August 26, 2024 • 24 mins
What drives someone to turn personal tragedy into a mission of community support? Neil Turner from River City Moving joins us to share his deeply personal journey, including the loss of his sister, which spurred him to start his moving business and inspired his plans for a foundation to aid families facing mental illness. Neil's commitment to hiring highly trained movers who treat every item with utmost care distinguishes River City Moving. We also explore the unique booking policies and discounts for seniors, veterans, healthcare workers, and teachers that underscore Neal’s community-first approach.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a moving company with integrity? Neil provides a glimpse into his 11-year journey in the moving industry and the foundational principles behind River City Moving in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He outlines the importance of a community-oriented business culture, including paying employees to volunteer at local nonprofits like the food bank. We also touch on the host's move to Chattanooga and the supportive network of local business owners that make the area special. Discover the challenges and triumphs of running a small business and the satisfaction of offering a stress-free moving experience.
Loss and trauma can leave deep scars, but they can also spark a drive to help others. Neil opens up about his sister's battle with mental illness and her subsequent death, illustrating the need for robust support systems. He shares his vision of establishing a nonprofit in his sister's name to support those in similar situations. We express our heartfelt gratitude to our listeners and underscore the importance of supporting local businesses in the Chattanooga area. Learn how you can nominate your favorite local establishments to be featured on the Good Neighbor Podcast and join us in making meaningful community connections.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Scott Howell.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello good neighbors and welcome to the Good Neighbor
Podcast brought to you by theFriends and Neighbors Group of
the Greater Chattanooga Area.
Again, my name is Scott Howelland I'm your host for today.
You know a lot of people askwhat's the purpose of the Good
Neighbor podcast.
Well, what we desire to do isto bring an awareness to the
residents living in ourcommunities regarding locally
(00:33):
owned and or operated businessesthat are in Cleveland,
chattanooga, dalton, jasperBenton, everything in between.
We just have a large areathat's considered the
Chattanooga region.
We want to bring awareness toall of our local communities and
small businesses.
You know the small businessesare the backbone of our
communities.
(00:53):
Sometimes we forget that andthey need our support.
And every local business has astory to tell and we just want
to.
On the Good Neighbor podcast,we just want to be able to help
them to tell it loud and proud.
Join me today with one of ourgood neighbors, neal Turner, at
River City Moving.
It seems like I'm gettingtongue-tied this morning, but
(01:16):
River City Moving, we're glad tohave you with us, neal.
Good to be here, absolutely.
It's good to be here Absolutely, and you know before we dive in
and talking about what you doand all that you offer to the
listeners of our program.
I would like to give you theopportunity, if you'd like to
share something personal aboutyourself and maybe your family.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh well, there's all sorts of things I don't know.
I've got a degree in psychologyand used to be a touring
magician, magician, musicianmusician.
Yeah, photography did a wholelot of stuff.
My family and I were from up inMorristown, tennessee, and one
of the motivating factors, oneof the things that kind of
(01:58):
stopped me from doing all that Iwas doing and get involved in
the moving business, was mysister.
We lost my sister in 2016.
Well, I appreciate that.
That changed me significantly,and so part of the reason I
started River City Moving isultimately probably year four or
(02:18):
so.
I'd like to start a foundationin Chattanooga in my sister's
name to help families go throughthe process of losing a
relative to mental illness,because there was nobody for us,
and I think by now I've metquite a few business owners and
people in the community willingto help me with that, and I
(02:39):
think our area is a great areafor it.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, that's something that seems like it's
just increasingly becoming moreeither well-known or maybe worse
I don't know how to describe itbut it seems like you hear a
lot of it anymore and thatpeople are not coping very well.
I just had a podcast earliertoday with a lady.
(03:05):
She has a coaching business inhelping people deal with
depression, and it stemmed fromsome of her own events in her
own life, you know, and so I'mglad to know there are people
like yourself and like her andothers that are willing to help
folks that need it.
You know, I've been to thatpoint in my life too where I
needed, I needed help.
So great kudos for that.
(03:27):
I'm very sorry for yourfamily's loss, but but, uh, I'm
glad you're using it to apositive end.
Uh, you know, uh, so tell usabout river city movie.
Uh, what is it that you offerpeople that are listening to us
today?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, we're going to give you a five-star move.
If you check us out on Google,everywhere it's five stars, and
there's a reason for that.
We don't hire day laborers.
We send well-trained,professional young men out there
.
You're going to get guys thatare paid $8 to $10 more per hour
than anybody else around willpay movers, so they want to be
(04:03):
there.
You're going to get a qualitymove, professional guys that
understand.
I mean moving is deeplypersonal.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's not, you know, a simple hey, I want to get this
guy's stuff, throw it in a truckand unload it.
I'm picking up something thatcould be the most important
thing in that person's life, youknow.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I want to make sure that you've got great guys
and you get a get a great timemoving stress-free, and it's not
for you anyway a lot of timesyou're moving family heirlooms
and, uh, you know things thatmaybe been in fact.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I know in my house there's things that have been in
the families for two or threegenerations uh, they are
important to us.
You know, when we're, when thethings are precious to like,
that have have a lot of deeprooted memories inside.
And you're right, the lastthing you want to do is get
somewhere and it's broken orit's, you know, damaged in some
(04:56):
way, you know.
So to know somebody is takingcare of it up front, not on the
backside, it's always great toknow that people stand behind
the work because, hey, accidentshappen, but still, if you know
people are taking care of it onthe front end, it's a lot more
reassuring.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Right.
So, you know, to mitigate that,the risk of damage, you know
our guys are going to be paddingand wrapping and bubble
wrapping and taking a lot ofcare with your items and, and if
there's, you know, they'rethere to listen.
So if the customer has explicitinstructions for this or that,
my guys aren't the kind that aregoing to cop an attitude, roll
their eyes, that, yes, ma'am,you know.
(05:33):
Yes, sir, they're going to takecare of it.
Right, we also give discountsto seniors, veterans, healthcare
workers and teachers, and wedon't require a deposit to be
added.
And, uh, we don't have acancellation fee in the event
that your closing falls throughor you change your mind.
So we keep booking risk-free aswell.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, well, that's nice to know.
Yeah, so well.
Just my own personal curiositywhat part of town are y'all
located in?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
We're located in Chattanooga in the Red Bank area
.
Red Bank, okay, but I mean weservice you know.
I'd say most of the moves arewithin a 70-mile radius.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, you don't just service Red Bank, yeah,
obviously, yeah, you service alarge in 70 miles.
I mean that goes obviously downto North Georgia and up above
Cleveland and all up throughthat area, so the entire
Chattanooga area.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
We've got a lot of people moving um either to West
Tennessee or from okay that's astrange one, but we were in
Memphis not too long ago, inNashville the other day, and
yeah, up in uh Jonesboro, uptowards Johnson yeah yeah,
tennessee's a big long state, sopeople are moving all over tell
(06:43):
us, bar says they're the oldesttown in Tenner Creek, so that's
a claim to fame for them, yeah,so so, uh, uh, when you the
most.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I want to tell you about experience.
I had the most positiveexperience I ever had in movie.
What really impressed me iswhen they came up to my house.
They wouldn't carry one pieceof my furniture out of a doorway
I'm talking about just throughthe bedroom doorway.
They wouldn't carry it out of adoorway until they first
wrapped it, and that was thebest experience I ever had,
(07:13):
whereas I had one experiencethat wasn't that great and they
insisted on carrying everythingout the house first and then
wrapping it, and I had a lot ofdamaged furniture when I got
there.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, no, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, it didn't me either, but they wouldn't listen
to me.
But anyway, it was what it was.
It wasn't y'all for sure.
Yeah, good, but so as a matterof fact, so everybody knows it
wasn't anybody in Chattanoogaeither.
So nobody's wondering if itwasn't me, wasn't me, wasn't
anybody in Chattanooga?
So nobody's wondering if itwasn't me, wasn't me, wasn't
anybody in Chattanooga?
(07:47):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat people hear, the myths and
misconceptions that people havewhen they come to you regarding
hiring a moving service ratherthan doing it yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, Well, a lot of it's based on prior experience.
Unfortunately, a lot of peopledo have bad experiences with
moving companies.
Yeah, A lot of the companiesyou know in town and elsewhere.
They have a habit of sendingout guys that maybe they're out
of shape, you know, maybethey're a little too old to be
doing it or they're smokers, oryou know just not what I would
(08:21):
consider a good hire.
Yeah, so that's one of thethings I think people come to
expect is that guys might showup that don't really care about
the job itself.
But that's definitely not goingto happen with us.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
How long on average have your people been with you?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, the company knows this is the cool thing.
I've been in the movingbusiness for 11 years, so I was
the GM at Tiger Moving inGreenville, south Carolina,
before I came back to Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
River.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
City Moving turns two years old next month.
Oh, wow, a lot of my guys havebeen with me almost the whole
way.
Okay, most of the guys havebeen there at least a year or
more, and so, like I said, youknow I hire intentionally.
You know I make sure thatthere's quality young men and
they're getting paid well to bethere.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of difference when
people are being paid well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I hear from people they'll say, well, nothing was
damaged, and I'll say that'sgreat right, and they're like,
yeah, but I expected at leastone thing would be damaged,
because I think that's that'sthe expectation.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
yeah, certainly, accidents, you know, can happen,
but yeah, we try very hard notto my last move was a 500 mile
move and there was a, an antiquetable I had.
It was worth some money too,and when I got there they had
piled a bunch of boxes on top ofit, had small spindly legs and
it was totally crushed, ofcourse.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That makes no sense at all, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
It didn't.
It didn't make any sense, likeI said, nobody around
Chattanooga, but it was.
It was bad, but anyway, youknow you have good experiences,
bad experiences sometimes, butit's always nice when you find
somebody that does it right thefirst time.
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah sometimes, but it's always nice when you find
somebody that does it right thefirst time.
Yeah, and a lot of people, Ithink, expect, when they think
about a job like moving, itsounds like, ooh, that's a
labor-intensive job.
It might attract guys thateither don't care or maybe
aren't skilled, and that's justnot true.
Not with us anyway, becausethere's a lot to it.
(10:28):
With the padding and thewrapping and the playing Tetris,
with the packing, interfacingwith the customer, doing math,
making sure contracts arecorrect, driving.
There's a lot of skills thatthese guys develop and we try to
make sure that they have thosebefore they show up.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Sure, Sure, absolutely.
Well, you know, uh, when inTennessee.
Yeah, now you're, you're fromMorristown, but now you're, you
live in Chattanooga.
What, what brought you toChattanooga?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Oh man.
Well, when I left Morristown Iit was quite the journey I went
to Carson Newman college and Ilived in Charleston, south
Carolina and Los Angeles.
I was all over the place but Iended up in Greenville.
So when I came back toTennessee I thought, well, I'm
not going to go back toMorristown.
(11:21):
I lived in Knoxville before, soI wanted to go to a city that
was growing and a city that feltright.
So when I visited I found outChattanooga has around 3,000
nonprofits.
That blew my mind and thattells me well, here's a
community that that gives back,you know.
And the more I learned aboutthe area and and with each visit
, the more I realized okay, Ithink this is the place.
(11:42):
And as soon as I got there andI got going with networking and
stuff like that, I realized Ihave never lived in a city, no
matter where I've been DC, la,charleston, greenville where
business owners are as welcomingand where the community is as
supportive for local businesses.
(12:02):
I've just never personallyexperienced it.
I've not had a bad experiencesitting down and meeting with
another business owner inChattanooga at all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's a great reputation to have, because you
know a lot of times you don'tget that everywhere you go.
Yeah, especially you know whenyou're viewed as a competitor of
sorts.
Maybe you know when you'reviewed as a competitor of sorts,
maybe A lot of times you findthe floodgates coming to a hard
shut, you know.
But when we realized I've got afriend, he says you know, he
(12:36):
said it doesn't matter.
He said competition is good foreverybody, it's healthy for
everybody.
And you know you just got acompetitor.
You just do the best job youcan.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You just keep going forward, you know forward.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
He's got a really good attitude about it.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, there's moving companies, there's going to be a
lot of moving companies.
We want to provide astress-free move.
We want to uphold a greatreputation.
We're going to do our best tostand out.
That's all you can do.
One of the things that'simportant to us is that we get
back to the community Right now,today, at this moment, at the
(13:10):
time, is it?
Yeah, I've got four guys at thefood bank, so I'll pay guys to
go do shifts, you know, forlocal nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh, wow.
Because it's it's worth it tome.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And it's a good experience for them because they
get a.
You know, if someone can affordto move, that's one thing, but
if someone can't afford food,well, that might be someone that
certainly couldn't afford tomove.
And I think that it's importantthat the guys are understanding
, you know, the full scope ofthe community and that, hey, man
, we're here to help one way orthe other.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, absolutely Kudos to you for that.
It's refreshing to know thatyou actually care that much
yourself.
I know you have your ownnonprofit, but you don't just
care about your own, you careabout others too.
So that's great to know.
What do you like to do whenyou're not moving folks?
What do you like to do?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I wish I could say that I did more for fun, but, as
you know, as a small businessowner it's seven days a week, uh
much to I.
I know the disappointment of my, my girlfriend, my dog, uh I I
do a lot of uh kind of walking.
I'd be honest with you.
I live in north short, so Itake a lot of walks down to the
(14:26):
bridge and the parks oh yeah,exercise, you know, exercise
when I can Go to the gym.
What's fun for me is when Idon't have to work.
That's fun.
Yeah, so Greg and I will go tothe drive-in down in Trenton, or
you know the movies oh yeah,yeah.
Stuff like that, but we'renominated for the best of the
best, oh, awesome.
(14:46):
And that ends tomorrow, so Iwanted to make sure I threw a
plug out there.
The last day to vote, I believe, is today.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So Best Moving Services, that's us.
Hey, if we win that and we turntwo years old, I'll make sure
to make time for a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
There you go.
Well, I tell you what the funis is categorized different ways
with different people, right so, and but you, you just talking
about getting out, walkingaround town, walking down the
bridge and all that.
I I consider that enjoyable.
Myself, I like to just get outand walk.
I enjoy that, so I don'tconsider that boring at all.
(15:26):
That can be very fun.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You pop open a book, sit in the park, you're good to
go, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You know we talked about.
One of the questions I hadplanned to ask you was a life
challenge that you went through,and you mentioned the death of
your sister and maybe some ofthe circumstances.
I don't want to get into thatwith you, you know, unless you
just want to.
But you know, I know myself.
I lost my dad when I was alittle boy.
(15:55):
I called him Daddy.
I lost him when I was a littleboy and six years old.
And then I lost my wife when Iwas 37 years old and she was 36.
And so I know loss is tough.
If you lose anybody that youcare about and it's you really
love, it's hard.
It's hard, but there'ssometimes it.
(16:17):
Some things happen to somepeople that we lose and we just
can't understand it.
We can't comprehend how didthis happen?
How did this come about?
Why didn't I see it?
You know, and and, and you knowthose times, at those times in
our life, the fact that youstarted a nonprofit to help
people in those situations is,is really, is really big to me
(16:40):
because, you know, as a six yearold boy, I didn't go through
those circumstances.
My, my dad was killed a carwreck, but you know he didn't
plan on being killed in that carwreck.
He, he left the house and saidI'll be right back, and I never
saw him again until I saw him.
Now, this is a little kid'sviewpoint.
I saw him laying in this boxand I didn't understand what was
going on, you know, I didn'tunderstand what death was.
(17:02):
I didn't understand that he wasnever coming back.
And boy, you talked aboutspurring spurring a lot of
emotional issues for a littlekid.
I had them for a number ofyears, and so the fact that
you're doing things to try tohelp other people is big and
that people are actually helpingyou help other people, whoever
(17:25):
they are out there.
Kudos to them for doing that.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well, so just to be clear, I haven't started a
nonprofit yet.
Oh, my apology, Okay, no no,you're okay, I haven't started
the nonprofit yet.
Oh, my apology, okay, no, no,you're okay.
I cannot wait until I do, but Ican't do both at the same time
right now.
I understand so what I've beendoing is having meetings with
the litany of folks who havesaid to me when you're ready,
let's go.
There you go.
(17:48):
And on that topic, withoutsaying too much, I can say my
sister.
She struggled with mentalillness.
She had a psychotic break.
She was only about 27.
That's not something that youlike, you don't plan for that,
no, and it's hard to get yourhead around it and the roller
coaster that comes after it.
She was a single mother tryingto help my nephew and her and it
(18:09):
was incredibly traumatic.
And then at the end it wasabout the worst thing you could
imagine.
And so what I did?
You know, I had a degree inpsychology.
It did me no good.
I realized that about eightmonths after that I was not okay
and I started grief and traumatherapy with a great therapist.
Now, my family didn't do thatand to this day, eight years
(18:33):
later, they are in a messbecause the shockwaves that
something like that sendsthrough a family yeah, there's
not a lot for some people.
I don't come back from it andmy hope is to be able to lessen
the blow.
Of course it's going to beterrible, but I mean to provide
community resources, outreachprograms, um counseling services
(18:56):
, things like that, just to helpget through it.
Man, I, I didn't, we didn't havethat, you know yeah and so when
you talk about loss right now,it hits home again.
My father, you said we don'tknow why.
Why things happen.
Well, of course you don't wantthat to happen to your sister or
your family.
I'd do anything to bring herback Right.
(19:19):
But one of the things that cameout of that was my dad and I um
around 2021, he got sober.
He had had a problem withalcoholism.
We now have a relationship thatwe had had a problem with
alcoholism.
We now have a relationship thatwe have needed for 25 years.
Uh, that wouldn't have happenedif we weren't pushed together
(19:41):
by by that.
And and now dad was recentlydiagnosed, uh, with stage three
lung cancer, and that's why,that's why I'm in morristown.
Yeah, hey, he's, he, he's afighter, he's positive about it.
I'm here to help him.
You know he used to box, so wegot this.
But I say all of that to saythat these the real stuff in
(20:05):
life.
You know that informseverything that I do.
So I feel like that's why mycompany, it's important to me to
be a reflection of that, youknow, of that level of just
respect and care for otherpeople's lives.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That's what drives you forward.
Yeah, absolutely, you know you,you don't.
We're never thankful of thetragedy, but it's what we do
with it.
Yes, sir, moving forward.
Do we take it and makesomething positive out of it, or
at least create somethingpositive from it, or do we get
marred down in it?
That's, that's what makes thedifference.
(20:41):
We're moving forward, you know.
So, yeah, and you talk aboutmoving that level of caring
compassion into your business.
I guess that kind of leads meinto this question.
I always like to ask thisquestion of everyone that I
interview, and that's this Ifthere was one thing that you
wish people knew about, nealTurner and River City Moving I'm
(21:04):
talking about the heart of thebusiness If you wish they knew
about Neal Turner and River CityMoving, but they probably
wouldn't know unless you sharedit with them and you'd like to
shout it loud and proud heretoday on the Good Neighbor
podcast, what would that be?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
That is a fantastic question, one that might be a
little tough to answer.
You got me.
I mean, what I've alreadyshared with you is a big part of
the core of what drives me.
You know really the one.
(21:40):
It's not a one thing, there's amany things.
Ultimately, it's that whenyou've booked with us, you have
hired a company that is going tocare about not just your, your
items, but you, and, god forbid,something goes wrong.
You've hired a company that'sgoing to do the right thing.
Um, I mean, bottom line iswe're a company that does the
(22:01):
right thing.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not that you can advertise it like that.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Everybody says that you know, sure, we care and all
that good stuff.
But yeah, you did good if youbooked us.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Just gonna let you know the proof's in the pudding
yeah, that's, that was a good,that was a good way of response.
That's when I asked thatquestion I was asking about the
heart of the company, not justyou know, not just the.
This is what we do.
We move you, but the heart, youknow, and if you, if you care
enough to stand behind what youdo number one, you care enough
(22:33):
to stand behind what you donumber one, you care enough to
put your utmost effort right thefirst time, but then, if, god
forbid, an accident happened,you're going to stand behind
what you do.
You know the main thing so well.
I want to give you a momentjust to share with all your
contact information, whetheronline or offline, how people
can find you, find out moreabout you, to share that with
them.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, so you can go to wwwrivercitymovingtncom, tn.
Like Tennessee, and we're onFacebook.
You just type in River CityMoving, we're going to pop up on
Instagram.
I believe it's saying RiverCity Moving, tn, like at, and
you know hey, river City Moving,tn, like at and you know hey,
give us a call.
The number is 423-241-6984.
(23:16):
We'll be happy to walk youthrough the process.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Absolutely.
Well, it's been a pleasurehaving you today, Neal.
Thanks for taking time out ofyour day for us.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Well, I appreciate you, thank you, I appreciate
what you're doing Well.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
thank you, Neal.
I appreciate that.
It's our pleasure to have youon the show today.
And to all the good neighborsof the greater Chattanooga area,
after meeting Neil and learningmore about River City Moving
and what they have to offer you,the next time you are having a
move, no matter how small, nomatter how large it is, no
matter where you're headed, youknow, give them a call, look
(23:50):
them up on Facebook, Instagram,whatever's good for you and talk
to them about your move, Talkto them about your needs.
You know, give them a chance toearn your business and give
them a chance to prove that theyare what they say they are.
And before ending this episode,I'd like to thank all the
listeners for taking time out ofyour busy day to visit with us
at the Good Neighbor Podcast andalways remember to support the
(24:12):
locally owned and operatedbusinesses in the greater
Chattanooga area.
From Cleveland to Dalton, fromJasper to Benton.
You're all important to us.
This is Scott Howell, theFriends and Neighbors Group.
Everyone, go out and make thisa remarkable day.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPClevelandcom.
That's GNPClevelandcom, or call423-380-1984.
Thank you.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Scott Howell.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hello good neighbors and welcome to the Good Neighbor
Podcast brought to you by theFriends and Neighbors Group of
the Greater Chattanooga Area.
Again, my name is Scott Howelland I'm your host for today.
You know a lot of people askwhat's the purpose of the Good
Neighbor podcast.
Well, what we desire to do isto bring an awareness to the
residents living in ourcommunities regarding locally
(00:33):
owned and or operated businessesthat are in Cleveland,
chattanooga, dalton, jasperBenton, everything in between.
We just have a large areathat's considered the
Chattanooga region.
We want to bring awareness toall of our local communities and
small businesses.
You know the small businessesare the backbone of our
communities.
(00:53):
Sometimes we forget that andthey need our support.
And every local business has astory to tell and we just want
to.
On the Good Neighbor podcast,we just want to be able to help
them to tell it loud and proud.
Join me today with one of ourgood neighbors, neal Turner, at
River City Moving.
It seems like I'm gettingtongue-tied this morning, but
(01:16):
River City Moving, we're glad tohave you with us, neal.
Good to be here, absolutely.
It's good to be here Absolutely, and you know before we dive in
and talking about what you doand all that you offer to the
listeners of our program.
I would like to give you theopportunity, if you'd like to
share something personal aboutyourself and maybe your family.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Oh well, there's all sorts of things I don't know.
I've got a degree in psychologyand used to be a touring
magician, magician, musicianmusician.
Yeah, photography did a wholelot of stuff.
My family and I were from up inMorristown, tennessee, and one
of the motivating factors, oneof the things that kind of
(01:58):
stopped me from doing all that Iwas doing and get involved in
the moving business, was mysister.
We lost my sister in 2016.
Well, I appreciate that.
That changed me significantly,and so part of the reason I
started River City Moving isultimately probably year four or
(02:18):
so.
I'd like to start a foundationin Chattanooga in my sister's
name to help families go throughthe process of losing a
relative to mental illness,because there was nobody for us,
and I think by now I've metquite a few business owners and
people in the community willingto help me with that, and I
(02:39):
think our area is a great areafor it.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, that's something that seems like it's
just increasingly becoming moreeither well-known or maybe worse
I don't know how to describe itbut it seems like you hear a
lot of it anymore and thatpeople are not coping very well.
I just had a podcast earliertoday with a lady.
(03:05):
She has a coaching business inhelping people deal with
depression, and it stemmed fromsome of her own events in her
own life, you know, and so I'mglad to know there are people
like yourself and like her andothers that are willing to help
folks that need it.
You know, I've been to thatpoint in my life too where I
needed, I needed help.
So great kudos for that.
(03:27):
I'm very sorry for yourfamily's loss, but but, uh, I'm
glad you're using it to apositive end.
Uh, you know, uh, so tell usabout river city movie.
Uh, what is it that you offerpeople that are listening to us
today?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Well, we're going to give you a five-star move.
If you check us out on Google,everywhere it's five stars, and
there's a reason for that.
We don't hire day laborers.
We send well-trained,professional young men out there
.
You're going to get guys thatare paid $8 to $10 more per hour
than anybody else around willpay movers, so they want to be
(04:03):
there.
You're going to get a qualitymove, professional guys that
understand.
I mean moving is deeplypersonal.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's not, you know, a simple hey, I want to get this
guy's stuff, throw it in a truckand unload it.
I'm picking up something thatcould be the most important
thing in that person's life, youknow.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So I want to make sure that you've got great guys
and you get a get a great timemoving stress-free, and it's not
for you anyway a lot of timesyou're moving family heirlooms
and, uh, you know things thatmaybe been in fact.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I know in my house there's things that have been in
the families for two or threegenerations uh, they are
important to us.
You know, when we're, when thethings are precious to like,
that have have a lot of deeprooted memories inside.
And you're right, the lastthing you want to do is get
somewhere and it's broken orit's, you know, damaged in some
(04:56):
way, you know.
So to know somebody is takingcare of it up front, not on the
backside, it's always great toknow that people stand behind
the work because, hey, accidentshappen, but still, if you know
people are taking care of it onthe front end, it's a lot more
reassuring.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Right.
So, you know, to mitigate that,the risk of damage, you know
our guys are going to be paddingand wrapping and bubble
wrapping and taking a lot ofcare with your items and, and if
there's, you know, they'rethere to listen.
So if the customer has explicitinstructions for this or that,
my guys aren't the kind that aregoing to cop an attitude, roll
their eyes, that, yes, ma'am,you know.
(05:33):
Yes, sir, they're going to takecare of it.
Right, we also give discountsto seniors, veterans, healthcare
workers and teachers, and wedon't require a deposit to be
added.
And, uh, we don't have acancellation fee in the event
that your closing falls throughor you change your mind.
So we keep booking risk-free aswell.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, well, that's nice to know.
Yeah, so well.
Just my own personal curiositywhat part of town are y'all
located in?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
We're located in Chattanooga in the Red Bank area
.
Red Bank, okay, but I mean weservice you know.
I'd say most of the moves arewithin a 70-mile radius.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, you don't just service Red Bank, yeah,
obviously, yeah, you service alarge in 70 miles.
I mean that goes obviously downto North Georgia and up above
Cleveland and all up throughthat area, so the entire
Chattanooga area.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
We've got a lot of people moving um either to West
Tennessee or from okay that's astrange one, but we were in
Memphis not too long ago, inNashville the other day, and
yeah, up in uh Jonesboro, uptowards Johnson yeah yeah,
tennessee's a big long state, sopeople are moving all over tell
(06:43):
us, bar says they're the oldesttown in Tenner Creek, so that's
a claim to fame for them, yeah,so so, uh, uh, when you the
most.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
I want to tell you about experience.
I had the most positiveexperience I ever had in movie.
What really impressed me iswhen they came up to my house.
They wouldn't carry one pieceof my furniture out of a doorway
I'm talking about just throughthe bedroom doorway.
They wouldn't carry it out of adoorway until they first
wrapped it, and that was thebest experience I ever had,
(07:13):
whereas I had one experiencethat wasn't that great and they
insisted on carrying everythingout the house first and then
wrapping it, and I had a lot ofdamaged furniture when I got
there.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah, no, that doesn't make a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah, it didn't me either, but they wouldn't listen
to me.
But anyway, it was what it was.
It wasn't y'all for sure.
Yeah, good, but so as a matterof fact, so everybody knows it
wasn't anybody in Chattanoogaeither.
So nobody's wondering if itwasn't me, wasn't me, wasn't
anybody in Chattanooga?
So nobody's wondering if itwasn't me, wasn't me, wasn't
anybody in Chattanooga?
(07:47):
So tell us a little bit aboutwhat people hear, the myths and
misconceptions that people havewhen they come to you regarding
hiring a moving service ratherthan doing it yourself.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, Well, a lot of it's based on prior experience.
Unfortunately, a lot of peopledo have bad experiences with
moving companies.
Yeah, A lot of the companiesyou know in town and elsewhere.
They have a habit of sendingout guys that maybe they're out
of shape, you know, maybethey're a little too old to be
doing it or they're smokers, oryou know just not what I would
(08:21):
consider a good hire.
Yeah, so that's one of thethings I think people come to
expect is that guys might showup that don't really care about
the job itself.
But that's definitely not goingto happen with us.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
How long on average have your people been with you?
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Well, the company knows this is the cool thing.
I've been in the movingbusiness for 11 years, so I was
the GM at Tiger Moving inGreenville, south Carolina,
before I came back to Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
River.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
City Moving turns two years old next month.
Oh, wow, a lot of my guys havebeen with me almost the whole
way.
Okay, most of the guys havebeen there at least a year or
more, and so, like I said, youknow I hire intentionally.
You know I make sure thatthere's quality young men and
they're getting paid well to bethere.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of difference when
people are being paid well.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
I hear from people they'll say, well, nothing was
damaged, and I'll say that'sgreat right, and they're like,
yeah, but I expected at leastone thing would be damaged,
because I think that's that'sthe expectation.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
yeah, certainly, accidents, you know, can happen,
but yeah, we try very hard notto my last move was a 500 mile
move and there was a, an antiquetable I had.
It was worth some money too,and when I got there they had
piled a bunch of boxes on top ofit, had small spindly legs and
it was totally crushed, ofcourse.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
That makes no sense at all, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
It didn't.
It didn't make any sense, likeI said, nobody around
Chattanooga, but it was.
It was bad, but anyway, youknow you have good experiences,
bad experiences sometimes, butit's always nice when you find
somebody that does it right thefirst time.
You know.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Yeah sometimes, but it's always nice when you find
somebody that does it right thefirst time.
Yeah, and a lot of people, Ithink, expect, when they think
about a job like moving, itsounds like, ooh, that's a
labor-intensive job.
It might attract guys thateither don't care or maybe
aren't skilled, and that's justnot true.
Not with us anyway, becausethere's a lot to it.
(10:28):
With the padding and thewrapping and the playing Tetris,
with the packing, interfacingwith the customer, doing math,
making sure contracts arecorrect, driving.
There's a lot of skills thatthese guys develop and we try to
make sure that they have thosebefore they show up.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Sure, Sure, absolutely.
Well, you know, uh, when inTennessee.
Yeah, now you're, you're fromMorristown, but now you're, you
live in Chattanooga.
What, what brought you toChattanooga?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Oh man.
Well, when I left Morristown Iit was quite the journey I went
to Carson Newman college and Ilived in Charleston, south
Carolina and Los Angeles.
I was all over the place but Iended up in Greenville.
So when I came back toTennessee I thought, well, I'm
not going to go back toMorristown.
(11:21):
I lived in Knoxville before, soI wanted to go to a city that
was growing and a city that feltright.
So when I visited I found outChattanooga has around 3,000
nonprofits.
That blew my mind and thattells me well, here's a
community that that gives back,you know.
And the more I learned aboutthe area and and with each visit
, the more I realized okay, Ithink this is the place.
(11:42):
And as soon as I got there andI got going with networking and
stuff like that, I realized Ihave never lived in a city, no
matter where I've been DC, la,charleston, greenville where
business owners are as welcomingand where the community is as
supportive for local businesses.
(12:02):
I've just never personallyexperienced it.
I've not had a bad experiencesitting down and meeting with
another business owner inChattanooga at all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
That's a great reputation to have, because you
know a lot of times you don'tget that everywhere you go.
Yeah, especially you know whenyou're viewed as a competitor of
sorts.
Maybe you know when you'reviewed as a competitor of sorts,
maybe A lot of times you findthe floodgates coming to a hard
shut, you know.
But when we realized I've got afriend, he says you know, he
(12:36):
said it doesn't matter.
He said competition is good foreverybody, it's healthy for
everybody.
And you know you just got acompetitor.
You just do the best job youcan.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You just keep going forward, you know forward.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
He's got a really good attitude about it.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, there's moving companies, there's going to be a
lot of moving companies.
We want to provide astress-free move.
We want to uphold a greatreputation.
We're going to do our best tostand out.
That's all you can do.
One of the things that'simportant to us is that we get
back to the community Right now,today, at this moment, at the
(13:10):
time, is it?
Yeah, I've got four guys at thefood bank, so I'll pay guys to
go do shifts, you know, forlocal nonprofits.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
Oh, wow.
Because it's it's worth it tome.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And it's a good experience for them because they
get a.
You know, if someone can affordto move, that's one thing, but
if someone can't afford food,well, that might be someone that
certainly couldn't afford tomove.
And I think that it's importantthat the guys are understanding
, you know, the full scope ofthe community and that, hey, man
, we're here to help one way orthe other.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, absolutely Kudos to you for that.
It's refreshing to know thatyou actually care that much
yourself.
I know you have your ownnonprofit, but you don't just
care about your own, you careabout others too.
So that's great to know.
What do you like to do whenyou're not moving folks?
What do you like to do?
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I wish I could say that I did more for fun, but, as
you know, as a small businessowner it's seven days a week, uh
much to I.
I know the disappointment of my, my girlfriend, my dog, uh I I
do a lot of uh kind of walking.
I'd be honest with you.
I live in north short, so Itake a lot of walks down to the
(14:26):
bridge and the parks oh yeah,exercise, you know, exercise
when I can Go to the gym.
What's fun for me is when Idon't have to work.
That's fun.
Yeah, so Greg and I will go tothe drive-in down in Trenton, or
you know the movies oh yeah,yeah.
Stuff like that, but we'renominated for the best of the
best, oh, awesome.
(14:46):
And that ends tomorrow, so Iwanted to make sure I threw a
plug out there.
The last day to vote, I believe, is today.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
So Best Moving Services, that's us.
Hey, if we win that and we turntwo years old, I'll make sure
to make time for a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
There you go.
Well, I tell you what the funis is categorized different ways
with different people, right so, and but you, you just talking
about getting out, walkingaround town, walking down the
bridge and all that.
I I consider that enjoyable.
Myself, I like to just get outand walk.
I enjoy that, so I don'tconsider that boring at all.
(15:26):
That can be very fun.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
You pop open a book, sit in the park, you're good to
go, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
You know we talked about.
One of the questions I hadplanned to ask you was a life
challenge that you went through,and you mentioned the death of
your sister and maybe some ofthe circumstances.
I don't want to get into thatwith you, you know, unless you
just want to.
But you know, I know myself.
I lost my dad when I was alittle boy.
(15:55):
I called him Daddy.
I lost him when I was a littleboy and six years old.
And then I lost my wife when Iwas 37 years old and she was 36.
And so I know loss is tough.
If you lose anybody that youcare about and it's you really
love, it's hard.
It's hard, but there'ssometimes it.
(16:17):
Some things happen to somepeople that we lose and we just
can't understand it.
We can't comprehend how didthis happen?
How did this come about?
Why didn't I see it?
You know, and and, and you knowthose times, at those times in
our life, the fact that youstarted a nonprofit to help
people in those situations is,is really, is really big to me
(16:40):
because, you know, as a six yearold boy, I didn't go through
those circumstances.
My, my dad was killed a carwreck, but you know he didn't
plan on being killed in that carwreck.
He, he left the house and saidI'll be right back, and I never
saw him again until I saw him.
Now, this is a little kid'sviewpoint.
I saw him laying in this boxand I didn't understand what was
going on, you know, I didn'tunderstand what death was.
(17:02):
I didn't understand that he wasnever coming back.
And boy, you talked aboutspurring spurring a lot of
emotional issues for a littlekid.
I had them for a number ofyears, and so the fact that
you're doing things to try tohelp other people is big and
that people are actually helpingyou help other people, whoever
(17:25):
they are out there.
Kudos to them for doing that.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well, so just to be clear, I haven't started a
nonprofit yet.
Oh, my apology, Okay, no no,you're okay, I haven't started
the nonprofit yet.
Oh, my apology, okay, no, no,you're okay.
I cannot wait until I do, but Ican't do both at the same time
right now.
I understand so what I've beendoing is having meetings with
the litany of folks who havesaid to me when you're ready,
let's go.
There you go.
(17:48):
And on that topic, withoutsaying too much, I can say my
sister.
She struggled with mentalillness.
She had a psychotic break.
She was only about 27.
That's not something that youlike, you don't plan for that,
no, and it's hard to get yourhead around it and the roller
coaster that comes after it.
She was a single mother tryingto help my nephew and her and it
(18:09):
was incredibly traumatic.
And then at the end it wasabout the worst thing you could
imagine.
And so what I did?
You know, I had a degree inpsychology.
It did me no good.
I realized that about eightmonths after that I was not okay
and I started grief and traumatherapy with a great therapist.
Now, my family didn't do thatand to this day, eight years
(18:33):
later, they are in a messbecause the shockwaves that
something like that sendsthrough a family yeah, there's
not a lot for some people.
I don't come back from it andmy hope is to be able to lessen
the blow.
Of course it's going to beterrible, but I mean to provide
community resources, outreachprograms, um counseling services
(18:56):
, things like that, just to helpget through it.
Man, I, I didn't, we didn't havethat, you know yeah and so when
you talk about loss right now,it hits home again.
My father, you said we don'tknow why.
Why things happen.
Well, of course you don't wantthat to happen to your sister or
your family.
I'd do anything to bring herback Right.
(19:19):
But one of the things that cameout of that was my dad and I um
around 2021, he got sober.
He had had a problem withalcoholism.
We now have a relationship thatwe had had a problem with
alcoholism.
We now have a relationship thatwe have needed for 25 years.
Uh, that wouldn't have happenedif we weren't pushed together
(19:41):
by by that.
And and now dad was recentlydiagnosed, uh, with stage three
lung cancer, and that's why,that's why I'm in morristown.
Yeah, hey, he's, he, he's afighter, he's positive about it.
I'm here to help him.
You know he used to box, so wegot this.
But I say all of that to saythat these the real stuff in
(20:05):
life.
You know that informseverything that I do.
So I feel like that's why mycompany, it's important to me to
be a reflection of that, youknow, of that level of just
respect and care for otherpeople's lives.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
That's what drives you forward.
Yeah, absolutely, you know you,you don't.
We're never thankful of thetragedy, but it's what we do
with it.
Yes, sir, moving forward.
Do we take it and makesomething positive out of it, or
at least create somethingpositive from it, or do we get
marred down in it?
That's, that's what makes thedifference.
(20:41):
We're moving forward, you know.
So, yeah, and you talk aboutmoving that level of caring
compassion into your business.
I guess that kind of leads meinto this question.
I always like to ask thisquestion of everyone that I
interview, and that's this Ifthere was one thing that you
wish people knew about, nealTurner and River City Moving I'm
(21:04):
talking about the heart of thebusiness If you wish they knew
about Neal Turner and River CityMoving, but they probably
wouldn't know unless you sharedit with them and you'd like to
shout it loud and proud heretoday on the Good Neighbor
podcast, what would that be?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
That is a fantastic question, one that might be a
little tough to answer.
You got me.
I mean, what I've alreadyshared with you is a big part of
the core of what drives me.
You know really the one.
(21:40):
It's not a one thing, there's amany things.
Ultimately, it's that whenyou've booked with us, you have
hired a company that is going tocare about not just your, your
items, but you, and, god forbid,something goes wrong.
You've hired a company that'sgoing to do the right thing.
Um, I mean, bottom line iswe're a company that does the
(22:01):
right thing.
There you go.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not that you can advertise it like that.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Everybody says that you know, sure, we care and all
that good stuff.
But yeah, you did good if youbooked us.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Just gonna let you know the proof's in the pudding
yeah, that's, that was a good,that was a good way of response.
That's when I asked thatquestion I was asking about the
heart of the company, not justyou know, not just the.
This is what we do.
We move you, but the heart, youknow, and if you, if you care
enough to stand behind what youdo number one, you care enough
(22:33):
to stand behind what you donumber one, you care enough to
put your utmost effort right thefirst time, but then, if, god
forbid, an accident happened,you're going to stand behind
what you do.
You know the main thing so well.
I want to give you a momentjust to share with all your
contact information, whetheronline or offline, how people
can find you, find out moreabout you, to share that with
them.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, so you can go to wwwrivercitymovingtncom, tn.
Like Tennessee, and we're onFacebook.
You just type in River CityMoving, we're going to pop up on
Instagram.
I believe it's saying RiverCity Moving, tn, like at, and
you know hey, river City Moving,tn, like at and you know hey,
give us a call.
The number is 423-241-6984.
(23:16):
We'll be happy to walk youthrough the process.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Absolutely.
Well, it's been a pleasurehaving you today, Neal.
Thanks for taking time out ofyour day for us.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Well, I appreciate you, thank you, I appreciate
what you're doing Well.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
thank you, Neal.
I appreciate that.
It's our pleasure to have youon the show today.
And to all the good neighborsof the greater Chattanooga area,
after meeting Neil and learningmore about River City Moving
and what they have to offer you,the next time you are having a
move, no matter how small, nomatter how large it is, no
matter where you're headed, youknow, give them a call, look
(23:50):
them up on Facebook, Instagram,whatever's good for you and talk
to them about your move, Talkto them about your needs.
You know, give them a chance toearn your business and give
them a chance to prove that theyare what they say they are.
And before ending this episode,I'd like to thank all the
listeners for taking time out ofyour busy day to visit with us
at the Good Neighbor Podcast andalways remember to support the
(24:12):
locally owned and operatedbusinesses in the greater
Chattanooga area.
From Cleveland to Dalton, fromJasper to Benton.
You're all important to us.
This is Scott Howell, theFriends and Neighbors Group.
Everyone, go out and make thisa remarkable day.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPClevelandcom.
That's GNPClevelandcom, or call423-380-1984.
Thank you.
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