[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact podcast brought to you by PGTI University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor, and I am your host.
[00:00:17] Speaker C: Good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and it's 2024, and we have not posted anything lately and thought, well, it's a good time to just launch into the new year, and we have a lot of things that are happening. And so I am joined today by Patrick Jameson.
[00:00:38] Speaker D: Hey, good morning.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Good morning. Not physically, because he's not in studio, but he's on the phone with us. And then also in studio, we have Francisco.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Good morning, Sherry.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Good morning. And so we're going to be hearing a little bit more from these two in a moment, but we're just excited about the new year and about what is in store for the university, what is in store for our organization, and what's in store for our learners. We are very much focused on what we can do to continue improving and delivering content. But before we get into all of that, Francisco, you are new to our team and new to the studio. So tell us a little bit about you.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Good morning, Sherry and Patrick. Again, my name is Francisco Felis. I've been in the company for almost nine years. Between production and quality, this is new to me. I'm very excited about joining this new team and helping the company from a different spot to succeed. Like I said, I'm very thrilled to learn new things and be able to help the customers and dealers using my knowledge and my experience in the company to succeed.
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Yeah, and I detect a slight accent. So tell us a little bit about you. Where are you from?
[00:01:51] Speaker A: I'm from the Dominican Republic. I came to United States when I was 28 years looking for better opportunities. I joined PGT in 2015, and I've been here since.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: Nice. And so you're fluent in Spanish?
[00:02:07] Speaker A: I am. My native language.
[00:02:08] Speaker C: Nice. So this will be a great addition for our installer audience because a lot of those folks are Spanish speaking, and our training doesn't always translate well. I mean, Patrick, you've had a little experience with that, right?
[00:02:24] Speaker D: I've had a little experience, and we've always been able to deliver the content needed. And a lot of times it was with somebody's help from the audience that would help us, or like Lucy. And was about a year and a half ago, we were doing a four or five hour install class, and I would say a couple sentences and then they would translate it to Spanish for me. And it took a little bit longer than a normal class, but it was great to deliver the content that a lot of folks that really English wasn't their strong language, but they could still get the information they need. So, yeah, been down that road a few times.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Nice. And so we won't have to worry too much about maybe having the spanish voiceovers on the YouTube videos anymore. Maybe.
[00:03:10] Speaker D: Thank goodness.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Now you're going to have a natural spanish voice.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: A natural spanish voice. Good. And I can have you proofread all of the descriptions and make sure that it says the right thing because I have no idea. Well, we're excited to have you, and so you'll be working with Patrick.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: Thank you for instructor led trainings, but you'll be based in Venice, here where we are, and hung out with Jim and I a little bit this week. So it's been really great to get to know you, and I'm excited for our customers to get to meet you and for the rest of the sales team to get to interact with you. I think you're going to be a great asset to our team.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm excited. I can't wait to use my skills to help the team to succeed and meet the goals.
[00:03:51] Speaker C: Yeah. And so you're a little bit of an education buff. You've had a lot of credentials under your belt. And so tell us a little bit about that.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Well, like you saw in my resume, I have a bachelor in business degree that I obtained back in Dominican Republic. When I joined PGT, I decided to take advantage of all the educational opportunities they have. I got to get done some certification, like certified production technician, certified certification on warehouse management, certification, leadership link, six Sigma Green belt, that one. Do it myself. It wasn't throughout the company and some others that I can think of right now. But, yeah, when I came here, I tried to take advantage of that. That helped me to my professional growth opportunities.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Right. Well, it shows that you're a learner.
[00:04:42] Speaker A: I like to learn new things, always.
[00:04:44] Speaker C: And even though you've been here for all these years, this week has been new for you. So you're like, wait, I thought I had all this knowledge, and now you're like, wait, oh, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. So you're not feeling overwhelmed?
[00:04:58] Speaker A: No, I'm feeling excited. I like to be challenged. I like to get out of my comfort zone.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: Nice. Patrick, what can you tell us about getting out of your comfort zone?
[00:05:07] Speaker D: Oh, I've been down that same road where I spent several years in manufacturing and physical logistics. And I went upstairs and it was like a whole new world, because there was so much that I wasn't exposed to in physical know, warehouse, common carrier manufacturing. And it was just mind blowing how much more there was. I just had no idea. Like I said, when I first came to PGT for an interview, I thought it was four sticks of wood and a piece of glass. I didn't know you could make a window in so many different ways, shapes and forms to make it do different things. And when I came upstairs, I was overwhelmed. But just like Francisco, it was a good feeling. It's kind of like when you go work out and you get that sore muscle, it's like, oh, but it's a good soreness. And being overwhelmed, being in that area of new content, new information, I thrive on that. So it's just a lot of fun. And I know exactly what Francisco's feeling and what his excitement is.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: That's awesome. Well, we've got our work cut out.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: For us, but before.
[00:06:13] Speaker C: And thank you. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by veterans who know all these things. So I know I can go to either one of you if I have questions about something that's out on the floor or something that's outside the scope of the university. But last year, Patrick, you and I had an amazing year, and so I wanted just to kind of brag on you for a minute about 2023. And so I know that you're YouTube famous and that people take selfies with you and get your autographs and all this stuff now, but last year, the YouTube views almost doubled. It was 198% over the year before. So you're averaging like 12,000 views a month.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: On the YouTube channel, which is amazing. And then I also looked up a couple of stats. So your responsibility, and Francisco will be joining you in this. Your responsibility is to teach the learners through live classes. So this is show up at a day and time, and this is a combination of webinars that can be taken from the comfort of their office or their know if they're on their phone, or a training camp that's at a hotel or an on location event or something that's held at one of our locations. So there's a number of different places that you've taught and been around people. And so last year you had 300. And you and your team, there are a couple of other people who were involved in this. You had 351 live classes last year.
[00:07:49] Speaker D: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Everyone was fun.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: 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
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[00:08:12] Speaker C: And then you averaged almost ten people per class. You had 3497 live students last year.
[00:08:22] Speaker D: That is awesome.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: Yeah, that's pretty impressive. So we're excited about being able to maybe increase that next year. I don't know if we can double it or anything crazy like that, but we do have a second instructor now, so we'll see how quickly we can get ramped up and ready to go. But yeah, so those are impressive numbers. And I know you've got classes starting next week, building code and a bunch of other CEU courses are happening. And I posted something about that already earlier this month.
[00:08:48] Speaker D: Yes. And then following other weeks, back to back weeks with more live webinars. Truly fun. But you also got to remember that's all the live classes, the webinars, like you said, the training camps on location, things like that. But if you look at the numbers of what you were behind the scenes, because a lot of people don't understand what you do behind the scenes. But all the online courses, all the elearning courses that we have, the assessments, everything, last year there was 14,497 online courses taken. I wish I would have known this number at the end of the year because I would have jumped on and I would have taken three more online courses to make it an even 14,500. But there was 14,000. That's a huge number for how many online courses were taken last year.
[00:09:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And the thing that's so great about that is that it scales out. Right. Like, you don't have to have more people doing the instruction. It's just there, it's ready to go. And so I could double that this year and not break a sweat.
[00:09:52] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: If you doubled how many live classes you were teaching, you'd break a sweat.
[00:09:56] Speaker D: Yeah, I would a little bit.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: I have a feeling you were sweating last year as it was. You were everywhere.
[00:10:02] Speaker D: There was a couple of times, I think, the whole month of June, I was traveling somewhere else, somewhere different. But again, it was fun. Was it exhausting? At times, yes. But every week was fun.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:12] Speaker D: Another great, I don't know, fun fact is, last year there was 936 certifications earned. I mean, 936. Almost 1000 certifications earned from, whether it's the certified products, the product side, or the services side. But who were the two gentlemen that earned? The experts last year?
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Yeah, they're not ready for expert quite yet. So Casey Thomas, who has been our lead learner, he earned the certified product master and the certified services master for PGT and CGI brands. And then Georgia's Bedencourt earned his certified product masters for CGI and PGT. He is going to be pursuing, I believe, the certified services master for both. And so once you have the masters for both services and product, then you become eligible for the brand expert. And so I'm pretty sure we're going to be awarding that to Casey this year. I'm still dialing in those details and what that looks like, but we'll be ready to at least have our first PGT certified brand expert. I'm not sure if he'll be able to do both this year. He's taken on a new role at his company, so we'll see where he lands with that. But that's a very prestigious thing. That's hundreds of hours of learning and training, hundreds and hundreds of assessments. I mean, it's just a pile of work and he's done it.
[00:11:40] Speaker D: Yes, it can be done. You put the work into it and you can really show it off and it just really speaks volumes. It's just a great achievement to get there.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: Yeah. There is now a plaque in the training room that is hanging on the wall, and there's a plaque for CGI and a plaque for PGT, and their names are on that plaque. So that's there for everybody to see and applaud.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: And I've got one other fun fact for you from last year, okay, is your podcast. I think we have, what, 120, almost 130, I think, episodes of podcasts out there. But just last year, it went up 233% from the year before.
[00:12:21] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:12:21] Speaker D: I mean, that's just incredible. All the different platforms that everybody can listen to, the different podcasts on. You're always getting feedback from folks, not here, just in Florida, but even out in California. I think they're recognizing your voice. You'll be talking off to the side and somebody's like, wait a minute, I know your voice. And that's because they've watched your podcast.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's so humbling to think that people are listening. I'm just doing it because Jim told me to Sherry do a podcast. I was like, okay, I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll figure it out. And because there have been so many episodes now, we actually divided our YouTube channels in December. So the PGTI University YouTube channel no longer has the clear impact podcast episodes on that channel. The Clear Impact podcast has its own YouTube channel.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:13:12] Speaker D: Yep. That's awesome.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Yep. So all of the existing episodes are now in that space, and there's been rumor of video podcast potentially mean.
[00:13:25] Speaker D: Yeah, I've thrown that suggestion out there before, and I think that might make you break a sweat now.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm just not sure about that. But I don't want to back away from a challenge. That's never been my style. But I just think about my guests and are they going to be comfortable being on camera when half of them aren't even comfortable being in front of a microphone? So I don't know. I'm sure Jim's going to throw that gauntlet down, and I'm not going to have a choice. Just like he did three years ago when he said, you're going to do the podcast. And I was like, wait, what?
[00:13:58] Speaker D: And then maybe next year or in two years, we can start doing live podcasts.
Let's always raise that bar.
I can say that because I'm not doing podcasts.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Do you want to do live videos, Patrick?
[00:14:14] Speaker D: I'll just stick with what I'm doing right now.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: There we go. That's what I thought you were going to say.
Oh, gosh, that's fun. Well, we do have some episodes coming up. I recorded several episodes with the folks from Anlin late last year when we were out in California, and so those will be coming up soon on the podcast, and then not sure what's going to happen after that. We're just going to wait and see. But I've got some ideas about what we can do, but nothing is scheduled at this point. But I've got, I don't know, at least a dozen episodes from the good folks at Anlin. And wasn't that a blast, Patrick?
[00:14:48] Speaker D: It was. It was better than I hoped, really, you know, expected to have just a good time meeting the Anlin team, and it really wowed me. I just really appreciated everybody listening to a lot of the folks that were coming in. Doing the podcast with you was just truly interesting. It was just fun meeting the team. The culture out there, everything that we were exposed to and we got to experience was just overall, just a great time. I agree.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: All right. Well, Francisco, anything else you want to add?
[00:15:17] Speaker A: No. I mean, super excited with what we have, looking forward on putting my effort and my talent and my experience, and to help the team, we can push forward and meet the goals that we have.
[00:15:30] Speaker C: Nice. And so, Patrick, you've got a weekend coming up, and then next week, you're on the road?
[00:15:34] Speaker D: Yes, Francisco, you and I are actually going to be heading out to Houston.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm going too.
Oh, my gosh. I got to get back to work. I've got so much sitting on my desk right now.
[00:15:45] Speaker D: This is what happens when you come back from a long holiday break and trying to get back into the swing of things. It's like, oh, yeah, we got that planned.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Do you even remember your password?
[00:15:54] Speaker C: No, don't be silly.
Ask me silly questions about password. No, I don't remember any of that. It's autosave, man.
I work smarter, not harder.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, well, I appreciate the time this morning, gentlemen, and look forward to seeing you next week in Houston, Patrick, and we'll talk again soon.
[00:16:21] Speaker D: Absolutely. Have yourself a great day and see you guys next week.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: Okay, thank you. Thanks. Take care.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: PGTI University is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original easy breeze porch enclosure line, then became PGT, America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI, CGIC, Windor, western Window systems, new south windows, echo windows and doors, anlin windows indoors, and our latest acquisition, Martin garage 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. PGTI University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window indoor products.
