What Happens When a Founder Leaves the Company to His Employees

What We Need to Grow, Episode 041: Blowing Stuff Up Is My Job. A Founder Talk conversation with Paige Mejia, Co-Owner and Chief Marketing Officer of Pyrotex. Cleaned for readability; the words are the speakers' own.

Caleb Pedosiuk: All right, Paige, I'm stoked for this. The oldest fireworks company in Texas, and not only do you work for it, but you and a couple of other co-owners were actually given this company, the ownership was transitioned to you from the founder, which sounds really cool. I'd love to hear your perspective on being part of a company that did that. But first, if you want to introduce yourself and share a quick line about Pyrotex, that would be awesome.

Paige Mejia: Definitely. My name is Paige Mejia, and I'm one of the co-owners and also the chief marketing officer, which really just means I'm the only salesgirl for Pyrotex. We're a smaller company, but we are the oldest Texas-based pyrotechnic company. We started in 1979. The original founder was Mr. Randy Beckham. He was mostly in television production when he started the company, and he made a couple of phone calls and ended up landing the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive tour, 1979. So the Bee Gees were our first client. We always say it was kind of downhill from there. He did mostly concert pyro for the first 15 years or so. He worked for a lot of bands: Styx, Thin Lizzy, David Bowie, Reba McEntire with her first band, Lionel Richie when he was with the Commodores.

He was actually on the legislation committee to bring indoor pyro to the state of Texas, so he had the very first special effects operator licence here in Texas. He used to joke that he invented fire. He ran the company, started outdoor aerial fireworks in the '80s, and moved the company from Carrollton, where it started, out to a little town called Leonard, where we have 80 acres of cows and bees and fireworks living in harmony. I started with the company in 2011. We had actually met through networking. I had been in the industry since 2008, and I built up his company a little more, mostly through networking, building connections in the DFW industry and across Texas.

Randy was always considered the expert in the field. He actually trained local and state fire marshals on how to inspect other companies' firework shows. We were always called, and we're still called, when the fire marshals have a question, or if there's an incident and they need an expert testimony witness. That's a great thing to have in our back pocket, just being known as the experts, and I was able to come into the company with that reputation. Then I took that and rolled it into networking. I got really involved in the events industry, really highly engaged. That's kind of my passion. Blowing stuff up is my job. But connecting people, building those relationships, that's my passion. Through that I became the expert in the field of events. People call me with the most random questions, everything from insurance to where can I find a boxing kangaroo, and everything in between. So I grew with Randy and grew with the company.

He had started talking about his exit plan. He had health issues when I started, and they got a little worse around 2015, 2016, so he started thinking about retirement and what he wanted to do. He talked with one of our competitors at one point about buying us out, and all of us in the corporate office said: we will leave. We are not working for these other people. We're just not going to do it. We like Pyrotex. We like what it stands for, what it means, and the culture behind it. We'll find another job if you decide you want to sell, because at that point it was his choice. So then he started talking about, well, I could just leave it to y'all. And that was the plan the year he passed away. He was going to go into retirement, stay on as a consultant and be paid monthly as a consultant, and we were going to take over day-to-day operations.

But unfortunately, two days after the Fourth of July, because his timing was impeccable, he passed away. I think he knew it was coming. He actually greeted everyone on the Fourth of July that year, only in his boxer shorts, and he was a rather large gentleman, so it wasn't a pleasant sight when we rolled in between two and four in the morning and there's this man sitting on his porch, mostly naked. He said his goodbyes. He talked to people, he gave them hugs. He actually told one person they would see him at his funeral. So I think he knew it was coming, and two days later he was gone.

We really didn't know that his plan was to give it to us until that happened and we started going through the paperwork and saw that he had willed the company to us. It's just a great feeling knowing that he trusted us enough to continue his legacy past that point.

So we do everything from indoor pyrotechnics at corporate events to aerial fireworks at weddings. We do special effects as well. We can custom-make effects for theatre productions, movies and commercials, and we've done all of the things, and then of course concerts. I think we've done almost everything. Every milestone event from gender reveals to funerals, concerts, commercials, television shows, movies, live theatre. A lot of the people who work for us have some sort of theatrical background, so that works out well. And we just continue to live his legacy.

Caleb: It's interesting you mentioned the theatrical component. I often think about things from a branding standpoint: what is the essence of it? The first time we chatted, the thing that occurred to me was, you are in the wow business. People call you when they want a wow. Even if it's a boxing kangaroo, it's an impression, but certainly with fireworks the whole point is to create punctuation around an event that's unlike what you see elsewhere.

As I was listening just now, what came to mind was that the digital world is becoming increasingly capable of producing wow-like experiences, whether with generative AI or immersive technologies. That's on its own track. But the wow offline, for events: there's a growing desire for people to connect with other human beings. You've got phoneless concerts that are really trending with the younger generation. You see people wanting to unplug in nature and have the wow be the silence and stillness, or a spa-like environment. But then there are times of celebration, when you want people to come together and have that big, memorable moment. So as the digital indexes one way and we see increasing demand for in-person, I wonder how your company and the services you provide could be in increasing demand.

Paige: Yes. So AI is kind of my nemesis right now. I love it, I know it's here to stay, and I'm excited for what it can do from a sales and marketing standpoint. But every day I have to pop a bubble of some client who sends me a fabulous-looking AI video, and I'm like, that's great, it's not real. But we can do something similar. So I've had to talk them through the fact that it might not look totally like that, but we can get it close.

I think especially now, things are going back to the nostalgia time. I have two children, a young adult and an older one, both out of the house. One's a paramedic, and one is in college and is going to be coming into the events industry as a photographer. They love the '90s. My daughter yelled at me the other day because I'd given away my vintage clothing from the '80s and '90s, and I was like, we wore T-shirts and shorts. Other than my Z. Cavariccis, maybe, there was no vintage clothing. It was just whatever was in our closet at the time.

So I think the nostalgia of those older, non-technical things is coming back into fashion, and people want those types of experiences. My kids go crazy when they see a payphone. It's something new and different they weren't able to experience. So as things like drones grow, and we have some great drone partners we love to do collaborative events with, same thing with lasers and video mapping technology, we're able to collaborate with them. But those things don't have the smell of the sulfur. They don't have the boom. They don't have the noise. They don't have the vibration underneath you that you feel with a firework.

I was talking to somebody the other day about how, even with recorded media, there's such a difference between something created in post, through computer animation, and something real. I was a Lostie back in the day, when Lost was a show, and I watched one of their making-of documentaries and learned they didn't use recorded music in that show. They actually had a live orchestra. When we heard it, it was recorded, obviously, because it came through our televisions. But having that realism made the show so much more powerful and impactful than some background track that was reproduced. So as these things grow, the old will still be there. It will still be wanted. People want that tactile touch and feel, and the fireworks give them that.

Caleb: I don't know that it's a fair question, but if you were forced to answer: if you had to pick one kind of show to do, would it be concerts? Big municipal Fourth of July shows? What would it be?

Paige: As a salesgirl, I must say I do like the shows that give us notoriety. I love that we did Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I was a huge fan of Ty Pennington growing up, so I tried to hold myself back, but I was like, oh, he's right there. As a marketing person, having something we can put on our resume is huge for me.

But I also love it when people are able to put some sort of personal aspect into the show. We partner with a company that does a lot of the big concerts now. We've mostly stopped doing concerts ourselves, but we partner with people and provide licences for them when they come to Texas. I was at a concert the other day where the fire marshal and I were sitting side by side going, ooh, do that again, because it was something even we hadn't seen before. It was a simple little effect, but the way they did it and the way they told the story through that effect gave the concert an extra level of excitement, versus just a person on stage singing.

Even something as simple as a wedding. We have people who say they want to use "A Sky Full of Stars." That's our funny little song right now, because for some reason everyone wants their wedding fireworks show set to it, and I'm not really sure why it's the popular tune. We're kind of getting sick of it, just like we got sick of Katy Perry's "Firework" back in the day when everybody was asking for that.

But every once in a while, somebody wants to recreate the Disney fireworks show, or they want their alma mater as the highlight, so we do the entire finale with their college fight song and their college colours. We had one show where the theme was "the perfect pair," and the show started with just two simple comets shooting up into the air, which tied back to their personal theme. I love it when we can do something unique and different. That happens a lot in the corporate world as well. We had a CEO who wanted to punch out the competition, so she dressed up like a boxer, and every time she threw a right or left jab, a fireball would go off. That was something personal she wanted, and she loved it. She interacted with it and made it her own. When people are able to be a little more creative, those are our favourite shows.

Caleb: I'm just trying to imagine what her vision was. It must have been something like a Street Fighter edition, with the chief executive officer.

Paige: Exactly. It was very cute. And we just had a corporate event where they only wanted smoke, so we ended up doing two low-lying fog machines on each side of the stage. Their video was a rocket ship launching, so when the rocket ship went up and the smoke started coming out of the bottom during liftoff, that's when our smoke appeared. It added that extra level to the production.

Caleb: Very cool. So we touched on Pyrotex, but when we first chatted you explained that you also do some speaking. Could you share a little about that?

Paige: I do. I started about 13 years ago. I was asked by a college professor to come talk to their hospitality students, and I would go to his class twice a year. I started expanding to other classes, talking to students about networking, how to get into the events industry, and what the opportunities are. A lot of the students either want to work at a venue or be a wedding planner, and I have to tell them there are a million other jobs you could do in this industry. This is a multi-billion dollar events industry, not only here in the US but around the world. We are not just people who throw parties. There are actual jobs and actual careers you can create, everything from making neon signs, to one lady who just does cotton candy, to another who makes little donuts. It's a wide variety of things, maybe something you wouldn't expect. Last night we had an event where a lady had a little robot that took drinks around to people. It was mapped to the location, so it knew where to go, and it roamed the room the entire night delivering drinks. New technology comes out all the time.

So I was talking to students, and then I was asked to talk to a group of wedding planners at a luncheon, and that's when I thought, oh, this could be a thing. I started developing different topics. Most of my topics are on sales and networking. I have a fireworks regulation talk, mostly for event planners. I have a talk on advocacy. I'm actually the president of the Texas Live Events Coalition, which is the advocacy arm here in the state, and we advocate for the events industry and the small businesses that are part of it. I have a panel discussion on permits, and it just keeps growing. Right now I'm developing a keynote on risk: finding out whether what you're thinking about is actually a risk or just something you're worried about, and how to handle it when you find yourself in that situation.

So I've kind of made it a job. It's definitely going to be a side gig for me. It's not going to take over Pyrotex. As much as I would love to be one of those speakers who charges $75,000 for one keynote, that probably won't happen anytime soon. But I love doing it. I love spreading the word not only about Pyrotex but about the events industry, and helping those other businesses grow.

Caleb: Very cool. If you had to put your finger on one thing, of all the areas, that you feel Pyrotex needs most to grow right now, what would it be?

Paige: My downfall is social media, I must say. We actually talked to a girl the other day who might be coming into the company part time to handle our reels, because I did one TikTok one time and it took me about 45 minutes to clip together a five-second video, and I don't have time for all that. So social media is definitely one of our downfalls.

But also people. Our biggest commodity, I guess, is our crews, and I love the way we handle our company here in Texas. Legally, you have to have one licensed pyrotechnician on the crew, licensed through the state of Texas for whatever show they're doing, but the rest of the crew can be Joe Schmo. I could call you, Caleb, tomorrow and say, hey, I have this show, do you want to come work it? And legally you could do it with no training, no background check, nothing.

The way our company handles it, though, is that all of our crew are our own employees. They're not 1099s, not contracted labour. They're our part-time employees, and they're all trained annually at Pyro Camp, our annual training, and they're background checked and drug tested. Everyone has to come to Pyro Camp each year to work for us. Even if they've been with us for a few years and know the drill, things change: hazmat changes, regulations change. So they have to come get that updated education every year, and we have both classroom and hands-on training.

That's kind of one of our biggest constraints. People call me all the time after camp. We normally do camp in May, and people are looking to work shows for the Fourth of July, and I have to say, you're going to have to call me next year and we can probably get you in. By then they've forgotten about it. So you kind of have to be brought into the family. It's a little mobster mentality, but a lot of our pyrotechnicians are brought in by our other pyrotechnicians, and we do a lot of student outreach to high schools and colleges. Obviously they have to be 18 to touch pyro, but for seniors, college kids, or even retirees, it's a great job, because it's a make-your-own job. You can work as much or as little as you want. But because of that process, we don't have a huge pool of crews, so we're limited by who's available to work from weekend to weekend.

That's what limits growing the company. I would love to get a branch in the Hill Country. I would love a branch down in Houston. I would love to expand to other states. But right now it's just not feasible, because there's only one me. There's only one Derek, who's our general manager. There's only one Patrick, who's our creative designer. We have so much business in the DFW area, which is great, we're doing great. But if we wanted to do that expansion, it's a lot of work to find these people, get them on board, and have them be equally passionate about the company to make it a success.

Caleb: Well, I feel like you have all of the DNA, the primary ingredients, to scale it. Certainly you need to figure out how to leverage systems, processes and standard operating procedures for the people you put in those seats to run creative, operations, or the sales and marketing playbook. But the demand, especially if you take your existing experience and expertise and optimize it, so people out of state looking for resources and ideas are reaching out, could create demand that pulls you into some of those states, as opposed to trying to push your way in.

But Paige, thank you so much. What you've shared has been very insightful. There were a number of things I hadn't even considered on the hospitality and event side. It's not all just cannolis and pistachio filling at events.

Paige: Right, it's not. That was the funny thing we realized during COVID: people thought events just happened. That people would make it up themselves, or that the hotel or the convention center put the conference together. That's not the case. Like I said, it's a multi-billion dollar industry, with probably millions of small businesses, and there must be more since COVID, because a lot of people changed their perspective on what they wanted to do for a living. A lot of people decided this is something that gives them flexibility and work-life balance, and everyone picked up a camera or a video camera or bought a photo booth and made a company. So it's an easy entry into the business.

But even among new people coming into the industry, I see people all the time saying, does anyone know a planner I can follow, because I just did my wedding and it was so much fun. It's not all cupcakes and flowers and tastings and dancing and DJs. It's a lot of stress. It's a 24/7 business, because you'll have clients who call in the middle of the night because they're a nurse on the night shift and they're thinking about something for their wedding. There's a reason event planner is always listed among the top five most stressful jobs, next to military and first responders, which is crazy to me, because again, we're throwing parties. But it is a very stressful job, and not something everyone can get into.

But like you said, the demand right now is there. Pre-COVID, if we got four shows a month, I was happy. Post-COVID, we're getting eight shows a weekend. People changed their priorities. They wanted to party, and they wanted something big and grand for their event. It's a great problem to be too busy, and the demand is definitely there. That's why I love having competitors. I talk to some of my competitors, help them out, and we collaborate, because there is enough work to go around to everyone. So we might as well make sure everyone is doing what they need to do to be legal, be regulated, and keep everyone safe, so that fireworks aren't taken away from us. If people keep doing things just because they want to and burning down buildings, then I can't work at that building anymore either. So it's great to make sure the whole industry is on the same page about how we do business and how we handle safety and regulations.

Caleb: Very cool. Well, Paige, thank you so very much. And it's pyrotex.com, P-Y-R-O-T-E-X dot com. Awesome.

Paige: Thank you so much for having me.