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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 166: Moving Made Simple: Your Guide to Stress-Free Relocation with Trent Moving and Storage
What makes Connor Trent with Trent Moving and Storage a good neighbor?
Moving is often seen as one of life’s toughest challenges, fraught with stress and emotional upheaval. In this episode, we sit down with Connor Trent from Trent Moving and Storage to unpack the truths about hiring moving professionals and how their service can alleviate some of that stress. Connor shares his journey from college athlete to owning and operating a successful moving company, illustrating that behind every relocation story lies human connections, compassion, and understanding.
We delve deep into the myths surrounding the moving industry, discussing misconceptions that often deter potential clients from seeking professional help. Many believe that movers are only for the wealthy, while some think hiring a team may lead to more complications than benefits. Connor breaks down these notions, making a compelling case for the value that a professional moving service brings to everyone, from young families to seniors making significant life changes.
Listeners will not only gain insight from Connor's rich experiences but also learn about the importance of community trust, marketing through personal connections, and the emotionally charged experiences that accompany moving. This episode stands out by focusing on how Trent Moving and Storage prioritizes care and integrity in their service, creating an approach that respects the emotional nature of moving.
Join us for a thought-provoking discussion that challenges your perceptions of moving, and consider how professional help can make the process not just bearable but even enjoyable. If you’re contemplating a move, be sure to connect with Trent Moving and Storage by visiting TrentRelocation.com or calling 423-408-8128. Your next move may just turn into a cherished experience!
To learn more about Trent Moving and Storage go to:
Trent Moving and Storage
(423) 408-8128
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monning.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast of the Tri-Cities. So if you've moved very much, which I've moved quite a few times in my life, and if you've used a service to move or if you moved on your own either way, I'm sure you recognize how beneficial it is to have a professional helping with that process. So if you're looking for somebody like that, one might be closer than you think, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Mr Connor Trent, who is the owner operator of Trent Moving and Storage. Connor, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:We're glad to have you and, like I said, pretty excited to learn all about you and your business. So if you don't mind, why don't you start us out by telling us about your company?
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, so we're a moving company. We do a little bit of storage as well. We're actually building on our own self-storage facility, um, and property that we own, um, so we're about to have a self-storage option for our customers. We found it in 2020. Um, we've been operating out of churchill. We just recently relocated the business in the kingsport just to be a little more centrally located for the Tri-Cities area, where we're doing most of our work at. One thing that's kind of different about us than a lot of moving companies everybody that works with us is W-2 employees. We don't hire any day labor or anything like that. Everybody you know they're working full time schedule with us. We do have a couple of part time guys, but everybody's on our payroll. They're not. They're not day labor.
Speaker 2:Very good and that's important because you want to know that the guy that's walking around in your house moving stuff around, putting it in boxes, you want to be sure that that's somebody you can trust and that is, if you got an issue, that later on you can reconnect with them. So, connor, how did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I played football in college at Middle Tennessee State and, you know, just right outside of Nashville, in Murfreesboro. So there's a United Van Lines agent there and, like every summer they would come to meet the football team and say hey, you guys want some some extra work this summer. We need guys for the warehouse. So we would have our workouts early in the morning and I'd go work their warehouse from. You know as much as I could put a little extra money in my pocket. So that's where I got started out from there.
Speaker 3:I finished up playing ball, but I had a semester of school left so I took a job as their quality control uh, quality control manager, and then my degrees in accounting. So after I took that job, I took a job in accounting for more money and I'm just realized I'm not built to be in a cubicle for the rest of my life. I'm glad there's people that can do it, but it's just not me. So I started looking for something different and my wife and I moved from Nashville back here and she started a business. It started doing pretty good and one day I just messaged her. I was like, hey, I started a moving company.
Speaker 3:Today Sent her a screenshot of the paperwork from online today from the Tennessee website. She's like moving company, like where did that come from? So just kind of an idea I had. I thought, you know I'll do a couple moves a month. You know something I can do on the side, like I said, make a little extra money. And then here we are we're doing, you know, 350, 400 moves a year right now. We're on pace to do a lot more than that this year. Right now we're on pace to do a lot more than that this year. So I kind of started as a not taking it that seriously. And then here we are, you know, a few years later doing a lot more business than I ever thought we would.
Speaker 2:Wow. Well, there is truly an art form to moving, and my. I say that because I've moved at least 12 or 14 times in my life and I've got five kids, so I've moved kids an awful lot. And my son used to work for a moving company and I always made sure I had him around because he knew what he was doing. Like you know, we'd be straddling, trying to carry a couch up five flights of stairs in an apartment complex and he shows up, he's like no, no, no, no, no, get out of the way. And anyway we're all breaking our backs and he does it by himself. So anyway, well, connor, what are some myths or misconceptions in the moving and storage business?
Speaker 3:Yes. So moving in general has always kind of carried a bad reputation, sort of these fly-by-night operations that everybody knows what they can count on. So that reputation I've noticed some of the old timers I've known that have been in the business things are starting to change a little bit, I think. Where service businesses there's so much information available online. If you're a service-based business you better develop, you better deliver a good product or you're, they're going to find somebody else. So that reputation I think starting to change a little bit, hopefully. You know we're part of that.
Speaker 3:And then a lot of people think, you know, they've never hired a moving company before and they just don't know what to expect so they feel like it's not for them. Or you know, they sort of upper, upper, echelon, upper class people, higher movers, really work. I mean we do jobs for everybody so we can do something as small as hey we need to. You know I'm putting flooring down in my guest room. We need to stuff moved out into the garage and then back in next week Like there's there's a, you know.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good. Well, we know marketing is key to just about any business's success. How do you market your moving and storage business?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So a lot of it is just people we know. I'm very involved in our church and I have been growing up so we have a lot of good friends, a lot of good family friends, and we don't really spend a ton on marketing almost zero. It's a lot of word of mouth, a lot of people I grew up with and my mom's a realtor A lot of realtor contacts that send us business all the time. So we're going to ramp up our marketing this year but we really rely on those realtors. We really appreciate the realtors, any referral partners we have. They're a big part of our business. So a lot of it is just stopping in and saying, hey, you know how are you guys doing it. Whatever real estate company and you know, keep it on the front of their mind and then you know we try to take care of them too. We'll send some gift cards or whatever we. Just those referral contacts are really important to us. Those referral contacts are really important to us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, and you mentioned earlier referrals and so much information being online. The last time I moved from North Carolina to Tennessee, I was looking for a moving company and that made all the difference in the world. I talked to tons of national chains and then looked at their reviews and they were horrible and I ended up going with a local company that somebody told me oh yeah, go with this guy these guys because they moved me and they did a great job, blah, blah, blah. So it means a lot, yeah.
Speaker 3:Like a lot of times you Google moving company and you know those big nationwide chains or um brokers. They can, yes, got those top couple of spots and you know they're taking your business usually and just kind of subbing it out to somebody. They don't know who's going to show up. You don't know who's going to show, they don't know if somebody's going to show up. So you know, putting that face with a name, I don't care what business you're doing if. If you're hiring a moving company, a plumber, an electrician, in my opinion you're always better off finding somebody you know, cause I'm a member of this community, you know and I care about the people here and you know you put a face with a name, you're going. You know there's a little more credibility there than just finding somebody online.
Speaker 2:You know, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Couldn't agree more Well outside of work, connor, what do you like to do for fun? That's a good question. I've got an 18 month old. Anything with him, I mean, it's just the best my wife and I talk about all the time. We're both turning 30 this year and if we had gotten started a little bit earlier having kids when we first got married, we'd have 10 kids. We just love it. Um, we live on a little bit of acreage so we full of some livestock, very, you know, just a little bit, just kind of chickens, and you know I'm building fence right now trying to get some stuff for, uh, for this summer, but, um, yeah, so anything with my family and you know, around the house I guess you could say kind of a little bit of a mini farm type situation.
Speaker 2:We don't sell anything, we're just kind of raising stuff for ourselves, but I spend a good amount of time off time doing that if I have any off time if I understand well that that's awesome, man, that's awesome and, and especially with your kids and you're, you're creating a great environment to raise them into with having animals around, absolutely. Well, let's switch gears for a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've been through and how, when you got on the other side of it that you were, you were better off?
Speaker 3:That's a good question. Um, when I first went to college you know, coming from Churchill, you know small town, going to college and playing football at that level was a big shock for me, just the talent difference from small town East Tennessee to, you know, division I. So I tore my shoulder up when I first got there like second day in pads, tore my shoulder up so I had to have shoulder surgery. And I'm very close with my family Like we do, my mom and dad and my brother. We're kind of did everything together growing up. You know there was none of this sitting in our rooms by ourselves and not we were, you know, always together. So I go four hours away from home, tear my shoulder up, so I'm not spending much time with the team cause I'm um, you know, I'm rehabbing my shoulder while everybody else is practicing.
Speaker 3:So that's come around springtime I called my mom. I said, mom, I'm coming home. You know, I don't know that, I don't think I can do this. And my mom said she said, well, where are you going to live at? And I said, well, I'm coming home. She said You're not coming here, you.
Speaker 3:She gave me a ton of tough love and, like you know, years later my dad said, you know, after you all had that conversation, she hung the phone up and cried like a baby because she knew I was, you know, feeling unhappy but she gave me the tough love that I needed at the time. And now, looking back, like toughening it out for those few weeks where I was just kind of feeling down, like the things I learned while I was there you know, take football out of it Like it was just took completely life changing for me and just, you know, kind of growing up and not, you know, having someone else making me do things besides. My mom and dad really, you know, influenced my life moving forward and you know, obviously my mom forcing me kind of to stick it out and not giving me any options, but to stick it out was a big thing for me.
Speaker 2:Very good, mom knows best.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Luckily I've got a mom that, even when it hurts her feelings, she gives me the tough love I need.
Speaker 2:so she gives you what you need. That's right. That's right. My mom was just like that. Well, connor, if you could think of one thing you'd like our listeners to remember about uh trent, uh, moving and storage what would that be?
Speaker 3:it's another good question. Um, I think that I just what I really good question. I think that I just what I really want people to know is that we actually care. You know, everyone that's with us cares. We deal with some, some of the worst situations that people are going to go through in their life. They're dealing with a moving company, in the middle of it, they're somebody passed away, they're going through a divorce, they're you know there's there a divorce there. You know there's, there's a whole. There's some great things that happen when you're moving. You know I'm getting a house to buy my first house, or I'm moving to the house I want, or I'm getting this or getting that, but there's some bad things. Do we really care about those people? Everyone that works with us, um, really cares about helping our people, our clients, our customers, and I think that you know it, everybody's, not just a number to me.
Speaker 3:Like, I really want to make sure that in those situations where I mean I've had people literally, you know, wet my shoulder with tears before because you know their their mom or dad passed away and we're helping them clean out their house and it's just had a guy a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3:His mother had passed away and he hadn't went in the house in two years and he just opened up to the firm. When we first showed up to quote the job for him, that was the first time he had turned the keys and she had passed away. So we walk in. He has like he's completely emotionally overwhelmed and we were there to help him through that process and help his family to where hey, let us take care of this for you. And through that process and help his family to where hey, let us take care of this for you. And we got the house cleared out, put it all in storage, packed everything up and he called me afterwards. Actually he was crying on planes like man, there's no way I could have ever done that Went through my mom's stuff and packed everything up like that, like just really appreciative, and that makes me really care about our people because, you know, in a different situation he wouldn't have had that experience right, right, very good, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, connor, if any of our listeners are interested in, uh, you know they're thinking about moving or everybody needs to put something in storage. Um, how could they learn more about your company?
Speaker 3:yeah, so you can find us online currently, um, the website is TrentRelocationcom. That'll be changing soon, so keep out, look up, look at our Facebook for some updates on that. We're going through a little bit of rebrand. You can find you get us by phone. The number is 423-408-8128. That is for now coming to my phone, so you're more than likely going to get me. We're trying to add some office staff because I'm just kind of a little bit overwhelmed. So you might not get me, but there's a good chance you will.
Speaker 2:Very good, very nice, important to All right Well, very good. Well, connor, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed chatting and learning about you and your company and wish you and your family and your company all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I sure appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, we appreciate it too.
Speaker 3:Maybe we can have you back sometime when you got something. Get your new branding campaign going.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, we'd love it All right, see you then. Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnp-citiescom. That's gnp-citiescom, or call 423-7-3.