Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: 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 B: Good afternoon.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: We are here on the Clear Impact.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Podcast, and we are set up and recording from Annlin Windows and ours today. And Daniel Bailey is in front of me.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Welcome to the podcast, Dan.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Thank you. And so you and I had some conversation earlier this summer about putting together some courses for your sales team and for the dealers. And now that's well underway and everybody's going to be looking at it, but.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: I'm glad you could record with us.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: So tell us a little bit about you, maybe your career path and then what you do here.
[00:00:50] Speaker D: Sure. Thank you for making some time with me. So right out of high school, I went right into the workforce, started working for Pepsi, worked there for 20 years, did many, many different jobs, work in sales, sales leadership. Also got some opportunities to work in some operations roles. So got a really diverse opportunity in different roles there. Then I got the opportunity to go to the building industry, work for a couple of different window companies before I got the opportunity a year and a half ago to come to annaline windows as the regional sales manager.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Okay. And so you have a team of 1212 people.
[00:01:24] Speaker D: Awesome people.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Twelve awesome people. And they're all over the place. Right. So the territories that they cover, that you cover are obviously California.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:33] Speaker D: California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, and soon to be Utah and Texas.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Wow. So basically the entire western half of.
[00:01:42] Speaker D: The US, that's all adeline covers at this time.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Wow. So you need more people.
You need more of you. You need a clone machine.
[00:01:51] Speaker D: Oh, no, we're doing great. We're growing great. We have an incredible sales team. I'm very blessed to lead this team. I'm very lucky with the team and the growth we're experiencing, and we've got this going in the right direction.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I had the privilege of meeting three of them today, and so did an episode with Tammy and with Larry and with Bret, and they're all very different and also just rock.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: So that was fun to get to meet them.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Hopefully we'll get you a chance to meet with everybody at some point.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So one of the things I really love to learn about leaders and people who have had successful careers is around the topic of advice. And so is there a great piece of advice that you've received over the years that you could share?
[00:02:33] Speaker C: I have a lot. I always try to think back at not only everybody looks at the great leaders that they've had the chance to experience, but I also look at the bad ones, too. And what did I learn that I didn't like from them? But one of my favorite things is in every business, our customers are always changing. The business is always changing, and it's hard sometimes to adapt to that. And one of my favorite lines or sayings that I got from one of my mentors, I'm still extremely close with, he's retired now, but I still go and visit him. He retired in Hawaii. He's got kind of that dream. Situation is change is neither good or bad. It's what you make of it. And I live by that. And whatever change is going through within the organization or from a personal aspect, and I try to embrace everything that we've got, and we make the best of it and try to live by that.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: So change is neither good or bad. It's what you make of it. Oh, I like that. Well, change is constant. Absolutely right. And I think change is negative when you're afraid of it. There's a lady in my world, she's 103.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Yeah. And she's my friend, and I helped her with a project. And at the end of it, the nugget that came out of it was, she said, I learned a long time ago not to be afraid of new things because I like that a lot. Yeah, she's emailing me. She was like, 99 and emailing me. I was like, wait, what?
Sir? What's your email address?
And I asked her, is it because you grew up with Eleanor Roosevelt or Amelia Earhart or because your dad didn't have any sons and he taught you how to fish and hunt? Where did that come from? And she said, I learned a long time ago not to be afraid of new things. And I was like, oh, my gosh, that is a golden nugget. Right? Yeah.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: And I like that change isn't good or bad, because sometimes it can be bad. We can perceive it that way, but it is. It's what you make of it. And hopefully always leading in the right direction.
[00:04:25] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Maybe not the straight direction, but sometimes it's a winding path. And so you've probably had more time in the university than anybody else. How do you see that as a benefit for your team and for the.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Organization, especially after the dialogue we had yesterday. I think this is going to be a great opportunity for us to not only add an extra opportunity or an extra tool in our bag to support our dealer base, but it also is going to give our chance to develop new tools with your team to what can we do for them for the future? What else can we get feedback from the dealers. So it's like, you guys have a great start already, but what else can we do for them? Getting feedback. I mentioned to you yesterday, we're going to be doing this dealer roundtable and getting feedback from our dealer base. What do they need? It's not just what we think they need, but what can we get from them? So I think that your openness, I love that you guys were very open to that dialogue about, hey, what do you want from us? I think that's going to be an incredible partnership between, I don't want to say our companies, but our two departments, I guess, of just how can we develop new tools and some of the things that we strategized yesterday. I think it's going to be great partnership moving forward between us.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I'm looking forward to that. And it's so interesting because Florida and California and the whole, actually Florida and everybody else are all very know. We had a conversation with Jeff Avilas, who's doing the installation masters training today and tomorrow, and he basically said, the book says every place but Florida.
And so Patrick's been part of that class a little bit today. And so just understanding the differences and really, Florida is its own world, but the rest of the know, and now we're expanding into that as PGT innovations continues to acquire other companies and continues to know, we need to have a bigger mindset than what Florida needs. And so it's just super interesting to understand the differences. It's homes, it's windows, it's doors, but there are just a ton of nuances between what you guys know. You're dealing with fires and earthquakes, we're dealing with hurricanes, but we also have to produce products that perform and that meet people's needs. It's just super interesting. I think it's fascinating. So anything else?
[00:06:37] Speaker C: I can't think of anything. Appreciate it so much.
[00:06:39] Speaker B: Well, and thanks for an awesome dinner last night. That was super fun and got to have some yummy food and hang out. And anyway, we really appreciate it. Dan, thanks for the hospitality.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Great getting to know all of.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Thank you. Have a great afternoon.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: You too.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: All right, take care.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: 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 and doors 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 to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window indoor products.
