May 6, 2024 • 11 mins
Natalie Thomas and her husband, Ed Thomas, are the co-owners of Thomas Electric, which is based in Mansfield. The company, which is locally owned and operated, was started 17 years ago, back in 2007. Thomas Electric is an elite dealer with Generac Power Systems, providing power solutions when the power goes out with home generators. They offer sales, install, parts and service with a great staff. Learn more about the company on the podcast.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Natalie Thomas, coowner of Thomas Electric. Good morning,
Good morning, Eron, Thank youfor coming in today, Thank you
for having me. All right,So I have heard the name Thomas Electric,
(00:20):
and again I'm really excited to learnabout you guys. Let's begin there.
Could you kind of give us anoverview if somebody's just new to the
area, tell us about your company. What do you guys do. So,
we're locally owned and operated here inMansfield. We are an elite dealer
with generak power systems, so weprovide power solutions when the power goes out.
We provide everything from start to finishwith a homestand by generators, portable
(00:44):
setups, whatever your desire is,all right. So that's something that's very
very important you think about, especiallyspring summer storms like that, and of
course we even have power outages inthe winter. So if they contact you
guys, make sure they are setand ready to go if the power was
to go out. Absolutely, andit's always good to prepare before those happen
because we get very very busy duringstorm season. So a lot of our
(01:07):
customers right now are preparing ahead oftime, which is a brilliant idea.
Absolutely well, as we learn aboutyour company, I want to kind of
just begin How long have you guysbeen in operation here locally? So we
started the business in two thousand andseven, so seventeen years all right,
so great to hear. Where areyou located at in the area. We
(01:30):
are located in the Industrial Parkway.The exact address is twenty three Mansfield Industrial
Parkway. Talk about you know agenerator, maybe the process to install that,
right, I mean you want tomake sure you're good and all that
kind of stuff for powers to goout. How does it work in terms
of installation of a generator? Somy husband and I at Thomas and myself
come out to your house. Welook over the property, basically listen to
(01:53):
what your needs are, what yourconcerns are. Everybody's a little bit different
with what their main concern is whenthe power goes out. We basically walk
around the property. Takes about twentyminutes of your time. Then we come
up with a solution as far asthe sizing that you would need, and
then basically from there we take itfrom there. We do everything from the
gas line the installation. We provideyearly maintenance. We also do twenty four
(02:15):
to seven monitoring through mobile link fleet. So basically it's a one called takes
care of it all. Oh,great, awesome. Natalie Thomas with us
in studio. She is this week'sCEO. You should know she's one of
the co owners of Thomas Electric.So I'm assuming there are a different size
then of generators. Maybe you're tryingto you know, you know, power
(02:35):
the whole house or something, ormaybe it's something smaller. Could you walk
us through. I mean, don'tknow how many different varieties you have of
generators. How does it work interms of a size of one. So
that's basically what when we come outto your house, we're investigating what's gas
operated versus what's electric operated, andthen what size kill what you would need.
And like I said, everybody's alittle bit different with their desire.
But you can go anywhere from asmaller one and just pick and choose circuits,
(02:58):
or you can power the whole house. Okay, great, now,
I'm sure this varies. How longdoes it take to Hey, I want
to order one? You know,it gets installed, all of that I'm
sure that varies then too, right, absolutely, so right now is a
good time we are able to getthe generators. During stormtime, genera gets
very backed up as well. Wetry to keep a good stock on our
floor. But right now is we'reabout a three to four week turnaround time
(03:21):
from when we come out to yourhouse to get you installed, whereas last
fall it was about a four monthwait. So it just it can vary
depending on the need and how manypower outers is are going on really around
the whole country. So for somebodythat wants to contact you guys and they
want to have you come out,you know, kind of assess everything and
get the ball rolling. How aboutyour website, your phone number, I'm
(03:44):
sure those are the places to getstarted, right sure, so our phone
numbers four one, nine, nine, eight nine three two five four,
our website, you can go onthere at Thomas Electrical dot net and basically
my husband and myself will come outand get you sized up and look at
your property and make sure everything canwork out for you. You can go
to the website and just click abutton there give the details you guys will
(04:05):
get the message and get everything started. Yeah, right, awesome, awesome.
Great to learn this morning about agreat local company and Thomas Electric,
the co owner is with us,Natalie Thomas, this week's CEO. You
should know one more question before wefind out a little bit more about you.
How about area you serve? Isit do you stretch beyond Mansfield?
How does it work in terms ofkind of your region you guys cover?
(04:28):
Yeah, we are in Mansfield andthe surrounding areas. We will go as
far as even up to the lakes. You know, it's a second house
for a lot of our customers downto Columbus. That's a great thing as
somebody has, you know, agenerator from you guys here locally. Hey,
we got a house that the lake. Could you help us out?
Absolutely great Thomas Electric. All right, so let's step away from work and
find out a bit more about you. So let's step back to the very
(04:50):
beginning. If you would tell uswhere was Natalie Thomas born? I was
born here in Ohio. My husbandis from Rhode Island. So where actually
were are you? Born at?Here in Ohio in Columbus? Born in
Columbus, but you I'm assuming movedup this way then? Yes, my
parents lived in Shelby. Okay,all right, so you told me though
(05:10):
you did move at one point,and I know you're back here in Ohio.
Now tell us a little bit aboutyou. Then, my husband and
I met in California, and thenwe decided that we didn't want to raise
kids there, and since I wasfrom here and this he's more East Coast
as well, we decided to comeback to this area. Okay, all
right, Rhode Island, California,here at Ohio. Tell us more about
(05:31):
Natalie and the family. Yeah,so I've been married to Ed Thomas for
twenty nine years. We have twobeautiful children. Corey is twenty six,
Emma is twenty four, and thenI have two grandchildren. So I've got
a great family here, all right, terrific. So I'm sure family will
be a part of the answer tomy next question. But when you're not
working, you and your husband allthat, what do you guys do in
(05:55):
your spare time? Do you haveany hobbies? Yes, we do.
Obviously, playing with the grandkids isone of my favoritavorite things to do,
and we love to golf, Welove to travel, garden, cook,
just kind of enjoy the outdoors forsure, Right, Natalie Thomas the voice
you hear this morning for a fewmore minutes spending time with us this week's
CEO. You should know she isone of the co owners of Thomas Electric,
(06:17):
which of course is here in Mansfield. All right, so let's get
back to work for just a couplemore questions in terms of staff, how
many people do you guys have rightnow? I'll employed, so we have
seven total. Okay, so yourcompany, and I was on the website
I mentioned you guys have a greatwebsite. When somebody is thinking about a
generator, boy, you just thinkabout storms and those kinds of things,
(06:40):
and you never know when the poweris going to go out. So that's
why it's so important to have thatgenerator right, so that way, if
power was to go out, youdon't have to be concerned. Oh no,
I have all this food I justbought her, or all these kind
of things that it need to beable to power the fridge, the freezer.
That's why they should contact you guysright to get the ball exactly.
So when you lose power, basicallywhen the generator kicks on, it's within
(07:01):
like a minute of that downtime,so you don't have to worry about any
of those issues that happened. Solet me ask, how did you and
your husband, you know you mentionedback in two thousand and seven, right,
you know, guide into this business? Was this you know, somebody
in the family or how did itwork for you guys to get into the
current business you guys are in.Well, my husband is master electrician,
(07:25):
He's brilliant at what he does,and basically we just decided that we could
do it ourselves instead of working forsomebody else. He's worked for great companies,
but we just really wanted to branchout and start our own things.
So I took the initiative of thebusiness side, kind of getting the business
situated, the name, the allof the logistics and office things like that,
(07:46):
and then he basically would do allthe work and then down the line
I would go out with him.So he trained me basically an electrical field
and so I became certified also withGenerak as an installer with them, So
him and I basically would installed duringthe day, go bidding it in the
evenings. It was a lot ofwork to get to where we are today.
But sounds like you guys are havingreally nice success and really enjoying what
(08:07):
you're doing together, right, Yes, we love it. Okay, that
is great to hear. Now beforeI let you go again, you're hearing
from Natalie Thomas, co owner ThomasElectric, this week's CEO. You should
know we talk about a generator,maybe maybe someone's had one installed for years,
if they need a part or someservice. You guys do all of
that right correct. Yep. Weoffer all of the warranty work, so
this is not a short term relationship. When we install, it is a
(08:30):
longer term relationship. We make surethat we provide everything that you're going to
need to have the backup power whenit goes out. All of my guys,
like I just want to give ashout out to my crew. There
are just an amazing group of people. My son also works for us,
which is really wonderful to have thatopportunity. But you'll talk to Sherry in
the office. She'll take care ofyou with any of the questions that you
have. And then my other guysNathaniel, Chase and Javen are also just
(08:56):
great. I just get great reviewsfrom all of our customers. They just
like everybody. I'd love to hearyou talk about your staff and when I
visit with you know, owners,CEOs, presidents. They always tell me
to have a good company, yougot to have good people, right,
Yeah, there are backbone for sure, Natalie. One other question, and
I always ask people this, youknow who run companies like yourself, What
(09:18):
kind of sets you guys apart?What makes Thomas Electric special? Well,
first of all, we love whatwe do and we have the best customers.
We are so committed to the higheststandards of workmanship. We treat our
house and project like it as ourown, so we're very detailed about how
we take care of your property.We leave it clean, sometimes cleaner than
we got there. We are definitelycommitted to quality and work product and follow
(09:41):
through with offering all of the servicessuch as I mentioned before, the twenty
four to seven monitoring, yearly maintenanceand warranty work. Awesome to hear the
great story this morning of Thomas Electric. Again, let's circle back before I
let you go. It's been agreat conversation. If somebody wants to get
the ball rolling, they need agenerator, brand new install maybe they have
one, they need some parts,some service. How does it work to
(10:03):
get the conversation started with Thomas Electric? It's very simple. Just give us
a call at four one nine nineeight nine three two five four and myself
for Sherry. We'll get your informationand then we just go from there.
A few questions over the phone,and then we schedule an appointment. All
right, the gain the website ThomasElectrical dot net the phone number and Natalie
(10:24):
just gave us four one nine nineeight nine thirty two fifty four. They
have a great website. I mentionedThomas Electrical dot net. You can just
with a quick click of the mouseget a message to them and get the
process started. Well, it wasgreat to learn about your story. We
thank you so much Natalie for comingin and we wish you continued success.
Thank you so much. Erin NatalieThomas, co owner of Thomas Electric.
(10:48):
The CEO you should know riad abio, see a photo and here the
extended interview at WMA n FM dotcom. Leading means having a vision and
sharing it with others. I'm JohnRoby of RFI Insurance. We're excited to
bring you this program featuring CEOs fromour area who will share the thoughts and
what it means to work and livein North central Ohio.
The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Natalie Thomas, coowner of Thomas Electric. Good morning,
Good morning, Eron, Thank youfor coming in today, Thank you
for having me. All right,So I have heard the name Thomas Electric,
(00:20):
and again I'm really excited to learnabout you guys. Let's begin there.
Could you kind of give us anoverview if somebody's just new to the
area, tell us about your company. What do you guys do. So,
we're locally owned and operated here inMansfield. We are an elite dealer
with generak power systems, so weprovide power solutions when the power goes out.
We provide everything from start to finishwith a homestand by generators, portable
(00:44):
setups, whatever your desire is,all right. So that's something that's very
very important you think about, especiallyspring summer storms like that, and of
course we even have power outages inthe winter. So if they contact you
guys, make sure they are setand ready to go if the power was
to go out. Absolutely, andit's always good to prepare before those happen
because we get very very busy duringstorm season. So a lot of our
(01:07):
customers right now are preparing ahead oftime, which is a brilliant idea.
Absolutely well, as we learn aboutyour company, I want to kind of
just begin How long have you guysbeen in operation here locally? So we
started the business in two thousand andseven, so seventeen years all right,
so great to hear. Where areyou located at in the area. We
(01:30):
are located in the Industrial Parkway.The exact address is twenty three Mansfield Industrial
Parkway. Talk about you know agenerator, maybe the process to install that,
right, I mean you want tomake sure you're good and all that
kind of stuff for powers to goout. How does it work in terms
of installation of a generator? Somy husband and I at Thomas and myself
come out to your house. Welook over the property, basically listen to
(01:53):
what your needs are, what yourconcerns are. Everybody's a little bit different
with what their main concern is whenthe power goes out. We basically walk
around the property. Takes about twentyminutes of your time. Then we come
up with a solution as far asthe sizing that you would need, and
then basically from there we take itfrom there. We do everything from the
gas line the installation. We provideyearly maintenance. We also do twenty four
(02:15):
to seven monitoring through mobile link fleet. So basically it's a one called takes
care of it all. Oh,great, awesome. Natalie Thomas with us
in studio. She is this week'sCEO. You should know she's one of
the co owners of Thomas Electric.So I'm assuming there are a different size
then of generators. Maybe you're tryingto you know, you know, power
(02:35):
the whole house or something, ormaybe it's something smaller. Could you walk
us through. I mean, don'tknow how many different varieties you have of
generators. How does it work interms of a size of one. So
that's basically what when we come outto your house, we're investigating what's gas
operated versus what's electric operated, andthen what size kill what you would need.
And like I said, everybody's alittle bit different with their desire.
But you can go anywhere from asmaller one and just pick and choose circuits,
(02:58):
or you can power the whole house. Okay, great, now,
I'm sure this varies. How longdoes it take to Hey, I want
to order one? You know,it gets installed, all of that I'm
sure that varies then too, right, absolutely, so right now is a
good time we are able to getthe generators. During stormtime, genera gets
very backed up as well. Wetry to keep a good stock on our
floor. But right now is we'reabout a three to four week turnaround time
(03:21):
from when we come out to yourhouse to get you installed, whereas last
fall it was about a four monthwait. So it just it can vary
depending on the need and how manypower outers is are going on really around
the whole country. So for somebodythat wants to contact you guys and they
want to have you come out,you know, kind of assess everything and
get the ball rolling. How aboutyour website, your phone number, I'm
(03:44):
sure those are the places to getstarted, right sure, so our phone
numbers four one, nine, nine, eight nine three two five four,
our website, you can go onthere at Thomas Electrical dot net and basically
my husband and myself will come outand get you sized up and look at
your property and make sure everything canwork out for you. You can go
to the website and just click abutton there give the details you guys will
(04:05):
get the message and get everything started. Yeah, right, awesome, awesome.
Great to learn this morning about agreat local company and Thomas Electric,
the co owner is with us,Natalie Thomas, this week's CEO. You
should know one more question before wefind out a little bit more about you.
How about area you serve? Isit do you stretch beyond Mansfield?
How does it work in terms ofkind of your region you guys cover?
(04:28):
Yeah, we are in Mansfield andthe surrounding areas. We will go as
far as even up to the lakes. You know, it's a second house
for a lot of our customers downto Columbus. That's a great thing as
somebody has, you know, agenerator from you guys here locally. Hey,
we got a house that the lake. Could you help us out?
Absolutely great Thomas Electric. All right, so let's step away from work and
find out a bit more about you. So let's step back to the very
(04:50):
beginning. If you would tell uswhere was Natalie Thomas born? I was
born here in Ohio. My husbandis from Rhode Island. So where actually
were are you? Born at?Here in Ohio in Columbus? Born in
Columbus, but you I'm assuming movedup this way then? Yes, my
parents lived in Shelby. Okay,all right, so you told me though
(05:10):
you did move at one point,and I know you're back here in Ohio.
Now tell us a little bit aboutyou. Then, my husband and
I met in California, and thenwe decided that we didn't want to raise
kids there, and since I wasfrom here and this he's more East Coast
as well, we decided to comeback to this area. Okay, all
right, Rhode Island, California,here at Ohio. Tell us more about
(05:31):
Natalie and the family. Yeah,so I've been married to Ed Thomas for
twenty nine years. We have twobeautiful children. Corey is twenty six,
Emma is twenty four, and thenI have two grandchildren. So I've got
a great family here, all right, terrific. So I'm sure family will
be a part of the answer tomy next question. But when you're not
working, you and your husband allthat, what do you guys do in
(05:55):
your spare time? Do you haveany hobbies? Yes, we do.
Obviously, playing with the grandkids isone of my favoritavorite things to do,
and we love to golf, Welove to travel, garden, cook,
just kind of enjoy the outdoors forsure, Right, Natalie Thomas the voice
you hear this morning for a fewmore minutes spending time with us this week's
CEO. You should know she isone of the co owners of Thomas Electric,
(06:17):
which of course is here in Mansfield. All right, so let's get
back to work for just a couplemore questions in terms of staff, how
many people do you guys have rightnow? I'll employed, so we have
seven total. Okay, so yourcompany, and I was on the website
I mentioned you guys have a greatwebsite. When somebody is thinking about a
generator, boy, you just thinkabout storms and those kinds of things,
(06:40):
and you never know when the poweris going to go out. So that's
why it's so important to have thatgenerator right, so that way, if
power was to go out, youdon't have to be concerned. Oh no,
I have all this food I justbought her, or all these kind
of things that it need to beable to power the fridge, the freezer.
That's why they should contact you guysright to get the ball exactly.
So when you lose power, basicallywhen the generator kicks on, it's within
(07:01):
like a minute of that downtime,so you don't have to worry about any
of those issues that happened. Solet me ask, how did you and
your husband, you know you mentionedback in two thousand and seven, right,
you know, guide into this business? Was this you know, somebody
in the family or how did itwork for you guys to get into the
current business you guys are in.Well, my husband is master electrician,
(07:25):
He's brilliant at what he does,and basically we just decided that we could
do it ourselves instead of working forsomebody else. He's worked for great companies,
but we just really wanted to branchout and start our own things.
So I took the initiative of thebusiness side, kind of getting the business
situated, the name, the allof the logistics and office things like that,
(07:46):
and then he basically would do allthe work and then down the line
I would go out with him.So he trained me basically an electrical field
and so I became certified also withGenerak as an installer with them, So
him and I basically would installed duringthe day, go bidding it in the
evenings. It was a lot ofwork to get to where we are today.
But sounds like you guys are havingreally nice success and really enjoying what
(08:07):
you're doing together, right, Yes, we love it. Okay, that
is great to hear. Now beforeI let you go again, you're hearing
from Natalie Thomas, co owner ThomasElectric, this week's CEO. You should
know we talk about a generator,maybe maybe someone's had one installed for years,
if they need a part or someservice. You guys do all of
that right correct. Yep. Weoffer all of the warranty work, so
this is not a short term relationship. When we install, it is a
(08:30):
longer term relationship. We make surethat we provide everything that you're going to
need to have the backup power whenit goes out. All of my guys,
like I just want to give ashout out to my crew. There
are just an amazing group of people. My son also works for us,
which is really wonderful to have thatopportunity. But you'll talk to Sherry in
the office. She'll take care ofyou with any of the questions that you
have. And then my other guysNathaniel, Chase and Javen are also just
(08:56):
great. I just get great reviewsfrom all of our customers. They just
like everybody. I'd love to hearyou talk about your staff and when I
visit with you know, owners,CEOs, presidents. They always tell me
to have a good company, yougot to have good people, right,
Yeah, there are backbone for sure, Natalie. One other question, and
I always ask people this, youknow who run companies like yourself, What
(09:18):
kind of sets you guys apart?What makes Thomas Electric special? Well,
first of all, we love whatwe do and we have the best customers.
We are so committed to the higheststandards of workmanship. We treat our
house and project like it as ourown, so we're very detailed about how
we take care of your property.We leave it clean, sometimes cleaner than
we got there. We are definitelycommitted to quality and work product and follow
(09:41):
through with offering all of the servicessuch as I mentioned before, the twenty
four to seven monitoring, yearly maintenanceand warranty work. Awesome to hear the
great story this morning of Thomas Electric. Again, let's circle back before I
let you go. It's been agreat conversation. If somebody wants to get
the ball rolling, they need agenerator, brand new install maybe they have
one, they need some parts,some service. How does it work to
(10:03):
get the conversation started with Thomas Electric? It's very simple. Just give us
a call at four one nine nineeight nine three two five four and myself
for Sherry. We'll get your informationand then we just go from there.
A few questions over the phone,and then we schedule an appointment. All
right, the gain the website ThomasElectrical dot net the phone number and Natalie
(10:24):
just gave us four one nine nineeight nine thirty two fifty four. They
have a great website. I mentionedThomas Electrical dot net. You can just
with a quick click of the mouseget a message to them and get the
process started. Well, it wasgreat to learn about your story. We
thank you so much Natalie for comingin and we wish you continued success.
Thank you so much. Erin NatalieThomas, co owner of Thomas Electric.
(10:48):
The CEO you should know riad abio, see a photo and here the
extended interview at WMA n FM dotcom. Leading means having a vision and
sharing it with others. I'm JohnRoby of RFI Insurance. We're excited to
bring you this program featuring CEOs fromour area who will share the thoughts and
what it means to work and livein North central Ohio.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com