyone's heard me ever say I'm going to work because I don't really consider it work. I have to keep it fun. And as part of scaling, I change my role. I've changed my role dramatically at work to focus on storage because now I find commercial storage warehousing. I find that fun, so I spend a lot of my time doing that. And other people that want to deal with office work or industrial work or households that find that fun, they do that work.

19:57 So you put people in roles where they enjoy it. If they can't smile and if they can't have a good loaf, then it's probably not going to work out that well. And then obviously you know, need to make sure that you're giving back to the community and also asking your clients, you know. What do you need? What? What maybe am I not offering currently that you wish I did? So then you get we got into things like long distance moving, international moving, storage. You have seen your relocations, so we're very good at having a nose for what people need. And then you know, and I tell people work for me, Look if people need their driveway shovel, so you can safely carry up the furniture.

20:37 Maybe you didn't. Maybe they didn't hire. Us to shovel the driveway, but you don't know. Fold your hands and say I can't do that. You go find a shovel and you do whatever is necessary to make sure that that client's one hundred percent satisfying. Well that I wanted to ask that question too, how do you and that was a good answer, but I want you to expand on it. How do you guarantee or how do you keep that mission of one hundred percent customer satisfy action going? That's difficult? Well, it is difficult, but there are several ways. First of all, early on, someone wanted to have me move them, give me business. I'll take it. Great, what do you want me to do? And I'd do it. And one of the. Benefits you have the luxuries you have the long you're in business, you can start to be a little bit particular about.

21:20 Who you do business with. So we develop an ideal client profile. Who do we want to do business with because it's not always a good fit. Just because somebody's moving doesn't mean that we're the best mover for them. Maybe we may not be depending on what their Needs Act. So what we do is we make sure that we're doing business also with nice people. For example, if we're talking to somebody that they say, I've moved eleven times and every single move has been a disaster, well, I can guarantee you that if I move them that twelfth time, it's going to be a disaster. However, if we're dealing with people that you say, hey, how are you did a beautiful day out? It's sunny, and you know, I've moved a bunch of times and I've always been very for I've had good moves, chances are pretty good when I move them, they're going to have a good move. Also, so we have to actually vet our clients our prospects just like they've vet us. Now, as far as how do we make sure theyre one hundred percent satisfied, there's a human element involved.

22:16 We can guarantee them satisfaction. What we can guarantee them is that we'll set up a plan that will increase the probability that they're. Going to have a perfect move. And solve problems and fix fix errors or whatever. Right, Well, we try and anticipate what could possibly happen and then have a plan to avoid that from happening. However, what we do, and this is oftentimes what some clients don't understand. When you purchasing a service like a move, you're not always hiring a company just to move. Them from point A to point B. You're hiring them to be prepared to accommodate any need that might be unexpected. Closing gets to laated day too.

22:58 Things need to stay on a tree. They thought they'd get packing done, but they didn't. They thought a piece fit through a window or went down the stairs, but now it has to come through a window. Whatever it may be that you need to be prepared to do things that maybe the customer doesn't even realize they need. Going back to how did we make sure they're one hundred percent satisfied? So I was in Florida. I have a home in Florida that I don't get to very often, but it's there if I need it, and we were having furniture deliver it. And before the driver could leave, and he's making twenty thirty deliveries a day, he had to make sure that every client spoke to his management and signed off verbally that they were one hundred percent satisfied. I came back from that delivery and I said, hey, team, we have a new policy. Before the moves leave. I don't care if it's a one piece delivery. If they've been there for three days, that client needs to speak to the project manager and we need to hear from them that they're one hundred percent satisfied.

24:00 If they're not, I want to fix it. And most of the time they are. We're not perfect. We mess up every now and then, but if we mess. Up, we want to know about it. We want to fix it. So one, we try and avoid, we try and have a plan with our on problems. But two is we want to know about them immediately so that we can rectify them. Now, I think somewhere along the line I heard you know, you've talked about successes and failures, and so I've been lucky. I've been blessed. I've had a lot of successes, but I've had some failures as well, and I actually think that failures are some of the best things that can happen to people. I agree. So early on in my career, I just thought it would all work out, and it wasn't working out, and I didn't have enough money to pay my bills and I was getting notices. Then my house was going to get full closed on, and I'm watching a truck getting hooked out of the parking lot.

24:52 They're trying to be a truck. Very early in my career, best thing that ever could have happened, because then I really learned how to read a profit lass statement. Then I really learned a little bit more about money. It wasn't just as simple ast going out and doing it. So you talk about failures and what you learn, well, I learned to study my profit law statement like in my sleep. I learned to pay attention to numbers to have more controls in place. Another failure that I have and I haven't cured this one yet, by the way, is I like to hire nice people. I like to hire people that are friendly, enjoyable, have a smile on the face. And I always thought that you could teach anybody anything, and I still have trouble today not accepting that you can't teach certain people certain things. They just don't have the skill set, they don't have a competency, They just you can't. And that's something that I think people have to keep in mind.

25:50 And it was a good friend of mine Rich Pilch. Actually that taught me, that one that said, you know, you can't always teach people to do something it maybe they don't want to learn, or it may be that they're not. Capable of it. So I've actually hired some people there were really nice people, and I'd keep paying and paying and paying, and then finally I'd have to have a heart to heart and say, you know, I really like it, but you can't cut it. So you can't get too emotionally involved. It's another problem in business. Smaller business is again and I to this day sometimes struggle with this. Is because you get emotionally involved with your employees. Smaller businesses, you get to know their families, their kids, maybe their grandkids, their siblings, and then you start sometimes to make decisions based on emotions not business.

26:43 And even in a small. Business, you want to be a nice guy, you want to be always fair, you want to get people the benefit of the doubt. But even in small business sometimes you have to make decisions based on business, not on emotions. That's a tough one and I don't think there's any entreprenal oh, any businessman that would challenge me on that. It's prevalent in every business. You're so right, Yeah, I want to ask you about a couple of the other businesses. Let's see, I'm just going through my Okay, So in twenty eleven you started the portable storage or you invested in and now manage that. Tell us about that business. It's like, if you don't mind me saying, it's like pods or so.

27:24 I'm a real pop I'm a real transparent guy. I can't stand a portable storage business. I really don't even like it. We still do it because we love clients at once. Ye very inexpensive, low end type of service. And if a bank or a school or somebody needs these portable storage containers on site, that's all great. We deliver them, we leave them there, they work out beautifully, we take them back. But nowadays there's a whole business of people moving using portable storage in right, and so so you drop these units off. I don't do this part. Drop units off, people fill them, they don't use. Yeah, there's furniture pads. They don't know how to put anything in there. Truck comes by, POWs it on a trailer, you know, delivers it in the destination. You know, someone else unloads it, so you have different people loading, different people unloaded. It's not really packed. Roughly, it's the way of the world. There are a lot of very successful companies out there doing that.

28:25 A lot of the. Van lines are shipping smaller shipments in a similar fashion and with proper handling, with proper care, it all works out. But again we talked about ideal client profile. You have those portable storage units, we have them, we can get them to you. I'm not terribly interested in that. I would rather take someone's goods, pad them beautifully, like like a birthday present, them all protected, nicely, take them into a heated, secure warehouse with all kinds of people around in security, rather. Than leaving a container in the seat. Just we have it, and we have it because our clients demanded sometimes.

29:10 All right, last question before the second commercial. Who's on your team? What kind of what's the size of your team? A kind of roles so you know that the team actually has reduced in size, because what we found is that there are a lot of good opportunities to have subs have contractual relationships with others. So as far as the team, you're the two people that should be mentioned for sure, as followed by the name of George Jacobs. George Jacobs as the vice president of the company. George has been with me almost since day one. I needed a to rent a U haul truck, and this is nineteen seventy nine, probably nineteen eighty, and I went to the U Haul dealership and I said, by the way, not only do I need a truck, I need somebody to help me. This is in the days when I was physically moving the adam myself.

30:01 Uh. And UH, a fellow of Johnny Paula Greeney at the U All dealer said, Hey, call my buddy, George Jacobs. You know he'll give you. He'll give you some help. And George helped me. And George has been a part of the team and a very important part of the team. Pretty much since day one. Uh. And then as you know, as time has gone on, if people have come and gone. Uh, there's a fellow that has been with me now for five or six years named Richard Mullen. Richard Mullen is we'll call him the operations manager. And he's a guy that you know, exemplifies, uh, you know what it takes to make it. Here's somebody that he's committed, he has a certain rule, but yet he's not looking at his job description. It's you know what needs to be done, and let's get it done.

30:44 Let's keep our customers happy, Let's keep our team happy, which includes some drivers and helpers that have been windy for. A long time. But we're probably, uh, we're definitely reducing the size of the workforce. Not the sales volume, uh, but the size of actual employees. But the vetting process, whether it's your drug testing, alcohol testing, background checks, you know, prior work experience. The vetting process is very thorough. And that's actually part of the reason also that I think my workforce has decreased a bit, because you know, again things change. Forty years ago. If somebody was breathing and they were willing to work, it could work.

31:30 Yeah, So I like that anymore. You know, you you really thoroughly investigate all of the work is in many different ways. Because you're sending them into people's homes and businesses, you have to make sure they're the kind of people you'd want to work in your own home, and not regard the people that do work for us. They're a great team, they're a great group, all right. We're going to take our second break right here. We'll be back in about another minute with Mark Silverman. You're listening Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio.

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33:08 We're back with Mark Silverman, and he is the president and CEO of Marx Moving in Storage. Tell us about the storage company which you started a few years ago. More commercial, right. Yes, So you know we found again I started as a mover. Then we determine that people needed storage, so we would rent or lease space and then we would rent it to our customers, and then as time went on, I would purchase fill estate, purchase commercial warehouses. So the storage company is really a marketing tool. It's the it's the storage division call it of Marx Moving and Storage. And we really focus we target for commercial storage. We store tons of hushold goods for people. We're fully equipped to do it. But what we found is that there are a lot of businesses in the area that need commercial storage and whether they needed for a week, a year, two years, ten years.

34:04 Of records right, well, all different things. It can be surplus equipment, it can be you know, it can also be record storage, it can be product you know, you name it. We've provided storage space. It was to it was to a marketing company at one time, and what they were doing is they were building prototypes for lobbies for one of the hotel chains. They were building prototypes out of styrofoam, and they needed warehouse space. To build these prototypes. So we were renting space. It wasn't technically storage, but it was floor space. It was commercial space. My point being is I consider myself an entrepreneur more than a mover, more than the storage guy.

34:48 Right. You know, I. See opportunity and I try and provide solutions to the people that have those needs. So the storage company is just the division of March Moving. Uh. I also believe, by the way, Uh, I don't know which time we have left, but I believe if I'm standing, I should always be branded. So as you'll see even on my tie, I have the marks moving and yeah, I have a storage company, dot com, remarkable donations. You know, I have it all. And again, I think part of this show is trying to share, you know, what works, and sure I think that, you know, always branding, always telling people you know what you can do. If you're standing, you should be branding. Is that what you're saying?

35:30 Your branding? I like it. So another thing that that I think is real important. And just cut me short. If I'm getting off trash. You know what what I found over the years is the more you. Give, the more you get back. And uh, you know in in uh in Judaism. I'll probably get the word on but uh, you know, I believe it's called ts dhaka, probably pronouncing it wrong, but basically it means, you know, charity to give and and it's I think in the and I send this message to all entrepreneurs and all business people is make sure you're giving back. And you may say, well, you know, I can't really afford to give to charity or I can't afford to help that person, but I'm very certain that the more you give, the more you help people, the more that comes.

36:22 Back to you. And I really think that that's an important part of business. And it's a message you say, you know what, what do you want to be known for. I'll never be the biggest mover, I'll never be the richest guy, but I want to try. I try and help as many people as I can. And I think people in business have an obligation. Even if you're not in a business, you have an obligation to help others. And I think that I think that some people in some businesses actually fall short in that area. And it doesn't have to be with just money. You can volunteer, you know, at a homeless shelter, there's all sorts of things you can do. They don't all require money. But I think giving back.

37:04 To talk about the business plan, make sure there's a line item for whether it's time or money to give back. I think it's I think it's our obligation and people need to do that. And you have two foundations. You have the you have Furniture Foundation, and you have Remarkable Donations. Tell us about remarkable donations. So again that it's we have one nonprofit that's called March Southeastern Furniture Foundation. To help get more donations, we started Remarkable Donations dot org because there are people that want to donate things, but it's not it may cost four hundred dollars to go pick something up.

37:44 Okay, yeah, that is only worth. Four hundred dollars. So what we've tried to do is set up a very economical way for people to donate items. And so there's either no charge or very little charge when we have a fuck at someone's house when we're moving, because we're already there. But if we have to deploy a truck to go make pickups, then there are too many expenses involved. It's just and so to avoid those things going into the dump to be thrown away. We've created Remarkable Donations dot org, which allows us to basically have a division that works.

38:28 At call it a break even to go collect. So you have a certain criteria of the items that are donated. You don't want I'll just put it this way. You don't want junk. You want things that people will be able to use for a number of years. So there's some criteria. But even though you want it to be a certain quality, there's still got a lot of people are still going to just get rid of them if they don't don't well. You know, one of the organizations Welcome Home in Newton and Household Goods and Act and those are the two big ones with the official mover for both of those organizations as wells the official mover for the West. Plor Food Pantry. But uh, it's you want to you want to sort of donate with dignity, you know, you you want to make sure that what you're donating is something that you would use and and it is most people, most people are really good. Most people get it. Most people want to donate things that aren't torn and stained and ruined.

39:25 There are some instances where people think, oh I can get rid of my trash by saying I want to donate it, and we have to be very careful. You're not to accept that. We can do disposal missions if we have to, or fees for that in that service, by the way, is cleanouts. But the items that get donated, they should be items that when somebody receives them, they're proud to get them, they're happy to use them. And and and if they go to if if someone's interested and they go to Remarkable Donations dot org, there's actually something that's it's household goods rules what they accept, but common sense really prevails.

40:06 It's we're not pretending to remove things. People shouldn't pretend that they have donations. If it's strategy, say can you help me get rid of trash? If they have donations, then will gladly accept them. We need them. What's the process for someone to request furniture or home goods. That needs the goods? Yes? That so again we know how to collect the goods. We know how to get them to either Household Goods and Opting or Welcome Home in Newton. They should contact those organizations or if they're dealing with a case work, or if they have somebody helping them, they should do it that way.

40:49 We don't deal with we don't have the. Infrastructure to actually distribute each item, so we collected in bulk and we bring it to the organizations that deal directly with those in need. Oh that's great. What are you most proud of at this point in your career? I know that's a big question. Take your time. Yeah, well I know the answer. So I think I'm very proud that I've been blessed to have a wonderful family and have wonderful employees that have been part of my life for such a long period of time. I'm blessed that. I'm in a position where I can give back and i can help others. And again, I'll never be the richest man, I'll never be the biggest mover, but hopefully I've changed people's lives by being.

41:37 Able to help in some way with what they needed. And so when it was ARP and Van Lines gave us the Humanitarian Award a few years back, that was very meaningful to me because it recognized that what we're doing is good, and not that I needed anyone to tell me. But it's always nice, you know, when somebody tells you uh. And more recently when the town of Westboro you award us the Sustainability Award for saving all this furniture from from going to the dump and getting it to those in needs. I'd say that, you know what, what am I most proud of? I'm proud that I've been able to change people's lives, both outside of work.

42:25 Within the company. And I think at the end of the day, I mean, isn't that really what it's all about, trying to leave the world. A better place? For sure, you. Got here, so if I can, if I can do my small amount of my small share of that, then I've accomplished a lot. That's great. Hey, summer, I saw the statement Mark Silverman, practice is enlightened self interest every day. What does that mean? That's a good one. Well, I guess what it means is that that you basically my interpretation is and I didn't say that, someone else said that.

43:06 Someone said it that's correct, but. That it's okay if you help a lot of people and in return people recognize that and you benefit from it. And some people I think have a problem with that. They think that when. You help others, you shouldn't have any expectations. I don't have any expectations except that people recognize that we're trying to do the right thing and we're trying to do what's good. And what I find is that people do recognize that. And I can't tell you the number of people that have used our service, that have given me business because they say, you're the kind of person I want to.

43:51 Do business with. Well, that's great. You're the kind of person that isn't just taking it off yourself. Yeah. I take something for myself. Absolutely, I take something for myself, but I don't keep it all on myself. I give some back. And what I find is the more I give, the more I get. And it's a damn good way to live your life. And if you look in my background here you'll see this. You'll see this Seltue. I love this sent Yeah you And what it says is says self made man and shows a guy chiseling himself. Out of rock cool. Yeah. But the point here is you there's all sorts of opportunity. Anybody that wants to work real hard, if they have even a tiny bit of luck, they can make it.

44:34 How do you work like you get? That whole thing comes into play too, right, But getting back to the end question. Uh, you know, I think I think it's okay. Uh, give a lot. You'd be very surprised how many people recognize that, appreciate it, and want to do business with somebody that tries to help others. And even if we're only helping in a very small way. We're not giving millions and millions of dollars, but we are giving something back. Yeah, that's meaningful. That's meaningful. We make a difference. All right. The two organizations and roles I want to ask you about as we wrap up. You were the past president for two years of the Need and Business Association Association from six to seven. Tell us about that organization, give them a little shout out and what was your role.

45:23 Yeah, So the Need and Business Association merged with I think it's called the Charles River Business Association. Been a lot of mergers in local business groups, but again that was a small group where the whole purpose at that time was to help promote business and the top of need them and just learn from one another, network help people, make people smarter, wiser, more successful. And we did a show at the time it was called Meet Your Need of merchants. And what I did was I went around to different businesses in need them and with the local cable channel, I interviewed them. I said pretty much what you're saying to me, asking you, how did you get in business? What do you like, what don't you like, what are the challenges, what are the successes? And so we we did that for a couple of years and uh it was it was.

46:10 A great group. Learned a lot, and I think that's important. Networking and trying to be around people that are more successful than you can teach you something. And then the other is uh oh Mass Movers Association. So the Mass Movers Association that was a long time ago, but again a really good group of people, uh you know uh that had for the most part are the same objectives to learn from others and to also have different events and different uh to help people in need. And what I found was and I and I you know, people I watched TikTok. People say, Mark, you watch TikTok.

46:56 That's all garbage. You know, a lot of it is gob but there's also if you if you listen to the right people speaking, you can. Learn a lot. And you know what what a big A big message I hear all the time is never stop learning, never stop reading, never try and again. Uh you know I'm not. I'm always trying to be more intelligent. I'm always trying to learn more, be a better businessman, be more knowledgeable. And I think that never ends. You always have to do that, agreed. And the mass movers the need in business association. Now we're part of karda of. You know nine in.

47:37 The Westborough area some other groups. You know. Just associate yourself with people that you can help and they can help you. That you you teach each other, you learn very important. So last two questions both easy ones. Who in the listening and viewing audiences may want to reach out to you? And why? Well, I think that the people that right now that we can help them are life science companies, medical manufacturers, companies that have very large operations and they need to clean out some space so they can build more labs or create more manufacturing areas, and they need storage for their assets. And the reason they should reach out to us is because we have very flexible terms in both the amount of time they have to lease from us an the amount of space they have to take, and we offer a flexible footprint where we can expand or contract their space. So it's again, what do you need and how can I accommodate you. We operate over one hundred thousand square feet of warehouse between a couple.

48:46 Of different locations I have. If people need any type of people, many companies, any type of storage, there's a real good chance that I can accommodate them. Beautiful and the best way for them to reach out is there's more moving dot com and you put yourself. It's in the crawl. It's been across a couple of times. I'm Shuret'll cumping again again in a second five oh eight eight eight nine zero six for zero feel fit. I'm very accessible, man. I get up early, I go to bed early, but I'm very accessible. My cell phone, you know, for better or worse, is you know, by my side all the time. And if people you know, shoot me a text, give me a phone call, uh, they'll hear back from me very promptly.

49:30 In many cases I'll just pick up. So uh, you know, I'm I'm very available to give information and help people. And I'm also most of the time able to help people. But if I can't, I probably know who can. That's awesome. Well listen, thank you for taking your time. I know you're busy, but thanks for being here and we appreciate it. Well, it's been a privilege to be on your show. Thank you. I hope I've been helpful to. The audience you have, Mark, Thank you, and thanks everybody for listening. And this is a show about business and business challenges, successes and challenges. Now, if you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness of your company. Whether your sales team is you or very small or very large, doesn't matter.

50:11 You can reach out to me at Kevin at Winning Business radio dot com one of my many email addresses. Our company is Winning Incorporated. We're part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. Hey, we're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you once again to producer and engineer one for another job. Well done. Thank you one. Be sure to join us next week. That's Monday, June ninth. We'll do it all again. Until then, this is Kevin Helenan. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on top for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.

50:51 For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W four c Y dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio