Speaker 0 00:00:05 Welcome
Speaker 1 00:00:05 To the clear impact podcast brought to you by PTI university.
Speaker 0 00:00:09 Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Conner, and I am your host
Speaker 1 00:00:19 And like maybe calling a tree service and having your trees trimmed up a little bit ahead of time. That can even be something to be proactive.
Speaker 2 00:00:27 Absolutely. To my wife call you because that's something that is on my to-do list. So yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:00:33 Today on the clear impact podcast, we are chatting with Rob molt, our vice president of sales operations. Rob shares, how he got started in the fenestration industry and what he enjoys most about his role here at PGT innovations, we discuss one of our favorite topics hurricane season and what people can do now to be prepared. We are sitting with Rob molds, Rob, thanks for joining us today. Glad to be here. I'm glad you could make it. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 00:01:00 Sure. I'm a Florida native. I've lived in Florida, almost my whole life married, three kids, things that I like to do. You care about that? So amended endurance, sports, hunting, fishing, anything on the, on the saltwater.
Speaker 1 00:01:14 So what is an endurance sport? Give me an example.
Speaker 2 00:01:16 Uh, I guess that's relative, but uh, Minda, Ironman triathlons, ultra distance, running events. So many events. That type of
Speaker 1 00:01:24 That's a commitment, right? Cause don't you have to train like a bajillion hours a week to do that. Yeah. Wow. So you work full time, you train full-time and you have a family.
Speaker 2 00:01:32 Yeah. And their seasons for a different sporting events. So it ebbs and flows.
Speaker 1 00:01:37 What's the next event you have nothing planned right now. Ah, nice. I ran a 5k a couple of weeks ago. I thought I was going to die. That's an endurance for it. It's all relative. I decided I didn't love running that much. And uh, I'm taking it indoors and back on the yoga mat, don't be a quitter. I didn't quit. I ran a 5k. That's all I set out to do. Good job. Yeah. I have a question. How did you end up in the fenestration industry or specifically at PGT innovations?
Speaker 2 00:02:02 Yeah, I think anybody really grows up thinking they're going to be in the fenestration business. So I think that like most people you get into it by accident or just by circumstance. And I worked in the masonary field during college, corn concrete land block. And that led me to home Depot, big box retailer that I worked for for nine years and then went to a global window and door manufacturer. Uh, gentlemen, uh, I worked there for 12 years and then was recruited to come to PGT five and a half years ago.
Speaker 1 00:02:32 Nice. And so what is your role here?
Speaker 2 00:02:34 I am the vice president of sales operations. Ooh, it sounds fancy.
Speaker 1 00:02:38 Does sound fancy? No, I don't know. You don't seem very pretentious. So I guess it's not that fancy. What do you love most about your role?
Speaker 2 00:02:48 Probably my experience with being customer focused. I think that a lot of people in the organization have a lot of specialized skills, um, in all the different departments. But I think my focus on the customer for the last 20 plus years definitely helps me bring that into focus, the longterm customer satisfaction into the conversation, whether I'm meeting with finance or marketing or human resources, you name it. I interact with all the different departments and feel like I bring what's most important to the customer, both short-term and long-term to those conversations on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 00:03:22 That's a really important thing to be able to do too, because so often a corporation, especially of this size is more concerned about the bottom line or production quotas or those kinds of things, but that's not the approach that we take. Correct.
Speaker 2 00:03:35 Yeah. And I think as PGT innovations has grown, there's always the potential for companies that were likely to be a billion dollar company in 2021. And there's definitely the potential for you to become too internally focused on internal metrics and, um, potentially lose sight of what's the most important thing for your long-term growth and sustainability. And that's the customer, the customer is the lifeblood of the organization and we always have to keep that in forefront. And I, I believe PGT does a very good job of doing that, but it's always good to have checks and balances to make sure that we have the freedom and the ability to stop ourselves and ask that tough question from time to time.
Speaker 1 00:04:15 Hmm. That's great. I love that about our organization that we're not just so caught up in what we're doing. We're always thinking about what's best for the end user, the homeowner, you know, let's make it as easy and simple and beautiful and durable as possible. So
Speaker 2 00:04:29 I, I agree and you know what we do, obviously we're a for-profit corporation, but what we do is produce life saving products and it's not just about shipping out windows and doors. We truly believe that our products save lives. So that definitely brings it home for us.
Speaker 1 00:04:44 Hmm. Well that is a great segue into our next topic of conversation. Hurricane season is actually a date printed on our corporate calendar, which I thought was fun. Yeah. So June 1st marks the beginning of hurricane season, you lived in south Florida for a long time. I'm sure you've seen a fair number of storms as have I, um, do any in particular stand out for you?
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Yeah, there's the big ones, the Andrews and the Katrinas that were on the public stage in all the media for so long, but living in Florida, there's some other ones that stand out. Uh, oh four was a very busy year for, uh, central and south Florida. We had Charlie Francis and Jean that all hit the middle of the state crisscrossed, um, within I think four, five weeks at the most, uh, period. So that was pretty memorable to say the least to have three storms in that short period of time that were all fairly strong. And did quite a bit of damage depending on where you lived. Uh, Matthew, I think was another one that comes to mind that one was a very large hurricane and it just stayed right off the coast. But the potential damage that that storm could have had for the entire population of Florida, I think it woke a lot of people up as to, uh, the risk associated with that. Irma is another one that we, we all in Florida know well that devastated the keys and came up through the middle of the state back in 17, Michael in 2018. But there's been so many, but it, uh, it's definitely something that gets your attention and makes a, a lifelong memory as you prepare. And then if you have any outages that you recover from that
Speaker 1 00:06:13 Jim Heiss has made his prediction for this coming year. So you'll have to ask him about that. Sharing that with us today. I don't remember the specifics. He has a number of how many named storms, how many major storms and how many will make landfall, but he neglected to tell us where they were going to make landfall. So somewhere in the coast, I bet that's a safe bet. I think it's kind of funny when everyone on the coast migrates to Orlando and then Orlando gets nailed and everybody's stuck in Orlando, in a hotel with no power. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:06:44 Yes. I think that Irma was supposed to be an east coast event than it was a center than it was a west coast. And then it ended up being a center after all, but Hey, you can't, they're too unpredictable.
Speaker 1 00:06:55 And where do people go now? Because there are more and more people moving to Florida every single day. And it takes longer to get out of the state. Then the predictions will allow for, so you basically have to get on a plane. If you want to leave the state. If there's a major event coming or you have to have really good doors and windows,
Speaker 2 00:07:14 So that's a good segue. You should do this for a living. Now. It is true that in Florida being a long narrow state with most of the population on the coast, on the west coast, you have 75 and on the east coast, you have 95. There aren't any major roads. And probably a lot of people listening to this podcast. If you were in Florida over the last several years now, there's a lot of people stuck on the highway trying to evacuate, running out of gas or running out of patients. And, um, that is not a place that I would want to be as a hurricane is potentially bearing down on you and your family car full of dogs, no food, no water. It's, it's not a good place to be,
Speaker 1 00:07:51 But we take the risk because Florida is an amazing place to live.
Speaker 2 00:07:54 Yeah. Another segue you should just manage your risk by managing your risks. You can avoid a lot of the potential anx that comes from hurricane season in general, but especially as the warnings get closer to your specific,
Speaker 1 00:08:08 Be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the fenestration industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics, you can find out more about
[email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn are some things that we can recommend as June 1st comes closer and closer to us. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 Planning in general obviously is the most important thing, and I'm not necessarily the perfect hurricane expert, but being prepared with food and water, obviously being prepared for the power to go out, whether that's with a generator, food, dog, food medicine, infants, you know, making sure you have formula diapers, all that kind of stuff, because it's very possible that getting around would be very difficult for three to seven to 14 days after a storm. So I think preparing in general, there's a lot of things you can do around your house. Um, as a hurricane comes closer, whether that's putting your patio furniture away, anything that can be picked up and thrown around your yard or into your neighbor's yard, and even just helping out your neighbors, making sure that if people aren't prepared or haven't been through a storm in the past, that you kind of help your neighbors and make sure they understand the potential that, that potted plant that's out in your yard and can become a missile as the wind speeds pickup.
Speaker 1 00:09:23 And even like maybe calling a tree service and having your trees trimmed up a little bit ahead of time. That can even be something to be proud of.
Speaker 2 00:09:31 Absolutely. Did, did my wife call you because that's something that is on my to-do list, so yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:09:37 No, it was just a, a divine reminder. I know she didn't tell.
Speaker 2 00:09:42 Yeah. Trimming trees is definitely, uh, something that you want to manage, especially anything over the top of your house that could break. And you're worried.
Speaker 1 00:09:49 Right? Well, I've seen my fair share of storms as well, and it's not a fun place to be. I always try to find a house to bunker down with a friend that has a generator because I don't have a generator. So, uh, and then you can actually make an a party. So that's kind of fun. Okay. So what's another way that people can be prepared around the storms that may come, whether it's this season or in seasons to come.
Speaker 2 00:10:10 Yeah. I'm glad you asked that because aside from what you can do, generally, like I said earlier, PGT innovations is in the life-saving business. We believe that the products that we make save lives and really our impact windows do that specifically, that they provide passive hurricane protection that protects you and your loved ones inside the envelope of your house from the flying debris. If we can keep the envelope of the house from being breached, that's where all the damage comes. When once a window is broken, that's when the wind and rain come in and that's when the devastation and damage to the house gets exponentially worse. The roof can come off. Other other things can fail. So having that passive protection, even if you do evacuate, you have a hurricane rated product on the outside of your house to protect the envelope of your house for being compromised.
Speaker 2 00:10:55 If you choose not to evacuate, imagine if you're in a house and it's all boarded up, you don't know what's going on outside. You don't know if it's gotten better is probably out, is very dark, but by having an impact windows, you can still see through those and you can see what's going on. You at least have some light, uh, which definitely helps to everybody involved, you know, being in a cave, not knowing what's going on around you is a lot scarier than being able to see what's going on. So I think having that passive protection in the confidence that your house is going to be intact is very important.
Speaker 1 00:11:25 And then you don't have to worry about, you know, if you're on vacation in North Carolina and there's a storm coming up through the Gulf and you have to drop your vacation to come home and put shutters up. So it gives you that peace of mind, even if you're not home.
Speaker 2 00:11:38 Yeah. We have a lot of, um, part-time, uh, residents to Florida. So if you're in New York or Michigan, Ohio, wherever you happen to live up north, you don't have to worry about, you know, what's going on in Florida during the summertime impact. Wind is also give you more than hurricane protection. There's, there's a sound benefit to that with the sound transmission, coefficient is much lower. So your home is a lot quieter. And also from a security standpoint, we don't say that they're burglar proof or anything like that, but the windows are definitely a deterrent. And, um, give you a security factor. I have impact windows in my house. And when I travel, I know my wife and kids are safe when they're in the house and I don't have to worry about somebody breaking in. So there's definitely a peace of mind. That's more than just storm related. I always say the storms may or may not come this year, but that peace of mind that you get from having a secure window that can't be breached is definitely a 24 hours, 365 days a year. Benefit in the sound is something that you experience every day, the quietness. So there's a lot more to it than just hurricane protection. We're in a good business.
Speaker 1 00:12:36 We're asking all of our guests on this series. So this is our introduction series. The question is who is a person or what is an event that has had a major impact in your
Speaker 2 00:12:45 There's? Two people that come to mind specifically, one is a military leader that I went to a boarding school, a military boarding school, and he was a Colonel in the army with the arranger detachment. And he was very influential for me as a high school young man that needed some guidance. And he definitely was a role model and taught me discipline. And it's stuck with me for the rest of my life after being influenced in by just a short number of years, another one, uh, probably a stereotypical football coach. Uh, it was a gentleman by the name of Dr. Byron Robinson. And, um, he very similarly taught me about toughness and fighting through. And when things get hard that you, uh, you buckle down and you don't ever give up. So those are probably the two most influential people. So I'm guessing that you're at Jocko Willink fan. I am. Yeah. I don't know. I had heard rumblings of that. Did you think that was going to be my answer? Yeah. I surprised you.
Speaker 1 00:13:43 Yeah. Um, well I'm sure we'll find other things to talk about in the future, but Rob, thank you for your time today. It was great to get to know you a little bit and I promise your wife did not tell me about the tree trimming. Um, but you should probably get that done. Thanks for joining us today. PGT a university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original easy breeze port and closure lie then became PGT. America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI CGIC WinDoor, Western windows, new south windows and echo windows and doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure, and prepared. Our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. PGT university is here to educate you our listener so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products. <inaudible>.
