Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by Mitre Brands University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sheri Conner and I am your host.
Good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast, and today we're talking about relationships. And at Mitre Brands, we believe in strong relationships. And we have this cool program called etp, or Excellence Through Partnership. And every year that culminates in a big trip, the ETP trip, which everybody wants to go on. I'm no exception to that. And last year we had a huge group and they all went to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
And most of the people on the trip were either employees or salespeople or dealers who met the qualifications. But there were a couple of exceptions on this trip, which included a vendor. A couple of vendors came with us. And so today we are going to be talking with Rick Cross from Paradigm. So welcome to the podcast, Rick.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you could join today and that you could record and so you're not in studio. Tell me where you're calling in from.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Well, I'm actually located up on Lake Erie, outside of Cleveland, but Paradigm, our headquarters are in Madison, Wisconsin, and then our customers are manufacturers, so they're spread out all over North America and into Canada and a couple overseas. But right now, today in gloomy Cleveland, Ohio.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Oh, it's still gloomy. It's supposed to be, like, getting sunny now, isn't it?
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's supposed to, but it did it well on Monday and Tuesday, but the Cleveland glooms came back the last couple days. Plenty of rain.
[00:01:52] Speaker B: I'm sorry. So you were able to go on the trip through Miter foundation thing, and we'll talk about that in a second, but I would love to learn more about you and your company.
So you're in Ohio, in Cleveland, and you work for Paradigm. And so what is Paradigm and like, what's the focus of the business? And then what's your role in that business?
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's great. Quite a few to get you there, so hopefully I get it right. Paradigm has been around about 25 years. It's founded by an engineer that actually worked in a manufacturing window facility similar to like an MI over there. Congrats.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Frustrated that it was hard to build out a tool and buy a tool to help contractors make and quote the right windows. So he quit his job, went home, told his wife what he had done and got some investors in the family and started the company. So the company's been focused on the quoting, which we call cpq, configure price and quote. And it's all about the dealers out there and the contractors that are working with those dealers to get quotes and sell the windows and install them and have happy customers. So that's what we do day in and day out. We work with all the large retail companies and manufacturers on the various types of selling channels, whether that as they say retail or a dealer or even in home selling, visiting the actual consumer and showing them the windows and making the quote and all the measurements and fun things that go with that. So my role as an account exec, I've been working with all the strategic companies for about 10 years. I was here five years, took a break and came back. I've been here another five years working for the paradigm.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Nice. And so you're on the road a lot, I would imagine.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Yep. I do get to travel quite a bit. I was one of the few even during COVID out and about when the airplanes were half full and hotels had three of us checked in. So I've always traveled and been able to keep it going that way. Best to be with your customers. It's much more of a enjoyable job when you get to meet them and know who they are and see the facilities and understand what they they need these solutions and be able to help them with that.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Excellent. I love that. And so how long have you been working with Miter Brands?
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Well, Miter Brands joined, they've been a customer back in 2008 when the company was still pretty young. I was fortunate to be added as their account exec. Maybe probably right. When I came back about five years ago, they were on an older technology and we moved into the cloud. So that was my role to work with them on that. So they've been a customer for quite a few years. What we'd call more of a Legacy back in 2000, 2008, which is great. But thankfully they're up on the newer stuff and that was my role and I continue to work with them through all their different acquisitions and work with the executives to make sure that we're all aligned on strategies and how to help the customers out there.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: And so I know there's 20 or so different manufacturing facilities across the enterprise. Do you know off the top of your head how many are on the paradigm system?
[00:04:51] Speaker A: Well, there's the west coast is a different technology.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: But the current mi, Western Windows, some of those other brands I'll throw at you, I hate to do that. Cgi, they're on the Paradigm foundation platform I should call it. And some of the others were actually in projects, ongoing projects to move them to Paradigm, which is opening up selling channels within the retail industry as well as the in home selling solution that we have. So pretty exciting times. We just commenced a new deal early in this year which expanded to some of the latest acquisitions. And as I jokingly say to the leadership, I'm looking to get the west coast sometime. So that's my goal out there.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: We are sharing our expertise around all topics relating to the window and door industry. Whether you are a customer selling our products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Well, it's nice when you can have the right vendor that aligns with who we need and that you don't have to have 15 different vendors. You have one vendor that can accommodate and manage all the different needs across the enterprise. So that's excellent. I love the economies of scale that happen in that space.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Oh yeah, absolutely. And it's neat to see the company evolve as the leadership team's grown in some of the acquisitions, others have joined. It's been fun to watch and see how they've evolved from MI Windows to Miter Brands and see that scaling and kind of a neat change in how things have been going. So it's fun to watch and be a partner, to be honest.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Well, as the one who was acquired by Mitre Brands, we were a little nervous at first because we went from a publicly traded company to a private company and we couldn't really see much and didn't know what was going to happen. And you know, it's been over a year now and it's been great. Like there's been some tough decisions made and you know, things change obviously, but the new leadership is phenomenal and really like where they're heading and the focus that they have for the business. So it's been good for us.
[00:06:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the outsiders looking in and seeing what went on during the kind of battle to acquire in that last round was interesting to watch and we were quite happy with the outcome. And as I've told many folks that I do meet when something like that happens is you've got a great group at the sea level, they'll do what's right and they're very people oriented. Yeah, some things don't go quite like everybody wants, but they're very consistent. So I haven't seen anything change.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's been refreshing, honestly. So let's talk about the ETP trip, because that's really kind of what we're talking about. And so obviously you're a vendor, so it was a MITRE foundation event that you were involved in. Can you talk about that?
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Yeah, actually, we've been fortunate to be invited every year to the Mitre foundation event that's out of Hershey, Pennsylvania. So that was the event that I've been able to attend. They have some meetings in auctions and some neat things that go on with some really great presentations from some of the different charity groups and folks that have been able to take advantage and have these charities turn their life around, which is really a tearjerker, to be honest with. And then the following day, have a great golf outing with lunch and some awards and just some great networking. So fortunately, I've been able to attend those, and that's where I was attending. And they got me emotionally when they said that trip, and I knew my wife would love it. So I can't tell you, I'm sure, on the podcast what I bid, but I was able to make the bid happen, and there was two of us that we finally decided that we'd both go. So.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Nice. So you contributed to MITRE foundation and then got to go hang out with all of the sales team and executive team and some customers?
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. And I really didn't know what I was getting into, to be honest. It caught my ear. The location, the timing. And my wife's an accountant, so I thought, wow, what better time to get her away for a week to go to Cabo and meet some great people? Because I enjoy the Miter relationship that I've had over the years. And this way she'd get to meet quite a few of them that I deal with regularly. So I'll tell you that that part caught me off guard and how much I'd actually enjoy the trip. Just meeting so many of their customers that come, the dealers and those folks that are attending and get to meet their families and hear their challenges and be able to talk to them about what we do and kind of that connectivity. And then obviously, the Mitre sales folks and leadership was great to meet as well.
[00:09:13] Speaker B: So that was a twofer. Right. You got to do some networking and she got to lay by the pool.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Absolutely perfect. Yep.
Got her out of the tax season. So that was the goal.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Nice. And so what can you share about the trip itself? Because I've heard lots of things. I tried to go. I invited myself to go and record podcasts from Lyft location And they said, well, you can just talk to some people afterwards. And I was like, okay, fine. So tell me a little bit about the trip.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: The trip was amazing. I mean, you know, Katie and there was quite a few of them. They did just an amazing job from planning and hospitality, made us feel at home because we were, you know, as I told my wife, we're kind of this vendor slash unique role here. But we were able to just soak it in and enjoy the folks that we met. And the team made it very easy for us to enjoy ourselves. There was a lot of different activities you could choose to attend. The dinners were amazing, the location was amazing. And I can't really tell you anything other than I want anybody else to bid on it because I definitely want to do it again next year. So I got to figure out how to sway the ballot on my direction.
[00:10:13] Speaker B: Just bring your checkbook, right?
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Actually, that's funny that you say that, Matt DeSoto, actually, when I brought that up, all he did was give me the signal of holding the paddle up. He said, that's all you got to do next year, Rick, just raise that paddle again. So God bless him.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Yeah, Matt's great that way. Well, I'm glad that we were able to chat about this and I'm glad that there was some benefit to you professionally, but also personally that, you know, your wife was able to get away and you had some quality time together and got to meet some good folks from the organization. So, Rick, thank you for your time. I really appreciate you calling in and chatting with me for a few minutes and I look forward to meeting you at some point. If you're ever down in the Venice location, this is where we're housed and pop in and say hello.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: I'll take you up on that when I'm down visiting Chad and the team, for sure. And if I see any of the guys, I'll tell them they probably should have you at the next one just so you could do those online real time interviews. So I'll pitch anything I can pitch for you?
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be great. And I'm hoping to maybe come to the Mitre foundation golf event this year. I don't know if that's in the works yet or. I don't know. There's a lot of unknowns yet for us this year. We just rebranded as Mitre Brands University, so we have a much bigger scope now as my main core responsibility. And then the podcast is part of that. So, anyway, I really appreciate your time, Rick. Thank you so much. Have an amazing day.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: You as well. Thanks for reaching out. Have a great day.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: The Clear Impact Podcast is brought to you by Mitre Brands University. We are a part of Mitre Brands, a family of leading window and door brands united by our passion for quality and relentless pursuit of 100.
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[00:12:15] Speaker A: X.
