NASMM 2025 Master Classes

Master Class I: Pick Up the Phone: Why Analog Communication Is Your Most Powerful Competitive Advantage

Friday, October 1
9:30 am – 10:30 am

In senior and specialty move management, even the best plans encounter unexpected challenges. What defines the client experience is not whether problems arise; it is how those moments are communicated.

This Master Class explores why nearly every service issue can be traced back to a communication gap, and how proactive, transparent communication transforms problems into trust-building opportunities. In a high-touch, deeply personal industry, analog communication –real conversations, human check-ins, and visible presence – is emerging as one of the most powerful differentiators in an increasingly digital world.

AJ will also examine where great communication originates – in leadership. Sustaining a culture of clear, consistent, early communication requires deliberate commitment at the top – alignment that flows from leadership outward to teams and ultimately to clients. The result is stronger relationships, better outcomes, and the kind of loyalty that referral networks are built on.

Apply a practical framework for proactive, high-touch client communication - including how to surface challenges transparently, maintain client confidence, and turn difficult moments into demonstrations of reliability.
Use empathy, clarity, and direct human contact to transform service disruptions into relationship-strengthening opportunities rather than trust-eroding events.
Implement a leadership-driven approach to internal communication that keeps teams aligned around shared goals, clear expectations, and consistent execution before and during client projects.
Recognize how analog communication and genuine human engagement builds the kind of emotional trust and long-term loyalty that digital tools alone cannot replicate - and apply that understanding as a deliberate business strategy.

More About AJ Schneider:

For more than 25 years, A.J. Schneider has built his career around a simple but powerful belief: communication is the foundation of every successful customer experience. He began as a newspaper reporter, where he learned that asking the right questions, and truly listening to the answers, is at the heart of effective communication, a mindset he carried into leadership roles in public relations, marketing, and corporate communications.

In 2007, Schneider joined Wheaton Worldwide Moving, one of the nation’s largest household goods carriers, where he ultimately served as President and became a leading voice in customer experience within the relocation industry. During his 17-year tenure, he developed a deep understanding of the unique needs of older adults and the critical communication touchpoints between moving companies, senior move managers, and the clients they serve.

In 2024, AJ launched Schneider Communications Group, a strategic marketing consultancy focused on helping organizations align communication, operations, and customer experience. Schneider is the President of AMA Indy, the American Marketing Association Indianapolis Chapter, holds a degree in Journalism from Indiana University and is based in Indianapolis.

Master Class 2: The Calm Client Advantage: Reducing Emotional Friction to Increase Operational Efficiency

Saturday, October 3
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

One of the most significant hidden drivers of project delays, scope creep, team burnout, and family conflict in senior move management is rarely addressed directly: emotional overwhelm. When clients and their families are dysregulated, decision-making slows, conflict escalates, communication breaks down, and operational timelines suffer - often in ways that look like logistical problems but originate in the nervous system.

This master class introduces a practical, field-tested framework for reducing emotional friction in transition projects through simple, operationally integrated practices. Rather than positioning regulation as a clinical or therapeutic intervention, the session translates neuroscience and behavioral regulation principles into concrete tools that move management teams can apply immediately and entirely within their existing scope of practice.

Participants will learn how emotional overload presents during intake, planning, sorting, and decision meetings, and how to identify early red flags that predict stalled decisions and escalating resistance. The session demonstrates five micro-regulation tools teams can use in real time with clients and families to stabilize overwhelm, increase clarity, and support forward movement. These techniques integrate into normal client interactions without expanding professional scope.

The session also addresses team resilience and operational sustainability. Move managers and their staff regularly absorb high emotional intensity, contributing to burnout and turnover. Short staff regulation protocols - designed for use before difficult jobs, high-conflict family meetings, or emotionally charged workdays - are presented alongside specific language shifts and communication structures that reduce client resistance, lower defensiveness, and improve cooperation.

The format includes real-world case examples, interactive demonstrations, and practical scripts that you can immediately adapt for your businesses. Tools are designed to fit existing workflows - intake calls, on-site sorting sessions, family meetings, and team huddles - without adding operational burden.

Identify at least five observable signs of client or family emotional overload that commonly present during intake, planning, and on-site sessions - and recognize how dysregulation contributes to scope creep, stalled decisions, and escalating family conflict.
Apply five micro-regulation techniques during client interactions to reduce overwhelm, stabilize decision-making, and support forward momentum - without clinical credentials or expanded scope of practice.
Implement specific language and communication shifts - in phrasing, pacing, and structure - that lower client resistance, reduce defensiveness, and increase cooperation across the arc of a project.
Use a brief pre-job staff regulation protocol before high-stress assignments or emotionally charged client interactions to improve team focus, communication, and performance under pressure.
Integrate nervous-system-aware practices into existing intake, planning, and on-site workflows in ways that reduce emotional friction and protect operational efficiency without adding burden to the team.
Build a repeatable Calm Client Advantage framework that supports stronger project flow, better client outcomes, reduced conflict exposure, and long-term team sustainability across your move management operation.

More About Erin DiCarlo:

Erin DiCarlo is the Founder of Dovetail Companies and holds certifications as a CSA, CDP, CMC, SRES®, SRS, NSI Practitioner, as well as being an Essential Emotions Coach. Erin is a nationally recognized transition specialist with more than 20 years of experience helping older adults and their families navigate challenging life changes. She has managed thousands of projects involving relocation, downsizing, and late-life planning, and she trains professionals throughout the country in service models focused on transitions. Erin combines best operational practices with neuroscience-based regulation tools to enhance client results, minimize conflicts, and boost team resilience. She is the founder of Dovetail Companies and developed the Calm–Clarity–Connection transition framework.

Master Class 3: Ask the Senior Move Manager Panel

Sunday, October 4
9:00 am – 10:15 am

One of the most anticipated sessions at every NASMM conference for a decade, Ask the Senior Move Manager is back - and it never disappoints. Take your seat for a fast-paced, no-holds-barred conversation with some of the most experienced voices in the industry.

This is where the real questions get asked—and answered. From pricing and client challenges to growth strategies and ethical gray areas, nothing is off the table.

Led by longtime industry leader Barry Izsak, NASMM Emeritus Member, the panel delivers candid insights, practical advice, and the kind of real-world perspective you simply cannot get anywhere else.

Whether you are six months in or six years established, you will walk away with ideas you can put to work immediately.

Consistently ranked among the top three sessions year after year, this is one you do not want to miss in Indianapolis this October.