Leadership Continuous Improvement Is the Path with Austin Yarborough at Central Coast Moving

In this episode of Grow Think Tank, Gene Hammett sits down with Austin Yarborough, founder of Central Coast Moving, ranked No. 2,278 on the Inc. 5000 list, to explore the power of leadership and continuous improvement. Austin shares how high standards, self-awareness, and leading by example have been essential in scaling his business, attracting A players, and building a strong organizational culture. Discover Austin's practical strategies for: Embracing Kaizen principles: getting 1% better every day Leveraging social media to build trust, not just chase clients Tracking progress for personal and professional growth Leading by example to influence culture and team performance Letting go of micromanagement while maintaining high standards If you're a CEO, entrepreneur, or leader looking to grow your business and become a better leader, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Connect with Austin Yarborough: Central Coast Moving: https://centralcoastmoving.com Instagram: @centralcoastmoving | @officialaustinarybrough The Moving Army: https://www.themovingarmy.com Subscribe for more leadership insights, growth strategies, and interviews with founders of the fastest-growing companies: [Subscribe Link] Timestamps: 0:00 – Introduction: Why continuous improvement matters 3:11 – Building trust through social media 5:50 – Core principles of leadership 7:52 – The journey of continuous improvement 12:20 – Transforming leadership skills 14:06 – Leading by example 18:47 – Letting go of the outcome 20:21 – Closing thoughts Keywords / Tags: Leadership, Continuous Improvement, CEO Growth, Kaizen, Central Coast Moving, Inc 5000, Attracting A Players, Leadership Development, Business Scaling, Executive Coaching

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Like change is constant and the slowest life will ever go is the present. And so if I'm not getting better, if my business isn't growing or I'm not growing, you're slowly dying or you're falling behind. There is someone out there that's in your industry, that's your competitor, that is working just as hard as you. Whether you win this race by one inch or one mile, it doesn't matter. As long as you're continuously proving.

• 0:28Speaker 01

  Welcome to Growth Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. I am the host. My name is Gene Hammett. I help leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth. Are you ready to grow? Today, we're going to talk about continuous improvement, specifically leadership continuous improvement. Are you really aware of where you need to grow as a leader? Do you have it written down? If you don't, it's an opportunity for you to really think about what areas of leadership you want to improve. So today, we're going to dive into leadership continuous improvement with the founder of Central Coast Moving, Austin Yarborough.

• 1:13Speaker 01

  Austin is a passionate leader who believes in leading by example and having high standards. And one of the things he says in here is about attracting A players. You really have to become the kind of leaders or leader that A players want to work for because you won't be able to attract them and you won't be able to keep them if you aren't that kind of leader. It takes continuous improvement. So with Austin, we unpack this whole concept of leadership continuous improvement and so that you can become a better leader and grow your company. My name is Gene Hammett. I'm a CEO coach. We do executive coaching and leadership development at scale within companies that are in growth mode. There's a certain amount of chaos that comes with that growth.

• 1:58Speaker 01

  There's, you know, a lot of challenges and a lot of headwinds that you have to address. And we help them do this proactively and to level up their leadership skills. And actually implement a leadership operating system that is now dominates and creates a stronger scale for the company as it grows. Now, we do this with a lot of Inc. 5000 companies. You don't have to be an Inc. 5000 company to be, to work with us, but you do have to want to grow and be a better leader. And all that being said, if you want to go a little bit deeper with this content, you can go for free to a free training that we're hosting. And the next version of that is training.coralivation.com. You can find the date, the time, a little bit more detail, see if

• 2:43Speaker 01

  it's for you. But let me just tell you, if you want to be a better leader, you want to stop being in the bottleneck of your own company growth and, and break free from that, then show up and take some good notes and really lean in to the, the concept. So just go to training.coralivation.com and you can do that today. Now, let's take notes, get ready to, to understand leadership, continuous improvement with Austin. Austin, how are you?

• 3:11Speaker 00

  Doing great, doing great. How are you doing?

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Fantastic. We're gonna have a great conversation here about leadership. But before we get there, let's go ahead and start talking about your company to frame everything in. Tell us about Central Coast Moving.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  Yes, sir. Central Coast Moving, we just placed on the Inc. 5000 list, well, top, top 2500 on the list, by the way. Central Coast Moving does local and long distance moving. What's unique about us is that we offer mobile storage as well. We're, I would say, consider us one of the pioneers in the social media shift and especially in moving companies. And my wife once told me that moving isn't sexy. And that is now that she COO in the business for a husband and wife operated business. Now, our mission is to make moving sexy. And the companies above me are the companies that we own and operate, as well as our coaching program, The Moving Army,

• 4:09Speaker 00

  full of moving companies just like us, trying to transform their life and grow their business.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Fantastic. Um, I, you know, normally I ask a follow up question about the company and, and I'm kind of curious about how you have used traditional marketing or, or modern marketing, if you want to go there, to really build the brand that you have.

• 4:34Speaker 00

  That's a great question. I think that everyone's really relying on like paid ads. And that's only so scalable because you don't really know what Google's gonna do and neither do you know with SEO or AI. I think what you do know is that people want to do business with real people. They, you know, they say if you want to do business, get referrals, someone has to know, like and trust you. How else is someone gonna know, like and trust you unless they see you seven times a week, 8 a.m. sharp, every single day, and you're intentionally speaking to your referral partners? So I don't use social media to attract clients. I use social media and leverage social media to build trust with my referral partners, which has grown and scaled

• 5:17Speaker 00

  our business over 300% since starting, and that's what places us on the Inc. 5000.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Fantastic. I love that idea. And, you know, maybe it aligns with what I do. I bring a lot of people like yourself on the podcast. And after 11 plus years, it's been fantastic to not only promote their companies, but to, but to share their stories with our audience and to learn from them. And then, you know, sometimes that turns into referral partners or sometimes possible clients. So thanks for being here, Austin. Let's dive into today's conversation on leadership. I, I know we've done some research on how you see leadership and what it has done for your company and the success. But I'd love to hear in your terms, if I just asked you a broad question, what is the core principles of leadership that have really driven your success?

• 6:09Speaker 00

  I think it goes down to standards. I think the core principle comes down to standards because like, the business doesn't exact, they, they don't rise, the business doesn't operate to the level of the goals the owner sets. They rise to the level of standards the owner sets. And one thing that we've learned through this acquisition recently this year is that your business is a mirror of you. And a lot of business owners say they want to attract A players, but they really have to ask themselves, am I the A player? Or am I the A plus player? That A players want to work for? Because A players don't want to work for B players.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  Now, you're opening up a really good topic here, and I'm glad that I asked that question instead of, you know, whatever I had pre-planned, because I really do believe that. I think a lot of CEOs get into the game, you know, for the love of business and to be an entrepreneur and the sexiness of that. It's not always sexy, is it, Austin?

• 7:14Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, you've got to polish it up. It's a little dirty, you know, it's a rough cut diamond. You really have to work hard on polishing up your diamond.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  And it's the opportunity to be polished by the grit and resilience it takes to be a successful entrepreneur is there every day. Those listening in can probably relate to that. I want to have this conversation with you, Austin, about leveling up yourself, because you asked that question, and it's been framed in many different ways, but I'm just going to kind of paraphrase what you said before. If you want to attract A players, are you the type of person that they are attracted to? Are you the A player or A-plus leader that they want to work under and grow under?

• 7:58Speaker 00

  I think that, I mean, the crazy thing is, is that you don't need a coach to tell you your character flaws. I think we're all very self-aware of where our weaknesses are. And so, an A player doesn't mean you have God-given talent or gifts. An A player is a belief system, you know, someone that believes that, hey, I don't just go to the gym and wake up at 4:00 a.m. I clock in. This is my job. It's my job to go home and be a great husband, to live a healthy lifestyle, to set the standard, set the example, to attract the right people and reward and recognize them as well.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  So well said. I know one of the things that when we did the research on your company and yourself, continuous improvement was a big part of that. Give us an idea, as a CEO of a growing company and, you know, you have multiple companies, how are you improving your own leadership?

• 9:00Speaker 00

  I would say there's, you know, many different facets. I think that like the whole ice bath and things like that, it's, it's really doing hard things, I would say. And, and like I said, discipline comes in. I actually have a tattoo that says Kaizen right there. Um, and all my netlists that I have here too, that I made for our leadership and, and teams, team leaders, it says 1% better every day. I think that like change is constant and the slowest life will ever go is the present. And so if I'm not getting better, if my business isn't growing, or I'm not growing, you're slowly dying, or you're falling behind. There is someone out

• 9:40Speaker 00

  there that's in your industry, that's your competitor, that is working just as hard as you. Whether you win this race by one inch or one mile, it doesn't matter. As long as you're continuously proving. Have you read the book Atomic Habits?

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I've had James Clear on the podcast before.

• 9:58Speaker 00

  Dude, that's amazing. I love that. I'll have to check that episode out. So the British biking team, they didn't improve by 10%, okay? They improved in 10 areas by 1%. And that's where the leaps and bounds are that people don't see in your life. So when it's continuous improvement, that means 1% on my diet, 1% on my marriage, 1% on my sales training, 1% on my management style, 1% and, and just appreciating and being mindful. Like lately, I've been on this whole biohacking, you know, mindset, being grateful. Bradley's pretty big on it too. Um, and I just was like, man, like, man, it feels good to just kind of say it out loud, like what you're grateful for right now. And I think collaboratively,

• 10:43Speaker 00

  all those things may like put you leaps and bounds above everyone else around you, where your frequency changes.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  I don't know if you know much about martial arts. Do you have any background in martial arts, Austin?

• 10:56Speaker 00

  I actually did. I wrestled in high school and then I've done some jiu jitsu as well.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  Okay, so you'll get this. I, I don't get to do this very much on the podcast, but you're talking about continuous improvement. This is my, uh,

• 11:08Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  my journey.

• 11:10Speaker 00

  Heck yeah, man.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Being a Brazilian black belt, Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt. Here's what I wanted to bring up, although it's required to talk about your, you do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's like CrossFit, but, or being a big, um, but when you're in a young stage of Jiu Jitsu, they tell you over and over, you don't get it, but the real journey starts when you get the black belt. Because most people see that as the goal, right? A lot of people see having a business that gets to a million or two million or 10 million is the goal. And I claim that that's when the journey starts. That's, you know, when I got the black belt two years ago,

• 11:52Speaker 01

  I felt like an imposter and I worked harder and harder to close the gaps, the, you know, work on my weaknesses and be better, that continuous improvement that you've been talking about, the Kaizen. And it's true, even today, you know, this past week, I track every one of my message, my, my lessons and I, and I take it very seriously to get better at this. And I'm already a black belt. The journey actually does start at the black belt at level, not, I mean, it starts earlier, but it just continues in a level you just don't, you don't even realize. When you're a CEO thinking about getting better as, at your skill of being a CEO, how has that transformed your business over the last few years?

• 12:36Speaker 00

  I mean, we've scaled so fast and it's not because there's a booming industry. We've grown amongst actually slowing industry, you know, in retraction. And so we went from 1.2 to 1.9 and then in 2023 and 2024, 1.9 to 3.2. And this year to 4.7, close to five. And so I really think, you know, that's funny, you say tracking, okay? If you're listening to this podcast and you're not tracking things, people track what they improve. Look at diets, look at physical fitness, look at sales training, look at everything in life. If you're, the number one way to improve in anything is just start tracking. You want to make more money?

• 13:21Speaker 00

  Track your expenses, track your time, where are you investing, where are you spending it? And that's funny, you say imposter syndrome as well, because I think a lot of us have that. I think that's a very normal thing to get in is they're like, I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this vacation. I don't deserve this money. I don't deserve this freedom. I think that there's, I think that's really where the soul searching and, and that positive communication with your, with yourself is really where that, I mean, where that stands strong.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  I, I want to switch gears a little bit here because you also believe in, um, leading by example.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  And we can easily think about it like, where's it come from and all that stuff. And we probably heard the same things over and over. Someone said it once and you're like, okay, yeah, that's true. When you think about that really day to day with your people, what does that really mean to you? Lead by example?

• 14:18Speaker 00

  Do what you say you're gonna do.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  I think the number one thing is in, in today's society is there is a lack of leadership. And the, the rawest form of leader is someone who does what they say they're gonna do. And I think that if you trust yourself to say something, like you almost have to be careful what you say when you start operating at this high level, because you will do it. It will come true. And so because you're so trusted in yourself, you're so, you know, uh, disciplined with it. And I mean, you believe, your belief is so strong that whatever you say will happen, will happen. And that is the most dangerous person in the room because they can transform people's belief system.

• 15:04Speaker 01

  I, I know that whenever I'm working with high level clients and we talk about this lead by example, most of them think they're doing a pretty good job. And I will tell you, most of them actually aren't. They will say one thing and do something else. They will believe of certain standard that you talked about earlier, but the, the way they actually operate, the decisions they make about being proactive or being quick to decide something, it's very different. Um, when you think about leading by example, I would imagine your 40 person team, it's trickling down throughout that, the, the, the good parts, um, and the bad parts as well. But how have you seen it play out across your organization, this lead by example?

• 15:51Speaker 00

  You know, it's funny that this kind of came up last week. So my leadership level, team members, uh, there were several comments the same week on like, man, they look just like you, Austin. They dress like you. They walk like you. They talk like you. And it's, it's not that like my ultimate goal is to be a role model. It's to just, I, I tell them like, hey, at, at Central Coast Moving, we walk, talk and dress for million dollar deals and we treat every client like a millionaire. And so I think that really sets like an example of like what,

• 16:26Speaker 00

  what the standard is. And then with our team of movers too, I love content. I love to have fun. I love to play classic rock music when I'm loading a truck and reggae at the unload. And that's really why clients love working with us because it's honestly, moving is lucrative and dangerous and there's so many stories of nightmares. Clients have been misinformed and they do not know how to find a moving company. And honestly, not all the real estate agents even trust themselves enough to refer one either. And that's where this broken line of communication is where mover, client and Realtor. But bringing it back to the team, it's like I'm putting my

• 17:06Speaker 00

  team in someone's home. And the way we bring on our team, like our hiring process, I don't make up this bullshit core values. Ooh, integrity, honesty. That's not it. It's the Yarbro core values. I'm inviting you into my family, not Central Coast Moving family, my family. And if I want you on my family, if I, if you align with me, you will represent me and I will fight tooth and nail for you and I'll invest in your family. I'll invest into your health. I'll invest into everything into you and I'll believe in you more than you believe in you.

• 17:40Speaker 01

  Fantastic. I, I hear that energy you have behind this. Like, if this has always been you, or is this something you've kind of evolved into as you've become this entrepreneur and, and leader?

• 17:53Speaker 00

  Thank you. I would say that there's been like transformations and I think that your level as an entrepreneur of growth is dependent on your level of transformations. And so I've always had, I think a lot of us have this calling. It's like a wisp in the air, like, you know, like La Croix, like a wisp of flavor, right? You don't exactly know what it's saying to you yet until, it's called the calling. Until you zone in and you focus, laser focus on the calling and go towards it. That's when it's like clearer and clearer and clearer and you can truly live that ultimate life and become the ultimate version of yourself.

• 18:35Speaker 00

  I think that it's there, it's just a lot of us aren't really open to the universe yet.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  Austin, we've been talking about leadership that drives your growth and a lot, big part of this is continuous improvement. And I'm kind of curious, if you look back at an inflection point where you, maybe you had a hard time or you, you really learned something that caused you to think differently about leadership, can you share with us that story?

• 19:08Speaker 00

  I mean, I had a consultant called Collaboration LLC. I think that you have to let go of the outcome. Like, I, I think the challenge that I've had is that I try, I want to micromanage. And when you're able to let go of the outcome, you can actually start understanding the parts around you. It's so easy to be narrow minded and narrow focused and so tied to the outcome of five star move, every client gets perfect. But it's like, in all honesty, the best companies have B plus service and A plus customer experience because they have leaders built in, no matter what happens, they leave the client feeling

• 19:53Speaker 00

  like they got treated properly. There's no perfect business, there's no perfect entrepreneur. There's just people that don't give up on the first hurdle. There's people that actually care enough to keep trying, to go above and beyond. And that's really where the businesses that are on the Inc 5000, that's how they place, that's how they inspire us, coaches like you doing, you know, they just care more than most people, or they're willing to take action behind their cares and thoughts.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  Well, Austin, that's our time today. I really appreciate you sharing your wisdom and sharing your really passion and drive for leading by example and continuous improvement.

• 20:31Speaker 00

  Of course. Thank you for having me on here. If anyone wants to reach out, follow us on Instagram, Central Coast Moving. My account is Official Austin Yarborough. And feel free to message me and connect. I'd love to help grow your business.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Wow, another great interview here with Austin. I really appreciate his passion and energy toward this. Having high standards sometimes can get in the way of growth, but if it, when it works for you and you hold to the line of that and you're willing to exit people that don't hold the line, I think you'll be proud of the company that you build, the legacy that comes with that. But it is hard. And so you want to make sure you get the right support. If we can help you in any way, make sure you let us know. If you want the training to be a better leader and continue to grow your company, stop being the bottleneck, just go to training.corelevations.com. You can sign up for free today. When you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of growth, think of change. As always, with courage, we'll see you next time.