From left to right: Dow Smith, Jeremy Moody, Rusty Moody, Jeff Moody and Joey Rhyne pictured in front of the Moody, LLC history mural in their new conference room.
Constantly building on his brother’s legacy, Rusty Moody is always concerned about taking Moody Excavating to the next level.
That’s why Rusty and his sons, Jeremy and Jeff, were so careful when working with Dow Smith Company on their new 3,000-square-foot office building. From floor plans to finishes, they wanted to get it exactly right. The building, located on Forbus Drive in Christiana, has a welcoming lobby, plenty of office space, a spacious kitchen and a comfortable conference room with a wall that is decorated with a mural and pictures that tell the company’s history. It also has a second floor—so that Moody’s can continue to grow.
“Dow Smith Company’s guidance on helping us choose and optimize the building space really allowed us to design the space that we have here,” Jeremy said.
The new facility is located at 111 Forbus Drive in Christiana, Tennessee.
The building took months to construct, but it was decades in the making.
Rusty and his brother Mike grew up in Oklahoma with a father and grandfather who built flood control dams all over Oklahoma and Texas. Their father worked in the oil fields for years after that. They were taught the value of hard work from a very young age.
In 1994, Mike and his wife, who was originally from Middle Tennessee, moved to the area. Rusty followed five years later and the two went to work together.
Tragically, Mike passed away after a motorcycle accident in 2016. Rusty immediately felt the responsibility to take what they’d built and make it even better.
When Mike died, the company had 35 employees. Now it has about 90. Some of the employees have been with the company for almost 20 years.
“I just kind of followed his lead. I didn’t think it would get this big,” Rusty said. “I think Mike would be proud of what my sons and I have done.”
Dow and Joey recently featured Rusty, Jeremy and Jeff on an episode of the “From the Ground Up” podcast, which was recorded in Moody’s new conference room.
Recently, Dow Smith and Joey Rhyne spent a morning with Rusty, Jeremy and Jeff at their new facility to record an episode of the “From The Ground Up” podcast. Listen to the episode below.
Today, Moody Excavating is a general contracting excavation business that provides mass grading activities and utility infrastructure for subdivisions for local residential developers and small commercial jobs. The company’s reputation is well-known and hard-earned in Rutherford County and beyond.
“A lot of people drive by neighborhoods and developments, and they don’t know all the work that goes into them,” says Joey Rhyne, Partner and Chief Operating Officer for Dow Smith Company. “Moody Excavating is the first on the job. They work closely with developers in Rutherford County. There’s not much they haven’t touched. For those new residential developments, there’s a good chance that Moody had a hand in it. They put the roads, utilities and pads in.”
All the tireless work, determination and commitment that comes with the Moody family name is something that Jeff says he carries with him every day. It guides him and the company in the work they do and the plans they have for the future.
“Growing up with Mike, he always taught me one thing and that’s to do the job right the first time,” Jeff says. “Coming from that background with Mike teaching that and Rusty teaching that, that got me thinking about how we could be more efficient in the field, not just on one aspect but on every aspect. How can we manage a project from the start to the finish—from clearing the trees to grading it out to utilities to finishing it? How can we be as efficient as possible, not only for time, but also for profit margin.”
Jeff adds, “I really strive to get my projects done 20 percent faster than my competitor, and it’s from management. I can’t say it enough that it’s not one person who built Moody Excavating. There are multiple, multiple people here that I put a lot of responsibility on and have a lot of respect for.”
