[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 Sheri Connor and I am your host.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: So good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and across the country sits Mark Maloney, who is part of the Anlon team. And Mark was unable to record with us when we were at Anlin a couple of months ago, and so we were able to wrangle him into a phone call today. So welcome to the podcast, Mark.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Thank you so much, Sherry. I'm glad to be here and looking forward to having a conversation about Amlin and whatever else you'd like today. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm glad that you could squeeze in the time. So you're actually not at Anlon today, you are at Western in Phoenix.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: So that's because you're role and responsibility is VP of marketing for the western division, correct?
[00:01:03] Speaker C: That is correct.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: So tell us, what does that entail?
[00:01:05] Speaker C: So currently we have five brands currently that we are managing for the western division at PGTI. Western Windows systems was acquired in 2018. And so that is certainly, I would say, our flagship brand in the west. And then I would say, followed by Anlin Widows Endorse, which was acquired in October of 2021. Cri is also a brand that we manage through the western team. Cri is a different brand, not a manufacturing brand, but really a dealer and market support brand through its installation, service and sales services. And then there's Martin. Martin Thor was acquired in October of 2022. And then last but not least is the Skywalls brand. And that is a specialized direct to consumer arm in replacement that has a niche focus in indoor outdoor living concepts and transforming existing homes through utilizing western products primarily, but also showcasing and Martin as well. Again, that's a Southern California direct to consumer division.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Wow, that's a lot.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a lot happening. There's a lot of exciting things. At the same time, there are a lot of sort of fundamentals and building blocks here in marketing that we're putting together as a team to support these five brands, mainly these three manufacturing brands, Western, Anlin and Martin. And they have different needs and they're at very different stages in their own lifespan and their own developmental journey as brands. So we're assessing that as a team. And as PGTI has acquired these brands, we have to get to work swiftly to sort of take a pulse of where we're at and what the true needs are for these brands and for these sales teams that are trying to grow these brands. And sometimes we got to go back to the basics and reassess what is our go to market strategy, even sometimes? Or what's our messaging strategy to the marketplace about why these brands are important and can change their lives? So we talk a lot about the fundamentals in the west on this marketing team because we're at some of those stages for brands like Martin and even Hamlin, I would say, for sure.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Well, and as we all coalesce, you know, things can shift in that range, too. So that's the good and the bad of merging and combining. And, you know, it just is never a dull moment, right?
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Never a dull moment is right. Since I joined the PGTI family, well, I don't know, almost three years ago, kind of, in a way, I noticed very quickly that this company moves fast and we are not afraid to put all that on our plate. And so you're absolutely right. Brand management is dynamic and fluid. Whether that presents its challenges or is just exciting, we revel in both.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: And so your background and your history is primarily from Anlin. So do you want to just give us a brief overview of what that is for you?
[00:04:00] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. Anlin, windows and doors is a company and a brand that's near and dear to my heart. But while always will be, it's where I learned this industry. It's where I built a home and a family. And, you know, it's not just a family at Anlin. I got married shortly before I started working at Anlin, and so I proceeded to build a life and then have my children while I was working at Anlin. And so it was certainly a career for me. And it'll always feel like home, probably in some ways. But I joined Anlin in the very beginning of 2013, and my first assignment with Anlin was to repair what was then called the warranty department. And as it was maybe better put around the inside, it was known as the complaint department.
And I remember also the team in service at Anlin back in those days. They didn't necessarily feel like they had the support that they needed to be successful. And so I was asked to come in and assess service effort and assess all of its processes from a to z and its team and its capabilities. And I suppose I was asked to fix it right away because I think the ownership at the time knew we had some problems, that we were operating inefficiently. And so we would travel 1012 technicians out of central California into our markets that we needed to service for homeowners. And predominantly, you know, I'd say 60% or close to it was in Southern California, south of the graveline. And so when you have that much windshield time and hotels and everything else, you're just, you're not operating very efficiently. And I noticed right away that we had a ton of opportunity with homeowner interaction at the very basic level. Like, for me, it was transforming mindsets on the team to understand what, like, the gravity level of responsibility we had in our hands to represent Hamlet as a brand, especially on the consumer side of this business, because we're the face of the manufacturer. I mean, that's not typically, as we go to market through a dealer network. You know, the homeowner is not going to see us and interact with us face first, you know, until there's a problem, until we have service or repair, a warranty situation. And in that case, we better be good. We better be ready to recover, and we better be ready to knock that homework socks off and say, gosh, I'm so glad I chose to buy anline windows and doors two or three or five years ago, or ten years ago, or 15 years ago, whatever it may be. So I saw this as a unique opportunity for our team members to have the authority to say yes and start making people happy with dealing with us and our company and our repair effort. And so we really took an a to z approach to, again, what was called the warranty department. And one of the things that we changed was we decided to call it the consumer services department or consumer services division, because we had to recognize psychologically, I think, as a company, that the primary customer is actually the end user homeowner. And we better orient ourselves to that customer, not that we don't to the dealer. In fact, we always had and always will, but we need to recognize that those are two unique customers. So at an, we divided dealer services and consumer services, and we took consumer services extremely seriously, and we empowered our people to make homeowners happy, and we quickly earned a reputation for that. And so within, you know, a few years, it was probably 2016, 2015 even, we just started getting a ton of online reviews on Yelp and Google. Five star reviews from homeowners that were really happy with the service that we were providing. And so along those same lines and kind of running parallel to seeing the results of our service efforts through consumer reviews, we certainly also started hearing the phone ring and consumers were coming direct with demand more than they had in the past. And so by the time we were in, say, 2016, we were getting more than a dozen phone calls a day directly from consumers saying, I've been on your website, but I really don't understand, and it's confusing, and I want to know where to buy. I've done my research, and it sounds like the reputation is Anlin's got the best quality and takes care of people the best aftermarket. And so I want to buy Anlin. I just don't know who to buy it from. And this is when we really saw that opportunity to say, hey, the consumer is asking for things directly. And again, we need to orient ourselves to the consumer and give them what they need. So we started thinking of ourselves a little bit more as a marketing company and as a company that needed to, especially through our web presence, we needed a more consumer friendly website and we needed to foster the buyer's journey for consumers. So that was kind of how Anlin really got a lot of momentum, I think, with the consumer. And I certainly in California, I think we saw in those years, 2015 and certainly till now, I think we saw more of a boom in consumer demand that was incremental to what our dealer base had always been doing in the marketplace to advertise and generate leads. And so my role had changed kind of throughout that time period. And I started a service and managed service, and then I went into dealer services, and in 2016 or 17, maybe, I was director of customer services, and I included dealer service and consumer service. And so if it touched the customer, either customer, it was really under our umbrella that included logistics, shipping, and loading operations as well. So it was a really good opportunity for me to get to know a whole new side of the organization, and especially more of an operations side of the business that broadened my scope and understanding and appreciation for Ammon as a whole. And so it was that time that I became a member of the previous executive team, and we decided to build a company that was going to have options. And that meant that we needed to be profitable and we needed to grow top line every year. And I understood that. My father understood that, and that's part of the story I might be leaving out. I apologize.
My dad is the one that actually brought me into Anlin, and how he got involved is another story and a long story, but he, at first, when he started asking me to join him in the business, I didn't have any interest, actually, and he kept on me about it, and I just served as an example. In the long run, it serves as an example of one of those times in my life where I didn't know what was best for me. And I just figured, hey, I don't know anything about manufacturing. And at the time, it didn't seem like it would interest me. And I, to be totally honest with you, I didn't like operations management in college either. So I never thought I'd be in manufacturing. So anyway, after a series of conversations, and my dad's a pretty good sales guy, eventually he got me to move away from San Diego to Fresno for this business and for this career. So my dad, I suppose, could be convincing, and I decided to join then. And so my career at Anlin was personal, too. You know, it was something that I was building with my father. So I learned the business very fast. I felt like I had a lot of interest and sort of took a sense of ownership in the company. And so we were very successful, and we operated as an executive team tightly. And we had an incredible amount of success in the years 2021. And what wound up being the best year in 22, which was right after our acquisition from PGTI. Yeah. Forgive me, Sherry. I'm kind of bouncing all over the place.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: But it's okay.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: You know, one of the important pieces to my story is where I got to sort of see Anlin at its previous pinnacle, under its previous leadership. And then because of a relationship, frankly, that our CEO, Jeff Jackson, had with my father, there was a mutual respect and a phone call that was made and a phone call that was received. And for Anlin, we were looking for the right partnership to, you know, if we were ever going to be acquired. And frankly, we had made our decision to try to build a company that we would own in perpetuity. And that would, in one way, at least. At least leave us options. And so we had suitors at Amlin for a long time. But it was Jeff's call that we took seriously, and I'm glad we did. And the rest of that story, after, frankly, after that phone call, at the end of February of 2021, we embarked on sort of an eight month journey with PGTI and the western leadership team in particular, on what was a process of getting to know each other and kind of solidifying our feelings, our mutual feelings, that this was a great partnership and this was a great acquisition for a lot of different reasons. And I still feel like that today very much. And I wound up being vice president of sales and marketing in Anlin after we did a marketing brand shift. And then I led the sales team out of state in developing out of state markets. And after doing that for a few years, the PGTI acquisition happened. And when it did, PGTI was certainly wanting leadership, like a go to leadership person at Anlen. And so I moved into, upon the acquisition, I moved into that vice president and general manager chair at Amlin and was in that for two years prior to moving into this marketing role. So that was certainly a great part of my experience in my career at Amlin, too, even though it was short and wound up changing in a way that I didn't anticipate. A lot happened there.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I bet.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: And it was exciting. It was stressful, it was rewarding. It was really humbling. I'd say it's probably the biggest word. Hey, what was it like to be a VP in a GM at a company that you were there, Mark, you were there for nine years, ten years before the acquisition, and now you're going to lead the company after this acquisition. So now it's owned by PGTI, but you're considered that leader there. And that was a tremendous experience for me. Very difficult in a lot of ways, but it was a tremendous experience for me. It's been a real journey for me. It's been a road of, in the last couple of years, it's been a road of a lot of change, which sometimes is difficult for sure, but also healthy, necessary. And when you're with an organization like PGTI and leadership that PGTI has, it makes the hard things easier when you know your North Star is in the right spot and you're in good company and you're with people who care about you. So that's what I have found here at this company. You know, I hope whatever happens in the future that stays.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: 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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[00:15:44] Speaker B: Yeah, well, kudos to you. That's an amazing story. I love the people at Anlin. There was such a great, I hate to use the word vibe because it seems to be overused, but there was just a real sense of community and caring and camaraderie and got to know several of the folks and did a ton of recordings. And it was really cool to just say, wow, there's some really, we have some kindred spirits out here. So that was a super cool experience for our team to go out, and we're excited to see the courses get released out to their dealerships and their customers so that they can learn more about the product. So we're in the process of working on all that it's a special company.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: And with a lot of special people. And I must say, too, I've lived all over the state of California and all over the state of California, and I've. It's a big state, and it's also. It's just got a lot of multiplicity to it, and especially when you get into the major market areas. But the Central Valley of California is a special place. There's a people in a heartbeat in the Central Valley of California that, in my opinion, you can't find very easily in other parts of California. And that resonates at Amlin. It always did. It still does resonates through the people. And they're an amazing group of people, not only in an. But as a community in the Central Valley. They're incredibly hard working and they're warm people. They're people that appreciate their families and their country and a lot of times their faith. It's a nice place, frankly, to raise a family. It's one of the reasons I felt blessed and still do, to live there and be located in Allen. Great community.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Nice. So switching gears a little bit, one of the things that I love to ask people is around advice, and so can you think of maybe a favorite piece of advice that you've received over the years?
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a lot of good advice. I think there's personal advice, there's character advice, and there's professional advice. And so I'll give you a couple. I don't know if there's one that resonates most with me, but I'll give you a few things that have come in the form of advice by people that I've known or just sayings that people in my life have introduced to me. And there have been a few of them. One of them was when I was a teenager, I was in high school, and my baseball coach in high school was an english teacher and just smart man. And in the back of his classroom, in big, big, bold red letters, it said, all the way across the top of the classroom in paint, it said, attitude is a decision. And he talked to us about that and what it meant to him. And what I pulled away from that was that we have the power to be happy if we choose to, and it is simply a matter of attitude, which we have full control over. Right. And something about that clicked for me when I was young, and I recognized that as I was happy toward people or, like, generally positive, I got results. You know, I could see things come to fruition, you know, like the way I envisioned and then a part of the tools was positivity. Like, a key to bringing a vision to fruition was my positivity. I felt like that when I was younger, and. And I think those words on the back of that classroom resonated with me really well.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: I like that.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Attitude is a decision, you know, it's like the power of choosing to be happy. It's pretty incredible. So, you know, my dad was certainly a mentor of mine all my life and certainly in my professional life. He and I worked very well together, and I always admired him. And when I was young, he taught me to trust my instincts. And frankly, he was a man of faith, too. And his advice was like, if you're following the right path, then your gut instinct, they're going to lead you the right way the vast majority of the time, you won't be right, maybe every single time. But he taught me to trust my gut instincts. But he also advised me, that doesn't mean you make hasty decisions. Just because you take your time on a decision doesn't mean that you're indecisive or that you're not trusting your gut. He was the kind of leader, I think, in business that was, like, calculated, but he was also bold enough to, like, take risk. So I followed that because I think he, a lot of times I think he listened to his gut, which is what made him take action and lead. And so I admired that about my dad.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:20:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So I guess those are kind of two pieces of advice by two people in my life that made an impact on me.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: I like it. So, anyway, Mark, well, I'm glad we were able to record. I'm sorry that you weren't able to be here in studio with me, but the next time you're in town, you can stop by and I'll show you where it is. We're in the ilab, which is a fitting place for a podcast studio. The engineers are usually pretty quiet outside the room, so don't have too much disturbance, but I look forward to catching up with you, and I appreciate your time today.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: I appreciate yours. Thank you so much for having me, and I look forward also to see in the studio next time I'm in town. Thank you very much.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, have a great day, Mark.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: You too.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Okay, bye bye.
[00:21:14] 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, windoor western window systems, new south windows, echo windows and doors, Anlan 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 here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
