Justin Hammond and the Heart of Let's Get Moving

Speaker 2 (00:00.11)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters. We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection,

and the incredible people who are making a difference. Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Speaker 2 (00:36.45)

Hey friends, welcome back to You Matter Nashville. I'm Jason Hoover and I'm here with my wife and co-host Mindy and we're so glad to have you join us today. We have a special guest today. His name is Justin Hammond and he is the owner of Let's Get Moving. That's a company that helps people navigate major life transitions with compassion and care. Justin, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, I appreciate you having me.

Now it says here that you grew up in Nolensville and you've had a heart for serving seniors since you were young. Now after earning your bachelor's and master's degree in social work, you built a career in senior health care and eventually you became a part owner of an in-home care company at just 27 years old. That's impressive. It says also in 2022, you and your wife, Melissa.

purchased Let's Get Moving and have continued its legacy of treating every client like family. Justin has expanded the company's services to support people of all ages through major life milestones, blending his passion for serving seniors with his love for building an impactful business. All right, Justin, so glad you are here today. And let's start by hearing your heart behind your business. Let's Get Moving.

Sure. Well, really appreciate you guys having me on your show. And it's a pleasure to be here. I always love talking about the love for seniors. And it's a pretty special market to find folks that want to work with seniors. So I appreciate being here and being able to kind of just share a little bit of the story of how we got here, how I got here. So you're right. I have been working with seniors for quite a long time. It is definitely a population of choice for me. I grew up about three blocks away from my grandparents when I was growing up.

Speaker 1 (02:26.014)

I really believe that inspired me to work with seniors. I had the benefit of being pretty close to my grandparents both location and relationship-wise. It was enjoyable for me to spend time with them. They were also taking care of my great-grandmother at the time, so I got to spend time with her as well. I did follow up with that passion by getting a bachelor's and master's in social work both with a focus in gerontology. So I was pretty sure that I wanted to work with the senior population.

And who knows where this journey is going to carry me and this business is going to carry me, but I do know that seniors are my population of choice. And right away, I jumped into working with seniors in home care, as you mentioned. COVID has changed everything for everybody. About five years ago, everyone's world changed. And the home care space wasn't a space that I could feel like I was giving as much as I could.

anymore. The staffing had changed significantly and I needed to find a change. So almost 10 years of home care experience and I was looking for an opportunity and the at the time present owner of Let's Get Moving was looking to retire and sell and it seemed like the best opportunity for me to pick up the story of Let's Get Moving from there. And it's it's been a really, really unexpected ride. Lots of different changes with being a business owner.

a sole business owner. And so that's been really different. A lot of learning curves, but the one thing that runs true is being able to provide a high end service for seniors that are looking for this sort of, I guess, full experience move and not having to worry about what's gonna happen with their stuff. It's something that everybody is very passionate about living in the same place for 20 plus, 30 plus, 40, 50, 60 years. It's a big deal.

Very big deal.

Speaker 1 (04:23.726)

It's a lot of trust that we receive from our clients. So it's a pleasure and an honor to be able to work with them.

Plus, I'm sure it's a lot of heirlooms that you're handling as well. there's a lot of anxiety that they're experiencing during those times.

Yeah, I mean, we have lots of stories. Our project managers that work in the field and teammates that work in the field get the pleasure of carefully packaging all of those heirloom items and hearing the stories as our clients are sitting side by side with our packers. So they get to go down memory lane every day.

And you know, I grew up very similar to you. I had my grandparents, a very short bike ride up the street and got to be spoiled rotten. was the oldest granddaughter on both sides. I'm very close to both sets of my grandparents, probably as close as my own parents and had an incredible village. Being that I just grew up with such a loving environment that my grandparents are very precious to me.

And my mom went into OT, into geriatrics, and on that side of the OT spectrum. So I kind of grew up, you know, with that mentality of taking care of watching what to look for. Don't let grandma put that rug down, things like that. And so when I went into real estate down the road, one of my first certifications was senior care and senior downsizing and helping that because it's so much of a process.

Speaker 2 (05:56.322)

This past year, I personally did what you do every day. And I will tell you, it is so emotional, emotionally taunting. We went through my grandmother's house that she had lived there her whole adult life. And we packed it up when she went to the full time nursing facility. It was very emotional for her. It was very emotional for all of us that were involved. And it's heartbreaking.

when you get to that stage in life, especially if you're not going to another home, you're going to a nursing facility. So, I mean, I wish that we had, we were in a small town up in North Arkansas, but I would love to have had a business that could have come alongside us. So I wasn't the only bad guy when I was packing things away.

You know, it's yeah, it is definitely emotional We do get the benefit of not always working with people when they don't want to move like when they're going to a nursing home environment Those are certainly important moves But our team does get the benefit of working with even couples that are making the decision themselves to move they met they might even be as young as in their mid-60s and They've just made the decision that this is the right time to downsize and they want to do it for themselves

They want to do it for their children to prepare for the future. These are the planners and the ones that have forethought and they have all of their affairs in order. And they're making the decision consciously to downsize from the home that they raised their families in and choose a different environment to do away with the burden of items that no longer serve them and go to a smaller space.

usually a senior living environment or even just a 55 plus community that may have more amenities and they have to worry less. So a lot of our clients are making the decision on their own and are very independent in that way. But it's still hard. They're giving up the home that they raised their children in. They brought their kids home from the hospital. All of the memories are attached to those walls in that house and it is still very emotional.

Speaker 1 (08:04.238)

but that we get the benefit of knowing that they're consciously making those decisions themselves. it's not always sons and daughters that we're working with of mom and dad going to a nursing home. Sometimes we really and truly are helping people independently make those decisions, which is great.

Yeah, so I think this is a it's a good time if you don't mind sharing what it is that you do. So if you know who who uses your services and what are they usually requesting? So when you go in, you know, just to give an idea to our listeners.

Yeah, so our business model is quite broad and it's a little bit surprising and shocking to people when they hear that this is something that's available out there. So we're trying to get the word out and I appreciate you guys taking the time to talk with me and help people understand that there is help out there for this type of process. Moving is very hard, so we try to make it a little bit easier. But we begin with families in the downsizing process by creating a floor plan. If they're downsizing, you know, we're

you can't visually picture a lot of times where your furniture is going to go. And you can take a lot less than you think. So we measure all the walls, measure every piece of furniture. We account for where the outlets are, the light switches, the thermostat, the windowsills. We're accounting for all of that to make sure furniture is going to fit right. Then our team professionally packs and we manage move day. We unpack and set up. We hang art on the walls, mount curtains, do closet build outs.

create built-in units around the TV to hold family photos. And by the end of our process, we have made the bed, put the clothes away, the dishes are in the cabinets, whatever is needed to make it feel like home. And then many of our clients, because they've left most of the percentage of their belongings behind, we're helping to conduct estate sales, do dispersal after the sale is over. Our big gift back is helping to facilitate large donations every time.

Speaker 1 (10:05.612)

We conclude an estate sale process to different charities around town and we end up with a lot of trash left over. So we try to be as eco-friendly as we can. But sometimes we we as Americans are just keepers of things that no longer have a use. And we try to do the best that we can to be eco-friendly, but get things shredded and trashed, deep clean the house and get it ready for listing. So all those things are encompassed in our business model and we try to make it as simple as we can for our

our families.

I love that. And I'm all about reuse, recycle, all the things. I have a nonprofit, Love the Dress, and I have people who move all year round, call me, can I drop off my prom dresses? I know it's not donation time, but can I go drop it off? I'll probably have anywhere between 30 to 50 people who are moving call for to give donations. So I mean, I love people who are out there doing it.

I love that your organization is doing it. I love GraceWorks. love that you're sending things to specified thrift places. That is such, I mean, because that is a business model that it takes the extra time to do that. I mean, you could just put it all in the back of a truck and go to the city dump and just get rid of it. But you're taking the time to divvy it up and that's so appreciated.

Well, our clients really appreciate that. And so many times we work with donation vendors and the only reason that they're willing to come inside of a client's home is because we are their project managing. liability is going through the roof these days. So a lot of donation services really are only offering porch pickup, which is not helpful for our senior clients when they have large pieces of furniture inside or even 10, 20 or several dozen boxed items.

Speaker 1 (11:58.722)

that need to come out, it's too much to pull out on the porch. And so we've built these relationships with vendors, donation pick up vendors to come inside the house. We know how to prepare the items in the home to keep their workers safe and get as much donated for another life. Basically, these items get to live another life.

That's great. that. They get to live another life. That's pretty cool. So, you you have your bachelor, bachelors and masters in social work. How do you see that benefiting and playing out with this business?

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:35.982)

I use my social work degree every day, and it's not how I thought I was going to use it. But so much of what we do is emotion, it's feelings. We're dealing, you know, we're very connected with our stuff. As much as we may not want to admit it, we as humans are very materialistic and we tie our emotions to items that help us really manage our feelings better. And so our senior clients especially have a lot of sentimentality.

Sometimes it may be a couple who has lost an adult child or even, you know, a child that was adolescent at the time. And we've entered into some pretty difficult emotional situations of being the first ones to open a child's room after 18 years. And those are pretty tough. So we hold on to these possessions for lots of different reasons. It may be grief, it may be guilt. It may be that you catch a case of the I don't want tos.

And so you just never know what the reason behind holding on to things is. But we're able to talk with our project managers and our packers about how to approach clients in a respectful way and create this feeling of it's going to be OK. Let's just pick the things that you love and we're going to take care of the rest and the in the best way possible. It's not going to hit the trash unless it's absolutely trash. And that really does allow our clients emotionally.

to be okay releasing more volume of items. there's a lot of social work that comes into play.

I never thought about that, you sharing some of the things, especially if they've lost a child, there is a lot of strong, deep rooted emotions that your training, your education definitely has prepared you for. I never put those two together, it definitely, it's a big benefit. It definitely helps you and helps them.

Speaker 1 (14:37.462)

It totally does. And you know, that's really what we're trying to express to people is that we are not a moving company. It's probably one of the most shocking things that I tell people on the phone when they call and ask for a moving quote. I usually just say to them, I just want you to know we're not a moving company. And I get quiet and I just wait for the talk to sink in. And then we start having a good dialogue and sharing details about what we do just so there's good clarity in the process. So, yeah, it's a whole lot different.

You

Speaker 2 (15:07.606)

Yeah. So you've doing, or well, you've owned the business for nine years, going on 10 years, right?

No, actually I did home care for almost 10 years and then my wife and I acquired Let's Get Moving from the original founder. She founded the company in 2005. So we celebrated 20 years this year. We're working on the 21st year. we are working on our fourth year of ownership of the company.

Okay. Okay. So are there other, I guess, models like this? Cause this is the first that I've heard of something like this. And, know, I've been in real estate 10 years and so has my wife. It's interesting. Very, very interesting and very much needed. You see a lot of estate sell people, you know, and that's all they do. They come in, they do the estate sell.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:00.374)

And then they leave everything else up to the owners of the family. So, yeah, this is another level of concierge, I guess you could say, of getting everything done. And I'm not asking if you got competition. Literally where I was going with that, was like, man, you could probably franchise this out.

Well, so I can answer two things. We are not a franchise. mom and pop. There are franchises that are out there that offer a similar business model, but we are a one location show here in Nashville. We are affiliated with NASM, which is the National Association of Senior Move Managers. There are about thousand members in the country, and it's really something that's important to investigate. It's gaining a lot of traction.

and lot of recognition in the country of how specialized we are in this process. And a few years ago, the acronym was expanded to include specialty move management. And that is outside of the downsizing world into more high-end concierge. So we have picked up a few clients with that specialty recognition. Here in Music City, you can imagine that we've got some entertainers that we work with. And that requires another high level

touch experience for these clients. The turnaround times are shorter. The type of contents that we're dealing with are very high value. And the expectations are very high. So we're meeting those demands separately. And that's a totally different angle than working with seniors. But also, to answer your question, in regards to the estate sale piece, we offer this business model to be a little bit different than just your standard estate seller.

I don't actually, Let's Get Moving doesn't conduct the estate sale. We work with estate sellers to sell, but we try to protect our clients and make sure that they're getting the most revenue for their items. And so our estate sellers come in and they just sell. That's all they do. And then Let's Get Moving will do the clear out. That way there's two separate interests that are divided between two companies.

Speaker 1 (18:10.69)

There are some estate sale companies that will offer to do both services and we've found that our clients appreciate the protection of just separating those two interests. So there's one way to make money through the sale and then having the clear out is totally separate. So everybody is interested in making sure the client has the best outcome.

I like that. Now you also work with veterans, right?

Yes, so AmVets is a huge donation service that we work with and we really, really appreciate their timeliness. We are calling them just about every week and getting them scheduled to come to our clients' homes and do pickups. And our clients really appreciate supporting AmVets for donation pickups and it's a great, great cause. So these folks will come in. We already have items boxed up and packed up for them.

and they're able to distribute those to different thrift stores that will allow these items to live another life, like furniture pieces and even box goods, clothing. It's all going to a great cause. So our clients always appreciate working with AIMvets.

And for those that don't know, that is a short for American veterans. Yes. And so since we're on this topic, because I really want to highlight how you and your company definitely support our community through ways like you just mentioned. And, we've touched on a little bit earlier, but I'd like you to share a little bit more. Who do you partner with a lot? Maybe

Speaker 2 (19:53.887)

Do you have any outstanding stories or experiences that you've been involved with throughout the years of this type of work?

So the list is quite long, actually. And you asked me ahead of time to think of a good story. And so I put a lot of thought to this. It's really hard to whittle down some of the good stories. I will say that I enjoy working with our clients. They're very philanthropic. And once our clients get over this sort of emotional hump that we're going to have to downsize and a large percentage of our items are going to go away, they get in this mindset of, that's OK.

And I just want to make sure that something good is done with the items that I no longer want or need. And so we are able to get them on this channel of donation and inventory. And you're going to get this receipt that you can use on your taxes if you can itemize. And so then our clients become engaged and really invested in who's going to be getting this donation, this large donation. So the one example that I thought of was we had a few daughters, their mom had just passed away.

due to where her home was, estate sale was not allowed in this community. So they could not do an estate sale to generate revenue for the estate. And they made a decision to donate her entire estate. And it was a really big deal. I believe if I remember correctly, I did not go back and look, but it was the donation value was over $100,000. so we were able to itemize those things on their donation receipt. We had multiple pickup days.

And there were some really fine items that were given away to great causes to raise money for all of those various different causes. And the family felt really good about giving that away and knowing the causes that those were given to you. So a lot of our families do kind of cross this line after they start to let go of the emotion of it and realize this can benefit somebody else and it is time to let go. And I'm just going to feel good about doing it.

Speaker 2 (22:01.39)

I'm sure that helps knowing that it's going to benefit. It's not going to the trash. Yeah. That's when I was helping my grandmother this year, that was one of the things that I had to reassure my mom. I'm like, are you going to put this in a closet and never look at it again? Or are you going to give it to somebody who can use it? And, know, that was like my speech about every 20 minutes because it is hard. They have to get over that, that emotional hump.

of, um, cause everything carries a memory. Almost everything carries a memory. yeah, I had a, um, a great aunt, um, man, loved her so much. And Sarah and she, she was a collector, a collector, I mean, you know, not a hoarder, but a, uh, she, she hardly got rid of anything. And you know,

That's my one and only experience with people that has such a strong emotional tie to things. You because to me, you I mean, you can attest I'm like, just throw it out. Just get rid of it. Just, know, go drop it off. She's like, we can. Yeah. And go ahead.

I was going to say people in our industry, do use, everybody uses the word hoarding pretty loosely. Yeah. And we try to be careful. You know, most sons and daughters when they call, they just say, my mom's a hoarder. I'm going to definitely need your help. And when we get to the house, we're looking around waiting to find where this hoard is. And it really is just collections of items that are not important to the adult.

them it's a little bit different. But we we try to be careful hoarding is an actual separate diagnosis and so we try to be careful using that phrase.

Speaker 2 (23:53.422)

When I think of hoarding, I think you can't even walk into a room, but yeah, that's a whole different ball game. Back to my aunt, when we had to clear out her home, I was younger, so my parents and everybody took care of it. But I still remember all the stuff, and they found so much stuff up in the attic.

It was like going through a treasure hunt in the attic of all the different things that they pulled out that she would buy and just stored away. Cause one day she may need it. And you know what? And that was okay because it made her feel good. Yeah. And I remember getting a call going, she has three of these still in the boxes. Do you want me to, this is the first year we were together. I think we're like engaged when they were starting to go through it and the other, so they're like, okay, Jason and Vinny are going to have a place. So

What can we do with all this stuff? And so we're getting phone calls, but it's, yeah, it's a lot. And then I really commend the families who do take that time. They're go, you know, I'm going to go ahead and pre go through all of this, ask my kids what they want, start allocating what I'm going to do with all of these other things. And they plan ahead. And you know, we work with a lot of people who downsize like their mood, like

The kids have all moved here to middle Tennessee and they're moving here and they're moving to a 55 and plus communities. I work with a lot of those clients and you know, it's, you know, they, and they talk me through the process of, I gotta have six months to get my house in order so I can put it up for sale because they're like, I've been here for X many years and, they're planning it. They're planning it.

And I think it's, it's a lot different, with between the generations right now, because we do have these grandparents and parents who are curators, you know, and they have all these, what was it? Precious moments and all of the, you know, the Willow series, all this hallmark stuff that, you know, the people in their forties and thirties are like, I don't know if I want that whole collection. Where am going to put it?

Speaker 2 (26:13.612)

And the parents are going, okay, I get it. This was my thing. What do I need to do? And they can plan ahead on what they can do.

Exactly. Some of our clients feel, this is sort of funny, I guess, some of our clients feel like that they are giving their kids a gift with all of these collections, that they're going to carry a lot of value and be worth a lot of money and able to sell those. And it's just not the case. And if they're hoping that they're going to be giving their kids a really big gift when they die, the biggest gift they can actually give them

is to give it away right now. If their kids appreciate those things right now, let that enjoyment be on both sides of the parents giving and being able to feel that their kids enjoy receiving that. And then also it opens up the conversation if they are finding out their kids don't want those collections, they have an answer right now that their kids don't want it. And the best thing to do if the parents also don't want it is to find another home for it.

Yeah, you know, that's so true because they think that certain items will be of more value. When you were saying that, reminded me, you going back to my Aunt Sarah, because I spent a lot of time over there. I wasn't fortunate to have my relatives live close. They were two hours away, so I didn't get to see them often. And we didn't have phones and videos, you know, back then,

So every time we would go, I would spend the night with her because she didn't have kids. So I was kind of her adopted kid in a way. But I remember she would make pizza. Well, they still have it. You buy the frozen pizzas. But instead of cutting it, she would use these scissors, these big, huge scissors to cut it up. And when we started, they started asking, what do you want?

Speaker 2 (28:12.44)

That's the one thing I had an emotional attachment to because that's what brought back those fond memories was those big black and silver scissors because that reminded me of the times together. Not the, cause she had beautiful stuff. Yeah. Beautiful stuff. But I mean, that was nice, but yeah, it's, we put attachment on different things for different reasons. I agree. I'm, I'm from the Ozarks. So a great grandma lived in a little shotgun house out.

out in the country. And there was two things that I wanted and that was the cookie jar. She kept it full for all the neighborhood kids. mean, neighborhood kids would go in the back door, go to the cookie jar without even knocking. And they just go in, they all grab a cookie and they'd come back once every two hours all day long in the summer and grab cookies. She spoiled them rotten. I wanted the cookie jar. And the other thing was the ladle. Cause if you grow up,

and you're a country kid, a hill kid, then you don't get a glass down and dirty up all of grandma's cups. So there's five, 10 grandkids there. You're all drinking out of the ladle, which hangs by the sink and you get a drink and you go back outside and.

I don't know how you get colds

I that me drinking out of that stainless steel ladle that I would have been, yeah, well, nobody knew where it went. It disappeared. My brother got it and hid it from everyone because he knew everyone was going to want that ladle. And he ran in there and grabbed it when she passed away and hid it for like 10 years. I'm like, that is not right. At least I got the cookie jar.

Speaker 1 (29:52.824)

thought you were gonna say it was donated for medical research for immunity.

should have been. It should have been. Possibly still can. But I don't know. It's like, hey, that or the hose, right? That's how we grew up. That's right. The ladle or the hose. my goodness. So one thing that struck me was the, you know, going back to your, the way you do business is that you guys don't actually have moving trucks and movers, right?

That's right.

So I think that's probably a shocker as well when you talk to people.

It's a big shocker. it's, it's one of the one of the more fun things that I can do right at the beginning of a relationship is just tell people that we're not a moving company when they when I sit down in the living room. And I just wait for it to sink in. And there's a little bit of confusion there of, well, I need to move. So don't actually even know why you're here in my living room. And then it just opens up the conversation kind of breaks the ice and allows us to talk about our process a little bit more that

Speaker 1 (30:56.236)

Yes, we're going to get a moving track involved and we're going to get you from A to B, but it's just going to happen a little bit differently than probably what you were expecting and what you're used to. And our model is so different and unique and we're trying to continue to educate people that I just take the fun opportunity to give a little shock factor.

That's fine. Jason jokes with me, calls me the nanny whisperer because when I work with a client, a lot of times they're very frustrated when they first start. They don't know what questions to ask in the senior community and they get very frustrated. But, you know, I sit down. I was a teacher for 15 years and so we have like a nice brochure booklet. We break everything down.

We have all the steps there. We talked to them about it. This is what we're gonna do. Here's an overview, but we're gonna concentrate on what we're doing right now. by the time we finished the conversation, they're relaxed. Okay, I can do this. It's one step at a time. This is what I want. This is the kind of house I want. Let's concentrate on that. And it's just breaking things down and making it palatable to clients and reassuring them that

I'm going to be there every step of the way. I'm the one, everybody calls. I'm the gatekeeper to keep your stress at bay. And I think that when you go into that mindset and not just business, but especially when you're working with seniors, because you know, things have changed so much from when they first bought their home. mean, it's the industry has completely changed for how we market a home.

how you move, just the legality of it all and just having someone they can trust that like, let me be the gatekeeper and make sure everything is done properly for you. think it's just, it's a gifting to care that much to make sure that you're the gatekeeper.

Speaker 1 (33:01.518)

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And our record right now of how long it's been since one of our clients has moved is 67 years. If you can imagine being in the same house for 67 years, she and her husband built that home. was just a ranch home, actually just in the neighborhood behind where our office is. 67 years ago. So imagine she actually told me that the neighbors were all moving in at the same time. Everybody in the neighborhood. It was a brand new neighborhood.

and everybody was kind of borrowing the same guys that were moving. And it was just kind of a cash deal. A couple of nice fellas that were looking for work. No contracts were signed. They just sort of did it on a handshake. And you that's not how business works anymore. There's a lot of contracts, a lot of liability, lot of waivers, insurance. It's just a different world and our clients need help navigating that.

You're now you're dead in that where Granny's house. Didn't he grow up there? Yeah. So he's been there his whole life. Yeah. So my grandparents who live down the street, have a, mean, just not even a block. Our family owns this, like literally the ridge, go up the mountain. We own the ridge and my brother's building on one side of the ridge. My parents live on one side.

And my grandparents, where my dad grew up, is right up the street. So my dad has literally been living on the same road since he was born. Yeah. He's in his seventies. So yeah, he's been there quite a while. But if it makes, I'm the first person to move out of state in 200 years. Our family's lived there for 200 years.

Wow, well that would be a record.

Speaker 1 (34:53.197)

yeah, you're a rebel.

the naughty one. Yeah. She moved up here because this is where I was. You were, I had a music degree. made, you know, like made sense, right? That's right. now I real estate because that's what musicians do in Nashville. They kept trying to us back for 10 years or so. I think they would still love for us to move back home and build them the lake or something. They'd be like, come on. Maybe when we retire, we'll see. Not holding my breath.

So your website, I love the website by the way, but definitely want to share with people that it's let's get moving dot net. And so be sure people that are looking at snot.com is dot net. And it's a very nice website, has very easy to navigate, and it shares all about your services and it's even got a lot of testimonials on here.

Thank you. We just had it redesigned. It needed a little bit of a facelift and to speak a little bit more closely to what our clients were looking for, we just had to get it updated and add a few more pages. And again, also this year we just started offering those more concierge services to younger folks and the specialty move management component for people that are needing that assistance. A lot of times it's been.

our sons and daughters of our clients that have experienced that. One of the clients that our team is with today is a son and a daughter-in-law of a past senior client. And they remembered our experience so well that they wanted it for their own move. So that's really where that specialty classification came in and we needed to add that to the website.

Speaker 2 (36:43.318)

that's the best. Absolutely. But yeah, it's impressive. so those that are listening, it even has right here, you can book a free consultation. Is that, would they be talking with you or somebody else?

They do. So I answer the phone and then also Taylor in my office answers the phone. And we also have Bethany, who is my counterpart, and she can come out and make a visit to your living room and answer questions and talk through your move. So we've got a team of folks that can help out.

Now, throw you a little curve ball here. Does anybody have a beard as beautiful as yours in the office? mean, my goodness, if you're just listening to the audio, you got to check out the

video.

me. Yeah. It's a, you know, I barely grow stubble and she complains. I have to keep mine, mine cut. My dad, my dad, dad, you know, I grew up with my dad having, he'd go through this different stages every year. It was clean during the summer and then he'd have the goatee by fall and then full beard for hunting season. And then he'd start all the way over. So I had somebody different all year round. So.

Speaker 2 (37:59.67)

Yeah, so she don't let me get by with it. I'm jealous.

It's all good. Well, you've got a full head of hair on the top of your head and I can't do that anymore. So You gotta pick which side of your head you want to grow hair on

This is true. This is very true. man. Well, so on the website here, you can actually click on your services. So anybody that's listening and you want to kind of get a breakdown of what they do, please visit the site here. And it's got everything from the planning piece of it. Y'all do that layout design, which I think is just phenomenal. I never thought about.

a service doing that where you actually do a floor plan of the new place. That's incredible. That's a new one for me. Yeah, I love that. But down to the sorting packing, mean, everything's in here. I mean, because I go in with clients on their new home. And if there's not a floor plan, we go in and like measure the living room and bedrooms and office and everything so they can put that up against what they have now and make decisions. So.

I know for my clients that is just a really needed service.

Speaker 1 (39:14.382)

Well, a picture's worth a thousand words and just being able to visualize what your new space is going to look like is helpful. And I would say more times than not, we're ending up with extra pieces of furniture that the client wanted to go in the floor plan and they're lined up on the side outside of the floor plan because they won't fit. And I think sometimes our eyes are hungrier than what can actually work out in the floor plan. And so it's nice to be able to measure it and know for sure that it's going to fit.

I've had more on more than 10 occasions had a family who goes, I have to keep my antique dining set. So every house that I would look at, I would have to look at the dining section to see how long it was, how wide it was to see if we could fit that in there before we didn't even go look at a house. Cause I'm like, cause if they fall in love with that house, we're going to go through the whole thing. They're going to like, well it won't fit. Like they're that passionate about that.

one thing because maybe it was their great grandmothers and they got it. love our stuff. We love our stuff. I'm curious, and you may know this answer, do people still have that attachment to heirlooms? It was so generational passed down, but we are such a consumer driven throwaway society. Have you seen anything that

but that's still.

I would say it's more in line with what you shared about the pair of scissors that the heirs of our clients are really more interested in those sentimental token pieces and not as much furniture unless the furniture is really, really nice and it is multi-generational heirloom furniture. A lot of times artwork makes the handoff. If it's original pieces of art or special pieces of art.

Speaker 1 (41:11.756)

art that has a story behind it, but it a lot of times is the more token pieces that get passed down. And our younger folks are, they have different tastes. They're looking for different things and brown furniture is out right now. So that's a lot of what's getting passed down. And most of our people that are receiving furniture are just not interested. So that's a lot of what gets donated.

So not at our house. Brown furniture is in. dark brown as in wood. Wood, yeah.

It's in.

Well, it's coming back.

We're bringing, we're bringing sexy bag. Bringing that espresso mahogany bag. It's all right. You know, it's, well, it was passed down too. mean, it's, yeah. Well here in the South, I mean, you can come up, come to blows over some quilts like

Speaker 1 (41:50.677)

Just give it another.

Speaker 1 (42:02.552)

That's true. the quilts are also something that get passed down. They still sort of fall in that token aspect of when I came over to grandma's house, this is the quilt I slept under. And, you know, so there's there's still stories behind all that.

Yeah. We have some theft stories on, well on the quilts, like literally people are on their deathbed and they're sneaking in and great grabbing great grandma's quilts. Telling you it's something about the quilts because I mean, we're not mountain people. We're Ozarks. We call them heels.

You mountain people.

Speaker 1 (42:39.79)

Thank you.

Whatever you wanna call it.

Arkansas has plenty of hillbillies and we are very proud of it. It's okay. yeah. There's some other stories. She held tight until we got married. But it's all about them quilts. I think it's because it's tradition. I helped my grandparents probably work on four quilts personally myself. As a small kid, I'm sitting there doing stitches. So there's stories and meaningful moments of passing down those traditions when it comes to quilt circles.

Well, your all that stuff. Your grandma helped you with your wedding dress. Yeah, my grandmother helped me make that was the last project she did was help me. We worked together and did my wedding dress. So yeah, yeah, all those little things.

Have you heard of the Swedish death cleaning process? Yes.

Speaker 2 (43:35.64)

What? is amazing. Yeah. Explain explain to everyone.

a lot of where the stories come in and are helpful, know, family members that are going to be receiving items, a lot of times don't know the stories behind it of, you know, I've always seen that orange and blue ugly picture on the top of your, your patch. And I am so ready to get rid of it when you die. But when you hear the story behind that orange and blue picture and what's behind it, it becomes the most popular item in the room. So taking the

the process of putting a story behind items so that families understand where things came from. A lot of times can help distribute items that people didn't have interest in at first.

Speaker 1 (44:27.512)

Sorry, but I tell it again.

I thought it was going to be a much darker thing. Death cleaning or something. It's literally just to have everything like making like this master plan. And a lot of people do go and they go ahead and gift everything or gift most of their things before they die. And to me, that's kind of a cool process because you can, I love giving gifts. That's like one of my, my loves. And so,

I can see myself going, all right, reaching the end of my days, everybody come over over the next year and we're going to put a sticker on everything. Like I'm that let's go, let's go ahead and go ahead and take it home.

What many people don't realize is you're going to end up with fewer stickers than you're hoping for. And that's the reality that we talk to with our clients is your kids probably don't want your stuff. We can try all of the tricks and tactics and Swedish death cleaning and, you know, creating stories. But, you know, a lot of times we just want to make our own memories and have our own items. But you're going to find out real quick what your kids do want and what they don't. And it's going to make it real clear what the next steps are for those things.

Well, that is, there's a lot of wisdom in that. And I just love that you guys, again, have put together a plan to not just set that expectation, but also let them know that it's going to be loved again by someone. We're going to send it to a nonprofit that will be able to take the funding from all of these items. And they're going to go to homes where they're going to be appreciated. And I love that transitioning. think it's beautiful. Who are some of the nonprofits that you've worked with?

Speaker 1 (46:12.718)

Well, know, the nonprofit charities are always going to be different in every single city. So Nashville, of course, we are working with Amvets, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, Graceworks, Thrift Smart. Some other smaller places is Turnip Green. They take a lot of paints and then Smart Art takes art and craft supplies. There's just so many, a long list of nonprofits and charities that we work with.

gets certain items to certain places where it's going to best meet a need.

That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. So all of this, all that you do, I'm sure is, it impacts you personally. And there's probably a lot of emotions on your side as well. How do you handle that from your standpoint? Because I know some days it may be, I'm sure it's harder than others.

Well, I do have a really strong team that I work with and all of our packers and project managers that are leaders in the field, they're on the front lines. And those are the people that are really working day in and day out with our clients and kind of having to hold their hand through the process. And so it's making sure that they have the right support to have those conversations. So they truly are the ones that are walking that.

And sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where even though our clients have hired us to help them do this, that we become the outlet of receiving that frustration and stress when people move. And we can't take it all away. That's not a promise that I make that we're gonna make a stress-free move. That's not available. We do manage some of that and some of the stressors and take the workload off to reduce the stress as much as we can.

Speaker 1 (48:08.216)

But moving is hard and it's never gonna stop being hard. It is just really difficult. And so we try to help our project managers and our teammates realize that, that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing, but that sometimes emotions of our clients can be really heightened and to try to not take that personally and respond in a way that is professional and to try to find the source of the frustration. How can we come in and be?

helpful in reducing that source. Because a lot of times that frustration is really just a symptom of what that bigger problem is.

yeah, I'm sure it is. Well, what you do is just fantastic. And definitely in our type of business, being in real estate, we're definitely going to keep you in mind. Absolutely. We were joking that she was the granny whisper, but she really is. There's certain types of people that you connect with and can really speak to.

And Minnie does a fantastic job of that. She has the patience. has the, well, once she has the knowledge, she does all the training, but just the heart. I mean, it takes a heart to walk alongside them. You have to have the heart and just really love and be the golden grandchild that I was as an adult. know, all... the humility.

That's right. Humility is important and all that. I can tell Mindy is the best at that. But, you know, there's populations that work with kids and those with disabilities and people that work with homeless and veterans. And I suppose in a crude sort of sense, you've heard the saying, there's a lid that fits every pot and we all have to find where we work best.

Speaker 2 (49:41.026)

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:00.212)

I agree. Well, you have a heart too. And we can definitely tell that you love what you do. it's, you know, we appreciate what you do because you're helping our community. You're not only just helping on the front end, you're helping on the back end because you're given, like you said, you're giving new life to those items that they're giving up.

And so it is your business is doing a positive impact all the way around. So we thank you for your contributions very much.

Thank you. feel that.

Yeah. And thank you for being on the show. I I love this conversation because like I said, I am the golden grandchild. but now I have a heart for our elderly. I think that was kind of pressed in from a biblical standpoint growing up. And I think it's so important to respect and truly take care and make sure that they're not being taken advantage of. There are so many scam artists out there right now. And

A huge part of my job is talking to my seniors, through wire fraud. I have gone and driven them to the title company to bring their money because there's just so many people out there that are wanting to take advantage. we need more people on this planet who are taking care of our elderly and loving on them and giving them peace in times in transition. So thank you.

Speaker 1 (51:33.87)

Shall we? Yeah.

because I want to be taken care of when I get elderly as well.

That's right. You got to invest forward.

Before we wrap up, so again, I want to remind people to visit your website, let'sgetmoving.net, and any final words you'd like to share with them.

Yeah, feel free to reach out and we're happy to answer any questions that you have. There's no obligation to just having a conversation with us if you're even just curious about our process and want to learn more. And the website doesn't have all the answers that you're looking for. You can email us at info, I-N-F-O at let'sgetmoving.net or you can call us directly, 615-599-6787. And anybody that answers will be glad to help.

Speaker 2 (52:21.806)

Perfect. All right, my friend, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for sharing all that you do. And we appreciate you, as we said earlier, we appreciate your heart, we appreciate your service to our community. thank you everybody for listening. And until next time, always remember that you do matter. Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville.

So, thanks for the advice. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (52:48.236)

We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community. Until then, remember, your story matters, your voice matters, and most of all, you matter.