I knew before we even hit record that this episode was going to be different. Sitting across from Rusty and Amanda, the husband and wife team behind Elite Moving in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I felt something I rarely feel before an interview. I felt called to throw out the script entirely.

My word for 2026 is intentional. I have learned that the things that served me in my twenties do not always serve me in my thirties and forties. As we grow, as we build families and businesses, we have to become more methodical about how we show up in the world. So instead of opening with my usual format, I opened with that word, and I asked Rusty and Amanda what word was guiding them this year.

Their answer was gratitude. And by the end of our conversation, I understood exactly why.

A Business Born From Tragedy

Rusty and Amanda did not start Elite Moving from a place of strategy or ambition. They started it from the wreckage of a tragedy, and somehow they found a way to turn that wreckage into a foundation of thankfulness.

Today their company employs 23 full time men. They have grown to 2.5 million dollars in sales in just two years. But the numbers only tell part of the story. What struck me most was how they talk about the emotional weight of what they actually do. Moving, they told me, is the third most stressful event a person will go through in their life, often tied closely to a death or a divorce. Their team does not just carry furniture. They carry people through one of the hardest transitions of their lives.

They even created an acronym for how they approach every customer: sleep. Sit. Listen. Endure. Envelop. Pray. It became clear to me that this was never just a moving company. It is a ministry wearing the uniform of a moving truck.

The Secret Sauce

Rusty was honest about his own limitations. He can lift heavy things and set them down, but he does not have what Amanda has. Amanda has the gift of hospitality. She can walk into a room and the whole room lights up. While the crew is loading boxes, she sits with the customer, often an elderly woman overwhelmed by the process, and simply listens. By the time the truck is packed, that customer has received something closer to a counseling session than a moving estimate.

Rusty told me their very first reviews all said the same thing. Amanda was great. He laughed remembering it, because he was the one doing all the lifting. But that was the moment they realized what made their business different. It was never just about moving boxes. It was about enveloping people in their most vulnerable moments.

Radical Abandonment and Rebuilding

The love story behind this business is its own kind of miracle. Rusty and Amanda met while both were coming out of previous marriages, both carrying the weight of what they believed at the time were the biggest tragedies of their lives. Everyone around them said they were broken and should stay away from each other. Instead they leaned all the way in.

They went through what Rusty calls radical abandonment. They changed their friend circles, their environments, their entire atmosphere, and rebuilt their lives with God at the center. Rusty shared a quote that stuck with me long after we stopped recording. When God wants to make a man great, he will completely destroy him and rebuild him from the ground up. That is exactly what happened to them.

Their rebuilding phase was not glamorous. They were broke, working full time jobs and side hustling for forty dollars at a time. Rusty described being elbow deep in a septic tank and balanced on a frozen roof with a leaf blower, doing anything for twenty or thirty dollars. In the middle of that season, they lost their best friend to suicide, a man who felt he had lost his sense of value and purpose at work. That loss reshaped everything about who they wanted to become.

The First Move

Not long after, with only forty dollars to their name, they got a phone call from a woman asking if they were a moving company. Rusty looked at Amanda and said yes without hesitation. They had no trailer, no plan, and a busted up Jeep Cherokee. They drove to Chicago, prayed their card would not decline at the U Haul counter, somehow fit an entire household into a small trailer, and nearly burned their Jeep to the ground on the way to Atlanta.

That was the first move. It was also the spark. Rusty had years of moving experience from his college days, but it was this leap of faith with Amanda beside him that turned a desperate phone call into a calling.

Parenting in the Middle of Building an Empire

I asked them how they balance parenting a blended family while building something this demanding. Their answer was refreshingly honest. They do not always get it right. Rusty admitted he stays glued to his phone more than he would like. But they have built something beautiful around the imperfection. Their kids love their crew, and their crew loves their kids. Employees show up at birthday parties and end up playing video games with their son instead of finishing a meeting.

Amanda explained that one of the blessings of being a blended family is that during the weeks without their kids, they pour themselves fully into the business, which allows them to be more present and intentional when their kids are with them.

Get Out of the Way

If there was one phrase that captured the heart of this episode, it was Rusty saying that God has been screaming one message at him for the past two years. Just get out of the way. He spent years chasing the spotlight, wanting affirmation and accolades, and found only misery at the end of it. Now his greatest joy comes from watching his men succeed and from staying behind the scenes while God moves through the business they built.

That posture has opened doors they never expected. Their team has shown up for widows, for people in domestic abuse situations, for someone who had just had an abortion, for individuals contemplating suicide, and for families they knew might reject them because of their faith but who they served anyway, without hesitation or judgment. Rusty said it best. God will take the most unlikely people and use them for extraordinary things if you simply get out of the way and let him.

Where They Are Headed

Elite Moving is not slowing down. They have partnered with the Elliott Group to refine their systems as they prepare to scale. A recent job posting brought in over 400 applicants, a sign of the movement they have created. Their long term vision includes franchising the model out to five or six new locations, many of them led by their own men, continuing the church plant roots the business was born from.

Closing Thoughts

What I loved most about this conversation was the reminder that gratitude and intentionality are not opposites. They are partners. Rusty and Amanda did not arrive at their success through a clean five step plan. They arrived through brokenness, radical surrender, and a relentless commitment to serve people well, even when no one was watching.

If you are local to Chattanooga or moving anywhere nationwide, you can find Elite Moving at mymove.com or on Instagram at Elite Moving TN. But more than a moving company, what Rusty and Amanda have built is a living example of what happens when two broken people decide gratitude is bigger than circumstance.

Until next time, when we shatter limiting beliefs.

About me:

I am currently a Master Facilitator for The Elliott Group in addition to being on the board of advisors for our Cultural Transformation Department in ELLIOTT ARMY.

With over 14 years of client service experience, I have held substantial leadership roles in the automotive industry. I’m also an accredited coach, a speaker, a triathlon finisher, and a wife. To contact me for engagements, you can reach me at [email protected].

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