May 2, 2025 • 42 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good afternoon, Southeast Texas. Welcome to the Roy West Radio Show.
I am April Tolbert honored to be the guest host
today for the Roy West Show on AM five sixty
KLVI and streaming on the podcast on iHeartMedia and on
that app you can go to, actually, you can go
to KLVII dot com. You can look for the podcast
(00:25):
section and you will find not only this episode, but
all episodes of the Roy West Show.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And this show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Always provides such amazing information. Anybody that says Beaumont is
boring obviously doesn't know Beaumont very well, because there are
so many things that go on in Beaumont and the
surrounding areas. Southeast Texas is full of the exciting things
to do. There are events going on, there are great
(00:55):
places to eat, play. So we are so glad to
have you, and we have an amazing lineup of guests
today that we're going to talk to, including my very
first guest, which is Sally Bruceard. Sally, thank you for
being with us today.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Thank you, April. I'm so glad to be with you.
This is such a great show and I'm really looking
forward to having a conversation with you.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, we are honored to have you. We you and
I go way back. We've served in different positions together,
and I have seen you through the years and I
respect so much the work that you have done, not
only in your forty two years in the mental health field.
I know you worked at Spindle Top you retired from
(01:39):
Baptist a couple of years ago. I remember you giving
us a tour of the behavioral health unit they're part
of Baptist on Fannin, and so talk to us a
little bit about you and how you got involved, because
today you are actually representing MJ Mental Health America. So
talk to us about that organization.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Sure, well, as you say, I work forty two years
in the mental health field in various capacities, and I'm
very passionate about bringing resources to our community to help
provide services for people who are having mental health struggles
and spent many years of my life doing that. And
now I'm very honored to be part of the MHA
(02:23):
Mental Health America Board and our mission and our goal
is to help educate the community and provide resources and
let people know what's out there for mental health resources
in our community. So I'm very excited. We're planning our
upcoming luncheon, which is going to be next week, and
(02:44):
we're really excited to not only raise awareness because people
have become more aware about mental health and mental health issues,
but we want to turn that awareness into action so
that there are actually things happening in our community, and
there are great things happening in our community, and our
life is going to honor some people that are really
at the forefront of that. So we're really really excited.
(03:05):
Our organization is the Mental Health America is really kind
of a hub that helps bring people together that provide
mental health services in the community and make sure that
we are connecting people where they need to be.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So the mental Health Matters. Luncheon, y'all, you guys do
this every year. You have honorees. You are bringing awareness
to mental health and you are you. I love the
slogan turning awareness into action. Yes, And so tell us
a little bit about the luncheon. It's actually happening this
(03:41):
coming Tuesday, Mason coming, It's.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Happening on Tuesday. We've already had such a great response.
We're going to have a wonderful attendance and some amazing
people that were honoring. It was kind of hard for
us to pick just for people to honor that have
really done some important things in our community. But we
have four honorees, and we also have a fabulous keynote
(04:04):
speaker and I'll tell you about her in just a second.
But our honorees we picked people, like you said, we
wanted to recognize people that are really turning awareness into
action in our community. The first person that we're going
to honor is Holly Burrell, and she is the CEO
of Spintle Top Center. She's a local, born and raised
Southeast Texan. She went off for a while and worked
(04:27):
in other areas, but she was brought back to Southeast
Texas to be the CEO, and she has just is
an amazing business mind, but also a real passion for
working with people who have mental health struggles. She herself
is very honest about her own mental health issues and
(04:48):
so she brings that personal story, which is always even
better when somebody has lived experience that they can bring
to their role, and she has provided. She has just
created some very innovative and new programs at spent On
Top Centers. So we're going to be honoring her also,
we're going to be honoring doctor Gillespie, and he is
(05:09):
a psychiatrist at Baptist Behavioral Health Center. He is just amazing.
He's the most compassionate and caring individual. And Baptists realized
several years ago that there's a huge shortage of psychiatrists
in our area. If you were to call for a psychiatrist,
even if you had all the money in the world,
it would sometimes be months and months before you could
get a new patient appointment, even if new patients were
(05:30):
being accepted. So Baptists recognize that there's a real deficit
in providers of psychiatric services, and so they worked really
hard and have gotten approval and now have an ongoing
psychiatric residency program at Baptist Hospital where psychiatrists from all
over the world come and stay at Baptist, stay in
(05:53):
Beaumont and do their four year residency locally, and doctor
Gillespie is on the faculty of that, training new psychiatrists
and getting people really involved in the psychiatric field and
training them and then hopefully some of them will want
to stay in Beaumont once they come here and do
their residency here, and then that's kind of a way
(06:14):
for us to increase the supply and the availability of
psychiatrists for our region, which, as we all know, it's
really an issue everywhere, not just here, but Batist has
really addressed that. And then the next person that we're
going to honor is Bishop Guilry, And even though he
is retired, he really really has a passion for people
(06:37):
who are dealing with mental health issues. His whole career
he wanted to make sure that people not just in
his own dioceses, but also in the region had available
and had access to mental health services. He really has
studied and done research on mental health issues, particularly among
our youth, and he's very passionate about it, so we
(06:59):
wanted to honor him. And then the last person that
we're going to honor is Sheriff Zena Stevens. And I
can tell you when I worked at Spintle Talk, she
was always at the forefront of trying to come up
with things that could happen in our local community. Because
April our jails are the biggest mental health facilities we have.
(07:19):
People end up in jail because they have subs abuse
or mental health issues. A lot of times that's the
reason the first people that we call when we have
an emergency with a family member is nine to one
one and the police get involved, and so they are
often the first responders to a mental health crisis, and
she has always seen that this is an issue. She
(07:42):
was the very first person to create a mental health
deputy program where a mental health deputy in her department
gets specialized training and dealing with mental health crises, rides
out with a mental health professional and they act as
a team. They go to where the person is in crisis,
and their goal is to try to divert them from
(08:02):
having to go to jail, try to get them an
appointment if they need it, try to get them resources
if they needed, get their medicine field if that's what's
a problem, all of those things, to try to divert
people from the criminal justice system so that they get
the treatment they need and don't take up a bed
that might be needed for somebody that really is a
serious criminal. So she's always been very active. She is
(08:23):
has recently created a new jail diversion program, so it's
going to be separate from the jail, where people are
identified in the criminal justice system as having a mental
health issue will be handled separately. Get separate services and
get the treatment that they need rather than just sitting
in the jail population and not really moving forward and
(08:45):
getting better. So she has really been innovative and we
really wanted to honor her for the work that she
has done to provide services for people in our community.
And she's a great one.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
It's beautiful that you are honoring these four individuals that
have done so much to bring awareness and change. Yes,
the mental health stigma, yes, I know that is that
is huge.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Stigma is such a huge thing, and we want everybody
to be able to talk about a mental illness just
the same way that you would talk about cancer or
diabetes or any other physical ailment. We are all connected
with our brain and our body and there should be
no shame. There should be no stigma attached to seeking help.
(09:34):
And we have made some strides in that recently, and
I think that people are more comfortable as a result.
We are seeing more people getting diagnosed and getting treatment,
and that's great, and we just want to make sure
that that action continues so that we have the resources
that are available to help people that have an identified issue.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Well, we appreciate you so much. We appreciate the board
of Directors of Mental Health America here in Southeast Texas.
There are so many of you that are giving of
your time and your talents and your resources to make
this happen for those of us who live, work, play,
and raise families here. So we're so grateful. I want
(10:15):
to definitely do a shout out to Kim Feelin and
Regina Rogers for chairing this event. Those two amazing women
that have done so much for this day.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
They have spearheaded our committee and they have just been
remarkable and made sure that this event is going to
be something that people talk about all year. I just
want to very quickly mention that we do have a
keynote speaker who is the public affairs director for the
entire organization of AGB, and she has an amazing personal
story that she's going to be talking about where she
got a very chilling text message from her teenage son
(10:47):
one day, completely out of the blue, and how she
has tackled a mental health crisis in her own family
and she brings that to her work, and she brings
that to a community, and she's just remarkable. Her name
is Lisa Helfman.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh I cannot wait to hear that this event for
this year actually, which is this coming Tuesday, May sixth,
is a sold out event, so unfortunately, you know, you
won't be able to just get a last minute ticket
for this event, but you can get more information, you
can get involved with MHA and you can make sure
that you don't miss the next event by reaching out
(11:22):
to MHHA directly here in Southeast Texas. How would they
go about getting more information and getting you know, involved.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Absolutely, we would love for people to reach out to us.
Our phone number is four O nine five five zero
zero one three four and our website is probably the
best way to get all the current information, and that's www.
Mh A Mental Health America s E t X dot org.
And we welcome everybody to come join us.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Sally, we appreciate you being with us today and thank
you for all you do.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Thank you so much for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
April, we'll be right back on the Roy West Radio Show.
Welcome back to the Roy West Radio Show. I'm April
Tolbert filling in for Roy West today with an excellent
lineup of guests, all kinds of great things happening here
in Southeast Texas, and we're going to talk about it
some more in the next couple of segments. Right now,
(12:18):
we're going to kind of continue on the same lines here.
I have my dear precious friend Emily Ross here, and
we were talking in the last segment with Sally Brusard
and the Mental Health America Southeast Texas there luncheon that's
coming up on Tuesday and those that they are honoring,
and we're going to keep it along the mental health
(12:39):
line here with Emily because that's what her real job
is and her day job she has a lot of
give backs to in a lot of ways that she
volunteers and gives back to the community. Welcome Emily, and
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Oh thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, let's start with who is Emily Ross? What is
it that you do here in Southeast Texas?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Number one?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And let's talk about some of those resources that are
available and some of the stigmas around surrounding mental health
here everywhere, but here in Southeast Texas specifically.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Sure, I think you say, I wear a lot of
different hats, but the thing that all of them have
in common is that my passion for mental health awareness
and really destigmatizing mental health struggles because we all have them,
and so everything I do is really related to that.
So right now I'm the clinical intern coordinator at s
(13:40):
Mental Chop Center. It's a great job. We're trying to
reinforce the frontlines of mental health workers, partnering with LAMAR
and other universities to help train up the next generation
of mental health providers for our community. I do that.
I have a small private practice on the side, and
I do a lot of mental health health advocacy. I
(14:02):
am on a board for the Out of the Darkness Walk.
Everything I really do is really fueled by that and
a community connection because I really feel that connecting to
our community is how the entire all of the individuals
within it stay healthy. And so even my social media
is just it's mental health content. It's a safe place
to say I'm struggling and ask for help and things
(14:25):
like that.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So how do people find you on social media?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Because I think it's important to tell people that they
should follow you there if they want more information, they
just want support. Right to follow Emily Ross because I do.
I know, I get so much out of the things
that you post. I think, I mean your private subscriber
group as well, and get so much out of that
(14:52):
tell us how we find you on social media.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So there's two Emily Ross's around here. One's a real turn,
one's an LPC. So you just Emily Ross LPC. You'll
see me and you just hit the follow button and
all the content of public so you can see it.
So Mental Health Awareness Month is in May, and I'll
be talking a lot about that, but I tend to
it's it's follower driven. So if there's a particular question
(15:15):
you have, even if you don't feel like comfortable posting
it or commenting, you can respond privately and say, hey,
I want to learn more about depression, or I have
a family member that's struggling with addiction and I can
post about that. I can I can do some education
around that.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
And education is what it's all about. And you have
provided me personally education. I see what you're putting out
there for others as well, and it's it's inspirational, but
it's much needed. What are some of the tools that
we may have here in Southeast Texas for people to
be able to use in this avenue and in the
(15:53):
mental health realm that we may not be aware of.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Oh, I think there's so many there. There's a nationwide
shortage of providers and that's really due to baby boomers.
There's more of them than there is of us, and
so it's going to be like that for a little
a little bit. But we have a lot of resources
in Southeast Texas and a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Who want to help.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
I'm president of the Southeast Texas Chapter of the TCA,
and there are there providers everywhere. We're working hard to
consolidate a list so that people can go to one
place to look. There's so there's crisis resources. If you're
having a crisis and you don't know what to do,
if you're feeling suicidal thoughts, or if a family member
(16:36):
is struggling with suicide, you call eight hundred nine three
seven eight oho nine seven and they collect, they connect
you at somebody here and they will go out to
your home or to your office. If it's a coworker
who's struggling, right then they they'll come out and talk
and talk with you. We have Spittletop Center has a
lot of resources for substance use and for mental health,
(16:59):
and I mean there's really just a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And I think that you know personal experience here as
well as you know just missing with other people. We
believe that the resources are out there, but how to
find them and how to find them at that time
when you need them, especially in that crisis situation. So
that eight hundred number again, give that to us. It's
(17:26):
eight hundred nine three seven eighth nine seven, and that
is someone in crisis.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
That is that is quite hot number. It's open twenty
four hours. You can also call nine eight eight that
they they're likely to connect you to the same number.
But it can be really daunting when you don't know
what to do when somebody's mental health is somebody who
you care about us having mental health struggles because we
(17:55):
often wait until it's in that kind of crisis mode,
even if it's not suicidal ideation, it might be so
anxious that you just don't know what to do. So
then it becomes harder to connect to services because we
get stuck in that. And so it's good to it.
It's good to know somebody who knows what to do.
You can ask me. I hope I don't have too
(18:18):
much to know. I honestly don't mind. I really feel
like it's it takes away a lot of the stigma
and a lot of the fear. If you just know
what's gonna happen next, you know, I could even I
will just make a video about that. What happens when
you when you're feeling suicidal and you need to connect
to services because that might that might help somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
That's a good idea, that's right, and usually there are
there are signs and things to look for ahead of
that point too. So just getting services. One of the
things that we talk a lot about are the shortage
of providers, which you mentioned, and so I know that
this spindle Center is a good resource. So if you've
(19:02):
got someone who maybe they're not in crisis, but you
know that they need to reach out, how would someone
get in contact with the Spindletop Center to get directed
to services.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
So our website is really comprehensive. So if you go
on our website you can see it depends on where
you live geographically. But let's say somebody in Beaumont proper
needs services. They come to our building a at eight
o'clock in the morning and we will work them in.
And so they need to bring some information. You have
(19:33):
to bring proof of residency, your ID, your Social Security card,
you want to bring proof of income, if you have
any your insurance information, if you have any, because we
do see people who have returns, and be prepared to wait.
It's a long process, and if you're not prepared for
it to take a long time, that can be discouraging.
So bring a snack, have something to do, bring a book,
(19:56):
you know, have somebody with you to support you, and
just know it's going to take a while. But my
best advice is to not wait until it gets to that.
I have to be seen today. Point try to notice
the signs ahead of time. I call them tells, right,
What are your tells when when you start to not
enjoy things that you used to enjoy, when your appetite
changes either way more or less, if if people notice
(20:20):
that you're irritable or maybe more quiet, any big change
in behavior, or if you're going through something hard in life,
you don't have to wait until it changes your behavior
to get help. You are worthy of having somebody to
just process it with. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And what is that website to get information resources from
spindle talk?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You can? You can?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I know you can google spend Center Beaumont, Texas and
it will bring you a link to that website. I
have personally done that before when looking for resources. So
Spindle Talk Center, Beaumont.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Text, Spindletopcenter dot org, Spindletopcenter dot org.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And Emily, you do such.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
A great job of balancing and what are some of
the resources that you use to be able to keep
yourself in check and imbalance?
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Oh, Women of Influenced is probably, excuse me, my go
to place to get my own cup filled. It's a
lot of amazing women. We meet the second Friday of
the month at thirty eight ten North Major Drive. That's
where the Pumpkin patches. We meet in the parlor of
the church. And that is a place it's not like
(21:34):
a networking meeting, although we do sometimes network. It is
a place where women come together and just build each
other up from the inside out. And I always leave
feeling nourished and supported and uplifted. And even that Facebook group,
we have a Facebook group for women of Influence as well.
It's constantly just pouring into us, pouring into us, and
(21:54):
so when I'm depleted, that's where I go to recharge.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Thank you so much for being with us, Women of Influence.
And that meeting is again on which Friday of the.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Month, the second Friday of each month. It's nine.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
At the Wesley Church on Major Drive, so check that out.
We'll be right back on the Roy West Radio Show
on AM five sixty KLVI. And we're back on the
Roy West Radio Show on AM five sixty klv I
and streaming on the iHeartMedia podcast. Thank you for joining
(22:28):
us today. We have a great lineup of guests and
this segment I have the honor of hosting Craig Eskimelia. Hi, Craig,
thank you for joining us.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I'm glad to be here. Thank you you over selling,
but thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh I haven't even started selling yet, sir. Because people
are thinking Craig Eskamelia.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Why does that name sound so familiar to me?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Well, I'm going to tell you number one if I
follow Craig on Facebook and Greig and I serve together
in several capacities, both with the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.
Is our primary there as he is the chair of
the Board of Directors of the Beaumont Chamber. But we
(23:13):
come together in the business world a lot. And I
wanted to have Craig on today because Craig is such
an inspiration to me. Personally as a business owner, as
a leader in my industry and in my business. Whether
you own a business, whether you are just in a
leadership position in a business, it's important to surround yourself
(23:36):
with people who lift you up, and Craig, you are
one of those people for me. And I want to,
just before we get started, tell everyone if you have not,
if you don't follow Craig on Facebook, please do do
yourself a favor when you wake up in the morning,
because he obviously wakes up very early because he posts
(23:56):
very early in the morning. So whenever I wake up,
one of the first things I get to see is
Craig's inspiration for the day. And I want everyone to
have that same opportunity because it will definitely be life
changing for you. Craig, tell us who you are, what
you do, who is THEAE Solutions, and who is Craig Escamila.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Sure. Well, I'm a Bama native and have lived here
my whole life except for a very brief stint when
I was about five years old, and we got back
here as fast as we could, and so you know,
I went to Lamar University, have a music degree, and
I was the executive director of the Symphony of Southeast
Texas for many years and worked on a master's in
(24:37):
business at Lamar also and then had the great opportunity
to teach in the College of Business there in both
part time and full time capacities for a total of
about eleven years. And all through that time I had
the great honor of serving kind of on the side
a number of different organizations, both in volunteer and paid
roles as a consultant. And so about five years ago
(25:00):
I kind of got the bug, maybe during the COVID
existential crisis that we all went through, that it might
be time for me to try my hand at doing
this full time. And it's been a whirlwind and a
huge blessing and just I've never looked back. So for
about five years, I've been doing consulting work full time.
I work with business owners primarily, and we work on
(25:22):
I have a client who says I'm like a personal
trainer for businesses, and that's a pretty good description of
exactly what we do. So it's kind of clarifying vision
and goals, develop a plan, and then work that plan
and you know, coach you with some tough love some days,
or you know, help you navigate some challenges on others.
And just to clarify the three tricks to the early
(25:44):
social media posts or one, write them ahead of time
to make sure they look good the night before, and
three just wake up and copy and paste first thing
that morning and then go about your day. Primetime engagement
is when most people wake up and roll over and
start scrolling, right, So just try to try to play
the algorithm a little bit.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
So again, and I tell you you were going to
learn something from Craig, and we're two minutes into this
segment and he's already taught us something. So what tell
us a little bit about what you see? What do
you see with people like myself and others who are
in business who lead others who have to be the
(26:24):
cheerleaders in their business. Tell us what you see commonly
and what's some advice that you'd be willing to share
with us?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, of course. Well, I think it's really important to
be clear on mission vision and goals and core values
as well. So what is your why? What is your
purpose at a mission level? What is the vision for
who or what you want to be or what you're
trying to build? And I really spend a lot of
time with clients on getting that really crystal clear. There's
(26:54):
tremendous research and data that backs up the importance and
neuroscience of christ clear vision and how the brain translates
that into action to make that vision of reality. Our
brains are continuous improvement machines, and so if you give
them a vision of a desired reality that does not
match the current reality, once you plant that seed, your
(27:16):
brain is trying to remove all of the things that
do not match that desired reality picture until it becomes true.
So I spend a lot of time on vision and
getting it really clear, and then kind of break that
down into some more specific or actionable goals, and along
the way, you know kind of that core of who
you are, what are the principles that drive you, how
(27:37):
do you play, how do you expect people to make decisions.
I think when all of those things are really clear,
it's very easy to communicate them to the people around you,
whether those are internal or external customers, internal meeting your team,
external of course obviously meeting the people that pay you
or hire you. And also I think that it becomes
really helpful in the hiring or selection process when you
(28:00):
can communicate with a lot of clarity to prospective team
members or to perspective customers, who you are, what you do,
why you do it, where you're trying to go. People
can then use their decision making power to decide whether
they're going to buy into that or not. And when
they self select in, you get a whole lot better
(28:21):
relationship than when they're sort of cajoled or persuaded or
forced into it. So I think that clarity of those
fifty thousand foot things is really one of the single
most important things that you can do. And some people
everybody has it. It's a matter of the degree to
which you need to pull it out, get it clear,
and get it documented. And so that's a lot of
(28:43):
what I spend time on. And then it's just kind
of guiding people through, Okay, how do we make this happen,
how do we make this a reality? How do we
stay on course? There's another thing, right, none of us
have ever had the experience of deviating from our plans.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Right. I was going to say that about resets. Right
in my world, I call them resets.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Sure, And every once in a while you have these
times where you have to do a reset, recheck yourself
re look at your goals, your priorities, how you're implementing,
where it's working, what's not working. What are some of
the advice that you give give your clients in that area.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Well, I think what you're saying is absolutely true. I mean,
the world changes around us all the time, right, So
go back five years. The world changed pretty suddenly. I
don't care what your plans were at the beginning of
twenty twenty. They were mostly irrelevant unless you were planning
to find some way to respond to a global pandemic.
Your plans were out the window by about April of
twenty twenty, right, So I did pick April on purpose,
(29:44):
by the way, thank you there. So you know, it
really is important to revisit those frequently. But there are
different demarcation points where we need to revisit them. Economy changes,
elected officials change, whether that's you know, at any level,
you know, from local to federal, and all of those
things drive certain business decisions. What I like to kind
(30:07):
of communicate to my clients is the value of a
to do list. The value of an organizational plan is
not checking all the boxes, it's not completing everything on
the list, it's actually having that decision criteria that you
can evaluate new opportunities against, because you know, one of
the worst things you can do is have a great
new opportunity come along and you don't jump on it
(30:29):
because it's not on my plan, And that's silly. You
want the plan as some type of criteria so that
you can say, hey, does this match, does it not match?
Should we deviate from the plan or should we ignore
this opportunity? So that, I think is the real value
and some of the most important things we talk about.
But the other two things I would say that that
are real common themes a lot are being willing to
(30:53):
deviate from the plan and being able to sort of
throw the plan out the window for new opportunities. But
the flip side of that is also being able to
say no. We're having the courage to say no to
really good opportunities, because once you get to a certain level,
it's more the difference between good and great, not bad
and good, and you have to say no to good
(31:14):
things to do great things. And then the other quick thing,
you know, I know we're running a long time here,
real quick, but is that I think it's really important
that people constantly reevaluate raising your prices, most of us
could charge a lot more, and the person looking back
at us in the mirror is the one that is
really holding us back there.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Mmm, well, you definitely are transitioning us into our next
segment because when we talk about time management, right and
where we give our time, I really want to talk
about community involvement and how important being involved in the community,
giving back to the community that we serve is. That's
something that you and I both both do, we both
(31:56):
believe in, and I want to talk to you about
pecifically the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and some of
the wonderful things that the Chamber does and some of
the events and things that are going on with the chamber.
So we'll be right back in the next segment with
Craig Escimelia right after this on the Roy West Radio
Show a M five sixty klv I. And we're back
(32:20):
on the Roy West Radio Show on AM five sixty
klv I Am April Tolbert proud to be the guest
host this week in Roy's place in his absence, and
in this segment, we're going to continue with Craig Escamelia.
He is with CAE Solutions, So We talked a little
bit in the last segment about what he does in
his real job, but right now I want to talk
(32:42):
a little bit about giving back to the community. How
important it is as a leader in the community, as
a leader in your business, or if you just love
Beaumont the way Craig and I love Beaumont, how do
we move back and how do we make our community better.
I know that you are super passionate about the Greater
(33:03):
Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and the things that are going
on there. Thank you for your service as our leader
of the chair of the board this year.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Tell us a little bit about.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
What you are involved in and a few of the
chamber programs that are going on and how people can
get involved there.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Craig, sure, so you know personally, just real quick. I
mentioned in the last segment that I was the executive
director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas. That was at
the beginning of my career. I worked there for about
eight years and we had a phenomenal board of directors
at that time, some just powerhouses in our community, you know,
many of whom have retired or moved or things like that.
(33:39):
But you know that the impact of philanthropic minded, people
of service oriented, people of just great leaders in our community.
Really made or on me was significant at a very
young and starting, you know, starting point age in my career.
So it's been important to me to be involved in
efforts and activities about that all related to that all along.
(34:02):
I've been involved with the Rotary Club of Elmont for
a long time, also with Friends of Arts, Friends of
the Arts of Lamar University being in alum there and
but probably for about the last seven or eight years,
have been pretty heavily involved with the Chamber of Commerce.
And I see the Chamber as just the vehicle and
mechanism to support businesses in our community and business growth.
(34:26):
You know, obviously as a service provider to businesses and
someone who's hometown this is it's important to me that
we have a thriving business community and that there are
places for businesses to get data, to participate in networking activities,
to learn what's going on in their community and how
those decisions and economic choices, et cetera impact their businesses
(34:47):
and try to get ahead and do a little proactive
planning on some of those things. And so that's why
you know, I've been so passionate about my involvement with
the Chamber, and so, you know, we've done a lot
of work this year the Chamber. We've we've hired a
new CEO. We've really you know, tried to put the
organization on a positive trajectory forward for the future. And
(35:09):
I'm really proud of the work we've done. I believe
in continuous improvement in general. So I'm certain there's still
things we can continue to do and do better, but
I really am am passionate about this organization. Believe it's
moving in a great direction. So, you know, the Chamber
kind of has really broadly two sets of programs. It
has leadership programs for you know, for younger people and
(35:30):
also for more seasoned professionals. It's called them matt and
those include things like Leadership, Beaumont Junior Leadership. We have
an event going on today which is Lemonade Day, where
you know, young entrepreneurs have lemonade stands around the city
and in fact, many of them are probably still open now,
so you can check the chamber website to see where
you can go. And so we have kind of that
(35:53):
broad category of activities and then kind of you know,
more on the traditional Chamber of Commerce side, we have
you know, various membership luncheons where we hear things like
State of the County, we hear from our state or
federal legislative legislators. We have, you know, various networking activities.
Of course, all the traditional ribbon cuttings for new members
and new member businesses in the community. And you know,
(36:17):
of course a handful of fundraiser events as well, and
so you know some of the things that are kind
of on the horizon for the Chamber that we have
a you know, annual Chamber golf tournament coming up on
May twelfth, that's a Monday. That'll be out at the
Beaumont Country Club all day and I'm pretty sure they
probably still welcome teams. I know it's already a pretty
packed and should be a busy day. One of the
(36:38):
things that we have coming up, and I mentioned kind
of as far as luncheons, is on June third, that's
a Tuesday, we'll have our State of the County luncheon.
So Angel San Juan will be with us to do
a fireside chat with Judge Brannick. Of course, everyone always
enjoys hearing from Judge Brannick. He's like an encyclopedia of
local knowledge and always entertaining. So that should be fun
(37:00):
to see what the latest for the county is. We've
had the pleasure this year of pursuing some new activities
as it relates to female entrepreneurs and supporting those female
business owners or startups in our community. April has been
instrumental in leading those efforts and thank you for that.
So our Women Entrepreneur Network will have a luncheon actually
(37:23):
it's a kind of a half day event coming up
on June seventeenth. That event will include is primarily around
health and wellness, but workplace health and wellness, not so
much personal though certainly there's impacts of that in workplace wellness.
So there will be some breakout sessions and various things
throughout the morning, kind of culminating in a luncheon. And
(37:46):
then you know, we have fun every once in a while,
and so at the end of June, on June twenty seventh,
we have a Casino Night fundraiser. That's usually a fun event.
You know, if you're a casino night person, you don't
have to drive to Late Charles. You can come hang
out with us of course you don't win any actual
real money, but there are other prizes and things that
you could take away.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
No, but it is so much fun.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
It is definitely is definitely a fun nine out for sure.
And all of this information you can get if you
want to participate in any of these events at bmtcoc
dot org.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
That is the chamber website. I wanted to make sure
we mention.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
That absolutely, and the other thing I was going to say,
that's just kind of exciting. You'll just have to keep
an eye out for this is around May fourteenth, we'll
be announcing who our Spindletop Award recipient will be for
twenty twenty five. So that's the biggest award that the
Chamber gives every year to a business for its impact
in the community. Last year, Del Papa was the recipient
(38:40):
of that, and so we give that at our annual meeting,
which will be in October, but we'll make the announcement
and share who the recipient is this year. I'm personally
very excited about this, not because of any close personal
connection to this business, but because of the story behind it.
And you'll just have to keep an eye out for
the press release and announcement where we'll share a little
more information of who that is and why one of
(39:04):
the really cool reasons why they were chosen. We'll also
continue with the second year of honoring a Man of
the Year and Woman of the Year at the annual
meeting in October and will share who those are at
that same time. So another week or so and we'll
have some really cool announcements about some businesses and business
leaders that we'll be honoring this year.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Again, thank you for giving back so much of your
time to all of the organizations that you serve, and
definitely the Greater Wilmot Chamber of Commerce. I don't think
that most people realize what all the Chamber does. Supporting
business means more than just supporting the people who own
the business, from economic development and helping to scout businesses
(39:48):
to relocate to this area and providing the support to
businesses as well when they're here. Because business drives a community.
Business is the backbone of a community, and we would
love for you to be involved no matter what level
you are in your business, we'd love for you to
(40:09):
be involved in some way former fashion with the Greater
Belmont Chamber of Commerce. So you can find all those
activities Craig just talked about at BMTCOC dot org or
call the Chamber at eight three eight sixty five eight one,
four oh nine eight three eight sixty five eight one.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Craig, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
Thank you, April, a pleasure to be here. Thank you everyone.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
We'll be right back after this. We're back on the
Roy West Radio Show. I'm April Tolberg filling in for
Roy today. It has been such an honor to sit
in this chair, and this show airs every Sunday at
noon on AM five sixty KLVI. You can also catch
(40:52):
the podcast. You can go to iHeartMedia on the app
and find the Roywest Radio Show, or go to KLVI
dot com look at the podcast section and find this
show or any other episodes of the Roy West Radio Show.
I want to thank our guests for being here today,
Sally Brusard, Emily Ross, and Craig Escimilia. They provided some
(41:15):
excellent information, great tools and resources, and all also talked
about some of the events that are coming up. So
there's always something going on in Southeast Texas, always something
fun to do in Beaumont, so follow those guys on Facebook.
You definitely will get something out of that for sure.
(41:36):
I also want to send a shout out to the
team at Roy West Home Loans Guild Mortgage. If you
are in need of a mortgage, you're looking to refinance,
you're looking to purchase a home, you need the right
people on your team, and Guild Mortgage. The team at
Roy West Home Loans. They are local, they are the best.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I have used them.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Personally, and you need those people on your team, the
people who are gonna fight for you. They're gonna answer
questions for you and be there for you through every
step of the process. So choose the team at Guild
Mortgage roy West Home Loans. You can reach them at
their office here in Beaumont at four O nine eight
sixty six one nine zero one four O nine eight
(42:19):
sixty six nineteen oh one, or find them on Facebook,
roywestteam dot com.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Again, I'm April Toolbert. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Tune in next Sunday at noon for the Roy West
Radio Show here on Am five sixty KLBI. Have a
great rest of your day.
Good afternoon, Southeast Texas. Welcome to the Roy West Radio Show.
I am April Tolbert honored to be the guest host
today for the Roy West Show on AM five sixty
KLVI and streaming on the podcast on iHeartMedia and on
that app you can go to, actually, you can go
to KLVII dot com. You can look for the podcast
(00:25):
section and you will find not only this episode, but
all episodes of the Roy West Show.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And this show.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Always provides such amazing information. Anybody that says Beaumont is
boring obviously doesn't know Beaumont very well, because there are
so many things that go on in Beaumont and the
surrounding areas. Southeast Texas is full of the exciting things
to do. There are events going on, there are great
(00:55):
places to eat, play. So we are so glad to
have you, and we have an amazing lineup of guests
today that we're going to talk to, including my very
first guest, which is Sally Bruceard. Sally, thank you for
being with us today.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Thank you, April. I'm so glad to be with you.
This is such a great show and I'm really looking
forward to having a conversation with you.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, we are honored to have you. We you and
I go way back. We've served in different positions together,
and I have seen you through the years and I
respect so much the work that you have done, not
only in your forty two years in the mental health field.
I know you worked at Spindle Top you retired from
(01:39):
Baptist a couple of years ago. I remember you giving
us a tour of the behavioral health unit they're part
of Baptist on Fannin, and so talk to us a
little bit about you and how you got involved, because
today you are actually representing MJ Mental Health America. So
talk to us about that organization.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Sure, well, as you say, I work forty two years
in the mental health field in various capacities, and I'm
very passionate about bringing resources to our community to help
provide services for people who are having mental health struggles
and spent many years of my life doing that. And
now I'm very honored to be part of the MHA
(02:23):
Mental Health America Board and our mission and our goal
is to help educate the community and provide resources and
let people know what's out there for mental health resources
in our community. So I'm very excited. We're planning our
upcoming luncheon, which is going to be next week, and
(02:44):
we're really excited to not only raise awareness because people
have become more aware about mental health and mental health issues,
but we want to turn that awareness into action so
that there are actually things happening in our community, and
there are great things happening in our community, and our
life is going to honor some people that are really
at the forefront of that. So we're really really excited.
(03:05):
Our organization is the Mental Health America is really kind
of a hub that helps bring people together that provide
mental health services in the community and make sure that
we are connecting people where they need to be.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
So the mental Health Matters. Luncheon, y'all, you guys do
this every year. You have honorees. You are bringing awareness
to mental health and you are you. I love the
slogan turning awareness into action. Yes, And so tell us
a little bit about the luncheon. It's actually happening this
(03:41):
coming Tuesday, Mason coming, It's.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Happening on Tuesday. We've already had such a great response.
We're going to have a wonderful attendance and some amazing
people that were honoring. It was kind of hard for
us to pick just for people to honor that have
really done some important things in our community. But we
have four honorees, and we also have a fabulous keynote
(04:04):
speaker and I'll tell you about her in just a second.
But our honorees we picked people, like you said, we
wanted to recognize people that are really turning awareness into
action in our community. The first person that we're going
to honor is Holly Burrell, and she is the CEO
of Spintle Top Center. She's a local, born and raised
Southeast Texan. She went off for a while and worked
(04:27):
in other areas, but she was brought back to Southeast
Texas to be the CEO, and she has just is
an amazing business mind, but also a real passion for
working with people who have mental health struggles. She herself
is very honest about her own mental health issues and
(04:48):
so she brings that personal story, which is always even
better when somebody has lived experience that they can bring
to their role, and she has provided. She has just
created some very innovative and new programs at spent On
Top Centers. So we're going to be honoring her also,
we're going to be honoring doctor Gillespie, and he is
(05:09):
a psychiatrist at Baptist Behavioral Health Center. He is just amazing.
He's the most compassionate and caring individual. And Baptists realized
several years ago that there's a huge shortage of psychiatrists
in our area. If you were to call for a psychiatrist,
even if you had all the money in the world,
it would sometimes be months and months before you could
get a new patient appointment, even if new patients were
(05:30):
being accepted. So Baptists recognize that there's a real deficit
in providers of psychiatric services, and so they worked really
hard and have gotten approval and now have an ongoing
psychiatric residency program at Baptist Hospital where psychiatrists from all
over the world come and stay at Baptist, stay in
(05:53):
Beaumont and do their four year residency locally, and doctor
Gillespie is on the faculty of that, training new psychiatrists
and getting people really involved in the psychiatric field and
training them and then hopefully some of them will want
to stay in Beaumont once they come here and do
their residency here, and then that's kind of a way
(06:14):
for us to increase the supply and the availability of
psychiatrists for our region, which, as we all know, it's
really an issue everywhere, not just here, but Batist has
really addressed that. And then the next person that we're
going to honor is Bishop Guilry, And even though he
is retired, he really really has a passion for people
(06:37):
who are dealing with mental health issues. His whole career
he wanted to make sure that people not just in
his own dioceses, but also in the region had available
and had access to mental health services. He really has
studied and done research on mental health issues, particularly among
our youth, and he's very passionate about it, so we
(06:59):
wanted to honor him. And then the last person that
we're going to honor is Sheriff Zena Stevens. And I
can tell you when I worked at Spintle Talk, she
was always at the forefront of trying to come up
with things that could happen in our local community. Because
April our jails are the biggest mental health facilities we have.
(07:19):
People end up in jail because they have subs abuse
or mental health issues. A lot of times that's the
reason the first people that we call when we have
an emergency with a family member is nine to one
one and the police get involved, and so they are
often the first responders to a mental health crisis, and
she has always seen that this is an issue. She
(07:42):
was the very first person to create a mental health
deputy program where a mental health deputy in her department
gets specialized training and dealing with mental health crises, rides
out with a mental health professional and they act as
a team. They go to where the person is in crisis,
and their goal is to try to divert them from
(08:02):
having to go to jail, try to get them an
appointment if they need it, try to get them resources
if they needed, get their medicine field if that's what's
a problem, all of those things, to try to divert
people from the criminal justice system so that they get
the treatment they need and don't take up a bed
that might be needed for somebody that really is a
serious criminal. So she's always been very active. She is
(08:23):
has recently created a new jail diversion program, so it's
going to be separate from the jail, where people are
identified in the criminal justice system as having a mental
health issue will be handled separately. Get separate services and
get the treatment that they need rather than just sitting
in the jail population and not really moving forward and
(08:45):
getting better. So she has really been innovative and we
really wanted to honor her for the work that she
has done to provide services for people in our community.
And she's a great one.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
It's beautiful that you are honoring these four individuals that
have done so much to bring awareness and change. Yes,
the mental health stigma, yes, I know that is that
is huge.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Stigma is such a huge thing, and we want everybody
to be able to talk about a mental illness just
the same way that you would talk about cancer or
diabetes or any other physical ailment. We are all connected
with our brain and our body and there should be
no shame. There should be no stigma attached to seeking help.
(09:34):
And we have made some strides in that recently, and
I think that people are more comfortable as a result.
We are seeing more people getting diagnosed and getting treatment,
and that's great, and we just want to make sure
that that action continues so that we have the resources
that are available to help people that have an identified issue.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Well, we appreciate you so much. We appreciate the board
of Directors of Mental Health America here in Southeast Texas.
There are so many of you that are giving of
your time and your talents and your resources to make
this happen for those of us who live, work, play,
and raise families here. So we're so grateful. I want
(10:15):
to definitely do a shout out to Kim Feelin and
Regina Rogers for chairing this event. Those two amazing women
that have done so much for this day.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
They have spearheaded our committee and they have just been
remarkable and made sure that this event is going to
be something that people talk about all year. I just
want to very quickly mention that we do have a
keynote speaker who is the public affairs director for the
entire organization of AGB, and she has an amazing personal
story that she's going to be talking about where she
got a very chilling text message from her teenage son
(10:47):
one day, completely out of the blue, and how she
has tackled a mental health crisis in her own family
and she brings that to her work, and she brings
that to a community, and she's just remarkable. Her name
is Lisa Helfman.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh I cannot wait to hear that this event for
this year actually, which is this coming Tuesday, May sixth,
is a sold out event, so unfortunately, you know, you
won't be able to just get a last minute ticket
for this event, but you can get more information, you
can get involved with MHA and you can make sure
that you don't miss the next event by reaching out
(11:22):
to MHHA directly here in Southeast Texas. How would they
go about getting more information and getting you know, involved.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Absolutely, we would love for people to reach out to us.
Our phone number is four O nine five five zero
zero one three four and our website is probably the
best way to get all the current information, and that's www.
Mh A Mental Health America s E t X dot org.
And we welcome everybody to come join us.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Sally, we appreciate you being with us today and thank
you for all you do.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Thank you so much for the invitation.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
April, we'll be right back on the Roy West Radio Show.
Welcome back to the Roy West Radio Show. I'm April
Tolbert filling in for Roy West today with an excellent
lineup of guests, all kinds of great things happening here
in Southeast Texas, and we're going to talk about it
some more in the next couple of segments. Right now,
(12:18):
we're going to kind of continue on the same lines here.
I have my dear precious friend Emily Ross here, and
we were talking in the last segment with Sally Brusard
and the Mental Health America Southeast Texas there luncheon that's
coming up on Tuesday and those that they are honoring,
and we're going to keep it along the mental health
(12:39):
line here with Emily because that's what her real job
is and her day job she has a lot of
give backs to in a lot of ways that she
volunteers and gives back to the community. Welcome Emily, and
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
Oh thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Well, let's start with who is Emily Ross? What is
it that you do here in Southeast Texas?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Number one?
Speaker 1 (13:06):
And let's talk about some of those resources that are
available and some of the stigmas around surrounding mental health
here everywhere, but here in Southeast Texas specifically.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Sure, I think you say, I wear a lot of
different hats, but the thing that all of them have
in common is that my passion for mental health awareness
and really destigmatizing mental health struggles because we all have them,
and so everything I do is really related to that.
So right now I'm the clinical intern coordinator at s
(13:40):
Mental Chop Center. It's a great job. We're trying to
reinforce the frontlines of mental health workers, partnering with LAMAR
and other universities to help train up the next generation
of mental health providers for our community. I do that.
I have a small private practice on the side, and
I do a lot of mental health health advocacy. I
(14:02):
am on a board for the Out of the Darkness Walk.
Everything I really do is really fueled by that and
a community connection because I really feel that connecting to
our community is how the entire all of the individuals
within it stay healthy. And so even my social media
is just it's mental health content. It's a safe place
to say I'm struggling and ask for help and things
(14:25):
like that.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So how do people find you on social media?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Because I think it's important to tell people that they
should follow you there if they want more information, they
just want support. Right to follow Emily Ross because I do.
I know, I get so much out of the things
that you post. I think, I mean your private subscriber
group as well, and get so much out of that
(14:52):
tell us how we find you on social media.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
So there's two Emily Ross's around here. One's a real turn,
one's an LPC. So you just Emily Ross LPC. You'll
see me and you just hit the follow button and
all the content of public so you can see it.
So Mental Health Awareness Month is in May, and I'll
be talking a lot about that, but I tend to
it's it's follower driven. So if there's a particular question
(15:15):
you have, even if you don't feel like comfortable posting
it or commenting, you can respond privately and say, hey,
I want to learn more about depression, or I have
a family member that's struggling with addiction and I can
post about that. I can I can do some education
around that.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
And education is what it's all about. And you have
provided me personally education. I see what you're putting out
there for others as well, and it's it's inspirational, but
it's much needed. What are some of the tools that
we may have here in Southeast Texas for people to
be able to use in this avenue and in the
(15:53):
mental health realm that we may not be aware of.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Oh, I think there's so many there. There's a nationwide
shortage of providers and that's really due to baby boomers.
There's more of them than there is of us, and
so it's going to be like that for a little
a little bit. But we have a lot of resources
in Southeast Texas and a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Who want to help.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
I'm president of the Southeast Texas Chapter of the TCA,
and there are there providers everywhere. We're working hard to
consolidate a list so that people can go to one
place to look. There's so there's crisis resources. If you're
having a crisis and you don't know what to do,
if you're feeling suicidal thoughts, or if a family member
(16:36):
is struggling with suicide, you call eight hundred nine three
seven eight oho nine seven and they collect, they connect
you at somebody here and they will go out to
your home or to your office. If it's a coworker
who's struggling, right then they they'll come out and talk
and talk with you. We have Spittletop Center has a
lot of resources for substance use and for mental health,
(16:59):
and I mean there's really just a lot.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
And I think that you know personal experience here as
well as you know just missing with other people. We
believe that the resources are out there, but how to
find them and how to find them at that time
when you need them, especially in that crisis situation. So
that eight hundred number again, give that to us. It's
(17:26):
eight hundred nine three seven eighth nine seven, and that
is someone in crisis.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
That is that is quite hot number. It's open twenty
four hours. You can also call nine eight eight that
they they're likely to connect you to the same number.
But it can be really daunting when you don't know
what to do when somebody's mental health is somebody who
you care about us having mental health struggles because we
(17:55):
often wait until it's in that kind of crisis mode,
even if it's not suicidal ideation, it might be so
anxious that you just don't know what to do. So
then it becomes harder to connect to services because we
get stuck in that. And so it's good to it.
It's good to know somebody who knows what to do.
You can ask me. I hope I don't have too
(18:18):
much to know. I honestly don't mind. I really feel
like it's it takes away a lot of the stigma
and a lot of the fear. If you just know
what's gonna happen next, you know, I could even I
will just make a video about that. What happens when
you when you're feeling suicidal and you need to connect
to services because that might that might help somebody.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
That's a good idea, that's right, and usually there are
there are signs and things to look for ahead of
that point too. So just getting services. One of the
things that we talk a lot about are the shortage
of providers, which you mentioned, and so I know that
this spindle Center is a good resource. So if you've
(19:02):
got someone who maybe they're not in crisis, but you
know that they need to reach out, how would someone
get in contact with the Spindletop Center to get directed
to services.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
So our website is really comprehensive. So if you go
on our website you can see it depends on where
you live geographically. But let's say somebody in Beaumont proper
needs services. They come to our building a at eight
o'clock in the morning and we will work them in.
And so they need to bring some information. You have
(19:33):
to bring proof of residency, your ID, your Social Security card,
you want to bring proof of income, if you have
any your insurance information, if you have any, because we
do see people who have returns, and be prepared to wait.
It's a long process, and if you're not prepared for
it to take a long time, that can be discouraging.
So bring a snack, have something to do, bring a book,
(19:56):
you know, have somebody with you to support you, and
just know it's going to take a while. But my
best advice is to not wait until it gets to that.
I have to be seen today. Point try to notice
the signs ahead of time. I call them tells, right,
What are your tells when when you start to not
enjoy things that you used to enjoy, when your appetite
changes either way more or less, if if people notice
(20:20):
that you're irritable or maybe more quiet, any big change
in behavior, or if you're going through something hard in life,
you don't have to wait until it changes your behavior
to get help. You are worthy of having somebody to
just process it with. Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
And what is that website to get information resources from
spindle talk?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
You can? You can?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I know you can google spend Center Beaumont, Texas and
it will bring you a link to that website. I
have personally done that before when looking for resources. So
Spindle Talk Center, Beaumont.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Text, Spindletopcenter dot org, Spindletopcenter dot org.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
And Emily, you do such.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
A great job of balancing and what are some of
the resources that you use to be able to keep
yourself in check and imbalance?
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Oh, Women of Influenced is probably, excuse me, my go
to place to get my own cup filled. It's a
lot of amazing women. We meet the second Friday of
the month at thirty eight ten North Major Drive. That's
where the Pumpkin patches. We meet in the parlor of
the church. And that is a place it's not like
(21:34):
a networking meeting, although we do sometimes network. It is
a place where women come together and just build each
other up from the inside out. And I always leave
feeling nourished and supported and uplifted. And even that Facebook group,
we have a Facebook group for women of Influence as well.
It's constantly just pouring into us, pouring into us, and
(21:54):
so when I'm depleted, that's where I go to recharge.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Thank you so much for being with us, Women of Influence.
And that meeting is again on which Friday of the.
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Month, the second Friday of each month. It's nine.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
At the Wesley Church on Major Drive, so check that out.
We'll be right back on the Roy West Radio Show
on AM five sixty KLVI. And we're back on the
Roy West Radio Show on AM five sixty klv I
and streaming on the iHeartMedia podcast. Thank you for joining
(22:28):
us today. We have a great lineup of guests and
this segment I have the honor of hosting Craig Eskimelia. Hi, Craig,
thank you for joining us.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
I'm glad to be here. Thank you you over selling,
but thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Oh I haven't even started selling yet, sir. Because people
are thinking Craig Eskamelia.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Why does that name sound so familiar to me?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Well, I'm going to tell you number one if I
follow Craig on Facebook and Greig and I serve together
in several capacities, both with the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce.
Is our primary there as he is the chair of
the Board of Directors of the Beaumont Chamber. But we
(23:13):
come together in the business world a lot. And I
wanted to have Craig on today because Craig is such
an inspiration to me. Personally as a business owner, as
a leader in my industry and in my business. Whether
you own a business, whether you are just in a
leadership position in a business, it's important to surround yourself
(23:36):
with people who lift you up, and Craig, you are
one of those people for me. And I want to,
just before we get started, tell everyone if you have not,
if you don't follow Craig on Facebook, please do do
yourself a favor when you wake up in the morning,
because he obviously wakes up very early because he posts
(23:56):
very early in the morning. So whenever I wake up,
one of the first things I get to see is
Craig's inspiration for the day. And I want everyone to
have that same opportunity because it will definitely be life
changing for you. Craig, tell us who you are, what
you do, who is THEAE Solutions, and who is Craig Escamila.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Sure. Well, I'm a Bama native and have lived here
my whole life except for a very brief stint when
I was about five years old, and we got back
here as fast as we could, and so you know,
I went to Lamar University, have a music degree, and
I was the executive director of the Symphony of Southeast
Texas for many years and worked on a master's in
(24:37):
business at Lamar also and then had the great opportunity
to teach in the College of Business there in both
part time and full time capacities for a total of
about eleven years. And all through that time I had
the great honor of serving kind of on the side
a number of different organizations, both in volunteer and paid
roles as a consultant. And so about five years ago
(25:00):
I kind of got the bug, maybe during the COVID
existential crisis that we all went through, that it might
be time for me to try my hand at doing
this full time. And it's been a whirlwind and a
huge blessing and just I've never looked back. So for
about five years, I've been doing consulting work full time.
I work with business owners primarily, and we work on
(25:22):
I have a client who says I'm like a personal
trainer for businesses, and that's a pretty good description of
exactly what we do. So it's kind of clarifying vision
and goals, develop a plan, and then work that plan
and you know, coach you with some tough love some days,
or you know, help you navigate some challenges on others.
And just to clarify the three tricks to the early
(25:44):
social media posts or one, write them ahead of time
to make sure they look good the night before, and
three just wake up and copy and paste first thing
that morning and then go about your day. Primetime engagement
is when most people wake up and roll over and
start scrolling, right, So just try to try to play
the algorithm a little bit.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
So again, and I tell you you were going to
learn something from Craig, and we're two minutes into this
segment and he's already taught us something. So what tell
us a little bit about what you see? What do
you see with people like myself and others who are
in business who lead others who have to be the
(26:24):
cheerleaders in their business. Tell us what you see commonly
and what's some advice that you'd be willing to share
with us?
Speaker 5 (26:32):
Yeah, of course. Well, I think it's really important to
be clear on mission vision and goals and core values
as well. So what is your why? What is your
purpose at a mission level? What is the vision for
who or what you want to be or what you're
trying to build? And I really spend a lot of
time with clients on getting that really crystal clear. There's
(26:54):
tremendous research and data that backs up the importance and
neuroscience of christ clear vision and how the brain translates
that into action to make that vision of reality. Our
brains are continuous improvement machines, and so if you give
them a vision of a desired reality that does not
match the current reality, once you plant that seed, your
(27:16):
brain is trying to remove all of the things that
do not match that desired reality picture until it becomes true.
So I spend a lot of time on vision and
getting it really clear, and then kind of break that
down into some more specific or actionable goals, and along
the way, you know kind of that core of who
you are, what are the principles that drive you, how
(27:37):
do you play, how do you expect people to make decisions.
I think when all of those things are really clear,
it's very easy to communicate them to the people around you,
whether those are internal or external customers, internal meeting your team,
external of course obviously meeting the people that pay you
or hire you. And also I think that it becomes
really helpful in the hiring or selection process when you
(28:00):
can communicate with a lot of clarity to prospective team
members or to perspective customers, who you are, what you do,
why you do it, where you're trying to go. People
can then use their decision making power to decide whether
they're going to buy into that or not. And when
they self select in, you get a whole lot better
(28:21):
relationship than when they're sort of cajoled or persuaded or
forced into it. So I think that clarity of those
fifty thousand foot things is really one of the single
most important things that you can do. And some people
everybody has it. It's a matter of the degree to
which you need to pull it out, get it clear,
and get it documented. And so that's a lot of
(28:43):
what I spend time on. And then it's just kind
of guiding people through, Okay, how do we make this happen,
how do we make this a reality? How do we
stay on course? There's another thing, right, none of us
have ever had the experience of deviating from our plans.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Right. I was going to say that about resets. Right
in my world, I call them resets.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Sure, And every once in a while you have these
times where you have to do a reset, recheck yourself
re look at your goals, your priorities, how you're implementing,
where it's working, what's not working. What are some of
the advice that you give give your clients in that area.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Well, I think what you're saying is absolutely true. I mean,
the world changes around us all the time, right, So
go back five years. The world changed pretty suddenly. I
don't care what your plans were at the beginning of
twenty twenty. They were mostly irrelevant unless you were planning
to find some way to respond to a global pandemic.
Your plans were out the window by about April of
twenty twenty, right, So I did pick April on purpose,
(29:44):
by the way, thank you there. So you know, it
really is important to revisit those frequently. But there are
different demarcation points where we need to revisit them. Economy changes,
elected officials change, whether that's you know, at any level,
you know, from local to federal, and all of those
things drive certain business decisions. What I like to kind
(30:07):
of communicate to my clients is the value of a
to do list. The value of an organizational plan is
not checking all the boxes, it's not completing everything on
the list, it's actually having that decision criteria that you
can evaluate new opportunities against, because you know, one of
the worst things you can do is have a great
new opportunity come along and you don't jump on it
(30:29):
because it's not on my plan, And that's silly. You
want the plan as some type of criteria so that
you can say, hey, does this match, does it not match?
Should we deviate from the plan or should we ignore
this opportunity? So that, I think is the real value
and some of the most important things we talk about.
But the other two things I would say that that
are real common themes a lot are being willing to
(30:53):
deviate from the plan and being able to sort of
throw the plan out the window for new opportunities. But
the flip side of that is also being able to
say no. We're having the courage to say no to
really good opportunities, because once you get to a certain level,
it's more the difference between good and great, not bad
and good, and you have to say no to good
(31:14):
things to do great things. And then the other quick thing,
you know, I know we're running a long time here,
real quick, but is that I think it's really important
that people constantly reevaluate raising your prices, most of us
could charge a lot more, and the person looking back
at us in the mirror is the one that is
really holding us back there.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Mmm, well, you definitely are transitioning us into our next
segment because when we talk about time management, right and
where we give our time, I really want to talk
about community involvement and how important being involved in the community,
giving back to the community that we serve is. That's
something that you and I both both do, we both
(31:56):
believe in, and I want to talk to you about
pecifically the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and some of
the wonderful things that the Chamber does and some of
the events and things that are going on with the chamber.
So we'll be right back in the next segment with
Craig Escimelia right after this on the Roy West Radio
Show a M five sixty klv I. And we're back
(32:20):
on the Roy West Radio Show on AM five sixty
klv I Am April Tolbert proud to be the guest
host this week in Roy's place in his absence, and
in this segment, we're going to continue with Craig Escamelia.
He is with CAE Solutions, So We talked a little
bit in the last segment about what he does in
his real job, but right now I want to talk
(32:42):
a little bit about giving back to the community. How
important it is as a leader in the community, as
a leader in your business, or if you just love
Beaumont the way Craig and I love Beaumont, how do
we move back and how do we make our community better.
I know that you are super passionate about the Greater
(33:03):
Beaumont Chamber of Commerce and the things that are going
on there. Thank you for your service as our leader
of the chair of the board this year.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Tell us a little bit about.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
What you are involved in and a few of the
chamber programs that are going on and how people can
get involved there.
Speaker 5 (33:18):
Craig, sure, so you know personally, just real quick. I
mentioned in the last segment that I was the executive
director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas. That was at
the beginning of my career. I worked there for about
eight years and we had a phenomenal board of directors
at that time, some just powerhouses in our community, you know,
many of whom have retired or moved or things like that.
(33:39):
But you know that the impact of philanthropic minded, people
of service oriented, people of just great leaders in our community.
Really made or on me was significant at a very
young and starting, you know, starting point age in my career.
So it's been important to me to be involved in
efforts and activities about that all related to that all along.
(34:02):
I've been involved with the Rotary Club of Elmont for
a long time, also with Friends of Arts, Friends of
the Arts of Lamar University being in alum there and
but probably for about the last seven or eight years,
have been pretty heavily involved with the Chamber of Commerce.
And I see the Chamber as just the vehicle and
mechanism to support businesses in our community and business growth.
(34:26):
You know, obviously as a service provider to businesses and
someone who's hometown this is it's important to me that
we have a thriving business community and that there are
places for businesses to get data, to participate in networking activities,
to learn what's going on in their community and how
those decisions and economic choices, et cetera impact their businesses
(34:47):
and try to get ahead and do a little proactive
planning on some of those things. And so that's why
you know, I've been so passionate about my involvement with
the Chamber, and so, you know, we've done a lot
of work this year the Chamber. We've we've hired a
new CEO. We've really you know, tried to put the
organization on a positive trajectory forward for the future. And
(35:09):
I'm really proud of the work we've done. I believe
in continuous improvement in general. So I'm certain there's still
things we can continue to do and do better, but
I really am am passionate about this organization. Believe it's
moving in a great direction. So, you know, the Chamber
kind of has really broadly two sets of programs. It
has leadership programs for you know, for younger people and
(35:30):
also for more seasoned professionals. It's called them matt and
those include things like Leadership, Beaumont Junior Leadership. We have
an event going on today which is Lemonade Day, where
you know, young entrepreneurs have lemonade stands around the city
and in fact, many of them are probably still open now,
so you can check the chamber website to see where
you can go. And so we have kind of that
(35:53):
broad category of activities and then kind of you know,
more on the traditional Chamber of Commerce side, we have
you know, various membership luncheons where we hear things like
State of the County, we hear from our state or
federal legislative legislators. We have, you know, various networking activities.
Of course, all the traditional ribbon cuttings for new members
and new member businesses in the community. And you know,
(36:17):
of course a handful of fundraiser events as well, and
so you know some of the things that are kind
of on the horizon for the Chamber that we have
a you know, annual Chamber golf tournament coming up on
May twelfth, that's a Monday. That'll be out at the
Beaumont Country Club all day and I'm pretty sure they
probably still welcome teams. I know it's already a pretty
packed and should be a busy day. One of the
(36:38):
things that we have coming up, and I mentioned kind
of as far as luncheons, is on June third, that's
a Tuesday, we'll have our State of the County luncheon.
So Angel San Juan will be with us to do
a fireside chat with Judge Brannick. Of course, everyone always
enjoys hearing from Judge Brannick. He's like an encyclopedia of
local knowledge and always entertaining. So that should be fun
(37:00):
to see what the latest for the county is. We've
had the pleasure this year of pursuing some new activities
as it relates to female entrepreneurs and supporting those female
business owners or startups in our community. April has been
instrumental in leading those efforts and thank you for that.
So our Women Entrepreneur Network will have a luncheon actually
(37:23):
it's a kind of a half day event coming up
on June seventeenth. That event will include is primarily around
health and wellness, but workplace health and wellness, not so
much personal though certainly there's impacts of that in workplace wellness.
So there will be some breakout sessions and various things
throughout the morning, kind of culminating in a luncheon. And
(37:46):
then you know, we have fun every once in a while,
and so at the end of June, on June twenty seventh,
we have a Casino Night fundraiser. That's usually a fun event.
You know, if you're a casino night person, you don't
have to drive to Late Charles. You can come hang
out with us of course you don't win any actual
real money, but there are other prizes and things that
you could take away.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
No, but it is so much fun.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
It is definitely is definitely a fun nine out for sure.
And all of this information you can get if you
want to participate in any of these events at bmtcoc
dot org.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
That is the chamber website. I wanted to make sure
we mention.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
That absolutely, and the other thing I was going to say,
that's just kind of exciting. You'll just have to keep
an eye out for this is around May fourteenth, we'll
be announcing who our Spindletop Award recipient will be for
twenty twenty five. So that's the biggest award that the
Chamber gives every year to a business for its impact
in the community. Last year, Del Papa was the recipient
(38:40):
of that, and so we give that at our annual meeting,
which will be in October, but we'll make the announcement
and share who the recipient is this year. I'm personally
very excited about this, not because of any close personal
connection to this business, but because of the story behind it.
And you'll just have to keep an eye out for
the press release and announcement where we'll share a little
more information of who that is and why one of
(39:04):
the really cool reasons why they were chosen. We'll also
continue with the second year of honoring a Man of
the Year and Woman of the Year at the annual
meeting in October and will share who those are at
that same time. So another week or so and we'll
have some really cool announcements about some businesses and business
leaders that we'll be honoring this year.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Again, thank you for giving back so much of your
time to all of the organizations that you serve, and
definitely the Greater Wilmot Chamber of Commerce. I don't think
that most people realize what all the Chamber does. Supporting
business means more than just supporting the people who own
the business, from economic development and helping to scout businesses
(39:48):
to relocate to this area and providing the support to
businesses as well when they're here. Because business drives a community.
Business is the backbone of a community, and we would
love for you to be involved no matter what level
you are in your business, we'd love for you to
(40:09):
be involved in some way former fashion with the Greater
Belmont Chamber of Commerce. So you can find all those
activities Craig just talked about at BMTCOC dot org or
call the Chamber at eight three eight sixty five eight one,
four oh nine eight three eight sixty five eight one.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
Craig, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 5 (40:28):
Thank you, April, a pleasure to be here. Thank you everyone.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
We'll be right back after this. We're back on the
Roy West Radio Show. I'm April Tolberg filling in for
Roy today. It has been such an honor to sit
in this chair, and this show airs every Sunday at
noon on AM five sixty KLVI. You can also catch
(40:52):
the podcast. You can go to iHeartMedia on the app
and find the Roywest Radio Show, or go to KLVI
dot com look at the podcast section and find this
show or any other episodes of the Roy West Radio Show.
I want to thank our guests for being here today,
Sally Brusard, Emily Ross, and Craig Escimilia. They provided some
(41:15):
excellent information, great tools and resources, and all also talked
about some of the events that are coming up. So
there's always something going on in Southeast Texas, always something
fun to do in Beaumont, so follow those guys on Facebook.
You definitely will get something out of that for sure.
(41:36):
I also want to send a shout out to the
team at Roy West Home Loans Guild Mortgage. If you
are in need of a mortgage, you're looking to refinance,
you're looking to purchase a home, you need the right
people on your team, and Guild Mortgage. The team at
Roy West Home Loans. They are local, they are the best.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I have used them.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Personally, and you need those people on your team, the
people who are gonna fight for you. They're gonna answer
questions for you and be there for you through every
step of the process. So choose the team at Guild
Mortgage roy West Home Loans. You can reach them at
their office here in Beaumont at four O nine eight
sixty six one nine zero one four O nine eight
(42:19):
sixty six nineteen oh one, or find them on Facebook,
roywestteam dot com.
Speaker 2 (42:24):
Again, I'm April Toolbert. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Tune in next Sunday at noon for the Roy West
Radio Show here on Am five sixty KLBI. Have a
great rest of your day.
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