We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paige Mejia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paige below.

Hi Paige, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

Our company, Pyrotex, was founded by Randy Beckham in 1979, making us the oldest Texas-based professional firework display company. Randy was on the legislation committee to bring indoor pyrotechnics to Texas and also helped write the original Texas state fire code. Randy was the expert in his field according to the events industry, our clients, and the state and local fire marshals. He trained Fire Marshals across the state and taught event professionals about firework safety and regulations. When he passed in 2017, he willed the company to the corporate office including me, our General Manager, and our Production Manager. He passed his legacy onto us in keeping with our impeccable safety record, professionalism of our crews, and creativity of show design.

Having been dubbed the “Queen of Networking” in the DFW event industry, I take that legacy one step further in helping my fellow event professionals grow their businesses through building relationships. I support, refer, and advocate for my fellow vendors and planners, guide them through the market and encourage engagement, and volunteer my time to strengthening the industry as a whole. I want my legacy to not only be about having the best firework show with the most professionally trained crews, I want people to remember me as the person who helped unite the industry to create an inclusive environment in which new event professionals feel welcomed as family to this industry that I have grown to adore.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I kind of fell into the fireworks business by happenstance. After 4 years in Corporate America, I had the opportunity to become a stay at home mom for my two children for a few years. Out of shear boredom, I started a small business making slide show videos of baby pictures for wedding receptions, funerals, birthday parties, and anniversaries. I attended my first Bridal Expo in 2008 and was introduced to a group of wedding professionals who were members of a local association. From there, I was introduced to other National and International Associations for event professionals and became engaged in the chapters. The founder of Pyrotex, Randy Beckham, was on the Board of one of those chapters. As my youngest child was starting Kindergarten, I decided it was the right time to return to the workforce and posted on social media that I was in search of a job, but would love to remain in the event industry. Randy took a chance on me and hired me as his “Sales Girl” in 2011. In 2017, he passed away and willed the company to me and two other members of our Corporate Office, as well as his wife.

I always loved fireworks and had no idea that I grew up watching a Pyrotex show every year from the rooftop of my house in Carrollton. Joining the company showed me just how different it was from any other firework company, or business in any industry for that matter. Pyrotex is like a family and most people think that we are related! We hold an annual training where all of our crew members, not just leads, are fully trained, background checked, and drug tested to ensure we are sending the most professionally trained crew to our clients. We also specialize in our effects and don’t offer products that are out of our wheelhouse. We are constantly learning, training, and developing new technology to offer our clients the most up to date technology within the most recent regulations.

I love hearing the roar of the crowd on 4th of July, seeing a couple’s happy tears on their wedding day, and receiving a glowing review from a client, but the thing I am most proud of is when I ask why a planner or fellow industry professional chose us as their firework vendor and their answer is “you. You know the answers to all of our questions and will get back with us quickly and that we won’t have to worry about having to chase after the crew to ensure they are getting the job done.”

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

A few years prior to the death of our founder, Randy Beckham, he was polite enough to offer us a practice run! He was in the office one day and walked to the printer and BOOM! landed on the floor with double pneumonia that stopped his heart. He was flown by Care Flight to the hospital (and he would be the first to brag about how he flew naked in a helicopter…he was quite the comedian!) where he was put in a medically induced coma for almost a week. Of course, being the joker he was, he chose to do all of this about 2 weeks prior to the 4th of July! We scrambled to learn what we didn’t know…contacts, paperwork, and updates that Randy help close. We even had to wake him from the coma to sign our paychecks!

Upon his return, and with July 4th behind us, Randy spent the next year training our Creative Designer on his method of show design, updating forms and passing along contacts, reorganizing the office…actually, we built a whole new office shortly thereafter…and ensuring that we had everything we needed to be successful should the real deal happen in the future. Unfortunately, we experienced that in 2017 with his passing, but, by then, he knew we were ready and trusted and respected us enough to continue his legacy and run his business as he had so successfully for almost 40 years.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Lucky for me, Pyrotex founder, Randy Beckham, had built a solid reputation for us in terms of firework providers and being the expert in our field. But, when I came on the scene, I was so engaged in the events industry and loved to be on committee and board of directors for the associations, that the relationships I had formed in the industry multiplied our business tenfold. I was dubbed the “Queen of Networking” in the DFW Industry and became a resource, not only for fireworks, but for other products and services both locally and nationally.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pyrotex.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pyrotexus/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paige.mejia
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigemejia/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/PyrotexUS

Image Credits
Justin Yoder Studios KJImages Photography Cotton Mill Photography Lucero Cervantes Photography