Today we’d like to introduce you to Octavia Maggio.
Hi Octavia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Well, I didn’t have much guidance or direction growing up….father passed away (Vietnam War vet/PTSD/suicide) when I was 8, and mother was dealing with untreated, profound mental illness topped with the stress of raising 4 kids alone. I dropped out of high school (I have severe ADHD, PTSD, depression, and anxiety that weren’t diagnosed and treated until I was about 38, so that probably didn’t help much), then got my GED when I was like, 19 or 20, worked a bunch of different jobs: retail, food service, body piercer. Tried college but flunked out of that as well (wasn’t able to balance full-time work and full-time school, plus the untreated neurodivergence). In 2004, I decided to pack everything I could fit into my Ford Taurus, with about 500 bucks to my name, and moved from Colorado to Florida.
Still had no clue what I was doing with my life, but the weather was nicer. I worked some more dead-end jobs: office assistant, junk hauler, built cat furniture. I tried to get back into college, but my GPA was so low that I couldn’t qualify for financial aid. I was really interested in electrical engineering, but since school wasn’t an option, I figured I’d do the next best thing and try to be an electrician (my Grandpa Joe was an electrician, and one of the only positive influences in my childhood, so that was part of what led me in that direction as well).
I started my electrical apprenticeship at the Gainesville, FL NECA/IBEW JATC in January 2008. In May 2012, I topped out of the program (graduated) as a Journeyman Wireman in IBEW Local 1205 (I believe I was the 9th? woman to complete the program since it started in 1948…there’s only been a handful that made it thru). I had a daughter during my apprenticeship and was pregnant with my son when I topped out, so I took the next couple of years off to be a stay-at-home mom. In 2015 or 2016 I separated from my now-ex-husband and since I needed my own income again, I re-entered the trade.
The majority of my career has been spent in industrial process-control facilities like power plants (nuclear, coal, natural gas), paper mills, cement plants, and refineries, but I’ve also worked in sort facilities (FedEx, UPS, USPS) and hospitals. Working in those types of facilities led me into Instrumentation/Automation, which is my absolute favorite part of the trade. For about a year, I was also a 1st year teacher at the JATC I attended.
In 2021, I was working in Superior, WI at the Husky Refinery rebuild (it had a major explosion a year or two before, and I was on the repair/upgrade). On that project, I met my now good friend/union brother, Justin King. In late 2022/early 2023 (can’t remember exactly), Justin asked me if I’d come work with him in the Memphis area, where he lives and was trying to get a business established. I still live in Florida, so it was a lot of driving back and forth over the next couple years! I’d stay there a week or two at a time to knock out projects and worked on the administrative end of things/started learning how to run a business when I was at home.
I can’t say that I truly feel like I know what I’m doing yet, but I know we are constantly improving and moving forward. I’ve utilized services from the SBA and SCORE, which have been instrumental to the business’ survival. We set a goal of $1 million+ in revenue for 2025, and we accomplished it. We have been able to create jobs for 6 people, which isn’t much, but it’s a start! And that’s basically where I’m at today. Not too shabby for a high school drop out, I guess.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
More like one of those backcountry roads that absolutely wrecks tires and suspension because there’s a responsibility dispute between the city and the county, since it runs on a boundary line, and it never gets maintained. Definitely the opposite of smooth!
Growing up in an abusive household was not an ideal start to life. I don’t really have a relationship with either side of my family (outside of what I had with my Grandpa Joe, but he passed away in 2005, and my little sister whom I’ve just started building a relationship with over the past few years). My mother isolated us from my father’s side of the family after he passed, so I never got a chance to know all those people, and she was pretty much the black sheep of her family, so there wasn’t much interaction there, either. Honestly, I’m not really sure how I’ve survived this long lol. There’s a handful of really amazing people who have been there for me when I needed help the most, and I count myself very lucky for that
Being a woman in a male-dominated trade has been really difficult for all of the stereotypical reasons, especially in the Southern US, where gender based roles are more ingrained. I wasn’t just learning my trade, I was constantly having to prove that I even had a right to be there in the first place. Balancing my career with being a mother has presented obstacles that I felt would be insurmountable at times, especially as a single mom. My ex-husband and I co-parent, but obviously there were still major hurdles for me as the head of my household. Sometimes I would get called into work at 11:30 pm after already working 8-10 hours that day (I was maintenance personnel at a cement plant and was on call a lot of time) and would have to build a bed in the back of my SUV to put my sleeping kids in so that I could take them to work with me. (I’m lucky I never got caught bringing them in with me because I could have lost my job!) There were definitely some really intense times trying to juggle everything!
As a business owner, it’s been nothing but obstacles and challenges, but I’m used to operating this way. One day, I know I’ll be on the freshly paved road!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Energy Solutions Group, LLC?
We are a woman/minority-owned, union electrical contractor. We offer a wide range of electrical-related services for residential, commercial, and industrial applications and provide everything from small service calls to ground-up construction projects and long-term maintenance contracts. My co-owner, Justin, and I are both recognized for our high level of craftsmanship, and it’s something we personally oversee with all of our projects. We are proud members of the IBEW and believe in placing the safety and well-being of our crew members as our #1 priority. This enables us to attract high-level talent and deliver top quality services and installations to our clients. Our 100% inspection pass rate and zero safety-incident track record can attest to this.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Calculated risks are an integral part of succeeding in life…… and I’m still trying to learn the math! I don’t think I would label myself a “risk-taker”, BUT I’ve definitely taken A LOT of risks in my life; some by choice and some simply due to the nature of my life circumstances.
As I’ve mentioned, I didn’t have much oversight/supervision or guidance as a youth. I engaged in a lot of risky (and sometimes illegal) behavior. Anything from jumping off a friend’s roof onto their trampoline to see how high I could bounce (hospital trip on that one), to being convicted of “discharge of a firearm within city limits” after being caught shooting a neighbor’s pumpkin from my rooftop with a pellet gun on a dare. I’m incredibly blessed that nothing catastrophic ever resulted from that behavior, and incredibly grateful for the times I was caught and suffered consequences because of the course correction it provided.
My move from Colorado to Florida was a pretty big risk…..the first major one of my adult life (I had made plenty of piss-poor to mediocre, low[ish]-impact ones so far). It was not at all calculated as the decision and “preparation” took place within 2 or 3 weeks lol. I found myself in a situation where there were no opportunities (typical small town stuff, plus it was a meth hub), I had nothing going for me (partying, working retail [which is an important job, I just can’t handle it!], and skateboarding [which I miss dearly but would never be good enough to make a career of] were the core details of my life), and I was still under the roof of my abusive mother (motivation enough, by itself, to need an out). A skateboarding friend who split his years between Colorado and Florida (his parents owned homes in both states) offered to let me stay with him in the Sunshine State while I got established, if I was interested in leaving our little CO town . I was. Very much so, I was! (His parents are some of my life changers that I’ve been blessed with!)
I gave my two-week notice to my retail job (I still have the Crocs the manager let me take as a going-away present), said goodbye to all my friends (they threw me a couple of going away parties that are some of the best memories of my life), and with my last paycheck (~ $500) and a car loaded with my ferrets and meager belongings, I struck out, following my friend to my new home in Gainesville, FL. We rolled (more accurately, crawled, due to the low visibility) into town with Hurricane Frances on September 5th, 2004 (that was actually insane lol).
Considering my life experiences up to joining the electrical trade, I guess it’s not so strange I ended up in a career that is “unavoidably unsafe” and known to carry great risk lol. Someone has to do those jobs, and my mindset helps qualify me for the work. I’ve had to don protective suits that are colloquially known as “body bags” to perform essential tasks for industrial plant facilities’ operations; been lifted ~350 feet high in a crane basket to repair an airplane light on a structure (when everyone else flat out refused); climbed 170+ feet up on fixed structural ladders to run electrical circuits on refinery vessels (another thing it turns out most people will refuse to do lol).
I feel like being a business owner is probably the biggest risk I have taken so far, though (which is saying a lot considering I’ve had two pregnancies in the US). I’ve literally got my whole life wrapped up in this, so I stand to lose a lot should we fail; obviously, that could have profoundly negative consequences for my ability to provide for my kids. But I’ve also got other people’s livelihoods depending on my ability to perform my job adequately. That’s not to say they 100% rely on us, but I don’t want to be a reason to disrupt someone’s finances. Looking at small business statistics, I know the odds are not in our favor, BUT I fully believe we are bringing something desperately needed to the industry, and that’s worth taking the risk. I’ve watched safety and craftsmanship going down the drain over the past couple of decades, and I know Energy Solutions Group has a solid chance to help correct that trend. Not only that, going over budget and falling behind schedule is now the norm in the construction industry; but we don’t have that as part of our performance record. We have a lot of value to bring to the industry. I read a quote once that I always keep in mind: “risk may lead to failure, but success can not come without it”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ensolgroup.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61562235793389
