April 17, 2023 • 43 mins
- On this weeks show Josh Smith with Bill Clark Bugsperts and Mike Simpson of the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce are guests. Have you seen swarms of termites? Josh has tips on keeping termites from invading your home. Dayna also talks with Mike Simpson about the upcoming State of the County event, plus the Chamber's Casino Night in May.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Well, hello Southeast Texas. Ihope you are enjoying this beautiful Saturday and
getting to spend some time outdoors.I know we're gonna have a little rain
coming, but it's going to bea beautiful day to day, so enjoy
your day to day. Wanted tokind of catch you up on what's going
on in the market. So weare picking up. So the real estate
(00:21):
market and at the end of twentytwenty two and beginning of twenty twenty three
was a little soft. We sawa pretty significant downturn in the number of
sales we had. Well that ischanging in March and now in April,
we are seeing an increase in oursales and we're seeing the buyers out there
(00:42):
ready to find a home, andwe have the inventory. So that's great
news. If you're a buyer outthere and last year this time you were
struggling because the inventory was so low. Well, inventory is out there and
ready for you. So if you'rethinking about buying, give us a call
for zero nine eight six six eightthree two six, which is for zero
(01:03):
nine eight six team, or goto our website. You can see every
home that's listed in our mls.There that is Dana Simmons real estate dot
com or dsre dot com, andwe'd love to help you guide you through
the process. Maybe it's just informationyou need, no pressure at all.
We want to just see where youare and what we can do to help
(01:23):
you. One of the really greatthings that's going on right now is First
Financial has some incredible programs that they'redoing in their bank to be able to
give you the best opportunity to buyright now. A couple of those programs
are called Homes for Texas Heroes.And if you are a firefighter or a
(01:44):
police officer, or a paramedic,or a veteran or a teacher, they
have some really great programs going onright now. They have lower interest rates
with down payment assistants, and theyalso have mortgage credit certivocates. Next week
on our show, we're going tohave First Financial bank lenders that are going
(02:06):
to tell you more specifically about thoseprograms. But if you're interested in buying,
you're worried about what the interest rateis doing right now or what those
fees may be, that is agreat opportunity for you to listen in and
be able to know what is offered. If you have questions about it today,
though, you can call our officeor go onto our website and we
(02:27):
can assist you and point you inthe right direction as well. So if
that's a question for you, don'tlet it be. Let us get you
the information that you need. Oneof the other things I want to talk
about today is bugs. What areyour thoughts. We all don't like bugs,
but I'm going to tell you wehave a great bug man in here
for us today. We have BillClark Pest Control, and we have Josh
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Smith who owns Bill Clark, andhe's going to talk a little bit about
you know what's coming termite swarms everyyear about May mid May. He's going
to talk about that more. Butwe see those swarms of termite. So
what can you do to try tolimit the damage that you can see whenever
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you see those swarms? And whatare some preventative things that we can go
ahead and do right now. Alsowith this, we are going to talk
about the Greater Beaumont Greater Chamber ofCommerce, and we're going to be discussing
some of the upcoming events that weare having with that as well. So
if you're interested in anything at theChamber, we want to make sure that
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you know what's going on and howyou can get involved. And so we're
going to talk a little bit aboutsome of those events that are coming up
for that as well. So let'sstart first with Josh. Talk a little
bit about yourself, what you have, how long you've been in Southeast Texas.
Talk a little bit about you.We want to know who you are.
Hey, good morning, Dana.It's it's great to be here today
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and I appreciate you having me on. So my name's Josh Smith. I'm
the on or in general manager BillClark pest Control. I grew up in
the area. I've been here inmy whole life. Grew up, went
to school here and went to LamarUniversity, graduated with a business degree,
and I've been involved in the communityever since. So yeah, I love
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that. I love that you're alocal, homegrown Lamar University graduate. One
of the things on this show thatI always like to bring in is that
people in our area there are somewho, oh my goodness, the want
to get out of town when they'reyoung. You know, my son was
that way. He left to goget his master's or doctorate, whatever it's
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called, and he went out oftown and he's like, I'm not going
to come back. But guess whathappened. He came back and he's here
and he's raising his family here andhe loves it here. It's the thought
that it's better somewhere else until youdo it, and then you know where
you live is really great. Andso Mike Simpson is here. He's with
the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce andMike, That's one of of the things
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we talk about a lot, isthat Beaumont has so much to offer.
So talk about how you got toBeaumont, how long you've been here in
your participation in our community. Well, I actually have lived in Beaumont five
different times. Yeah, you've comeback several times. Yes, I have
my lad pipeline. So we livedall over. So I was here in
the fifth grade. Then in ninetyfive I came in to be the general
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sales manager at k Y K R. And then was the company moved me
to Tallahassee, Florida, and Icame back, and then they moved me
to Middle and or Death then andthen I came back, and then the
last time it was to tex OrCannon, and then I came back,
and that was in two thousand andfour, so I've been here since then.
So you are quite comfortable in frontof this radio microphone. Not really,
(05:49):
because I was a generalman. Iwas sales and general manager and always
hired good people to do the onair. And I hate hearing myself when
I'm recorded. Found like I'm acountry hicking. Yeah, well don't we
all. I mean, you know, and we all sound a little country.
That's part of being a Texan andwe just need to embrace it and
(06:11):
be grateful. I know, Igo out of town so many times and
they're like, where are you from. I'm like, what do you mean
to have an accent? I don'thave an accent, but I'd help with
that, and that I just don'teven listen to myself. I just do
the talk show and I don't goback because I probably wouldn't want to keep
doing it. But I'm so gladyou're here. I'm thankful that both of
you were here, and we're goingto talk about what are some of the
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amazing things going on in Beaumont.And for those of you who don't know,
Josh Smith is actually one of theboard members and actually past president,
right past true past chair of theboard as well. So your business has
benefited greatly from the Chamber and allthat goes on with that. So we're
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gonna have conversation about all of that, so you're not gonna want to go
away. This is Dana Simmons withthe Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons. We arejoined today by Josh Smith with Bill Clark
Bug Spurts and Mike Simpson with theGreater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce. And we're
gonna be talking about how what iscoming up with the Chamber and some of
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the events that you may want toget involved in. But before we talk
about that, I wanted to visitwith Josh. Josh, I know Bill
Clark Bug Spurts is a business thatoriginated here in Beaumont a long time ago,
So talk a little bit about howthat got started and then how you
ended up where you are with thecompany. Sure, so, mister Clark,
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he was after high school, hewent into the Navy, he got
a scholarship with the gi Bill anddecided to go to Texas A and m
and knew he was going to bein some sort of enomology. Field wasn't
sure exactly where he was going togo, but he decided that he thought
it would be good to start apest control company, and so his senior
college, he did a marketing surveyto determine where would be the best place
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to start a pest control business inthe state of Texas, and so I
think Amaillo, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, and Balmont were the top
five I think that he came upwith. And he was kind of a
little scared of the big city andso he's like, let's go to Balmont.
Never been to Balmont before, sohe moved him and his family to
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Beaumont, I believe right around Christmas. I think it was the day after
Christmas, and not knowing anybody,and decided he was going to start his
business. And so the first thinghe did was joined the Chamber of Commerce.
Shortly after, in the near future, he joined the Better Business Bureau
and got involved with it. ButWow, started as an incredible that's an
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incredible story that I really didn't know. So I love hearing that. I'm
hearing it for the first time.So I love the fact that he's an
aggy and he chose Beaumont and thenone of the first things he did as
a new business owner to jump intothe chamber in the BBB And you and
I both can attest to the waythat impacts our businesses. So that's so
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cool. So he started it,got things rolling. Tell me what happens
from there? Sure, So hestarted it. He would go out in
the mornings and sell services. Inthe afternoon, he changed and kind of
like Superman and his fall booth,he would change into his service uniform and
go perform services and just grew itbyself until he was able to hire his
first employee, and then a secondand so on and so today we have
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seventy three employees. So he's he'sbeen a legend in the Mallmont area.
So he did it all in thebeginning. He started out as the salesperson
and the technician. So you knowthat's that's often what it takes to grow
a business is in the beginning,you are it and the benefit is that
you learn all aspects of it,and then it enables you to be a
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better leader because you've been in allof it. So I love that story.
So tell me, Josh, hegrew this amazing building by business.
How did you get involved in that? So, after I graduated high school,
my dad was actually working as aservice manager for mister Clark, and
I needed a summer job as Iwas getting ready to go to Lamar,
and so I started out sweeping thefloors, taking out the trash, whatever
(10:20):
needed to be done. And itwas really at the beginning, just going
to be something while I was goingto school, and I kind of fell
in love with the business and theculture that mister Clark had created, and
it's kind of like a big workfamily. And so as I was going
through school and going for a businessdegree, I asked mister Clark and his
general manager at the time, wouldit be possible for me to possibly use
(10:43):
my degree after I graduated, Andkind of a mister Clark fashion, he
said, I'm sure there'll be opportunities, you know, just work hard and
we'll see where it goes. Andso I didn't want to leave the Beaumont
area. I wanted to stay here. It's a great place to raise a
family and great community. And soI stayed here and got into sales and
got my technician license first, andthen was a technician for a while and
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got into seals and kind of learnedthe different aspects of the business and kind
of Throughout that time, mister Clark'sgeneral manager had retired, and so mister
Clark had gotten more involved with managingthe actual business, and uh he said
he needed an assistant, somebody hecould work with and have do some of
the legwork of some of the taskand so he asked me to be his
(11:28):
assistant manager. And I did thatfrom I guess two thousand eleven to twenty
fourteen when I was named general managerand managed the business for several years.
And as mister Clark aged, youknow, he has family and they live
in different areas, and none ofthem want to take over the business.
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And so just through conversations and differentthings coming up, I had an opportunity
to talk to him about possibly buyingthe business one day. And it was
important to keep us local, keepas I mentioned earlier, just building things
through the community and being parts ofthe community and taking care of our employees.
It was something we wanted to doand that I could continue doing instead
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of selling out to a national companyor something like that. I love that
story. I love the fact thatyou've done it all too. I mean,
you started sweeping floors, and sosometimes when college students think they're above
the menial tasks at the bottom,but doing those tasks puts you in a
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position to where you eventually were apart of every single part of the business,
so that when you get to thetop, there's respect for those that
are you're leading. I think thatmakes a big difference in that when you
are the leader and you've actually beena part of everything that's been done,
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it's not like you're just leading themwithout knowledge. You're leading them with great
knowledge of the entire process. Well, I know, bill Mark is a
great, greatly respected company here insoutheast Texas. As a matter of fact,
I've got to tell you guys alittle story. We had invited Josh
to come over and talk to ouragents about what they do with our customers
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on inspections and on treatments. Andso as they drove up into our driveway
and they were walking into our building, they discovered something. Josh, you
want to tell us what y'all discovered? So sure, So one of our
main inspectors that does a lot ofthe wood story insert reports for real estate,
as we were walking up he's somethingcalled his eye, and so I
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see him get down next to theedge of the building and he's like,
oh, oh, he said,they have for most and termites coming up
the side of the building. Andso I wasn't quite sure if that was
a great entrance for us coming inor not. But we're glad to be
able to find something that will endup protecting you in the long run.
Absolutely. You know, I knowthat's not something you wanted us to know,
but something we needed to know.And I'll be honest with you.
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Here's the challenge. We have anall brick building which surrounded by concrete with
no landscaping up against that side atall. And so your thought is,
oh, we can't get termites there, But that's not the case, is
it. It's not. And youknow, it's kind of like if if
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somebody's going to sell their house,they don't know what all needs to be
done, they're going to call DanaSimmons and her team to lead them through
the process and help them. Andso that's kind of how we try to
do with pest control. You don'tknow what all is going into it and
what may cause termites or get them. But um, yes, so you
have you have soul underneath the slab, you have it underneath the driveway,
and so where those joints and differentthings come together, termites often will pop
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up and get on the structure andget inside and eventually get to the woods
uds or the sheet rock or thewindow sills, whatever it might be.
And they can do so much damage. So protecting your investment is so critical
for us to be able to dothat. So let's talk about how that
m turn reflects onto a homeowner.So you may think, Okay, I
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don't have a situation that's conducive fortermites, just like we thought when you
do. So, how should homeownersprotect themselves and what do you guys provide
them in order to make sure they'reprotecting that investment. That's a great investment,
and termites can do so much damage. So part of our mission statement
as a company is we protect whatmatters most to people, whether that's people,
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property, pets. You know,we're protecting your property. And so
one of the most damaging things thata homeowner can have to their property as
termites, just because they can causeso much damage. In the expenses of
fixing that damage can be so high. So one of the things we really
strive to do is educate our clientson preventive services. It's much better to
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prevent termites before you get them,because it's cheaper that way. And so
we offer preventive services for termites andother pests as well that we'll keep you
from getting them. But also ourguys are trained, and you know,
we have specialists in each field,and so we have got we treat We
train all of our technicians to knowwhat it looks like, to what termites
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look like, what signs of conduciveconditions look like, and so you know,
do you have too much moisture aroundyour home? Is your soul too
high? Is that new flower bedyou put in covering up part of the
slab and you can't see into thewheat poles? And so there's a lot
of different ways that termites can enterthat just to the average every day homeowner,
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you're not going to realize. Butwhen we do this every day,
it's things that we're used to lookingfor. Yeah, and listen, I
know what to look for, right, and and but you get used to
just walking up to your building everyday, right, and you there are
things that you don't notice, andso it's so important to have someone who
that's the focus. It's what they'relooking for, and it's a seller.
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A seller doesn't know if they havetermites, they're not aware, they're not
trying to hide anything. And sofor us, whenever we either have a
seller and we want them to takea look at it, if they're willing
to go ahead and have those inspectionsup front so they know before they list
what's going on, or once weget a buyer. Whenever the buyers able
to have their inspections, they've negotiatedon an offer or they're under contract,
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they have an inspection, so theycall your company and talk a little bit
about how that process works for them. Sure, so we have several different
ways that people contact us. Sosometimes it's the home inspector will be reaching
out to us to handle the inspection. Sometimes it's the relter, sometimes it's
the homeowner. So either way,it's a simple process. If you call
our main office four O nine eightnine eight three two two four one of
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our ladies up front, we'll getyou on the schedule. We usually try
to do the inspection same day orthe next day, so we can get
to those really quickly because we don'twant to hold up any part of the
transaction. So we get out there, We come out, do a full
inspection, provide you the report thesame day, and just kind of educate
you on Hey, you did ordidn't have any signs of termites. These
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are things or other wood storing insectsand things you need to keep an eye
out for. But yeah, yeah, and then if it does have termites,
just like you guys came out anddid a full inspection for us,
then you provide a bid, right, right, talks through what needs to
happen and the costs to do that. Right, So we'll provide a proposal,
and there's usually different options of whatyou can do, and so we'll
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provide those to you so you canmake the best decision for you and your
family or your business. And afterthe gay provides that and if that's something
you want to do, then we'llhave a technician come out and perform the
treatment and let you know how everythingwent. So let's talk about the season
of termites. Now, termites canbe around all year long, but talk
about it does seem like they're outthere swarming specific times. I always think
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it's around Mother's Day. Honestly,is how I think about it. So
talk a little bit about if youknow that's coming and you see them,
what are some things that a homeownercan do to help themselves have those termites
attached to their property. So sure, so as far as the swarms go,
we have two type of termites.We have subterranean which are native termites,
and then we have the formos andtermites. Uh. We actually call
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the formo and termites the Mother's Dayswarm because pretty much every year around Mother's
Day they swarm with within a weekor two. And so kind of things
you can you can prepare for.Termites are always active year around. They're
always in the ground foraging looking forfood. Um a lot of the food
they eat or you know, treeroots, dead trees, debris, wood,
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debris land on the ground. Butyou know, we we clear out
areas and build houses and put woodin them, and so that's that's what
they're looking for. And so oneof the things we talk about when preparing
for the everybody's kind of gets anxiouswhen it gets around Mother's Day. They
know they're gonna have the termites swarming. And so the formost and termites are
attracted to lights and so when theyswarm, they're gonna be swarm around your
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porch slide or if you have windowswith no window coverings, you're gonna have
them coming and get up against thewindows. So uh, you know,
lights are for security and stuff aswell, but we try to encourage people
as much as possible. Once itgets that time of year and they start
swarming, turn out your porch lights. Usually it's right at as it's getting
dark, and they usually last foran hour or two, so you know,
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turn them off for two or threehours, wait till the swarm ends,
and then you can flip them backhome. But um, the ones
that are swarming, they're the theythe one swarming aren't going to physically eat
your home, but they're swarming froma colony that's close by or trying to
start a new colony that will workon eating your home. And so that's
that's one tip that we try todo. Um. Yeah, that's a
big one because I've seen them swarmingaround those lights. Um and I've I
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have a tenant who is from outof the country and so called, and
what they were like, what isgoing on? And so you don't realize
because we're in southeast Texas. We'reaware of it, and when someone else
relocates here, they're like what inthe world. So it can be scary
and you have to those simple tipsabout just turning off those lights really help.
Well. Josh, thank you forthose tips. And when we come
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back, we're going to talk moreabout bugs and what you can do to
get them out of your house.We're also going to talk with Mike Simpson
about the Chamber and some of theexciting events that are coming up that I
know you're gonna want to be apart of. So don't go away,
come back. This is Dana Simmonswith the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I amjoined today by Josh Smith with Bill
(21:23):
Clark bug Spurts, and we havebeen talking about termites and the fact that
we have them here in Southeast Texas. It's just a part of one of
the things we deal with, andthat they are swarming. You said,
the foremosin kind, right, theforemosin kind swarm right around Mother's Day.
And so we talked a little bitabout some things that you can do to
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try to help yourself in your homenot be a target of those termites.
But I'd also like to talk Joshabout the everyday pest that we get.
You know, those roaches, thosedreaded things that I'm telling you are terrifying
to me. So what are someof the things that Bill Clark can do
to help us make sure our homesare pest free. So one of the
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main things here in Southeast Texas thata lot of homeowners choose to do is
have quarterly pest control treatments. Andso you know, those treatments will protect
you from roaches, ants, spiders, a lot of the everyday pest you
may see in and around your home, rodents, different things like that that
can cause issues, and so wetry to I've been out there on a
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quarterly basis. It allows you tohave products that are safe to use and
that we can use and provide themin a professional manner and protect your home
or solve a problem if you alreadyhave one. And let me just say
that's one of the things that Iknow people when they're relating to our area
also talk about too. They're like, how do we get rid of these
bugs? And it really is simple. It is just a matter of setting
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up a one time set up withyou guys, and then you guys schedule
those quarterly for us. We don'thave to think about it. You just
go ahead and make sure that you'recontacting us when that time is due.
So one of the things that Ilove about having that done is the minute
it's almost time for a treatment,guess what happens. It's like, how
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do the bugs know? How dothe bugs know? Okay, we can
come out now because the treatments werenot it's like a few days before.
I mean, it's like they startcoming out and then you have to have
you know, it's time for yourtreatment, and you look at your schedule
and like, yep, the treatment'scoming. So it's hilarious the way they
seem to be a little smart,But you guys outsmart them, don't you.
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Yes, And you know, it'sa lot with our whole industry in
general. We try to we useproducts that are safe for the environment,
and so most of the time,about ninety days is how long you get
from a regular pesticide. And sowhen we're out providing those treatments, you
start seeing it we're off a littlebit about time for us to come again.
And then you're like, yes,I'm not skipping it, no way,
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Jose Well, I love all thatJosh has talked about, and if
you've missed his conversation about bugs,but also just how Bill Clark started.
It's an incredible story. Go backand you can listen to this on the
Dana Simmons podcast that'll be posted nextweek so that you can listen to all
that he talked about. But thestory that I love is that mister Clark,
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immediately upon starting his business joined theChamber of Commerce. And you guys
have been a member for sixty years, and Josh that you even have been
the what's the word chairman of thechairman of the board. I want to
say president, but that's not president, it's chairman of the board. You've
even been chairman of the board.You see the benefit of participating for over
(24:48):
sixty years in the chamber. Andso, Mike, that's one of the
things I wanted to talk to youabout first is I know we want to
talk about a lot of those events, but businesses truly do fine a great
benefit by being a member of theirlocal Chamber of Commerce. And talk a
little bit about that well, andgo back a little bit on that as
(25:11):
well. So the chamber started innineteen oh three and we have some members
that have been with us for overone hundred years, and there are quite
a few like Bill Clark that havestayed with us. And the thing is
is that we strive to help Beaumontbe a better place to live, be
a great place to live. Weare very active in economic development where active
(25:36):
in the not political from a standpointof a party, but in the process
of Steve has been spending Steve CEOhas been spending time in Austin and keeps
our members up to date on thingsthat could affect Southeast Texas so that if
you know there's something that could bederogatory, that you can reach out to
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your representative. So you know,it's about networking. It's about helping the
community and growing small businesses. Iknow there is a real push on that
as well. I've been a partof the I and E network, which
is Innovators and Education and so orno entrepreneurs, Innovators and entrepreneurs wrong eh.
(26:22):
And so it's meeting with people whoare wanting to start a business,
much like mister Clark did in thebeginning, and who need a little assistance
from just conversation with how did youdo it? What did you do?
What are some choices? How canwe make this work? And so I
know for Steve it's been really importantto try to reach out to those who
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were wanting to start a business hereand try to assist them. There's also
other programs that are going on aswell. Right yes, there's another new
program called ten X for Small Business, and that will be a six month
program and it will go into literallyeverything you need to know from business plans
(27:03):
to business loans to how to gethelp in your field, and so it
will be a really great program andit will be limited. I believe it's
the thirty participants and well, youknow, it's going to be pretty all
encompassing on starting and running a smallbusiness. And so for those of us
who are members of the Chamber,it is about growing our area. And
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so for those of us who havedone this for a little longer, it's
also our poor part to give back. But it's also a great networking opportunity.
You know, there are some peoplein other businesses I would have never
met had I not been a memberof the Chamber. And so if you're
a business, whether you're thinking aboutbuilding or starting a new business, or
(27:48):
you are an established business, Iwant to encourage you to reach out to
the chamber. And maybe you're notin Beaumont, maybe you're an Orange,
reach out to your Orange chamber.They do the same thing. It's about
building relationships in your community, notonly to benefit you and your business,
but to benefit others in business aswell. So it's about giving back to
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your community as well as it isreceiving from those that are in your community.
And one of the things that Iknow that the Greater Chamber of Commerce
in Beaumont does is that they wantto educate people. You talked about the
legislation where Steve has been involved inthat in the state of Texas. But
we also have an upcoming event that'sgoing to give everyone an important view of
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what's going on in the county aswell. So we need to know we
have so much coming to our areato be educated on that. So talk
a little bit about that event that'scoming up. That's this State of the
County with Judge Brannick, and wehave four different membership lunchings quarterly and so
with this when it's April the twentieth, which is next Thursday, it's at
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the event center. There are stillsome tables available if someone's interested, or
there's also individual tickets for thirty dollarsfor if you're a chamber member, thirty
five if you're not a member andyou want to come here. What the
judge has to say. And oneof the things that I thought might be
I think sometimes we take for grantedsome of the people that are most influential
(29:21):
in our area, and so Ikind of did a little research on Judge
Brannick. And here's another He wasborn and raised in Port Arthur. He
went you know, when we wentto high school, he went to lamar
then went on to the University ofTexas Law school, and then he has
uh he started in in his officeas county judge in two thousand and eleven,
(29:45):
and he has done so much forthe area with conservation. He's been
awarded numerous awards from Ducks Unlimited,from the State of Texas for his work
in conservation and hurricane preparedness, anduh, you know, he is just
really good for Southeast Texas. He'sa great partner and we think the world
(30:07):
of him, and he's very activewith us in our chamber. Yeah,
and you know, sometimes it's hardwhen you're talking about politics and the UM.
I don't mean to say this,but the quality of the person is
sometimes not as Judge Brannick is sucha quality man. I mean, he's
such a good man with a greatheart, who has a heart to do
(30:30):
what is right and good for ourarea. And so sometimes that's hard to
find um and so not here.Mostly we have really good people here,
but he's one of those who's constantlyfighting for us and fighting for our area
to make sure that we are gettingall that we can to benefit those of
us in Jefferson County. Yeah,and there's even a little personal story that
(30:53):
my wife Cassie, had a veryclose friend that had she had worked with
for a number of years, andwe got a call one day and from
the neighbor that said she hadn't seenPhillis. So long story short, Phillis
was found dead on our kitchen floorand there was no records anywhere of anything
(31:15):
who our heirs were or anything else. So we ended up going to Judge
Brannick. He put his one ofhis staff investigators on this and was able
to go and find the relatives andso just there again that probably not in
his job description, but that's thekind of man he is. Yeah.
Yeah, So if you want tolisten to the State of the County with
(31:37):
Judge Brannick, tell people again,how can they get tickets? They can
either go on the BMTCLC website,they can show up at the door.
We do have table sponsorships that arestill available a tables of eight, and
then there's individual tickets, both formembers and non members. And it's at
the event center next Thursday. Fromthe doors will open about leven typically,
(32:02):
the meal will be served eleven twentyor so, and then Judge Brannick will
speak for thirty to forty five minutes, so by one o'clock you're finished it
out. Yeah yeah, great opportunityfor anyone who is interested in what is
going on in the county. Soif you have more questions about that,
we'll have that information on our websiteas well, so you can go to
(32:24):
Dana Simmons real estate dot com orour Facebook page at Dana Simmons on Facebook.
So when we come back, we'regoing to talk about a few other
things that are going on with thechamber as well, So don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons with the DanaSimmons Show. Welcome back. This
is Dana Simmons and I am joinedtoday by Josh Smith with Bill Clark Bugsperts,
(32:44):
and also Mike Simpson with the BeaumontChamber of Commerce. And we have
been talking about all kinds of funthings. But one of the things that
we all have in have in commonis that we love the Chamber of Commerce.
And there are a couple of greatevents coming up that you maybe want
to you may want to be apart of. And one of those tournaments
(33:05):
is coming up May fifteenth, andthat is the Beaumont Chamber Golf Tournament.
So Mike tell us a little bitabout that. The God, you know,
this is something that's evolved for overtwenty years. It was lobster fift
and just with the cost of lobstersand the cost of all that, we
had to try to come up withsomething new. So we came up with
the Beaumont Chamber Golf Tournament and casino. And there again Josh Pauli remembers when
(33:31):
we first started this, we didthe golf tournament in the morning and in
the dinner in the afternoon, andit was just exhaust killed the staff in
the Ambathador. So we do thegolf tournament on Monday, May the fifteenth
at the Beaumont Country Club and literallyI have four teams available and we'll be
at the Mac. We have aneight o'clock tea time and then we have
(33:53):
a one thirty tea time, andso that's a tournament. One of the
things, if it's new this year, is I saw, just looking for
ways to raise extra money, athing called an air cannon, and this
air cannon will shoot a golf balllike three hundred and fifty yards, and
so I am happy to mention itto Ronnie Stevenson at Beaumont Emergency and she's
(34:17):
while I'll sponsor it. So wehave the air cannon and so at certain
levels you get one free shot.Otherwise it's either twenty five dollars a man
or seven hundred and fifty dollars ameet seven seventy five dollars. So you
can shoot this air cannon and whereverthe best ball lands, you go there
(34:38):
and it's like you're starting at zerowow, and that thing is everybody wants
to shoot it. It's so muchfun. And when we went to try
it out, this is kind ofa funny story. So there were Ronnie
and her fiancee and then Cassie andI and the women every time was able
(34:58):
to shoot this golf ball other thanthe men, So that was kind of
thing should be. Yeah. Sothat's and we have food and a number
of local restaurants and companies come outand cook for us, and it's just
an overall good time, yeah,and a great day on a beautiful golf
course. So that'll be a balland then Casino Night talk a little bit
(35:21):
about what Casino Night and tells andwhat people can expect if they do that.
And that's May nineteenth, right,that's Friday night, May nineteenth at
Ford Park. And so what wedo there is the doors will open it
six and we actually have every personthat comes in the door gets five thousand
dollars in casino chip and so you'reable to play black jack, roulette,
(35:45):
craps, and then at the endof the evening you turn those in for
prizes for tickets, and then you'reable to put your tickets in the prizes
that you may be interested in winning. And there's things like there's golf trips
and overnight stay at uh La Birds. There's Um, there's a two thousand
dollars gift shopping spree at Howled anda number of other things that we try
(36:12):
to put good packages together. Andyou just hearing people yelling and screaming,
you know, with this play moneyand so much fun. That's fun.
Yeah, um, and we havethere there is and I don't think many
people know this. There's a newchef at Ford Park that is phenomenal and
so they will set up food stationsfor us and we'll have so you can
(36:34):
come out, you have a goodtime, you'll have some good food.
And it's growing each year that weThis will be our third year to do
it. So what's the cost?If someone says, man, that sounds
like a lot of fun, numberone, how do I sign up?
And then number two? What isthe cost involved? Because it sounds like
there's a lot of entertainment going onthat night. There there is. And
(36:54):
so once again, you can eithercall the chamber at four O nine eight
three eight five eight one, oryou can go to our website which is
BMTCALC dot org. All the informationis there. You can register online,
you can call me. I handmy cell phone out to anybody that's interested.
Because I typically am working seven daysa week in twenty four hours a
(37:16):
day, it seems like. Butthere will be tickets available at the door.
Individual tickets are one twenty five ifyou're a member and one fifty for
non members, and then a tablewith eight a reserve table for eight is
(37:36):
a thousand dollars. And basically whatthis does is this helps the chamber and
raising the funds so we can keepthe lights on and so we can pay
salaries. And so it's here onceagain, it's networking. It's you meet
people that you may not run acrossotherwise, and by being in the chamber,
(38:00):
you can build some really great relationship. Right, Yeah, that's exactly
true. And in our chamber iswhat is keeping businesses informed in Southeast Texas,
and it's the focus. I mean, it is a business event.
So if you're interested in either doingthe golf tournament or the casino night,
(38:22):
you can go to the website oryou can call the Chamber office and they
can get you connected. We havea couple of other fun things coming up
as well. So the Wine Classicis a brand new event that the Chamber
is doing, yes ma'am, Andthat's Friday, August the twenty fifth.
It will be at the event center. In fact, we have a title
(38:43):
sponsor that is someone that's near anddear to our heart, Dana Simmons Real
Estate is our title sponsor for thatevent. We're excited to do it.
And so there will be a numberof different varietals of different bottles of wine
and so you can come. There'llbe uh the new chef at Texas Starbar
(39:07):
and Grill and the new chef forHearsay. And yes, we did find
out Hearsay is coming. Yeah,those who don't know, that's uh located
downtown where sugars and he has signeda contract, so he knows they're coming.
He said that in the in theprocess we're t happening, they've started
(39:27):
another new store, I believe,he said, in Angle Center. But
then when that project is finished,they will start. So those two chefs
will be coming up with anywhere fromten to twelve different kind of heavy appetizers,
um, and then there will bea wine tasting that you'll be able
to taste the various wines and it'sjust going to be a fun evening with
(39:51):
an opportunity if you've ever wanted totry a cake, bread or one of
the more expensive bottles. We willhave some of those U some of those
wines there as well. So it'sAugust Friday, August twenty fifth at the
event center. And also some ofthe people who are providing the wines for
us are some of our sponsors ofthat or who are providing the line.
(40:15):
Actually, we are about ninety fivepercent sure that HB will be involved and
we'll be able to provide all thosewines for us. The general manager there,
Gary Schmallfell, has put a proposalinto corporate for them to supply the
(40:35):
wine for us, So we're lookingfor that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Well we made a shout out onthe radio, so I think it
should be done. Now. Ifwe said it, it's going to happen.
So we're super excited about all thethings that are going on at the
chamber. And if you're not amember of the chamber, and again I
would say wherever you are, whetheryou're in or or Knierland, or Bridge
(41:00):
City or Lumberton, wherever your businessis located, being a part of your
local chamber is such a great wayto not only network with other businesses and
be able to grow your business,but also to give back by also contributing
to those who are new businesses andbeing able to assist in telling your story
(41:21):
about how you grew just like Joshdid for us today and talking about how
mister Clark got his business started andthen how Josh really started from the bottom
and grew it as well. Iwant to thank both of you, gentlemen,
for being here today. If youneed anything pest related, you need
to call Bill Clark, Bugspurts andJosh give us that telephone number again.
(41:43):
I know they can google you,which is an easy way to do it,
but go ahead and give us yourcontact information. Sure see. You
can reach us at four O nineeight nine eight three to two four,
or you can go to our websiteat Bill Clarkbugspurts dot com. Bill Clarkbugspurts
dot com. That's an easy oneto remember. And then we know the
Chamber. You can also go totheir website and give us that website again.
(42:06):
It's www dot BMTCOC dot org.Or they can call the Chamber office
ronine eight three eight six five eightone. And if you are interested in
more information about any of these eventsthat we've been talking about today, please
don't hesitate You're welcome to give mea call as well at my office if
you want to talk to me abouthow I love the chamber and how it's
(42:29):
impacted my business as well. I'dlove to share my story. I also
want to remind you that I sellreal estate, and so Dana Simmons real
Estate is available for you, whetheryou're looking to buy or sell. We
would love to help you. Wewant to guide you through the process.
It's not about just the sale.It's about what's best for you, giving
(42:49):
you options and showing you what wecan do to help you. So hope
you have a great Saturday and we'llsee you back here next week. This
is Dana Simmons with the Dana SimmonsShow.
Well, hello Southeast Texas. Ihope you are enjoying this beautiful Saturday and
getting to spend some time outdoors.I know we're gonna have a little rain
coming, but it's going to bea beautiful day to day, so enjoy
your day to day. Wanted tokind of catch you up on what's going
on in the market. So weare picking up. So the real estate
(00:21):
market and at the end of twentytwenty two and beginning of twenty twenty three
was a little soft. We sawa pretty significant downturn in the number of
sales we had. Well that ischanging in March and now in April,
we are seeing an increase in oursales and we're seeing the buyers out there
(00:42):
ready to find a home, andwe have the inventory. So that's great
news. If you're a buyer outthere and last year this time you were
struggling because the inventory was so low. Well, inventory is out there and
ready for you. So if you'rethinking about buying, give us a call
for zero nine eight six six eightthree two six, which is for zero
(01:03):
nine eight six team, or goto our website. You can see every
home that's listed in our mls.There that is Dana Simmons real estate dot
com or dsre dot com, andwe'd love to help you guide you through
the process. Maybe it's just informationyou need, no pressure at all.
We want to just see where youare and what we can do to help
(01:23):
you. One of the really greatthings that's going on right now is First
Financial has some incredible programs that they'redoing in their bank to be able to
give you the best opportunity to buyright now. A couple of those programs
are called Homes for Texas Heroes.And if you are a firefighter or a
(01:44):
police officer, or a paramedic,or a veteran or a teacher, they
have some really great programs going onright now. They have lower interest rates
with down payment assistants, and theyalso have mortgage credit certivocates. Next week
on our show, we're going tohave First Financial bank lenders that are going
(02:06):
to tell you more specifically about thoseprograms. But if you're interested in buying,
you're worried about what the interest rateis doing right now or what those
fees may be, that is agreat opportunity for you to listen in and
be able to know what is offered. If you have questions about it today,
though, you can call our officeor go onto our website and we
(02:27):
can assist you and point you inthe right direction as well. So if
that's a question for you, don'tlet it be. Let us get you
the information that you need. Oneof the other things I want to talk
about today is bugs. What areyour thoughts. We all don't like bugs,
but I'm going to tell you wehave a great bug man in here
for us today. We have BillClark Pest Control, and we have Josh
(02:52):
Smith who owns Bill Clark, andhe's going to talk a little bit about
you know what's coming termite swarms everyyear about May mid May. He's going
to talk about that more. Butwe see those swarms of termite. So
what can you do to try tolimit the damage that you can see whenever
(03:12):
you see those swarms? And whatare some preventative things that we can go
ahead and do right now. Alsowith this, we are going to talk
about the Greater Beaumont Greater Chamber ofCommerce, and we're going to be discussing
some of the upcoming events that weare having with that as well. So
if you're interested in anything at theChamber, we want to make sure that
(03:34):
you know what's going on and howyou can get involved. And so we're
going to talk a little bit aboutsome of those events that are coming up
for that as well. So let'sstart first with Josh. Talk a little
bit about yourself, what you have, how long you've been in Southeast Texas.
Talk a little bit about you.We want to know who you are.
Hey, good morning, Dana.It's it's great to be here today
(03:54):
and I appreciate you having me on. So my name's Josh Smith. I'm
the on or in general manager BillClark pest Control. I grew up in
the area. I've been here inmy whole life. Grew up, went
to school here and went to LamarUniversity, graduated with a business degree,
and I've been involved in the communityever since. So yeah, I love
(04:15):
that. I love that you're alocal, homegrown Lamar University graduate. One
of the things on this show thatI always like to bring in is that
people in our area there are somewho, oh my goodness, the want
to get out of town when they'reyoung. You know, my son was
that way. He left to goget his master's or doctorate, whatever it's
(04:39):
called, and he went out oftown and he's like, I'm not going
to come back. But guess whathappened. He came back and he's here
and he's raising his family here andhe loves it here. It's the thought
that it's better somewhere else until youdo it, and then you know where
you live is really great. Andso Mike Simpson is here. He's with
the Greater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce andMike, That's one of of the things
(05:00):
we talk about a lot, isthat Beaumont has so much to offer.
So talk about how you got toBeaumont, how long you've been here in
your participation in our community. Well, I actually have lived in Beaumont five
different times. Yeah, you've comeback several times. Yes, I have
my lad pipeline. So we livedall over. So I was here in
the fifth grade. Then in ninetyfive I came in to be the general
(05:25):
sales manager at k Y K R. And then was the company moved me
to Tallahassee, Florida, and Icame back, and then they moved me
to Middle and or Death then andthen I came back, and then the
last time it was to tex OrCannon, and then I came back,
and that was in two thousand andfour, so I've been here since then.
So you are quite comfortable in frontof this radio microphone. Not really,
(05:49):
because I was a generalman. Iwas sales and general manager and always
hired good people to do the onair. And I hate hearing myself when
I'm recorded. Found like I'm acountry hicking. Yeah, well don't we
all. I mean, you know, and we all sound a little country.
That's part of being a Texan andwe just need to embrace it and
(06:11):
be grateful. I know, Igo out of town so many times and
they're like, where are you from. I'm like, what do you mean
to have an accent? I don'thave an accent, but I'd help with
that, and that I just don'teven listen to myself. I just do
the talk show and I don't goback because I probably wouldn't want to keep
doing it. But I'm so gladyou're here. I'm thankful that both of
you were here, and we're goingto talk about what are some of the
(06:34):
amazing things going on in Beaumont.And for those of you who don't know,
Josh Smith is actually one of theboard members and actually past president,
right past true past chair of theboard as well. So your business has
benefited greatly from the Chamber and allthat goes on with that. So we're
(06:55):
gonna have conversation about all of that, so you're not gonna want to go
away. This is Dana Simmons withthe Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons. We arejoined today by Josh Smith with Bill Clark
Bug Spurts and Mike Simpson with theGreater Beaumont Chamber of Commerce. And we're
gonna be talking about how what iscoming up with the Chamber and some of
(07:16):
the events that you may want toget involved in. But before we talk
about that, I wanted to visitwith Josh. Josh, I know Bill
Clark Bug Spurts is a business thatoriginated here in Beaumont a long time ago,
So talk a little bit about howthat got started and then how you
ended up where you are with thecompany. Sure, so, mister Clark,
(07:41):
he was after high school, hewent into the Navy, he got
a scholarship with the gi Bill anddecided to go to Texas A and m
and knew he was going to bein some sort of enomology. Field wasn't
sure exactly where he was going togo, but he decided that he thought
it would be good to start apest control company, and so his senior
college, he did a marketing surveyto determine where would be the best place
(08:03):
to start a pest control business inthe state of Texas, and so I
think Amaillo, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Houston, and Balmont were the top
five I think that he came upwith. And he was kind of a
little scared of the big city andso he's like, let's go to Balmont.
Never been to Balmont before, sohe moved him and his family to
(08:24):
Beaumont, I believe right around Christmas. I think it was the day after
Christmas, and not knowing anybody,and decided he was going to start his
business. And so the first thinghe did was joined the Chamber of Commerce.
Shortly after, in the near future, he joined the Better Business Bureau
and got involved with it. ButWow, started as an incredible that's an
(08:45):
incredible story that I really didn't know. So I love hearing that. I'm
hearing it for the first time.So I love the fact that he's an
aggy and he chose Beaumont and thenone of the first things he did as
a new business owner to jump intothe chamber in the BBB And you and
I both can attest to the waythat impacts our businesses. So that's so
(09:07):
cool. So he started it,got things rolling. Tell me what happens
from there? Sure, So hestarted it. He would go out in
the mornings and sell services. Inthe afternoon, he changed and kind of
like Superman and his fall booth,he would change into his service uniform and
go perform services and just grew itbyself until he was able to hire his
first employee, and then a secondand so on and so today we have
(09:31):
seventy three employees. So he's he'sbeen a legend in the Mallmont area.
So he did it all in thebeginning. He started out as the salesperson
and the technician. So you knowthat's that's often what it takes to grow
a business is in the beginning,you are it and the benefit is that
you learn all aspects of it,and then it enables you to be a
(09:56):
better leader because you've been in allof it. So I love that story.
So tell me, Josh, hegrew this amazing building by business.
How did you get involved in that? So, after I graduated high school,
my dad was actually working as aservice manager for mister Clark, and
I needed a summer job as Iwas getting ready to go to Lamar,
and so I started out sweeping thefloors, taking out the trash, whatever
(10:20):
needed to be done. And itwas really at the beginning, just going
to be something while I was goingto school, and I kind of fell
in love with the business and theculture that mister Clark had created, and
it's kind of like a big workfamily. And so as I was going
through school and going for a businessdegree, I asked mister Clark and his
general manager at the time, wouldit be possible for me to possibly use
(10:43):
my degree after I graduated, Andkind of a mister Clark fashion, he
said, I'm sure there'll be opportunities, you know, just work hard and
we'll see where it goes. Andso I didn't want to leave the Beaumont
area. I wanted to stay here. It's a great place to raise a
family and great community. And soI stayed here and got into sales and
got my technician license first, andthen was a technician for a while and
(11:07):
got into seals and kind of learnedthe different aspects of the business and kind
of Throughout that time, mister Clark'sgeneral manager had retired, and so mister
Clark had gotten more involved with managingthe actual business, and uh he said
he needed an assistant, somebody hecould work with and have do some of
the legwork of some of the taskand so he asked me to be his
(11:28):
assistant manager. And I did thatfrom I guess two thousand eleven to twenty
fourteen when I was named general managerand managed the business for several years.
And as mister Clark aged, youknow, he has family and they live
in different areas, and none ofthem want to take over the business.
(11:48):
And so just through conversations and differentthings coming up, I had an opportunity
to talk to him about possibly buyingthe business one day. And it was
important to keep us local, keepas I mentioned earlier, just building things
through the community and being parts ofthe community and taking care of our employees.
It was something we wanted to doand that I could continue doing instead
(12:09):
of selling out to a national companyor something like that. I love that
story. I love the fact thatyou've done it all too. I mean,
you started sweeping floors, and sosometimes when college students think they're above
the menial tasks at the bottom,but doing those tasks puts you in a
(12:31):
position to where you eventually were apart of every single part of the business,
so that when you get to thetop, there's respect for those that
are you're leading. I think thatmakes a big difference in that when you
are the leader and you've actually beena part of everything that's been done,
(12:52):
it's not like you're just leading themwithout knowledge. You're leading them with great
knowledge of the entire process. Well, I know, bill Mark is a
great, greatly respected company here insoutheast Texas. As a matter of fact,
I've got to tell you guys alittle story. We had invited Josh
to come over and talk to ouragents about what they do with our customers
(13:13):
on inspections and on treatments. Andso as they drove up into our driveway
and they were walking into our building, they discovered something. Josh, you
want to tell us what y'all discovered? So sure, So one of our
main inspectors that does a lot ofthe wood story insert reports for real estate,
as we were walking up he's somethingcalled his eye, and so I
(13:37):
see him get down next to theedge of the building and he's like,
oh, oh, he said,they have for most and termites coming up
the side of the building. Andso I wasn't quite sure if that was
a great entrance for us coming inor not. But we're glad to be
able to find something that will endup protecting you in the long run.
Absolutely. You know, I knowthat's not something you wanted us to know,
but something we needed to know.And I'll be honest with you.
(13:58):
Here's the challenge. We have anall brick building which surrounded by concrete with
no landscaping up against that side atall. And so your thought is,
oh, we can't get termites there, But that's not the case, is
it. It's not. And youknow, it's kind of like if if
(14:20):
somebody's going to sell their house,they don't know what all needs to be
done, they're going to call DanaSimmons and her team to lead them through
the process and help them. Andso that's kind of how we try to
do with pest control. You don'tknow what all is going into it and
what may cause termites or get them. But um, yes, so you
have you have soul underneath the slab, you have it underneath the driveway,
and so where those joints and differentthings come together, termites often will pop
(14:41):
up and get on the structure andget inside and eventually get to the woods
uds or the sheet rock or thewindow sills, whatever it might be.
And they can do so much damage. So protecting your investment is so critical
for us to be able to dothat. So let's talk about how that
m turn reflects onto a homeowner.So you may think, Okay, I
(15:03):
don't have a situation that's conducive fortermites, just like we thought when you
do. So, how should homeownersprotect themselves and what do you guys provide
them in order to make sure they'reprotecting that investment. That's a great investment,
and termites can do so much damage. So part of our mission statement
as a company is we protect whatmatters most to people, whether that's people,
(15:26):
property, pets. You know,we're protecting your property. And so
one of the most damaging things thata homeowner can have to their property as
termites, just because they can causeso much damage. In the expenses of
fixing that damage can be so high. So one of the things we really
strive to do is educate our clientson preventive services. It's much better to
(15:48):
prevent termites before you get them,because it's cheaper that way. And so
we offer preventive services for termites andother pests as well that we'll keep you
from getting them. But also ourguys are trained, and you know,
we have specialists in each field,and so we have got we treat We
train all of our technicians to knowwhat it looks like, to what termites
(16:08):
look like, what signs of conduciveconditions look like, and so you know,
do you have too much moisture aroundyour home? Is your soul too
high? Is that new flower bedyou put in covering up part of the
slab and you can't see into thewheat poles? And so there's a lot
of different ways that termites can enterthat just to the average every day homeowner,
(16:29):
you're not going to realize. Butwhen we do this every day,
it's things that we're used to lookingfor. Yeah, and listen, I
know what to look for, right, and and but you get used to
just walking up to your building everyday, right, and you there are
things that you don't notice, andso it's so important to have someone who
that's the focus. It's what they'relooking for, and it's a seller.
(16:52):
A seller doesn't know if they havetermites, they're not aware, they're not
trying to hide anything. And sofor us, whenever we either have a
seller and we want them to takea look at it, if they're willing
to go ahead and have those inspectionsup front so they know before they list
what's going on, or once weget a buyer. Whenever the buyers able
to have their inspections, they've negotiatedon an offer or they're under contract,
(17:14):
they have an inspection, so theycall your company and talk a little bit
about how that process works for them. Sure, so we have several different
ways that people contact us. Sosometimes it's the home inspector will be reaching
out to us to handle the inspection. Sometimes it's the relter, sometimes it's
the homeowner. So either way,it's a simple process. If you call
our main office four O nine eightnine eight three two two four one of
(17:38):
our ladies up front, we'll getyou on the schedule. We usually try
to do the inspection same day orthe next day, so we can get
to those really quickly because we don'twant to hold up any part of the
transaction. So we get out there, We come out, do a full
inspection, provide you the report thesame day, and just kind of educate
you on Hey, you did ordidn't have any signs of termites. These
(18:00):
are things or other wood storing insectsand things you need to keep an eye
out for. But yeah, yeah, and then if it does have termites,
just like you guys came out anddid a full inspection for us,
then you provide a bid, right, right, talks through what needs to
happen and the costs to do that. Right, So we'll provide a proposal,
and there's usually different options of whatyou can do, and so we'll
(18:22):
provide those to you so you canmake the best decision for you and your
family or your business. And afterthe gay provides that and if that's something
you want to do, then we'llhave a technician come out and perform the
treatment and let you know how everythingwent. So let's talk about the season
of termites. Now, termites canbe around all year long, but talk
about it does seem like they're outthere swarming specific times. I always think
(18:48):
it's around Mother's Day. Honestly,is how I think about it. So
talk a little bit about if youknow that's coming and you see them,
what are some things that a homeownercan do to help themselves have those termites
attached to their property. So sure, so as far as the swarms go,
we have two type of termites.We have subterranean which are native termites,
and then we have the formos andtermites. Uh. We actually call
(19:11):
the formo and termites the Mother's Dayswarm because pretty much every year around Mother's
Day they swarm with within a weekor two. And so kind of things
you can you can prepare for.Termites are always active year around. They're
always in the ground foraging looking forfood. Um a lot of the food
they eat or you know, treeroots, dead trees, debris, wood,
(19:33):
debris land on the ground. Butyou know, we we clear out
areas and build houses and put woodin them, and so that's that's what
they're looking for. And so oneof the things we talk about when preparing
for the everybody's kind of gets anxiouswhen it gets around Mother's Day. They
know they're gonna have the termites swarming. And so the formost and termites are
attracted to lights and so when theyswarm, they're gonna be swarm around your
(19:53):
porch slide or if you have windowswith no window coverings, you're gonna have
them coming and get up against thewindows. So uh, you know,
lights are for security and stuff aswell, but we try to encourage people
as much as possible. Once itgets that time of year and they start
swarming, turn out your porch lights. Usually it's right at as it's getting
dark, and they usually last foran hour or two, so you know,
(20:15):
turn them off for two or threehours, wait till the swarm ends,
and then you can flip them backhome. But um, the ones
that are swarming, they're the theythe one swarming aren't going to physically eat
your home, but they're swarming froma colony that's close by or trying to
start a new colony that will workon eating your home. And so that's
that's one tip that we try todo. Um. Yeah, that's a
big one because I've seen them swarmingaround those lights. Um and I've I
(20:40):
have a tenant who is from outof the country and so called, and
what they were like, what isgoing on? And so you don't realize
because we're in southeast Texas. We'reaware of it, and when someone else
relocates here, they're like what inthe world. So it can be scary
and you have to those simple tipsabout just turning off those lights really help.
Well. Josh, thank you forthose tips. And when we come
(21:02):
back, we're going to talk moreabout bugs and what you can do to
get them out of your house.We're also going to talk with Mike Simpson
about the Chamber and some of theexciting events that are coming up that I
know you're gonna want to be apart of. So don't go away,
come back. This is Dana Simmonswith the Dana Simmons Show. Welcome back.
This is Dana Simmons and I amjoined today by Josh Smith with Bill
(21:23):
Clark bug Spurts, and we havebeen talking about termites and the fact that
we have them here in Southeast Texas. It's just a part of one of
the things we deal with, andthat they are swarming. You said,
the foremosin kind, right, theforemosin kind swarm right around Mother's Day.
And so we talked a little bitabout some things that you can do to
(21:44):
try to help yourself in your homenot be a target of those termites.
But I'd also like to talk Joshabout the everyday pest that we get.
You know, those roaches, thosedreaded things that I'm telling you are terrifying
to me. So what are someof the things that Bill Clark can do
to help us make sure our homesare pest free. So one of the
(22:08):
main things here in Southeast Texas thata lot of homeowners choose to do is
have quarterly pest control treatments. Andso you know, those treatments will protect
you from roaches, ants, spiders, a lot of the everyday pest you
may see in and around your home, rodents, different things like that that
can cause issues, and so wetry to I've been out there on a
(22:29):
quarterly basis. It allows you tohave products that are safe to use and
that we can use and provide themin a professional manner and protect your home
or solve a problem if you alreadyhave one. And let me just say
that's one of the things that Iknow people when they're relating to our area
also talk about too. They're like, how do we get rid of these
bugs? And it really is simple. It is just a matter of setting
(22:52):
up a one time set up withyou guys, and then you guys schedule
those quarterly for us. We don'thave to think about it. You just
go ahead and make sure that you'recontacting us when that time is due.
So one of the things that Ilove about having that done is the minute
it's almost time for a treatment,guess what happens. It's like, how
(23:15):
do the bugs know? How dothe bugs know? Okay, we can
come out now because the treatments werenot it's like a few days before.
I mean, it's like they startcoming out and then you have to have
you know, it's time for yourtreatment, and you look at your schedule
and like, yep, the treatment'scoming. So it's hilarious the way they
seem to be a little smart,But you guys outsmart them, don't you.
(23:38):
Yes, And you know, it'sa lot with our whole industry in
general. We try to we useproducts that are safe for the environment,
and so most of the time,about ninety days is how long you get
from a regular pesticide. And sowhen we're out providing those treatments, you
start seeing it we're off a littlebit about time for us to come again.
And then you're like, yes,I'm not skipping it, no way,
(24:00):
Jose Well, I love all thatJosh has talked about, and if
you've missed his conversation about bugs,but also just how Bill Clark started.
It's an incredible story. Go backand you can listen to this on the
Dana Simmons podcast that'll be posted nextweek so that you can listen to all
that he talked about. But thestory that I love is that mister Clark,
(24:23):
immediately upon starting his business joined theChamber of Commerce. And you guys
have been a member for sixty years, and Josh that you even have been
the what's the word chairman of thechairman of the board. I want to
say president, but that's not president, it's chairman of the board. You've
even been chairman of the board.You see the benefit of participating for over
(24:48):
sixty years in the chamber. Andso, Mike, that's one of the
things I wanted to talk to youabout first is I know we want to
talk about a lot of those events, but businesses truly do fine a great
benefit by being a member of theirlocal Chamber of Commerce. And talk a
little bit about that well, andgo back a little bit on that as
(25:11):
well. So the chamber started innineteen oh three and we have some members
that have been with us for overone hundred years, and there are quite
a few like Bill Clark that havestayed with us. And the thing is
is that we strive to help Beaumontbe a better place to live, be
a great place to live. Weare very active in economic development where active
(25:36):
in the not political from a standpointof a party, but in the process
of Steve has been spending Steve CEOhas been spending time in Austin and keeps
our members up to date on thingsthat could affect Southeast Texas so that if
you know there's something that could bederogatory, that you can reach out to
(25:57):
your representative. So you know,it's about networking. It's about helping the
community and growing small businesses. Iknow there is a real push on that
as well. I've been a partof the I and E network, which
is Innovators and Education and so orno entrepreneurs, Innovators and entrepreneurs wrong eh.
(26:22):
And so it's meeting with people whoare wanting to start a business,
much like mister Clark did in thebeginning, and who need a little assistance
from just conversation with how did youdo it? What did you do?
What are some choices? How canwe make this work? And so I
know for Steve it's been really importantto try to reach out to those who
(26:42):
were wanting to start a business hereand try to assist them. There's also
other programs that are going on aswell. Right yes, there's another new
program called ten X for Small Business, and that will be a six month
program and it will go into literallyeverything you need to know from business plans
(27:03):
to business loans to how to gethelp in your field, and so it
will be a really great program andit will be limited. I believe it's
the thirty participants and well, youknow, it's going to be pretty all
encompassing on starting and running a smallbusiness. And so for those of us
who are members of the Chamber,it is about growing our area. And
(27:27):
so for those of us who havedone this for a little longer, it's
also our poor part to give back. But it's also a great networking opportunity.
You know, there are some peoplein other businesses I would have never
met had I not been a memberof the Chamber. And so if you're
a business, whether you're thinking aboutbuilding or starting a new business, or
(27:48):
you are an established business, Iwant to encourage you to reach out to
the chamber. And maybe you're notin Beaumont, maybe you're an Orange,
reach out to your Orange chamber.They do the same thing. It's about
building relationships in your community, notonly to benefit you and your business,
but to benefit others in business aswell. So it's about giving back to
(28:08):
your community as well as it isreceiving from those that are in your community.
And one of the things that Iknow that the Greater Chamber of Commerce
in Beaumont does is that they wantto educate people. You talked about the
legislation where Steve has been involved inthat in the state of Texas. But
we also have an upcoming event that'sgoing to give everyone an important view of
(28:32):
what's going on in the county aswell. So we need to know we
have so much coming to our areato be educated on that. So talk
a little bit about that event that'scoming up. That's this State of the
County with Judge Brannick, and wehave four different membership lunchings quarterly and so
with this when it's April the twentieth, which is next Thursday, it's at
(28:55):
the event center. There are stillsome tables available if someone's interested, or
there's also individual tickets for thirty dollarsfor if you're a chamber member, thirty
five if you're not a member andyou want to come here. What the
judge has to say. And oneof the things that I thought might be
I think sometimes we take for grantedsome of the people that are most influential
(29:21):
in our area, and so Ikind of did a little research on Judge
Brannick. And here's another He wasborn and raised in Port Arthur. He
went you know, when we wentto high school, he went to lamar
then went on to the University ofTexas Law school, and then he has
uh he started in in his officeas county judge in two thousand and eleven,
(29:45):
and he has done so much forthe area with conservation. He's been
awarded numerous awards from Ducks Unlimited,from the State of Texas for his work
in conservation and hurricane preparedness, anduh, you know, he is just
really good for Southeast Texas. He'sa great partner and we think the world
(30:07):
of him, and he's very activewith us in our chamber. Yeah,
and you know, sometimes it's hardwhen you're talking about politics and the UM.
I don't mean to say this,but the quality of the person is
sometimes not as Judge Brannick is sucha quality man. I mean, he's
such a good man with a greatheart, who has a heart to do
(30:30):
what is right and good for ourarea. And so sometimes that's hard to
find um and so not here.Mostly we have really good people here,
but he's one of those who's constantlyfighting for us and fighting for our area
to make sure that we are gettingall that we can to benefit those of
us in Jefferson County. Yeah,and there's even a little personal story that
(30:53):
my wife Cassie, had a veryclose friend that had she had worked with
for a number of years, andwe got a call one day and from
the neighbor that said she hadn't seenPhillis. So long story short, Phillis
was found dead on our kitchen floorand there was no records anywhere of anything
(31:15):
who our heirs were or anything else. So we ended up going to Judge
Brannick. He put his one ofhis staff investigators on this and was able
to go and find the relatives andso just there again that probably not in
his job description, but that's thekind of man he is. Yeah.
Yeah, So if you want tolisten to the State of the County with
(31:37):
Judge Brannick, tell people again,how can they get tickets? They can
either go on the BMTCLC website,they can show up at the door.
We do have table sponsorships that arestill available a tables of eight, and
then there's individual tickets, both formembers and non members. And it's at
the event center next Thursday. Fromthe doors will open about leven typically,
(32:02):
the meal will be served eleven twentyor so, and then Judge Brannick will
speak for thirty to forty five minutes, so by one o'clock you're finished it
out. Yeah yeah, great opportunityfor anyone who is interested in what is
going on in the county. Soif you have more questions about that,
we'll have that information on our websiteas well, so you can go to
(32:24):
Dana Simmons real estate dot com orour Facebook page at Dana Simmons on Facebook.
So when we come back, we'regoing to talk about a few other
things that are going on with thechamber as well, So don't go away.
This is Dana Simmons with the DanaSimmons Show. Welcome back. This
is Dana Simmons and I am joinedtoday by Josh Smith with Bill Clark Bugsperts,
(32:44):
and also Mike Simpson with the BeaumontChamber of Commerce. And we have
been talking about all kinds of funthings. But one of the things that
we all have in have in commonis that we love the Chamber of Commerce.
And there are a couple of greatevents coming up that you maybe want
to you may want to be apart of. And one of those tournaments
(33:05):
is coming up May fifteenth, andthat is the Beaumont Chamber Golf Tournament.
So Mike tell us a little bitabout that. The God, you know,
this is something that's evolved for overtwenty years. It was lobster fift
and just with the cost of lobstersand the cost of all that, we
had to try to come up withsomething new. So we came up with
the Beaumont Chamber Golf Tournament and casino. And there again Josh Pauli remembers when
(33:31):
we first started this, we didthe golf tournament in the morning and in
the dinner in the afternoon, andit was just exhaust killed the staff in
the Ambathador. So we do thegolf tournament on Monday, May the fifteenth
at the Beaumont Country Club and literallyI have four teams available and we'll be
at the Mac. We have aneight o'clock tea time and then we have
(33:53):
a one thirty tea time, andso that's a tournament. One of the
things, if it's new this year, is I saw, just looking for
ways to raise extra money, athing called an air cannon, and this
air cannon will shoot a golf balllike three hundred and fifty yards, and
so I am happy to mention itto Ronnie Stevenson at Beaumont Emergency and she's
(34:17):
while I'll sponsor it. So wehave the air cannon and so at certain
levels you get one free shot.Otherwise it's either twenty five dollars a man
or seven hundred and fifty dollars ameet seven seventy five dollars. So you
can shoot this air cannon and whereverthe best ball lands, you go there
(34:38):
and it's like you're starting at zerowow, and that thing is everybody wants
to shoot it. It's so muchfun. And when we went to try
it out, this is kind ofa funny story. So there were Ronnie
and her fiancee and then Cassie andI and the women every time was able
(34:58):
to shoot this golf ball other thanthe men, So that was kind of
thing should be. Yeah. Sothat's and we have food and a number
of local restaurants and companies come outand cook for us, and it's just
an overall good time, yeah,and a great day on a beautiful golf
course. So that'll be a balland then Casino Night talk a little bit
(35:21):
about what Casino Night and tells andwhat people can expect if they do that.
And that's May nineteenth, right,that's Friday night, May nineteenth at
Ford Park. And so what wedo there is the doors will open it
six and we actually have every personthat comes in the door gets five thousand
dollars in casino chip and so you'reable to play black jack, roulette,
(35:45):
craps, and then at the endof the evening you turn those in for
prizes for tickets, and then you'reable to put your tickets in the prizes
that you may be interested in winning. And there's things like there's golf trips
and overnight stay at uh La Birds. There's Um, there's a two thousand
dollars gift shopping spree at Howled anda number of other things that we try
(36:12):
to put good packages together. Andyou just hearing people yelling and screaming,
you know, with this play moneyand so much fun. That's fun.
Yeah, um, and we havethere there is and I don't think many
people know this. There's a newchef at Ford Park that is phenomenal and
so they will set up food stationsfor us and we'll have so you can
(36:34):
come out, you have a goodtime, you'll have some good food.
And it's growing each year that weThis will be our third year to do
it. So what's the cost?If someone says, man, that sounds
like a lot of fun, numberone, how do I sign up?
And then number two? What isthe cost involved? Because it sounds like
there's a lot of entertainment going onthat night. There there is. And
(36:54):
so once again, you can eithercall the chamber at four O nine eight
three eight five eight one, oryou can go to our website which is
BMTCALC dot org. All the informationis there. You can register online,
you can call me. I handmy cell phone out to anybody that's interested.
Because I typically am working seven daysa week in twenty four hours a
(37:16):
day, it seems like. Butthere will be tickets available at the door.
Individual tickets are one twenty five ifyou're a member and one fifty for
non members, and then a tablewith eight a reserve table for eight is
(37:36):
a thousand dollars. And basically whatthis does is this helps the chamber and
raising the funds so we can keepthe lights on and so we can pay
salaries. And so it's here onceagain, it's networking. It's you meet
people that you may not run acrossotherwise, and by being in the chamber,
(38:00):
you can build some really great relationship. Right, Yeah, that's exactly
true. And in our chamber iswhat is keeping businesses informed in Southeast Texas,
and it's the focus. I mean, it is a business event.
So if you're interested in either doingthe golf tournament or the casino night,
(38:22):
you can go to the website oryou can call the Chamber office and they
can get you connected. We havea couple of other fun things coming up
as well. So the Wine Classicis a brand new event that the Chamber
is doing, yes ma'am, Andthat's Friday, August the twenty fifth.
It will be at the event center. In fact, we have a title
(38:43):
sponsor that is someone that's near anddear to our heart, Dana Simmons Real
Estate is our title sponsor for thatevent. We're excited to do it.
And so there will be a numberof different varietals of different bottles of wine
and so you can come. There'llbe uh the new chef at Texas Starbar
(39:07):
and Grill and the new chef forHearsay. And yes, we did find
out Hearsay is coming. Yeah,those who don't know, that's uh located
downtown where sugars and he has signeda contract, so he knows they're coming.
He said that in the in theprocess we're t happening, they've started
(39:27):
another new store, I believe,he said, in Angle Center. But
then when that project is finished,they will start. So those two chefs
will be coming up with anywhere fromten to twelve different kind of heavy appetizers,
um, and then there will bea wine tasting that you'll be able
to taste the various wines and it'sjust going to be a fun evening with
(39:51):
an opportunity if you've ever wanted totry a cake, bread or one of
the more expensive bottles. We willhave some of those U some of those
wines there as well. So it'sAugust Friday, August twenty fifth at the
event center. And also some ofthe people who are providing the wines for
us are some of our sponsors ofthat or who are providing the line.
(40:15):
Actually, we are about ninety fivepercent sure that HB will be involved and
we'll be able to provide all thosewines for us. The general manager there,
Gary Schmallfell, has put a proposalinto corporate for them to supply the
(40:35):
wine for us, So we're lookingfor that. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Well we made a shout out onthe radio, so I think it
should be done. Now. Ifwe said it, it's going to happen.
So we're super excited about all thethings that are going on at the
chamber. And if you're not amember of the chamber, and again I
would say wherever you are, whetheryou're in or or Knierland, or Bridge
(41:00):
City or Lumberton, wherever your businessis located, being a part of your
local chamber is such a great wayto not only network with other businesses and
be able to grow your business,but also to give back by also contributing
to those who are new businesses andbeing able to assist in telling your story
(41:21):
about how you grew just like Joshdid for us today and talking about how
mister Clark got his business started andthen how Josh really started from the bottom
and grew it as well. Iwant to thank both of you, gentlemen,
for being here today. If youneed anything pest related, you need
to call Bill Clark, Bugspurts andJosh give us that telephone number again.
(41:43):
I know they can google you,which is an easy way to do it,
but go ahead and give us yourcontact information. Sure see. You
can reach us at four O nineeight nine eight three to two four,
or you can go to our websiteat Bill Clarkbugspurts dot com. Bill Clarkbugspurts
dot com. That's an easy oneto remember. And then we know the
Chamber. You can also go totheir website and give us that website again.
(42:06):
It's www dot BMTCOC dot org.Or they can call the Chamber office
ronine eight three eight six five eightone. And if you are interested in
more information about any of these eventsthat we've been talking about today, please
don't hesitate You're welcome to give mea call as well at my office if
you want to talk to me abouthow I love the chamber and how it's
(42:29):
impacted my business as well. I'dlove to share my story. I also
want to remind you that I sellreal estate, and so Dana Simmons real
Estate is available for you, whetheryou're looking to buy or sell. We
would love to help you. Wewant to guide you through the process.
It's not about just the sale.It's about what's best for you, giving
(42:49):
you options and showing you what wecan do to help you. So hope
you have a great Saturday and we'llsee you back here next week. This
is Dana Simmons with the Dana SimmonsShow.
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