New Homes, Media Systems & Do you want to be in the movies?

Lots of variety in this episode!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed by the participants on this
show are not necessarily those of Stuart Information Services Corporation,
Stewart Title, or Stewart Insurance. Before you make any investment,
you should see the advice of your investment advisor or attorney.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Whether you're a real estate broker, realtor homeowner, buyer or seller,
everything matters when it comes to real estate. This is
Real Estate Matters with Steward Title, Steward Titles. Bill Knapik
and guests open the door to what really matters in owning, buying,
and selling real estate. And now Real Estate Matters with
Stewarre Title, brought to you by Stuart Insurance, here to inform,

(00:38):
entertain and inspire.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Bill Knabek, Welcome to the show. It is Real Estate
Matters with Stuart Title. I'm your host, Bill Napick. Thank
you for joining us. As always, if you want to
see this show on the YouTube video or access past shows,
go to the show archives. We have hundreds of shows
at Stuart dot Com, Forward Slash Radio, or some go

(01:00):
to Radio Bill that is the YouTube channel. Let's get
down to business right away, as we have a variety
show for you today. As first we welcome Greg East.
The company is win Free Design Build. Greg, welcome to
the show.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
Well, thank you, Bill. I like the way you say
that it's great to have great to be here. Thanks
for having me.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, first of all, Win Free Design Build people could say,
I wonder what that is. Let's tell people about the
company that you're a part of.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
Well, thank you. Yes, the Design build is something that's
probably a little bit more familiar for commercial builders, but
it's the same concept for residential construction. We build one
of a kind luxury custom homes in Houston's finest Intewn
neighborhoods and throughout the Memorial, Tanglewood, Iten Quarter, and so
that's it in a nutshell. But the thing about what

(01:49):
we do is we do emphasize the luxury market. So
most of what we do is two million are above.
But Houston is really doing well in those markets right now,
and believe it or not.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So the neighborhoods are some of the quote nicer neighborhoods
well established, no doubt about that. But one of the
things I think a lot of people look for. Yes,
location is so important, but these days some of us
just want a brand new home because maybe We've lived
in a home from the eighties, the seventies, whenever. But

(02:20):
to have the new construction, especially one of your homes,
is so awesome. Give us an idea of what a
modern home is these days, maybe some of the energy
features and some of the things that you do now
than what builders did in the nineties.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, to your point, I've lived in three homes that
were brand new. There's nothing like it. You know, highly
recommend it. There's a certain time process involved. It's not
for everybody, but that's what we draw on. And right
now in these luxury neighborhoods, we're having a good run,
so to speak, because there's not a lot of inventory
for lots, so there's not a lot of places to build.

(02:55):
People are in three percent mortgages if they have any mortgage,
and so people aren't moving out for these neighborhood so
other people can move in, which drives up the value
for people like us. To that point, We've had three
homes that were under construction where people approached us. We
try to wait till the end, till they're staged and
in their full glory, but we had people approach us
because of where they were and the point in time

(03:17):
and negotiate a purchase of those homes before they ever
hit the market. So we're benefiting from kind of a
unique time in the market right now in Houston. I
would say, so.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Give us an idea, walk us through the process a
little bit. So you have some homes that are not
spoken for, that are already in process, right and then
what if a person or a family says asked you
to build a home, do you do that as well?

Speaker 4 (03:40):
Yes, yeah, we do both of those things. We love
working with people. It's nice to not have to pick
out a lot of stuff. There's a lot of decisions
that a builder has to make when you build. You
know what people call us back home. We call it
a for sale home. And you're building a six million
dollar house that you're going to sell. It just speculative,
it's not the right word. There's a lot more to it.

(04:00):
In Houston. You don't have to cut corners to make
money as a luxury builder. You have to have the
wherewithal So we're blessed to have the ability to have
those kind of projects on our own. We picked up
a couple of joint venture partners along the way that
are just great people that believe in our company that
wanted to invest in it and came to us, and
so we have friends really that these people have become

(04:22):
that helps expand our footprint. So we can have four
homes in River Oaks or tangle Wood instead of two
that we might only be able to do on our own.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Give us an idea also today, what does now. I
just came back a week or so ago from Laguna Beach,
every homeless four million dollars, the hills in the hills,
the hills of Laguna Beach, and those four million dollar
homes weren't really that nice some of them, right, some
of them were fantastic. But right here, what does two,

(04:54):
three and four million buy today in Houston, Texas? Which
may be one of the reasons a lot of people
are coming from other states, California, even New Jersey and
other places, what can we buy for say three million dollars?

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Well, first of all, all those places still make Houston
look like a very reasonable market, our luxury market here
compared to California, to compare to some of these over
regulated states that all of us probably could pick out. Houston,
I say, doesn't have a perfect system, but we've got
a lot better system than most. Something that you and
I talked about have talked about previously. A third of

(05:27):
the new homes in the country are being built in Texas,
and Houston has a big percentage of those.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Okay, wait a minute, say let's say that again. A
third of the new homes. Yes, in the United States. Yes,
it's a lot.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
That is a ton and it's because people are moving
to Texas. All of us know and have seen the
area grow for the last few years. But more importantly,
there's a lot of economic reasons. There's a lot of
weather reasons. Believe it or not. You know that people
do like the war more than the cold in general.
But overall, the end product, the in person that buys

(06:00):
our homes as usually someone that works in town. Lawyers, doctors,
all the same people. Are the wealthy folks that we
deal with that want to be ten to fifteen minutes
from their work, and they understand that time is money.
They might bill at one thousand dollars an hour. So
if they could save that hour that I drive and
from tom Ball every day to come into town where

(06:20):
I grew up, that that's something that they can translate
into more time with their family things of that nature
that all of us can relate to.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
And I would think also so many people love real
estate going back decades ago to where realtors started in
real estate because they opened that Sunday section. Many people
were going way back now to the maybe wall phones
on the wall, but where people opened up the Sunday
paper and went right away to the real estate section.
To One of the things that I would think that

(06:50):
you get to see is some of the trends. So
here you are, with some of the homes that you
have right now available, what are some of the trends
that you've seen in your companies deploying here now versus
maybe five years ago.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
I mean, perhaps the biggest one is nothing stays the same,
So that's the trend. You know, dark cabinets are in
My wife still excoriates me for the dark cabinets that
we have in our kitchen. I said, I thought you
wanted that color. Well, she wanted white. But I tell her, well, hey,
white won't be in in the next five years. It'll
be back to dark. So we're just waiting. It's been
a little bit longer than that, so I'm patiently waiting.

(07:25):
But it's all the same luxury features, but now it's
in a much more wide open box. You don't have
as many specific rooms. I mean, people still want theater rooms,
but nowadays it might be a golf simulator in that
same space, and they might use that more than they're
going to go just sit in a room and watch
a movie. The idea of doing that without your phones

(07:47):
and went out enough light to see your phones, it's
kind of silly to all of us. So that's the trend.
We're not seeing a change necessarily in the size, but
the usage seems to be a lot more flowing, a
lot more entertainment oriented. But people that buy these homes
don't stay there by themselves. They have friends, they have
church affiliations, they have an idea where they're going to

(08:08):
have entertaining in that home as well as cozy family gathering.
So we're trying to design those kind of homes, which
is easier said than done when you're trying to make
it cozy but yet open, airy flowing.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
All of those and our kitchen islands getting bigger and bigger,
or are they now retreating?

Speaker 4 (08:26):
No, you're getting two now? Two is the fad built two?

Speaker 5 (08:29):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (08:30):
No, but that is what's happening. But who can argue
with the functionality of nice big island if your kitchen's
big enough for that. So we're doing that as well.
And you know, by trends, I think in terms of
colors and things like that. Build a house that you
saw and you may not remember this, but we had
the color of the year which was purple, a version

(08:50):
of that and it was gorgeous. Well, we were down
to the last week and we were going to change
that color because we weren't getting the traction we wanted.
The family that bought it, the lady said that was
one of the main features. So you're trying to find
that one. But if you make it too specific, that
can be pretty alarming. But it's still a color openness.
You know. Lux features is what people want in a

(09:11):
luxury home.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
We're talking with Greg East. The company is Winfree Design
Build Greg. What about energy efficient features? I mean right now,
especially in Houston, I mean we live on life support
where they're conditioning eight months of the year, so pretty much,
what are some of the things you're doing from an
energy standpoint?

Speaker 4 (09:30):
You know, thankfully, again in luxury construction, that's one of
the first things that luxury builders address because it's something
that's important in a seven thousand square foot house. Some
of the light bills and stuff that are you know
average for those people, would you know, just blow people
out in the suburbs away. They have a lot of
things to power. People are putting in extra power and
things like that, so all those things generate heat. One

(09:53):
thing that we've been able to do in the last
three years is switched to an entirely spray foamed house.
So up until three or four years ago, I have
it in my home out in the burbs, but the
dynamic didn't make sense for custom builders until there was
enough volume to make it worth it for builders. So
we're doing that now. And it's a lot easier to insulate,

(10:14):
you know, master bedrooms and things like that. So we're
doing those things that all make the home a little
bit tighter. But I will say now, there's a lot
more science available to a good builder, and you're not
on island, so there's a lot of times where we
have clients that bring in extra consultants. A guy named
Toner with Toner Home Matters is well known in the community.

(10:34):
Other companies like that, and it's the idea of holistically
designing a home that's going to do just what you said,
because there's audio, visual openings, all these openings that we
have to address as a builder. That can be points
of weakness for an energy plan. But at the end
of the day, in Houston now you have to provide
a certain energy standard, and most custom builders, including us,

(10:55):
are exceeding that standard by quite a bit. I just
wanted to know Houston is booming. I think Houston is
a great place. Bill and I were talking about speaking
of the old days. Twenty twenty five years ago, this
advertising group called the Advertising Guys, I don't know if
y'all remember them, came up with a slogan, Houston It's
worth it. I thought that was the best slogan. People
complain about the mosquitoes and the heat. But we got

(11:18):
our sports teams, we finally got a few championships. We've
got all of these things that are cost affordable compared
to California, compared to New York places that other people
have to live in, these dense areas, And I just
I'm a fan, you know, and I think that everybody
in our company is. And it shows, you know, in
the places that we built.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Okay, just estimating out of the last ten homes that
you sold right in whatever amount of time, that is,
how many were from out of state that moved for
whatever reason.

Speaker 4 (11:50):
That's a great question. We haven't seen those people. I've
had people oddly move from the beloved suburbs into town
when their kids started getting older. And I'm thinking one
attorney going, hey, just once, I want to live close
to my office. We grew up, you know, raise our
kids out in sugar Land. I want to live close
to my office. So I'm like, why would you move
from the burbs into town? But you know, I get

(12:11):
wanting to be close to your office. So to your point,
I would say, you know, we haven't seen that person.
We hear a lot about it, but we're normally dealing
with people that may already have kids in Saint John's
and they're wanting to be a little bit closer to
the campus, and we happen to have a home in
that area. And that's a big part of these luxury neighborhoods.
Even parts of River Roads are more desirable depending on

(12:33):
what your reference point is.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Greg if someone's interested in more information about your company,
or they may want a home or too. Let's tell
people how to reach you.

Speaker 4 (12:42):
The best way is our website winfree Design build dot com.
That's wn fr ey ey. We love to have conversations.
We call it a cup of coffee. It's not for everybody.
It can be an eighteen to twenty month investment in time,
depending on what you're doing and all of that very
very important. Yeah, phone number is you can call my

(13:04):
number seven one three five four five sixty six three six.
Our office line is a iPhone eight that sits on
my desk and I'm the one that answers it, but
I'm not always there. But you're welcome to look that
one up and call me. But we love having a
couple of conversation, a cup of coffee and have a
conversation and see what people are into.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Greg, thanks for being with us.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Thank you, Bill, I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
As we move along, let's talk to Jacqueline and Donnie Boutwell.
Their company is called Media Systems and they do a
lot of things and we're going to find out right now. Hey, guys,
welcome to the show.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
Hey Bill, thanks for having us.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Hey, good to see you, brother, And we know who
the boss is in this operation, right Donnie, the boss Lady,
the boss head me, missus boss lady, missus boss lady. Well, listen,
media systems can mean a lot of things, So let's
tell people whoever wants to start. First, let's tell people
all the things sort of the menu that you provide.
And also, you moved into a brand new location. Let's

(14:00):
tell them what you're doing for people in their homes.

Speaker 7 (14:03):
We did. We just moved to the Houston Design Center
on Old Katie Road, which is just such a great
community people to be a part of. And recently we
had a walk in, which is really strange for our company.
We've been in business since nineteen eighty. I don't know
if there's ever been a walk in, but now that
we're in this new location, we're starting to get that.
And a couple came in and said, your media systems.

(14:23):
We said, yeah, we're media systems. She said, does that
mean you do media systems? Yes, that's what we did.
What we did, Yeah, that's a part of it, and
that's where it started. When Uncle Steve started our company
in nineteen eighty, it was home theaters and Hi fi
and sound systems, entertainment systems, you know, but over the
years Our industry as a whole has really evolved into

(14:46):
all kinds of home technology systems, including networks and Wi Fi, security, surveillance.

Speaker 6 (14:53):
Motorized shades and drapes, music, TVs, easy controls.

Speaker 7 (14:58):
That's right, anything that low voltage in your home, that is,
you know, extending beyond the range of the electrician is.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
What we do.

Speaker 7 (15:06):
But we also do a lot of boutique led lighting.
We do a lot of the detail work that many
electric electricians may or may not mess with. So if
you're looking for specialty lighting, cabinet lighting, yeah, oh gosh,
we could go on or so much under the umbrella,
including like you said, tunable. We do full color lighting.

(15:27):
Now we do lighting that will change color through the
course of the day to match the color of the sun.
There's really a lot that we do. So when somebody
comes in, we really have to figure out what are
your values, what do you carry about, what are you
interested in, and not overwhelm them with options, but really
try to focus in on what the need is and
see if we can solve problems for them. In new

(15:47):
construction will handle just such a variety of categories and retrofit.
In remodels, we do a lot of that too, But
we also, having been in business for so long, a
lot of what we're doing is just taking care of
the same people that we've been taking care of forever.
We have some customers that have been they were with

(16:07):
my uncle since the eighties. Jack and I've been running
the company for the last ten years, and so there
are people that we've grown that I've grown up with,
that we've been around for a long time.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well. And also, as you're employing Dontie, is its priorities too.
So you may be building a home, you may have
a home, and you're saying I want to update things
in terms of all the categories. I mean, entertainment would
be top of my mind. In my home, I want
to make sure I have a great place to watch
a movie, listen to music. But right now, I think
a lot of people maybe the first thing that they're

(16:38):
starting to think about or revisit is security. Now you're
helping with security as well, and we're the fourth largest
city soon to be the third, a lot of people
moving in. There's all sorts of things happening, good and bad.
But as far as protecting ourselves and our homes with security,
let's tell people what you're doing there because you have
a lot to offer.

Speaker 6 (16:59):
Yeah, there's several different layers to that. There's the intrusion
intrusion alarm, so if somebody is breaking into your house,
they're already in the house, that's when you get the alert.
But you need to be alerted before they even get
into the house. So we provide surveillance cameras that give
you alerts and they'll say there is a human on
the porch, and you can mark a small box so

(17:20):
it's like it's not just a delivery guy, like this
is somebody at the door who's trying to get into
the house. So having that alert ahead of time is
really helpful. An alert when somebody comes onto your porch,
you know somebody's there, you know, look at it. You
get an alarm, an alert when the alarm goes off
once they're in the house, and then you have protection
once you're inside the house. You know, however it is
that you protect yourself once you're in the house.

Speaker 7 (17:41):
I think those advanced AI filtered notifications have been a
game changer. Five years ago, you'd get an alert from
your video doorbell or from a camera that says there's
motion and it's the tree, and it's the car, and
it's so many things, and it becomes the boy that
cried Will and so you stop looking at it. Today,

(18:03):
our cameras are so advanced that they can tell you
that this is a person on your porch. Some camera
systems can even say this is somebody that we don't
recognize on your porch, and it can send you an
alert notification to your phone. We even have services now
that will monitor camera video footage live, just like they
would be monitoring your intrusion alarm too. So the game

(18:25):
has really changed in being able to protect your home.
And you know, we thankfully recently moved to Jersey Village,
and you know, I hate to say this, but that
you know, people in Jersey Village don't need us as
much in this area because they've got such a wonderful
police department and all that. But it's not that way
all over town, you know. And when we lived in
Spring Branch, it wasn't that way. And so we were

(18:47):
so thankful to.

Speaker 6 (18:48):
Happen where somebody tried to break into our house. Yes,
when our thirteen year old daughter was home alone, and
so I got the alert that somebody was on the
porch and you know, I'm in a meeting. I kind
of checked it, like that's weird. He looked like he's
delivering something maybe, And then she called was like, I
don't like this. Something was wrong.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
She could just thirteen years old, she's by herself.

Speaker 6 (19:08):
She never rang the doorbell, and in hindsight, I should have,
just because I can log into our doorbell. I could
have talked to him. But you know, in the moment,
I'm not thinking he's breaking in.

Speaker 7 (19:16):
You lose fifty I kep points in a panic.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
Yes, And it just looked like he was on the
porch and going to leave. Well, then he's going around
trying to open the gate. Once side didn't open, he
got over to the other side. And the way that
we have our cameras set up, we can see every
every single angle from the outside of our house.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
That's an important instant live.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
If I could say quickly, is that the And there's
some really great DIY systems. Ring dot Com is our favorite.
But the limitation why system, Yeah, as a DIY system,
but the limitation between a DIY system and a commercial
grade system right now is seeing all of the cameras
live at the same time on the app where we
could actually watch this person walk from camera to camera

(19:57):
view around the house as he was doing it in
real time.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
So when we saw him going into the backyard on
the other side, because we didn't have the other gate locked,
and it was like, okay, this is off. He shouldn't
be back there, and we we we we were in
separate cars and drove off together. He's on the phone
with nine one one. I'm on the phone with her,
and I could see him everything that he was doing.
He even tried to pick up a flower pot and

(20:20):
throw it.

Speaker 3 (20:20):
Into our the big window.

Speaker 8 (20:22):
Again.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
I remember your house too, and and and just my
own freak test, I remember I think Donnie said that
and broke into another house. He ended up right, He
actually broke into someone else's one years was not right.

Speaker 6 (20:35):
He kept throwing the flower pot and it wouldn't break
the window. And this this really was this back house.
This was a you know, a cheap house in Spring Branch,
like there's nothing special, and uh the window never broke,
and uh the flower pot broke. And so he left
And when the police got there a minute or two
after he left, Donnie pulled up, showed him a picture

(20:55):
and a video of the guy and said he went
this direction, they of course are going to order to
do He's like two or three doors down. He was
already on the back porch through the flower pot in
the window broke. It was in the master bedroom and
stealing stuff.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
So they found the guy.

Speaker 6 (21:09):
That they found the guy because we were able to
say this is him and here's where he went.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Okay.

Speaker 7 (21:13):
Something that's really changed, too, is that five years ago
somebody could have said, well, I'm not sure you're really
going to get a good picture of somebody anyway, right,
do we really need those cameras? Today you absolutely get
a great picture of the person.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
And what I was going to say is, there's no
Maybe there is an average house. But let's just say
the average house. And I remember your home for everybody listening.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
Two.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
It was a two story home where you used to live.
It had forty two square feet, four sides. It was
rectangular in shape. So the question people may have is,
so how many cameras. Now, you guys are in the business,
so you probably had extra, But let's just say an
average house like that, how many cameras do you think
you need to be at least have a good start.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
Sure, I like to cover the entrances for sure. But
what we find with our customers is that some people
are very sensitive about it and some are really not
sensitive about it, and so we want to be thoughtful
of that. We like to suggest when somebody's building or
remodeling that they wire for all the possible locations that
they might want to include a camera, because, believe it

(22:17):
or not, everything can't be wireless. You don't want everything
to be wireless. You want to take the burden off
of the Wi Fi in order to have better WiFi,
take things off the Wi Fi. So we want to
pull a wire for every camera possible location. We had
an incident too where one of our customers had a
home invasion. They were in the primary suite on one
side of this house. It was sort of U shaped,

(22:39):
and the bad guys came in on the opposite side
of that U shape and they were there for a
couple of hours, and the homeowner didn't know that they
were there a couple. It's beautiful modern house and when
they built the house, originally we begged them the wire
for every possible camera location and they just thought it
wasn't necessary in their neighborhood. Neighborhood. So they didn't do that,

(22:59):
and so we only had one camera in the front
of the house, and there was no footage that was
usable that was called right. That's right, that's right. And
so we always encourage people wire for all possibilities. I
had a situation yesterday, customer of ours wants to upgrade
his cameras from analog to IP cameras. Not to get
too nerdy here, but he had the foresight years ago

(23:22):
to say, well, go ahead and pull that Ethernet wire
anyway to that camera location, because maybe one day I'll
switch them to IP cameras. And now that's what he's doing,
and he's already got the infrastructure in place.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Okay, media systems, people can reach out security, you do that.
But let's talk and of course the electric shades, the
motorized shades are so nice. But let's talk entertainment. I mean,
people love to have a night. I love to have
a movie theater in my house, and everybody should that
likes movies would enjoy that. Let's tell people what you're

(23:54):
doing there. For video and audio.

Speaker 7 (23:57):
These days, there is a balance between there's always a
push pool between form and function. Right, there's a push pool.
So what does it look like and what does it do?
And I think in the past we were really highly
focused on functionality, and so home theaters look like theaters.

(24:18):
Today we were able to make living a living room
work in function like a theater and you can walk
in the room and you have no idea that it's
a theater room. Maybe we have invisible speakers. These are
the kind that go literally tape and float into the
drawwall where you don't see a speaker at all. You
may have some speakers that are built into furniture. You

(24:38):
may have a high performing speaker bar. We even have
high performing speaker bars now that look like they belong
to the TV. Can have matching frames with the frame
around the TV, kind of custom fabrics in front of them.
So you can really make a space provide both of
those and marry that form and function together.

Speaker 6 (24:57):
Right like Greg was even saying earlier, like you want
a multi use space. Most people don't want a dedicated theater.
Now we still do that. We can turn key that,
we can totally do that. But most people are watching
the TV closest to the kitchen, and so how do
you make the family room that's all you know, open
to all the other rooms. How do you make that
sound like a theater. Well, we can do that, and

(25:17):
we can hide it so you don't have all of
the junk out, and we can make it easy to use.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Sounds good easily. We're talking with Donnie and Jacqueline Boutwell.
Jacqueline is the boss, there's no question about that. The
company is Media Systems. You're doing so many things and more.
We're just scratching the surface here today, but it's easy
to drop twenty thirty fifty, one hundred thousand on a
whole combination of things that you're doing for people. And
you even have things where it's a concierge service. You're hoping.

(25:45):
You're helping homes of all sorts, but especially in the
higher dollar range. You're helping some of the most expensive
homes in Uston.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
You go to we are yeah, and it's not I
mean we do all of those things. We can also
do something just as small as you know, your Wi
Fi network or something else. If you're doing lots of
those things, we say to do about three to five
percent of your house budget goes towards your home technology.
And we even have a budget calculator on our website
that is through a third party. It's called HTA Certified

(26:17):
and it's the only certification for the av industry, and
so we're one of just a few companies in Houston
who has that certification. And if you go on our website,
you can click on the budget calculator and you can
put all of the things in there, all of the cameras,
you know, the Wi Fi, motorized shades and drapes. Maybe
you need fifteen TVs and it will give you an

(26:37):
average budget of what you might spend on that.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
Okay, we would say too that there's really not a
minimum purchase with us or a minimum start with us.
We're happy to help. We always say advice is free,
so that doesn't cost anything.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well, one thing I'm sad we're not going to get to, Donnie,
and you know it's one of my favorites is wire management.
I mean, looking at the back of the system that
you had at your display center, it was just a work.
It is a work of art the way all those
wires are just perfectly arranged. So let's tell people how
they can reach you at media systems and they could

(27:11):
also visit your store.

Speaker 7 (27:13):
We are at the Heyston Design Center on Old Katie
Road and love for you to come by for a visit.
But if you want to reach us online, that's just
very simply Mediasystems dot com and all.

Speaker 6 (27:26):
Of our social media pages are Media Systems HTx and
the phone number is seven one three four six nine
hundred and you can call or.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Text Mediasystems dot com. The phone number again is.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
Seven one three nine hundred, Media Systems dot com.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Thanks for being with us.

Speaker 8 (27:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
As we continue, let's talk to Anita Carmen. She is
the founder and president of an organization called Inspire Women.
We're going to find out all about that. Well, it's
good to see you. First of all. It's called Inspire Women.
I've been familiar with your organists now for several years
and have participated in some of some of your events.
Let's tell people what is Inspire Women.

Speaker 8 (28:08):
I think, Bill, if you imagine a woman, she can
be living in her house and just imagine her just
thinking about her life and what her life is about.
And I think that sometimes when you get through all
the busyness of life, you find yourself in a place
where you wonder why am I here on earth? What
am I supposed to be doing? And that's where inspire

(28:30):
women steps in. We're all about helping women to discover
what their purpose is so that by the time you
know their life on earth is over, is what is
it that you were supposed to have finished that could
change your community? So we're all about women changing the world.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
And in terms of how is that done because you
have events that happen. Also there are scholarships that you're
helping women that need a little bit of a boost, recharge,
they've had issues, traumas or things like that. Give us
an idea how you're helping.

Speaker 8 (29:04):
Well, I think every year, I mean we're going into
our twenty six year and every year we have citywide
conferences that draws thousands of women from across the city.
We also have one of the largest and most successful
fundraising luncheons over at the River Oaks Country Club, where
you have women who actually invest in the dreams of women.

(29:26):
But what we have found was not only the women
in the city who are coming who are seeking what
their purpose is. We find that even without supporters, they
are women who are wondering, besides the money that they give,
what is their life really about? So we find ourselves
working with the city, but we also find ourselves working

(29:47):
with Houston's top philanthropists and women who give millions of
dollars who want to know am I giving in the
right place and how am I going to use my
generosity to change the world. So we get to work
with them as well.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Well, right you are, and I've been as I've been
at the event. You mentioned philanthropists and those that are
from a financial success standpoint. Some people that have been
very financially successful are helping the organization and they see
what you're doing there and it goes some of that
goes to the scholarships. And then also you have some
community outreach activities that happen as well.

Speaker 8 (30:25):
Yeah, we have some very innovative ways to reach the community.
I think the question we asked was, you know, when
people are in need, how are we responding to that?
And what we found is sometimes when you show up
just with your person, people look at you and they're suspicious.
So if you have a flood, evacuation, or sometimes if

(30:46):
you have some tragedy that happened in a school and
people need emotional support, if you just walk in, people
look at you and they go what do you want?
And so our board came up with a very innovative
idea deal and they said, well, what if you walked
in with a dog, and if you had trained therapy

(31:07):
dogs and you walk in with women who are also
in training to minister to those who are in emotional crisis,
what kind of impact can you make? And so that's
when we started and outreached through our ministry where we
literally pair up our students who are majoring and counseling

(31:27):
with our dogs that are trained to do therapy, and
they are dispatched. They'll go to the women's shelters, they
go to children who might be experiencing trauma, they go
to transition centers when women may have an addiction and
now they're transitioning back to normal life. And so it
was just a way to show mercy but in a

(31:50):
different way where you bring a dog along and immediately
the people you are reaching they feel safe. The dog
has this impact. And our dogs are amazing and you
have one of that.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Let's tell people it's these are And until I met
you these three four years ago, I didn't know. I knew,
I knew about a lot of dogs, but I did
not know about the burner doodle. Oh yeah, well this
mountain dog meets the poodle, right.

Speaker 8 (32:20):
Yes, but see the Mountain Bernice dog is a shepherding dog. Okay,
so it has very almost like people say, it's like
an olde Uh, like a shepherd dog, right, that's very
nurturing and uh. But the pudo is very smart and
the pudo also doesn't shed, So when you put the

(32:40):
two together, you actually have a dog that has a
very calm temperament, but it doesn't shit as much as
other dogs.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Someone's allergic or something, you're covering that. So if you're
ministering to or helping counseling a child that's been in
a trauma situation, if they're allergic, that's not a factory.
So that's nice.

Speaker 8 (33:00):
Well, I think it depends on the child because allergies
hit people differently, but you have more of a chance
that that child or anyone who might be allergic would
not be allergic to this breed, and so it gives
us more opportunity to reach as many as possible. But
these dogs are literally trained to go through every situation
where they are expected to behave regardless of what's happening.

(33:22):
So we literally one of the trainers does is he
sits in his car and he plays these sound tapes
and so the dogs listen to sirens or they listen
to mobs and crowds, and so they are literally trained
to respond and to behave regardless of what is happening
around them. And we also work with other people who

(33:46):
have had this kind of ministry for a long time.
And one of the trainers said to me, the one
thing they forgot to train the dog in and they
had an incident was they took the dog to some
kind of a country fair and the dog had never
seen a horse before, and so the.

Speaker 5 (34:01):
Dog just kind of went nuts.

Speaker 8 (34:02):
So one of the things we do now is we
actually train the dog to be around the horses or
anything that they might encounter, so that they know that
my safest place to be is whatever my handler tells
me to do. So they are not interpreting life based
on what's happening around them. They actually determine whether this

(34:24):
is safe by looking at your eyes. And one of
the things we do to train the dog. People say,
how do you train the dog? Literally you go look
at me, okay, and the dog fixates his eyes and
looks at you. Well, that's trained that the dog is
looking into your eyes and looking for the queue like
what should I do now? And if you're okay, the

(34:45):
dog is okay. He literally will interpret the safety based
on you.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Yes, it's almost magic how dogs can connect. Even police
dogs do this at the Fucier Police Department use their
dogs to connect to the community. Also chase bad guys
and girls out there. But in the meantime, the dog
that I am caring for, I am officially what a
parent guardian.

Speaker 8 (35:06):
Has as you're a guardian parent to one of inspire
women's their dogs.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
And he is the best dog I've ever seen. Elvis,
if you're listening in Cali, I'm just saying his name
is Courage. This dog is amazing, amazing, and he is calm.
He works with the kids. When he's with me, he's
fantastic to be with the walk. He listens, like you're saying,
with the eyes, he watches me. I could give a
hand signal and he'll sit on without even saying a word.

(35:34):
But that said, his name is Courage. You also have
inspirational names which also function as how the dog connects
with whatever the job is. Let's tell people some of
the names and the other dogs that.

Speaker 8 (35:46):
Are just so some of the other names. We have Freedom,
we have Favor, we have followed, and they are also
different sizes because it depends on the situation.

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Favor and Freedom.

Speaker 8 (36:02):
They are white golden doodos, about seventy five eighty five pounds, okay,
And our camera loves them because when you have a
lot of commotion going on and Freedom and Favor walks
in is like this aura, you know, because they are
snow white and they're they're always perfectly groomed and they

(36:24):
are perfectly behaved. And one of the things we do
when we go to community events, we actually have a
table and we put the dog on the table, they're
not on the floor, and the crowd just come up
and they just hug them and take patreres with them.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah, you see that, And I hang I too, hang
by the dogs when I'm at it at the event
you're talking of, and people they're showstoppers. But then that's
the brilliant it connects. It puts people in a psychological
receptive standpoint and it's a comforting thing. So that said,
let's inspire women Anita Carmen, But a quick thing, Anita you. Also,

(37:04):
they're making a movie about your life. You started before
you came to the United States. You started in Hong Kong,
right of all places.

Speaker 8 (37:11):
Yeah, I had a Houston. Yeah, a sad situation in
my life. I was seventeen and my mother was very
depressed in her marriage, and shortly before she took her
own life, she said, Oh God, give my daughter the
voice I never had. And I actually wrote that in
my book, and some movie producers read the book and

(37:34):
contacted me. And the day when they showed up, I thought,
who are these people? And they came with their whole
crew and literally they had already studied about the story
and decided they wanted to make a story on how
how the daughter not only found her voice, but then
building an organization that empowers the voices of thousands of women.

(37:55):
Inspire Women Today is the largest funder of scholarships of
two women who are serving emissions and ministry in the
state of Texas. Last year we awarded over a million
dollars to women in scholarships.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
And we have a staff of four people.

Speaker 8 (38:11):
I mean, so we worked a lot of volunteers. But
one of the dogs is going to be in the
movie and it's the smallest one and his name is Follow.
Follow is a little Maltese.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
Actually he's a character. He's a character.

Speaker 8 (38:25):
So he is going to be in the movie because
Follow was the Maltese was actually a dog in my life,
and so they have it as a character in the movie.
And right after my mother died, this dog that was
like my best friend, my father gave the dog away
and so they have this character in the movie as
they're developing the story on how did Anita then find

(38:47):
her voice in the midst of all her losses.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
So be on the lookout for the movie when it
comes out. Inspire women, Anita, let's tell people. And also
they're looking for extras in the movie so they can
reach out to you for variety of reasons. Inspire women.
Let's tell people how they can reach you.

Speaker 8 (39:04):
Yeah, I mean, the movie is gonna be They're gonna
shoot one of the scenes in Houston. They're gonna shoot
the conference. It's going to be on November the fourteenth.
The movie's name is called A Daughter's Voice.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
Okay, So if.

Speaker 8 (39:16):
There's anyone out there, if you've ever wanted to be
in the movie, contact us because we're doing a casting
call we want Houston to be involved. If you want
to be in the audience in the movie, it's going
to be so much fun. They're also looking for someone
to play me, and I'm not quite sure how they're
gonna do that, but I know the movie produces said

(39:38):
to me, this is I don't get any says in
the casting. They're going to be figuring out who that is.
And then one of the things I heard them say
is they might even go to a national search for
who this person might be, because the movie producers said,
this is a career making move for someone who's going
to be invited to play you.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Sounds good, Anita. How can people learn more?

Speaker 8 (40:01):
Okay, go to our website Inspire Women dot org, or
feel free to call me. My phone number is seven
one three seven O two four eight six seven. Number
again is seven one three seven O two for eight success.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Thanks for being with us.

Speaker 5 (40:18):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
I'll tell courage you said Hi.

Speaker 5 (40:21):
Hi.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Real estate matters with Stuart Title would not be possible
without our partner Stewart Insurance. With a focus in real
estate and a special focus on real estate brokers, Stewart
Insurance creates insurance plans to address the risks facing our
industry today. They invest a significant amount of time helping
real estate brokers offset and manage their risks. Here he
is once again Insurance Talk with John Bramlett. John, welcome

(40:46):
to the show.

Speaker 9 (40:46):
Thank you, always a pleasure and what.

Speaker 3 (40:48):
Could be more fun than insurance? Tell nothing, it's just
hard to beat, hard to beat. Yes, So what have
you for us today, mister Bramlett.

Speaker 9 (40:57):
Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about an
under appreciated coverage for real estate firms. Most real state
firms recognize the need for a professional liability coverage or
you know or you know you've heard it called Arizon
missions coverage, and that is important coverage. But one that's
that's equally important that many times is overlooked is general

(41:21):
liability coverage or if you combine it with commercial property,
you could have a business owner's property policy. And many
times that's overlooked because where professional liability helps out in
a situation where somebody feels like you did not do
your job, the general liability and the property coverage so

(41:42):
if you did, a business owner's policy helps with operations exposures,
so it's much more than just a slip and fall
or property damage, but it's truly an operational exposure coverage,
So one is much more on a professional what your
professional activities are in the airs and emissions, and then
the general liability or the business owner's policy is more operational.

(42:06):
So I think it's many times it's it can be
an overlooked, overlook policy, but in many cases we see
it's a bigger risk. And there are more common claims
against the general liability policy than we even see against
saracen missions. So it's it's you know, the general liability
itself is you know, the keys are going to be

(42:26):
bodily injury. So if somebody were to let's say you
were to have an open house and somebody were to
fall or they visited your office and they got hurt,
that's where the bodle injury come into play. There's property damage.
So again, if you were staging a home, for example,
and you were to damage somebody's home, the property damage

(42:47):
would come into play. But one that's often underlooked but
in today's world is becoming more and more critical is
personal advertising and injury. So when we talk about personal injury,
when it comes to this, it's not the body injury
where you would break your arm. Let's say the personal
injury is in a sense somebody broke your heart, you
said something, you did something, you wrote something that was offensive,

(43:10):
or kept them from doing their job. So that's where
that comes into play. That also, this area also covers
things like copyright infringement, slander or libel. You know, are
you using a piece of art or a floor plan
or a photograph for a specific area, but you only
have the rights for that one specific use. And you

(43:32):
assume I have got the rights to this floor plan,
I can use it often, or I have the rights
to this photograph, I can use it often, and that
many cases that's not the case. Or because you found
it online doesn't mean that it's free. So again making
sure that people understand that, and that's where that that
general liability comes into play. And then if you do
have a business owner's policy in a sense that's a

(43:55):
general liability policy on steroids, because that's where it'll add
the property coverage as well as business interruption. So you
know your desk and your computers and your servers and
your printers, all your business possessions if you will. But
then also in many cases we can have the coverage
where let's say that there was a situation where you

(44:17):
had to move out of the office, So how are
you going to offset some of those temporary housing costs
While your facility is being repaired, you still have expenses
those aren't going away, so how do you offset some
of those expenses. Well, that's where many times that business
interruption coverage within a business owner's policy can come into play.

(44:38):
We found in if you remember the freeze we had
in twenty twenty one, many companies found out that they
were their coverage, they were undercovered if you will, on
their general ability because of a lot of the damages
that occurred to those their equipment during that period. So
it's important to keep to keep that in mind. So
it's just really is a it's an undervalue or maybe

(45:01):
a better way to put it, an underppreciated coverage.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Interesting you mentioned it too, because there's so many kinds
of insurance, John, right.

Speaker 9 (45:09):
Well, there are, and it's really it's a matter of
being able to look at your business and how you
conduct that business, and then that's going to really then
drive the you know, the policies for consideration. So with
real estate firms, we know that they're dealing with clients
on a daily basis, so it's obviously that it's in
critical that we want to look at airs, emissions or

(45:31):
professional liability. You know, if we lease space, if we're
dealing with sensitive information, if we're opening or hosting open houses,
if we're working with independent contractors, you know, if we've
got some concerns about property being stolen, if we've got
office visits that we're conducting. All of those kinds of

(45:52):
things then lead to the need for general liability coverage.
Many times, if you're leasing space, the tenant or the
landlord's going to require that you have general ability coverage,
So you know, those all come into play. And then
you know, if we were to expand the discussion with
all the electronic communications, or if you're handling funds of

(46:12):
any kind, then that's where either a cyber policy or
crime policy would come come into play. So again it's
a matter of understanding how you do business, who you
do business with, where you do that business. Then that
can help us determine what policies might make sense to
build an overall insurance plan for your real estate business.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
It's always good to keep in mind and to review periodically,
not necessarily once a year. I think with all the
nuances that you bring forth each and every week, it's
a good idea maybe quarterly to check if we are
quote properly ensured at least well.

Speaker 9 (46:46):
And there's some things that if there are changes, we
need to know about and we need to adjust the
policy or make an addition to the policy during that period.
And there's some things that they're changes, will adjust the
policy at the renewal period. So again, just keeping that communication.
It's important for the insurance ad the insurance advisor to

(47:07):
maintain that line of communication, but it's also important for
the client to maintain that line of communication. So if
there are changes in your business or changes in your
family life, that we're aware of it, and then we
can make that recommendation of Bill, we're probably okay, let's
wait until renewal or that's a good point, Bill, we
need to adjust the policy now.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Good to know, John, What else should we know?

Speaker 9 (47:31):
Well, if you would like to be properly insured, and
all that really means is that you understand and accept
the coverage that you do and do not have. So
whether it's the most robust coverage with multiple policies or
maybe it's a single policy that's very conservative. As long
as you understand what coverages you do and you don't have,
and that fits your lifestyle at this point in time

(47:51):
or your business's lifestyle at this point in time, then
that's what we talk about being properly insured, and that
can be and we've talked about business insurance today. Do
the same thing for families and individuals on their personal insurance,
so their home, wind, auto, flood, motorcycle, watercraft. We can
help with all that. And we know we ensure your

(48:12):
four boats, that's right, so you know we can we
can do that. So and it's as simple as giving
us a call eight six six seven ninety eight two
eight two seven. That's eight sixty six seven niney eight
to eight two seven. You can learn more about us
at Stuart Insurance dot com or email us at Stuart
Insurance at Stuart dot com. And you told him to
call eight sixty six seven eight eight two seven.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
Exactly. Thank you Bill, Thank you John. As we continue
and wrap up the show, a good friend just happen
to stop by it mostly as a spectator, but we
wanted to say a quick word or two. This is
Deanna Sullivan, her company's called Sullivan's Solutions, And Dianna, your
company's been in business? How many years? A lot?

Speaker 5 (48:52):
Bill, It's been a long time, twenty years. Can you believe?
Started two thousand and three.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
Two thousand and three and here you are today. You're
helping with a lot of things, but leadership is one
of the big things as you talk to groups and
things like that, right.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
Leadership communication skills. You started your show off talking about
you wanting to entertain and inspire, and that's kind of
what I do. Educate, entertain and motivate people to achieve
their business objectives. So they've got to be good leaders,
you know. John Maxwell says everybody deserves to be led well,
and they've got to be able to communicate. So whether
you're a realtor, a homeowner, a business owner, you need

(49:30):
to be able to lead your team, and you need
to be able to communicate with the people that you
work with on a daily basis. How to lead that's
more important. It's very important. And people think it's just
easy it comes naturally, and it doesn't. You know, there's
so many people who don't invest in themselves, and that's
one of the things that I want to help people
do to achieve their business goals, they need to think

(49:52):
about what else should I be doing? As far as education,
So sitting down with a coach, thinking about are you growing?
Are you growing?

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Bill?

Speaker 5 (50:02):
Have you been growing? What's the last time you took
a class?

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I have not taken?

Speaker 5 (50:05):
The last time you read a book? Do you know
how many people never read another book after they graduate
from high school.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
It's a shame. They're missing out.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
They're missing out anyway. So I just want to make
sure that people are achieving what they want to achieve
in life. You don't want to get to heaven and
you don't get the well done, good faithful servant, Did
you use your talents wisely? We've been given these amazing
gifts and we want to make sure that we use
them to best of our ability.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
And Deiana? How can people learn more about Sullivan Solutions?

Speaker 5 (50:33):
Sullivan Solutions dot net seven one three seven eight o
eighty three oh eight call me, write me anytime. I'd
love to hear from you and visit with you. Seven
one three seven eighth eight three o eight. Sullivansolutions dot
net not dot com. If you get dot com, you'll
have somebody else.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Through the years, You've been everywhere.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
I have been very blessed to travel the world. In fact,
you know where I was this fall while I was
in Argentina with John Maxwell working on transformation tables for
this country. But I also was out in California, your
favorite place walk the Red Carpet Aquillie Award for the
book that I co authored, Phenomenal Business Strategies. Seven one

(51:14):
three seven, eight oh eight, three oh eight.

Speaker 3 (51:17):
Thanks for being with us, and now he's back to
give his contact information, Greg East. That's right, Winfrey Design build,
reach out to me.

Speaker 4 (51:26):
My number is seven one three, five four five six,
six three six. I ket, I do have to add this.
Bruce Winfrey, my boss, makes everything go. So I'm a
good representative for him. But it starts with and ends
with him.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
And you read my mind because I was going to say,
we want to say hey to Bruce Ship. He's a
good guy who's a great guys.

Speaker 4 (51:44):
Seven one three, five four five six, six three six.
Thanks again, Bill.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
You bet, thanks for being with us. Donnie and Jacqueline
Boutwell Media Systems. I have the hat right here. I'm
going to I think Donnie going to put it on
for the last couple of minutes of the show. It's
the media systems hat that you gave me years ago.
What should people know before we close down the show?

Speaker 7 (52:03):
I should have started our discussion with this. A simple, beautiful, reliable,
intelligent home. That's all we're trying to do. There you go,
that's it. It's just simple, beautiful, reliable intelligent home. Media
Systems dot Com Jacqueline. A final word, we should get.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
In early, have us in the design phase. Don't let
the technology be an afterthought or it's going to be
a mess. So get us in early in the design phase.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Thanks for being with us. Mediasystems dot dot com. Thank you,
Anita Carmen, Anita, you got Judy there with you. Let's
give us a quick word Judy. Let's tell people her role.
She's doing tremendous work. Every time I go by and
visit the organization.

Speaker 8 (52:48):
A Judy actually came from Corporate America and she retired
and then came to volunteer and inspire woman. So she
comes in every.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Day, and she said, from a real estate standpoint, she
just her piping updated to the PEX or whatever it's called,
the new piping, So she's on the right track.

Speaker 8 (53:05):
I think. One of the quotes I heard recently was
from Mark Twain. He said, the two most important days
in your life was the day you were born, and
the second day is when you know why. And Inspire
Women is all about helping women discover their purpose so
that they will finish their purpose on Earth. Okay, Inspire
women dot org or you can call me at seven

(53:25):
one three seven two four eight six seven.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Check us out next week and as always, you can
go to the show archives Stuart dot com. Forward Slash Radio.
That's right. You can see this show, all the special
effects and all the great things. Keeping it simple. Go
to Radio Bill. That's the YouTube channel. We'll see you there.
Thanks for listening.