Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
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.
So good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are recording today with two of the most fun people that I could even think of having in here. So welcome to AJ Wells and Maggie Francisco.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for being here. And so you guys are new to the podcast, but not new to the company.
So we want to do some introductions. And so, AJ we'll start with you. Tell us a little bit of your history, your tenure, previous roles, and then your current shtick.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: All right, so I've been doing this in Florida. Oh, gosh, better part of three decades now. I've been with PGT since 2017. Came on as a sales rep, became an RSM, became or left PGT, went to Miter Brands, came back to PGT, and now I'm a director.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: That's what I'm doing today.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: All right. And so your territory is what?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: So right now I have north Florida. We kind of split the state north and south, with the idea being more vinyl products are leading in the north part of the state versus aluminum, which was in the southern part of the state.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: That makes sense.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Okay. All right. I know we were sad when you left.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Oh, no, you weren't.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yes, we were. I appreciate that we were sad when you left, and then when we were acquired, we were like, oh, we get a day again. So that was fun. All right.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: And Maggie, my history is a little bit more varied than that.
Started my career in opening new restaurants in Dallas, Texas, moved on to organizational change management consulting. So from there, ran a destination wedding planning business and finally landed in national account manufacturing sales, which is where I am up until very recently. Now I am leading sales for south Florida for Mitre Brands. So somewhere between you know, managing those multimillion dollar projects and figuring out how to keep calm through chaos, I think it seems pretty relevant to where we are today and really happy to be here.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
So wedding planning for a destination wedding, there's only a hundred things that can go wrong there. So that seems like good prep for, you know, construction projects. Right. It's kind of the same thing.
[00:02:29] Speaker C: Totally similar. I mean, from keeping wedding cakes from melting in the August sun to figuring out what to do about a last minute llama that's not on time to greet the guests.
Very similar challenges, I would say. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:45] Speaker C: What's a wedding without a llama?
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Okay. I'm planning a Destination wedding at some point. But I have no plans for a llama, so that's just too bad.
I don't think my fiance will be very upset about that at all and be like, you're kidding me, right? Anyway, so we wanna talk about the things that have been happening in Florida. So we've had a lot of product and brand changes as of late and we kind of wanna just talk about why we did that and how does it benefit our customers. So I don't know. Who wants to answer that?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Okay, just jump right in.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:03:19] Speaker B: If you got something to add, please just jump in. Well, you know, it's important for us. We've got so many different brands in the state of Florida. Legacy PGT did between cgi Windor and pgt and PGT commercial, I think it was CGI commercial at one time. I mean, just so much going on. And it made it very hard for the sales team especially to be a subject matter expert on each and every one of those. And each and every one of those was managed individually by the company that they once were. You know, so they're never really integrated into the PGT brand.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Well, we noticed that immediately. And we noticed that it was a struggle for our dealer base and to make things easier for our sales team and for our dealer base, it was important to integrate those into what they become today.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Right.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: So they're all going to fall under the name PGT and we'll only have to wear one hat when we're in the field. It's just going to be easier for everybody.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: Was not a very good explanation.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: I think it's a great explanation.
I've thought of this a little bit. Like for anyone out there who's maybe read this book called the Life Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo, I think it was early Covid times when this book was going kind of viral. But it's this book about minimalism and it focuses on keeping the things in your life that spark joy and then saying thank you and letting go of the rest. And in that process, that respectful tidying leads to mental clarity, confidence and really lasting lifestyle change that allows you to appreciate what you have, take care of it, really know and understand what you have, and just have a better life. And I feel like that has a lot of parallels to what we've done with our product line. Here is how can we just focus on what is really the best of the best that we can bring to the market and be really excited about every single day and get rid of all the clutter and the noise on the outside of that.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Right. That's a great analogy. And now I want to go home and do my closet because I need to. It's this end of the year tradition, like clean everything out, you know, flip the hangers over, all that. And so how are people feeling? Because, Maggie, you have the South Florida dealers, and that's the largest bunch that have been really impacted by this.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: Totally. It's been hard. Right. When we chose to optimize the CGI Sentinel line, that was really difficult for a lot of our dealers.
It's a huge responsibility that we have as a manufacturer to understand that our customers, they're more than just customers, they're loyal partners. And at Mitre, we really look at these customers as business partners.
We can't survive or thrive without each other.
And so a lot of these partners, when they invest in building their business around a product line, and then we have to make the very difficult decision to eliminate that line so that we can be more efficient and perform at a higher level. For those customers, that's really hard because they're changing everything about the way they go to market. Their quoting software, their understanding of the product line and how they pitch it to a homeowner when they're there, or to a builder, you know, who might have relied on that line. So it's a big responsibility.
But I think maybe in Steven Starkey's last podcast, he touched on one of our DNA points, which is that we are comfortable being uncomfortable. And personally, we are all so grateful for our customers who have joined us in that of finding a way to be comfortable being uncomfortable with some of these changes so that we can all be better together and succeed and thrive as partners.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Yeah, well said. Because eventually it's going to be easier for them.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Right?
[00:06:50] Speaker A: I don't have to know 15 different products. I need to know three or maybe five. You know, good, better, best is really all you need.
[00:06:58] Speaker C: And how can we also be more competitive in the market? You know, when you have multiple different rooftops, manufacturing facilities, we're creating different products that are very similar to each other, but with different quality oversight teams and management teams. It's a lot to manage. And when we're inefficient, that doesn't allow us to provide the very best product at the very best price to our customers.
And that's why, as painful as this change is, it's very necessary for us to have a great future together with our partners.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I think it makes it easier, too, because the Customers realize Mitre brings something different to the table.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: And it has since day one. Very customer centric, very customer focused. Everything we do is with a customer in mind what's going to benefit the customer in the long term. And all these changes do that. And I think most of these customers, even the ones that are mostly uncomfortable, understand that it is definitely for their benefit and they're buying off on it and they're coming along well and they.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Can'T be all things to all people.
Right. And neither can we. And so it just makes sense. And the reason they have the sentinel line was because they were competing with pgt.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: So we were competing against ourselves for a very long time.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Exactly. A.J.
[00:08:13] Speaker C: You'Ve got a little bit of military history and something that you talk about a lot that is inspiring to me is about the concept of discipline when it comes to how we go to market, how we coach our sales teams, how coaches, the standards that we hold ourselves to as directors. And I wonder kind of what you think as far as how discipline is related to this whole concept of how we're, you know, changing our product lines, changing the way we do business.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Well, I think when it comes to discipline. Thanks for bringing out the military experience, Maggie. I love talking about that, by the way.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And thanks for your service. I don't.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: Oh, no, you bring it up to me all the time.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Okay, sorry. As far as discipline, you know, there are things that I think all of us do and I think the sales team does a great job at is having a routine that makes sense to them, a routine that makes them productive in the field.
And what I mean by that is, know your products, be the product knowledge expert. Know your territories, be the expert in your territory. These are your territories to manage. You know, we expect you to manage them. If you expect me to manage your territory, you don't need it. The end of the day.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Fair.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So discipline is huge, you know, and it's the little things that count. Salesforce, very important. It's a great tool. You know, there's a lot of history in Salesforce if you use it right. And it can be very productive if you use it right for follow up and things like that. So it's the little things that you do every single day that makes a difference. But it takes discipline in order to do that.
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: And it takes a unique character. And I think we got the people on the team today more than ever before who've got that character and are showing the discipline every single day to make those things happen.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah. No Bunch of rock stars all the way around.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we sure do.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: No fuddy duddies on our teams?
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: And so how do you see this overall impacting the Florida business for our dealers? How do you see it playing out?
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, you know, dealer rationalization is something that we did the first part of this year. We had a lot of low volume, high maintenance dealers out there, and with some of the issues that we're having quality wise, and, you know, it just was what it was. It took the sales team out of their lane.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:08] Speaker B: So by rationalizing the dealer base and ending up with the dealers that we know are profitable partners, they want to grow with us. They want to be part of the team that want to make things happen. It makes it easier for everybody every single day, whether it's a sales team, if it's a deal that's operating within their own markets, because there's not so much noise in those markets that they work in. The ones that want to grow can grow.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: And we can help them get there.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Anything you want to add to that?
[00:10:34] Speaker C: No, it seems that we're focused on optimization across all areas of the business. And that's something that. I don't know if you feel this way, aj but it makes me really proud to work here because we're able to make tough decisions confidently. You heard my business history. I've worked for a lot of places, including my very own business.
And when you're in any environment where the tough decisions aren't being made, that's like the worst place to be.
And so it makes me so proud to work here where we're okay with making the decision that isn't gonna make everybody happy right in the moment, but it's the right thing to do.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:09] Speaker C: And that's what integrity is all about. And that's what makes it so exciting to show up to work every day.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: And at every level, too.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: We are sharing our expert surround all topics relating to the window and door industry.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: Whether you are a customer selling our.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: Products or a homeowner doing research, the Clear Impact podcast provides helpful content that makes an impact. Subscribe today wherever you listen to podcasts.
Agreed. All right, so here's a fun one. And you both get to answer this one. So we're doing this we are Florida campaign, and there's been some commercials and TV spots and fun things like that. And so what does we are Florida mean to you? We'll start with you, A.J.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Well, we are Florida. Right. We all live in Florida. Our products are made in Florida. Everything we do is based in Florida. And weather gets bad and times get tough. Weather's bad, and the time's tough for us as well, you know, so the end user, the people who are buying our products, can rest assured that, you know, we're right here with them 100% all the time, every day.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: And that's nice to be able to say that, because there aren't many folks who can do that.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: And how long have you been in Florida?
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Almost 30 years.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah, me too.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Is it really?
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: I've been a Floridian since 1991.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: 96 for me.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: All right. Wow. I got you beat.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: I know so many ways.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Well, but I didn't do military and travel the world and, you know, all that fun stuff. So, Maggie, what does we are Florida mean to you?
[00:12:37] Speaker C: Given the territory that my team covers, I actually like to think of it as Somos Florida. Ah, Somos Florida.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Okay. Somos.
[00:12:47] Speaker C: You can say Nosotros. Somos Floridas.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Nosotros.
[00:12:51] Speaker C: Somos.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Somos Florida. Florida.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: Or you can just say Somos Florida.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Somis.
[00:12:57] Speaker C: Somos Florida.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: We are Florida. En.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Okay, well, there we go.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Maggie's bilingual.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: I know.
[00:13:05] Speaker C: Proficient, not fluent. I had the great pleasure of spending a lot of my childhood in Dallas, Texas, where they had really fabulous Spanish programs in the schools and just love the language, love the culture. It's just really cool. And so it's cool now to be serving the Miami Dade Market especially.
But I say Somos Florida because, you know, Florida isn't just a story. It's a conversation with many different languages. I mean, you would certainly see that on our production floor.
And to me, it's generations of builders, entrepreneurs, installers, and families who came here from somewhere else to build something that belongs here.
And so when you are buying PGT by Mitre Brands, you're not just buying a window. You're helping a Floridian buy new soccer cleats for her daughter. You are helping a neighbor's son to get violin lessons. You're ensuring your community stays healthy because a fellow Floridian has active health insurance.
And that's the investment you make when you buy our product. And we are Florida, to me, proudly speaks to that spirit of building at home for our homes, literally and figuratively.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Right. Aw, that's so beautiful.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: I love this state. I've only lived here for four years, and I love it. I live in St. Pete, Florida. We have an amazing community there. I get to travel the whole state and See what community looks like across the whole state of Florida. And this is a really, really special state. Yeah, it's a beautiful place.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. All right, so best question yet. This one's coming. Is, which part of the mitre DNA speaks to you the most?
So, Maggie.
[00:14:47] Speaker C: Oh, now you put me first.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:48] Speaker C: Oh, no, A.J. got to go first earlier.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: I'll switch it up. See, I keep you on your toes, girl.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: So, as a recovering perfectionist, I love this point in our DNA that says we believe that the worst decision is making no decision at all. Because if you have any experience either being a bit of a perfectionist or knowing one, you know that you will put off the decision until you feel like you have the exact right information and it's the exact right time and you know the right answer.
And the reality is, in life and in business, you never have all of that right. And it's so empowering. And I've seen this in action many times already in my two and a half years that I've been here, is that you can make a wrong decision and you own it. And you're clear about why you made that decision. There still needs to be integrity. You can't be sloppy. But it's better to make that decision and try something and have it fail and pivot, make an adjustment, recover, than to essentially make no decision which actually is a decision.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:53] Speaker C: Because then you're just letting the universe decide for you what's gonna happen next while you sit twiddling your thumbs or sitting on your hands.
So I love that part of our DNA, because for me, personally and professionally, it's very freeing, the ability that we can make mistakes here and own it and move on. But say I made the decision, and I'm proud of that.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Just don't make too many mistakes.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Try not to make too many.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: No, but I love that, too. That's a good one, Maggie.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: I like that one, too.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: You know, for me, it's listen twice as much as you talk.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Sometimes I'll take that to the extreme, and I'll listen three times as much as I talk. But that's so important because our dealer base out there, they're working every single day. They're seeing things that we don't see. And if you're not sitting there and asking the right questions and listening to what their answers are, then you're not doing your job right? So listen twice as much as you talk, understand what's going on in the field, understand what the needs of your dealers are. So that we can take those back and make something of them and put them in a better place.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: So they can sell more windows and doors.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: I think that's what I love so much about the sales teams and the culture around the customer interaction and the sales team. Because as part of the education team, we're kind of adjacent to all of that, but also sort of mixed in it. There's so much that happens with that feedback. It's not like you're just asking them the questions to check it off the list. Like, oh, I went to that dealer and I asked them the questions, but here's what they told me and here's what I'm going to do with that. And it comes back. And that feedback is so important. And I've seen, you know, in the five years I've been here now, adjustments being made and things being changed and things handled differently because of that feedback. So it's not like we're just shoving it at them and they have to accept whatever it is we're handing them. They get to feed back to us. And sometimes we can pivot, sometimes we can't. Like, you know, we're not bringing Sentinel back. We're not going to reopen cgi. But we kept Sparta and Scout. Those are now under pgt, and they're still available and still really great products, and they're being built here now. So it's an important part of that relationship that we do have with our dealers. So, anyway, I think that kind of does it for our conversation. Is there anything we should.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: What are your New Year's resolutions?
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: I don't. I don't.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: I haven't done that forever.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: I don't do resolutions.
You know, I do reviews. I do like that of the year before. What worked well, what didn't work well, I keep. What should I let go of? Kind of the Marie Kondo thing that you're talking about. Yeah.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: What are you gonna say thank you to and let go?
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. We don't have time for that.
There's so many. Last year was a banner year for my family. We had celebration upon celebration. And the year ahead looks very promising and exciting with a house in the horizon for me, some remodeling that'll be happening. So I think that's gonna be 20, 26 is gonna be all about that. Building a new home base.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: What about you guys? Oh, gosh.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: I love how you put that. Like, what things are you gonna kind of leave behind? In the past, what I'm still looking to continue doing. I've done a lot of work on this this year, but figuring out.
There's that whole thing about, like, grant me the wisdom to change the things I can.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Courage to change the things you can.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Like, the wisdom to know the difference.
[00:19:11] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Change the things you can and the things that you can't. Kind of let them go.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I've done a lot of work on year, and I think it makes you a lot more able to take action, because is this something I can impact? Yes or no? If it's a yes, you better figure out how to impact it. If not, accept the reality and move forward. And that's, I think, part of the joy of life is figuring out that difference and continuously making improvement toward that. Yeah, that's what I want to do this year. Keep making progress that direction.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: There we go. All right. A.J. anything?
[00:19:45] Speaker B: You know, it's nothing I've really thought a lot about. You know, I'm not much of a self promoter, I'll tell you that. And there's nothing wrong with being a self promoter to a certain extent. So I guess, if anything, I would maybe put that at the top of the list, I guess. I don't know.
[00:19:58] Speaker C: Celebrating wins a little more, thinking outside.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: The box, I guess I'm trying here. I'm digging for something.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Well, you're good at celebrating your team, which is an important part as a director and to advocate for your team as you go up. So.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: And obviously, you know, it's pretty much the end of the NFL season.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: I know. I'm sad.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Hasn't worked out that well for the Bucks. I mean, they're kind of there.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: They're still in.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Yeah, right. For the.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Barely.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Yeah, barely. But as everybody knows, the majority of the people who work for PGT in the state of Florida are New England Patriots fans.
[00:20:31] Speaker C: Where'd you get those?
[00:20:32] Speaker B: Come on. Everybody knows that. So everybody's very excited.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: The majority of the people.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: So they're very excited.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: About what the Patriots have done this year.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: We're gonna humor you on this one.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: All right.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: And the Patriots have done well.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah. They won the division.
[00:20:47] Speaker A: All right.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: ASC east champions or AFC champions.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: All right, well, we're excited for you.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: You should be excited for all the folks at BGT and all the folks who are the Patriots fans.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: All the folks who are Patriots fans here. Yeah. There's probably a handful.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: Oh, no, there's a bunch.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Every time I come in here, they come up to start talking about the pictures.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Okay.
We're gonna take your word for that.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: All right. Well, I really appreciate you guys coming in today. Thank you so much for your time. I've been so happy that I had this to look forward to. We're recording this in that weird week between Christmas and New Year's where some people are working, some people are not working, and so we're still working. We're trying to knock out some things this year, and so I'm grateful for your time, and thanks for sharing.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for letting me finally come in. I've been asking for a long time now.
[00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah, it's about time.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: I. No, I'm sorry. I should have been more willing to record with you.
All right, have a great week, you guys.
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