EP# 139 - Brentt Church's Insight into Generators, Growth, and Family Business
Apr 30, 2024Season 1Episode 139
"Cabo" Jim Schaller
As Fort Myers pulses with the energy of progress and tradition, Brentt Church of BO's Electric and Gas stands as a testament to the power of local legacy. In our latest episode, Brentt invites us on an electrifying journey through the past half-century of his family's business, which has been keeping the lights on despite Florida's tempestuous hurricanes. He weaves a narrative that's not just about the volts and jolts of generators but the heart and soul of a community. With Brentt, we peel back the layers of industry misconceptions and contemplate the exciting surge towards electric vehicles, all the while recognizing the indispensable role generators play in our increasingly storm-struck lives.
This episode isn't simply about the currents of change; it's about the anchor of commitment. Brentt shares how BO's Electric and Gas has become an integral part of the fabric of Fort Myers, from practicing environmental stewardship to cherishing family involvement. We spotlight their innovative approaches, like the generator monitoring system that ensures customer priority in emergencies. As we wrap up, Brent's stories resonate with a sense of good neighborliness, an ethos we carry forward by inviting you to nominate your own favorite local businesses. It's more than a conversation; it's an invitation to celebrate the community spirit that powers us all.
BO's Electric & Gas Brentt Church 5650 Halifax Ave Fort Myers, FL 33912 (239) 275-4502 1912 44th Ave E, Ste A Brandenton, FL 34203 941-289-3940 admin@boselectric.com WEBSITE
As Fort Myers pulses with the energy of progress and tradition, Brentt Church of BO's Electric and Gas stands as a testament to the power of local legacy. In our latest episode, Brentt invites us on an electrifying journey through the past half-century of his family's business, which has been keeping the lights on despite Florida's tempestuous hurricanes. He weaves a narrative that's not just about the volts and jolts of generators but the heart and soul of a community. With Brentt, we peel back the layers of industry misconceptions and contemplate the exciting surge towards electric vehicles, all the while recognizing the indispensable role generators play in our increasingly storm-struck lives.
This episode isn't simply about the currents of change; it's about the anchor of commitment. Brentt shares how BO's Electric and Gas has become an integral part of the fabric of Fort Myers, from practicing environmental stewardship to cherishing family involvement. We spotlight their innovative approaches, like the generator monitoring system that ensures customer priority in emergencies. As we wrap up, Brent's stories resonate with a sense of good neighborliness, an ethos we carry forward by inviting you to nominate your own favorite local businesses. It's more than a conversation; it's an invitation to celebrate the community spirit that powers us all.
BO's Electric & Gas Brentt Church 5650 Halifax Ave Fort Myers, FL 33912 (239) 275-4502 1912 44th Ave E, Ste A Brandenton, FL 34203 941-289-3940 admin@boselectric.com WEBSITE
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:
Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 139 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Brentt Church from BO's Electric and Gas Welcome.
Speaker 3:
Hey, good afternoon. How are you doing, Jim?
Speaker 2:
I am doing awesome, excited to learn a little bit more about what you do over at Bose, so why don't we start off by sharing a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so BO's have been located in Fort Myers since 1973. So 51 years of legacy and tradition and we've been servicing the community in that area, mainly focused on generators, which obviously, from the last hurricane, became very important and very vital. So we were very proud to be a part of the community, and especially for such a long time.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. You've seen a lot of change down here, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:
Oh yes, sir, I'm a Florida native, so I've seen a lot of change.
Speaker 2:
I bet, I bet. So let's back up a little bit.
Speaker 3:
How did you get involved in this industry? So I grew up personally. My uncle was a contractor, so I grew up in the business and then this opportunity came to me. Mr Bo himself was getting a little older and wanted to step out of the business, so transitioned the business to us and, you know, just try to keep his legacy in his name alive and and honor everything that he's built absolutely that's, that's great, you know it's.
Speaker 2:
It's hard to find companies like that nowadays that have that, that legacy yes, sir so we've all had some type of I'm going to say challenge or obstacle maybe along our journey that we can look back at now and say you know what you know, I'm not necessarily glad I went through it, but I went through it and now I'm in a better place. Is there something that happened along your journey?
Speaker 3:
Oh, for sure. I mean, we all have our scars and they can either make you or break you. It depends on how you look at them right. Obviously, for the generator side of the business it's always been, you know, hurricanes and storms and things of that nature. From a personal perspective, you know, just trying to find when you're younger, trying to find your way through life, you know, build your way. I would say for me personally, working my way through college and earning my degree was a big achievement, because I did that on my own and I've kind of taken that forward to my three kids as well, to have that work ethic, that commitment to doing things the right way. And that's what we try to bring to the community as well.
Speaker 2:
And I love that. That's great, so being involved in the industry. Are there any maybe myths or misconceptions that we can address or clear up for our listeners that we can address?
Speaker 3:
or clear up for our listeners. Yeah, I mean in the trades, right, that's what we are in the community Sometimes, and sadly, it kind of gets labeled or perceived to be a different way because of a bad experience by other companies or other people in the trade business, and that's something that we kind of fight against, because we've been in the, in the market or in the community for so long that it's like, yeah, you can go to the the chain guys and they can service you and they can take care of you, but it may be a different person in three months, right?
Speaker 2:
uh, we've been here for 51 years, so we're not going anywhere and that that speaks volumes that you've been around that long because you know if you're not doing right things, you wouldn't be around yeah, absolutely so. Are you seeing? You know we had ian. You know, are there any I'm gonna say any things we learned, or maybe things that are trendy now in the industry because of that?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I mean for us. Obviously there's a lot of transition in our sector, in our field, to electric vehicles and, if you think about it, you have an electric vehicle and you get impacted by a storm. You're kind of left out in the dark, in essence, and having a generator in a local community supplier or support system is critical. So, as you see the rise of EV vehicles, you also should look at the need for a generator and, luckily for us, we have the ability and we do both. So this way you have a one stop provider and somebody to service it and take care of that. Because, um, that's, that's been the biggest change in the industry. In the past, the, the generators were, hey, if I just lose power, now it's if, not only if I lose power how am I going to get out of here if I did?
Speaker 2:
yep, yeah, you need that, need that lifeline per se. Now Are you installing the systems itself, the charging systems, or is that?
Speaker 3:
Yep, yeah, we were doing that and we partnered with FPL and some others in that space to try to help them. You know, try to get those installations done and done correctly.
Speaker 2:
Very nice, Very nice. So you mentioned you were from Southwest Florida originally. So you mentioned you were from Southwest Florida originally. Obviously you love it down here. You haven't voyaged out I mean, I know a lot of native Floridians that can't wait to get out and want to go somewhere else and venture out but you stayed here. So we mentioned a lot of change in the area. What's the biggest change you've seen?
Speaker 3:
you've seen, Obviously, I mean for Southwest Florida and I used to kind of joke with my friends from around the state and outside the state that Southwest Florida historically was kind of the untouched landscape, right. All the development, all the stuff that happened in Florida was kind of on the East Coast and people always, you know, kind of refer to the Florida guy or whatever, and it was usually Miami or Orlando and I was like those are Florida people, right, there's been a huge influx of people from outside the state and that to me has been the biggest change is because they're coming in and they don't have a perception or a perspective of how sensitive we are to our ecosystem. How sensitive we are to our ecosystem, you know, as we, especially in this, in this area, right, With the rise of red tide and all the things we've been facing we we honor and we respect our community and the ecosystem around it and we want to preserve it and keep it as clean and pristine as we can.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. We're not just a beach town where you know, we're we get out and we use the resources and we're involved with them and you know, what they do with Lake Okeechobee. I'm not, I don't want to get into that, but I don't like that one bit at all. So so, outside of work, I know being a business owner is very demanding. What do you enjoy doing?
Speaker 3:
Man, I can't. I cannot brag more about my children and my wife than probably any person in the world. My wife is in higher education. She works across the country with many different universities trying to help them, offer their services to underserved or underprivileged communities. And my children, who just turned nine, seven and three, so I have two boys and a girl. I coach their baseball, their football. Whatever they're doing I try to be involved in. Like I said, we're involved in the community and that goes down to the core and honestly I have to say this my nine-year-old hit his first home run Saturday. Everybody went nuts and it's. You know. I always to say this my nine-year-old hit his first home run Saturday. Everybody went nuts. You know I always tell people this you work to support your family, don't forget the reason you're doing it right and spend time with your family. So my family is obviously the most important thing to me.
Speaker 2:
That's absolutely. That's wonderful and congratulations. I know it's a big proud father moment by doing that. And, yeah, being involved it's not like being in sports when we grew up. It's a bigger commitment nowadays.
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah, it's 24 seven. It feels like.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely so. What is one thing that you wish our listeners knew about BO's Electric and Gas that maybe they don't know?
Speaker 3:
Well, as I mentioned, we've been here, we will be here in the community. You know, the biggest thing about us is if we make a commitment we follow through. You know, our biggest hang up is obviously permitting. You know, going back to, we want to do things the right way and make sure that everything is up to speed and up to code, and the code's just recently changed. Obviously they changed pretty much after every hurricane, so sometimes we're a little bit slower, but at the end of the day we want to make sure we get it right.
Speaker 3:
And for instance, like when Ian hit, we have customers. Our generator customers have an option. They can either do a monitoring system or not. We try to convince people to do the monitoring because when a storm hits we go off that monitor list and it's a cellular system. So we literally just print that list and every generator that's not working we go to them first and we try to address them and help them get them up to speed. So that's kind of the inside baseball, like maybe our secret sauce. We have about 1500 customers that are on monitoring right now and literally those are the first ones we address when a storm hits or something happens, and it's 24 seven. So if somebody hits a light pole and knocks out the lights in your community and, some reason, your generator is not working, we'll be out there in the middle of the night to make sure we get you up to speed and that's then.
Speaker 2:
That's important. A lot of people don't think about that when they're installing generators, like you said, or you know we even have snowbirds or people that are, you know, vacationers that you know wouldn't notice that something happened or the power was out until it's too late. So how would the listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more?
Speaker 3:
Our phone number. We have a Bradenton location and a Fort Myers location. Our phone number basically will route you to either one and honestly, as part of as we've grown and as we've matured and we've we've lived through a bunch of storms, we have, we have a call center. That's not a third-party call center, it's actually our call center we own. That in atlanta has our backup system. So all those phone calls get routed to atlanta and then they get directly sent to the right person. So it's a it's an owned and operated bose call center. So when you call there you're getting a bose employee and they will route your call directly to where it needs to go so you can get serviced right away.
Speaker 2:
That is awesome. I love that. So any last words for our listeners.
Speaker 3:
We're just honestly proud to be in this community for so long, to see it grow, to see it change. I know sometimes change is hard and we welcome all the new people and you know, we just, uh, we sometimes ask for grace when it comes to permitting and things of that nature, but we're not always right. But we'll always make it right.
Speaker 2:
That's our promise very good, very good. Brent, thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community here soon I hope I earned the right to call you Cabo now. You do.
Speaker 3:
Thank you Only, my good friends, and I consider you a good friend, thank you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621.