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.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: So, good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are, we are recording in Tacoma, Washington today. It's been a fun trip getting out here and finding my way, but here we are. And we're just gonna talk about the MITRE acronym and how various people support those functions within the company. And so sitting with me this morning is Jeremiah Nonavan.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for being here and strolling around the corner. Right, Your office is just over there. And so I appreciate your time this morning. Jeremiah, tell us a little bit about you. Like, what do you do?
How long have you been here? Maybe touch on background, like whatever you want to talk about.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Yeah, no problem. So I've been. Actually, Yesterday was my 21st anniversary within the company. So I've held a variety of roles over the years here. Most of the time I was leading the marketing group for. So I was originally on the Milgard side of the business before MI acquired Milgard and so led the marketing team for a really long time.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: 21 years. Congratulations.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Well, thank you. And then most recently, I've been in a role of vice president of digital transformation. And so that's specifically focused on really helping the business adopt new technology. So if you think of businesses, our competitors, really, we're seeing a big consolidation of a lot of the technology platforms. So you see a lot of the same ones being used, whether it's Microsoft, Salesforce, those types of programs. Really what differentiates companies is how we use them, how we set up different processes behind them and make sure that our and our processes are aligned with the technology. And that's really where we get some pretty fantastic experiences there. And then most recently now too, I'm transitioning back into marketing, into a leader on the marketing operations side of the business.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Wow. So you've had a large scope of experiences and different touch points from birth of product into user experience on software. That's amazing.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah, you definitely know over this duration of time, you get to know our customers, homeowners that use our products, a lot of our suppliers. So you get pretty well versed in kind of the whole ecosystem of the products and everything.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Wow. What a great perspective of things. So you're based in Tacoma. Have you always been in Tacoma? Are you Tacoma native?
[00:02:45] Speaker C: Not Tacoma native? I'm originally from the Midwest. I'm from Iowa originally.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Really?
[00:02:49] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Where in Iowa?
[00:02:51] Speaker C: Keokuk, Iowa.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: So very Southeast corner.
[00:02:53] Speaker A: Okay. I'm originally from Muscatine.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Okay. Not too far away.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
Interesting. We ended up in opposite corners of the world.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Okay, so when you think about the MITRE acronym, M, I, T, E, R, which of those letters probably would you say your role most support? Would it be the innovation?
[00:03:12] Speaker C: I would definitely say it's probably the. When it all boils down to everything, it's probably the experiences side of things. So it's how are we creating new experiences and utilize innovation a lot when it comes to developing those experiences? And it also plays a lot on the relationship side of things too. So when you're working, working with so many people, so many different audiences, our customers, our team members, how do you provide really rich experiences for them? How do you leverage the relationships, combine the innovation in terms of the technology side of things to really create kind of those unique experiences? So as you kind of go across the acronym, I can see a lot of different areas that, the work that I've done, the many teams I've worked with over the years, we really kind of move across all of those different areas and stuff to really try to support that acronym. We really try to live by it.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's been fun to explore that and to understand it more obviously. This is a new mantra for us, a new thing as, you know, legacy PGT people. So it's been fun to just kind of absorb the meaning behind all of those letters and how that actually plays out into the day to day.
And so as part of the education team, I'm kind of a nerd about learning. And so I thought it would be fun to tie in a question about learning into this series of podcasts. And so what is something cool or interesting or weird that you've been learning about lately?
[00:04:33] Speaker C: We've spent a lot of time really exploring the AI artificial intelligence space, both from kind of the system side, how you need to align your data to fully utilize and leverage it, but then also for the user side of how can we actually understand as a business, utilize it and deploy it for the many areas of our business to really kind of enhance those experiences of both our team members, our customers, and really try to add value to our customers.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Yeah, AI is a fun thing. I've been playing with links a little bit. We have access to it. And so whenever I have a question about what is the color options, you know, blah, blah, blah. Right now we're working on Milgard course content.
And so I'm looking at brochures, I'm looking at the website I'm looking at, you know, stuff that the product team has evaluated and, like, wait, if there's a discrepancy across those three areas, what is the most accurate one? So I've been playing around with links a little bit too. It's pretty fun.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: Yeah. And it'll very quickly find out where your mistakes are too, because as you give it new knowledge bases and those types of things gives you back an answer that's not correct. Oftentimes you have to go back and go, oh, okay, where did I get that? And be able to kind of go back and do that. So it also helps us really clean up some of our data as well, too. So it's one of those things that really touches all areas of the business as you start to dabble in it.
[00:05:48] Speaker A: Excellent. All right, Jeremiah, well, it's been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you for making time to come in and be brave and do a podcast with me, and I'll let you get back to work.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: All right, thanks so much.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Okay, thank you. Take care.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: Bye.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: By.
[00:06:04] 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.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: So, good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and we are recording in Tacoma, Washington this week. And right after lunch, we have with us Joni Kuster. Welcome.
[00:06:34] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Thanks for being here. So, Joni, I've been just meeting different people today, and so tell us a little bit about you. Like, how long have you worked here? What do you like? Did you start in the same role that you have now? Like, just a little bit of your story here at Milgard?
[00:06:49] Speaker D: Yeah. So I've been with Mitre brands now for 10 years.
So I started as an intern back in April of gosh, ten years before that. So.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:01] Speaker D: And my role has progressed so, so much since then. So I started as an intern in the marketing department, and then from there I kept on getting promoted, getting more opportunities, more additional roles, and my career progression. I am now a senior leadership on the Digital Transformation Team.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:21] Speaker D: My role right now is Digital Experience Manager. I've really enjoyed more of the experience that I'm able to give people and being able to focus on. Okay. How can I improve someone's experience from beginning to end has been something I've always really enjoyed. And it started with my first internship here. I was responsible for a major event called the Dealer Symposium.
And it was a multi day event where we had dealers that came in and we had to help them understand how our products are doing, get different plant tours and a whole bunch of other things. And it was really cool to be able to plan that out and be the event planner because I got to focus on how do I want to make sure they have the right experience.
And from there, I think that my manager was really impressed by what I was doing. So that's how I was then able to get my first role at Milgard. And then from there it just slowly kept on transitioning and moving and moving until it's Mitre brands.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: So nice.
[00:08:22] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: And so you're on. Is that Vinod's team, the digital transformation team?
[00:08:28] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. So Jeremiah leads the. The digital transformation team. And my role specifically is focusing on that digital experience for our end consumers, for our internal team.
So it starts with like Salesforce is the main thing I'm focusing on right now. So we have two different Salesforce orgs and I'm in the process of merging the two of those together.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Ah, is that a PGT one along with the Mitre brands one?
[00:08:54] Speaker D: That is it. Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Bless you.
That's a lot.
[00:08:59] Speaker D: Oh, I'm so excited though. It's like a dream come true for me because I'm a puzzler at heart. And looking at a puzzle and seeing how can I solve this in the most efficient way is the way I love to do things. And so even in my spare time, I'll go and I'll do puzzles, games, all that kind of stuff. And so looking at the Salesforce integration, instead of thinking, oh, my goodness, this is such a hard thing to do, I think to myself, okay, how would I solve this like a puzzle? And then I focus on all the individual pieces.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: So, you know, this is my first time out here. And so I was strolling around a little bit earlier with Sean and I saw there's an actual jigsaw puzzle on one of the tables in there. And I was like, that's so fun. So, like, I can't look at my screen anymore. I need to take my mind off of my task and just do something that doesn't require.
You know, it's not mindless, but it's certainly taking your focus away for something else for a little bit and then you can go back to your regular work. But I thought that was pretty co. So fun. So, yeah, we played around with the Salesforce integration with our learning platform, and that was a challenge. So I don't know how you do that, but I'm glad someone's doing it because I know it needs to happen.
[00:10:10] Speaker D: Yeah, no, I have a major team that's backing and it's cross functional. There's so much support from leadership that's really making it work. I mean, there's Talina who's doing the business enablement side, working with steering committees to make sure that we're not only focusing on the technical requirements but, but the business requirements as well. Because if we really focused on the project first instead of the people, you're going to have so many problems down the line.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Oh yeah, for sure.
[00:10:37] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: And so when you think about the MITER acronym, the M I T E R, which letter most resonates with the work that you're doing?
[00:10:46] Speaker D: I'd say innovation. The I we are constantly innovating in the digital transformation team. And also when I go to the marketing team, same exact thing. Every single single thing that I'm doing is something that the business did not know we had capability of doing and doing it. So it's really focusing on what is possible instead of what is current.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: I love that. So one of the questions that I've been asking as we meet different people and just across the organization, because we are the learning team, customer education team, I love just learning about new things. So what is something cool or interesting or weird that you're learning about these days?
[00:11:26] Speaker D: So it kind of is a weird thing thing that I'm learning and it's because I'm a homeowner and I keep on looking at all of my neighbor's lawns and I think, wow, they're so green and how can I get ours that way? So I've been really digging into lawn care and so I know everything from like, okay, now I need to make sure I'm dethatching, that I'm dressing my lawn, that I'm doing all the different things. And I did not know how extensive lawn care really is and how particular your grasses.
But yeah.
[00:11:56] Speaker A: Okay. And so is it year round here? Does it die off in the winter? Like what happens?
[00:12:02] Speaker D: It hibernates in the wintertime.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: But most lawns, if you're here in Pacific Northwest, they all hibernate during the summertime because of how there's not as much water. But then they'll start to maybe get a little bit more in the fall time and then the winter time we have like a little bit of snow that hits and so they go into hibernation. But yeah, in order for them to stay green you have to do all the steps.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. So you have a part time job taking care of your lawn.
[00:12:28] Speaker D: Oh, my goodness. Like, it started with us learning. Okay, hey, we need to water our lawn 20 minutes a day. And so we finally bought sprinkler systems and we have it where we set them up. And now we don't have to be out there the 20 minutes listening to podcasts and other things as we're sprinkling the lawn.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: But yeah, okay, well, you know, you can do a deep dive in just about everything, right?
[00:12:49] Speaker D: That's so true.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Are you watching a lot of YouTube videos and stuff, learning?
[00:12:53] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. My whole YouTube, like, preference list and recommendations are. Hey, did you know that you could be putting sand on your lawn? And I'm like, wait, what?
[00:13:03] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, that's fun.
[00:13:05] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you and I appreciate your time coming in this afternoon. And I know you have a slam day tomorrow, so we won't worry about recording tomorrow. We got it done today.
[00:13:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Yay. It's always nice to get ahead of things, right?
[00:13:20] Speaker D: Oh, yes, absolutely.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, well, I appreciate your time. Thank you, Joanie.
[00:13:23] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: All right, take care.
[00:13:24] Speaker D: Thanks.
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