Home Services Success Stories

Small Company, Big Integrity: The 5th Generation Electric Way

• Peakzi • Season 1 • Episode 3

Share episode

Peakzi Podcast: What if the most powerful advantage in home services isn’t size or speed, but integrity you can feel at the door? Eddie Nichols, owner of 5th Generation Electric, joins us to share how a values-first approach built a trusted electrical brand across Dallas–Fort Worth—one careful hire, clear explanation, and honest job at a time.

Eddie’s story starts in Mesquite, Texas, with a life steeped in music, church production, and a fascination with wiring. After two back surgeries pushed him out of the field, he doubled down on leadership and built a company where people—not parts—set the standard. He walks through his slow, deliberate hiring system: video screen, in-person interview, and a paid day in the field wearing the company shirt. The result is a team that communicates well, respects clients, and delivers consistent work that wins reviews and referrals.

We dig into a medical facility project that others couldn’t solve and how Eddie partnered with friendly competitors to deliver a right-sized, code-strong solution. That collaboration, paired with transparent options and ethical recommendations, earned the company a BBB Torch Award for integrity. Eddie connects these choices to his faith, which anchors the employee handbook and guides how the team serves customers, pays staff, and shows up for the community. When mistakes happen, he turns them into standard operating procedures, building resilience and reliability with every lesson learned.

We also explore how Peakzi helps 5th Generation Electric stay visible as search shifts from typing to talking with AI assistants. Eddie shares why modern discovery, reputation signals, and hiring insights matter—and how technology can amplify, not replace, human service. Looking ahead, he’s excited to keep the team small and strong, train top-notch technicians, and host homeowner education that makes electrical safety simple.

If you care about home service done right—clear communication, honest scope, and craftsmanship you can trust—this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who runs a trades business, and leave a review with your favorite hiring or trust-building tip.

Peakzi Podcast: Home Services Success Stories

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peaksy, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. On the show today, we have Eddie Nichols, who is the owner at Fifth Generation Electric. Eddie, welcome to the podcast. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing good. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. It's it's great to it's great to have you on. So um so Eddie, let's jump right in. Take a minute just to introduce yourself to our audience.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so obviously my name's uh Eddie Nichols. I'm the owner of Fifth Generation Electric. Uh, but just a little bit uh about me. Um I've been married to my beautiful wife, Kendra, since about 2017. Uh I actually started the business about a year before uh we got married. So she's she's been growing in it with me. Uh, she also works for us here in the office as well and helps with some of the day-to-day and different things like that. Um, but my foundation, I would say, would definitely be built around uh my faith and uh my faith and my church community. Um I've had the pleasure and the blessings of serving in our our church production team for several years now uh as an audio assistant. Um I I've I've loved doing that just for the simple fact that it it gives back to a lot of people. It allows me to do something that I enjoy greatly. A little bit of break from the electrical industry. Um, but yeah, it's it's stuff that I really uh enjoy. Um but my background has always been around music and in some form or fashion, uh, from playing saxophone in my early years to drums and piano and and different things like that here recently. Uh, but I grew up here uh in mesquite, Texas, is where uh we currently operate the business out of. Um I actually bought my childhood home uh back in 2008, which I still uh live in the home today. Uh so I I definitely have strong roots here in the mesquite uh Texas community. Um let me treat, I'm trying to think of uh some other things here, but um uh we we've tried to stay focused on uh just just kind of staying in our our our hometown. Uh we've gotten plugged in with uh our local mesquite chamber of commerce, uh, as well as joining the mesquite senior advocate advocate, can't talk today, as well as joining the mesquite senior advocate alliance, uh that's uh organization specifically focused around taking care of our senior community with good quality information and just making sure they're taken care of. Uh a few years later, I actually got the invite to uh uh hold the chair for the um trying to remember the title of it here. Um uh I'm I'm essentially the electrical advisory board member for the city of Mesquite. So just advising the leaders of Mesquite about good safe practices around the electrical industry to make sure our community is electrically safe. Um, but yeah, my focus has always been uh a heavy focus around serving and providing education where we can. So a little bit about me.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting. I think there's a lot to unpack there. So so the your wife is in the business, true husband and wife couple, serving in the community, very faith forward. You mentioned that is core to your identity. Um, and you've you've been in the business for for a long time, but true craftsman and and an expert in the space. Um, also Deter Mesquite, I'm I'm in Dallas also. And uh interesting too. I played the Saxo and I march all throughout high school and all that, but that's a that's a whole nother vibe.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

So um, you know, having been in the trade and also actually create that connection there. You you have kind of a like a music production background. Is there any tie to that and in the electrical field? Like what is all that?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh ever since I was a little kid, it's I've I've always been playing with wires in some form or fashion, whether it was um, you know, science fair projects back when I was in school, or uh I had a an amateur car car audio installation business uh back when I was in uh high school. So tinkering with that. And then uh I kind of grew up around uh recording studio environments. My dad played in a few bands as I was a child, so I grew up around that. And um I've I've played in a few very entry-level bands, uh, nothing mainstream or anything like that. But um I I've just I've always been around something that was technical, gadgets, wiring, uh just being able to produce something that goes out in the community in a great way.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. So there was like an inclination early on, and it kind of manifested itself in sort of different ways. Um okay, cool. So, well, when did you first get the calling to start your own business and run your own company?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, um, you know, I've I've always kind of had the entrepreneurial bug, I think, uh talking about doing the car audio installs. Um, I I had a very entry-level home theater installation business, and even to the point where um even in my electrical career, uh I had a side hustle doing uh data connectivity and home security where I was doing wiring. And I've just always had that thing, that that mindset of taking ownership of something, being a leader of something. And uh most of the companies I work with, I I grew up on the uh the the ladder, so to speak, at every company I work for. And I just I always wanted more. Uh the cool thing about being an entrepreneur is there is no ceiling. Um, I'm a person that appreciates challenges. Um, I I like I like being able to be creative in my space and just um uh essentially being able to grow. But I uh I I decided to become a business owner, um, not to get too much into it, but I had two back surgeries back in the day that kind of took me out of the field. And I still wanted a uh uh an effective career in this in this industry, this space. And I had some really close friends encourage me to it's like, hey, maybe it's time to go ahead and start this thing. So uh I was able to build a team um that was able to actually do productive work, professional work, uh, that had my vision in mine, and and they carried it through and they've done an amazing job. Um, our reviews are alone are a testament to that. Um, but yeah, it's it's been going almost, it'll be 10 years next year uh in business. So it's it's been going for a while.

SPEAKER_01:

In 10 years. Well, congratulations on that. Um, so I guess given your unique background and that you've always had this kind of entrepreneurial bug, how do you think that has allowed you to kind of stand out from other electrical contractors in the Dallas Fort Worth area?

SPEAKER_00:

And honestly, I I kind of talked with my team about this not too long ago. What truly makes us stand out? And um one thing I had in place as we're looking for candidates that come work for us is I wanted to hire true human beings. I wanted people that you know genuinely wanted to do better, uh, take care of people, uh, just just had a passion for doing the right thing. And, you know, everyone on our team basically had the same response. It's it's the people within the company that make us different. I mean, there's you know, everyone's installing code-approved electrical panels, devices, different things like that. But the thing that really made us stand apart was our people. How we genuinely want to take care of people. And I I would say that's one of the big things that probably sets us apart. It's it's not just a transaction. We're we're legitimately trying to take care of people.

SPEAKER_01:

So real focus on hiring great people and taking care of them. Can you share a tip, a hiring tip, a recruiting tip, an attraction tip um that that has allowed you to attract and you know retain and grow some good people?

SPEAKER_00:

Um I've been I've been pretty open in the community and different things like that. People have uh I think gotten to know me. I've I've been pretty proactive on on social media and the community groups and stuff like that. So I I think people have known of me for a while. Uh, but the thing that we did uh specifically as far as uh how we hire people is it's it's a slow process. We don't hire quick. I think that's one mistake we made in the earlier years is we hired quick. Uh and that's something you definitely don't want to do in business. So we we actually have a three-part interview process as far as uh we do a video interview, we do an in-person interview, and we actually invite candidates to come out and work with us for a day, pay them for a day, and actually put them in a company shirt. We want to make sure not only are they comfortable in the work environment we're in, we want to make sure the team uh recognizes them and accepts them. And we just want to make sure it's a good match for for a long-term employment. So that's some of the things that that we've done to make sure we're always hiring really good candidates.

SPEAKER_01:

I had to commend your process because I've been speaking to a lot of different home services business owners because of this, and it's quite defined. I heard a three-step process, uh, looks like virtual in-person, and then an actual like a working paid day interview, like working a project together to see how this person, what better way to sample how a human being is if not putting them in the work and working side by side? So I think that's oh yeah, great. Yeah, okay. Well, you know, one of your mantras is doing whatever it takes to get it done, right? So make that real for us. How has that ever come into play with a particular project or challenge? And what was the outcome from it?

SPEAKER_00:

I always I've always been a person that believes there's there's a solution to every problem. Uh, we had uh one decent size uh commercial project here not too long ago for a medical facility, and um I think we might have been the fourth, maybe fifth electrical contractor that had come in to find a solution for this company, even after like major components have already been installed on this thing. Uh, we sat down with the client, did a full review of the system, and realized uh everything was basically underbuilt. As soon as they tried to do full production, if they ever got to that point, it would have fallen flat on its face. So we we went into the project. Uh, we did tell them we are a smaller company, but I told them at the same time with what they've been dealing with, they definitely got the right electrician. So I told them what needed to be happening. We built uh we built a solution around that, and um, you know, the client uh decided they wanted to move forward with it. So I knew immediately my team at the time was not big enough to turnkey this project. So I actually pulled in uh two local electrical companies that we're friends with, and we pulled together as a team, uh, got the job knocked out. Uh the client's still operational today and happy that they're past this whole hurdle. But it's one of those things. I mean, we're DFW is a a huge space to be an electrical contractor in. And uh a lot of people may not realize that a lot of the electrical contractors in this area, we know each other, we're friends with each other, we're friendly competitors, but uh there's been a lot of times that we've all pulled together to get jobs done. And this was one of those for us. Um, you know, the main focus is always taking care of the client. Um, and and we did what we had to do to get it done. Um, and that was definitely just you know, bringing in a solid team and and getting everything done.

SPEAKER_01:

So it sounds like really understanding what was the need of the project, being honest about this scope, and then bringing in the best based on their capabilities and how can you work together to really get the job done. So um again, I think that has to do with kind of your focus on people, knowing the players in the industry, knowing what their strengths are and bringing them together to get it done.

SPEAKER_00:

So I think that's great.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So, you know, home services, as you know, it comes down to trust. Um, how have you built trust with your customers over the years?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh a biggest focus, one of the big focuses we have is transparency. Um we we have a very ethical route of going about things, even to the point in 2023, uh, we actually got the Better Business Bureau uh Torch Award, which is an award given to businesses representing ethics and integrity in the business in the industry. Uh, one of the other big things that that's really uh near and dear to my heart is um my my biblical foundation. It's it's my responsibility. Um it's my job to always make sure we're always bringing the right information, uh, being very transparent about everything we do and making sure our clients 100% understand everything that we're bringing to the table. I never want anyone to feel like they don't understand something. Um, you know, my uh everything that I do, I have to be able to sleep at night as a business owner. And um I sleep very well knowing that we do everything the right way. Um but yeah, everything falls back to my my biblical foundation in life. Um I always want to make sure that's that's always um upfront on everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Share more a bit about that because that is a recurring theme of the conversation we've had so far. I too am a person of faith. Thank you for sharing that. Um but how does that influence the way that you run your business, the way that you treat your employees, the way that you deliver in commitments? Like, how does that influence your leadership style, your culture, and just how the way you exist in the marketplace?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh it's it's absolutely everything for me. Um, you know, whether our team is on that track or not, they know where our roots are, they know where our foundation is, even to the point that it's literally the first sentence uh in our employee handbook that we're a biblically founded company. So how we treat our team, how we pay our team, how we take care of clients, I mean, how we communicate with our clients, uh, how we serve the community, everything falls back on to those biblical roots. I mean, if if you have biblical roots, it's going to be in your nature to serve people. Uh, so that's something that we're always trying to do in every way that we can.

SPEAKER_01:

So it comes down to serving people, whether those are your employees or your customers, partners, associates. Um, I think that is a great uh core principle to have. So thank you for sharing that, Eddie. So running a home services business is tough and um any all business ownership really is tough, right? So what's a what's a challenge or hard lesson that you've learned um that you've that's made you stronger and others can learn from?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I actually wrote this one down. I'm I'm trying to go back to my notes here. I apologize. Uh I I will say this humbly with with any shortfall, you always need to take time and reflect on it. Uh, evaluate what went wrong, understand what need or system was not met, and create a standard operating procedure that ensures moving forward, you always have a productive and positive outcome. If you're not learning from your shortfalls, you will never grow professionally and personally in life. Uh, always approach any shortfall with humility, honesty, and always do what it takes to make it right. I mean, there's there's a lot of people that have gone to college and different things like that. I did graduate from a uh four-year trade school uh way back when. Um, but I kind of make a joke. Some people will go and invest money in the college. I invest money in a business. Literally, my life around business has has been my training. And sometimes we've we've paid money to to figure out how to do things the right way. Uh, whether it was a mistake we made in early years or different things like that, but we've we've always made it right. And you have to approach your shortfalls, your failures humbly, and you have to grow from it and come out on top. And that's why when you have companies that have been in business for years over years, you're always going to have a company that um just has better systems in place, better procedures. They just know how to take care of clients much, much better. The company we are today is significantly better than the company we were 10 years ago. And I'm I'm proud to say that it's it's been a growing process for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that's a great way to go about it. What I heard was once you do experience a, let's say, a failure or negative outcome, you number one approach it with humility. And number two, it seems like you will dissect what happened, what were the gaps, and then uh what what are the things that you need to do next time, and then turn it into a standard operating procedure so those mistakes are no longer repeated, and that's how you've been able to continue to improve along the way the more that you do business and serve your customers.

SPEAKER_00:

So 100%.

SPEAKER_01:

Cool. You need to write a book on this stuff, man. You said you said this is your first time doing it, and it seemed like you had some apprehension for doing this, but but you're doing what um what what you need to do is just speaking from your heart, because that is uh more than enough. So so thank you for your your humility and earnestness in that regard. So uh so this show is brought to you by Peaksy, and you're a Pixie customer. So how would you describe to others who've never heard of what Peaksy is, what Peaksy is?

SPEAKER_00:

I'll tell you, um, when we first got introduced to you guys, um it it was it was an awe factor. I I just loved uh the AI integration on how it's able to I mean it's AI is a bit above my head, but basically how it's able to skim the public view of of what fifth generation electric looks like in the public view. Uh and if if there's anything positive, mediocre, or negative, we can see what that stuff is and we can uh build new systems to create better uh systems in place. Uh, if we have something we're doing great in, we can amplify that and push it even further. Uh some of the other things that I really enjoyed, uh, you know, and we haven't started this process yet, but as far as when we start looking for our next service technician as we're starting to grow, there's some systems in place that you guys have that will really help us hone in finding that that amazing candidate that's going to add to our already amazing team. Um some of the other things that I like is uh you guys helped us as far as building um uh essentially some of that back end AI stuff so we can uh better be seen in some of the newer technology that's out uh with you know, whether it be ChatGBT, Google Gemini, different things like that. Uh I feel like the the market's really getting away from you know, more or less type in internet search or different things like that. They're talking to an assistant to get the information they need. And if if us as a company, if we're not on that, that that platform to be seen in that, uh, we're gonna we're gonna fall behind quickly. So I like that you guys are helping us with that. And there's there's a lot more that we haven't even started utilizing from what you guys are offering. I'm I'm excited to see those those next steps and as we grow into that.

SPEAKER_01:

So it sounds like I heard a couple of use cases. The first one was like the online presence, making sure that you're visible and that's sort of being maximized for you. Um, the second was it sounds like there's like a uh a hiring um use case and helping identify talent. Um so I think those are those are very, very important use cases for uh for for the product. Um so uh if you were to explain it to another home uh um business owner, so uh if you were to fill in the blank in this question, right? So uh use uh Peaksy because it will help you do what? What is that what?

SPEAKER_00:

Have a presence in the current market. Um we need to be seen to be a productive business. And if we're not being seen, we don't have a business. So uh I think Peaksy is strategically allowing us to be seen in the newer market that we're going into.

SPEAKER_01:

Love that. I think that's a great way to to share and position it. So um so we're about to uh end end the the podcast episode and kind of land the plane here. Um so where do you see fifth generation electric in the next five to ten years? Like what are you most excited about in the business?

SPEAKER_00:

I know one thing for me personally is I've been trying to create a company that has the culture that is rock solid, uh, where everyone sees each other as a family member, which we already have. Uh, we're just growing that team and basically getting it to where the team can efficiently run on its own. And that way I can dig into some of the more community things uh as an individual, whether it be training seminars, educating the community, uh, even training in our new technicians to be uh just top-notch service technicians. My heart and my focus has always been around education, training, um, just providing information to the public. I always want to be a part of the company. I always want to support and uplift my team, uh, but already I'm seeing signs of our team being very self-sufficient. Um, we've got some amazing systems in place that allow them to do that. Um, and we're probably gonna stay a small company, maybe not more than four or five trucks. Um, but uh yeah, I mean that's that's basically where I see us in the in the next you know couple of years. Uh so uh that's I I hope that answers that question.

SPEAKER_01:

It does. I think I think you are very passionate about this business. You are a caring individual, you pursue all things and every aspect of the business with excellence. Uh, and I think it I think it certainly shows in the results that you make for the community. That's really great, um, Eddie. So um so so close us out. How can our audience, prospective customers, or if anyone wants to connect with you, learn more about fifth generation electric, tell us where to go.

SPEAKER_00:

I I'd say the best route to probably get to know us in the best way is just have us come out to your home. Uh, you know, we, you know, our team comes out, they're very patient, they'll sit down with you, and we just simply want to learn about your home, learn about you, and make sure we provide safe and effective solutions. So the best way is to give us a call, uh, book an appointment, and uh essentially test drive the company. Uh, we're gonna make sure you got all the information that you need and help you make good, effective, smart solutions about your home repairs.

SPEAKER_01:

So go ahead and give us that number and plug your website if you would, Eddie.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so the phone number is 214-728-1977. Uh, the website is uh fifthgenelectric.com, and that starts with the number 5th. Uh but yeah, that's that's us.

SPEAKER_01:

And we'll make sure to have all that contact information in the show notes as well. So, Eddie, thank you so much for sharing your story with us here today.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

And everyone else, thank you all for tuning in to another episode of the Home Services Success Stories Podcast. And we'll see you next time on the next episode of the Home Services Success Stories Podcast, powered by PC.