That Time We Talked About The Chamber of Commerce

This is episode number 30 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so glad that you could be with us this dreary, rainy morning.

Yeah, it is. It's a little wet outside.

It's a special edition, man. The first morning edition of The Homeowner Show.

It's the first time— well, we've— it's the first morning show in this— In the studio.

Yeah. Oh yeah, we have done another morning show, haven't we?

Yeah, our Master Gardener episode is in the morning.

We took the tour in the morning. It was creeping into the afternoon when it—

It was lunchish.

But this is episode number 30, so I think that officially makes The Homeowner Show a millennial.

That's a good thing.

I don't know.

rather demandy and like, you know, I don't know.

Yeah, I guess so. But 30, it's a big deal.

It is a big deal.

Yeah, we're working our numbers up.

You're still here, I haven't fired you yet.

So far, so far so good. Yeah, yeah, we are still having people download our episodes, so. Yeah, in fact we're getting—

And not for like the bad reasons that we used to be getting them for.

That's right, like please download. No, we're creeping up on some good numbers.

Yeah, what's been going on, man?

Well, most recently, I'll tell you one thing that has happened over at my house is, um, so we've got this, this weird atrium area as you walk into our house.

Wait, there's something weird about your house?

Yeah.

I thought that was exclusively the property of my domain is weird, weird things.

This is kind of weird cool.

Oh, okay.

Not like weird weird.

Weird weird.

Okay, so, so there's this, um— Fine, yes, still have it. That's right. So as you kind of walk into our To the front part of our house, there's this outdoor atrium area that's almost inside our house. Our house kind of surrounds this place. It's outdoor in that the roof is over it, but it's screened. So it still rains in there and everything.

I've seen it. It's a good place to lock your kids up.

It is.

When you don't want them in the house, you can stick them in this thing and they can't get out.

Yes, correct. It's a fun place. But with moisture in there and everything, it was time to pressure wash that. that ground. So, um, we got like— it's, it's paved with pavers. The whole thing is like covered with pavers. So I was power washing this thing, and inside we have a sump pump, uh, to, to, you know, get that water out. So—

Like any good sailboat.

Yeah, exactly. Uh, and I've talked about this sump pump before, um, because during Harvey the thing froze up and I was having to siphon the water out of there. It was awful. Um, but so So all of this water was getting there because I was power washing it, and I was, I was done. I was cleaning up. I was in, and I was getting all the muck out of there, and all of a sudden my sump pump stops working. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Because, uh, the cool thing is my home warranty, when they replaced this sump pump the first time after Harvey, they made a mistake. And instead of putting in a plastic one like they had, they ordered a cast iron

one, which is like 3 times the cost, but they didn't charge me for it. That was just kind of their mistake. But it's, it's like, they're like, this thing's never gonna stop working.

Right.

It's awesome. And it's a grinder, so literally, um, it, it, you know, if debris gets in there, it grinds it up and then, you know, sends it out. Um, to where the exit is. So I'm going, you've got to be kidding me. So what did I do? I called our good friend Ryan Burke.

Ah.

And I said, Ryan, here's the deal. Um, you know sump pumps better than I do. How bad is this? Like, do I need to call a plumber? Uh, you're my plumber, so, so do I need to call you to come out here and do this? And, uh, and he was like, man, uh, he asked me a couple of questions and he said, is the motor still humming? And I said, yes, the motor's humming. He said, well, then it's not, it's not froze up, it's still good. Um, he said there's something lodged somewhere that it's not able to do what it needs to do. Okay, challenge accepted. So, so I go out and, uh, and this is just kind of the thing, man, DIY or calling someone, right?

Yeah.

So, um, thankfully, you know, I knew someone to call to ask what to do.

And then happened to have interviewed them.

Yes.

What episode was that, by the way?

Do you remember? Oh, probably—

I want to say like 25.

20, somewhere around there. Yeah, it's 5 or 6 episodes ago at least. Anyway, so, um, I get in there, take it out, and I'm like, this thing is— I don't see anything. But I noticed that I could actually take it apart with 3 little bolts. So I take the bolts off, take it out, there's a screw stuck in the grinder.

Ooh.

And I mean, this thing is, is cast iron, and it hadn't hurt it one bit, but the screw was causing it to not be able to turn.

It was just seizing it up.

It was seizing it up. Took the screw out, boom, perfect. Put it back together, put the thing back in there. Thank you, Ryan Burke.

There you go.

So that's my, that's my lesson for today, is don't, don't be afraid to get into stuff, because honestly, if I got in there and and something worse was happening, I would have just called Ryan anyway, and I would have already had it taken apart, and it would have been something he didn't have to do.

Yeah, I'm sure Ryan's listening to this going, man, I really wish Kevin would have mentioned to like unplug it and don't stick your hand in the grinder.

Wait, I was supposed to unplug it?

That would have been a good addendum.

No, I did unplug it.

Let's CYA on the Homeowner Show, okay?

I did unplug it. But anyway, so that happened over at my house, and we're good to go now, and we got a nice clean atrium. area. And I think— I don't know if we call it— we call it courtyard. That's what we call it. Why'd I call it an atrium?

I don't know. I mean, you can call it what you want.

You can call it Jeffrey.

I don't care.

Uh, well, Jeffrey's something else, so we're not gonna call that.

So we'll have to get into that later.

Yeah. How you doing, man?

I am doing well.

Yeah, good.

I'm just— man, I've got like 2 coffees in me, so I'm just— yeah, I kept wanting to interject in your story, and I I had like 5 things I could have said the whole time and I reserved.

You had a filter?

A little bit.

That's interesting.

First time for everything, I suppose.

There is a first time for everything.

Exactly right.

But we have Ashley from the local chamber here. The chamber here has a long name, right? I mean, it's like—

Yes.

Help me out. What is it?

It's the Conroe-Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce.

So Conroe's in there twice?

Correct.

Conroe-Lake Conroe—

Split up by a lake, yeah. Conroe and another Conroe with a lake in there, Chamber of Commerce, yeah. to be the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. It used to be the Greater Conroe Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, but now it's just the Conroe, Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce.

Because that's not confusing at all.

Right.

And that's a result of the great revolt of 1987 or—

Really, about a couple, what was it, maybe a couple years ago that a lot of 105 into Montgomery was taken by Conroe. A lot of the water and that type of stuff, systems and whatnot, like through April Sound area, are now Conroe.

That's actually where I live.

Me too.

Hey, neighbor.

Neighbor.

Look at us, we're making connections already.

That's right. But yeah, they annexed part of April Sound.

Is it just part of it?

They don't have all of it? I don't think so. I think it's only part of it.

Yeah, I think it's to a certain depth towards the lake. I think because then it is where it's like It's Montgomery. Like my address is Montgomery, but my water is, is Conroe. Yeah. So whatever.

Whatever.

I don't know. I don't know a whole bunch about that stuff. I do know a whole bunch about the chamber though. So I'm here to answer your questions about that. Oh, there you go.

Well, good. Well, I, I am curious.

Water, I can't help. But yeah, we, your sump pump, I'm really screwed. Don't call me. Call Ryan for sure.

You know, like one of our, one of our earlier episodes, we actually, we, we had somebody, we had a, a mayor on to talk about water rights that was going on. And it was, it was kind of a hotbed political issue at the time.

Absolutely.

And we did the episode and like, it was almost like 2 hours after the episode dropped, we got this email from a CEO who owned the company that was trying to take over the water. And he was like, I just heard your episode and we wanna come on and talk to you and set the story straight. And we're like, well, that episode won't come out until after the vote. And we didn't hear any more from him after that.

We were like, sure, come on.

Let's go.

Yeah, it'll be after the vote.

And he was like, not worth it. So not worth it. So yeah, we like to avoid water issues as well now.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But, um, I'm glad you know stuff about the chamber because I'll tell you, uh, I, I don't own a business and I don't know anything about the chamber, what it, what it's for, what the benefits are, uh, who can be a member. Uh, I don't know anything.

So, so if you can remember all those questions, yeah, Kevin would like to hear the answer to them.

We should, we should, we should wrote all those down.

That's right. The, the only reason I asked those questions is because I mean, surely I'm not the only person out there that doesn't have these questions, right?

No, absolutely. My dad has been an entrepreneur since 1987, and I just let him know when I first started working at the chamber that we were even a nonprofit. He had no idea. Had always been a part of the chamber, had always been a part of different groups and stuff like that as far as community advocacy and that type of stuff. He's like, you guys have volunteers doing work for you guys? And I'm like, yeah, because we're a nonprofit. And he was like, really? Like, yeah, we have six employees and we have a thousand members. Like we have. I mean, we there's only so much you know critical mass we can really reach here. You know, with just six people. So

the Conroe Chamber, along with every other one, you can just call it the Conroe Chamber because that pretty much sums it up.

We don't want to do like abbreviations like the CLC.

Yeah, right, exactly. The CLC OC. Da da da da da. Chambers tend to do a lot of different things that people don't know that we do. Um, we are a nonprofit organization, a 501. I think that has to do with our tax exemption and whatnot, but not so much as like a real full-blown charity, like a food bank or something of that nature.

Right.

Um, as far as what we do for small businesses, we provide networking opportunities. So if you wanna come in and meet some different business owners, different entrepreneurs, small business owners, local business owners, even marketing people, Mm-hmm. finance people, everybody. We have breakfast and we have after-hour events called Fun After 5 that you guys can come to. And, um, and, and every chamber kind of provides those type of networking things.

Wait, Kevin can come?

I guess.

I'm not coming.

You have to wear— but, but you have to wear pants.

Okay.

Rules are rules, buddy.

I'm right out. You have to wear closed-toed shoes as well.

Right? No, no, you can wear flip-flops if you like. I, I have sandals on today. That's okay. But, um, so we have those kind of opportunities. Um, another big part of what a chamber does is governmental affairs and other kind of like community advocacy programs. As far as going, like, since we are in Texas, we go to Austin every other year as Um, and do Montgomery County Day at the Capitol where, um, every, and most chambers in Texas do this where they plan a couple days to come down to Austin, meet their legislators and talk to them about the issues that are affecting the people in their community.

Hmm.

So really talking to people in the trenches about people in the trenches so they can represent their constituency better.

Yeah.

You know, instead of just being these kind of highfalutin people up in Austin, you know, and that's it. You know, um, another thing we really provide and most chambers provide is a certain level of continuing education for small business Um, or local business owners, whatever you are. Um, we have a program here called Professional Business Development, but a lot of people call it Chamber University or Small Business Association and all sorts of different stuff. They call it different things all over the country, but it's just continuing education really.

Right.

Do you wanna start a business? How do you start a nonprofit? How do you do your taxes once you start? How you market as far as using social media or how to even get in contact with people to do a billboard or anything like that. We have a long list of different things that we hold these workshops workshops on, if it's leadership, all that type of stuff that people can learn more about how to run their business better.

Yeah.

And keep the people in mind and their employees in mind to make the whole community grow. Another one of our core values is really kind of providing that leadership at different levels within the education and employment process. So, we have a program here called Next Generation Leadership, which is for high school seniors. They can go through all these different leadership courses and stuff like that, graduate, and get scholarships. We also have it for older people, not older people because any of us could go, but you could be 80 if you wanted as well, called LMC Leadership Montgomery County, which used to be a part of the chamber and now is a separate 501 where you can take

leadership classes in all these different areas and learn how to be a better manager of people. So, it's kind of in a nutshell what we do. We also hold a lot of events because we are a nonprofit. So, we like to raise money if it's either to run the chamber as far as overhead goes or even to provide those scholarships and everything for the Montgomery County Fair. You know, for people that, you know, come through 4-H or Future Farmers of America, they can get scholarships from the chamber.

Okay.

We have job fairs that we raise money, you know, as far as coming in and that type of stuff and getting vendors for their, you know, paying for their booth. And all that money goes towards scholarships to Lone Star College, wherever they want to go to get certified in a huge variety of different industries.

A lot of education stuff going on there.

Yeah. Education is, I mean, it's a huge deal. If you don't know what you don't know, you can come in and learn more about like, oh, wow, I never thought of it that way. Or you can, a lot of people have this aspiration to manage or start their own business, but just have no clue where to start. And the chamber is an awesome place to do that.

So, the one that really, that you just mentioned that stood out to me were the seniors in high school. What kind of stuff are you guys educating those guys on that are trying to move in towards those scholarships?

Well, we partner with an organization, another nonprofit called Education for a Better Tomorrow Association, I believe, EFTA. And we work with them to get internships lined up. We have the businesses and they have the interns. So then we can put people in the right positions.

Nice.

And we also host different workshops as far as resume building, as far as interview practice, and even going into things like coming into Conroe Regional Hospital hospital, going to places in the oil and gas industry, Huntsman, that type of stuff where they can go for a day. This whole class of people, there's about 40 or 50 kids in it that are chosen almost to be in this group. And they go one day a month to see what different industries are like. So, one day would be oil and gas, one day would be healthcare, one day would be education as far as working for one of our independent school districts. So, they have a whole semester, I believe, or school year or

so, to kind of go once a month to kind of see a different industry, see what they want to be in, um, practice interviewing, practice writing their resume. And then at the end, they pick a couple that get scholarships to go through and go to whatever college they want.

Awesome. Yeah, yeah, no, that's really cool. So, so one of the things that I hear, and, and maybe this is just very elementary, um, one of the things I hear you saying is, so The chamber is— we live in a community, and in this community, the goal is for this community to thrive.

Right.

And so the chamber is out there to really help people thrive better.

Right.

So that more businesses would be interested in coming in, so that more people would be interested in moving to the area. And so it's kind of a people helping people thing in that the the, the more education you've got about how to be a better business, the better business you are, the better business you are, the more people are gonna wanna be in this area.

The more people you can hire.

Sure.

The bigger your business gets, the more people you can hire, the more houses we have to build, the more hospitals we have to build, the more schools we have to build.

Okay.

And it just keeps growing and growing and, you know, adding to each other. I mean, people helping people, like our, our slogan for a long time was in business for business since 1934. And that was our entire business. You know, we're gonna connect you with you and how can you guys help each other I'm a marketer and I'm, I'm gonna make a podcast about ho— home ownership. How can we put this together?

Right.

How can we, you know, well, how about we try this on social media and how about we try this with some SEO and how about we, you know, and just to make those connections and, you know, your, your network is your net worth.

Okay.

You know, as far as just, yeah, the more people you know. Yeah. And be like, oh, like conveniently you knew Ryan who could come out and check out your sump pump.

You know?

Right. It's like if you didn't know anybody, it's like, oh, who do I go to? Who do I talk to? Who can I trust to come out to do this? When you belong to a chamber and you've talked to these people at our morning, you know, morning mingle breakfasts or the after-hours Fun After 5 networking events, you're like, you know what, I talked to somebody last week that was doing this, maybe I'll give them a call, you know. And it just automatically makes that rapport and that friendship that you wouldn't have otherwise, and it just helps everyone.

Okay.

Yeah, there's a big difference between, you know, like looking up a business on Facebook and actually having had a previous face-to-face conversation with somebody that you can— that like when you You know that when you call, that's who I'm looking for. That's who I've already talked to. And I think that's becoming more and more odd for people to have those kinds of interactions.

Absolutely! The face-to-face conversation that we have with people. Sometimes an email is great and sometimes you shoot somebody a text and that's perfect and that's sufficient. But that kind of handwritten note, that face-to-face conversation is really something that I really feel like there's going to be a sea change to come back to that, you know, because I think that what we're missing nowadays is that really human connection and that being in marketing, being the director of marketing for the chamber, like that's what we were kind of missing in our marketing, having that human connection, like real faces of people that are members of the chamber and it's worked for their business.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think it comes down to a lot, a lot in my mind to trust me because I don't even necessarily trust all of the reviews. that are online.

Right.

In fact, there's a reason now on Amazon, you have— beside the reviews, you had verified purchase.

Right.

Or someone was paid to leave this review. Mm-hmm. Right. They were given a free product and then told, in order to keep your free product, you've got to go leave us a review. Well, that doesn't work for me, honestly.

Yeah.

I like the people that buy it because— for other reasons. You know, one of the things that's really nice about that face-to-face is I don't just have to go off of a Google review.

Yeah.

Or I don't have to go off of somebody else's advice. I'm talking directly to you. I see your eyes. I hear your voice.

Right.

And, you know, maybe we grab lunch together at some point and all of a sudden, you talk about rapport, that rapport changes my ability to want to work with you. And I think that, again, it builds everything up differently than just this online presence that is good, it's just not always sufficient.

Right, I mean, a lot of people that get on Yelp or Google reviews and that type of stuff have a mission. Like, they're pissed. They had a bad experience and they want to make sure that business owner feels it. And that's going to be a lot. I mean, just being in marketing kind of as long as I have been, like, you have to answer those people and you have to be diplomatic and you have to, you know, register like, okay, is that an issue that we can work on within our business? You know, if it is the temperature of the food or whatever it is. But it's a stranger still that— I mean, that word of mouth is really coming back in vogue and the chamber is such a great, cool place

to start that.

Yeah. Well, it seems like you guys are facilitating a lot of other conversations. I mean, I think I saw recently you guys had like a community development kind of a talk with— there was like 5 or 6 guys up on the stage talking about like some communities that are being built Different things like that.

Yeah, we actually have a series called The Pulse, which is kind of a play on words as far as keeping the heartbeat of our constituency. We're doing a State of the City, a State of the State, a State of the County, a State of the Nation, all sorts of different things every other month or so. So, the last one that we did was the State of the City, and we did have a couple different congressmen, I mean councilmen and that type of stuff come up. As far as the CEO or president, I can't remember her full title. title of the Conroe Economic Development Council.

Mm-hmm.

Danielle Shiner, she came up and talked about some stuff and just where Conroe is growing. It's really going and growing. I mean, it's really pretty incredible to be the fastest growing city in America per capita. I mean, that's amazing. And we're just breaking records right and left. And it's really cool to see the education coming here, the jobs coming here, the people coming here. And, you know, our people that are representing us, whether it's citywide or nationwide, are really trying to keep that infrastructure growing at an exponential rate as well.

Yeah.

So we aren't stuck in traffic as much and we aren't— everything is kind of growing at the same rate or at least trying to keep it close. And that's a big part of what the chamber does as far as either educating the constituency or the community at large about these type of events and construction and all that type of stuff.

Sure.

Or us going even to Austin or wherever to, and Washington, DC, we went last year, um, to talk to our representatives to say, this is what's happening. Like this, we're the fastest growing city in America. Like what, what monies are coming here? What jobs are coming here? What industry? What, what's coming here to facilitate this type of growth? Yeah. And you know, it's cool to kind of have a hand in that.

Absolutely.

I imagine that's kind of, you know, it's exciting while, I mean, for you guys, it could even be like a little overwhelming with like as much that's coming in and and happening, you've kind of gotta, you know, address your strategies and look at the way that, you know, what kind of education you guys are providing for these businesses.

Absolutely. I mean, obviously it's taken a real turn over the last several years, you know, decade or so about how marketing is done. Mm-hmm. I mean, specifically in my kind of silo of the business, you know, I mean, as far as how digital marketing has happened with SEO and SEM and social media and all these different platforms that have come out, it's like, wow, we have so many options now. We have so many impressions that are just kind of like flying out of, you know, if it's a podcast, If it's Facebook, if it's Twitter, if it's Instagram, if it's digital marketing on a website, if it's, you know, all sorts of different stuff. And, and so to educate people that maybe have been in

business and are just an amazing plumber or amazing whatever, at whatever they do. Mm-hmm. They might've been in the plumbing business for 40 years, but have no clue how to start a Facebook page.

Right.

You know, so having that education available for free or really low cost for anybody in the community to come and try it out is, cool and humbling and exciting to be a part of.

Yeah. So one of the things that, that I just heard you say that is really interesting to me, I mean, that we're, we're the homeowner show, right? And so we're gonna try to continue to bring it back a little bit to homeowners. But for example, one of the things that a homeowner might be able to do is let's say they have a plumber over and they, they say, hey, I'd like to, you know, say something about you on, on Facebook or whatever. And maybe they say, well, we don't, we don't have a Facebook page, right? It would be really great for them to say, well, are you, are you a member of the chamber? And if they say

yes or no, it doesn't really matter what their answer is. Maybe a homeowner could even say—

They can help you make one.

Yeah, right.

The chamber, the chamber is available to help you make that, and it might really build your business. And, and the reason that a homeowner might want to do that is because the more businesses are, are doing well, the, the better your home value is going to be whenever people want to move into that area. Your home, the value of your home and the land that it sits on is going to go up.

We've seen it just happen exponentially. And you guys can absolutely vouch for this as being homeowners. I mean, how much— and you guys just got your property taxes. I'm still renting, but you guys just got your property taxes stuff the other day. And I mean, you're seeing that it's going up.

Oh, it did go up.

Yeah.

And it's going to keep going up.

My land value jumped up like $20,000 or $30,000.

Right, right. And I've been seeing that a lot in April Sound. Like, a lot of people have been saying that. But I mean, just one particular place, and it's on a lake, and it's nice, and that type of stuff. And but people— I mean, it's prime real estate.

Yep.

You know, and, um, yeah, I mean, it's absolutely— it's people helping people, going back to what we talked about before. You know, if you are a homeowner and somebody comes like, oh, have you, you know, have you joined the chamber? It really is inexpensive for even, even a small business or a sole proprietorship. membership to join the chamber for the year. If you really use those benefits as far as the continuing education, the networking stuff, all that good thing, like, I mean, then, I mean, it, it can boost your business, boost more people coming here. You can hire people and it just keeps growing for everyone. If we all just kind of reach out and help each other, then

everyone is helped.

Yeah.

So do y'all, do y'all work with city management as well? I heard you talk about traffic earlier and when you hit traffic, you said traffic, that's a buzzword for me.

Yeah.

Uh, for a lot of people that live Right. In any metropolitan area, right? Right. Um, which is weird to refer to Conroe as a metropolitan area. I know, I know. We are, we are literally, you know, 35 to 40 miles away from Houston and we're still a, uh—

We're going to be our own DMA at a certain point.

Okay.

Like, we're going to be— they're looking to— like, we're looking to be the size of Austin probably within the next 20-some years.

My goodness, that's crazy to think about. And but you, you said things like traffic, so, um, are, are you working also with city management, you know, the pulse here They're trying to get their heartbeat, so to speak, on businesses and the way things are happening and the rate of speed and those sorts of things. With city management, to kind of say, hey, we need certain roads to do these certain things so that you can get to my business better, so that you can get out of my business better, so that the flow of traffic is a little bit healthier.

Absolutely. Yeah, each and every chamber, to kind of take it macro again, every chamber talks. If you're part of the city management or not, We are not a part. We're a separate franchise entirely, you know, not a part of the City of Conroe, which has its pros and cons for sure. But we talk to the city administrators, the city legislators, all that type of stuff as far as like, you know, we're seeing this type of stuff. Our people are coming to us and saying that this traffic is this way, A, B, and C, and we advocate for them as best as we can.

Okay.

One of our ex officios on our board is Paul Virgadamo, who is the city administrator for the City of Conroe. And we have a lot of different people that to our board meetings that represent the city in different ways. And they hear from the horse's mouth how stuff is going, where it's going, all that stuff. And he gets educated once a month at least, if not through the city council meetings that we make a point to be at and that type of thing, just as representatives of local business.

Hmm.

So, we definitely get the word to the right people if they make the right decisions with that. information. Not up to us, but it's our job to definitely advocate for the people that we can. Okay.

And you guys actually have some ways that you guys are actually reaching out to the community. I mean, you guys have the radio show, you guys have a podcast, you guys have a lot of things that you guys are doing to do some community outreach. I mean, tell us about some of those.

We have a radio show on Lone Star Community Radio, which is 104.5 and 106.1 FM, right out of downtown Conroe with Dick Schisler. He's awesome and very helpful and a member member of the chamber. Um, he's a lot of fun and helps us a lot, um, with our, our Chamber Chat radio show, which is the first Tuesday of every month. So make sure you're listening to that at 11 AM here locally, or you can listen to it at irlonestar.com, um, because they have all sorts of, you know, if you're from here and you're listening to this but you're somewhere else, you can listen to it. Or if you want to hear how local radio is supposed to be done, then you can listen to—

Yeah.

You can listen to Dick. Um, and we also do a called The Shrimp Tank, which is originally out of Kennesaw State University in Atlanta. It's all about entrepreneurship and business tips and having business owners, small business owners and large business owners actually, um, come in and talk to us about their history, about how they started, their ups and downs, their successes, their obstacles, and how to run a business from scratch.

Yeah.

Um, it's been really, really fun and it's been, there's a cool like benefit for members of ours to be able to come in and talk about like, I've been doing this, you know, financial planning business for 30 years. And this is how I started, you know, or like I was throwing out the Conroe Courier little newspaper when I was 12 years old. And that was the first real job I had. And I realized I wanted to work for myself. I mean, whatever it is, it's just, it's, it's so cool to hear people's stories and to be able to share them and give people the encouragement, um, to start their own business, especially here in our area.

Yeah, no, it's, it's a, it's a good show. I actually found out about it because my friend Melanie was on there talking about her business. Um, and she's, you know, she's obviously transitioned into some other stuff recently, Right. Um, just a really cool show. I mean, just to kind of get into like how you— it's a good way to get to know people that have started businesses in your community.

Right.

And, and like, again, it's, it's not exactly face-to-face, but like, it's, it's just a way to get to know these guys.

Absolutely. And we talked about trust and that, and that's what it's all about. And if you are a homeowner and you want to, you know, we've talked to people like from Mr. Rooter and we've talked to people, you know, all the Eastco air conditioning and heating and stuff like that. We've talked to these people that—

Make a note of that, Kevin. We need to have an air conditioner. Yeah. Well, I was thinking about that just the other day.

Call Clyde Terranian at Eastco Air Conditioning and Heating. He is the man and he is so sweet and so earnest and has been running the business since 1983.

There you go.

Yep. He's from Troy, Michigan. He came on down and was sick of the snow. And, but there's things you learn about, you're like, oh man, now if I'm gonna, if, you know, if I need my air done, I'm calling Clyde cuz he's the man, you know?

Yeah.

Um, but it's something to listen to if you're an entrepreneur or a business owner or a manager in general. But it's also so you can kind of learn things, you know, as a business owner, but even as a homeowner, I mean, And you can listen to those types of things. And we've talked to a lot of people that have started these considered like blue-collar businesses, but have turned something into, you know, turned it into really a career and a lifestyle where they're providing livelihoods for so many people in our community. And it's really cool. So then once you hear their story, like, oh, my wife passed away and it really changed how I started managing and stuff. You're like, oh wow, dude. Like,

I'm calling Mr. Rooter now because Roger Gertz is the man.

Yeah.

You know, and if you need your plumbing done down from Woodlands all the way up to Willis, they'll do it for you. But yeah, we try and provide different benefits that are unusual and cool and fun and innovative for people. Because like we've talked about, the landscape, if it's Conroe, if it's beyond here, if it's the world, the landscape has changed so much. So we really try and reflect that and be innovative.

Yeah. Well, with you handling kind of the marketing side of things, I mean, you might have some some good ideas, some good tips for people to find business in the new virtual world? What are some of the ways that you've found to find the best businesses online?

Well, I know most chambers, if not all, provide a member directory. So, if you want to— it's not necessarily an endorsement because they paid dues. But if there are large issues and moral issues and that type of stuff, then we have to think about whether or not they're going to be a member of our I like people that kick other people out. Right.

Right.

I wouldn't be a part of any club that would have me as a member anyway. So, um, right. But I mean, that's one place to kind of start. Start with your local chamber or your local Better Business Bureau. I mean, cuz those things are going to be, um, highly regulated. Mm-hmm. And, and looked into. And it's going to be, um, you know, an easy place to start. Like you can always find the phone number too. You know, if it's Houston, if it's Conroe, if it's Texas, if it's whatever, wherever you are, um, the, you know, your local chamber or your Better Business Bureau are great places to start. Like, you go to Yelp or Google Reviews, you may not get the most honest, you know,

real answers.

Right.

Yeah.

Um, but that's a good— I mean, and the thing is, the people at the chamber are going to have these— this type of rapport with the members. So if you call me and ask me, I need a plumber, then I'm going to suggest that you go to Roger Gertz of Mr. Rooter because I know him and I, I see him 3 times a month, you know, because he's, he's really involved in that type of stuff.

And all of a sudden you build up trust with this person, right? Exactly. Circling back to what we were talking about earlier, is the more you're around people, you learn their heart, you understand who they are. And, and, you know, the bottom line is whenever you've got that type of relationship with people, they're going to treat you differently too. So it— I think the relationship side of this thing is really important.

It's so important being a homeowner that you, when you do invite someone into your home, because we all have kids and stuff like that, when you invite someone into your home to do a small project or a large, like, kind of drawn-out project, you have to have some sort of level of trust with that person. You can't just get anybody off the street and hope they're gonna fix your toilet right or whatever it is. So you have— I mean, to build that type of rapport and trust in that type of stuff, a chamber is a great way to do that. Better Business Bureau is a great way to do that. I mean, word of mouth, like I said, is just coming

so much more in vogue. So it's a great place to start.

It's a high-value commodity for sure.

Right, because it's so rare. I mean, it's a priceless thing that you have to really work to get and don't have to work very hard to lose. And it's just a really important thing. And I think that the chamber is a big seller of that ideal. It's a core value of ours to work with integrity and work for the best of the community.

And I would imagine one of the easier ways that just a local homeowner in any community that has a chamber wants to get to know the local business people better Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, you're gonna, you're gonna meet those people, right?

If you come to any of our, like any of our events, any of our volunteering opportunities, any of our networking events, anything like that, I mean, you'll see how we work. We, you'll see our, our values in action, you know, in like, we are the hands and feet of the community. Like they always talk about that in church, like, oh, you're gonna be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Mm-hmm.

We're like the hands and feet of the community.

Yeah.

You know, we're, we're in an elevated spot where we are a little bit more visible. visible and can maybe hopefully get things done quicker for people in the community. And if you like and want to be a part of that, then it's a great place to start. And then you get to know everybody and get to know— I don't know. It's just a beautiful thing. Conroe is such an unusual place that can be so big with about 82,000 people right now within the Conroe city limits, not including the whole whole area of things. Like out here, I don't believe is within Conroe city limits. Yeah.

You drove like it's 100 yards down the road from here.

Exactly. But you're technically in Conroe. And there's 82,000 people within the city limits, but to still have such a small town feel is beautiful. It's such a rarity. And if you'd like and want to be a part of that, a homeowner, a business owner, whatever it is, whatever your aspirations are, to come out and just see what we're doing.

Because a lot of people So, what kind of volunteer opportunities do you have?

Well, we have a lot of different committees like I was talking about. We only have 6 employees and each of us has our own little area. So, I do the marketing. We have a special events person. We have a finance person. We have a membership person, a president, and then a person at our front desk to answer calls. We are the old-school Google. People call and ask for like, well, there used to be this tire shop. And it was down, it was maybe like 3 or 4 blocks from you guys. And we're like, we're all looking at each other like, I don't know, man. Like, that's, you know, so we're trying to look and we're Googling stuff

for people on the phone. Like, it's, it's pretty funny.

That's funny.

But we were, I mean, we were, we were, the Chamber of Commerce was a, a place where a lot of people came just for general information about, you know, can you get a phone number? Like if you didn't have a phone book or a map or something like that, then you would come to the chamber. So now we are the Google of, of, of the older generation, the greatest generation. We keep telling ourselves. But yeah, when we get 85-year-olds being like, do you know the tire shop? It used to be— dude, like, when was it? Maybe 60 years ago? I don't know, man. I don't know. But, um, but as far as volunteer opportunities, you can come and be a part of any one

of our committees because each of our different events and each of our different, like, governmental affairs and stuff like that all have separate committees.

Hmm.

So, and they are absolutely 100% or 95% volunteer-driven. So the trips that we take, the advocacy that we do, the events that we put on are a lot because, you know, like say for Taste Fest in June, we have a big like taste of town type of thing and we have, you know, 2,000, 3,000 people come through the doors and we have to have that many vendors. We have one person that does special events.

Wow.

So we need people to go out to these restaurants and be like, you would like to be a part of this. 3,000 people are gonna walk by your food. Do you wanna— okay, sign up. It's $150. Let's do this.

Yeah.

You know, so we have to have volunteers for that. for that. But each of our events, each of our kind of advocacy areas have different opportunities for volunteers. And if you don't know if you want to join, but you want to maybe be a part of it, and you don't know if you really want to be on that committee or not, just come to one. You don't have to come back.

Yeah.

Like, just check it out. Because if you see what we're doing and how we're doing it, and with the passion and determination and, you know, commitment that we're doing it, and we've been doing it for 85 years now, then you're gonna want to be a Is there an age limit to be able to volunteer?

Do you have to be a certain age in order to volunteer?

I mean, we don't have volunteering in the way that something like a soup kitchen or something would have volunteering. So, if there's something like that or like community service type of volunteering, no. But as far as being a part of a committee or working Lobsterfest or something like that where we do need, you know, 60, 70 people to be able to help us get all the silent auction stuff done and all that type of stuff, then no.

Okay, so a teenager— so for example, if a family wants to bring, you know, mom and her teenage, you know, daughter, that would be an option?

Yeah, for sure. If they want to see the process and they want to, you know, I mean, we've, uh, for, um, Lobsterfest, we had a lot of big tables and a lot of like auction items and that type of stuff. We had a group of teenage boys from one of our regular volunteers. She's like, my son and his friends want to come and just like help us break down tonight. Perfect. Just, you know, just find somebody. And we, we need, we need 15 strong 17-year-olds. Let's do this, you know. And, and we'll figure out a place for you.

Well, and I'll actually speak up for the champ because I—

full disclosure, I am a member.

But, uh, so one of the morning mingles, I actually took my daughter who's And she, she actually ended up volunteering that morning to help, uh, to give away some of the door prizes and things like that. And she had a blast. I mean, she's way better at, uh, networking than I am.

So she's just friendly.

She just takes after her mama.

Yeah.

Big time.

Thank God.

But it's cool. It's cool for, I mean, we talk about our next generation leadership program that we have like this, you know, rising seniors and stuff that get to be and go try out different jobs. sort of like each, each once a month and that type of thing. We have that type of thing that's already in place. But I mean, we do, like, if they want to come to something like after-hours ones, like the Fun After Fives tend to have adult beverages. So we don't really encourage kids to come. But if the person that's hosting it, like we had one at Berry Hill Mexican Restaurant and everyone was having some adult beverages, enjoying themselves and that type of stuff. But the person that wanted to put it on, he's a platinum member of the chamber.

Mm-hmm.

He, he invited his kids along and they were, they were super fun and helped us with our raffle and everything like that. And it was great. Um, so it's not necessarily like a, volunteer opportunity. But I mean, we also did a whole event at the fair. We do a lot of different stuff with the county fair. And I mean, beyond the scholarships and everything, like last night we bought a pig and a broiler at the auction and stuff like that. But I mean, people went and brought their kids and the whole nine. So I mean, it's really a lot of the stuff we do is a family affair. Okay, great.

Well, so, um, you know, I don't know exactly what our time limit has come to at this point, but one of the questions that I want to ask you specifically is, you know, we've You've hit on a few things related to homeowners. Is there anything else that we haven't asked or anything that is maybe home-related, homeowner-related regarding the chamber that you would be interested in talking to us about?

I mean, I think using our member directory is a great resource. Ours is at conroe.org. It has a whole full list of everybody that is a member. So if you are looking for something specific, People aren't getting the Yellow Pages anymore. And people, if you don't want to just Google stuff or like read all those Yelp reviews like we were talking about, it's one place that's kind of objective and has a whole list of, you know, everybody that has committed to being a member. So that's one way that we can really be a resource for people. A lot of people might work from home and that type of thing. And you can be a member as a person that works from home or a nonprofit or H-E-B or Kroger or whoever you are.

I was going to say, I mean, like, I don't think a lot of people know that as a nonprofit you can be a member of the chamber as well.

Yeah, absolutely. We have reduced rates because we recognize we're nonprofit, you know, eye for an eye, we get it. So, but yeah, if you're starting off something new or a nonprofit, like I said, like from nonprofits to sole proprietorships all the way up to Walgreens are members.

So, yeah, and home-based businesses are just booming right now.

I mean, they're thinking over the next couple to several years, it's going to be about 50% of people are going to be like freelance home-based people.

Yeah.

So it's, it's, um, you know, it's, it's another great resource, you know. Um, as far as homeownership, I'm trying to think of anything else that might be a good—

um, well, a lot of people are even doing, um, you know, little side hustles, right, that, that are businesses. They've got a, you know, LLC or whatever it is that they've got, um, that are working out of their home. They're doing it just in the evenings or, you know, on their days off or whatever, weekends and stuff. Yeah. And, and those people can, can be part, right?

Absolutely. I mean, if you are working from home and you just don't— you can't get out enough, like you can't just see enough people face-to-face, our thing— our networking events are huge because you can come in and see 50, 60, 80 people at once for a couple hours, network a little bit, and go home and be like, oh wow, like I've, you know, I found some new people so that I can do business with.

Absolutely. Okay, great. All right, Craig, you got any other questions?

No, I'm good.

Okay.

I know it's kind of a lot of chamber-related stuff.

No, no, that's— it's, it's awesome. I mean, like, like I said, I, I'm— there's a lot of this that I, I was just unaware of. And so I think you've given a lot of clarity to, uh, to what the chamber is and why it's beneficial to the, the community that we live in. You know, when you're talking about the directory, one of the things that came to my mind is if you just go on Google, for example, you're sitting at your home and you need a plumber you really, you may Google, you know, plumbers near me, and you may get people in 4 or 5 different cities. If you live in a, if you live in a community like we

do, where we're in a suburb, I mean, there's, there's lots of little communities right around us. And so if you really want to pour into a certain community, you want to, you want to pour money back into Conroe, for example, you, you really do need to look for businesses that are in Conroe.

Right.

And you need to understand that a plumber near you may not be the best option because a plumber on the other side of Conroe may be more than willing to drive to your house.

Right.

You know, so the Chamber might be a really good resource for people that are in the community and on some level they are making an effort to be part of that community because they're members of the Chamber.

That's a huge and great point as far as the money you you make, say you work here in Conroe and you want to keep the money in Conroe, keep it going to Conroe ISD, keep it going to the roads here, keep it going to the infrastructure here. If you want to find somebody that definitely does business and is in Conroe or the Lake Conroe area, because a lot of it is Conroe and a little bit into Montgomery, a little bit of Willis, just because it's around Lake Conroe, that's a great place to find people that are definitely in the right place and you're going to keep money here. And know that, I mean, obviously Walgreens,

H-E-B, all that type of stuff, going to be national or close to national or regional companies. But you can find these mom-and-pops that are like, oh, I didn't realize that they had a little shop. I want to get a candle for my mom for Mother's Day, or whatever. And you can find this little shop that's a part of the chamber. You know that your money can stay right here in Conroe. That's a great point for sure.

One of the things I really appreciate about the chamber is that you guys are helping them get themselves out there because I love buying local, but I find it more and more difficult difficult to find them.

Right. And inconvenient sometimes when you're trying— like, if I can get on amazon.com and get something here in 2 days, you know, that is— there's a certain level of convenience. But if shopping local and keeping money here local in Conroe or in whatever area you're listening from is important to you with those smaller things, you know, you might have your Amazon Prime for your big— for all your toilet paper every month or whatever it is. But if you want to get that, you know, unique little cool gift or whatever it is, and you want to stay local in Conroe, And chamber's a great place to find those type of people.

Yeah.

Very cool.

Yeah. Y'all have any other big events or, uh, anything coming up?

We do. Um, as far as our, um, Taste Fest, that's the biggest thing that's coming up this summer. It's a big like taste the town type of thing. We have a whole bunch of different vendors, um, local and small business and national, uh, brands. Um, we'll all be there and the tickets are $20. Um, at the door, $30. It's on June 6th, the Lone Star Convention Center. And like I said, like we had over 2,000 people last year. So we're really anticipating with kind of this upped marketing and stuff like that, that we're really hoping for 2,500, 3,000 people. So if you are a business owner and want to be a vendor, then you can be. If you are a business owner, but you don't sell food, you can be a sponsor. And if you just want to show up and eat a whole bunch of food

and drink a whole bunch of wine, then we can, we can facilitate that as well.

Awesome.

So y'all don't need like some MCs for that, do you?

I mean, you know, I'll get y'all a couple tickets if y'all want.

There you go.

I know, I know somebody.

There you go. Now we're talking.

But yeah, that should be fun. And then Lobsterfest is our other big, big event, and that's in October. So, okay, so look forward to that. Lobster and steak and shenanigans. Really good, really good stuff.

I'm glad we hung on because I did think of something I wanted, I wanted to ask you. Nope.

No, she's cutting me off. No, what did you have?

Just like Lobsterfest last year. Exactly.

Craig, you cannot come up here anymore.

It's enough. You've had too much butter, sir.

You've had too much clarified butter, sir. No more.

It's never enough with the clarified butter. But, you know, I'm thinking about, because we have a lot of listeners like that are not in Conroe, not in Texas and different things like that. And so, and I, you know, I may be biased, but I think that our chamber does a really good job.

Well, thank you.

You're welcome. And that's not just because of those tickets.

Wink, wink.

They help.

So, if I'm in my community and say I'm a business owner, say I'm a homeowner, what should I be looking for in regards to the chamber in my town to recognize whether or not they're doing a good job?

I would give them a call. Check their website and see what kind of initiatives they have going on. A lot of them are going to have their core values, their main main committees and stuff like that that you can get involved in.

So a website's a good start if they have a website.

In theory, right? I mean, there's gonna be some small towns that just aren't gonna have them, and you're just gonna have to call on the Rotary phone and just see if you can maybe get a hold of them.

I would love to have a Rotary phone. Can we get one in the studio?

Yeah, let's do it.

I mean, I don't see why not. You probably just find one on the side of the road or something.

Probably true.

In a landfill.

Probably true.

But, um, but yeah, I mean, it's always a good place for any business to have a good— because you have that 24/7, you know, when maybe your brick-and-mortar isn't open, you have that 24/7 kind of marketplace that you can show yourself off, an infinite space on the internet. So if somebody isn't taking advantage of that for $100 a year with WordPress or whatever that is, just to at least have that basic information, how to contact, your kind of core values, what you're working towards, the committees you have, that type of stuff, it's a great place to kind of check it out. And I mean, a big part of it is the advocacy of small business

around town. So us having our member directory and consistently advertising our member base and everything on social media and stuff, that's a nice plus, but it's also something that if they're doing the right things, they should be doing. We do a member of the month. It's not really picked by any sort of certain criteria or anything, but we just want to focus on different industries, different areas.

Is there a hat?

Yes, there's free hats.

No, I mean, is there a hat that you're— I want to know if there's like a hat that you're picking.

Craig, what is it that you really want?

You want a hat?

I'll give you a hat.

No, because like a free— like, no, no, no, no, no, no.

She's saying— I know what you mean, how she's picking people. I want to know if there's a hat that they're picking the names out of.

People are always coming in and out of our building for meetings and committees and that type of stuff. So when I see someone somebody that I haven't talked to yet. I'm like, hey, can I talk to you for a minute? Like, it'll just be a minute and a half, 2 minutes. I just want to do a member of the month video.

Ah, okay.

Great. So I'm like, hey, can you take this real quick?

All right, cool.

Here's my phone. Like, hey, it's Ashley Allwood. I'm with the Conroe Chamber, and today's month of the, you know, member of the month is Craig Williams of Excalibur Pest Control, whatever. And we talk about it, like, why did you end up joining the chamber?

Yeah.

You know, why would you suggest other people joining the chamber? And, you know, whatever you want to share about your business, you know. And, um, just do a little video like that just once a month. And, you know, because I mean, we're in business for business. Like we want to put the word out and get our businesses more business and more people here so they can go to these businesses, you know? So, I mean, I think the online presence right now is you're going to see if people are with it and updating it regularly and, um, are available.

Yeah.

You know, I think it's something that, that the Conroe Chamber does specifically better than a lot of others because we only do have 6 people, but we, we have, we're available to people. for anything they need. Right. You know, if, if like we're going to a gala tonight, that's for another, for, for businesswomen in this area, and we're like, okay, let's get a table together. Let's go. Let's represent ourselves. You know, it's just so people not necessarily know about the chamber, but know what we do as a chamber for the community.

Hmm.

So if you see them out and about, if you see them online, if you, you know, they'll, they'll make themselves present. And if they don't, then it's like, hmm. But it's a good thing that, I mean, you could be the catalyst that make, that takes a chamber to the next level. Yeah. If it is small. and has— like, the Montgomery Area Chamber has one absolutely incredible woman that, that runs it, Shannon Reed, and she's the only employee and she does everything for them.

Oh, wow.

And she's just the boss. She's awesome. But, and then it's only for like the downtown area and stuff like that because she recognizes her limitations. But if you go and join that chamber, you become a part of it, you come volunteer, you start advocating, you start doing whatever, and you are the change you want to see.

Yeah.

So from both sides, this is how you know if, if a chamber's doing well and if you wanna be a part of it. But if it's not, why not join it and change it?

Mm-hmm.

Change your community.

'Cause you, if you, if especially if you'd seen one before be effective, right? Yeah.

Right. Like be that, be that person, you know, be that diplomat, that ambassador for your area. If you really feel that strongly about it, go do it. Be the change you wanna see in the world.

Yeah.

You know, it's on the side of a coffee mug. It might as well be in this podcast, right?

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

Okay. Well, cool. Well, I think you've given us a lot, a lot of information and you've even mentioned the website conroe.org. We'll link that up in the show notes and anything else that we can link up, we will as well.

I appreciate it.

Well, cool. We got just one last thing that we do with all of our guests. It's called the Final Four. The Final Four. All right.

I hope I'm prepared. I hope I'm prepared.

I hope you are too. These are the hardest questions you'll ask God, I hope so. I'm asking them. They're the hardest questions you will answer all day.

I hope so.

All right, so here we go. 4 questions. Number 1, what's the must-have tool you won't leave your house without?

Hmm.

So if you're, if you're coming over to help Craig with, you know, random project, you got to grab one tool. What do you, what are you bringing?

Well, in Texas, this, this time of year, it's generally Kleenex, even though I forgot them at home today. Kleenex would probably be number 1. Yeah, but number 2, given our conversation at the very beginning, Yeah.

My phone.

Yeah.

I'm not that handy of a person. And I am kind of more electronically and stuff because I do a lot of stuff on the computer for my job.

Yeah.

But as far as fixing anything around the house, forget it. So, I would have my handy phone, be able to look up if it's on conrow.org or if I am calling whoever to find a plumber, to find a carpenter, whatever we needed. If we had just crap and everything flowing through the yard, then I would just call somebody and help them.

I would love to. I would love to know, we need to go back and kind of listen, how many people would say the number one tool they would take with them is their phone? So far, it is, it is the number one thing that people would grab.

So yeah, it has definitely been the number one. I also just learned that this, it means crap, right?

It's a universal sign language.

This is crap.

I just picture it coming out of like the septic system like a geyser.

Oh, is it?

If you're the other way around, if you're listening to this I can only imagine what you're thinking that we're— the hand gestures we're making right now.

It's not Kevin's big purple finger again. That's—

no, no, it's like Old Faithful, the geyser hands.

There you go.

Like doing it like, yeah, yeah, like a fountain, like out of a blowhole of a whale, sort of. That's what I'm kind of imagining.

It's a really good visual, right?

See, he's angry that—

you know what, it could have been a lot worse. I could have used a lot weirder language or something.

So that's true.

Just be happy, guys.

Number 2, speaking of Speaking of crap. What's a job you walked away from?

Just recently, we still rent, my husband and I. And we thankfully have a landlord that's pretty receptive. And if we call, then they send somebody out. But we're really, really trying because our garbage disposal didn't work for a while. I'm really sorry, Cal, if you're listening to this. But I put some Celery, like some celery stringiness in the garbage disposal, and I didn't really think about it really screwing anything up too bad, but it did.

Did he not know about that until now?

Yeah, no, I mean, I've never had one like that was so wussy, I guess. I don't know, I've always put most anything down in there and it's been fine.

That's where I would put celery, right down the garbage disposal.

Well, it was just like a little bit, like not whole, like a whole thing of it.

Okay, I'll try to get rid of it.

Why did somebody buy this?

Right. This tastes disgusting. Why don't I just shove this whole entire head of celery?

I scooped the peanut butter out first and then I ate that.

And the raisins.

And then the celery went right down the garbage disposal. Right.

Get it out of here, that nasty stringy garbage that doesn't even have any caloric value. But at any rate, it was like some leftover— like I made some soup or whatever and there was like a little bit leftover. I put the raw celery down in there and the stringy bits got it all messed up. So they sent somebody out and fixed it, we thought.

Mm-hmm.

So sometime down the road, maybe a week or two down the road, it started not working again. So my husband went, being handy and really wanting to do it and not having to call the landlord again and just be those people, he went and got a snake and stuff and was trying to do it. And I was trying to help with a flashlight and the whole nine. And there was just no helping it. We got a 25-foot snake or something like that. And supposedly when they sent the plumber back out. We went DIY to call in somebody. Um, it was like 27 feet, like whatever the blockage was, was like right—

It's pretty deep.

Right. It was like right beyond like how far the snake could go. So yeah, we, we left that project to the professionals and I'm glad that we did because now our garbage disposal has been working fine.

It's celery-free.

Celery-free. Here's a pro tip that you maybe didn't know.

Don't buy celery.

Never eat Celery. It's disgusting. No.

Put it in the trash, though. Right.

Or cook it until it's really squishy and then you can put it down.

And I will tell you that most plumbers will say that the bane of their existence are garbage disposals.

Oh, yeah.

Because they're saying you're never supposed to put stuff like that down—

Garbage to dispose of.

Down your drains. It's not what they were meant for.

That's my issue is that if I'm going to put—

I have one, by the way.

Right. If you're going to put a huge motor and machine in there that's supposed to grind up all my food, what food can I put in there and what can't I? That's some garbage. Like, I'm gonna put other stuff down there. I'm not gonna shove like tons of like, you know, car mufflers and stuff in there. I just— can I put stuff that I didn't eat, which was 99% of my food? I'm gonna put 1% of my food down there, but it breaks it? No, no.

Trash.

Put it in the trash.

Right.

All right.

We have since then, and we've been, we've been happily, you know, badness-free.

Yeah, there you go. There you go. Your landlord thanks you. Yeah.

All right.

Number 3, how do you wind down at the end of a long day?

Well, I like to get home and I have a daughter that's going to be 2 on April 11th, so I'm really excited that she's talking and stuff like that. But I like to be able to visit with her, have some wine. I won't say how much, but have some wine. And if it is nice, because we live very close to the lake and stuff like that, a nice little breeze comes by usually. I like to sit on the back porch and just have a glass of wine with my daughter playing and that type of stuff. And just hang out and catch up on the day with my husband and just enjoy Texas weather before it gets too hot.

Yeah.

Because it's a-coming.

Here it comes. Here it comes. Don't complain about the cool weather because the other's coming.

Yeah. No, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. So if it's 120 every day for the rest of my life, I'll be okay.

Yeah, that's true.

If it was -120 anymore, I was just going to jump off in the lake That's funny.

Alright, last question. You're in the homestretch here. What is one of the best pieces of wisdom or advice that you've ever received?

My mom always said— I've been through some different stuff, a divorce, a whole bunch of different jobs. I moved from Ohio to Charlotte, North Carolina, to Charleston, South Carolina, and now live here in Houston, Texas. The biggest, best advice that I've ever really gotten from anyone was my mom. She said, if you don't know what decision to make, don't make one yet.

Hmm.

Because the universe, God, whatever you believe in, the giant spaghetti monster in the sky, whatever, will present itself in a way that you will have to make a decision and it will be for the best for you or your family or whatever it is. You know, it's always, you know, I didn't know if I wanted to leave a marriage. I didn't know if I wanted to leave Charlotte. I didn't know if I should really leave Ohio. You know, but then stuff just, you know, I will look for jobs and just see. You know, I wasn't sure. And I found one and it paid twice as much as my job in Ohio. Okay, perfect. Let's move to Charlotte. And these things have always just kind of presented

themselves. And the universe, God, Spaghetti Monster, Buddha, Vishnu, whoever, has just taken care of each step. And I have a lot of girlfriends who are like, well, I don't know. If I had to change jobs and I have kids and I don't know what to do, if I should put them in private, if I should put them in public schools, if I should do— And that's— I always tell them that. I'm like, we don't know which decision to make. Just don't make one yet.

Don't put them in school then. Just wait.

Right.

Just have them be a feral child just running in the yard.

How old is your kid? 12. But I don't know where to put him.

Right. He doesn't respond to his name. He just goes, that's it. That's it.

I could hang with that kid.

That kid sounds like a boss.

Yes. Oh man, he probably will be a boss someday.

Right.

My boss. At the chamber.

That's good advice.

You'll have to figure out what that means now.

Yeah, exactly. It's, it's all in the intonation.

Give me that TPS report.

Yeah, there's, there's different tones, right?

Right.

Well, well, thank you. That, that, that's, uh, that's great advice. And, you know, I, I feel like, um, I, I do feel like sometimes we try to make hasty decisions. In fact, one of the things my wife and I have tried to do is, especially with big decisions, is don't make them, uh, you know, over dinner. Make them over at least a night or two of sleep, right?

Sleep on it. And, and if you got to sleep on it for 2 months or 2 years. It's better to have made that decision and know that you— if it's like leaving a relationship or if it's putting a huge, you know, addition onto your house or having another child or whatever it is, you know, it's just, you know, no one's rushing. Yeah, we're humans rush. The universe, God, spaghetti monster, whatever, doesn't rush. It's all in time, you know.

That's right.

And we're rushing a timeline that we're not really privy to and we just need to just just keep going. Cool.

Yeah. Well, listen, thank you, uh, thank you for joining us. It's been fun. Absolutely. It's been good, informative.

Um, and hopefully your listeners got a different little taste instead of just tools and wood and carpentry and stuff today.

Yeah, that's more Kevin's department. Yeah, I wish I had more time to do that. Uh, anyway, well, but it's, it's been great. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. It's been really a lot of fun.

Yeah, well, very cool. Well, uh, thank you for listening, uh, to this episode today. Uh, if, if you're, uh, looking for us, have friends, uh, who are looking for us, you know, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, Twitter. You can find us always on iTunes, Google Play. Actually, Google Podcast is probably—

They've changed.

Yeah, Google Podcast is the better place for that. Stitcher, lots of other platforms that you can find us on. So if you ever need anything, give us a shout. If you've got a question or an episode idea, info@homeownershow.com. You can Find us there.

Or call the chamber because we answer every question from the history of man.

There you go. They are Google.

They will Google us for you though.

Yeah.

That's right.

That's right.

Exactly. I'll happily Google anything for you guys. Awesome.

Uh, anything else, Craig?

Just hit the subscribe button. Yeah.

Subscribe to us and, uh, leave a review. We're here every Tuesday. So, uh, uh, until then, see you next time. See ya.