Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome to the clear impact podcast brought to you by PTI university. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Conner, and I am your host.
Speaker 0 00:00:19 You know, that Murphy's law always gets involved. In other words, anything that can go wrong with the house will go wrong when you're not there
Speaker 1 00:00:27 Today on the clear impact podcast, we continue with our introduction series. We speak with Jim Heiss. One of the most knowledgeable trainers on the PGT I university faculty. Jim is a senior knowledge specialist and building code expert. He is also a sought after speaker at conferences across the fenestration industry. He's incredibly knowledgeable and has this amazing ability to keep his classes entertaining. Even building code classes, we learn about the importance of codes. And we also TA about how Jim got his start in this industry and what he holds dear good morning, and welcome to the clear impact podcast. We are here today with Jim heist. Jim is our PGT senior knowledge specialist and building code expert. Jim also tells me that he is a Reverend and a Lord. Yes,
Speaker 2 00:01:20 That that is
Speaker 1 00:01:21 A lot of titles for one guy. Thanks so much for joining us today. Jim, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 00:01:28 Well, uh, I was born, obviously not in Florida, just like everyone else. Uh, I was born in upstate New York and went to school there and went to college out in Nebraska and ended up back in New York, working, being self-employed back then after about, I don't know, maybe 15 years or ended up moving to Florida to start all over again.
Speaker 1 00:01:49 And how did you decide the West coast versus the East coast?
Speaker 2 00:01:52 Well, it, it all started where I had to bring my grandmother down. I took one of my company vans and brought her down as she would move into Florida. Like everyone else does eventually. And I sort of fell in love with the area. And when I called and checked in with my wife one night, she could hear the excitement in my voice and it says, you're going to ask me to move there. Aren't ya? I said, how did you know that? And, uh, that's what we did. So we ended up going home and sold the business and sold her home and came down cold Turkey. And when was that? That was probably over 40 years ago, but it was one of those cases where I did want to wait until I retired to come to see Florida. I had already seen people. I had worked with older people at that time up in New York. That one was my neighbor kept talking about, could wait to, he could retire. He was working at Kodak at the time up there, couldn't wait to retire for him and his wife to move to Florida. And three months before his retirement, he passed away. And that was sort of the icing on the cake that Toby there's no sense in waiting, come down and enjoy the weather while you can.
Speaker 1 00:02:49 That makes perfect sense. That was my sentiment. Exactly. I decided to move when I was in my twenties and I've been here ever since, and I'm very happy to be in Florida. Um, I've got a jumpstart on all the snowbirds.
Speaker 2 00:03:01 Well, that's something I grew up wanting to be my whole life since I was down here as a snowbird. I'm getting closer to be that now.
Speaker 1 00:03:07 Nice, good for you. So tell us a little bit about your work history
Speaker 2 00:03:11 I got into my first profession. I could, you could say by accident, literally. Uh, I raced motorcycles for when, uh, since I was 16 and actually, um, uh, race for, for triumph motorcycles for the factory, uh, ended up hurting my back, having to have a back surgery. And at that time my mother had just remarried and was married to a professional photographer. So I had to, uh, leave college and sort of stay at home for almost a year. And he, they helped take care of me and I got to watch him. And next thing you know, I was sort of getting involved in it and ended up becoming, um, the first or the youngest, I should say, president of the professional photographer society of New York state. I took over his business and let, let him retire basically. And, uh, that's when I worked myself into a nervous breakdown, which is one of the reasons I had to bring my grandmother down to Florida because I wasn't happy with what everyone else did. So I wanted to do it all myself. And that's when I realized it was, it was time to slow down and start something different. So that's, that's basically where my, my career original career started.
Speaker 1 00:04:16 So how did you end up in the fenestration industry or at PGT?
Speaker 2 00:04:21 Well, uh, when I moved down here, um, you know, I didn't have a position, a job. Uh, I watched some build my house and watch them build miss swimming pool. And what have you, um, everyone, you know, moved to Florida, you got to have a pool. You know, I, I became interested in construction, so the interest took me to, to, uh, start to work for a construction company and then realize that, uh, I was in sales selling for them and I was making the owners a ton of money. So I decided, well, let me, let me start studying a little bit. And I went and got my own contractor's license and started my own company. So that's how I got into construction, of course, which was a very, uh, appealing at the time to PGT when, when I first interviewed with them.
Speaker 1 00:04:59 And you have a fun story around how you landed in PGT. Uh, do you want to share that?
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Yeah, it, it was kind of odd. Um, I've really only had three, I'll say three professions in my life. Um, one was, I said was a professional photographer, uh, which lasted for about 15 years and then I fell back onto, but after construction to that career in photography, I guess, and started working for a large camera company that had 800 some odd stores in the country. And they ended up giving me 200, 207 of them in 2017 in a seven state area. So I was traveling all the time. Every Sunday night I would fly out, uh, and then I'd come home and fly back on Thursdays. And, uh, my wife at the time was working for PGT. So I would visit her on Fridays in order to spend some time with her and have lunch at PGT. Well, one day she went on a Friday, went for lunch and she was sitting with people in the cafeteria from the HR department.
Speaker 2 00:05:58 And she introduced me. We started talking and they asked me what I did. And I explained to them that, that I teach sales and in other classes, uh, customer servers and HR and any other type of class that was necessary, uh, and responsible for doing that throughout the country, they found out my background was in construction as well. Also, they, they basically almost sat down and made me an offer. I couldn't refuse which the offer was not to have to travel so much in that, of course, excited my wife a bit. So that's how I ended up here. But it's what made it more interesting is I remember walking down the mezzanine, uh, that same day and thinking to myself as I was heading to the cafeteria, you know, this, this would be a nice, nice place, a good place to work as, you know, a nice operation, close to home, over three miles away.
Speaker 2 00:06:40 And the next thing, you know, without asking for it, I had an offer for it. And so that's how I ended up at PGT. And that was about 16 years ago. That's so cool. And you see, still works here? Yes, she does. She works in a production control department. She schedules all of the manufacturing lines basically to make the products. And that's a big job. Yeah. She comes in at, uh, she starts her day. She gets up at three, but starts today at four o'clock in the morning so that she can have production tickets for the people before they come in. Wow. Um, so you don't have lunch with her anymore? No, no, no. Her lunch is around 10 or 11 o'clock because she comes in so early. Mine's not until noon. Well, I'm sure the time in the evenings and the weekends is better than just a lunch on Friday anyway.
Speaker 2 00:07:24 So yeah, absolutely. That's why we look forward to our can just like everyone else. That's wonderful. There's no such thing as a bad weekend. It's just some are better than others. Right? So one of the things that the university relies on you for is your knowledge of the building codes. Why are building codes important for people to understand and follow, especially when it comes to fenestration, windows and doors. Can you just talk a little bit about building codes and why that matters? Yeah. The building codes, basically, despite what people think, they think they're designed to save their homes and they're really not yet. They will, someday they're designed basically to save lives. People have a false idea of building codes where they think a building codes are the, are the best thing in the world. And the reality is if I'm a contractor and I tell you, I'm building your home according to code what I'm really telling you, but they don't title it. And they won't say it this way is I'm going to build your house as cheap as I can, without going to jail.
Speaker 1 00:08:23 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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Speaker 2 00:08:42 Build your house as cheap as I can without going to jail. The reason being building codes are like law. Uh, every contractor, every type of construction, they have to meet these certain standards of these certain codes. And they're there for the production for the protection of consumer. Uh, so what, what people really need to be concerned about, and this is what the insurance industry is getting heavily involved in is what I used to call code. Plus. Now they refer to it. The insurance industry refers to it as a fortified home fortified, meaning that the home will withstand up to a category four or five hurricane.
Speaker 1 00:09:13 And that's pretty important, especially in our neck of the,
Speaker 2 00:09:16 Yeah, absolutely. And hurricanes are very cyclical. Uh, they, they come and they go, we went for one period of time. Uh, for 11 years, without Florida being hit, then all of a sudden we get hit. It just like an appearance of all four and Oh five. Basically we had seven hurricanes hit Florida, just a two year period where prior to that, we weren't for, for several years without any hurricanes. And, and now we're back in that cycle again, cause a very cyclical is that we're, we're, we're experienced a, a record amount of storms last year. And this year I don't see what they, those cycles run about a three-year period. And we were reached at third year peak, I think last year. So we're still gonna have a far above average this year, but it's not going to be as many as, as, as last year.
Speaker 2 00:10:00 But, and again, the number is not as important it's at which what's really important is his word hits. In other words, you can have a record number of hurricanes, but if they don't hit anywhere, then they don't mean anything. Or you can have a year like in, in, uh, when hurricane Andrew hit Miami, it was the only, or the only major hurricane that whole year, but it, it caused, it caused such devastation and resulted in, in the building industry to come up with a state uniform building code. Because at that time there was no standard building code. Everyone did their own thing.
Speaker 1 00:10:32 I remember that I was actually in Naples when hurricane Andrew came through and the following year, um, my husband and I bought a house in Naples and we had a very difficult time finding someone to insure it because all of the insurance companies had basically pulled out of Florida because they didn't want to take the risk anymore. After Andrew had come through, they saw how much loss they had, you know, endured and they were all packing up and pulling out. So we had a really tough time finding homeowners insurance, um, in 1992 93.
Speaker 2 00:11:05 Yeah. It's it's, it can still, it's still not hard to find because there there's government controlled ones, but, but at the same time, they're extremely expensive now because of that. Uh, and if you, the thing that a lot of homeowners don't understand about construction and codes, if you build a home that what they call is fortified, you can save up to 30% on your premium. And that heads up tremendous over a period of years because most people keep their home for eight to 10 years or more. So there's a substantial savings, but it's not a requirement here in Florida. There are some States like Mississippi that has a state law that says if a insurance company wants to sell home insurance in that state, they are required to give a 30% discount on the premiums. And here in Florida or the legislature is looking at that, but hasn't hasn't passed anything yet. So they leave it up to the local or not local, but up to whatever carrier that you have, it's up to the insurance carrier. Some will offer 15, some 20 and some even 30%, but it's, it's, it's, uh, it's it's on an individual basis.
Speaker 1 00:12:08 And so one of the things that make a home fall into the category of fortified is that they have impact resistant windows and doors.
Speaker 2 00:12:16 No, uh, what's uh, what's required is that they have to have a proven, tested, uh, protective systems. In other words, it's not doesn't your, your windows and doors being, uh, impact resistant is one of the choices, but also different shutter options. As long as they've been tested, meet the same standing standards and testing that we do is as a manufacturer impact resistant windows and doors there, that's the only one, one option. The biggest advantage to the impact resistant windows and doors is as they're very proactive. In other words, you're, you're not only have protection against a windows and doors, but you, you also, you also have 24 seven protection, which is a, which is a whole different thing where if you're using a, an approved shutter system, you only get any protection when the shutters are up.
Speaker 1 00:13:06 So Jen, tell us a little bit about what you love the most about your role here at PGTs
Speaker 2 00:13:12 For years, I've, I've actually experimented people ask me what I do, uh, jokingly I'll reply quite often. And I, uh, I get paid to have fun. Um, I'm a firm believer that if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you should be doing something else. And so I try and make it fun for myself and also my, my, my attendees or whoever attends my classes. Uh, and as a result, uh, uh, I guess I have a reputation for that, and I can, I can give a two hour class on code, uh, which is not real exciting as a topic, but I keep, I have a way of keeping people involved in it and they'll, and you'll hear them laughing through it as well also. Uh, so I, you know, I don't make it a comedy sketch by any means whatsoever, but, um, you know, I, I try and make everything as much fun as I can.
Speaker 2 00:13:58 And I actually learned that because at one time I had a part-time job while we were really, it wasn't part-time when I say part-time, I didn't keep it very long. It was because, um, it was sort of in between jobs, uh, I was selling cars and I found myself, um, staying up much later than normal every night. And I didn't understand why until I gave myself a self-analysis. And what I discovered is that I was going to bed late because I didn't want to go to bed or my normal time, because as soon as I went to bed, I'd have to wake up and go to a job I didn't enjoy. So that's why I say I, I told myself I'd never do that again. So that's why I say I make fun of with what I have, because I, I enjoy what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 00:14:42 And I've sat through parts of your class. I don't think I've sat through the entire two hour code class. Uh, but it was definitely interesting. It was a lot of information and because I'm fairly new to the industry, there was a lot for me to absorb and probably some terminology that went right over my head. I'm not a contractor, have no desire to be a contractor or work on a construction site, but I can see where you're able to turn a, kind of a dry topic where you're just, you're just, you know, basically sharing information, but it's important for people to hear it in a voice because a lot of times that kind of content is even worse if you're just reading it. So specifically that I went to with you, you were talking about the changes in the new edition that had just come out.
Speaker 1 00:15:32 He gave some background as to why it needed to be changed, and it was mainly around clarifying the language so that it wasn't so confusing. And then you also had a bit of a crystal ball where you would share what you predicted would be happening along those lines, uh, specifically regarding energy and things like that. Or this is how it is now, but watch, because in the next few years, it's probably going to become more like this. So I think your depth of knowledge of the industry is so valuable and what a great asset you are to the PGT university team or so grateful that you're here and that you haven't decided to become a snowbird and retire, and that you're, uh, still, still, uh, lending a solid contribution to our team.
Speaker 2 00:16:17 Yes, mainly because I, I enjoy not only what I'm doing, but the people I work with. And that's just as important as enjoying what you do. But, uh, as far as a topic, building codes is a great topic. If you have insomnia, all you gotta do is pull out one of those books and start reading it. It'll put you right to sleep. The biggest compliment I have from the industry basically is, was Florida AIA, uh, Florida, the architects, the state architects. Um, I speak at their conference every year. In fact, I'll be there again in July of this year. And their conference actually runs for, for four days. And my class, my two hour advanced Colt class is always put at the last two hours of the conference. And I always wonder, why do you keep doing that to me? And then they finally told me is because we w you know, people stay so they can, so they can hear my class. And so that's that, like I said, that's probably the biggest compliment that I've, I've gotten speaking about codes. So apparently I'm doing something right. You're the anchor. So, yeah. Uh, well, I don't put it that way. I used to think of it there, you know, it was, I was at the tail end, uh, which isn't always the anchor
Speaker 1 00:17:26 Relay race. If you're the final one, carrying the Baton, that means you're the strongest runner.
Speaker 2 00:17:31 Yeah. Well, I'm not carrying any Baton.
Speaker 1 00:17:35 That's a, that's a wonderful compliment. Well, we have one more question and we are asking all of our guests on the clear impact podcast, this very question, what is a person or an event that has had the greatest impact on your life had a lot of different events
Speaker 2 00:17:50 Over the years. Uh, and a lot of challenges that I've overcome, but person wise, it really is fairly easy to answer. And that would have to be my wife. And the reason being, we, you know, we've been married over 50 years and, uh, that's into the same person. And that's a lot of people say 50 years, but it's split three or four people. And, and I've had some difficult jobs were required, a lot of traveling over the years and what have you. And she's been extremely patient and dealt with it. And as anyone who travels like that for business and leaves a family at home, you know, that Murphy's law always gets involved. Now that it's anything that can go wrong with the house will go wrong when you're not there. And that seems to be, be traditional. So it should have been very, very patient about that. She got me involved here at PGT, which I believe was a, was a true blessing for me. I was able to find a job as secure that I liked at a company that I felt very comfortable with, and that I had belief in. It has been, it's been a great 16 years.
Speaker 1 00:18:48 Oh, we're glad to have you. And, uh, we're glad to have you on our podcast today. Well, thank you, Tim. Thanks so much for taking a little time to share with our audience, a little bit of your background and why you have such credibility when you do teach classes here and deliver webinars and speak at conferences and things like that. And, um, we're just happy that you could spend a little time with us today.
Speaker 2 00:19:11 I'm glad to be here. Thank you very much for asking me.
Speaker 1 00:19:13 Thanks so much, Jim have a great day. PGT university is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original, easy breeze, ports and closure lie then became PGT. America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI CGIC WinDoor, Western windows, new South windows and echo windows and 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. PGT university is here to educate you our listener so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
