Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA

EP# 131: From Music to Master Electrician: Curtis Hagy's Journey with Diamond Electric

• Skip Mauney • Episode 131

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What makes Curtis Hagy with Diamond Electric a good neighbor?

Curtis Hagy, the inspiring owner of Diamond Electric, shares his remarkable journey from the music industry to becoming Kingsport's most trusted electrician. Curtis's story is one marked by unexpected transitions and unwavering dedication, where a friend's suggestion led him to discover a passion for electrical work. Join us as Curtis recounts his shift from business and manufacturing to a rewarding career in providing top-notch residential and commercial electrical services across the Tri-Cities area. Whether you're curious about the skillful installation of electric car chargers or intrigued by the completion of significant projects like Academy Sports, Curtis's insights are both informative and engaging.

Curtis's commitment to integrity and customer satisfaction shines through as he reflects on the challenges and triumphs of building Diamond Electric. He discusses the hurdles of leaving behind a beloved career in music, and how those experiences laid the groundwork for his business philosophy. Curtis underscores the importance of changing perceptions about contractors through reliability and exceptional service, celebrating Diamond Electric's recognition as Kingsport's best electrician for six years running. Tune in to hear how word-of-mouth recommendations and a dedication to excellence have propelled Curtis and his team to success, and discover why Diamond Electric is more than just an electrical service provider—it's a trusted community partner.

To learn more about Diamond Electric go to:

https://diamondelectrictn.com/

Diamond Electric

(423) 292 5989



Speaker 1:

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 in 2024. We've got a very special guest with us here today. If you're like me, you're going to be excited to hear more from this gentleman and about his company.

Speaker 2:

Because hear more from this gentleman and about his company because he owns an electric electrical company and and, if you're like me, I don't like to touch anything that can kill me, so I always try to hire a professional to come in and do even some of the simple stuff, just to be sure. So, if you're like me, you'll be super excited to hear from our guests, which I have the pleasure of introducing to you, your good neighbor neighbor, mr Curtis Hagee, who is owner operator of Diamond Electric Curtis. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much for having me today, Kip.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Glad to have you and, like I said, I don't like to take any chances on even switching out a light switch or a ceiling fan or anything like that. So I'm pretty excited to learn all about you and your business. So, if you don't mind, why don't you start us off by telling us a little bit about your company?

Speaker 3:

Sure, I'd be happy to.

Speaker 3:

My name is Curtis Hagee and I'm the owner of Diamond Electric.

Speaker 3:

We are based out of Kingsport and, of course, our home office is in Churchill.

Speaker 3:

We service the entire Tri-Cities area all the way from Abingdon, virginia, southwest Virginia, up into Irwin, elizabeth and Mountain City, even as far west as Greenville and Morristown and Sneedville those places no one wants to go. We've been in business since 2007. And we do electrical work for residential, which covers everything from changing a light bulb for the elderly who can't do it, you know ceiling fans, light switches, troubleshooting when you've lost power to those things, as well as panel change outs, electric car chargers, portable generator installs and even whole home generator installs. It's really the whole gamut of residential. We also do commercial work not a ton of that. Probably more like 20% of what we do is commercial. We just literally finished the Academy Sports up in Kingsport, which is right next to Target. We wrapped up that project back in September. So really we do everything, electrical beginning to end brand new construction, remodels, anything that has to do with electricity.

Speaker 3:

My name is Curtis Hagee and I the owner operator of Diamond Electric. We are based out of Kingsport, tennessee, with our home office being in Churchill. We service the entire Tri-Cities area all the way from southwestern Virginia over into Mountain City, elizabeth and Irwin, even as far west as Morristown and Sneedville and all of the Hawkins County area. We do residential electrical work, everything starting from changing out a light bulb for the elderly to doing switches, outlets, ceiling fans, new construction, home remodels, even electric car chargers and whole home generators Just anything that has to do with residential electricity in general. We also do commercial. We just wrapped up our major commercial project in September for the new Academy Sports located in Kingsport next to Target. So it's about 20% of our I guess our market would be considered commercial. We don't do a ton of that, but we really love working on the residential side, mostly because of the personal interaction with with customers, you know, getting them to know us on a personal level. So yeah, anything to do with electricity we handle it.

Speaker 2:

All right, very good, very good. Well, curtis, how did you get into the electrical business? Curtis, how did you get into the electrical business?

Speaker 3:

Well, I hate to say it this way, but I fell into it. To be completely honest, I went to school at Tusculum College and studied business there. I worked for a manufacturing company in Sigornsville, tennessee, lost my job back in 2004 and didn't really know what I was going to do for a living. There wasn't a lot of jobs out there for a quality analyst, which was my job title, and I actually was working at a mechanic shop working on cars that's another story for another day. But I've always loved doing that type of thing. And a friend of mine called me one day and he said hey, I've got a guy in here buying a work truck. He's looking for an apprentice. Have you ever thought about being an electrician? I said no, I don't know a thing about electrical and I've never thought about that. And he said well, he's looking just for someone motivated, someone who will show up and do the work and he'll teach you everything you need to know. Well, that gentleman's name was Mike Horn and he had started a local company that probably everybody's familiar with called Precision Electric. They're one of the biggest companies, I think, in our Tri-Cities area for electricians, and I was the second employee hired with them, so I trained directly under the owner and was with them about a year and a half. But I was also in the music industry, which I'll talk about later, I guess. So they kind of were very gracious to me and they let me kind of take off on the weekends and do my music thing while I was an electrician. They exploded. They went from four guys and when I first got hired on, up to about 15 in less than six months. So they basically said Curtis, we need you here, I'm so sorry. I looked at them, shook their head and said, hey, it's been great, I'm going to chase this music thing. And I left. And then another friend of mine contacted me, who I'd met at Precision, and he started his own company and he asked me to come and work for him. So to make a very long story short, I've kind of been in three or four different companies over the past 25 years doing electrical work.

Speaker 3:

And then, back in 2006, another gentleman his name I want to drop names here because I'm very grateful for the people that have poured into my life, that have changed my life dramatically, so but this gentleman's name was Randy Blevins and he owned a company back in the day called Blevins electric. They were one of the biggest companies in the tri cities as well. And uh, randy had called and asked me to work for him and Kevin spa of living water electric. There's two or three guys that are pivotal, so if they ever watched this, I want to make sure I acknowledge them in my journey. But they taught me so much.

Speaker 3:

And Randy actually asked me. He said he said, curtis, I'd like for you to help run the company for me. I'm wanting to retire. And I told him. I said well, I studied business at Tusculum and I know you and your son own the business, so I don't think I'm really interested in thirds. There's not a lot there, you know, but I love working for you, randy.

Speaker 3:

And this is what Randy said to me. He said, curtis, you're young, you really need to start your own company. And that that comment changed my life. And I looked at Randy and I said well, randy, you know I'm able to do the work. I know how to be an electrician. I know how to do the work, but I don't know anything about pricing. I know how to be an electrician, I know how to do the work, but I don't know anything about pricing. I don't know how to charge customers anything, and this is the part that I'm forever grateful for. Most people are so competitive, they're so jealous, they wouldn't dare tell you how to do what I'm about to tell you. But Randy looked at me and he said Curtis, go take your test and I'll teach you everything you need to know.

Speaker 2:

Wow, very nice.

Speaker 3:

And that changed my life, because Randy came alongside of me and one of the very important things that he said to me was you don't ever want to overcharge people, you don't want to underbid another electrician. We should all be competitive and people choose you based off of whether they like you, whether you showed up, whether you've done what you say you're going to do, word of mouth, et cetera. And uh, that changed my life. So in 2007, I started Diamond Electric and uh, here we are.

Speaker 2:

I'm sorry.

Speaker 3:

2017, 2017, not 2007. I'm sorry, 2017. 2017.

Speaker 2:

Yes, sir, very good, All right, well, congratulations, thank you. That's eight years. Yes, sir, coming up on 10 years, that's definitely a sign of success. So this might lead into your musical career. But outside of work, what do you do for fun?

Speaker 3:

Well, I coach my youngest daughter's volleyball team. So I'm a father of four girls. My two oldest are grown, we got two granddaughters as well, and then we have two young ones that are 15 and 11, and I coach her volleyball team. And then I love old cars. I grew up my grandfather was a tow truck guy. He owned a rollback and a tow truck, so I grew up around cars and I have a lot of old classic Mopars that I like to deal with. And then I love sports. I watch football and basketball very regularly and I collect sports cards, so those are my hobbies.

Speaker 2:

Very good, and you're a musician.

Speaker 3:

I am.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I've been a singer all of my life. My mom has pictures of me holding a microphone when I was about three or four years old, so singing has always been a very important part of my life. I got into the music I mean, I've done, you know, all the talent shows and things like that growing up and then I got into Christian music back in 97, 98 and got up with a couple of groups and traveled regionally and then in 2004, I think it was I started my own Christian music group and released songs to radio and that really I really thought that was the avenue I was going to go in, because there was a lot of success in that I had a lot of number one songs. We were nominated for group of the year and even a first round nomination for what's called a dove award, which is like oh wow, the christian grammys all right, so.

Speaker 3:

I really was headed that direction, worked so hard to be, I guess, like you know, the best I could be at it, you know? And then in 2016, 2017, that's when the decision came, you know, do you want to start your own business? And so I had to give one of the two up, and I chose to give up music to be a business owner.

Speaker 2:

I get that. I get that. I've played guitar since I was six and played in bands up until I was about 19 or 20. You know, I was going to be a rock and roll star and do all that.

Speaker 2:

Blah, blah, blah, blah blah and then I got married and you know that all. And I thought, OK, I got to grow up now and my brother pursued a career in the music industry and he was successful at it. But I'm like you, I play at church. I've been playing at church for about 15 years. Right, that keeps the chops up, Right? So let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge you ever came and how it made you stronger?

Speaker 3:

it's kind of funny that we're talking about the music. That was probably one of the hardest things for me to give up. That was a incredible hardship, a lot of pain and turmoil. I spent so many years on the road and so many relationships with churches and you know promoters and stuff and, for lack of a better word, music was my identity. Even to this day a lot of people they equate Curtis with music and I still get texts and phone calls and messages from people hey, are you singing anymore? Have you released any new music? So that was a hard thing to give up the music side. An incredible hardship. But with that came the strength. It's funny Everything I learned in the music industry.

Speaker 3:

I was able to transition over into business because being a musician, having a group, is very much a business oriented background of it. You know there's a lot of financial things to consider whenever you're doing music, with recording and promotion and you know putting songs out to radio just the marketing side. There's so much that transitioned over into my business. So really music was a stepping stone to put me where I am as a business owner. It set the groundwork and the footwork for me to be successful as a business owner because of music.

Speaker 2:

Very good. Well, obviously it worked because you're you are you're very successful. Well, curtis, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Diamond Electric, what would that be?

Speaker 3:

wow, um. Well, there's a lot of. There's a lot of misconceptions, I think, and myths about contractors in general. I hear hear it on a daily. You know, I called a contractor. They don't return phone calls. You know they didn't show up and then they showed up a week later promised an estimate, and that came two or three other weeks later. And then you know also, oh my gosh, the horror stories of people giving money to contractors and then them not doing the work that they contracted to do. So those are a lot of myths. Well, I wouldn't say they're myths, it's truths, but misconceptions, that all contractors are like that and Diamond Electric is not.

Speaker 3:

That's one of the things that we've built our business on. I always answer my phone and if I don't answer it, I call you back, especially even if you don't leave a voicemail. If I see and I missed a call from you, I'm calling you back and we show up to give the estimates. We set our dates, we follow up and then if you book the appointment, it's in stone, unless weather rains us out or snow keeps us from getting there. Your appointment's on the books and we show up and we say that we're going to show up and we also are affordable.

Speaker 3:

That's when I think of the biggest things too in our industry is that so many other electricians and I have this conversation often with other electricians just like Randy taught me you don't want to price gouge people. Just because you can do a service change panel change out, meter base change out for $7,000 doesn't mean you should. You know we can do that and make a living at $3,000 to $4,000. But the problem is is there's a lot of that happening right now. Even in our industry People are overcharging. You know it's just insane. There's a lot of people moving here from out of state Washington, california, new York and I know they're accustomed to paying those high prices. But that doesn't mean you should. I know the labor and the material involved and the operating costs of running a business, so we are affordable. That's the biggest thing I think that I want my listeners to understand is that you're not going to have to sell a kidney in order to hire an electrician.

Speaker 2:

That's a good thing. That's a good thing. Yeah, don't want to sell a kidney. Awesome, awesome. Well, curtis, if any of our listeners are interested in getting a quote or talking to you about a problem that they're having, how can they learn more about your company?

Speaker 3:

Sure. Well, the first thing we're going to recommend for you to do is to go to our website. That's wwwdiamondelectrictn, like the abbreviation for Tennessee diamondelectrictncom, and we want you to check out our reviews. We have almost 200 reviews and we're a five-star company out of 200 reviews. So that's the first thing we want. We also you can go to our Facebook page or you can call us directly 423-218-9269. That's our business line.

Speaker 3:

When I'm not in the office, that comes straight to my cell phone and we'll be sure to return a call that way as well. You can always contact us through the website. There's, you know, channels there where you can send us an email or whatever to inquire about us. We don't advertise, so you're not going to catch us on the evening news, on WJHL or CYB. You're not going to catch us on the radio. What we really pride ourselves in is the word of mouth. I know somewhat that's kind of can be a slow growth, but at the same time, there's nothing I want more than for someone else to tell you how we did them, how we treated them, how respectful we were and considered and kind and affordable and et cetera. There's no better advertisement, in my opinion, than word of mouth.

Speaker 2:

Agreed, agreed, all right, well, very good. Well, curtis, I know you're a busy guy and I really appreciate you being on the show and wish you and your family and Diamond Electric all the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Well. We greatly appreciate that. And to all of our customers, even people who might already know us, we want to say thank you for continuing to trust us to be your electricians. 2024 was a great year. We won Kingsport Times Best Electric electrician. This has been now six years in a row, so we're we're very happy about where we are and we appreciate you, uh skip, for inviting us to come on.

Speaker 2:

We appreciate you absolutely well congratulations on being best electrician six years in a row and appreciate that. Maybe, maybe we can have you on the show.

Speaker 3:

Uh, a letter later on yeah, one of things you know and I know we've got a lot to talk about and you only got so much time One of the things we really want to do for 2025 is do a lot of public service announcement stuff. Safety is a very, very, very important part of what I want to stress in 2025. It's wintertime, people are using space heaters and different things and they're fire hazards. It's like we want to be able to educate the homeowner, and a lot of people are very handy. A lot of men and women are very mechanically inclined, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do things, and so you know, I'm all about you doing it yourself if you feel safe enough to do it, but let's teach you how to do it the right way, so maybe we can talk about that sometime, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, absolutely. I will look forward to it and again, thank you so much and I hope you have a great rest of the week. It's my pleasure. Thanks so much.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom on the show. Go to GNPtry-Citiescom. That's GNPtry-Citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.