Why the Founder of This 8-Figure Business Traded His CEO Title for a Music Career

Welcome to Out of Office, a recurring series which explores the extracurricular activities of entrepreneurs — from passion projects to full-blown side gigs — and why what they do in their downtime helps them level up as business leaders.

Dusty Black comes from a long line of musicians, but like his father before him, he put those impractical dreams aside to provide for his family and started a moving company instead. After launching in 2013, Black Tie Moving carved out a profitable niche as a luxury mover — packing up thousands of platinum albums, awards, and trophies for musicians, actors, and pro athletes. Black hit his stride as an entrepreneur, raking in $25 million to $30 million in revenue each year and landing on the Inc. 5000 six times. Then, a chance job moving one of Nashville’s most famous singers offered him another shot at music. Juggling an eight-figure business and a budding career as a country singer might sound like a difficult task, but Black says his songwriting passion project has helped him become a better manager and stop micromanaging his team. —As told to Ali Donaldson

I grew up with music in my family. It was something I loved from a young age, because we grew up in the middle of nowhere in Mount Ida, Arkansas. My grandfather played banjo and steel guitar for Johnny Cash for many years. My father was a singer-songwriter. But once he had me, he had to give up his dreams of pursuing music and get a real job. Since I was 9 years old, I worked for my dad’s moving company during summers and weekends. 

I said, “I will never — in a million years — run a moving business.” Then, in 2012, my family was moving into our first house. I knew everything there was to know about moving — all the tricks. I went with one of the most reputable moving companies in the country but I was so frustrated as a consumer. The job ended up costing three times their estimate. The guys were not professional. They destroyed furniture. I thought, “If this is the No. 1 moving company in my market, I can build something better.”

That’s when I had the idea of Black Tie Moving. I wanted to start a luxury brand because people really value their belongings. These are their prize possessions, things that money can’t replace. We did our first move in April of 2013. Since then, we’ve moved thousands of celebrities: movie stars, professional athletes, famous musicians. We’ve moved guitars that No. 1 songs were written on, platinum records, athletes’ memorabilia, awards.

In 2015, my father was diagnosed with stage-four cancer. I wanted to be closer to my family, so we relocated to Nashville. My second move in Nashville was Gary LeVox, lead singer of Rascal Flatts. His wife had seen our moving trucks on the TV show Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, so they called us. We went out to do an estimate. He had this huge grand piano that “God Bless the Broken Road” was written on. It was white, so of course, it would show any kind of smudge or scratch. I thought, “Oh, wow. We’ve got to put some additional hands and eyes on that thing.”